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MRS. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

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Seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books."

JOHN MILTON

MY DIARIES 1888-1914
by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

LIVING MY LIFE
by Emma Goldman

MEMOIRS OF A POLYGLOT
by William Gerhardi

GIUSEPPE VERDI
HIS LIFE AND WORKS

by Francis Toys

NAPOLEON AND EUGENIE
by E. A. Rheinhardt

EMPRESS INNOCENCE
THE LIFE OF MARIE-LOUISE

by M. E. Ravage
These are Borzoi Books published by Alfred A. Knopf

MRS. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Mrs. Lincoln in her wedding dress.

(Mrs.

ranam o^/mcom

A STUDY OF HER PERSONALITY
AND HER INFLUENCE ON LINCOLN

W. A. ELVANS

M.S.,M.D.

NEW YORK ALFRED A- KNOPF MCMXXXII

in any form without permission in writing from the publisher

First Edition

Manufactured in the United States of America

Preface

WHEN ONE UNDERTAKES A STUDY OF THE LIFE OF A
public man or woman, one can expect to find some-
thing of a printed record. If the study is based on the sub-
ject's connection with high lights of history, the sources of
information are easily accessible. Nor is there a dearth of
material when one delves somewhat more into the private
life of a person who is very much under public observation.
Free access to a few good libraries generally suffices to make
available as much material as can be used. But when one
undertakes a study of a wife and mother who lived over
fifty years ago, even though her husband was President of
the United States, the task is not so easy. If the undertaking
includes an investigation of her behavior private as well
as public the difficulties are greater. To attempt to ex-
plain that behavior in the light of more modern views of
personality adds to the difficulties.

There are many Abraham Lincoln collectors and a large
Lincoln literature, but there are no Mrs. Lincoln collectors,
and no collection of Mrs. Lincoln literature. It is true that
much has been written about the wife of the first president
to be assassinated, but it is not assembled. The material
must be sought for in many places.

It is a pleasure for me to acknowledge the help I have
had, and to express my appreciation thereof and gratitude
therefor to :

Mrs. J. O. Wynn, my sister, who visited Lexington, Ken-
tucky, three times and there interviewed Mrs. Emilie Todd
Helm, her three children, and others relatives of Mrs.
Lincoln and descendants of friends of her family. Mrs.
Wynn read the files of the Lexington papers from 1817 to
1 840 and other documents in the Lexington Public Library

PREFACE

and in the library of Transylvania College. She read the
Draper Collection in the State Historical Society of Wis-
consin, and the Durrett Collection in the University of
Chicago.

Mrs. I. D. Rawlings, wife of my long-time associate in
the Chicago and the Illinois Departments of Health, who
read the files of the Springfield papers, and other documents
and books, in the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring-
field.

The following libraries for access to their Lincoln mate-
rial and newspaper files given either to me personally or
to someone helping with the investigation : those of the Chi-
cago Tribune, the Chicago Historical Society, and the Il-
linois State Historical Society, the Newberry Library, the
library of the University of Chicago, the Chicago Public
Library, the library of the State Historical Society of Wis-
consin, that of Transylvania College, the Lexington Public
Library, the John Hay Library of Brown University, the
Congressional Library, the New York Public Library, the
Huntington Library, the library of the Union League Club
of Chicago, and that of the Lincoln Historical Research
Foundation; to the librarians and their assistants for in-
telligent guidance and help, especially Mildred Burke, of the
Chicago Tribune Library, Mrs. Harriet Taylor, of the
Newberry Library, and Mrs. Charles F. Norton, of Tran-
sylvania College Library.

Dr. B. J. Cigrand, of Batavia, Illinois, who undertook to
find what medical record the Bellevue Place Sanatorium had
of Mrs. Lincoln. When he found that the sanatorium had
not saved any of Dr. R. J. Patterson's notes or the history
sheets of Mrs. Lincoln's mental illness, Dr. Cigrand put
at my disposal his collection of newspaper references to
Mrs. Lincoln, consisting principally of items appearing in
the Fox River Valley papers, and those of Chicago in 1875.

Oliver R. Barrett and Judge Henry Horner of Chicago,
who gave me access to their Lincoln material, permitted me

PREFACE

to use part of their collections, and helped me to get court
records.

William H. Townsend, of Lexington, Kentucky, who also
helped me to get court records, and assisted in many other
ways.

John G. Oglesby and David Davis, of Illinois, for their
kindness; and Dean Harry E. Pratt, of Blackburn College,
Illinois, who made known to me some sources.

Dr. Louis A. Warren, of the Lincoln Historical Research
Foundation, Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Paul M. Angle,
of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Springfield, Illinois;
M. L. Houser, Peoria, Illinois; and George F. Harnbrecht,
Madison, Wisconsin.

All those who permitted the use of their material, and to
whom I hope I have given credit in each instance.

The relatives of Mrs. Lincoln wherever they have helped.
Much of the material of interest is not of a nature that eas-
ily gets into print. An extensive correspondence with de-
scendants of Mrs. Lincoln's nearer relatives was undertaken.
Several were visited and interviewed. The courtesy and for-
bearance of these ladies and gentlemen, in spite of the fact
that they were asked direct and often intimate questions,
some of which were not pleasant to either party, is gratefully
acknowledged.

A group of physicians who specialize in mental diseases
Drs. C. A. Neymann, Charles F. Read, David B. Rot-
man, Meyer Solomon, W. G. Stearns. It would not have
been possible for me to interpret Mrs. Lincoln's behavior,
to understand her personality, or to form opinions as to her
responsibility in different relations and at different times,
had it not been for their help. In a few instances I submitted
statements of facts to them for their explanation. More fre-
quently the points in question were the subject of extended
discussions in person. Neither individually nor collectively
are they responsible for what I have written, but I hope they
will accept my acknowledgment of their guidance.

vii

ILLUSTRATIONS

MRS. LINCOLN IN HER WEDDING DRESS Frontispiece

ROBERT S. TODD Facing page 34

From a portrait owned by Mrs. Emitie Helm

GENEALOGICAL CHART OF MARY TODD LINCOLN 40
ROBERT TODD LINCOLN 50

From a fhotografh in the Frederick H. Meserve collection

WILLIAM WALLACE LINCOLN 50

From a fhotografh in the Frederick H. Meserve collection

" TAD " LINCOLN 50

From a fhotografh in the Frederick H. Meserve collection

THE MAIN STREET HOUSE OF ROBERT S. TODD, LEX-
INGTON, AS IT APPEARS TODAY 78

ONE OF THE BUILDINGS OCCUPIED BY TRANSYLVANIA
UNIVERSITY WHEN MARY TODD LIVED IN LEX-
INGTON 86

MORRISON HALL, TRANSYLVANIA COLLEGE 86

ONE OF THE FIRST DAGUERREOTYPE CAMERAS

BROUGHT TO AMERICA, NOW IN SAYRE INSTITUTE,

LEXINGTON 90

PLANETARIUM MADE AND MOUNTED BY THOMAS
HARRIS BARLOW, OF LEXINGTON 94

THE NINIAN W. EDWARDS RESIDENCE, SPRINGFIELD 124

PARLOR OF THE EDWARDS RESIDENCE 124

THE GLOBE TAVERN, SPRINGFIELD 128

THE MONROE STREET COTTAGE, SPRINGFIELD 138

From a drawing

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE YOUTHFUL LINCOLN Facing page 146

From a photograph taken in Princeton^ Illinois ; July 4, 2856

THE YOUTHFUL MRS. LINCOLN

From a photograph owned by Oliver R. Barrett

THE ANDERSON BUILDING, UNITED STATES SOL-
DIERS' HOME, WASHINGTON

ABRAHAM LINCOLN WHILE PRESIDENT

From a photograph owned by S. R. Cameron

THE WHITE HOUSE DURING LINCOLN'S ADMINIS-
TRATION

From a f holograph in the Frederick H. Meserve collection

THE CLIFTON HOUSE, CHICAGO

From a picture owned by the Chicago Historical Society

THE HOUSE ON WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO,
OWNED BY MRS. LINCOLN 200

BELLEVUE PLACE SANATORIUM, BATAVIA, ILLINOIS 222

EAR-RINGS OWNED BY MRS. LINCOLN, NOW IN THE
POSSESSION OF HOMER SWEET 238

MARY TODD WHEN ABOUT TWENTY YEARS OLD 276

From a portrait, now owned by William H. Townsend, fainted
by Katherine Helm

MRS. LINCOLN 2 g o

From a photograph owned by S. R. Cameron

SIGNATURE FROM A BOOK OWNED BY OLIVER R.
BARRETT 294

SIGNATURE FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OWNED BY OLI-
VER R. BARRETT

MRS. LINCOLN'S SIGNATURE FROM A LETTER IN THE
JOHN HAY LIBRARY, BROWN UNIVERSITY 294

MRS. LINCOLN 30O

From a photograph owned by Oliver R. Barrett

T TxrrrfcT XT

Introduction

Truth is generally tfie best vindication against slander.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

So very difficult a matter is it to trace and "find out the truth of anything
by history.

PERICLES

Introduction

SEVERAL YEARS AGO THE LATE DR. WILLIAM E. BARTON
and I were discussing Abraham Lincoln, particularly the
quality of his mind. The subject was intriguing, for Lin-
coln's mind presents more than one phase that is not under-
stood. Many of his moods cannot be measured by ordinary
standards.

To explain him requires considerable knowledge of the
laws of inheritance; no small understanding of biology,
physiology, and anatomy, and of psychology and psycho-
analysis, and behavior in relation to these sciences. To
know the politics, the customs, and the habits of his period,
and the episodes and incidents of his life, is not enough.

Presently the influence of Mrs. Lincoln on her husband
became the theme of discussion. In his short autobiographi-
cal sketch x written in December 1859, Lincoln said in sub-
stance that when he came of age (which was about when
he arrived in Illinois), he could read and write, and cipher
to the rule of three, and that was about all. It is given to
few men to grow as much as Lincoln did between 1830 and
1865, or even as much as he did between 1840 and 1865.
How much of the transformation was due to the influence
of Mrs. Lincoln? We had no answer. We were compelled
to admit that however little one really knew about Lincoln's
mind, our knowledge of Mrs. Lincoln's was less. It was not
possible to discuss intelligently the influence of the wife on
the husband without a better understanding than we had
of her.

Dr. Barton said (rather than asked) : " Why don't you
make a study of Mrs. Lincoln? " He had in mind a study

1 Bibliography, No. 57.

REASONS FOR THIS STUDY

of her personality rather than one dealing with the inci-
dents of her life.

The primary reason for this present study lay in a wish
to comply with Dr. Barton's suggestion, principally because
he had made it. The intent did not carry beyond a wish to
gather some information and to mature some opinions that
he might make use of should he write a book on the mind
of Lincoln. I knew he was contemplating a book on this
subject, to be one of his group dealing with different aspects
of the life of Abraham Lincoln.

Other interests, as well as other Lincoln books, engaged
the time of Dr. Barton, and he died before he had set down
his opinions of Lincoln's mentality. Meanwhile I was be-
coming more interested in the subject assigned me. I found
myself asking how much Mrs. Lincoln's mind influenced
that of her husband. In how far was she responsible for de-
cisions he made and positions he held that shaped the
history of the country in crucial times? Gradually the wish
to find an answer to these questions for myself was added to
the wish to help Dr. Barton in fact, was overshadowing
that primary purpose if not eclipsing it.

At about this time a third reason for this work came into
existence. One day I went to a library and asked the at-
tendant to give me what she had dealing with Mrs. Lincoln.
When the material was produced, it dealt principally with
Mr. Lincoln; there was little about his wife. I turned most
of it back, saying: "I am not looking for material on
Mr. Lincoln now. I am making a study of Mrs. Lincoln*"
The librarian's comment was : " The poor woman lived
a life of trouble. She was censured bitterly. She had many
enemies. Her reputation is an unhappy one. She died in
trouble. She was buried in peace. Why dig her up? Why
not let the world forget?" Since then I have heard the
same statements made by a number of other people.

Very few people think of Mrs. Lincoln at all, or have
any real opinion about her. This does not prevent many

REASONS FOR THIS STUDY

of them from repeating, somewhat superficially, what they
have read or heard about her. Ay, and sometimes with
some show of emotion. If such expressions can be called a
prevailing opinion, then one may say that it is generally
accepted that Mrs. Lincoln was and is not deserving of the
goodwill of her fellow-countrymen.

I gave thought to the question whether I should stop or
go on. There were a few relatives, including some de-
scendants. If Mrs. Lincoln deserved the reputation that
most people said she bore, it would be considerate of the
feelings of these relatives to stop, as I was advised to do.
But perhaps she did not deserve her reputation. Shakspere
wrote : " The evil that men do lives after them ; the good
is oft interred with their bones." The possibility that Mrs.
Lincoln's good had been interred with her bones was suf-
ficient to warrant study.

I learned that one of the White House staff, W. O.
Stoddard, suspected that something was wrong with her,
soon after he commenced having opportunities to observe
her. He was nonplussed, whereupon wise beyond the
times he consulted a medical man who also wise be-
yond the times explained it to him. In the light of that
explanation he saw that she was irresponsible. He had told
this in a book that was widely read in the latter part of the
last century. 1 I found abundant evidence that Mrs. Lincoln
was not responsible for many things she did and said,
and that in addition she was the victim of much slander and
libel. Many false charges were made against her, first and
last. If she was condemned unfairly, held responsible when
she was not, and lied about as well, was it fair to leave her
reputation as it stood? Desire to uncover the truth and, by
telling it, to secure justice for her became a third reason for
the study.

At this stage of the investigation it was plain that a
simple recital of facts was not enough. Conclusions as to

1 Bibliography, No. 167.

SOURCES

search was in some measure a branching off from the main
stem of the inquiry. But how often men suffer because of
things beyond their control I And is the effect less real ?

And, finally, there is a reason that will appeal to others
more than it did to me, though it was one that actuated me
somewhat. The reference is to the truth or falsity of charges
that were made against Mrs. Lincoln. If a charge is proved
false, our major interest is transferred to the personality
of the accuser. And yet, in a study of personality, we must
consider false charges as well as true, for the false ones
also hurt. How much of what was said against Mrs. Lin-
coln was true; how much untrue? How much was her per-
sonality injured by this gossip, true or untrue?

SOURCES

It is said that more has been written about Abraham
Lincoln than about any other man in history, Jesus Christ
alone excepted. The number of books and magazine articles
dealing with Napoleon does not equal those devoted to
the martyred President. In comparison with her husband,
Mrs. Lincoln appears to have been neglected; not so when
she is compared with the wives of other presidents,
however.

While people condemned her and jeered at her, she was
an enigma to them. Curiosity, and interest in the mysterious
and unexplainable, have made people anxious to read of
Mrs. Lincoln, and writers, sensing the demand, have at-
tempted to respond as they have not done in the case of
other White House ladies at least, not to the same de-
gree. What was written has been reasonably adequate in
so far as it has supplied biographical facts and details. But
all the while there has been a craving for the reason why,
and that has not been satisfied.

The biographies of Abraham Lincoln are uneven In their
treatment of Mrs. Lincoln. Some do not mention her and

LINCOLN BIOGRAPHIES

others barely do; while, at the other extreme, the biogra-
phies of Herndon and those based on Herndon furnish
the corner-stone on which rests the present-day opinion of
Mrs. Lincoln.

LINCOLN BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Barton's paper before the Illinois Historical Society
in I929 1 is a valuable analysis of Lincoln biographies. It
should be read as a part of every study of Lincoln literature.

When Lincoln entered Congress, he wrote that famous
and often quoted biographical sketch for the Congressional
Directory, which is so revealing as to the character of its
author, but is thoroughly unsatisfactory as a source of
biographical data. In this statement he did not mention his
wife. The next biographical sketch of any importance was
that written for Jesse Fell, 2 to be used in a Pennsylvania
newspaper. This was a factual document, written by Lin-
coln himself, after the Lincoln-Douglas debates and before
the ensuing presidential election. It was written for political
purposes, and no mention is made of Mrs. Lincoln. This is
the earliest genuine source of first-hand Lincoln biographi-
cal material. It was the only source on which the general
run of campaign political writers drew in 1860.

Among the campaign lives which appeared in 1860, there
was one, the John L. Scripps Life,* of which M. L. Houser,
in a foreword in the 1931 edition, writes: ". . . is the
only biography of himself that Mr. Lincoln ever author-
ized, revised, and endorsed. . . . Lincoln insisted that
every statement, however unimportant, should be meticu-
lously accurate. To insure that, he requested that the manu-
script be submitted to him before publication." In this
Scripps Life there is one paragraph about Mrs. Lincoln,
in which this is found: " Mrs. Lincoln is a lady of charming
presence, of superior intelligence, of accomplished manners,

* Bibliography, No. 12, p. 58. Bibliography, No. 156, pp. 55 and 36.

a Bibliography, No. 57.

J. G. HOLLAND

and in every respect well fitted to adorn the position in
which the election of her husband to the presidency will
place her. The courtesies of the White House have never
been more appropriately and gracefully dispensed than
they will be during the administration of Mr. Lincoln."
This statement has the flavor of a campaign document, but
it has the merit of having been scrutinized by the man who
knew the facts better than anyone else in the world.

After the election of 1860, there were no Lincoln biogra-
phies until 1864, and those of that year had no merit except
from the political standpoint.

Following the assassination of the President there came
a flood of studies of the man, his career, and his personality.
The first biography of this type and group to appear was
that of Holland. 1 On May 23, 1865 the Chicago Tribune
published a telegram from Springfield which read : " Dr.
J. G. Holland is in the city collecting statistics and items
for his forthcoming life of Abraham Lincoln." This work
was finished in the autumn of 1865 and appeared the fol-
lowing year. It was one of the considerable group of Lin-
coln biographies which supply almost no information about
the President's wife or his domestic affairs. If he heard of
Ann Rutledge while in Springfield, or central Illinois, Hol-
land was not impressed by what he heard.

The defect of these biographies if omission of refer-
ences to the martyred President's wife, his domestic affairs,
and even his personality is to be so considered was soon
to be remedied.

Dr. Holland's visit stirred into activity a long-cherished
ambition of William H. Herndon. On June 3 another tele-
gram from Springfield to the Chicago Tribune announced:
" Mr. W. H. Herndon, his old law partner, is preparing
to write a life of Abraham Lincoln." " Mr. Herndon," the
telegram added, " is well qualified for the task, having been
a partner of Mr. Lincoln since soon after His coming to

1 Bibliography, No. 79.
10

WILLIAM H. HERNDON

Springfield. The partnership had not terminated when Mr.
Lincoln became President. It continued, at least nominally,
while Mr. Lincoln was in the White House, and did not end
until Mr. Lincoln died."

This statement as to Herndon's opportunities for know-
ing Lincoln intimately was well within the facts. From 1841
to 1 86 1 no other man saw so much of Lincoln or was so
intimately associated with him. It is said that Herndon at-
tracted Lincoln's interest because of his outspoken opposi-
tion to slavery, when he was a student at Illinois College.
Since his father was said to be in favor of slavery, young
Herndon was expected to take sides with the pro-slavery
group. It was at a time when the feeling between two Jack-
sonville factions those from New England and those
from Southern antecedents was hottest. At a meeting
discussing the support given Lovejoy by President Beecher
of Illinois College, young Herndon made a telling speech
against slavery. This brought down on him the wrath of the
stronger local faction, as well as the violent anger of his
father.

In 1842 Mr. Lincoln had served two legal apprentice-
ships as a junior partner in law firms. The first was with
Judge John T. Stuart. The second was with an even abler
lawyer, Judge Stephen T. Logan. Feeling that the need of
apprenticeship had been met, he was planning to organize
a firm in which he would be the senior member. It was
commonly accepted that office detail was not to his liking.
He needed a junior partner who would relieve him of some
of the burden that both Stuart and Logan had expected
him to carry.

Mrs. Lincoln wrote Judge David Davis that her hus-
band regarded Herndon merely " as an office drudge," and
intimated that he was not regarded as an equal, or even as
a meritorious subordinate. But this she wrote in the white
heat of her resentment of the Herndon stories about Lin-
coln and Ann Rutledge and herself. She knew better.

LINCOLN BIOGRAPHIES

However, there are three outstanding exceptions: W. O.
Stoddard, I. N. Arnold, and H. B. Rankin.

Stoddard * writes of the Washington life in the present
tense, making his statements appear to have been written
before 1865. His book was not published, however, until
1884 and he doubtless read Lamon's work and some of
the lectures and newspaper articles by Herndon before he
finished writing. Nevertheless, he writes of what he saw
and heard, and gives little or no evidence of having been
influenced by Herndon.

Arnold began gathering material for his biography prior
to the assassination of the President. In 1867 he finished
his History of Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation of
the Slaves. 2 E. B. Washburne tells us that Arnold was not
satisfied with this as a life of Lincoln, and in 1882 he began
writing the Life, which he finished in i884. 8 This work tells
of Lincoln's personality, his domestic affairs, and his wife,
making less use of the Herndon material than did any of
the biographers writing of the more personal side of the
subject.

Rankin, 4 who wrote many years later, was well aware of
what Herndon had written as well as said about Mrs. Lin-
coln, but, far from following him, he undertook to refute
him.

These are about the only Lincoln biographers dealing
with Mrs. Lincoln that do not follow the Herndon material.
However, Barton, Carl Sandburg, and, in her later writ-
ings, Ida M. Tarbell often disagree with Herndon. When
Tarbell began, she followed the Herndon material and
did not question his story of the projected wedding and all
its embroidery, the Ann Rutledge myth, and the opinions
he expressed of Mrs. Lincoln. Some twenty-five years later,
as the result of independent investigation consisting largely
in interviews with Mrs. Lincoln's family and others having

1 Bibliography, No. 167. Bibliography, No. 4.

1 Bibliography, No. 3. Bibliography, No. 149.

HERNDON AND MRS. LINCOLN

intimate knowledge of the subject, she changed her opinion,
coming to the conclusion that the story of the planned mar-
riage was " the work of a morbid imagination building on
flimsy, indirect evidence." *

Herndon loved Lincoln, even though he chastened him;
but he had no liking for Lincoln's wife. This is his own
story of how the cruel war began: It was in 1839. Miss
Todd had but recently arrived in Springfield. She was at a
dance and had just finished waltzing with Herndon. " A few
moments later, as we were promenading through the hall,
I thought to compliment her graceful dancing by telling her
that while I was conscious of my own awkward movements,
she seemed to glide through the waltz with the ease of a
serpent. Her eyes flashed as she replied : c Mr. Herndon,
comparison to a serpent is rather severe irony, especially
to a newcomer.' " 2 Since the garden of Eden the Eves have
resented reptilian comparisons.

The ill will between Mrs. Lincoln and Herndon smol-
dered through all the Springfield years. It burned high
when Herndon lectured and when he wrote the Lincoln
biographies.

He conceived the theory that Mrs. Lincoln married for
revenge. In his discussion of Mrs. Lincoln he first mentions
her antecedents, family connections, and education and
training. Then he tells of her Springfield history and covers
the failure of Lincoln to marry Mary Todd in January
1841. To this theme he devotes several pages. After that
he considers the events that led up to the wedding, and the
wedding itself. This is the background for an exposition of
Mrs. Lincoln's attitude toward Mr. Lincoln. He says: 8
" Miss Todd first loved Abraham Lincoln but the failure to
marry her, in January 1 841, changed that emotion to the one
which animated her until 1865 But the disappointment

i Bibliography, No. 170, p. 237.

Bibliography, No. 7a, Vol. II, p. 209.

Bibliography, No. 758, Vol. II, pp. 230, 433, 434.

HERNDON AND MRS. LINCOLN

had crushed her proud, womanly spirit. She felt degraded in
the eyes of the world. Love fled at the approach of re-
venge. . . . Whether Mrs. Lincoln really was moved by
the spirit of revenge or not, she acted along the lines of
human conduct. She led her husband a wild and merry
dance. If, in time, she became soured at the world, it was
not without provocation; and if, in her later years, she
unchained the bitterness of a disappointed and outraged
nature, it followed as logically as an effect does the cause."
Later he wrote: " Besides, who knows but she may have
acted out in her conduct toward her husband the laws of
human revenge?"

Herndon conveys the impression that revenge, or its
equivalent, was the key to those acts of Mrs. Lincoln that
puzzled so many people. In order to support the thesis he
exaggerates what happened or did not happen in January
1841. In furtherance of his thesis, too, he made use of
things he knew and things he learned from Springfield
gossip ; and doubtless he again exaggerated.

Commenting on this theory, Newton 1 said: "While
Herndon was right as to his facts, his inference from them
was nothing short of absurd. That the proud, high-spirited
Mary Todd held fast to so forlorn a lover for revenge is
hardly less believable than the legend that she foresaw his
future distinction."

Doubtless a considerable part of Mrs. Lincoln's reputa-
tion is due to the myth for which Herndon was responsible.

THE ANN RUTLEDGE MYTH

In constructing a story that would give him his revenge
against Mrs. Lincoln, Herndon developed the Ann Rutledge
romance. Since the public needed a romance to round out the
Lincoln they wanted to believe in, they accepted this story
even though they did not care for the author's work as a

1 Bibliography, No. 127, p. 322.
l6

THE ANN RUTLEDGE MYTH

whole. When Herndon went to New Salem to talk with the
old Lincoln friends, he heard something of a possible love-
affair with Miss Rutledge, the daughter of the hotel-keeper
with whom Lincoln had once boarded. Out of the little
neighborhood gossip drawn from dim memories, he devel-
oped the Ann Rutledge myth.

