With the possible exception of President Washington, whose political
opponents did not hesitate to rob the vocabulary of vulgarity and
wickedness whenever they desired to vilify the Chief Magistrate, Lincoln
was the most and “best” abused man who ever held office in the United
States. During the first half of his initial term there was no epithet
which was not applied to him.
One newspaper in New York habitually characterized him as “that hideous
baboon at the other end of the avenue,” and declared that “Barnum should
buy and exhibit him as a zoological curiosity.”
Although the President did not, to all appearances, exhibit annoyance
because of the various diatribes printed and spoken, yet the fact is
that his life was so cruelly embittered by these and other expressions
quite as virulent, that he often declared to those most intimate with
him, “I would rather be dead than, as President, thus abused in the
house of my friends.”