A Picnic On The Lawn

Several hundred people (some reports refer to thousands) turned out for the picnic on the lawn.  A platform had been erected for speakers, around which were arrayed rows of benches, well filled for most of the event.

Meanwhile groups reposed under every tree or walked to and fro along the shaded paths.  From the thick-leaved branches of the trees were suspended swings, of which all, both old and young, made abundant use.  Every contrivance which could add to the pleasure of the time was brought into energetic requisition, and altogether no celebration of the day presented a greater appearance of enjoyment and success.

A brass band played, while elsewhere on the lawn a choir sang, and tables were loaded with refreshments.

Sounds like fun, but there were also several unusual aspects to this picnic.

It was a fund-raiser for a Catholic congregation.

It was on the lawn of the White House.

It was July 4, 1864.

The Catholic congregation consisted of free blacks.

No one could remember an occasion when the White House grounds had been used for a private fund-raiser.

How did this come about?

Starting in early 1862, President Abraham Lincoln began receiving black citizens at the White House, and the pace of such receptions steadily increased over the remainder of his life.  These events are now documented in two recent books, A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House by Jonathan W White, and The Black Man's President: Abraham Lincoln, African Americans, & the Pursuit of Racial Equality by Michael Burlingam, about which I wrote in The Petition.

As word of the President's fair treatment of black delegations spread, more became emboldened to seek audiences with Lincoln.  On June 27, 1864 such a delegation met with the President.  A congregation of black Catholics had been meeting in the basement of St Matthews Church in the District, although they were denied access to its chapel.  The congregation needed to raise funds to build its own chapel and a school for children.  To this end a committee of three, led by cabinet maker Gabriel Coakley, entered the White House for its meeting. 

The committee had inquired of Commissioner of Public Buildings Benjamin French and discovered the White House grounds could only be used with permission of the President.  They asked Lincoln for permission to hold a fund raising event on the 4th and he gave them verbal approval.  When French issued the permit, Coakley presented it to the president on June 30 who signed it, "I assent/A Lincoln".

The picnic was a great success, raising $1,200 for the congregation.  The Philadelphia Inquirer reported of the day:

The entire colored population of Washington was out to-day with flags, music, &c, celebrating the Fourth by pic-nics, parades, &c.  A very large pic-nic was held by them in the public square between the White House and War Department.  They had colored bands, and colored speakers, and conducted themselves in a very orderly manner.

Not all publications were so complimentary.  Democratic papers in particular denounced the event.  From the Washington Constitutional Union:

The grounds, held by all patriots as something set apart and sacred, because invested with a national character, were prostituted and disgraced by the erection of stands for negro merchants to vend fruits and cakes and drinks to negro customers.

The paper went on to complain "these were negroes who did these things with the high approval and warm commendation of our president".

Not to be outdone, later that month the superintendent of the Third Colored Baptist Sabbath School asked for permission to conduct a fund-raising event described as a "demonstration of the appreciation of the colored people of the much-desired and highly appreciated privileges they are permitted to enjoy since the freeing of the slaves and abolishing of the black laws of the District of Columbia".  Permission was granted and the event held on August 4.