Herndon returned to Springfield and began work on the
lectures out of which he was to build a book. He wrote to
Mrs. Lincoln and asked for an interview. On September
6, 1866 she went to Springfield to visit her husband's grave,
and on that occasion she met Herndon and they had a long
and intimate conversation about Mr. Lincoln. She gave
him much information that he wanted, but he made no refer-
ence to the marriage for revenge, the disappointed bride,
the Ann Rutledge story, or to his intention to give lectures
on the domestic life of the Lincolns.

Newton x wrote : " The lecture on the domestic affairs
of the Lincoln family, on Mrs. Lincoln, and in which he
brought out the Ann Rutledge affair, was delivered in 1866.
Parts of it appeared in the papers at the time and created
a flurry of comment." It came to the attention of Mrs.
Lincoln and Robert, and it also doubtless came to that of
many persons who were to write Lincoln biographies within
the next quarter-century.

At the time Herndon created the Ann Rutledge myth,
Ann had been dead thirty years. Decades after that lec-
ture Barton found a letter to Ann, written by her brother
in school at Jacksonville and received after she was attacked
with her fatal illness. This letter was inferentially sup-
portive of the statement that Ann had some plans for col-
lege. A part of the story is that Lincoln had persuaded her
to try to get an education at Jacksonville. Barton also heard
from some of the young woman's relatives that there was
a family rumor that Ann and Abraham Lincoln had been

1 Bibliography, No. 127, p. 295.

THE ANN RUTLEDGE MYTH

sweethearts. When Barton heard of this family tradition,
it was more than eighty years after Ann Rutledge's death,
and more than fifty years after Herndon had started the
ball rolling, and it is not certain whether these relatives had
heard the legend from without or from within the family
circle. It may have been that they heard it directly or in-
directly from Herndon. Since not even Herndon found as
much basis for the story as did Barton, it is important that
the latter was firm in his conviction that the story was a
myth.

I have run across two letters from Mrs. Lincoln, and
one from Robert, in which they gave their reaction to it.
These letters were written in protest against the Herndon
lecture and particularly against the alleged early romance
and the attack on Mrs. Lincoln. 1 Mrs. Lincoln wrote that
Mr. Lincoln regarded Herndon " as an office drudge," and
as such treated him. His habits made him impossible. In
what he wrote about Ann Rutledge he was untruthful and
worse. One who reads these letters understands that the
members of the Lincoln family resented the attacks on
Mrs. Lincoln and rejected in all of its essentials the roman-
tic phases of the Ann Rutledge story.

I am convinced that there was no adequate basis for
the story. The theory that this love-affair was a major fac-
tor in shaping Abraham Lincoln's life is founded on emo-
tion and is without logic, sense, or foundation in fact. But,
however much of a myth it was, it served Herndon's pur-
pose well. Having demolished Mrs. Lincoln's reputation, he
was left under the necessity of finding a romance for Abra-
ham Lincoln. 2

1 These letters are in a privately owned collection. Robert Lincoln's letter indi-
cates that Herndon gave his lecture more than once. He was emphatic in his con-
demnation of Herndon, and Mrs. Lincoln was even more so.

* After the above had been written, Dr. G. Koehler called my attention to the
Editor's Preface by P. M. Angle, in a recent printing of the Herndon-Weik Abraham
Lincoln, issued by A. & C. Boni (Bibliography, No. 750, pp. aodx, xli, xliii, xliv).
I am in accord with Mr. Angle's opinions of Herndon as a biographer. His distinc-

OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

^r^r^^r^r^j- j- j- ^- j-u^^x*- J-U-L^-^- ***-^-ffr*r-*-r- f r- 1- - ^^^ ~> ~ . ^ ^ ^ ^ .

After the Herndon lectures and his writings covering
Mrs. Lincoln and Ann Rutledge, that vague something
public opinion had no great difficulty in loving and laud-
ing Lincoln and at the same time berating and condemning
his wife, particularly as Mrs. Lincoln's acts made it so easy
to blame her.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION OTHER THAN THE
LINCOLN BIOGRAPHIES

There is but one Mary Lincoln biographer in a real sense,
and that is Katherine Helm, though Honore Willsie Mor-
row's fiction is based on quite comprehensive investigation
and use of factual material. Miss Helm had her mother's
magazine article about Mrs. Lincoln in her possession, as
well as a great deal of family data obtained by her mother.
This included the Elizabeth Humphreys Norris letter.

Other stories dealing with Mrs. Lincoln in certain periods
are valuable sources of information. These several sources,
supplying biographical data about Mrs. Lincoln, are best
discussed by periods.

tion between Herndon as a reporter of what he saw and as a psychologist and
analyzer is interesting and valuable.

I am sure that Herndon always intended to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth; and when he is telling what he knew, his record should not
be questioned. His explanations and interpretations are not so dependable, since
they contain too much of what the newspapers call editorial view-point. Especially
was this true in those fields in which there was controversy about his statements.
The reader will see that my interpretation of the value of Herndon's report of the
Ann Rutledge story and the proposed wedding of January 1841 are almost identical
with those of Angle.

The following are some of his views as to the Ann Rutledge affair: "The possi-
bility of error must be reckoned with. ... It is difficult to accept at face value
Herndon's account of the cataclysmic effect of Ann's death on Lincoln. . . . The
enduring effect is, of course, pure inference. No better example can be found of the
absurdities to which Herndon's propensity for drawing inferences led him." (The
last sentence refers to the revenge theory.) Angle quotes the Chicago Tribune
as terming the Ann Rutledge episode "an idle tale."

SOURCES FOR EARLY LIFE

MRS. LINCOLN'S ANCESTORS

The best source of information is a genealogy of the
Todd-Parker-Porter family, written by Emilie Todd Helm,
for the Kittdchtinny Magazine. 1 Mrs. Helm also covered
the story in her magazine article on Mrs. Lincoln, 2 as did
Miss Helm 8 and William H. Townsend * in their books.
Some additional facts are found in publications of the Penn-
sylvania, Kentucky, and Illinois Historical Societies. The
Columbia, Missouri, branch of the Todd family wrote some
informing letters that are found in the Draper Collection,
Wisconsin Historical Society.

1818 TO 1826

There is no source of information for this period. The
biographers of Mrs. Lincoln dismiss it with a few chance
sentences.

1826 TO 1839

What we really know about Mary Todd after 1826 and
until she reached Springfield is nearly limited to what is
found in the letter written to Mrs. Helm by her cousin
Mrs. Norris, years after the occurrence of the events re-
corded. Mrs. Norris was a Miss Humphreys, a niece of
Mrs. Betsy Humphreys Todd, who lived with her aunt in
the Lexington home for several years and roomed with
Mary Todd during some of this time. Both went to the
Ward School and were in the same classes. After 1832,
when Mary was in Mentelle's, Miss Humphreys continued
to live in the Todd home for a few years and saw Mary on
week-ends and at school parties. During vacations they
visited Frankfort and went together to parties and other
social affairs.

1 Bibliography, No. 7. Bibliography, No. 73.

* Bi bliography, No. 72. * Bibliography, No. 176.

SOURCES, 1826 TO 1851

The text of this long letter indicates that after Mrs. Lin-
coln had come into public notice, Mrs. Helm, remembering
her cousin's companionship with her half-sister, asked Mrs.
Norris for her opinions and observations. This letter came
in reply. In writing of Mary Todd's Lexington life Mrs.
Helm 1 did not have much printed or written material ex-
cept Mrs. Morris's letter. Miss Helm 2 made extensive use
of it also. Both mother and daughter drew on family recol-
lection and tradition to supplement this letter.

The sources of information about the social and political
life of Lexington were found in the Transylvania Library
and the City Library of Lexington, and in those of the Uni-
versity of Chicago and the Wisconsin Historical Society.

1839 TO 1851

A valuable source of information about Mrs. Lincoln in
the forties is what may be termed the " Springfield tradi-
tion." This consists principally in what is commonly called
" back-fence gossip." Some of it has found its way into
books ; part of it one hears by talking with old residents of
Springfield. As a source it needs to be carefully weighed.
Much of it has the usual faults of ordinary gossip. Much of
it has been flavored by political considerations, by the back-
wash of the myths, by personal animosities, and by the natu-
ral tendency of all gossip to grow.

Mrs. Lincoln wrote few letters during this period. She
was too busy with her babies and her household cares.
A few that she did write have been preserved and are
available. Among them are the Peoria letters, and corre-
spondence between Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln while he was in
Congress. These tell us something about her.

The expressions of her sisters Mrs. N. W. Edwards and
Mrs. William Wallace, while written years later and being
general estimates, are of great value, but they are far too

1 Bibliography, No. 72. Bibliography, No. 73.

SOURCES, 1851 TO 1861

brief. Mrs. Helm's article, Miss Helm's book, and Town-
send's books give incidents that are helpful sources of
information.

For Springfield lore the files of the Springfield Register
and the Illinois State Journal, J. C. Power's History of
Springfield, Illinois* Joseph Wallace's Past and Present of
the City of Springfield and Sangamon County, 2 and C. M.
Eames's Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville 8 supply
material. Data about Springfield are also found in Knox's*
and in Williams's 6 Springfield city directories; in the library
of the Illinois Historical Society, Springfield; and in the
Newberry Library and the library of the Chicago Histori-
cal Society in Chicago.

1851 TO 1861

In the second half of Mrs. Lincoln's life in Springfield
more of the family history was going into the record books
than in the immediately preceding years. Lincoln was becom-
ing a success and in some degree a national character, and
there was a little more notice of his wife. Mrs. Helm visited
Springfield, and she told and wrote of the life there. Miss
Helm used several letters written to her mother by her aunt.
Arnold was visiting the Lincoln home and later wrote of
his visits ; and the same was true of O. H. Browning. Rankin
was gaining the impressions which he was later to record.
There was that same neighborhood gossip which later
mingled with the Herndon lecture material to make the
" Springfield tradition." The Lincoln statement to Fell, and
the Lincoln-censored Scripps biography appeared in these
years. What Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Wallace wrote of
their sister was based on what they saw of her in this decade,
as well as before and after it. Some of Mrs. Lincoln's letters
written in the fifties have been preserved.

* Bibliography, No. 144- * Bibliography, No. 95.

! Biography, No. 180. Bibliography, No. 192.

8 Bibliography, No. 51.
22

SOURCES, 1861 TO 1865

1861 TO 1865

The sources of information about the Washington period
are ample. Mrs. Lincoln wrote numerous letters, and many
were kept. The lure of the White House stationery is
great; few people destroy letters with the imprint of the
White House, however trivial they may be and however un-
important the subject. Mrs Lincoln's letters written in this
period throw light on her qualities as well as on her activi-
ties. A preponderance of her letters related to politics and
particularly to political appointments. Members of her
family were recipients of a goodly number of the letters, and
a few went to old Springfield friends.

A valuable source is the story of the White House life
written by Mrs. Elizabeth Keckley, 1 Mrs. Lincoln's seam-
stress, who had an opportunity to see " behind the scenes "
in the Lincoln life during the White House period and for
several years thereafter. Mrs. Helm spent a week or more
with her half-sister after General Helm's death, and she
kept a diary. Her story is of value. 2 Miss Helm used some
of her mother's recollections and experiences in her book, 8
and therefore it can be regarded as source material.

Another valuable source is an article written by Mrs.
Lincoln's first cousin Mrs. Elizabeth Todd Grimsley.* Mrs.
Grimsley was one of the several members of the Springfield
Todd family who attended the inaugural. She lived in the
White House family circle for several months.

For a view of social life in Washington, with some refer-
ence to Mrs. Lincoln and her day, we get information from
Ben Perley Poore, 5 Mrs. E. F. Ellett," Mary Ames Clem-
mer, 7 Esther Singleton, 8 Genevieve Forbes Herrick, 9 Laura
C. Holloway, 10 Edna M. Colman. 11

1 Bibliography, No. 85. * Bibliography, No. 141. 9 Bibliography, No. 77.

* Bibliography, No. 72. Bibliography, No. 53. 10 Bibliography, No. 80.

* Bibliography, No. 73. 7 Bibliography, No. 41. ll Bibliography, No. 44-

* Bibliography, No. 67. 8 Bibliography, No. 160.

SOURCES, 1861 TO 1875

Of those who wrote about the Lincoln family in the White
House, Stoddard 1 was the clearest-headed and had the
deepest insight. He was almost the only one who knew the
reason for the vagaries of Mrs. Lincoln's conduct. Those
who would understand Mrs. Lincoln would do well to begin
their reading with Stoddard's book. How unfortunate that
Herndon did not include a talk with him in his work of
investigation !

For the first year of the Washington life Julia Taft
Bayne 2 supplies valuable factual material about the Lin-
coln family.

The majority of the newspaper stories and political ac-
counts that mention Mrs. Lincoln lose some value because
of their partisan bias. This was an era of great political
emotion, and Washington was the storm-center. That vague
mass of mixed information and misinformation, of likes
and dislikes, that elsewhere has been referred to as the
" Lexington tradition " or the " Springfield tradition" was
in operation in Washington as it was in the other places.
More of the " Washington tradition," however, ultimately
found its way into public print.

1865 TO 1875

Mrs. Keckley's narrative covers the time between 1861
and 1870 and is our best source of information on one of
the three outstanding episodes in the life of Mrs. Lincoln in
these years.

Mrs. Lincoln was a busy letter-writer. We do not know
whether she was always so, but that she was when her bill
for a pension was pending before Congress is proved by the
number of letters written by her then that are still in ex-
istence. That many of these were from Europe is one reason
for their preservation; their coming from the widow of
President Lincoln is another. I have read, and in some

1 Bibliography, No. 168. * Bibliography, No. 17.

SOURCES, 1865 TO 1875

measure studied, many of them. I have been permitted to
see one considerable collection written by Mrs. Lincoln and
her son Robert.

The Congressional Globe (Record) is a valuable source,
as we should expect when we recall that Mrs. Lincoln's
pension bill was hotly contested in two Congresses.

The newspapers supply much source material. The con-
troversy over the proposed sale of Mrs. Lincoln's ward-
robe was almost exclusively newspaper agitation, and Mrs.
Lincoln and her affairs came in for notice during the pension
fight. Again, the newspapers gave space to Tad's death.

The court records are valuable sources of information.
When President Lincoln died, his estate went into court
and remained there until after the death of Tad, a minor.
Judge David Davis, the administrator, made periodic re-
ports. Some of these referred to Mrs. Lincoln and the
whereabouts and expenditures of both mother and son.
The court records of the trial of Mrs. Lincoln for sanity
supply information. In his testimony at Mrs. Lincoln's trial
Dr. Willis Danf orth told of his patient's mental and physical
health subsequent to the death of Tad.

We may say that there is none of the vague collection of
opinions and data that we call local tradition about Mrs.
Lincoln in this period. She lived in Chicago most of the time,
and that city paid very little attention to her. She went to
Europe, but there she was almost unknown. She traveled
elsewhere, but she did not remain long in any place visited.
Her restlessness and mania for travel, manifested between
1865 and 1875, were in part responsible for the lack of a
tradition then. However, they were responsible for many
letters now found in Mrs. Lincoln collections.

The paucity of any record or source material for the
years 1872 to 1874, inclusive, is remarkable. To a degree
it was evidence that her aloofness had become pathologic.

SOURCES, 1875 TO 1882

1875 TO 1882

The most impersonal, least biased, and, therefore, most
dependable sources of information for the last period are
the court records. Abraham Lincoln's estate was in court
for several years after 1865 ; that of Tad from the date of
his father's death until his own death in 1871. When Mrs.
Lincoln was declared insane, in 1875, her estate went under
the control of the court and there remained until late in
1876. Upon her death, in 1882, the court again took charge.

Neither Lincoln nor his wife made a will. In fact, will-
making was never a habit in the Lincoln family. The Ken-
tucky Abraham left no will, and the estate was settled by
Kentucky law, greatly to the disadvantage of Thomas, a
younger son. Thomas left no will. Robert T. Lincoln's will,
filed a few years ago, was the first will of one of his
Lincoln succession in certainly more than a hundred years.
There may never have been a Lincoln will in this line prior
to his.

Since Tad Lincoln's estate was in charge of the court,
it was the duty of Judge Davis, the administrator and Tad's
guardian, to know where he was and what was happening to
him. When Mrs. Lincoln was in charge of the court, it had a
right to know, through the administrator and Dr. R. J.
Patterson, the physician in charge of the sanatorium to
which she was committed, what was happening to her.

The next best sources of information are the files of
the newspapers. The Chicago dailies carried comprehensive
accounts of her two sanity trials. The comment was digni-
fied and kindly, in marked contrast with that given the
wardrobe and the pension episodes. At the time of her death
the papers gave place to humane news stories and editorials.

A search of the records of Bellevue Place Sanatorium dis-
closes almost nothing relative to Mrs. Lincoln, but a mod-
erate amount of information can be gleaned from letters
and newspaper files. The principal sources of newspaper

SOURCES, 1875 TO 1882

information for this time are the files of the Aurora News-
Beacon*

When the letters between Mrs. Lincoln and her friends
Judge and Mrs. J. B. Bradwell were being exchanged, some
of the reverberation reached the newspapers. At least one
Chicago paper sent a reporter to Aurora, to write an article
about Mrs. Lincoln and the sanatorium and provide a set-
ting for it by telling of the attractions of the Fox River
country.

There has been access to a letter written by Dr. Patterson
to a newspaper a letter stimulated by the Bradwell cor-
respondence. Much about Mrs. Lincoln, published princi-
pally at the time of her death, was found in the files of the
Journal and the Register of Springfield, and in those of the
Chicago papers.

It is to be regretted that we have nothing of the Bradwell
correspondence except the tradition. It was said that Mrs.
Lincoln, writing from the sanatorium, charged her son with
putting her there which was true and for improper
motives which was not true. The world accepts these
untrue charges as the natural attitude of a mentally dis-
turbed person, particularly if the bent of the patient tends
to be paranoid, 2 as was Mrs. Lincoln's. Insane people are
generally obsessed with the urge to write letters, and in
doing so they frequently make accusations. Well-informed
people recognize this and are able to evaluate such charges.

There is a dearth of letters written by Mrs. Lincoln in
the latter part of this period. Her aloofness was increasingly
pathologic.

Several members of Mrs. Lincoln's family who knew her
in Springfield during her last years are alive. Mrs. Edward

1 Dr. B. J. Cigrand of Batavia, an industrious Lincoln student, has gathered
all of the available information as to Mrs. Lincoln's stay in Batavia. He wrote
several of the articles which appeared in the Aurora News-Beacon. This material
he kindly made available for the purposes of this study.

* Paranoia is " a form of insanity characterized by systematized delusions; in-
sanity with delusions of persecution." Bibliography, No. 48.

SOURCES, 1875 TO 1882

D. Keys, her niece, was married and living in Springfield at
the time of Mrs. Lincoln's death and for several years
before. Mrs. Mary Edwards Brown, her grand-niece, was a
young woman when her grand-aunt died. They have been
kind enough to tell their impressions of their aunt, her mode
of life, her habits, and some of her conversation. A few
friends, some of them friends of her children, are still living
in Springfield, and they have told what they remember.

The only contacts of others were in the stores or on the
street. The " Springfield tradition " of this period, if it may
be called such, relates principally to Mrs. Lincoln's life of
seclusion, her miserliness, and her shopping practices.

CHAPTER ONE

The Gifts
of the Ancestors

How can I call my life my own

When the scheming dead try to live through me?

How can I know what I really am

With their wishes hounding me greedily?

ESTHER PINCH: "Heredity,"

Century Magazine, Sfring 1930

CHAPTER ONE

The Gifts
of the Ancestors

\ HUMAN PERSONALITY IS A MOSAIC, THE PICTURE BEING

jfjLmade by the combination of many stones. Some of these
are contributed by heredity, the constitutions of ancestors

the experiences of their lives as well as their inheritances

being passed on to succeeding links of the chain of which
they are a part.

When Mrs. Lincoln was fifty-six years old, a jury of her
peers, adjudging her insane, gave it as their opinion that
" the disease is not with her hereditary." This statement
was technically true, at least in the sense in which it was
made. No such statement is ever true in the scientific sense,
provided the word " disease " is changed to " personality,"
or " constitution," or whatever we choose to call it. Inher-
itance contributed to Mrs. Lincoln's constitution physi-
cal, mental, and moral. In the stream which flowed from her
ancestors into Mrs. Lincoln and, through her, into her de-
scendants, there was much of superiority, and something of
that which is not admirable.

In her family tree were many superior men and women

superior intellectually, some of them; others, physically.
Many occupied commanding positions. From them she must
have inherited some degree of intellectual ability. Some of
them were dominating persons. They must have transmitted
drive and desire to dominate, as well as ambition. And
then among them we find some difficult, if not diseased,

REMOTE INFLUENCES

personalities. Some of the waters were crystal-clear; some
were muddy. 'Tis always so.

REMOTE INFLUENCES

THE TODDS

The Todds were people of substance in Scotland and
Ireland before they migrated to America. As a stock they
were superior to most of the immigrants. They settled in
Pennsylvania and were good citizens, remaining there for
several generations. Some of them were men of authority
in that state. In Pennsylvania there was begun a close asso-
ciation between the Todds, the Porters, and the Parkers,
with an occasional marriage between young people of the
three families. They held together in migrating from Penn-
sylvania to central Kentucky, and in their new home con-
tinued the old neighborly relations.

One of the Pennsylvania Todds, David, sent three of his
four sons to his brother, Rev. John Todd of Louisa, Vir-
ginia, to be educated. This brother was a man of great abil-
ity, an outstanding educator and a forceful preacher. The
three boys, Levi, John, and Robert Todd, never returned to
live in Pennsylvania, for their uncle had political influence,
and this he used with his friend Governor Patrick Henry to
secure jobs for his nephews. We can well understand Gov-
ernor Henry soliloquizing: "These boys are made of the
right stuff. They have been educated and trained by my
friend the Rev. John Todd. I know that their training has
been good. Virginia cannot afford to lose the services of
these boys. I will make John Lieutenant Commander of
Illinois County, Virginia ; I will commission Levi and Robert
as officers in the army of George Rogers Clark, Commander
of Illinois County." And so he did.

John, Levi, and Robert Todd began their life-work as
officers in the army of Clark, serving Virginia in its Illinois
country. In the wars which held the Illinois territory for

THE TODDS

Virginia and later for the new states carved out of it, two of
these Todd boys won their spurs as fighters ; the other dis-
charged the civil duties of administration and was generally
known as Governor Todd. After peace and security had
been attained for the territory north of the Ohio and east
of the Mississippi, the three Todds transferred their activi-
ties to the still insecure Kentucky region. They fought the
Indians in Kentucky, and each rose to the rank of general
in the Kentucky militia. John was killed in the Battle of
the Blue Licks.

In Kentucky the Todds matched their usefulness as de-
fenders in war by their service as citizens. They were among
the founders of Lexington, and in the early days no citizens
of that city were more influential than they. To them came
a shipment of books from their uncle and preceptor in
Virginia. It was to be a gift to their city, and as such they
accepted it. It became the nucleus of the library of Tran-
sylvania University. For more than one hundred years this
library has been held to be good in most particulars and in
some without an equal on the continent. It was the Todds
and their relatives, associates, and friends who laid the
foundation of the first university " in the wilderness that
lay beyond the mountains." There were few of the cata-
logues of Transylvania in its earlier years that did not carry
the name of one or more of the Todds or the near-Todd
relatives in some list of trustees, faculties, or students.

This statement, found in the Shane collection, 1 shows how
extensive were the landholdings of this family in Kentucky
after the country began to fill up with settlers : " The Todds
at one time owned from Lexington all the way to and beyond
Walnut Hills, on each side of the road, except the Overton
place. Robert Todd, uncle of Robert S. Todd, lived off to
the right of the road."

Levi Todd, one of the three brothers, was Mrs. Lin-
coln's grandfather. The following statements, written by

1 Bibliography, No. 157, p. 83.

THE TODDS

one of his sons, David Todd, not only supply a pen picture
of Levi Todd, but give a reason for his leaving Virginia
that differs from the one usually given : x

" In 1775, Levi Todd was defeated in an election in Vir-
ginia for ensign, as lieutenant of a company; then concluded
to go to Kentucky and went, in early 1776, with his brother,
Robert Todd."

" I am aware my father was not in the Virginia line. He
was not of the standing corps, but he ranked as lieutenant,
being the aid of Clark. Clark sent him as a spy from Kas-
kaskia to Louisiana to examine the Spanish force and dispo-
sition to the American cause."

" Gen. Levi Todd was five feet eight inches high, well
proportioned, inclined to corpulence at forty and after.
Received when with his father a good education. Was
brought up on a farm. Had opportunity in reading and in
science with General Robert Porter, with whom he stayed
occasionally. He visited Col. Preston in Fincastle County,
then embracing the wilds of Kentucky, deriving from him
some information of the county. Set out and in March 1776
reached Boonesboro. Shortly after, located at Harrodsburg
and appointed Clerk through influence of his older brother.
Upon division of the counties he removed to Fayette, about
1780. He married Jane Briggs, daughter of [Capt.] Samuel
Briggs, Logan's Fort, she being niece of the Logan family.
He left a handsome estate and bestowed liberal education
on his children. He rose to the station of major general.
Was a patron of young men. His general deportment was
polite and agreeable. Had a fund of information which was
interesting; of good mind. Had most general acquaintance,
commanding the respect of all."

