To say that he is ugly is nothing; to add that his figure is grotesque, is to convey no adequate impression - Fancy a man over six feet high, and then out of proportion; with long bony arms and legs, which somehow seem to be always in the way, with great rugged, furrowed hands, which grasp you like a vice when shaking yours; with a long, shaggy neck, and a chest too narrow for the great arms at its side. Add to this figure a head cocoa-nut shaped and somewhat too small for such a stature, covered with rough,uncombed and uncombable hair, that stands out in every direction at once...and then add to this an air of strength, physical as well as moral, and a strange look of dignity coupled with all this grotesqueness, and you will have the impression left upon me by Abraham Lincoln. (ABOTT 17)

The Railsplitter, artist unknown, circa 1860 (CHS 1917.15).

Although Union victories blunted some of the criticism, many Americans denounced Lincoln as a tyrannical despot.

Lincoln warned that "a most efficient corps of spies, informers, supplyers, and aiders and abettors" threatened the Union effort, necessitating government censorship, surveillance, and suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Democrats at Chicago's 1864 National Convention threatened the president:

The people will soon rise, and if they cannot put Lincoln out of power by the ballot, they will by the bullet. (OATES 235; CHICAGO TRIBUNE April 24, 1865)

Allan Pinkerton, a Chicago detective, warned Lincoln of a conspiracy of "plug uglies" in Baltimore, a hotbed of secessionist sympathizers. Pinkerton escorted the President on an unmarked train through the city. A New York Times reporter claimed that the president-elect had disguised himself in the Scottish-born detective's plaid cap and cloak; other newspapers mockingly alleged that the president had concealed himself in women's clothing. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton warned Lincoln not to attend Ford's Theatre on Good Friday, fearing an imminent threat to his life. The president's secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay, wrote that Lincoln routinely dismissed concerns for his life:

By the hand of a murderer he could die but once; to go continually in fear would be to die over and over. (RECK, Abraham Lincoln 17)

Lincoln's political opponents were less magnanimous.

Although he is revered today, Lincoln was lampooned by the Civil War press and excoriated by partisan politicians in both the North and South. A portrait of the "backwoods president" published immediately after his assassination conveys the ambivalent sentiments of many Americans:

Lincoln received over eighty written death threats.

Lincoln was widely criticized for his precautions following an assassination threat en route to his 1861 inauguration.