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A short history thread on why the outgoing First Family's snub of the incoming First Family is an ugly aberration, even by the low standards set by some of the worst antebellum presidents. 1/8
En route from Springfield to Washington, DC in 1861, Lincoln stopped in Buffalo, where former President Millard Fillmore met him at the train depot, accompanied the president-elect to his hotel and hosted him the next day for services at Buffalo's First Unitarian Church 2/8
In DC, outgoing President James Buchanan attended the inauguration. John Hay, Lincoln's young staffer, recalled that after the ceremony, the now-former president pulled his successor aside in the Capitol to offer some advice. 3/8
Hay recalled, "I waited with boyish wonder and credulity to see what momentous counsels were to come from that gray and weathered head. Every word must have its value at such an instant...." 4/8
"...The ex-president said: ‘I think you will find the water on the right-hand well at the White House better than the left,’ and went on with many intimate details of the kitchen and pantry." 5/8
Hay remembered that "Lincoln stood politely at attention, “with that weary, introverted look of his, not answering, and the next day, when I recalled the conversation, admitted he had not heard a word of it." 6/8