Mrs. Lincoln's father, Robert S. Todd, was of the second
Lexington generation. He was a member of the legislature,
and holder of some other offices, and was several times
considered for higher offices than those he held. He was a

1 Bibliography, No. 49, November 15, 1851.

tt\*&^^

Robert S. Todd.
From a portrait owned by Mrs. Emilie Helm.

THE PORTERS

banker, a manufacturer, a farmer, a merchant of financial
worth, and one of the local political group, in close personal
contact with Henry Clay, which strove ever and always, for
more than two decades, to elevate that great statesman to
the presidency. It scarcely need be added that he and his
family stood high in the social circles of Lexington.

While all this is true, it must be said that the Todds of
the second and the third Lexington generations were not so
outstanding in Lexington affairs as were their parents and
grandparents. They were men and women of ability, but
they did not have the capacity for leadership that their for-
bears had. In the newer generations the Breckinridges and
their contemporaries were forging ahead of the Todds, as
the earlier Todds had forged ahead of rivals in theirs.

There are two statements about Robert S. Todd which
should be borne in mind in a discussion of Mrs. Lincoln's
inheritance. One is that he was " impetuous, high-strung,
and nervous." 1 So were Mrs. Lincoln and her sons Robert
and Tad. Another 2 is that Mrs. Lincoln inherited from him
her love of fine dress, jewelry, and personal adornment. 8

THE PORTERS

Among Mrs. Lincoln's Todd ancestors who achieved dis-
tinction were her father, Robert S. ; her grandfather, Gen-
eral Levi, and his two brothers, known as General Robert
and Governor John; and her great-grand-uncle, Reverend
John. This was a goodly company and one of which any
" best family " might be proud.

But the record of the Porters, another of Mrs. Lincoln's
lines, was even better.

i Bibliography, No. 176, p. 46.

* Bibliography, No. 121, p. 60.

*At the time Levi, Robert, and John Todd (Pennsylvania Todds), and their
descendants to the third generation, were living in the blue-grass region, a branch
of the Virginia Todds lived in Lexington and Frankfort. Some of them occupied
positions of prominence. Occasionally these Virginia Todds have been confused
with the Todd family to which Mrs. Lincoln belonged.

THE PORTERS

General Andrew Porter, of the second American genera-
tion of Porters, was the first of his family to achieve dis-
tinction. He was a general in the Revolutionary Army, and
for a time was in command of all Pennsylvania troops. He
was one of General Washington's supporters and coun-
selors. His first wife was a McDowell, and it was from her
that Mrs. Lincoln descended directly. This made her a kins-
woman of another distinguished American family. Andrew
Porter married as a second wife Eliza Parker, a mem-
ber of the Pennsylvania Parker-Todd family to which Mrs.
Lincoln belonged.

The records of one hundred years ago ignored the women
of the family almost without exception. Every now and then
there was a woman so capable in some way that not even
the most orthodox of historians dared fail to mention her.
Eliza Parker Porter, wife of Andrew and a relative of Mrs.
Lincoln's, was one of these exceptions. W. A. Porter, the
family historian, devoted several lines to extolling the good
qualities of this mother of the tribe of Porter. 1

Three sons of Andrew and Eliza Parker Porter were men
of great prominence: Governor G. B. Porter, of Michigan;
Governor David Rittenhouse Porter, of Pennsylvania;
James Madison Porter, a great lawyer who was appointed
Secretary of War by President Tyler. While Lincoln was
struggling to get on politically in Springfield, his young wife
had two cousins in a President's cabinet. When her husband
was President of the United States, he signed the commis-
sions of two Porter cousins to high positions in the Army of
the Potomac under General McClellan.

Among the children of the Andrew Porter-Parker family,
in addition to those mentioned, there was another son, John
Ewing Porter. This son was a man of education and capacity,
but he appears to have been hard to get along with. He
was a promising young lawyer in Pennsylvania when he mar-
ried a young woman of whom his father did not approve.

1 Bibliography, No. 143.
36

THE PARKERS

Father and son quarreled. The quarrel was so violent that
John Ewing Porter became embittered against his father.
The breach was never healed. The son changed his name to
John Ewing Parker, changed his profession to medicine, and
went to South Carolina to live.

The career of this Dr. John Ewing Porter, or Parker,
bears some resemblance to that of Mrs. Lincoln's full
brother, Dr. George Rogers Clark Todd, of whom the
reader will learn later. His personality is suggestive of that
of Mrs. Lincoln, a type which came to her from the Parker-
Porter inheritance more than from the Todds. Lest we over-
stress this family relationship, let us recall that Mrs. Lin-
coln and her full brothers and sisters descended from the
McDowell wife of Andrew Porter, and while there was
kinship to the Parker wife, it was not close.

THE PARKERS

The family tree shows that the last of Mrs. Lincoln's
Todd forbears to live in Europe married a Miss Parker.
It is not known that this woman was of the Parker fam-
ily that in later years was frequently intertwined with the
Todds and the Porters in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. There
is some likelihood that she was, since the two families were
so closely associated and for so many years.

The Parker family must have been an excellent one. The
family historians never fail to say so. At the same time,
we do not find among them many men or women who were
of great prominence. It was the cross between a Parker and
a Porter, or a Parker and a Todd, or both, that seemed to
produce a superior individual.

The Robert Parker who was Mrs. Lincoln's maternal
grandfather was a man of wealth and social position, but
the member of his family of whom we read most is his
widow, Eliza Parker, and she was born a Porter the
daughter of Andrew. The day after her marriage she and

THE PARKERS

her husband left Pennsylvania and rode horseback through
the wilderness to Kentucky. It was she, as the " Widow "
Parker, who dominated her grandchildren and did so much
to make them dissatisfied with their stepmother. The ac-
counts agree that the " Widow " Parker lived in a fine
house, had a high social position, and was esteemed a
superior woman. However, it was her grandchildren who
quarreled amongst themselves and engaged in family law-
suits something new in the Todd-Porter-Parker family.
We know nothing of the Eliza Parker who married
Robert S. Todd in 1812, except it be such statements as
these by William H. Townsend: * "Eliza was a sprightly,
attractive girl with a placid, sunny disposition"; and:
" Plucky Eliza Parker was willing that he should go " (re-
ferring to her husband's going to war in i8i2). 2

1 Bibliography, No. 176, pp. 46, 48.

8 No picture of Eliza Parker Todd has ever been found. There is no letter written
by her that anyone knows of. The following is part of a letter written by one Eliza
Todd, and found in the Kentucky Manuscript, Shane Collection, Wisconsin His.
torical Society. It was hoped that this letter might prove to have been written by
Eliza Parker Todd, but that theory had to be abandoned. In the futile search for
an author it was found that twenty-five women bore the name "Eliza Todd,"
through either birth or marriage, in this family connection in the first half of the
nineteenth century.

Lexington, Kentucky, Feb. 9, 1804.
"Dear Nancy 9

You wished me] to glue a description of Mr* Todd myself. That I dont think
I can do but shall only say that he is . . . clever fellow and one that will make me
happy the remainder of my days. I have been housekeeping about four months,
and find it a very troublesome business, but the pleasure and satisfaction of an
affectionate husband makes up for all other difficulties. We are now living in
Lexington, which is not altogether agreeable to me, but Mr. Todd*s business is
such I must submit to it for a few years. My acquaintance in this place is not ex-
tensive, owing to its being selected off in large parties, which is the case more or
less in every large place.

Your ever off ectionate friend,

Eliza Todd

My love to your mama and papa. I shall expect a letter from you by post. Direct
them to Mr. Todd.

E. T.

MILITARY ANCESTORS

OTHER FAMILY STRAINS

In addition to these, there were several other families
that married into the connection and made their contribu-
tion to the stock. Among them were the Briggs, the Owens,
the Smith, and the Hamilton families; and through them,
in one way or another, the Todds were also related to the
Bodleys, the McFarlands, the Findleys, and the Majors,
and, less closely, to the Wickliffes.

When Mrs. Lincoln died, Mayor Crooks of Springfield
issued a proclamation in which he officially did honor to the
widow of Abraham Lincoln. 1 He asked Springfield to sus-
pend business out of respect to her. The citizens of Spring-
field, said their Mayor, should honor Mrs. Lincoln because
of her husband and on her own account. And, recalling her
ancestry, he adds : " It will be seen that Mrs. Lincoln sprang
from no humble origin. She traces her ancestry beyond the
Revolution. Her family assisted in the growth and develop-
ment of the nation from its incipiency, and her immediate
ancestry was closely identified with the early history of
Illinois."

MILITARY ANCESTORS

Relatives of Mrs. Lincoln participated in both the Revo-
lutionary War and that of 1812. One of the heroes of the
Revolution was General Andrew Porter. Major Robert
Parker was an officer in that war, with a record for distin-
guished gallantry. In the Indian wars of Illinois and Ken-
tucky, Generals Levi, John, and Robert Todd won reputa-
tions, and John was killed. In August 1812 Robert S. Todd
joined the Fifth Kentucky Regiment, and served until the
latter part of 1813, in the campaigns against Indians allied
with the British. He fought in the bloody River Raisin
battle, in which his brothers, Sarn and John, were captured

1 Bibliography, No. 32, July 19, 1882*

ANCESTORS IN THE PROFESSIONS

by the Indians. It was one of these brothers who lived among
the Indians for many years and finally went back to the
whites and settled in Columbia, Missouri, where he became
a judge. 1

Robert S. Todd went home on furlough during the War
of 1812, was married, and went back to his regiment imme-
diately. Perhaps that was the reason he came home two
years before the war ended, instead of staying through and
possibly winning his father's rank of general 2

So far as we know, Colonel John J. Hardin, a distant
cousin, was the only Todd kinsman who fought in the Mexi-
can War. Levi may have considered himself a little too old
at the time, and George, a little too young. The prowess of
families in war oftentimes hinges on the ages of their men-
folk and whether or not they were married at the time of
the wars. In the Civil War Mrs. Lincoln had a fine array of
kinsmen fighting, some on one side, some on the other.

There are several American patriotic societies in which
one test for membership is proved descent from a soldier
in an American war. Mrs. Lincoln would have been eligible
for membership in every such society for which a woman of
her day could have qualified.

ANCESTORS IN BUSINESS AND IN THE
PROFESSIONS

The members of Mrs. Lincoln's family were not profes-
sionally minded.

In her entire accumulation of ancestors the only physi-
cians were the quite remote Porter relative who quarreled
with his father, Andrew ; and her father's brother, Dr. John
Todd of Springfield. Her youngest full brother, George,

1 The Draper Collection contains contributions from the Columbia branch of
the Todd family that are especially valuable sources of information.
* Bibliography, No. 176, p. 48.

TODD LINCOLN

SAME COUPLE

'USIN5

ROBERT
PORTER

WILLIAM
PAffO

ELIZA
TODD

Miss .

. ANDREW

- ELIZA

IfDOWELL "
OattflFD

" PORTER

"* PARKER
CHJMFD

ELIZA
PORTER

Z GOVERNORS

1 CABINET MEMDER

I ABNORMAL PERSONALITY

BETSY
HUMPHREYS
CaMFD

RODTa MARGARET

IWI'DH

EMILIE

ELODIC

In (MlBCH

Cm fins.

(MusDH

(McNKR

IHfWO KELLOSft)

WILLIAMSON)

HELM)

DAW50IO

3T.P ANN GEO'
MfWYXMnsdM 6. 1st
5MITH) U

sCUHRY

SAMUEL
BRI6&5
(unml

MARTHA K
(HwC6
WHITE)
NO

AlX
H.

Urn)

KATH
60D

CMts

H PR

W
LEY

CHILDREN

) CHIL

'REH CHlfbREN CHILDREN
1 LIVING? 1

I 1

CHILDREN
A

CHILDREN CHILDRIH
1 LIVIK6

DESCENDANTS NJT DESCEW DESCENDANTS NO

DE5CENWNI3

1 IVINfr N

! o

LIVIN6 TWCED LIVING

LIVING

DESCENDANTS DE5CLHDMT

NOTE PARKER-PORTER MARRIAGES

ANCESTORS IN THE PROFESSIONS

took up medicine, but that was not the only manifestation
of his lack of harmony with the rest of the family.

Likewise, it is necessary to go some distance up the family
tree or down and then up other limbs to find any law-
yers among Mrs. Lincoln's forbears. One of the sons of
Andrew Porter was a great lawyer, but that was a long way
off and out on another limb. The grand-uncle John, known
as Governor Todd, might be claimed by the lawyers, but
the claim could not be conclusively proved. Her father,
Robert S. Todd, studied law and even arranged to practice
with a relative, an ex-cabinet member; but he never
went beyond the stage of preparation. There were several
lawyers among the Parkers, but they were in collateral lines.
The Lexington papers, 1800 to 1840, contain several ref-
erences to Parkers who were lawyers.

Nor were there any clergymen. Her Grandfather Levi
Todd's Uncle John was the Rev. John Todd of Vir-
ginia who had the reputation of being a great preacher.
And that exhausts the list. The stepmother, Betsy Hum-
phreys Todd, came of a clerical family, and her Grand-
father Brown was a great minister in Rhode Island. But the
only way this could have borne on Mrs. Lincoln's life was
that it may have caused the family to be more regular in
attendance at church and Sunday school when Mary was a
child, a girl, and a budding woman.

The only teacher among her ancestors was that same
distant relative the great-grand-uncle, Rev. John Todd
of Virginia who educated her grandfather and his two
brothers.

The Kentucky Todds seem to have remained under the in-
fluence of the Reverend John. Two of the nephews had to
do with the founding of Transylvania University and its
library. The family saw to it that the young people were well
educated. Among the connections were several teachers in
Transylvania. Of these was Dr. Samuel Brown, a physician,
one of the professors who left their mark on Transylvania.

ANCESTORS IN BUSINESS

But Dr. Brown was Betsy Humphreys Todd's uncle, not a
blood relative of Mrs. Lincoln.

As it happened, the Todd family atmosphere in Spring-
field, Illinois, was distinctly professional but that is be-
side the case. There was her uncle Dr. John Todd, the
physician; her cousins Judges John T. Stuart and Stephen
T. Logan were lawyers; and of the brothers-in-law only
one was in business.

Nevertheless, the Todd type of mind and personality
fitted the male members of the family for business. Levi O.
Todd, Mrs. Lincoln's full brother, was a business man.
Robert S. Todd, her father, studied law, but quit it for
merchandising, manufacturing, banking, farming, and poli-
tics. Levi and Robert, grandfather and grand-uncle, began
as soldiers, but when they were ready to settle down, they
became pioneers, farmers, and dealers in real estate; the
third brother, John, who was killed in one of the battles
against the Indians, had started, in the new country, as
Governor and judge and owned the land on which Lexington
was located. David Todd, another son of Levi, was a farmer
and merchant. Most of the Parkers and Porters of Mrs.
Lincoln's close ancestry were also merchants and farmers.

These facts bear on Mrs. Lincoln's mental make-up. In
their light we should expect her mind to run to business and
business matters, to finance and affairs of barter and trade,
to salesmanship, to the making and saving of money, to ac-
quiring, to competition. For this reason we should not ex-
pect her thoughts to follow the channels that the minds of
clergymen and physicians run in. That such expectations are
not always realized is true; but, according to the laws of
averages and of heredity, people with Mrs. Lincoln's in-
heritance can be expected to succeed best and be most satis-
fied when they follow business careers.

MRS. ELIZABETH EDWARDS

THE PARKER-TODD FAMILY

Robert S. Todd was married twice. His first wife, Eliza
Parker, bore six children who reached maturity. There were
four girls Mary (Mrs. Abraham Lincoln), Elizabeth
(Mrs. N. W. Edwards), Frances (Mrs. William Wallace) ,
Ann (Mrs. C. M. Smith) ; and two boys Levi O., and
George R. C.

MRS. ELIZABETH EDWARDS

Mrs. Lincoln wrote of Mrs. Edwards from the White
House, September 29, I86I: 1

11 1 received a letter from Elizabeth E. [Mrs. Edwards]
the other day. Very kind and affectionate, yet very character-
istic. Said if rents and means permitted, she would like to
make us a visit, I believe for a season. I am weary of
intrigue. When she is by herself she can be very agreeable,
especially when her mind is not dwelling on the merits of
[her] fair daughters and a talented son-in-law. Such person-
ages always speak for themselves. I often regret E. P. E.'s
little weaknesses. After all, since the election she is the
only one of my sisters who has appeared to be pleased with
our advancement. You know this to be so."

We can readily believe that Mrs. Edwards was a match-
maker for her daughters and for many others besides.
Match-making was the chief indoor sport of matrons in that
day, and Elizabeth Edwards had early begun the game. She
was little more than a child when she met and married
Ninian Wirt Edwards and left the brood of Parker-Todd
children she had been mothering to preside over a home in
Illinois. As soon as she felt sure of her ground, she sent for
her sister Frances to come to her home in Springfield and
" make it her home." Well did both of them understand that

1 Bibliography, No. 108.

MRS. ELIZABETH EDWARDS

the Edwards home was to be her home until she and her
able, intriguing sister could make a suitable match for her.
Soon Frances married the most eligible physician in town,
Dr. William Wallace.

This meant that Elizabeth Edwards was now ready to
undertake match-making for another sister. As soon as
Mary arrived, in 1837, Mrs. Edwards gathered around her
Stephen A. Douglas and all other eligibles available. Some-
what tardily, because of more than one consideration,
Abraham Lincoln was added to the number. In the course
of a little time Mary was married in her sister's parlor, as
Frances had been. She married a promising lawyer and
politician and a future president.

Whereupon Mrs. Elizabeth Edwards sent for her young-
est sister Ann. She again exercised her great talent as a
match-maker, and " landed " C. M. Smith, the most prom-
ising eligible merchant in the city of Springfield, as the hus-
band of Ann, though Ann failed to follow the example of
her sisters and marry in the Edwards parlor ; she returned
to Lexington for that function. Mrs. Edwards's mind dwelt
on the merits of fair daughters and fair sisters as well, and
on brothers-in-law, in addition to sons-in-law.

Ninian W. Edwards was the son of a governor who was
a man of wealth and political power, and Elizabeth Edwards
presided over the home of her widowed father-in-law. 1 Her
husband was a lawyer and a politician of no mean ability.
For him she was ambitious. She gave parties, entertained,
and did whatever she could to promote her husband's in-
terests. Had he been as ambitious and aggressive for himself
as she was for him, two of the Todd sisters might have
gone down in history as the wives of great leaders. It is

1 This is the commonly accepted statement, but it may not be correct. Ninian
Edwards's term as Governor terminated one year before the marriage of Ninian W.
Edwards. The son took his bride to Illinois in the spring of 1 833, and the father died
in Belleville in the July following. If the bride went to Belleville to preside over the
home of her father-in-law, she did not remain there long. A few months later
Ninian W. Edwards and his wife were living in Springfield.

MRS. FRANCES WALLACE

altogether possible that she was somewhat envious of her
sister in the White House, when she thought of the start
her husband had had and the short distance he had traveled.
We could forgive her some envy. But Mrs. Lincoln wrote
that she " appeared to be pleased with our advancement."
And she was.

Mrs. Edwards was a worthy woman with a great heart.
She mothered her sisters and her brothers, her husband and
children. No one who knew her said unkind things about
Mrs. Edwards. I am sure she was normal, and so are her
descendants so far as I could learn. Whatever blight there
was in the family, Mrs. Edwards and her children and their
children escaped it.

MRS. FRANCES WALLACE

Of the second sister, Frances (Mrs. Wallace), Mrs. Lin-
coln wrote: 1 "Notwithstanding Dr. Wallace has received
his portion in life from the Administration, yet Frances al-
ways remains quiet. E. [Mrs. Edwards] in her letter said
Frances often spoke of Mr. L's. [Lincoln's] kindness in
giving him his place. She little knew what a hard battle I had
for it, and how near he came getting nothing."

Except this sentence in Mrs. Lincoln's letter, there is
nothing in the record that reflects on Mrs. Wallace or any
members of her family. Nor was there anything abnormal
in her personality.

MRS. ANN SMITH

Of Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Lincoln wrote : 2

" Poor, unfortunate Ann, inasmuch as she possesses such
a miserable disposition and so false a tongue. How far, dear
Lizzie, are we removed from such a person. Even if Smith
succeeds in being a rich man, what advantage will it be to

1 Bibliography, No. 108. * Ibid.

MRS. ANN SMITH

him who has gained it in some cases most unjustly, and with
such a woman, whom no one respects, whose tongue for so
many years has been considered ' no slander,' and who, as
a child and young girl, could not be outdone in falsehood.
* Truly the leopard cannot change his spots.' She is so sel-
dom in my thoughts. I have so much more that is attractive,
both in bodily presence and my mind's eye, to interest me.
I grieve for those who have to come in contact with her
malice, yet even that is so well understood the object of her
wrath generally rises, with good people, in proportion to
her vindictiveness.

" What will you name the hill on which I must be placed?
Her putting it on that ground with Mrs. Brown was only to
hide her envious feeling toward you. Tell Ann for me
to quote her own expression she is becoming still farther
removed from * Queen Victoria's Court. '

" How foolish between us to be discussing such a person.
Yet really it is amusing in how many forms human nature
can appear before us."

It is easy to surmise that Mrs. Elizabeth Todd Grims-
ley, her first cousin, had written Mrs. Lincoln some of the
Springfield gossip. She had repeated something unkind that
Mrs. Ann Smith had said of her sister and her White House
pretensions. Mrs. Lincoln flared up in anger and wrote back
in kind, or worse.

When one makes inquiry in Springfield, one hears much to
confirm Mrs. Lincoln's opinion of her sister Ann. If we
strip from this characterization so much as may be attributed
to Mrs. Lincoln's anger, we are left with a description that
can be matched in the Springfield gossip. Jessie Palmer
Weber wrote Senator A. J. Beveridge : 1 " I remember her
[Ann Smith] well. She was the most quick tempered and
vituperative woman (if I can use such a word) of all the

sisters."

1 Bibliography, No. 18, p. 307 (Letter from Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber, dated
March 23, 1925).

LEVI O. TODD

After all proper allowances have been made, we must
conclude that Mrs. Smith had a difficult personality; one of
a type that did not differ much from that of Mrs. Lincoln
herself. In fact, one very old resident of a town in which
Mrs. Lincoln lived with rather good opportunities of
forming a correct opinion when shown this statement of
Mrs. Lincoln's about her sister, flashed back: " Mary was
writing about herself."

Mrs. Smith left a considerable family. There is very good
evidence that part of her difficult and peculiar personality
was inherited by some of her descendants. Though the evi-
dence consists in nothing more than gossip and " clothes-
line stories," there is enough to justify the conclusion.

LEVI O. TODD

In this first group of Todd children the Parker group
there were two boys who grew to maturity. Levi was
less than two years older than Mrs. Lincoln. There is no
question that he had an abnormal personality. He became
City Treasurer of Lexington and manager of some of his
father's businesses and seemed to fit in fairly well for a
while ; but after his father's death his abnormality became
more apparent.

In 1852 he backed his brother, George R. C. Todd, in
objecting to their father's will. In 1853 he had Oldham and
Hemingway, in which his father's estate held partnership,
sue Abraham Lincoln. 1 In this suit allegations reflecting on
Lincoln's honor were made. Townsend says: 2 " Evidently
Lincoln was aware that his brother-in-law, Levi Todd, was
responsible for this suit against him." Levi never was on
good terms thereafter with Abraham Lincoln or with many
of the family. In a suit for divorce filed against Levi O.
Todd by his wife, Louisa Todd, in 1859, these allegations

1 Bibliography, No. 175.
a Bibliography, No. 176.

8 Louisa Todd, Plaintiff, against Levi O. Todd, Defendant, Fayette County
(Kentucky) Circuit Court, 1859. Secured through the kindness of W. H. Townsend.

LEVI O. TODD

are made: "He has a confirmed habit of drunkenness.
. . . Wasting of his estate. . . . No suitable provision
for the maintenance of his wife and children. . . .
Cruel and inhuman manner. . . . Wholly unfit to have the
charge of any of these children, he has no estate and for
some time past has made little or no provision for the main-
tenance of his family." The divorce was granted. In 1860
Levi was a Union man, but he did not vote for his brother-
in-law Abraham Lincoln. The probability is that he voted
for BelL He was too infirm to enter either army during the
Civil War, and there is no reason for thinking he cared to
do so.

He seems to have fallen out with everyone. He used
whisky to excess, and possibly other drugs. Abandoned
by his former friends, at enmity with his stepmother, he
moved away from Lexington and died, in 1865, in Franklin
County; whereupon his stepmother claimed the remains of
the almost friendless man, brought them to Lexington, and
had them buried by the side of his father. Townsend says : x
" Years later, when her eldest stepson, Levi a victim of
unfortunate habits had become estranged from his wife
and children, it was Betsy Todd who vainly sought to re-
claim him, and when he died brought his body back to the
old home and buried him by the side of his father and her
own children in the Lexington cemetery." 2

1 Bibliography, No. 176, p. 74.

* In the Todd family lot in Lexington, there are stones which mark the graves
of Robert S. Todd, Eliza Parker Todd, Betsy Humphreys Todd, Mrs. Kellogg,
Mrs. White, Mrs. Herr, and Mrs. Helm; and several unmarked graves, one of which
is that of Levi O. Todd. The others may be the graves of those who died in child-
hood. Betsy Humphreys Todd's tombstone bears this inscription on one side:
"In memory of my boys, Samuel B. Todd, David H. Todd, Alex. H. Todd, all
Confederate soldiers." It is not presumed that these three sons are buried on this
lot. David H. was not. The inscription gives evidence of the loyalty to the Con-
federacy of Mrs. Lincoln's stepmother.

