In January 1861, after Lincoln was elected president, his family was seated in the dining room of the Metropolitan Hotel in Manhattan when they overheard some men loudly remarking: “Could he, with any honor, fill the presidential chair. Would his west gaucherie disgrace the nation?”

Mary Lincoln was rattled, but her politically savvy husband had often allowed himself to be underestimated, sometimes using it as a political weapon.

Source: Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton