Word: hayes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
LINCOLN AND THE CIVIL WAR IN THE DIARIES OF JOHN HAY-Edited by Tyler Dennett-Dodd, Mead...
...have watched more dramatic history in the making than John Hay. At 22 this spirited, sharp-eyed son of an Illinois doctor became assistant to Abraham Lincoln's wartime private secretary, John G. Nicolay. An adept in handling cranks and job-hunters, a shrewd political observer, personable, sympathetic, young Hay quickly rose in Lincoln's esteem, went everywhere in wartime Washington, missed little. He shared a room in the White House with his good friend Nicolay, held many a nightshirt conversation with the "Ancient," or the "Tycoon," as he nicknamed Lincoln...
...April 18, six days after Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter, young Hay started a diary, hastily scrawled late at night, the most immature and most vivid writing he ever did. Much of the present selection was omitted from the privately printed edition of Hay's letters and diary published by his widow...
Mainly concerned with the news behind the political and military front, Hay took note, however, of many a minor picturesque happening, such as the visit of a temperance delegation, "looking blue & thin in the keen autumnal air," or the tantrums of Mrs. Lincoln ("The Hell-cat is getting more Hell-cattical day by day."). Except where it touches Lincoln, the main note of his diary is one of caustic or amused astonishment, particularly toward Generals McClellan ("the little Napoleon . . . afraid either to fight or run") and Benjamin Butler ("His ignorance of war leads him constantly to require impossibilities from...
...Hay's astonishment at Lincoln amounted to awe. On the day his diary opens, Lincoln "quietly grinned" when he was told of a plot to murder him. When told of the generals' ambition to set up a military dictatorship, Lincoln was reminded of Jim Jett's brother: "Jim used to say that his brother was the damndest scoundrel that ever lived, but in the infinite mercy of Providence he was also the damndest fool...