G. R. C. TODD

The story of George Rogers Clark Todd is equally un-
happy. 1 He was a baby in arms when his mother died, and
he was too young to know when the new mother came into
the household. He grew up in association with the second
group of children and knew almost nothing of his own
sisters except Ann.

When he attained his majority, he moved away from
Lexington and the family, took up his residence in Ver-
sailles, Kentucky, and thereafter evinced no fondness for
any of his relatives. In 1852 he objected to the probating of
his father's will and had it rejected on a technicality. He
most certainly did not vote for his brother-in-law for presi-
dent in 1 860. In 1 86 1 he entered the Confederate Army, and
served through the Civil War as a surgeon with a good
record. After the war he settled in Barnwell, South Carolina,
and there practiced medicine until his death.

Dr. A. B. Patterson has written me a letter about his
former fellow-practitioner of medicine in Barnwell, from
which I quote the following : 2

" Met Dr. Todd quite often, and knew him very well.
He said his family regarded him unfavorably. Used the
word ' black sheep.' As to the doctor's personality : Would
seem very pleasant when he wished to be, but generally not
agreeable. Did not get along with people. Was very bright
and well informed, very egotistical, and extremely jealous
of his professional reputation. Very peculiar and eccentric.
Drank whisky to excess. Not on friendly terms with his
son. Deeded his property to a friend in town, Joe Porter.
Mr. Porter deeded it to George (the son).

" Impression was that he was not on friendly terms
with his family in Kentucky. It is said he died from an

i Bibliography, Nos. 175, 176, 177.

* Personal letter from Dr. A. B. Patterson of Barnwell, South Carolina; dated
July i, 1930.

G. R. C. TODD

overdose of chloroform taken himself alone in his house.
He was buried by the side of his second wife in Camden,
South Carolina.

" He was a surgeon in the Confederate Army. I have
often said the State ought to erect a monument to his
memory because he resisted such temptation from his
brother-in-law, preferring to be faithful to his section. He
performed, while surgeon in the Confederate Army, the
first successful amputation at hip joint, a matter of record
in the government archives at Washington, D. C."

H. L. O'Bannon, his attorney, said of Dr. G. R. C.
Todd: 1

" He was of small build, florid of countenance, and in-
clined to stutter when he talked. He had his peculiarities
but was highly esteemed and honored. He was inclined to
be abrupt almost to brusqueness in his manner to those
whom he did not like. He took no pains to conceal his dis-
like for those who had incurred his displeasure and he had
even been known to withdraw himself from a company
when one whom he disliked appeared. The old doctor re-
fused to consort with his own contemporaries to any great
extent. After the death of his wife he lived alone and was
given to moods of deep melancholy.

" Doctor Todd's only child, a son, was a disappointment
to him. This son, evidently afflicted with c wanderlust,' left
Barnwell and went out west. After his father died he re-
turned to Barnwell and recovered the property which his
father had willed to others, but who gave it to the lawful
heir as his right. He sold this property and again went
away, never to be heard of again. Some of his father's old
friends think he is still alive."

The evidence is conclusive that Dr. G. R. C. Todd had
an abnormal personality.

1 Bibliography, No. 66, July 5, 1931.

THE HUMPHREYS-TODD FAMILY

Having developed the fact that four of the children of
Eliza Parker Todd and Robert S. Todd had abnormal per-
sonalities, we turn to the family born to Robert S. Todd
and his second wife, Betsy Humphreys Todd. There were
nine children in this family, of whom eight reached ma-
turity: Margaret, Martha K., Emilie P., Elodie, and Kath-
erine B. five daughters; and three sons Samuel B.,
David H., and Alexander H.

Margaret married C. H. Kellogg and went to live in
Cincinnati, several years before the outbreak of the Civil
War. She and her husband were visited by the Lincolns and
corresponded with them. The Kelloggs were Union sym-
pathizers, and Mrs. Kellogg visited at the White House.
Mr. and Mrs. Kellogg were the parents of four children.
Of these, one, Franklin Pierce Kellogg, born in 1853,
is living. He writes me 1 that the few peculiarities and
idiosyncrasies he has are of no importance. For instance,
he will not lick stamps, but moistens the envelope instead
(not a bad practice).

Of the children of the Humphreys group, other than Mar-
garet (Mrs. Kellogg), Samuel B. was not married; David
H. married a Mrs. Williamson (there was one child born
to this couple) ; Martha K. married Clement White (they
had no children) ; Emilie P. married General B. H. Helm
(they had three children) ; Alexander H. was not married;
Elodie married General N. H. R. Dawson (they had two
children) ; Katherine B. married W. W. Herr (they had
four children).

With the exception of Mrs. Kellogg, all of the Hum-
phreys group of Todd children, as well as Betsy Humphreys
Todd herself, were staunch sympathizers with the Con-
federacy. Of the three sons, two were killed outright, and

1 Personal letter from F. P. Kellogg, April 4, 1931.

THE HUMPHREYS-TODD FAMILY

one died as a result of wounds received in battle. General
Helm was serving as a Confederate officer when he was
killed on the field. Mr. White and General Dawson were
ardent supporters of the South. Yet so honorable and cir-
cumspect were they that Mrs. Helm and Mrs. White visited
the Lincolns in the White House. Mrs. White violated the
hospitality of her host once, the degree of offense being
a matter of some dispute. Mrs. Helm was never charged
with any violation of good sense or good taste.

I have been at some trouble to find what I could about
this family of children and their descendants. I have in-
quired as to insanity among them; their use of drugs, in-
cluding alcohol; whether they were ever in disfavor in the
communities in which they lived. Did they fit in ? Had they
abnormal personalities ? What idiosyncrasies did they have ?
I have not found facts or opinions that reflect on any of
them.

One letter says that David H. was somewhat impractical
and eccentric. One son of Mrs. Dawson, while regarded as
a man of outstanding character and a high sense of duty,
was somewhat over-sensitive. These were minor blemishes
in very good characters. The general reputation of this
division of the family as good neighbors ranks well above
the average.

The trend toward abnormal personality was far greater
in the Todd-Parker group than in the Todd-Humphreys
group of children. Some of this difference in the two groups
may have resulted from nicking of the Todd and Parker
qualities. Some of it was a Parker-Porter inheritance.

THE LINCOLN CHILDREN

There is confirmation of the theory of hereditary trans-
mission, in that some of Mrs. Lincoln's peculiar traits were
found in the personalities of two of her children.

ROBERT T. LINCOLN
ROBERT T. LINCOLN

Robert Todd Lincoln was well educated. The outbreak
of the Civil War found him in the final stretch of his college
career, and he did not go into the army at first. For this
both he and his mother came in for more abuse than the
circumstances warranted. After he was graduated, however,
his parents found a place on the staff of General Grant for
him. This again caused some adverse criticism, as shown by
the contemptuous designation " The Prince of Rails." Ad-
mitted to the bar in Chicago, February 26, 1867, in a few
years he had become a member of one of the strongest law
firms in the city. He rose to be a cabinet member, an ambas-
sador to England, a president of the Pullman Car Company,
and a rich man.

Measured by the ordinary standards, his life was a suc-
cess. He fitted into society, he got on with people, and he
won position and money. These methods of measurement,
however, are too crude for our purposes. Let us look some-
what behind the record of offices held and honors achieved.

In the letters written by Mrs. Lincoln after 1865, there
first appears a note of discontent about Robert. We find
her complaining of his neglect of her, and of his attitude
in general. In at least one letter she compares him with the
other children greatly to his disadvantage. After the
sanity trial in 1875, she never forgave Robert for his
part therein. Once Robert went to Springfield and asked
for her forgiveness and love. He took with him his daugh-
ter, Mary, and used her in this appeal. His mother said she
would forget and forgive but she did not. On the other
hand, there are many letters written by Robert Lincoln, 1
after his father's death in 1865 and before his mother's
breakdown in 1875, which portray him as a young man
doing his best to meet difficult situations in a manner
worthy of his name. These letters show a fine sense of

1 Privately owned letters seen by me.

ROBERT T. LINCOLN

responsibility, and a poise and decision unusual in a man of
his years.

An article in an encyclopedia l contains the following
statements: " He was peculiarly sensitive in the matter of
gaining reputation or position on account of the name he
bore, and this sensitiveness, planted on a nature which in its
youth was curiously remarkable for stubbornness and a
phlegmatic temperament, made him perhaps more marked
than would have otherwise been the case. . . . He was
a man of sound sense, good judgment, and integrity of
character." At his death, the Chicago Tribune said : 2 " He
was taciturn and retiring, but to those who knew him well
he was a charming conversationalist and a good story teller."

His reaction toward his father's memory was somewhat
abnormal. To steer between Scylla and Charybdis was not
an easy matter, and in doing so he did not display the same
qualities of judgment with which he made other decisions.
His peculiarities of personality caused him to steer too
far from the rocks on the one side and to hit those on the
other.

I had no acquaintance with him. From such evidence as
I have found, I hold the opinion that Robert Lincoln was
sensitive in fact, supersensitive ; that he was emotional
quite over-emotional under certain influences ; and that
most of his attitudes on personal and family matters were
defense reactions. There was much in life that gave him
pain. In his personality he inherited from his mother much
more than from his father. He lacked his father's humor,
wisdom, and poise. On the other hand, he had some of the
good qualities of both President and Mrs. Lincoln. While
his personality was somewhat abnormal, the trials to which
he was subjected never even threatened to push him beyond
the limits of his endurance.

l Bibliography, No. i, pp. 243-4. * July 27, 1926.

EDWARD BAKER LINCOLN

EDWARD BAKER LINCOLN (EDDIE)

The second son, Edward, died in early childhood and
before the Lincoln family was much in the public eye. We
know nothing of his personality.

WILLIAM WALLACE LINCOLN (WILLIE)

Julia Taft Bayne said of him: 1 "Willie was the most
lovable boy I ever knew, bright, sensible, sweet-tempered
and gentle-mannered."

Mrs. Grimsley wrote : 2 " Willie, a noble, beautiful boy
of nine years, of great mental activity, unusual intelligence,
wonderful memory, methodical, frank, and loving, a counter-
part of his father save that he was handsome."

N. P. Willis wrote: 8 " His leading trait was a fearless
and kindly frankness. He was willing that everything should
be as different as it pleased . . . but resting unmoved in
his own conscious single-heartedness." Elizabeth Keckley
said that Mrs. Lincoln cut from a newspaper this quotation
from Willis and pasted it in a book where it met her eyes
daily: " It is an accepted fact that Lincoln's admiration and
love for Willie was extraordinary, so much so that he more
than once broke down and cried when someone, moved by
sympathy, would tell of some incident in Willie's life."

The following letter, 4 written by Willie Lincoln to a
playmate of his own age, is typical not only of the letter-
writing but of the thinking of a child between eight and
nine years old :

Chicago, III June the 18, 59
DEAR HENRY

This town is a very beautiful place. Me and father went to
two theatres the other night. Me and father have a nice room

i Bibliography, No. 17, p. 8.
Bibliography, No. 67, pp. 48-9.
Bibliography, No. 85, p. 106.

* The original, written by Willie Lincoln to his playmate, Henry Remann, is in
the possession of Mrs. Mary Edwards Brown of Springfield, Illinois.

WILLIAM WALLACE LINCOLN

to ourselves. We have two little pitchers on a washstand. The
smallest one for me the largest one for father. We have two
little towels on top of both pitchers. The smallest one for me,
the largest one for father.

We have two little beds in the room. The smallest one for
me, the largest one for father.

We have two little wash basins. The smallest one for me,
the largest one for father. The weather is very fine hire, in
this town. Was through exhibition on Wednesday before last.
Your Truly

WILLIE LINCOLN

Notice that " me " comes first. There is no circumlocu-
tion and no pretense. The boy writes about what interests
him and about nothing else. He does not dissemble. His
mother would have sent the same kind of letter, had she
written some child of her age at the time her aunt turned
the Todd home over to the new Mrs. Todd.

A second letter * to the same playmate, Henry Remann,
was written by Willie when he was practically ten years and
nine months old :

Washington, D.C., September 30, 1861
Executive Mansion
DEAR HENRY,

The last letter you sent to me arrived in due time, which
was on Saturday. My companions and I are raising a bat-
talion. When I came here, I waited until the beginning of
June, and then joined another boy in trying to get up a regi-
ment. We failed, however, and I then attempted to muster a
Company. That soon broke up. Thereafter a boy stated he
commanded a battalion, and my Company and I at once
joined, believing that he spoke the truth, but we found out
that was not the case. Disappointed in every way we set to
work and raised one, which is in a high state of efficiency and
discipline.

I am

Dear Henry

Yours sincerely

WILLIAM W. LINCOLN

1 The original is in the possession of Mrs. Mary Edwards Brown.

THOMAS LINCOLN

In the intervening two years and three months Willie
had extended his vocabulary and acquired a letter-writing
style. When this letter is compared with that of June 1859,
it will be noted that Willie not only had been studying in
school, but was being educated by experience and by con-
tacts. One can note the influence of his elders in his choice
of words and in his style. The letter is still the product of
a child's mind, however. He puts his own interests above
all else, and he tells of what happened to himself; what is
said of others is incidental. His mother might well have
written a similar letter toward the latter part of 1829, or
just about the beginning of the period in her life concerning
which Elizabeth Norris wrote.

Of the three Lincoln children Willie was the most in-
telligent and the best poised. All the accessible evidence
confirms the opinion that his personality was thoroughly
wholesome, that he did not inherit any peculiarities.

THOMAS LINCOLN (TAD)

While many writers refer to Tad as very lovable, they
all agree that he was given to great eccentricity. In fact,
though the stories about Tad are amusing and diverting,
they almost without exception refer to conduct that indi-
cates abnormality of personality. This he had to a marked
degree. Had he lived to assume the responsibilities of man-
hood, he would have broken under a strain much less than
that required to break his mother; and had the strain been
great, the degree of disaster would have exceeded that
which befell her. While he was frequently referred to by
his mother and others as a very loving and lovable child, he
was highly emotional and most unstable.

Lulu Boone Carpenter described Tad, then sixteen to
eighteen years old and living in Chicago, as follows : " He
was devoted to his mother, who was quite ill. He neither
smoked, drank, nor danced. The imperfection in his speech

THOMAS LINCOLN

was slight. . . . People said Tad looked much like the
dead President." Lloyd Lewis, who quotes Mrs. Carpenter,
says of his speech impediment : x " Tad's defective speech
either a cleft palate or a tied tongue served to endear
him all the more to his father." The Chicago Tribune, when
Tad died, said: 2 "After the death of the late President
... he accompanied his mother to this city, and studied
at the Northwestern University [which seems improbable].
. . . In 1869, he went to Europe, and attended school for
six months in Frankfort-on-Main, Germany. He was next
in school at Brixton, near London. . . . He was tall and
thin and resembled his father in many mental traits and
characteristics."

Mrs. Grimsley wrote : 8 ". . . Taddie, a gay, gladsome,
merry, spontaneous fellow, bubbling over with innocent
fun, whose laugh rang through the house, when not moved
to tears. Quick in mind and impulse, like his mother, with
her naturally sunny temperament, he was the life, as also
the worry, of the household." Speaking of the two little
boys when they went to the White House, she called them
" irrepressible Tad and observant Willie."

But there are other reports that are not so complimen-
tary. A recent correspondent, writing in the Chicago Trib-
une, said that Tad attended the Elizabeth Street school
(now the Tilden), in 1867; that he was very nervous; that
he stuttered and was called " Stuttering Tad " by the chil-
dren. His mother, a woman in black, brought him to school
daily. Another correspondent wrote : " Tad did not stutter
. . . but had a slight deficiency in speech. . . . The
writer . . . sometimes protected him from pests who
teased him because of his manner of speech and his timidity.
He was a bright boy, slight, and delicate in health too
advanced to have attended a primary school."

These writers differ but slightly, so far as concerns es-

1 Bibliography, No. 102. Bibliography, No. 67, pp. 47-8.

* July 16, 1871.

THOMAS LINCOLN

sentials. Tad was more than twelve years old when he came
to Chicago. He was sixteen, or nearly so, when he and his
mother went to Europe to continue his education. He was
in schools in different parts of Chicago for four sessions,
and, since he lived near Elizabeth Street, on Washington
Street, in 1866 and part of 1867, he was probably attend-
ing the school named above. He was fourteen years old
then. It is also quite possible, as Lewis says on the authority
of Mrs. Carpenter, that he had a sweetheart. Before he
left for Europe, he is very likely to have had a youthful
love-affair.

Mrs. Bayne wrote of him: 1 "Tad had a quick, fiery
temper, very affectionate when he chose, but implacable in
his dislikes. A slight impediment in his speech made it dif-
ficult for strangers to understand him."

There is ample evidence that Tad was painfully back-
ward in his studies. When his father died, Tad was twelve
years old. Today a normal child of that age is in the sixth
or seventh grade. Mrs. Keckley wrote 2 that Tad did not
know how to read in the spring of 1865. She tells of his
difficulty in learning to spell words of one syllable and
three letters, such as " ape." She quotes Mrs. Lincoln as
chiding Tad in her efforts to get him to study, saying: " You
would not like to go to school without knowing how to
read." In the summer of 1865 Mrs. Lincoln wrote to Judge
David Davis, telling him of her plans to put Tad in a school
in Racine, Wisconsin, that fall. She was uneasy because he
could not read. In letters written later, she expressed pleas-
ure at the progress he was making in school.

That Abraham Lincoln recognized that Tad was back-
ward is apparent from this statement about him, made to
N. Brooks : 8 " Let him run. There's time enough yet for
him to learn his letters and get poky. Bob was just such a
little rascal, and now he is a very decent boy." To this,

1 Bibliography, No. 17, p. 8. * Bibliography, No. 25, p. 281.

2 Bibliography, No. 85, pp. 216, 217.

THOMAS LINCOLN

Brooks adds his own comments : " Even when he could
scarcely read, he knew much about the cost of things, the
details of trade, and the habits of animals, all of which
showed the activity of his mind and the turn of his
thoughts."

In January 1868 Robert made an effort to have Tad's
difficulties of speech corrected. He and his mother, with
the approval of Tad's guardian, Judge Davis, had Tad
take lessons to overcome his speech defects from Dr.
McCoy, a man of some reputation. About the same time
the need to have Tad's teeth straightened was recognized.
He was taken to one dentist, who put springs on his teeth.
Wearing them was very uncomfortable and made Tad's
speech defect worse. He was much harder to under-
stand. A second dentist was consulted, who did not think
much of prosthetic dentistry. He advised that the springs
be removed and that the teeth be left to take care of
themselves. The family acted on the advice of the second
dentist.

Dr. William E. Barton wrote : * " Tad, the little tongue-
tied lad with the cleft palate and the slow intellectual
development, was a lovable, spoiled, undisciplined boy."
Elsewhere, he wrote of Tad: 2 " He was a sweet and lov-
able boy, but with defective speech and retarded develop-
ment. He grew to be a big tall lad, with a frame that might
have become as gigantic as his father's. He was a very
religious child, extremely affectionate, but given to out-
bursts of temper like his mother."

There is not one letter written by Tad in any Lin-
colniana.

That Tad was either backward or worse is established
by the word of his mother and of Mrs. Keckley, and sup-
ported by the opinions of Lincoln himself, Barton, and
others. His early actions raise the question: Was it back-
wardness or f eeble-mindedness ? The evidence is quite con-

1 Bibliography, No. 10, p. 49. a Bibliography, No. ix.

THOMAS LINCOLN

elusive that backwardness resulting from lack of application
and discipline was the cause.

Mrs. Bayne tells us that her brothers shared the services
of a half -day tutor employed by the Lincoln family in 1861.
Under this tutelage Willie made rapid progress, but to
Tad the proceedings were not a matter of serious concern.
Brooks, who knew the Lincoln household intimately,
wrote : * " Tutors came and went like changes of the moon.
None stayed long enough to learn much about the boy. He
abhorred books and study."

But after his father had died, and his mother had set
her mind on Tad's schooling, and Tad had had a chance to
see where he stood with other boys, the story was different.
He applied himself, and when he did, he learned satisfac-
torily; before long he was abreast of his comrades.

In May 1871 he was back from Europe and eighteen
years of age. Although he was then suffering from the illness
which resulted fatally two months later, he talked over with
Robert his plans for the future. Robert wrote to Judge
Davis of this interview, giving his opinion that Tad was a
good boy, and that his progress in education and develop-
ment was sufficient to make his interest in a life-work natu-
ral and about as was to be expected of a boy of eighteen.
This indicates that Tad's backwardness in his earlier years
was the result of lack of training.

No small part of Mrs. Lincoln's traits of personality
were the result of inheritance some good and some bad.
She had ancestors who gave her the right to be dominating
and ambitious, to have drive, to be Interested in politics,
business, and finance, to have no aversion to war. On the
other hand, a certain pattern of personality disturbance is
noted weaving in and out. She was a link in a chain. At one
end she connected with the links of some of her ancestors;
at the other, with those of her children; laterally with those

1 Bibliography, No. 25, p. 281.

THE GIFTS OF THE ANCESTORS

of some of her fraternity. Many links were cut from the
same pattern.

C. R. Stockard says: * " The heroes of history were bio-
logically superior individuals long before they were born."
The Cornell professor continues : " It is evident from his-
torical record and the present state of human affairs that
the struggle for existence and supremacy in artificial so-
cieties does not divide persons into qualitatively different
groups, but separates them into definite classes of graded
successfulness, in accordance with their degrees of ability
in the competitions concerned." It is contended that the
unusually large number of outstanding individuals in Mrs.
Lincoln's lineage is proof that they were possessed of high
" degrees of ability in the competitions " they engaged in,
and this gave to Mrs. Lincoln an exceptionally good
genetic background. The distinguished biologist further
says : " Neither the genetic background nor the developmen-
tal environment is sufficient without the other. . . . The in-
fluences of the surrounding elements are important factors
in determining the nature and success of the final per-
sonality."

1 Bibliography, No. 166, pp. 291, 303.

CHAPTER TWO

Childhood

Train uf a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not
depart -from it.

PROVERBS xxii, 6

A mother once asked a clergyman when she should begin the education
of her child, which she told him was then four years old. The reply was,
" Madam, you have lost three years already."

WHATELY

INCIDENTS AFFECTING MRS.
LINCOLN

1806 to 1826

1806 June 12, Thomas Lincoln married Nancy Hanks.

1807 February 10, Sarah Lincoln born.

1808 Thomas Lincoln and family moved from Elizabeth-
town to near Hodgenville, Kentucky.

1809 February 12 } Abraham Lincoln born.

1812 November 26, Robert S. Todd married Eliza Parker,
Lexington, Kentucky.

Robert S. Todd in the War of 1812.

1813 November, Elizabeth P. Todd (Mrs. N. W. Ed-
wards) born, Lexington, Kentucky.

1815 Frances Todd (Mrs. William Wallace) born.

1816 Thomas Lincoln and family, including Abraham,
moved from Kentucky to Indiana.

1817 June 25, Levi 0. Todd born.

1818 October 5, Nancy Hanks Lincoln died.
December 13, Mary Todd (Mrs. Abraham Lincoln)
born.

1819 December 2 } Thomas Lincoln married Sarah Bush
Johnson.

1820 Robert Parker Todd born.

1824 Ann Todd (Mrs. C. M. Smith) born.

1825 July 4, George Rogers Clark Todd born.
July $, Eliza Parker Todd died.

Lafayette, in America, visited Lexington; was visited
by Porters in Pennsylvania, and Todds in Lexington.

CHAPTER TWO

Childhood

THERE IS NO DIRECT INFORMATION ABOUT MARY TODD*S
life or her personality during the lifetime of her
mother. There are the bare dates of births and deaths, and
that is all. Neither Emilie Todd Helm nor her daughter
gives any data other than these. William H. Townsend has
found a single item, relating to the deaths of Eliza Parker
Todd and her infant son, Robert P. Todd. Such opinions as
can be formed of the life of the child Mary Todd prior to
1826 are based on the few facts that we know of Robert S.
Todd and his household and the very little that is known
of his wife Eliza. The remainder is conclusion based on
inference.

Mary Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky, Decem-
ber 13, 1818, the third daughter and the fourth child o
her parents. Her eldest sister was five years old; her next,
three ; her brother, a year and a half, when Mary was added
to the family circle. 1 Two years later a son was born, but he
died when less than two years old. When Mary was in her
sixth year, another sister joined the flock of young children.
On July 4, 1825 still another son was born, and on the next
day the mother, Eliza Parker Todd, died.

1 After this was written, I visited the cemetery at Springfield, and read the
inscriptions on the tombstones of Mrs. Lincoln's sisters. These indicate that Mrs.
Wallace was born only twenty-one months before Mrs. Lincoln. If this is correct,
Levi O. could have been the next child following Mary, and not her immediate
predecessor. This is in accordance with the entry in the Levi O. Todd family Bible
owned by Mrs. Edward D. Keys.

THE TODD HOUSEHOLD

At Mrs. Todd's death the ages of her living children
were, approximately, n years, 10 years, 8 years, 6y 2 years,
iy 2 years, and i day. Mary was the 6 J^ -year-old.

