David Herbert Donald: Lincoln, before his assassination, was certainly strongly criticized. He was “Abraham Africanus,” the friend of the blacks, but not a proper citizen. He was uncouth — all the matters that one could think of there — and when it came to voting, over and over again, Northerners tended to vote for more polished and better-educated Democrats. This was just the way it was. And when Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, it created such a hostile reaction that the Republicans lost most of those congressional races. So there was great hostility. There was also hostility among fellow Republicans, most of whom were better educated. They thought they were smarter than Lincoln. They certainly had more experience than Lincoln. They thought, “This is kind of a rough fellow who has come out of the West, who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about.” It took quite a while for a man like Charles Sumner — who, polished as he was, Harvard educated, friend of Joseph Story of the Supreme Court, widely traveled in Europe, with always a pocketful of letters from the Duke of Carlisle and so on — to think anything good could come of Abraham Lincoln. But Lincoln managed him. Lincoln flattered him. Mrs. Lincoln also flattered Charles Sumner, who was easy to flatter. He was, indeed, a tall, handsome, gallant, well-trained young man, and he became increasingly a part of the Lincoln entourage. When the Lincolns went out for a carriage ride, he would often take Sumner along with him. So that by the end, as Mary Lincoln wrote, Sumner and Lincoln were on the best of terms, and Mary said they played together like two young boys, which is unlikely, one thinks, for Lincoln. Even more unlikely for a sedate Charles Sumner, but he relaxed with Lincoln. This kind of transformation occurred with a great many people. So I think it is a mistake to think of Lincoln in his pre-assassination period as being disliked. He was suspected. He had many critics, but on the other hand, he also had many friends. Then comes assassination.