February 20 Thursday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to Mary Mason Fairbanks. In part:

Your most welcome letter is by me, & I must hurry & write while your barometer is at “fair” for it isn’t within the range of possibility that I can refrain long from doing something that will fetch it down to “stormy” again.

I acknowledge—I acknowledge—that I can be most laceratingly “funny without being vulgar.” In proof whereof, I responded again to the regular toast to Woman at a grand banquet night before last [MTL 1 claims it was Feb. 14, not Feb. 18], & was frigidly proper in language & sentiment….Now haven’t I nobly vindicated myself & shed honor upon my teacher & done credit to her teachings? With head uncovered, & in attitude suppliant, but yet expressive of conscious merit, I stand before you in spirit & await my earned “Well done,” & augmented emolument of bread & butter—to the end that I may go & slide on the cellar door & be happy [MTL 2: 188-95].

In the evening Sam attended the Illinois State reception and sent a dispatch to the Chicago Republican [MTL 2: 195n3].