The homes of well-to-do Kentuckians of that day were
plentifully supplied with efficient servants. Such was the
Todd home. With five children, the eldest only eleven years
old, Mrs. Todd could not have managed had there been
any lack of trustworthy helpers. When Mary came, there
were already three small children, the eldest not old enough
to dress herself.

During the first seven years of life a child is egocentric
an individualist. Starting with a world in which there is
but one person and that person himself, with supreme
rights he slowly learns. The experiences of the day
gradually teach him that there are others in the world, and
that they have rights to be considered.

In this Todd household there were six babies or children
of tender age, each being gradually and slowly educated
out of selfish individuality and learning to become socially
minded.

Mary, doubtless, was the beneficiary of her mother's
placid, sunny disposition, even though she did not inherit
it. That influence may have thrown a long ray down her life
and assisted her to restrain herself at times when she was
sorely tempted to yield to emotional storm. It may have
helped her to maintain the calm and poise which became
the major objective of her life in the period between 1876
and 1882. On the other hand, the influence of her " im-
petuous, high-strung, sensitive " father probably pulled
her in the opposite direction during times of stress and
strain.

The impressions made on the soul of a young child by
the conduct of the parents are lasting, and persist through-
out life. In these early years Mary was in the home school.
She learned from her parents. She learned even more from
her Negro mammy and the other household servants. But
66

THE TODD HOUSEHOLD

she was indebted most of all to Elizabeth, Frances, Levi,
and Ann. Doubtless the children of this Parker-Todd family
visited their cousins, as well as the children of neighbors.
When children are so young, however, visits are infrequent
and contacts are casual. When Mary met the children of
other homes, she told them about her own family and her
own home. She played with them, but the games had a solo
quality. Children of this age play individualistically, even
though they are in a group. No child and no adult outside
the family group had any particular influence on her. We
except from this statement Grandmother Parker and, pos-
sibly, Aunt Eliza Todd Carr.

Next followed a little more than a year of a motherless
home presided over by the aunt, Mrs. Charles M. Carr,
the father's sister. Robert S. Todd's marriage to Elizabeth
Humphreys took place when Mary was practically eight
years old. The eighth year is a very important one in the
socialization of a child. Mary passed through it without a
mother's help. What we know of Elizabeth (Mrs. N. W.
Edwards) leads us to think that she must have been the
best teacher Mary had in this year and for several years
thereafter.

A saying that is frequently heard in religious circles is :
11 Give me a child until he is seven and you may have him
thereafter." The general interpretation of this is that unless
a child is well grounded morally and ethically in childhood,
it will be difficult to hold him to good morals, ethics, or
religion in later life.

Mary Todd's mother was living during the first six and
a half years of Mary's childhood. We have no knowledge
of Eliza Parker Todd's character that would throw any
light upon her ability or disposition to train her large fam-
ily of children in morals, ethics, and religion. We may as-
sume that she was a good woman, and even that she went
to church as regularly as her domestic duties would allow;
and that she sent the children to Sunday school when they

ETHICAL TRAINING

reached the proper age. But whether she was of a type that
undertook definite moral and ethical training of her children
we do not know. It is reasonably certain that Mary Todd
was taught the Ten Commandments and was made to un-
derstand the meaning of about four of them. The Sunday
school would have attended to that had the mother failed
to find time.

There are four Commandments that deal with the prin-
ciples of organized religion. These the Todd children were
taught to repeat, but practically all they understood about
them was that they were not to use bad language, they were
to go to church and Sunday school, and they were to deport
themselves sedately on the Sabbath day.

Two deal with the establishment of a family and some
rules therefor. The Todd children learned these, but they
did not understand them.

Three relate to the security of property and life. Not only
were the Todd children taught these by rote, but their con-
notations were explained and emphasized. These were made
to register. One prohibits murder, and a second interdicts
stealing. A third relates to lying, or dishonesty on another
level. Stealing and lying have to do with fairness between
individuals. These two are fundamental social laws, as is
that relating to security of life. Children in well-ordered
homes learn these Commandments both in form and in
principle; and Sunday schools are of great service in teach-
ing them.

The Tenth Commandment opens up an entirely different
field. It is built around covetousness, a development of wish-
ful thinking plus something else. This Commandment leads
into the field of envy, jealousy, and the various emotional
reactions which develop in " those who have not " and who
are in contact with " those who have." It brings mental
hygiene and immediate personal qualities, as distinguished
from social and religious, into the purview of religion and
ethics. All children of that day learned the Tenth Com-

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

mandment, but none of them understood its meaning or had
any thought of its connotations.

Mary Todd unquestionably knew the Ten Command-
ments when she acquired a stepmother. Her life indicates
that the principles of nine of them had been taught her
directly, and indirectly by epigram, precept, and example.

She may not have leaned on religion in her time of trial
as much as she should have done for her own good. But
never until after 1865 did she fail in her church attendance
and affiliations.

Her life also indicates that she not only learned, but took
to heart those two Commandments which deal with the
family. She was always and ever a family woman. As a
young girl that was the aim of her planning. As a wife and
mother she was faithful. When her son Robert married, she
was most cordial to his wife, writing her many letters and
putting in them such pleas for domesticity as this : x " Mrs.
R. said housekeeping and babies were an uncomfortable
state of existence for a young married lady. I think her expe-
rience was different from most mothers who consider that
in the outset in life a nice home, a loving husband, and a
precious child are the happiest stages of life."

The exception to all of this is the Tenth Commandment.
Probably she learned the words but not the meaning. It is
quite likely that her mother, her Sunday school teacher, and
even her preacher did not fully comprehend this Command-
ment. How, then, could Mary learn it? To the fact that
Mary never understood the significance of the Tenth Com-
mandment and never built conformity to it into her per-
sonality was due some of the trouble which came to her in
later years, particularly between 1842 and 1865.

Julia Taft Bayne, who, as a sixteen-year-old girl, saw
much of the Lincoln family in 1861 and the early part of
1862, wrote of the household: 2 "If there was any motto

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 282. * Bibliography, No. 17, p. 107.

6 9

IMMEDIACY

or slogan of the White House during the early days of the
Lincolns' occupancy it was this : * Let the children have a
good time.' " She heard Mrs. Lincoln say this on many occa-
sions. It typified her notion of the way to bring up children :
that is, let them grow up naturally with the least possible
amount of restraint, instruction, or guidance; and with the
greatest possible liberty to enjoy life in their own way.
Mr. Lincoln followed the same policy and took much pleas-
ure in doing so. Mrs. Bayne cites many illustrations of the
educational and training influence of Willie, the elder, on
Tad, the younger; but she says little of what the mother
did in this respect. She remarks : 1 " They [the children]
were never accustomed to restraint." This testimony is con-
firmed by others who were close to the family in either
Springfield or Washington. In the absence of better light on
the subject we surmise that Mary Todd the child was reared
much as were her own children, Willie and Tad.

Mrs. Bayne observes : 2 " Mrs. Lincoln wanted what she
wanted when she wanted it." This quality goes by the name
of " immediacy." It is an infantile quality. It is most easily
recognized in babies, but sometimes carries over into adult
life. When it does, it constitutes a flaw in the personality.
In Mrs. Lincoln the defect was one of the points at which
her personality fractured.

The tendency for infantile characteristics to persist at
older age periods is quite marked in particular types of men-
tal abnormality. It is especially prominent in feeble-minded-
ness, and also in the adolescent-minded. It is an outstanding
feature of certain insanities. It is also present in special types
of adult mind; and in these, in proper circumstances, im-
proves the quality of the mind. Comparative success in do-
ing specific things is sometimes achieved by people because
they have this peculiarity.

C. R. Stockard 8 is of the opinion that a prolonged infan-
tilism is partly responsible for the superiority of man over

1 Bibliography, No. 17, p. 8. * Ibid., p. 49. Bibliography, No. 166.

IMPATIENCE UNDER RESTRAINT

the lower animals. Thus a persisting infantilism has certain
advantages. For the average situation, however, the Bibli-
cal saying: " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I under-
stood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a
man, I put away childish things " 1 represents the normal.

The probability is that Mary Todd inherited this at-
tribute of immediacy, because we find it in some of her full
brothers and sisters. But a proper training might have over-
come it. This training is usually supplied by association in
the family with several older children. In Mary Todd's
family there were three such, but wherever the fault lay
she was not cured.

There is every reason for thinking that Mary Todd as a
young child was impatient under restraint. Mrs. Bayne and
scores of other witnesses say Tad was, and he inherited it
from his mother. " When Tad came in and saw me he threw
himself down in the midst of the ladies and kicked and
screamed and had to be taken out by the servants." 2

The foundation for this characteristic begins in the first
few days of life. If the nurse pinions the arms of a newly
born baby or holds his legs, the restraint is resented, and
the resentment is shown by screaming, a red face, and
other manifestations. If the quality persists in a somewhat
older child, it shows itself as temper tantrums. If years of
adolescence have been reached, it appears as hysteria, and
often as major hysteria.

In Mrs. Lincoln it took the form of excessive mourning
and convulsions of grief; and, in the earlier years of her
married life, of unreasonable outbursts of anger. These we
read of at Springfield and on a few occasions in the White
House, but never with the same violence after that.

It is a pretty good guess that Mary Todd as a child was
subject to temper tantrums, and she may have had night-
terrors. The children who are fortunate in having broth-
ers and sisters may be cured of these traits through the

1 1 Corinthians xiii, n. * Bibliography, No. 17, p. 201.

MARY TODD'S TRAINING IN CHILDHOOD

education administered in the nursery and home by those
most valuable childhood educators. Mrs. Lincoln's success in
controlling her temper during the last half of her adult life
shows what little more of educational training in her child-
hood would have sufficed for the control of this weakness.

The relation between the urge that most children feel to
collect things, and a certain outstanding peculiarity devel-
oped by Mrs. Lincoln in later life, will be given some atten-
tion elsewhere.

Since we have no information from anyone not even
from the Helms as to Mary Todd's disposition in her
first eight years, we can be guided only by her disposition in
later years, and by the inference that her youth was some-
what akin to that of her children. All adult qualities have
their roots in childhood years, certain of them more than
others.

We can be reasonably sure that Mary Todd, with her
inherited introvert personality and her drive and force, was
much in need of training suited to such a personality, espe-
cially in the first eight years. She needed to learn restraint,
patience, passivity, and relaxation. Above all, she needed to
learn the Tenth Commandment in all its connotations. What
we know of her adult life indicates that as a young child
she did not receive the training her nature required.

CHAPTER THREE

Youth Builds Her Up

Youth is the time of enterprise and hope; having yet no occasion of com-
paring our force with any opposing power y we naturally form presumptions
in our favor and imagine that obstruction and impediment will give way
before us.

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON

INCIDENTS AFFECTING MRS.
LINCOLN

182 6 to Autumn

1826 August 2, Sarah, Abraham Lincoln's sister, married
Aaron Grigsby.

November i, Robert S. Todd, Mary's father, married
Betsy Humphreys, Frankfort, Kentucky.
Mary Todd started school at Ward's.

1827 Robert S. Todd born; died in infancy.

1828 January 28, Sarah Lincoln Grigsby died.
December 14, Margaret Todd (Mrs. Charles H.
Kellogg) born.

1830 February, Abraham Lincoln moved from Indiana to
Illinois.

March 25, Samuel B. Todd born.

1831 Lincoln, living in New Salem, cast his first vote.

1832 February 29, marriage of Elizabeth Todd to Ninian
W. Edwards.

March g } Lincoln announced his candidacy for the
Illinois legislature.
March 20, David H. Todd born.
April to July, Lincoln in Black Hawk War.
July 10, Lincoln mustered out, Whitewater, Wis-
consin.

August 7, Lincoln defeated for the legislature.
Lincoln piloted steamboat to Springfield.
Mary Todd entered Mentelle's.

1833 Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards moved to Illinois.

June 9, Martha Todd (Mrs. Clement White) born.
1836 Frances Todd (Mrs. William Wallace) went to
Springfield to live.

November H, Emilie Todd (Mrs. B. H. Helm)
born.

1837 March, Lincoln moved to Springfield and studied

law.

April, Lincoln became partner of Judge John T.

Stuart (Mary Todd' s first cousin).

Abraham Lincoln broke with Mary Owens.

Mary Todd visited Springfield for three months.

Autumn, Mary Todd in Ward's school again.
1839 February 18, Alexander H. Todd born.

Mary Todd finished at Ward's and went to Spring-
field to live.

CHAPTER THREE

Youth Builds Her Up

ATER THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE IN THE SUMMER OF
1825, and until his remarriage in the autumn of the
next year, Robert S. Todd managed his household as well
as he could. He had help from his sister, Eliza (Mrs.
Charles M. Carr), but that lady had her own children to
look after. His mother-in-law, Eliza Parker, lived near by,
and she helped.

In the autumn of 1826, when Mary was almost eight
years old, Robert S. Todd married Elizabeth (or Betsy)
Humphreys. This marriage met with the outspoken disap-
proval of Mrs. Parker. The grandmother did much to fos-
ter the somewhat natural or at least often manifested dislike
of the Todd children for their stepmother. "The children
visited in the home of their grandmother, and no doubt
when they did, their dislike of the new Mrs. Todd was
fanned.

Mrs. John C. Lanphier, a grand-daughter of Mrs. Carr,
and Mrs. Mary Edwards Brown, a grand-daughter of Mrs.
Edwards, both think they have heard that Mrs. Carr was
rather sympathetic with the antagonism of the first family
to the stepmother. Members of the family are authority for
the statement that during this period the children lived in
the home of this aunt, and that after the second marriage of
Mr. Todd the children lived there more than half the time. 1
1 Personal communications.

YOUTH BUILDS HER UP

I have not been able to verify these statements. It is more
likely that such time as the first set of children lived away
from the Robert Todd home was spent in the home of
Grandmother Parker.

Between 1826 and 1 832 Mary Todd lived in her father's
home with her stepmother, her three sisters and two broth-
ers, and an increasing number of children of the second
family. She was attending the preparatory department of
Ward's Academy.

The year 1832 is given some emphasis because it was in
that year that two events of some moment occurred. One of
these was the marriage of Elizabeth Todd to Ninian W.
Edwards. 1 This marriage was destined to influence pro-
foundly the life of Mary Todd. The second event of im-
portance to her in this year was her entering the boarding-
school for girls kept by Madame Mentelle. Thereafter she
lived for five days a week of the school year away from her
stepmother. In 1833 Mrs. Edwards moved from Lexington
to Springfield, probably by way of Belleville; and in 1836
she began her policy of inviting her sisters to Springfield.

In June 1837 Mary Todd was graduated from Madame
Mentelle's and went almost at once to Springfield to spend
the summer with Elizabeth. At the end of her visit she re-
turned to Lexington and again became a student. This time
she lived in her father's home and went to school in the
academic department of Ward's Academy. In 1839 she
finished her studies at Ward's, whereupon she took leave of
her father's home and of Lexington and joined her sister's
family in Springfield. Once settled in Springfield, she en-
tered society, finding her friends among the members of the
Edwards circle.

That autumn she met Abraham Lincoln. In 1840 she was
engaged to marry him. In January 1841 the engagement

l Mrs. Lanphier and Mrs. Brown think Elizabeth Todd married at Mrs. Carr's
home instead of her own. They think Elizabeth's dislike of her stepmother was so
great that she had left home and was living with her aunt when she was married.
There is some basis for accepting this as true, but there is no way of establishing it.

HOME LIFE

was broken under circumstances which led to the generally
accepted story of the bride waiting at the altar while the
groom hung back in a state of distraction. This story is not
true, but the engagement was broken. Later in the year the
friendship was renewed. In November 1842 they married.

HOME LIFE AND FAMILY
RELATIONS

In spite of its charm, the home of Robert S. Todd could
not have been a wholesome place for a child during the thir-
teen years following 1826. Not even a beautifully appointed
house, with servants, conveniences, and all else that money
can buy and the town can supply was enough to make
it so.

For one thing, there were too many children. When Mrs.
Betsy Humphreys Todd took charge, there were six chil-
dren, ranging in age from one year to twelve. In 1827 her
own brood commenced arriving, and thereafter new mem-
bers appeared with regularity until nine had been born. By
1832 the second Mrs. Todd had added four to the original
Todd group of children. As one of these had died, the num-
ber of children in the home was nine. In this year Elizabeth
married, but the subtraction was offset by the addition of
Elizabeth Humphreys, Mrs. Todd's niece, who came to
live with her aunt and go to school. It is from this Elizabeth
Humphreys, later Mrs. Norris, that we get our first authen-
tic pen picture of Mary Todd and her home life.

Between 1832 and 1839 Frances had been the only mem-
ber of the family to leave, and every year or so there was
an addition. In the last months that Mary was in the Robert
S. Todd home, that home school and kindergarten had a
daily attendance of four children of the first family and six
of the second. They ranged in age from Levi O., who
was twenty-two years of age, to Alexander H., who was
less than six months. The house was commodious and

DISCORD

comfortable. There were plenty of competent servants,
many of them faithful slaves of the house-servant class.

Mrs. Norris, whose long and helpful letter was quoted
at length by both Emilie Todd Helm and Katherine Helm,
describes the home as a most desirable one, presided over
by the father and his wife, each a worthy head of the house-
hold. She tells us of a tutor, or private teacher, who added
to the family educational equipment as well as to its person-
nel. This tutor gave Mary, who did not like him, an oppor-
tunity to practice her wit and to exhibit some of the per-
sonality traits which, grown out of proportion, made trouble
for her in later life. 1 Probably there were other tutors at
other times; and special nurses and care-takers for the nu-
merous progeny doubtless served to swell the crowd.

In this home Mary Todd could not have received much
parental training. With ten children around the fireside
always one baby in arms and another crawling out of moth-
er's lap to play on the floor with a third the mother had
no energy or time for child-training. However intelligent,
conscientious, and willing she may have been, it was inevi-
table that she should fail in this.

DISCORD

To this overcrowding and inevitable neglect of training
at least, parental training there was added an element
of family discord of far greater consequence in the harm it
did. The second marriage of Robert S. Todd was bitterly
resented by the mother of the first wife.

It is possible that the interference of Mrs. Parker in her
son-in-law's family affairs may not have been as pernicious
as it appears, since it is not easy to arrive at a just conclu-
sion of the facts in family quarrels where there are no rec-
ords and where the truth must be winnowed out of old gos-
sip. This, however, stands out: the first group of children

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 55.
80

FAMILY RELATIONS

had a persisting ill-feeling for their stepmother, and there
is much reason for thinking their grandmother contributed
to it. They took part in the quarrel from its beginning and
participated in it with various degrees of activity and rancor
until well toward Civil War times.

There is some contradiction in the scanty evidence as to
the family discord between 1826 and 1832. Elizabeth may
or may not have left her father's home ; and her marriage
may have occurred there or elsewhere. The Kentucky Re-
porter, February 29, 1832, carried this brief notice: " Mar-
ried in this city, Ninian W. Edwards, of Illinois, to Miss
Elizabeth Todd, daughter of Robert S. Todd, Esqr." There
is no statement as to who was there or where the wed-
ding occurred. From some source there comes the infor-
mation that the wedding was performed by Dr. Robert
Stuart, a professor in Transylvania University, and the
husband of one of Robert S. Todd's sisters, as well as
the father of Abraham Lincoln's first law partner in
Springfield.

When Elizabeth Todd married young Ninian W. Ed-
wards, the latter was a student at Transylvania. After he
was graduated, in 1833, it is said that he took his wife to his
father's home to be the mistress thereof. This Ninian Ed-
wards had been the Territorial Governor of Illinois, and
then Governor of the state by election. He was much the
most influential man in Illinois at the time.

When Abraham Lincoln ran for the legislature the year
Ninian W. Edwards married his future sister-in-law, the
political parties in the new state to the north were not so
much Whig and Democratic as they were " Edwards " and
" Anti-Edwards." Governor Edwards was a former Ken-
tuckian, the owner of thousands of broad, fertile, Kentucky
acres, and had been a judge in that state.

Mrs. Edwards soon offered a sanctuary, or alternative
home, to her sisters. Beginning in 1836, there came succes-
sively to Elizabeth's home, at her warm invitation, Frances,

FAMILY DISCORD

Mary, and Ann, all of whom married and settled down near
their hospitable sister and away from the parental home.

It is significant of the depth and fixedness of the ill-
feeling between Mrs. Todd and her stepdaughters that all
of them left their home when they were old enough to do
so ; that the younger ones went to live in their sister's home
in another state, where they entered society and married;
that neither Robert S. Todd nor his wife attended these wed-
dings ; that the father rarely visited his married daughters ;
that the daughters rarely visited Lexington after going to
Springfield. These facts stand as barriers hard to explain
away when we try to lend a willing ear to the Helm view
that Betsy Todd and her stepchildren were on reasonably
pleasant terms.

In May 1848 Mrs. Lincoln, visiting in her father's home,
wrote to her husband about her stepmother: " She is very
obliging and accommodating, but if she thought any of us
were on her hands again, she would be worse than ever." 1
Lincoln's correspondence with his wife, especially when she
was in Lexington, contains references to the need of caution
in view of strained family relations.

In the litigation over the Todd estate, there is evidence
in the record of the unfriendly relations existing, especially
between Levi O. and George, on the one hand, and the
stepmother, on the other.

But there is something of a brighter side to this picture.
In 1844 Mrs. Lincoln and her stepmother were in friendly
correspondence. Miss Helm's narrative shows that the fam-
ily did not look on the relations as being so unpleasant as is
generally thought. In 1865 and before, Mrs. Todd, the step-
mother, showed her kindliness toward Levi O., and her will-
ingness to forgive, by several gracious acts.

1 Original owned by Oliver R. Barrett, Chicago, Illinois.

SCHOOL EDUCATION

Mary Todd's formal or school education began at
Ward's, where she studied in what would now be called the
" grades," When she reached almost the level of what might
now be called the high school, she went to Mentelle's. She
finished there in 1837, an d then decided to go to Spring-
field to visit her sisters and have a try at society. In the fall,
however, she was back in Lexington and, what is more, back
in school.

Abraham Lincoln once had a peek at a law court in Cin-
cinnati, where he saw big corporation lawyers in action and
where he was well snubbed. Someone asked him what he
intended doing about the insult. Lincoln's reply was that he
was going back home and study law. Somewhat similarly,
Mary spent two years in doing what might be termed " post-
graduate work." She wanted to be exceptionally well quali-
fied for life, and she was willing to give the necessary time
and work to preparation.

Thus when Mary Todd ventured forth for conquest on
the high seas of society in 1839, she had had about seven
years of high-school and college work and, almost as cer-
tainly, another six years of lower, or what might be termed
" grade," education. This makes a total of thirteen years
of formal schooling. Practically no women and very few
men of that period received so much formal education.

An incidental result of these years at school was that
Mary was removed largely from close contact with her step-
mother for at least five of the thirteen years elapsing be-
tween her father's second marriage and her departure for
Springfield.

What was the character of the education she received in
these schools? It was both basic and cultural.

The building occupied by Ward's school is still standing,
near the business center of Lexington and in close proximity

THE WARD AND MENTELLE SCHOOLS

to Transylvania College. When Mary Todd went there to
school, she had to carry her books only a few blocks. The
present building has the appearance of being able to house
both boarders and day pupils, and of having been well suited
for school purposes in that day.

The impression one gets from reading of the Ward school
is that it specialized in the fundamentals reading, writ-
ing, and arithmetic and in discipline that was puritanical.

William H. Townsend writes of Doctor Ward: 1
" Kindly, scholarly, benevolent, he was, nevertheless, a strict
disciplinarian. Far in advance of his time, he believed in co-
education, and his school numbered about one hundred boys
and girls from the best families in Lexington." G. W.
Ranck 2 says of Doctor Ward that he was an Episcopal rec-
tor (the second in Lexington), an educator, and the founder
of a girls' school.

The Mentelles were natives of France who fled to Amer-
ica to escape persecution. Mr. Mentelle was of some im-
portance in the affairs and politics of Louis XVI ; and when
his monarch fell, it was necessary for the subject to sur-
render his property and leave the country. He became a man
of affairs and of high standing in Lexington.

In Mentelle's school Mary Todd acquired a proficiency
in speaking and reading French that stood her in good stead
when she met the representatives of foreign governments
in Washington. Whoever wrote of her always had some-
thing to say about her fluent use of French. Her reading
knowledge of this language made possible a range of litera-
ture to which few had access. To be well-read in the polite
French literature of 1 840 was enough to give a woman social
status. Mary was equipping herself to win a husband and
to shine in society; this study of French helped her in her
second objective and did not harm her in her first.

Madame Mentelle taught the girls society manners; and
Mary was an apt pupil. Dancing, singing, conversation,

* Bibliography, No. 176, p. 57. * Bibliography, No. 146.

8 4

THE WARD AND MENTELLE SCHOOLS

letter-writing all the social graces were in the curricu-
lum and made a part of the daily habit, as is the way of
finishing-schools today. But this does not convey a proper
impression of the character of the Mentelle instruction. In
fact, Townsend 1 says that Beveridge was misled into the
belief that little else than dancing and French was taught
there. The Lexington Intelligencer, March 6, 1838, carries
an announcement of Mentelle's, stating that it gives ". . . a
truly useful and solid English education in all its branches."
The school was located on a tract of ground donated for the
purpose by Mary Todd's cousin.

