The Death Of "tad" Lincoln

In February, 1862, this fond father was visited by a sorrowful bereavement. The executive mansion was turned into a house of mourning. Death had chosen a shining mark and the beloved Willie, the apple of his father's eye, the brightest and most promising of his children, was torn from his embrace. The dreadful stroke well nigh broke the president's heart, and certainly affliction more crushing never fell to the lot of man, In the lonely grave of the little one lay buried Mr. Lincoln 's fondest hopes and, strong as he was in the matter of self control, he gave way to an overmastering grief, which became at length a serious menace to himself.
Never was there witnessed in an American household a scene of distress more touching than that in which the president and Mrs. Lincoln mingled their tears over the coffin that inclosed the lifeless form of their beloved child. A deep and settled despondency took possession of Mr. Lincoln, and when it is remembered that this calamity - for such it surely was - befell him at a critical period of the war, just when the resources of his mighty intellect were most in demand, it will be understood how his affliction became a matter of the grave concern to the whole country, and especially to those who stood in close personal and official relations with him. The measures taken by his friends to break the force of his great grief, and to restore him to something like his old time cheerfulness, seemed for a while unavailing. - Ward H. Lamon.