Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865; Presidents -- United States -- Biography; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
There had been very little of what might be called pioneer life in
Springfield. Civilization came in with a reasonably full equipment at
the beginning. The Edwardses, in fair-top boots and ruffled shirts;
the Ridgelys brought their banking business from Maryland; the Logans
and Conklings were good lawyers before they arrived; another family
came from Kentucky, with a cotton manufactory which proved its
aristocratic character by never doing any work. With a population like
this, the town had, from the beginning, a more settled and orderly
type than was usual in the South and West. A glance at the advertising
columns of the newspaper will show how much attention to dress was
paid in the new capital. "Cloths, cassinetts, cassimeres, velvet,
silk, satin, and Marseilles vestings, fine calf boots, seal and
morocco pumps, for gentlemen," and for the sex which in barbarism
dresses less and in civilization dresses more than the male, "silks,
bareges, crepe lisse, lace veils, thread lace, Thibet shawls, lace
handkerchiefs, fine prunella shoes, etc." It is evident that the young
politician was confronting a social world more formidably correct than
anything he had as yet seen.
[Sidenote: Ford's "History," p. 94.]
Governor Ford began some years before this to remark with pleasure the
change in the dress of the people of Illinois: the gradual
disappearance of leather and, linsey-woolsey, the hunting-knife and
tomahawk, from the garb of men; the deerskin moccasin supplanted by
the leather boot and shoe; the leather breeches tied around the ankle
replaced by the modern pantaloons; and the still greater improvement
in the adornment of women, the former bare feet decently shod, and
homespun frocks giving way to gowns of calico and silk, and the heads
tied up in red cotton turbans disappearing in favor of those
surmounted by pretty bonnets of silk or straw. We admit that these
changes were not unattended with the grumbling ill-will of the pioneer
patriarchs; they predicted nothing but ruin to a country that thus
forsook the old ways "which were good enough for their fathers." But
with the change in dress came other alterations which were all for the
better--a growing self-respect among the young; an industry and thrift
by which they could buy good clothes; a habit of attending religious
service, where they could show them; a progress in sociability,
civility, trade, and morals.
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