Here, then, were two periods of schooling, having two
differing objectives and pursuing different methods. Men-
telle's had as its objective preparing young women for polite
society, teaching them social graces, synchronously with
English, French, and other cultural subjects. We are quite
prepared to read the statement from her schoolmate Kath-
erine Bodley (Mrs. Owsley) : 2 "Of course, we girls at
Madame Mentelle's used to discuss our future husbands."

On the other hand, the instruction at Ward's was hard
and puritanical. It trained in obedience, dependability,
regularity, and duty, while it taught grammar, geography,
and arithmetic. The keynote of Ward's was discipline. And
that was good for Mary Todd. She had not had much op-
portunity to learn this in her own home, presided over first
by busy Eliza Parker Todd and later by even busier Betsy
Humphreys Todd.

We know little about Mary's schooling from 1837 to
1839. She took up additional studies in Ward's, but what
they were we do not know. Although there were primary
day students, there were also boarders at Ward's, and prob-
ably instruction was given to advanced pupils.

Mrs. Elizabeth Edward's statement about Mrs. Lincoln 8

1 Bibliography, No. 176, p. 61, n.

2 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 119.

By courtesy of the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, Pasadena, Cal-
ifornia, Lamon MS.

SOCIAL EDUCATION

includes the following : ". . . well educated . . . taught at

private school in Lexington, Mrs. keeping it." When

I read this, I interpreted it as meaning that Mary went back
to Lexington and undertook to teach. Had this been so, it
would have been highly significant of something what,
we can only speculate. But Dr. William E. Barton 1 cleared
up the matter by reference to Herndon's notes of his inter-
view with Mrs. Lincoln in the St. Nicholas Hotel, Spring-
field, Illinois, September 6, 1866, from which he quoted:
"Came to Illinois in 1837; was ' m Illinois three months;
went to school two years after I came to Illinois ; returned
to Illinois in 1839 or 1840." Barton commented: "This,
from Herndon's notes, omits her return to Lexington, which
followed the first three months' visit. In another part of the
interview she says that her schooling, after Madame Men-
telle's, was in c Mr. Ward's Academy,' where she c finished.'
This would seem to preclude her teaching." Mrs. Edwards
probably meant that she was taught.

It appears settled that those last two years were spent
in Ward's. But we have no information as to the studies or
the discipline during this period, or even whether she
boarded in the school. We are probably safe in concluding
that she pursued cultural subjects.

SOCIAL EDUCATION

Quite as important as the formal education, and even
more so in preparation for life as housewives in the middle
of the last century, were the social experiences and contacts
of the young women.

The Todds were welcome in the best social circles in Lex-
ington and in Frankfort. Mrs, Norris writes of a visit which
she and Mary paid to Mrs. Betsy Humphreys Todd's
mother in Frankfort. This Mrs. Humphreys was the widow
of Dr. Alexander Humphreys and a sister of the famous

1 Personal letter to me, dated March 28, 1929.

One of the buildings occupied by Transylvania University
when Mary Todd lived in Lexington.

Morrison Hall, Transylvania
Colleee.

LEXINGTON SOCIETY

Brown brothers, two of whom were United States Senators
and two, outstanding physicians. No professor in Transyl-
vania University Medical School, not even the renowned
Dr. B. W. Dudley, was a better servant of his school than
was Dr. Samuel Brown, one of these brothers. When Mrs.
Humphreys's daughter married Robert S. Todd, the grooms-
man was John J. Crittenden, later United States Senator.

Miss Mary Todd had access to the best society in the
Blue-Grass. Her intimate associates were girls such as the
Misses Wickliffe, Preston, Bodley, Stuart, and Trotter and
the Breckinridges and Clays. But never once in any list of
her friends is there given the name of an eligible bachelor
or outstanding beau. Why is it that there is no record of a
Kentucky sweetheart for Mary Todd? Why is there no
legend of young men whom she might have married, similar
to the stories of Lincoln and Ann Rutledge, or Lincoln and
Mary Owens, or to that of Mary Todd and Stephen A.
Douglas in Springfield?

The answer, I think, is that Mary Todd never had much
general social experience in Lexington. She was always a
schoolgirl in her home town. Mary went out in company
with girls and boys during the week-ends and the summer
vacations, but she never molted her girl feathers nor ac-
quired the plumage of a society belle. When in the company
of young men, she probably talked and danced with them,
but she was never more than a " sub-deb." When the time
came to launch her real social career, she headed for
Springfield.

It is true that the Lexington papers did not have society
columns, and it was not regarded as good form to have
notices of social affairs appear in the papers. Mary Day
Winn refers x to " the old rule that a lady's name should ap-
pear only twice in the paper first, at her marriage, and,
second, at her death . . . and the accompanying feeling
that if it appeared at any other time her nearest male relative

1 Bibliography, No. 193.

POLITICAL EDUCATION

was under a moral obligation to shoot the editor. . . ."
This was the rule in Lexington when Mary Todd lived
there. Since she neither married nor died in that city, she
escaped newspaper notice. However, that is only a part of
the reason that we find so little Kentucky record of Miss
Mary Todd's social career.

Though there is such scant evidence of her participation in
the social activities of Lexington, and nothing at all to be
found in the Lexington papers, the page is not wholly blank.
Gustav Koerner attended the Alton Lincoln-Douglas de-
bate. When Lincoln met him in the hotel, he invited him to
go to their room to see Mary. Koerner wrote: 1 " I had not
seen Mrs. Lincoln, that I recollected, since meeting her at
the Lexington parties when she was Miss Todd." In
another place he wrote of Lexington society between
1825 and 1840: "Most of the parties were very elegant
. . . splendid supper at midnight. ... At one party
at the Todds I met Mary Todd, who became Lincoln's
wife."

POLITICAL EDUCATION

Lexington was the home of Henry Clay 2 during his entire
political life. This is equivalent to saying that it was a politi-
cal storm-center for the greater part of fifty years. Clay was
in several cabinets, was a United States Senator and a mem-
ber of the House, and was more than once, if not at all
times, a candidate for president. Many of his political sup-
porters, including Robert S. Todd, were always engaged
in political strategy to promote the presidential candidacy
of their friend, one of America's greatest statesmen. No
one disputes the fact that Henry Clay was Lexington's

1 Bibliography, No. 97, Vol. I, p. 361, and Vol. II, p. 66.

2 Henry Clay was a member of die Kentucky Constitutional Convention in
1799; Kentucky legislature, 1803 and 1809; U. S. Senate, 1806-7, 1810-11, 1831-42,
1849 to rime f death; member of the House and sometimes Speaker, 1811-30;
Secretary of State, 1825-9; candidate for president, 1824, 1832, 1840, 1844, 1848.

POLITICS IN LEXINGTON

political sun, or the further fact that during his reign Lex-
ington was the political Mecca for Clay followers.

But Henry Clay was not the only presidential timber that
Lexington knew. His bitter political enemy Andrew Jackson
rode that way when he was campaigning for re-election in
1832. In 1836 neither Clay, of Kentucky, nor Jackson,
of Tennessee, was a candidate for the presidency, but one of
the group of candidates selected by the Clay forces to
help beat Jackson's candidate was Hugh M. White, a man
from the mountains just to the east of Lexington.

Among Lexingtonians of that day there were always some
cabinet members, governors or ex-governors, senators or
ex-senators. A man walking down the street would greet
some neighbor by a high-sounding title before he had gone
five blocks, and nearly every rising, ambitious young man
looked on himself as a future statesman or, at least, office-
holder. One young man of the Lexington days, Breckinridge,
was to be a serious contender for the presidency against
Lincoln. Napoleon is credited with saying that every sol-
dier of France might carry a marshal's baton in his knap-
sack. Change a few words, and the epigrammatic statement
might have been applied to the youth of Lexington during
that period which began with the ending of the Virginia-
Massachusetts political era, and itself did not end until the
issues of Civil War were joined.

Lexington began to be a political caldron early in its day.
Clay made it so when, just as the century began, he, with
Webster and Calhoun, shifted the political scene. Lafa-
yette's visit there brought together a group of men who pro-
ceeded to brew some political medicine.

Its proximity to Frankfort, the state capital, was another
reason for the perpetual heat of politics in Lexington. Not
only was Frankfort near; it was the terminus of highways
that went through Lexington. People journeyed there to
take the boat as well as to make politics. Any place within
commuting range of a capital is a place of political intrigue.

POLITICAL EDUCATION

One who reads the Lexington papers published between
1 830 and 1850 finds no need to speculate. The proof is there
that Lexington was a training-school for politicians.

Did this concern Mary Todd, schoolgirl? It did. Her fa-
ther was a politician, several times an office-holder, and
frequently a candidate. He was one of the Clay " guards."
He read law in the office of a former cabinet member. He
was either an advocate or an opponent in politics of nearly
every one of his neighbors and friends. Mrs. Betsy Hum-
phreys Todd also came of a political family, two uncles
having been United States Senators. She could have been
expected to talk politics with her husband in the home circle.
Mrs. Norris supplies some information about her room-
mate's fondness for politics, her partisanship, and her
forthrightness, and Miss Helm supports this story with in-
cidents drawn doubtless from the family tradition. These
incidents relate to Mary Todd's contacts with Henry Clay
and Andrew Jackson, among others. 1

Miss Mary Todd was politically minded. There is some
proof that she was so in Lexington, and there is much evi-
dence of the effect of that Lexington political training in her
history in the Springfield and Washington days.

LEXINGTON

U. B. Phillips quotes 2 Timothy Flint as saying in Boston:
"A full century ago they were saying in the Blue-Grass
that Heaven could only be another Kentucky."

H. B. Fearon wrote of Lexington in 1815 : 8 " It is with
delight we notice the great prosperity and rapidly rising
importance of the future metropolis of the west; where
town lots sell nearly as high as in Boston, New York, Phila-
delphia, or Baltimore."

E. P. Fordham, writing of Kentucky people in 1818,

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. i. Bibliography, No. <6b, p. 245.

2 Bibliography, No. 140, p. 12.

One of the first daguerreotype cameras
brought to America, imported by

Transylvania University;
now in Sayre Institute, Lexington.

LEXINGTON

said : * " The homes have a cleanliness which contrasts
strongly with the dirty Ohio homes and the Indiana and
Illinois pigsties in which men, women, and children wallow
in promiscuous filth. But the Kentuckians have servants and,
whatever may be the future consequences of slavery, the
present effects are in these respects most agreeable and bene-
ficial. A Kentucky farmer has the manners of a gentleman;
he is more or less refined according to his education, but
there is generally a grave, severe dignity of deportment in
the men of middle age, which prepossesses and commands
respect."

Phillips 2 also quotes a writer in the Cultivator, testify-
ing as to conditions on farms in the Blue-Grass region in
1845: "In point of comforts, of luxuries, and even ele-
gancies the Kentucky farmer compares well with the Eng-
lish, Irish, and Scotch gentlemen farmers in every respect.
Their houses, generally speaking, are of brick, well and
tastefully planned, large and roomy, and if any fault is to
be found at all, they are too magnificently furnished for a
farmer's residence."

An excellent account of society in that section was written
by Governor Gustav Koerner, 8 of Belleville, Illinois, who
studied law in Lexington: "Lexington is a lively, hand-
some city, built on wavelike hills surrounded by beautiful
villas. No wonder that the inhabitants are very proud of
it. My American guidebook calls it perhaps the finest spot
on the globe. Of course, I cannot subscribe to this panegyric,
but I am quite pleased with the place. It is the richest city
in Kentucky and hence there is much show and luxury here.
I have been in several homes and must confess that with
us in Frankfort-on-the-Main the wealthiest do not
live as elegantly and comfortably."

Koerner boarded with a Mrs. Boggs, the widow of a
Kentucky politician, and the mother of a governor of

1 Bibliography, No. fga, p. 216. 8 Bibliography, No. 97, Chapter xv, p. 346.
> Bibliography, No. 140.

LEXINGTON SOCIETY

Missouri. He gives us this glimpse of society in Lexington,
as he observed it in Mrs. Boggs's home and among her
friends : cf Mrs. Boswell, a rich widow, a daughter of
Mrs. Boggs, usually had a large company of young ladies in
the drawing-room. Most of the ladies were highly accom-
plished according to the fashion of the country. Some of
them played very well on the piano, and some sang remark-
ably well. They played for me German melodies and songs
translated from the German. ... I may say that towards
the end of the season, when parties followed upon parties
and I had to attend a good many the waltz mania
had spread, and while of course quadrilles were the rule,
we generally had two or three round dances every time.
Yet, with the exception of one grand ball given on the oc-
casion of the Legislature visiting Lexington in a body, to
which the law students were invited, and one concert, there
were no other public amusements, for not only did all the
fashionable and respectable world go to church twice every
Sunday in grand toilet, but there were frequent sermons."

We can get no truer and more graphic picture of the
social life of Mary Todd in Lexington than by imagining
her as a member of the group about which Koerner wrote.
Her family was the oldest in town and had always been
prominent. The group of girls and beaux with whom she
associated was the highest socially in Lexington, and they
occupied their time quite as Koerner describes. So much for
Miss Todd's social environment.

Ranck says : x " The literary culture and educational ad-
vantages of Lexington had become such by 1824 that the
city was spoken of far and wide as the ' Athens of the
West.' . . . The society of Lexington was noted for its
intelligence, its appreciation of literature, its good taste,
and eloquence. . . . The city library was the largest in
the West and has never been more liberally patronized.
[The period is that of Miss Todd's residence there.] A

1 Bibliography, No. 146.
92

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

botanical garden had just been established, the pencil of
Jouett had made him famous, and scholars and distinguished
men from all over the country visited Lexington. . . . The
Lyceum was the successor to the debating society called the
* Lexington Junto,' in which Henry Clay distinguished him-
self by the first speech he made in Lexington, in the year
1798." (Many of the professors of Transylvania Univer-
sity and many distinguished men from different parts of
the world spoke before this Lyceum. Dr. B. W. Dudley,
Dr. Samuel Brown, and Dr. Dan Drake were among these.)

One of the powerful cultural influences of Lexington was
Transylvania University. There were other institutions of
learning there ; but none ranked in age, in reputation, or in
influence with Transylvania. The period in which we are
interested is that of Dr. Holly; and the golden age of
Transylvania was that in which he was its president.

Audubon lived for a while in Kentucky, and his influence
lay on Lexington as well as elsewhere. A love of birds, of
nature, and of beauty flourished by the side of more lettered
culture.

In Lexington, one hears much of Rafinesque, a Transyl-
vania professor and the " Lexington Audubon." Professor
John Torrey wrote of Rafinesque : * " He is the best natu-
ralist I am acquainted with"; David Starr Jordan: "No
more remarkable figure has ever appeared in the annals
of science."

James Whaler, who wrote Green River* round some
incidents in the career of Rafinesque, says of him : " Today
his name is not wholly forgotten on the campus of Transyl-
vania College, where for years he lectured on natural
science and where his bones now lie buried. They still
speak of him as their eccentric genius." The current col-
lege catalogue so refers to him. Open any manual of
botany or ichthyology, and here and there * Raf ' still

1 Bibliography, No. 187, Introduction. a Bibliography, No. 187.

TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY

stands beside some genus or species which he first found or
classified."

Another of the Transylvania professors was Mary's
uncle by marriage, Professor Robert Stuart, the father of
Judge John T. Stuart of Springfield. Among the great men
in the medical department were : Professor Samuel Brown,
uncle of the second Mrs. Todd; Dr. Dan Drake, the best-
known physician of his day in the Mississippi Valley, and
the only physician Abraham Lincoln is known to have con-
sulted; Dr. B. W. Dudley, the greatest surgeon the Blue-
Grass ever produced; and Dr. Ephraim McDowell, re-
nowned for having done the first ovariotomy. Among the
students of the period in the university was Jefferson Davis.

In Miss R. Peter's History of the Medical Department
of Transylvania University* there is this statement about
the botanical garden : " A project inaugurated by Rafinesque,
while a professor at Transylvania, was called the Botanical
Garden of Transylvania University. It was chartered Janu-
ary 7, 1824 a charming resort for the elite who were
expected to stroll at evening perchance through sylvan bor-
ders. . . . To benefit farmers by supplying new fruits and
flowers and grains. . . . Lectures and practical demon-
strations to be given to the students. . . ."

Transylvania sent men to Europe at frequent intervals
to gather books and manuscripts for the library and objects
of interest for the museum. Among the museum pieces
brought back and curiously inspected, even today, is one
of the first daguerreotype machines brought to America, if
not the very first. This was in Transylvania by 1839. Since
Mary Todd did not leave Lexington until the summer of
that year, it is quite possible that the daguerreotype from
which Miss Helm painted the portraits (a part of one of
which is reproduced facing page 277) was taken by this
machine while the young lady was preparing to leave her
Lexington home.

1 Bibliography, No. 139.

LEXINGTON

It is certain that Transylvania University contributed to
the cultural training of Miss Todd. It was part of the at-
mosphere in which she budded.

Among the great men in Lexington referred to by Ranck x
is Richard H. Menefee, "one of the most wonderful men
Kentucky ever produced." Among the artists he mentions
Jouett, Oliver Frazier, and Joel T. Hart. Among the law-
yers were Thomas A. Marshall, H. Marshall, John Brown,
and B. W. Dudley. The politicians and statesmen cited by
Ranck had national and, in some instances, international
reputations.

One section of Ranck's history is devoted to the inven-
tions made by men of Lexington. Of these, one of the most
noted was a planetarium invented by Thomas Harris Bar-
low in 1825. This planetarium was copied in all parts of
the world and finally found its way into the museum of
Transylvania University.

Ranck says 2 the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington
Railroad, incorporated January 27, 1830, was the first rail-
road built in the West. " It is believed that the first loco-
motive made in the States ran over this road. It was in-
vented by Thomas Barlow, of Lexington, as early as 1827,
and was also built in Lexington."

A Lexington paper carried an advertisement of a hemp-
breaking machine invented by Cyrus McCormick. He did
not ofier to sell the machines, but to license the building of
them by local people on a royalty basis.

Ranck also says : 8 " The Phoenix Hotel has continued
to exist since the year 1800. It was here that Aaron
Burr lodged in 1806, and was met and welcomed by
Harman Blennerhassett, the cultured but unfortunate
Irishman he had so completely fascinated. It dates from
Jefferson's administration. It was the scene of the
sumptuous dinner to Lafayette and, later, was the

l Bibliography, No. 146. * Bibliography, No. 145, p. 28. Ibid., p. 60.

LEXINGTON

" Gentlemen who wish to attend the Lafayette ball . . ."

"Lafayette cockades just received at the bookstore of
Henry H. Hunt, Main Street."

" Cockades like those mounted by the Republicans dur-
ing the Revolutionary War . . ."

" Officers of the Grand Lodge . . . R. S. Todd, of Lex-
ington, steward of the charity fund."

(1825, May 25) "A sumptuous dinner was served
Henry Clay at Maysville, at which Lafayette was toasted."

(1825, July n) " Commencement ball at the Masonic
Hall. Tickets for men may be obtained at the bar of
the Phoenix Inn. Tickets for ladies on application to the
managers."

(1825, July) " The Literary Festival will be celebrated
in the Episcopal church on Wednesday next. . . ."

(1825, October 24) "The match race, to be run on the
Lexington course ..."

"The theatre . . ."

"The circus, lately erected in our town by Mr.
Pepin . . ."

" Mr. Palen's wax figures on Short Street . . ."

" Philosophical experiments . . . Galvanic battery an
excellent one."

" This evening, nitrous oxide will be administered. Ladies
will be accommodated in boxes recently erected in the sun

room."

(1826) "The Institute will meet . . ."

" Lexington artillery cadets will assemble for the purpose
of making arrangements for the celebration of Washing-
ton's birthday."

(1826, July) " Mr. Jouett's portrait of Lafayette is now
finished and can be seen at his rooms from 9 to 12 every
day."

(1826, July 4) " Celebration at Sanders 1 Garden."

(1826, July 1 6) "The Institute will meet at the home
of Mr. Jouett."

LEXINGTON

(1827) " The subscribers inform the public that the Rev.
John Todd will commence a female seminary on April first,
in Fayette County, eight miles east of Lexington, and within
one mile of Walnut Hill. ... A complete system of female
education . . . The substantial branches taught in the best
seminaries of the kind ... A critical knowledge of the
Latin and Greek languages."

" B. O. Peers advertises a Pestallozian school."

( 1 827, July) " Barbecue by citizens of Lafayette County

in honor of General Jackson and the people's rights."
(1827, December 24) " Ninian Edwards offers to sell

or exchange 10,000 acres of improved Kentucky land.

Willing to take whisky, flour, hemp, and tobacco."

(1828) Robert S. Todd, and others, subscribe to a card
defending Henry Clay against a charge of having been con-
nected with Aaron Burr.

(1829, July 4) Dinner to Henry Clay "by citizens of
Lexington and old friends."

(1829) " Lexington branch of the American Coloniza-
tion Society. Object: The colonization of the west coast of
Africa, with their own consent, of the free people of color.
R. Wickliffe, President."

(1830, January 30) " Subscriptions opened for Lexing-
ton and Ohio Railroad."

(1831, May n) " R. S. Todd advertises to rent his
house on Short Street."

(1831, October 28) "At a literary meeting held at the
Court House, sixty gentlemen signed their names for the
purpose of establishing a museum for the diffusion of useful
information. Lecture by Professor Caldwell, on the Moral
and Incidental Influence of Railroads."

(1831, November 9) Oldham, Todd and Company pur-
chase Fayette Cotton Factory.

(1831) " Madame Blaigue, late of Paris, opens Danc-
ing Academy."

(1832, February 29) "Married in this city, Ninian W.

LEXINGTON

Edwards, of Illinois, to Miss Elizabeth Todd, daughter of
Robert Todd, Esqr."

(1832, March) " A lecture on the use of cold water in
fevers, delivered by Professor Cooke before the Lyceum."

(1833, May 2) "May Ball. Mr. Xampis' first cotillion
party."

(1833) A long list of persons who had died of cholera.
Mr. Xampis's name headed the list.

(1833, July 18) "The First Presbyterian Church 1 of
this city has appointed next Friday as a day of Thanks-
giving to Almighty God for His great mercy in removing
the cholera from our city and its vicinity, and also of
humiliation on account of our sins, and prayer to God for
forgiveness of them."

(1833, October 22) Mr. V. Ferron opens a fencing-
school.

(1833, November 7) Exhibition of paintings by Pro-
fessor Cordelia.

(1834, November) "Dr. Dan Drake, professor at
Transylvania, endorses Stagner's Patent Truss."

(1835, January 7) "Advertisement: The railroad car
leaves Lexington every morning at six o'clock. Passengers
will purchase tickets. No money accepted on the car."

(1835, March 31)" Northern Bank of Kentucky, J. W.
Hunt, Chairman; Robert Wickliffe and Robert S. Todd,
Commissioners."

( l8 35i J u ty 2 6) "Funeral honors for General La-
fayette."

(1837, June 2) "Died in this county, on Sunday night,
at an advanced age, John Parker. 2 The deceased was an
old and highly respected resident of Fayette County, was
amongst the earliest settlers of Kentucky and, at the time
of his death, the presiding Justice of the County Court. In

1 This was the church to which the Todd family belonged.

a This is one of the many references to the Parkers, kinsfolk of Mary Todd. The
notices in the newspapers would indicate that in this period of Lexington life the
Parkers were more prominent than the Todds.

100

LEXINGTON

all the relations of life he sustained an unblemished charac-
ter for integrity and probity."

(1837) " Dr. B. W. Dudley did three lithotomies last
Wednesday. Under his surgical care right recently there
have been patients from nine different states."

(1837, August 2.6) "Mr. T. Vincent announces that he
will teach French. Recently he has been a tutor in Mr.
Thomas Jefferson Randolph's family."

(1837, October 1 1 ) " Marriage of Thomas H. Clay to
Miss Mary Mentelle."

(1837, December 23) "Mr. Richardson's New Year's
Ball is in preparation."

(1838, February 22) "Anniversary exercises. The day
was closed with a ball at M. Giron's, prepared in his usual
style of elegance and taste. After the parade the Lexington
Light Infantry Company marched to the residence of Capt.
R. B. Parker, to present him with a special cane as a testi-
monial of their regard for him as a gentleman and as an
officer."

(1838, June 12) "Mr. Richardson will give a dancing
party at M. Giron's. In the course of the evening the beauti-
ful dance La Bayadere will be performed by twelve young
ladies."

These quotations from Lexington and north-central Ken-
tucky papers issued between 1817 and 1839 give a general
idea of those matters that may have influenced the life
of Mary Todd, directly and not-too-indirectly. Stories of
fights, tragedies, and controversies, heated legal battles, and
political campaigns, in which a young woman of 1830 would
have had no great interest, have not been included.

In the Draper Collection, 1 there is a letter written by
Mary's father, which gives more direct light on the Todd
affairs. In beautiful handwriting, Robert S. Todd writes
Walker Reed the following :

1 Bibliography, No. 49, Kentucky MSS., Vol. XXXI, p. 101.

101

MARY TODD IN 1829

October 31 y 1831
DEAR FRIEND:

From everything that I have heard, considerable opposi-
tion will no doubt be made to me in the ensuing election, par-
ticularly in that section of the country called Green River,
who, as usual, have their favorites. Judging of their zeal in
this case by that heretofore discovered in carrying their
scheme into effect, I have no doubt Mr. Town's friends will
use great exertion. I have thought it necessary to be prepared
to meet them armed at all points and, for that purpose, have
requested several of my friends to attend a day or such a
matter earlier than usual, to counteract any scheme that
may be attempted, or defeat their plans should any be at-
tempted.

