Lincoln's Open Door

During the darkest years of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln insisted on keeping regular open office hours at the White House. His advisors begged him to stop. The war demanded his attention. Security was a constant worry. But Lincoln refused, calling these sessions his "public opinion baths." Farmers, widows, soldiers, and grieving mothers lined the hallways, sometimes waiting hours for a few minutes with the most powerful man in the nation.…