Abraham Lincoln

We can really see how infatuated Whitman was with President Lincoln from this journal entry. He says that they would bow to each other cordially in passing. Did Lincoln know who Whitman was at the time?

It is interesting that Lincoln did not like the calvary of security that accompanied him when out riding. This seems to fit his humble persona, yet Whitman does mention that he saw the President riding alone with the first lady. It is difficult to imagine security not always accompanying the President and it is even more difficult to imagine them brandishing swords on horseback. With all of the tension leading to Civil War, I would have expected that he would have been heavily guarded. Where were his men at the Ford theater? I guess it was just a different time.

On a nicer note, I feel like only a poet or an artist would have noticed that,  "None of the artists or pictures has caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man's face. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is needed."  Interesting assessment.