According to George Francis Train...
I highly recommend reading about George Francis Train, “one of the strangest and most colorful characters” of his era—which is saying something, as anyone who reads nineteenth century history knows. One historian described him as “a combination of Liberace and Billy Graham,” but even that fails to do him justice. Among many other interesting achievements, he was the inspiration for the protagonist in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days.
Here’s another description:
“Train was emotional and impulsive, an attention-seeking scatterbrain who ran a quixotic campaign for president of the United States. He went to jail 15 times either for siding with revolutionaries or assuming the bad debts of others. He was also a brilliant businessman.”
He was also a popular lecturer, and people turned out in droves to hear him talk. “During the Civil War he lived in England, where he promoted the Union cause with colorful speeches and a newspaper. He returned to the United States convinced he could end the war because his wife was related to Jefferson Davis.” That didn’t work out, but he later claimed, in a typically stream-of-conscious style interview, that he had seen something interesting—and Lincoln-related—back in early 1864. (The interview was published in the Oil City Daily Derrick, on January 3, 1879.)
Another popular lecturer, Bayard Taylor, was scheduled to appear at Willard’s in Washington. Then-President and Mrs. Lincoln are known to have attended this performance together. Train claimed that Bayard, whom he knew personally, had sent him a ticket shortly before the performance, after learning he was in town. Train’s credibility is hard to assess, so who knows if this actually happened, but here’s the story:
“There were only two more chairs reserved! I saw then that I was a distinguished guest! But who are the others? The applause that moment answered my own question! Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln appeared! I saw in their faces that there had been a family fight! While bowing to the audience he put his stovepipe in the chair next to mine! Mrs. L., seeing her opportunity to get the best of the battle, pounced down upon the new silk hat with delight, and sat on it throughout the lecture! You should have seen the President’s face! What could he do? Her countenance was all smiles! So was mine! I fairly shrink at my own thoughts! Nobody knew it but we three!”