If you should find it convenient, permit me to request that
you would do me the favor and drive here on Friday evening
preceding the meeting of the Legislature and go down with me
on Saturday. I have heard from some counties in the Green
River country and my prospect of success is good, but more of
this when I see you. Endeavor to get all the members to at-
tend punctually. Write to me whether you can be here at the
time I should wish, and should you not arrive at the exact
time I will wait a while.

MARY TODD'S MENTALITY AND PER-
SONALITY IN THE LEXINGTON
PERIOD

The first report of her disposition is that made by Mrs.
Norris to Mrs. Helm, relating to Mary Todd in her years
of adolescence eleven to eighteen years of age. She says : *

"My first recollection of your sister Mary runs back to
the time when your father lived on Short Street. . . . Mary
Todd was then about ten years old. [This was in 1829.]
She was a pupil of the celebrated Mr. Ward. He was a
splendid educator; his requirements and rules were very
strict; and woe to her who did not conform to the letter.
Mary accepted the condition of things and never came under
his censure. . . . Mary was bright, talkative, and warm-

1 Bibliography, No. 72, p. 476.
102

MARY TODD IN 1832

hearted. She was far advanced over other girls of her age
in education. We occupied the same room, and I can see
her now as she sat on the side of a table, poring over her
books, and I on the other side, with a candle between. She
was very studious, with a retentive memory and a mind
that enabled her to grasp and thoroughly understand the
lessons she was required to learn. ... I have nothing but
the most pleasant memories of her at that time. I never
heard any display of temper, or heard her reprimanded
during the months I was an inmate of your father's home.
Sixty-six years ago children had few privileges. We had no
amusements, no parties, nor books with charming little
stories to stimulate us to acts of courtesy and kindness. Our
standard library was the Bible, and the shorter Catechism,
which we always carried to Sunday school."

The next record * relates to the early part of 1832, when
Mary Todd was about thirteen years old. It was written
by Miss Helm and is probably an interpretation of a family
legend which her mother had often heard. In this story
Mary is represented as rather willful and out of control.
When riding near Mr. Clay's home, she stopped, and
pushed her way past obstructing servants to him. She is
quoted as saying: "My father says you will be the next
president of the United States. I wish I could go to Wash-
ington and live in the White House. My father is a very
peculiar man, Mr. Clay. I don't think he really wants to be
president. ... If you were not already married I would
wait for you."

To the account Miss Helm adds this comment : * " Per-
haps a psychoanalyst might discover in this adventure of
Mary's the seed of ambition, planted in her unconscious
mind, to grow into a wish to be mistress in the White
House." Perhaps so. A psychoanalyst might also connect
Mary's impatience of opposition and restraint with some
of her later difficulties.

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 27. J Ibid., p. 4.

103

FEARLESSNESS

In another reference she is represented as stopping the
carriage in which she was riding, to speak to an old derelict.
" * Howdy, Miss Mary. You ain't never too proud to speak
to me,' said old Sol. ' Too proud to speak to you ! ' cried
Mary. * I am proud when you speak to me.' . . . Her eyes
were brimming with tears. * You were not afraid I You are
a hero I ' " This last reference was to the courage which old
Sol showed in the epidemic of cholera that had swept Lex-
ington the previous summer. Miss Helm goes into this
epidemic at some length, dwelling on Mary Todd's emo-
tional reactions thereto.

Fear is generally instilled in a child very early in life.
It is likely to start with the stories told by nurse-maids. It
may be grounded in procedures used in training. It is very
infiltrating. It penetrates a long distance from the starting-
point, and as it spreads, it acquires new phases. We call these
panic, worry, anxiety, or other names.

Mary Todd was as free from fear as most people get to
be. Miss Helm 1 tells of one instance of the young girl's
becoming panicky, but this narrative has many ear-marks
of pose. Then we read that when her children were ill, her
anxiety was out of the ordinary. On the other hand, her
usual attitude was one of fearlessness a fearlessness that
approached the abnormal. She was not afraid to plan mar-
riage or to undertake building up a home on slim prospects.
She was not afraid to have her husband neglect his law
business for politics, or to make his various political plunges.
She was not afraid of crises in war, or in government; or
of men, or measures. She was not afraid for the safety of
her husband. Just once did fear play a major part in shaping
her personality. That was the long anxiety about the debts
of which we shall hear. That prolonged strain had much to
do with breaking her down.

Julia Taft Bayne 2 said of Mrs. Lincoln in 1861 some-
thing that was probably equally true of her in her youth.

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 120. Bibliography, No. 17.

104

ADOLESCENCE

It was : " She wanted what she wanted." She meant that
Mary Lincoln was selfish and inconsiderate. This is also
the opinion of a member of the family with whom I have
talked. Selfishness was not a major in her make-up, how-
ever. Socialization, the educational process of late child-
hood and adolescence, is a process of development in the
superficialities of unselfishness. Mary Todd, when she left
Lexington, easily met the accepted social standards as to
unselfishness.

Somewhere about seven or eight years of age socialization
begins. While part of the instructors who teach this subject
are the brothers and sisters, a larger part is the school and
play companions. It is in this period that socialization some-
times goes wrong in such a way as to make the person a
kleptomaniac or a pathologic liar. A thorough grounding
in three of the Commandments, plus social training, is the
preventive for these bad qualities. The training of Mary
Todd was ample to protect her against them.

Children approaching adolescence usually pass through
one or more " collecting " phases. This is an obsession.
Were it not so regular in its development, so on-schedule,
and so self -limited, there would be temptation to call it
pathologic. As it is, we regard it as an experience through
which the child naturally grows and out of which nearly all
children come.

We have no proof that Mary Todd was ever a " col-
lector." But when her mind began to break in later life,
miserliness was one of the traits of her mental disturbance.
We regard the several "money " characteristics which Mrs.
Lincoln developed as a peculiarity of her mental disturb-
ance and not as a major cause. But there is nothing to con-
nect this with any tendency toward " collecting " in her
childhood or school years. It was not an element of her
personality.

Adolescence is the age of emotionalism. In this period
Miss Todd was somewhat aggressive, somewhat impatient,

EMOTIONALISM

somewhat imperious. " She wanted what she wanted when
she wanted it." But we read nowhere of fits of hysteria, or
great outbursts of emotionalism. For the development of
these the element of strain was necessary.

Miss Helm quotes Mrs. Norris : * " Mary was like that
always her mood changing with every new thought. . . .
Her face expressed her varying moods. . . . She had the
demure shyness of a little Quakeress. . . . But presto!
They now gleamed with mischief, and before you could be
sure of that, her dimple was gone and her eyes were brimful
of tears."

The picture is one of a person dominated by emotionalism.
Some would call it temperamental, and others mercurial.
We see it forming the background for the hysteria and
wild emotion in which Mrs. Lincoln indulged following the
deaths of her husband and three of her children.

Emotionalism became a dominant influence in shaping
Mrs. Lincoln's personality. No other was more potent in
changing it from the grade termed " abnormal " to that
termed "pathologic," and in changing her mentality from
balanced to unbalanced. And yet, when it came to the
method of her madness as distinguished from its causation,
emotionalism played a minor role. This is more fully dis-
cussed later.

One other quality of her emotionalism is the variation in
its manifestations at different periods. In her youth her emo-
tionalism took the form of self-assertive domineering; in
her maturity, of fits of temper and hysterical mourning;
after 1871 it faded from the picture almost entirely.

It must remain an unsettled question whether or not any-
one could have cured Mary Todd of this fault of emotional-
ism. Certainly neither father nor stepmother did so, and
the influence of her grandmother was worse than unavailing.

Mary Todd was reasonably attractive in society. She was
a little too liable to do and say things that were rooted in

1 Bibliography 3 No. 73, p. 52.

106

MARY TODD IN 1837

self-gratification, but her charm was much more than enough
to balance. She was aggressive, determined, persistent.
These qualities were a part of her constitution. There is no
reason to think home, family, or society training either in-
creased or decreased them materially.

Speaking of her social life in 1837, Mrs. Norris wrote:

" Among them [the men associates of Mary Todd and
herself] were many scholarly, intellectual men, but Mary
never, at any time, showed the least partiality for any one
of them. Indeed, at times her face indicated a decided lack
of interest, and she accepted their attentions without en-
thusiasm. Without meaning to wound, she now and then
could not restrain a witty, sarcastic speech that cut deeper
than she intended, for there was no malice in her heart.
She was impulsive and made no attempt to conceal her
feelings." 1

"At different times French gentlemen came to the Uni-
versity to study English, and when one was fortunate enough
to meet Mary he was surprised and delighted to find her a
fluent conversationalist in his own language." 2

Miss Helm quotes the Louisville Courier- Journal:*
" There is still living in Louisville an old lady who, for four
years, was a fellow pupil of Mary Todd's at Madame
Mentelle's. * Mary Todd I * said the old lady. c She was one
of the brightest girls in Madame Mentelle's school; always
had the highest marks and took the biggest prizes. She was
a merry, companionable girl, with a smile for everybody.
She was really the life of the school, always ready for a
good time, and to contribute even more than her own share
in promoting it.' "

Albert Shaw writes : * " Mrs. Lincoln belonged to a type
of Kentucky womanhood that has not been unduly praised
for grace, charm, quick wit, social adaptability, and fine
loyalty in all the relations of life."

1 Ibid., p. 55. Ibid., p. 52.

2 Ibid., p. 53. * Bibliography, No. 158, Vol. II, p. 238.

YOUTH BUILDS HER UP

James Whaler, in Green River, speaks of

"... Kentucky

Women who adjective their love with loyal . . ." l

These varied opinions give an excellent resume of Mary
Todd as she was when she left her Lexington home to live
in Springfield. She had trained for that forum called by
some " polite society," and she was now to launch her pur-
suit of a husband and a home. For twenty years her inherited
personality had been molded, beneficially in the main, by the
association with sisters and brothers, the guardianship of
parents, the teaching of schools, and the comradeship of
pupils; and by the social, political, and other contacts of her
Lexington life. She had had few conflicts and almost no
responsibilities. Her life may be said to have been without
strain. The family quarrel was the most harmful influence
and, in fact, the only one of consequence to which she had
been subjected.

While Miss Todd was well trained for society, it was
largely what might be termed a theoretic training. She had
not had beaux, nor been an active participant in balls and
parties. Although she was socially alert, she was not socially
minded. This was partly because of her introvert per-
sonality, and partly because of the conflicts of her home.
Persons of this personality are in dire need of extrovert
training, and this Mary had not had.

And this was Miss Mary Todd when she became Mrs.
Abraham Lincoln.

1 Bibliography, No. 187, p. 89.

108

CHAPTER FOUR

The Training of Maturity

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and HI together-, our
virtues would be fraud if our faults whiffed them not; and our crimes
would desfair if they were not cherished by our virtues.

SHAKSPERE

INCIDENTS AFFECTING MRS.
LINCOLN

Autumn 1839 to

1839 Autumn, Mary Todd, living with Mrs. Edwards in
Springfield, met Abraham Lincoln.

1840 Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois legislature; during
the year, defeated for Whig elector.

April /, Elodie Todd (Mrs. N. H. R. Dawson) born.
Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd engaged to
marry.

1841 January, engagement of Mary Todd and Abraham
Lincoln broken.

April 14, Stuart and Lincoln dissolved partnership;
Logan and Lincoln in partnership.
September, Lincoln and Joshua Speed visited Lex-
ington and Louisville.

October 7, Katherine Bodley Todd (Mrs. W. W.
Herr) born.

1842 November 4, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd mar-
ried at the Edwards home.

The Lincolns lived at the Globe Tavern.
Illinois Whigs adopted the convention system.

1843 August 7, Robert T. Lincoln born.
Visit from Robert S. Todd.
Lincoln defeated for Congress.

September 20, Logan and Lincoln partnership dis-
solved; Lincoln and Herndon partnership begun.

1 844 Lincoln defeated for elector for Henry Clay.
The Lincolns lived on Monroe Street.

The Lincolns bought the " Lincoln home."

1 845 Abraham Lincoln laying plans for race for Congress ;
practicing law actively.

1846 March 10, Edward Baker Lincoln born.
Lincoln elected to Congress.

1847 Lincoln attended River and Harbor Convention,
Chicago; his first considerable political contact with
northern Illinois.

October, the Lincolns visited Lexington en route to
Washington.

1848 Spring, Mrs. Lincoln in Lexington; Lincoln in Wash-
ington.

Lincoln attended Whig National Convention, Phila-
delphia.

Lincoln spoke in New England and other places, as
member of the Whig National Committee.

1849 ? u h ib* Robert S. Todd died.

October, the Lincolns in Lexington in connection with
lawsuit.

1850 January, Mrs. Eliza Parker, grandmother of Mrs.
Lincoln, died.

February I, Edward Baker Lincoln died.
Spring, the Lincolns in Lexington.
December 21, William Wallace Lincoln born.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Training of Maturity

WHEN MARY TODD WENT TO HER SISTER'S HOME IN
Springfield in 1837, she planned to enter society,
and in the back of her head was the thought that she
might marry and settle in Illinois. While there, she met
several important people and went to many social func-
tions. She sustained herself well enough, but, for some un-
explained reason, she decided to quit society for the time
and gc back to school.

When she returned to Springfield in 1839, she may have
been more confident of herself; at any rate, her plans were
more definite. She bade her family good-by, took the train
to the river at Frankfort, and traveled by boat down the
rivers to Cairo, then up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and
thence by stage to Springfield. She took her sister Frances's
place in Mrs. Edwards's home. Elizabeth Edwards wrote : x
" We had a vacancy in our family wrote to Mary to come
and make our home her home ; she had a stepmother with
whom she did not agree."

Miss Mary Todd was now out to make a successful mar-
riage, and she pursued her objective with intelligence, good
sense, and good taste. She met Stephen A. Douglas and all
the other eligible bachelors of Springfield. The Lexington
record deals solely with the girls and women who were
her associates and friends. The Springfield record is equally

1 Bibliography, No. 52.

FIRST MEETING WITH LINCOLN

partial, but this time it is the young men who receive the
attention. The young women are only secondary.

Mary Todd did not meet Abraham Lincoln when she was
in Springfield in 1837. He had been living there but a few
months. He was associated in the law with her cousin, Judge
John T. Stuart, and he had been an important member of
the legislature in bringing the capital to Springfield. For
these reasons it might be expected that he would have met
her. In spite of them, however, Abraham Lincoln was not
good society material then. He was poor, unlearned, and
just acquiring a profession ; he was ugly and awkward, and
his clothes did not appeal to society ladies. He had no
family backing. It is easy to understand why he was not
invited by Mrs. Edwards to meet her sister, and why he did
not meet her elsewhere, at social functions.

By 1839 the story was different. Lincoln was now the
partner of Judge Stephen T. Logan, another of Mary
Todd's cousins. He was establishing himself in his profes-
sion. He had lived two years in Springfield and had partici-
pated actively in politics. He was dressing better, acquiring
some social grace, meeting people, and attending parties
occasionally, at least. It would have been logical for him to
meet her in 1839. Had he not, it might have been of some
significance. Nevertheless, Mrs. Edwards wrote of him
at that period: 1 "Lincoln could not hold a lengthy con-
versation with a lady; was not sufficiently educated and in-
telligent in the female line to do so."

Miss Todd's method of campaigning was excellent, on
the whole. She attended all sorts of social affairs ; she met
many people. She conversed wittily and, generally, in an
engaging way. She danced well. She attracted men and had
ample opportunities for gauging them.

Before long, she decided that of the many young men in
Springfield she preferred Lincoln, a decision that did not
meet with the unanimous approval of her family and friends.

1 Bibliography, No. 52.
114

FAITH IN LINCOLN'S BECOMING PRESIDENT

In fact, on more than one occasion she was called on to de-
fend her choice, and her customary way of doing so was to
say that he was to be president of the United States. There
were people who argued that when she said this, she was
mentally unbalanced, and her saying it was proof.

That she made the remark, not once, but several times,
can be accepted, for there are many reliable people who
bear witness. Very early in their acquaintance Mrs. Lincoln
told W. H. Lamon that Mr. Lincoln would be president of
the United States, and " from that day to the day of the in-
auguration she never wavered in her faith that her hopes
would be fulfilled." * The only question is what the signifi-
cance of it was. To start with, the prediction came true.
That throws the burden of proof on the opposition. If any-
body has to do any explaining, it is they. Presumably they
would say : " Oh, it was nothing but wishful thinking on her
part, and that kind of thinking is not only poor judgment,
but it often indicates a judgment which does not work true.
Furthermore, that kind of thinking is destructive mentally,
or at least harmful. That it came true was due to Lincoln's
ability, plus the opportunity and the setting. Her thinking
and saying it had nothing to do with the case, nor did it
indicate vision, foresight, or exceptional judgment." So
much for them and what they say. Now let us see the logic
of the other side.

All her life Mary Todd had heard the story of Andrew
Jackson, the plain man who had made his play for the sup-
port of the plain people. She was at an impressionable age,
in 1824, when this homely "man of the people " defeated,
in the popular vote, the oligarchy which had been in control
of the government since its beginning. In 1828, when Mary
was ten years old, Jackson won the presidency and forever
ended the power of the men who had previously controlled
it. He was still the dominant power in national politics when
Mary went to Springfield. She did not like him, but that

1 Bibliography, No. 100, p. 221.

1*5

ASTUTENESS AND VISION

made no difference. All her life she had heard of what
Jackson had done, in spite of a popular conception as to
the qualifications required of a president, and in the face
of the most powerful opposition of aristocratic leaders in
Massachusetts and Virginia.

She had known Henry Clay all her life. He, too, had won
his way in spite of tradition, for he had started as the
" Millboy of the Slashes." Since early childhood she had
listened to talk about making Henry Clay president. Doubt-
less she had often said that Mr. Clay would be president.
In fact, we can easily understand that talk about making
somebody president was rather customary with Mary Todd.

Nor was there anything radically wrong with predicting
that Lincoln would be president. He also was a plain man
whose youth had been spent in poverty. As a legislator he
had shown wisdom and political ability. He had been con-
sidered for speaker, and he had recently been a presi-
dential elector. Everyone recognized that he knew how to
win people. Everyone could see that he was growing men-
tally. His mind showed no tendency to set, to harden, and to
stop. His geographic location was right. He came from
Kentucky, had lived in Indiana, and was now active in poli-
tics in Illinois, a state typical of the territory that clearly
was soon to become good political hunting-ground. The
people in this North-west were wilderness-blazing folk, just
the kind that Lincoln would appeal to.

That Mary Todd said what she did about Abraham
Lincoln showed astuteness and vision, as the record proves.
It showed self-confidence and indicated that she chose ob-
jectives, and then drove for them with far-sightedness and
determination. We are not justified, however, in fully con-
cluding that Miss Mary meant it when she declared that
Lincoln would be president. What she said had several in-
spirations : it was compounded of banter, repartee, a spirit
of aggressive defiance, love, faith, hope, foresight, and
judgment.
116

THE BROKEN ENGAGEMENT, 1841

After Miss Todd and Lincoln became interested in each
other, courtship followed the fashion of that day. She was
innocently flirtatious. She played one male acquaintance
against another in a way that all women understand and
most women approve. As the courtship progressed, we read
less and less of Lincoln's rivals being attentive to Mary
Todd.

WHY LINCOLN DID NOT MARRY

IN 1841

In 1840 Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd were in love,
were engaged, and planned to marry. The belief is common
that the marriage was set for a given date, in January 1841,
and that Lincoln failed to appear. A part of the story is
true, but the details of a projected wedding; the gathering
of the company, the bride, the preacher; the awful wait for
the groom, who did not appear all that is embroidery and
without foundation in fact.

There was an engagement and there were plans for a
wedding. The engagement was broken and both parties suf-
fered in many ways therefrom. But there was never a license,
nor an assembly of preacher and guests. Frances Wallace
wrote r 1 " No, it was as I tell you. There never was but one
wedding arranged between Mary and Mr. Lincoln, and that
was the time they were married."

SOME OF LINCOLN'S CHARACTERISTICS

Lincoln was of the pituitary type. His life has been
studied in every detail, and he has been charged with much ;
but never, in the days of bitterest calumny, has Lincoln been
charged with misconduct with women. William H. Hern-
don, who sometimes made ambiguous statements about

1 Bibliography, No. 181.

LINCOLN'S CHARACTERISTICS

Lincoln's fondness for the ladies, would conclude such
references by saying that he was honorable, loyal, and
faithful to his wife. At Springfield social gatherings he
spent most of his time talking to the men. In riding the cir-
cuit he passed his spare time, including week-ends, with
male companions. His mental processes were masculine in
type.

He had two affairs with women that pointed toward
matrimony: one with Mary Owens, and the other with
Mary Todd.

He promised to marry Mary Owens, and not until August
1837 did he know whether he had been taken seriously. Nor
was he certain as to how seriously he should take himself.

The following letter which he wrote to Mary Owens
is a good answer to the question as to why Mary Todd
and Lincoln broke their engagement in 1841; it has been
printed many times, but it is needed at this point : *

Springfield, Aug. i6 y 1837
FRIEND MARY:

You will no doubt think it strange that I should write you a
letter on the same day on which we parted, and I can only
account for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes me
think of you more than usual; while at our last meeting we had
but few expressions of thoughts. You must know that I cannot
see you or think of you with entire indifference; and yet it
may be that you are mistaken in regard to what my real
feelings towards you are. If I knew you were not, I should not
trouble you with this letter. Perhaps any other man would
know enough without further information; but I consider it
my peculiar right to plead ignorance, and your bounden duty
to allow the plea. I want in all cases to do right, and more par-
ticularly so in all cases with women. I want at this particular
time, more than anything else, to do right with you; and if I
knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, to
let you alone, I would do it. And for the purpose of making
the matter as plain as possible, I now say you can now drop
the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from

1 Bibliography, No. 9, Vol. I, p. 234. W. H. Townsend informs me that this
letter is owned by Mrs. H. C. Cunningham, Weston, Missouri.

118

LINCOLN AND MARY OWENS

me forever, and leave this unanswered, without calling forth
one accusing murmur from me. And I will go even further,
and say that if it will add anything to your comfort or peace of
mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you should. Do not
understand by this that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I
mean no such thing. What 1 do wish is that our further ac-
quaintance shall depend upon yourself. If such further ac-
quaintance would contribute nothing to your happiness, I
am sure it would not to mine. If you should feel yourself in
any degree bound to me, I am now willing to release you, pro-
vided you wish it; while, on the other hand, I am willing and
even anxious to bind you faster, if I can be convinced that it
will, in any considerable degree, add to your happiness. This,
indeed, is the whole question with me. Nothing would make
me more miserable than to believe you miserable nothing
more happy than to know you were so.

In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunder-
stood, and to make myself understood is the only object of
this letter.

If it suits you best to not answer this, farewell. A long life
and a merry one attend you. But if you conclude to write
back, speak as plainly as I do. There can be neither harm nor
danger in saying to me anything you think, just in the manner
you think it.

My respects to your sister.

Your friend,

LINCOLN

A recital of some of the circumstances is required if Lin-
coln is not to be misunderstood :

Lincoln had been interested in Mary Owens. He had
told her sister that if she would bring her back to New
Salem, he would marry her. This he said in pleasantry, but
a half-wish was father to what he said. He knew she knew
what he had said, and for a while he was anxious to con-
sider his pleasantry as a promise. Then rose up his timidity
about marrying, his fear that he could not make a wife
happy and that he could not care for her properly. This was
his frame of mind when he wrote the letter.

Some time after the termination of the Owens affair the
second sister moved into Mrs. Edwards's home, and

119

LINCOLN AND MARY TODD

presently Lincoln became interested in her the witty,
sprightly Mary Todd. He sought her out, but with no serious
intent. Almost before he knew it, he had asked her to marry
him. Scarcely had he done so when he developed the typical
Lincoln reaction to prospective matrimony that is shown in
the Mary Owens letter. On the one hand, he was captivated
by the pretty, intelligent, cultured, and socially prominent
Miss Todd, and this urged him toward marriage. But, on the
other hand, he had no physical or social urge to undertake
matrimony. He was poor and in debt, and with only a small
earning capacity. He thought it inadvisable for him to
marry, and that Mary would make a mistake in marrying
him. He probably talked to her much in the vein in which he
had written to Miss Owens a little more than three years
before. Mary Todd reacted somewhat as Mary Owens had
done. And thus ended the engagement.

Proof that this interpretation of the essentials of what
happened to break the first engagement between Lincoln
and Miss Todd is correct is supplied by Herndon * and
others. Lincoln at the time called on J. F. Speed and asked
him to read a letter which he had written Mary Todd. This
letter was substantially the same as his letter to Mary
Owens quoted above. Speed read it and told him he was a
chump for writing such a letter and would be worse if he
sent it. Lincoln accepted Speed's advice and destroyed the
letter. But when he next called on his sweetheart, he frankly
told her of his misgivings as to her happiness should she
marry him : he was poor and could not provide her with the
refinements she had always enjoyed ; he questioned his ability
to make any woman happy. Mary doubtless replied that
she loved him and was willing to marry him in spite of
what he had told her. She forgave him, and they cried,
kissed, and made up. She did not forget, however, and the
chances are that when Lincoln at a later date again talked
in like manner, Miss Todd flared up and terminated the en-

1 Bibliography, No. 753, Vol. II, pp. 212 ff.
I2O

SPRINGFIELD

gagement. This is about the way it happened, in January
1841.

