![]() A glass-globed gaslight was suspended from the ceiling. Above the table hung a bell cord by which he alerted his secretaries John Hay or John Nicolay when their service was needed. “Any number of notable men have sat around it,” Stoddard noted, “discussing the affairs of the nation and of the world.” 8 Lincoln often piled the council table with books, documents, and maps when the cabinet did not meet. The centerpiece of the room’s furniture consisted of a large, very plain, oak table-the “council table” as it was called-covered with a cloth around which the cabinet sat when it held its meetings. The “shop” occupied the near southeastern upstairs corner of the White House it was about 29 by 24 feet in size. Stoddard, described the room as having “an old-time and half-faded look,” not altered since the days of Andrew Jackson thirty years prior. In 1861 one of Lincoln’s secretaries, William O. The executive office, as it was often then called, Lincoln coined as simply “the shop,” or even more unpretentiously as “this place.” 6 It was an office that complemented the humble nature of its chief executive. 4 Eventually Lincoln convened the cabinet more regularly, holding meetings on Tuesdays and Fridays, with the office door carefully guarded from visitors or the press. It did not aid Lincoln’s standing among his executive department heads when he failed to conduct regular cabinet meetings in his first months of taking office. ![]() Although Lincoln was a sagacious and eager study, early on most in his cabinet found him lacking and expressed little confidence in his leadership abilities. Some administrative coaching may have aided the new chief executive, who had no prior executive experience to tout. When in March 1861 outgoing president James Buchanan showed Lincoln the executive office, Lincoln was so deep in anxious thought of the overwhelming weight and power of the office that he had not heard a word of anything Buchanan said there. As he took office he found himself vilified by half a nation in rebellion, with the majority of the rest of the country at best apprehensive about his ability. Throughout his presidency Lincoln’s open office door and remarkable accessibility time and again had a powerful and personal effect on the nation.Īt the onset of his presidency in 1861, few imagined this effect, including Lincoln himself. ![]() But numerous historical accounts testify that what Lincoln did for the Bullock family was not uncommon. To each one of us it came as a personal loss.” 2 One kindhearted, simple act of a servant president in his office likely spared a life and bore the favor of a family. Upon hearing that Lincoln was slain in April 1865, Bullock lamented that “none more truly felt genuine sorrow for the death of Mr. Their family would no longer again raise arms against the Union. The Bullock family was of Kentucky stock who supported the Confederacy, and Lincoln’s act altered their perspective entirely. But it had more substantial ripple effects. The simple visiting card from Lincoln magically granted Bullock the authority he needed to secure the release of his brother. Lincoln’s feeling of kindness toward others.” 1īullock told of his meeting with Lincoln to whomever he saw. To Bullock, the act demonstrated “how true and genuine was Mr. “I left the White House with my heart overflowing with gratitude to the President,” wrote Bullock, recalling the incredible event. In the sudden turn of events, Bullock left stunned but grateful. Bullock was shocked when Lincoln suddenly bolted out of his seat and declared, “I’ll do it,” and removed to his desk to sign on a card for the release. Lincoln stared at embers in the fireplace at great length, and Bullock concluded in his mind the certain result: his cause was lost. The president asked Bullock if his brother would take a loyalty oath, to which he sadly replied that no, that would not happen. He had come to seek the parole of his brother, a Confederate officer held as a prisoner of war in Ohio. Lincoln invited his guest to sit with him next to the fireplace, and Bullock laid out his case to the chief magistrate. ![]() Uncertain if the president would even take the time to receive such an insignificant person as himself, the awestruck lad soon found himself ushered to the executive office and, there, in the presence of the president of the United States. The young Bullock took his seat in the reception area adjacent to Lincoln’s office alongside numerous other individuals, hoping for an opportunity to have but a few minutes with the nation’s leader. In the summer of 1864, Kentuckian John Bullock called upon President Abraham Lincoln at the White House to make a personal appeal.
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