C. M. & S. Smith Store

Clark M. Smith's all-purpose store on the south side of the public square served customers who seldom paid cash because money was scarce and credit accounts were common. Smith's in-laws, the Lincolns, had an account there, and after her husband lost the Senate race to Stephen Douglas, Mary Lincoln went on a therapeutic spending spree, buying silk and fancy trimmings for a new dress along with routine household goods such as boots and hats, chickens and eggs, pocket knives and wood, salt for making ice cream, cinnamon, and large amounts of sugar. At one point she purchased thirty-two pounds of regular sugar, six pounds of crushed sugar, and two gallons of syrup. Lincoln usually settled the family's store account several times a year, but many others did not, and in the year he ran for president Smith ended customer accounts and made the business cash and produce only. In January 1861, Smith accompanied Mary to New York City to help her choose fashions acceptable in Washington D.C. As president-elect, Lincoln later used a back room on the store's third floor, with his brother-in-law's permission, as a quiet place to work on the first version of his First Inaugural address, including lines that became a plea to the nation's better angels: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies."

Springfield, Illinois · United States