There is no evidence that Mary Todd was seriously dis-
turbed by this break or that she changed her purpose, how-
ever much she changed her plans. In a letter written to a
friend many months later, she shows that her interest
in Lincoln continued. Their common friends the Francis
family brought the young people together and provided
opportunities for them to meet. In November 1842
they again became engaged, and marriage followed at
once.

Mary Todd had achieved her purpose. She had prepared
and trained for marriage all through her young woman-
hood. At its peak her plans were extended so as to include
marrying Abraham Lincoln. She had accomplished her ends.

SPRINGFIELD

Sangamon County was organized in 1821, three years
after Illinois entered the Union. The location of the county
seat was a matter of debate, since there was no suitable vil-
lage situated near the center of the county, not to mention
the absence of cities and even towns. In a region within the
limits of the present Springfield a village had been laid out
by the surveyor, Calhoun, to which he had given his own
name. Adjoining this village was a level piece of ground,
known as " Kelly's field." It was located on a small tribu-
tary of the Sangamon, called Spring Creek or Branch. This
field was agreed on as the location of the county seat, partly
because of its level surface and natural drainage, and partly
because it was in a neighborhood in which there were some
homes where attendants on court could be accommodated.
It did not become known as Springfield until 1828, in which
year the post office was first so designated.

The court-house was a small log building, costing less than
one hundred dollars. In 1832 the village of Springfield was

121

SPRINGFIELD

incorporated as a town. It was just one of the small prairie
villages of that pioneer period, with little organization, no
improvements, and almost no school facilities.

Heinl, speaking of Springfield in these years, quotes sev-
eral writers. 1 One of these, B. F. Harris, referred to the
town in 1835 as follows: "Springfield is a small village of
about one hundred people and twenty or thirty shanties,
a hotel a hard-looking place." However, Heinl writes :
" Jacksonville and Springfield were the two most important
towns in the Lincoln-and-Douglas country in 1832. In fact,
no town in America north or west of St. Louis approached
them in size or activity." (It was customary for those who
wrote of central Illinois in that decade to couple Springfield
and Jacksonville, and always to the disparagement of the
former. ) Another writer, Patrick Sheriff, observed, also of
J 835: "Jacksonville contains about the same number of
souls as Springfield but is superior in buildings, arrange-
ments, and civilization. Many of the houses consist of brick,
and the hotels are large and commodious." John Mason
Peck said: " In 1834, the business and professional interests
of Springfield were less than those of Jacksonville." William
Cullen Bryant supplemented this by writing, with special
reference to the cultural side : " Jacksonville is a better and
more attractive town than Springfield."

Ninian Edwards was a judge of the Supreme Court of
Kentucky and a wealthy citizen of that state before he came
to Illinois. When he crossed the Ohio River, it was to serve
as Territorial Governor. Later he was elected Governor of
the state. His home was in the southern end.

When his son, Ninian W. Edwards, moved to Spring-
field, in 1833, he associated the Edwards name and prestige
with the crude but ambitious prairie village, and in doing
so laid some part of the foundation for its aspirations to be-
come a center of political influence. At that time the village
could not have had more than three hundred inhabitants, its

1 Bibliography, No. 71.
122

SPRINGFIELD

j_r j- j- j j r r rr --.---^^^^

buildings were primitive, and there were no public im-
provements.

Soon there began a contest for a new location for the
state capital. A state-wide referendum vote was held on
August 4, 1834, with the following result: Alton, 8,157;
Vandalia, 7,730; Springfield, 7,075; Geographic Center,
790; Peoria, 424; Jacksonville, 273.

Considering that Springfield was a village of less than
five hundred people, without railroad or boat transporta-
tion, and without improvements or commodious buildings,
and that it was far away from the center of population, the
wonder is that it got so many votes. Of the 24,750 votes
cast, 28 per cent were for Springfield, 64 per cent for the
two locations considerably south of Springfield and only
a little more than I per cent for Peoria, the only city to
the north.

This contest advertised the town, and it waged through
several legislatures. Votes for Springfield were swapped for
votes for local improvements at state expense, further ad-
vertising the ambitious town. People began to move in, that
they might have ringside seats when the circus started.
Among them were families with names that have since
loomed large in Illinois history.

Shrewd political management was required to win the
capital, in the face of the manifest wish of the people that
it should be located farther to the south. After several years
of preliminary agitation, and much logrolling by Abraham
Lincoln and his associates, the capital came. Incidentally,
its coming made the elongated legislator from New Salem
a very popular man in Springfield.

In 1840 the estimated population of Springfield was
i, 600. In 1850 the census gave it as 4,533; and in 1860,
9,320. (The city directory issued in 1857 gave the popula-
tion in 1850 as 5,106.) In the first ten years that Mrs. Lin-
coln lived there, the population nearly trebled. By the end of
the second ten-year period the number of inhabitants was

123

TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES

almost six times as great as when she first arrived in town.
In 1850, to Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen the Lincolns
were old settlers. The new people judged the Lincolns as
they found them. Many knew little and cared less about the
earlier history of either the husband or the wife.

The era was one of commercial, industrial, and transpor-
tational development. The east-and-west division of the
Northern Cross Railroad started at the Illinois River in
1836 and reached Springfield in 1842. It was soon to push
on to Decatur and, later, to the Indiana line. The present
Chicago & Alton Railroad, then known as the Alton &
Sangamon, was commenced in 1850 and opened for traffic
between Springfield and Alton on September 10, 1852. It
reached Bloomington not long afterwards and was in Joliet
by August 1854. Then followed the Illinois Central and
the Baltimore & Ohio, in the order named, but not close on
the heels of the other roads. When Abraham Lincoln left
for Washington and his inaugural, he had a choice of routes,
between the Wabash, leading east; and the Alton, leading
north to connections with the east, and also leading south
to St. Louis and the eastern connections there. Transpor-
tation facilities had developed in ten years I

The building of these railroads added much to Spring-
field. To the west lay Jacksonville, the " Athens of Illinois,"
filled with professors, learned men, and cultured citizens.
Some of these, like Douglas, were very much at home in
Springfield. There had been many exchanges of social courte-
sies between these two neighbor cities, in spite of the in-
conveniences of stage and coach travel over prairie roads.
The east-and-west railroad made it convenient for Jackson-
ville and Springfield to say "Howdy I" Then the railroad
brought Decatur into the family. By 1854 Bloomington was
reached, and it was easy for Judge David Davis to visit his
Springfield friends.

When Lincoln campaigned against Cartwright for Con-
gress, in 1846, he was able to get across two counties in the

124

SPRINGFIELD IN 1839

south end of his congressional district on the railroad, but
in all the other counties he had to depend on stages and
private conveyances. When he engaged with Douglas in
their celebrated series of debates, twelve years later, they
traveled by train to each of the battle-grounds.

When Lincoln, Judge Davis, and other members of the
bar traveled the circuit prior to 1850, they made a few
county seats by railroad, but more often they had to travel
by stage or by private conveyance. Between 1850 and 1860
traveling by private conveyance was rarely necessary.

While Springfield was rapidly developing commer-
cially and industrially the school of political training
was also working overtime. The legislature was a testing-
ground for the younger, aspiring politicians. The adminis-
trative offices caused prominent people to make their homes
in Springfield for terms of years, and the courts drew the
leading lawyers. The State Medical Society had been or-
ganized, and many of its meetings were being held in the
capital city. The lyceum and lecture hall ranked with news-
papers and ahead of books as means of adult education,
and Springfield was making use of this machinery of culture.
The social atmosphere of this decade was an improvement
over that of the preceding one.

The Springfield to which Mary Todd came in 1839 was
an incorporated town. While it had been the designated
capital for two years, the seat of state government, the
officials had actually been in residence only a few months
and were still housed in makeshift quarters. The streets
were unpaved and in winter, and after rains at all seasons,
were difficult to negotiate. There was no sewage system,
and no public water-supply. There were churches and
schools, but not many. The Edwards family had a fine
house, which stood out because there were so few in its
class, or even near it. A superabundance of politics, and
enough of business, Springfield had in 1840, but its supply
of the something called " culture " was short.

125

IN SPRINGFIELD, 1839 TO 1851

Mrs. Lincoln stayed in Springfield during this period of
more than ten years, with the exception of the time spent
with her husband when he was in Congress; her two visits
to Lexington (one on the way to Washington, and the other
returning therefrom) ; and two visits to Lexington in con-
nection with family lawsuits. Between 1840 and 1857 she
bore three children : Robert, Edward, and Willie ; and suf-
fered the death of one, Edward. Bearing children, rearing
them, and caring for her husband and home kept her occu-
pied. I. N. Arnold wrote : * " The mother was too busily
engaged with family cares and maternal duties to leave
home for any considerable time."

Toward the end of the decade her father died, and his
death was followed by a group of family lawsuits which
caused considerable bitterness. 2 In one of these her full
brother Levi O. Todd sued Lincoln, alleging breach of trust.
The family frictions, which had caused some unhappiness
in the Lexington days, were not quieted by the death of Mrs.
Parker, Mrs. Lincoln's grandmother. Litigation over her
estate helped to keep these irritations alive.

There is tradition that Mrs. Lincoln mourned extrava-
gantly when Edward died. The shift in attendance from the
Episcopal to the Presbyterian church was the result of
emotionalism stirred by his death. We have no history
of Mrs. Lincoln's being unduly depressed by her father's
death. Nor is there any knowledge as to what was her re-
action to her grandmother's death. This strong-minded old
lady had taken considerable part in the conflict that arose
out of the second marriage of Robert S. Todd, and Mary
had been on her side. When Mrs. Lincoln visited Lexing-
ton in 1847 an d ^48, she spent much of her time with her
grandmother. All in all, grief consequent upon deaths was
a minor factor in Mrs. Lincoln's life in this period. At
least, it appears minor when contrasted with the personality

1 Bibliography, No. 4, p. 82.

* Bibliography, No. 176, p. 246; and No. 186.

126

POLITICS, 1840 TO 1851

deterioration which followed the hysterical mourning for
members of her family in later years.

POLITICS

Mrs. Lincoln may not have considered it an objective,
but through these years she doubtless held close to her heart
the political future of her husband. Discount as much as
we choose the statements she is quoted as making about
her husband's attaining the presidency, we still must know
that his political advancement was a basis, if not the basis,
of Mrs. Lincoln's hopes and plans for a successful life
successful for herself as well as for her husband.

Between 1842 and 1851 Lincoln's political career was
on the rocks most of the time. In 1840 he helped to elect
Harrison and Tyler, but by the time the Lincoln family
bark was launched, Harrison had died, and Tyler had
shifted the administration from the Whig to the Demo-
cratic fold or that is what the Whigs said. In 1 843 Lin-
coln was defeated for Congress. He wrote to his old friend
M. M. Morris, of Menard County, saying that his being
classed as an aristocrat had helped to make Sangamon
County reject him, but that Menard, the part of old San-
gamon in which New Salem now was, had stood by him.
In 1844 he ran as a Henry Clay elector and was defeated.
In 1846 he was elected to Congress, but he was limited
in his political ambitions by an agreement on a rotation in
this office. The agreement that got him the nomination in
1846 prevented him from being a serious candidate in 1848.
In 1847 an< 3 1848 he was in Congress, but his record did
not indicate that he had a political future. That record,
such as it was, hurt him in Illinois even more than it
helped him.

In 1 848 he made campaign speeches in New England and
elsewhere. This, and the Washington contacts, laid some
foundations for his future career. In March 1849 Taylor,

127

FINANCES, ig42 TO 1851

the Whig, was inaugurated President, but he was soon suc-
ceeded by Fillmore, and the latter did not fulfill the partisan
expectations of the Whigs. It was at the end of this period
that Abraham Lincoln was offered the secretaryship and the
governorship of Oregon Territory, of which offer it has been
written * that it " embodied the Washington estimate of the
Lincoln political stature."

Mrs. Lincoln found it no easy matter from 1842 to 1851
to maintain her faith in her husband's political future. She
knew him, his wisdom and sagacity, his power to win men.
She had hopes. But the record was against her. The political
disappointments of this period were among those forces
that injured Mrs. Lincoln's personality, though not to a
great extent.

FINANCES

These were lean years financially the leanest that
Mrs. Lincoln ever knew and that Lincoln knew after the
first Springfield days. John G. Nicolay says : 2 " He was so
poor that he and his bride could not make the contemplated
visit to Kentucky they would both have so much enjoyed."

That these were years in which the Lincolns lived
sparingly, financially speaking, is amply supported by the
" Springfield tradition." That there was sometimes a serv-
ant in this household of wife, husband, two children, and
an occasional visiting relative is established, but that at
other times there was none is also true. It is said that
Lincoln took few friends home with him to meals, because
his table was not very bountiful; that he milked the cows,
did the necessary work around the barn and yard, and
chopped the wood; that Mrs. Lincoln made much of the
clothing for the two children, her husband, and herself and
did most of the cooking and housework. Mrs. Wallace 8

1 Bibliography, No. 18, pp. 494-552. Bibliography, No. 181.

1 Bibliography, No. 133, p. 69.

128

Globe Tavern, Springfield, where the Lincolns went to
live when they were married. Robert was born here.

FINANCES, 1842 TO 1851

said her sister was a fine seamstress and made all the chil-
dren's clothes, most of her own, and many of her husband's.

Herndon x tells of Abraham Lincoln and Robert eating
cheese and crackers at the office because of short rations
and short temper at home. The probability is that Lincoln
was indulging in a habit which he had formed when he lived
at New Salem. And boys of Robert's age are always ready
for an extra meal I

One unfriendly critic said that Mrs. Lincoln saved on
table supplies and household expense, but he poured a little
sauce into the statement by saying she did this to spend on
herself, particularly on her dresses. The " Springfield tra-
dition " does not show, however, that she wore fine, showy
clothes in this decade, nor do the bills at Smith's store
such as are now available show extravagant purchases.

It is not probable that the Lincolns were ever hard
pressed for money, at least after 1 844. Lincoln was a thrifty
man (as will appear later), and during this, the poorest
decade of his married life, he was paying off some New
Salem debts, helping his parents, supporting his own family,
and getting ahead financially. And his wife was helping him.

But such close saving did not help her socially. Spiritually
she suffered in several ways from it. It hurt her social stand-
ing, and, heavens, how that hurt her soul I It was not easy
for one reared as she had been, in a roomy house with a
large family and servants. Edgar Lee Masters, 2 describing
one of her Springfield homes as shabby, added : " And here
the daughter of the Kentucky banker abode for some time
to come, with Lincoln."

To add to all this was that atmosphere of hostility or
" back-fence gossip " about intimate household conditions
which enters so largely into the " Springfield tradition."
If so much of this has found its way into books, some must
have come to Mrs. Lincoln's notice. And it was just the
kind of unfriendly gossip that was most liable to encourage

1 Bibliography, No. 75*, p. 432. * Bibliography, No. 115.

129

SOCIAL NEGLECT

her to strike back. It was tongue work, and in a battle of
tongues she was equal to the occasion.

SOCIAL NEGLECT

It is not in accord with social practice for people to
maintain a society status when, for financial and other
reasons, they cannot keep up their end. To receive invita-
tions, one must invite. To be entertained, one must enter-
tain. There must be something approaching parity between
scales of living on the part of those who meet on the same
level. This was true in Springfield in 1845 as it is now.

When the Lincolns moved from the large Edwards house
to live at the Globe Hotel; next, to a modest, rented house
on Monroe Street; and, later, to the twelve-hundred-dollar
home of their own it was too much to expect the small
city aristocrats to continue to have an acute interest in them.
Her sisters did, and by this time Ann had married C. M.
Smith and joined Elizabeth, Frances, and Mary in Spring-
field. So did the Edwardses, the Todds, and the Stuarts;
but not the general run of the society element. Charles
Arnold is quoted by B. F. Stoneberger * as saying: " Mrs.
Edwards was the social leader of Springfield and she gave
fine parties. Mrs. Lincoln was poor and she resented the way
people passed her by. She was hurt and envious." If Mrs.
Lincoln went to any parties or participated in any social
affair or public function in Springfield in this period, there
is no record of the fact. She must have done so to some
extent, but I have not been able to find proof that she did.

It almost summarizes her social activities during this
period to say that Mrs. Lincoln lived quietly in her home
economizing, doing without luxuries, bearing and rear-
ing children, attending to domestic duties, paying some
attention to politics, but otherwise letting the world go by.

1 Personal communication to me.

130

SUMMARY OF THE DECADE

A casting-up of the record of this decade shows that
Mrs. Lincoln came through it reasonably well. Her train-
ing had been for a position in a fairly idle, rather glamor-
ous, social world. She had had no training for motherhood
except what little she had absorbed in her father's home.
She had had no training in the conduct of a home where
there were no slaves, rarely more than one servant, and
often none a home run on very thrifty lines and sup-
ported by a slender income. Her training for society had
not equipped her for the kind of social intercourse to which
she was then limited. There was a social isolation which
she did not understand and which her type of mind re-
sented. She had been compelled to live simply and to do
without things, but that had not hurt her character. She
had known some political disappointments, but there had
been a few successes. The greatest influences of her life just
then were wif ehood and motherhood home.

CHAPTER FIVE

Rounding Out

Life is a quaint puzzle. Bits the most incongruous join with each other an&
the scheme thus becomes symmetrical and clear.

BULWER-LYTTON

INCIDENTS AFFECTING MRS.
LINCOLN

January 1851 to March 1861

1851 January 17, Thomas Lincoln (Abraham's father)
died.

Lincoln practicing law.

1852 Henry Clay and Daniel Webster died.
Pierce elected President.

Lincoln, candidate for Whig elector, defeated.
Lincoln practicing law.

1853 April 4, Thomas Lincoln (Tad) born.
Lincoln practicing law.

December, Emilie Todd visited in Springfield.

1854 Abraham Lincoln candidate for Senate; beaten by
Lyman Trumbull.

Todd estate settled.

February 10, the suit of Oldham, Todd, and Com-
pany vs. A. Lincoln dismissed.
Whig party dying.
October 4, speech on Nebraska question.

1855 Abraham Lincoln in Cincinnati on McCormick
Reaper case.

Republican party organizing.

1856 February, the Lincolns gave a large party.

May 2g, " Lost " speech delivered at Bloomington.
Lincoln joined the Republican party.
Lincoln defeated for nomination for vice-president.
Lincoln began to have faint hopes of being a presi-
dential possibility.

November, Buchanan elected; Fremont defeated.
November 23, Lincoln went to Chicago for three
weeks.

1857 Summer, Mrs. Lincoln traveled to Niagara Falls and
New York.

Mrs. Lincoln laughingly told Mr. Lincoln that her

next husband would be a rich man. " I sigh when I

think poverty is my portion," she wrote.

September 8, Abraham Lincoln in Chicago on Rock

Island Bridge case.

September 5-50, second story added to Lincoln

house.

B. H. Helm visited Springfield.

Lincoln began to take politics more seriously and to

dress better.

1858 Lincoln candidate for Senate; beaten by Douglas.
June 16, " House Divided " speech.

August to October, Lincoln-Douglas debates.

1859 Lincoln wrote autobiographical sketch for Jesse Fell.
Fell wrote the first Lincoln biography.

1860 February 27, Cooper Union speech.
May 18, Lincoln nominated for president.
November 7, elected President.

November 21, Lincoln went to Chicago to consult

Hannibal Hamlin, I. N. Arnold, and Ebenezer Peck,

about cabinet positions; Mrs. Lincoln accompanied

him.

December 20, South Carolina seceded.

1 86 1 January 10, Mrs. Lincoln in New York shopping.
January 24, Mrs. Lincoln back in Springfield.
February u, Lincoln and his family left Springfield
for Washington.

February 18, Jefferson Davis inaugurated as Presi-
dent of the Confederate States of America.
February 23, Lincoln arrived in Washington.
Mrs. Lincoln in New York, Metropolitan Hotel.
March 2, Mrs. Lincoln arrived in Washington.

CHAPTER FIVE

Rounding Out

THIS DECADE BEGINS WITH MR. AND MRS. LINCOLN
living quietly with their two children in their own home.
At the start of it, she was a little over thirty-two years old;
at the close she was more than forty-two. Lincoln was nine
years and ten months her senior. In 1851 Robert was over
seven years old and was going to school (a private academy
in Springfield), and Willie was a baby in arms. It was a
period in which one more son was added to the family. There
was no death of any close relative of Mrs. Lincoln's; in that
respect the decade was a serene one. When they moved to
the White House, Robert was past seventeen and in col-
lege; Willie was in his eleventh year; and Tad lacked one
month of being eight years old. Willie had been attending
school in Springfield and was regarded as a good student,
well up in his studies and abreast of the best of his class. On
the other hand, there is no record that Tad had been in
school up to this time.

Mrs. Lincoln bore four boys. This alone as her contribu-
tion to society entitles her to commendation. In that era four
children to the family was the requirement for continuance
of the family stock, since the death-rate was high. She
and her husband brought the requisite number of children
into the world, and at intervals that prevented the home
from being overcrowded, thus affording the parents oppor-
tunity to give attention to each. Had it not been for the

MRS. LINCOLN AS MOTHER OF BABIES

death of Edward at four years, the children would have
been close enough in age to have made effective the educa-
tional and social value of fraternal contacts and influences,
without being so close as to overtax the mother's time and
energy. As it was, Robert was too old to exercise much in-
fluence on the lives of Willie and Tad, nor did they help
him much. In the grouping of the children in their activities,
we find Willie and Tad in close and constant association,
while Robert stood apart. Those men with whom I have
talked of their Lincoln associations have referred to them-
selves as playmates of Robert or playmates of Willie and
Tad, but never as playmates of Robert and the younger
boys. Had Edward lived, he would have bridged this gap.

Bearing these children was a wholesome influence on Mrs.
Lincoln's character. In the childbearing of itself she was
lucky or efficient; she had no mishaps, and her children were
good physical specimens. Her own mother died in childbirth,
as did her half-sister Mrs. Herr, and Lincoln's sister Mrs.
Grigsby. The maternal death-rate in that day was high.
There were many widowers, and stepmothers were not
scarce.

As the mother of babies Mrs. Lincoln was a success. She
carried all four of her children through the vicissitudes of
babyhood, and that was then no mean accomplishment. Her
mother and her stepmother were not so lucky or so capable,
since each lost one baby. Her own sisters and sisters-in-law
were likewise less successful than she. It is a pretty good
guess that in Springfield about 1850 at least one fourth of
the babies failed to survive babyhood, and on Mrs. Lincoln's
level probably the expectation was a survival rate of, say,
less than five sixths. Mrs. Lincoln landed all of hers safely
in the two-to-six-year period. She and her husband both are
to be credited with sparing these babies inheritable and con-
genital diseases and with carrying them safely through baby-
hood. It is not of record that Lincoln was fond of feeding
and milking the family cow, but this was a part of his con-

138

AS MOTHER OF OLDER CHILDREN

tribution to the health of the babies. Mrs. Lincoln scores
high as a mother care-taker of babies. This experience was
also a wholesome influence on her personality.

In the last half of the Springfield score of years Mrs.
Lincoln as the mother of older children had many problems
to meet. Much has been said of her mother relationship in
these years, and much of that written about the next five
years applies to the Springfield experiences as well as to
those of Washington. Her record as the mother and trainer
of children two to twelve years of age is not so good as for
the earlier period. In the home phases of child education, as
distinguished from those of the school, the " Springfield
tradition " is that the Lincoln boys were not well trained.
At times the mother punished them, even whipped them ; at
other times she permitted them unrestrained liberty; and
at still other times her method lay between these extremes.
She did not maintain uniformity in either her attitude or her
method. The Springfield and the Washington " traditions,"
and even some part of the record, show that Lincoln's pa-
rental attitude was one of license rather than of liberty. He
was " a kid with the kids." Julia Taft Bayne's recital of
what she and her brothers saw and even participated in es-
tablishes that, and there is ample corroborative evidence.
This as a parental attitude has very serious shortcomings,
but it has the virtue of consistency. Mrs. Lincoln's was
neither consistent nor uniform. It is probable that in the
training of her children she was guided by her remembrance
of her father's household partly when her mother di-
rected five, partly when her grandmother and aunt managed
the household, and principally when her stepmother was
doing what she could for her own large brood and the half-
dozen stepchildren.

She was not able to keep contagion out of her home.
Lincoln's correspondence with the Kellogg family in Cin-
cinnati, in which scarlet fever is mentioned, refers to the
same disease in the Springfield Todd families. Edward

CONTAGION IN THE LINCOLN HOME

Lincoln died of diphtheria. Years later Tad died of a pleurisy
that was possibly tubercular. Willie is said to have died from
an acute malarial infection. Katherine Helm quotes x from
a Washington paper as follows: "The White House levee
on Tuesday will be omitted on account of the illness of the
second son of the President, an interesting lad of about
8 years of age, who has been lying dangerously ill of bilious
fever for the last three days. Mrs. Lincoln has not left his
bedside since Wednesday night, and fears are entertained
for her health." This account was wrong by nearly four
years as to Willie's age, but it was probably right in other
particulars. Acute " bilious fever " is malaria, and acute
bilious fever fatal in one week is pernicious malaria. Willie
died in February, and malaria in Washington in that month
is due to relapses, which are often pernicious. Mrs. Lincoln's
letters contain references to attacks of malaria, and Eliza-
beth Keckley's statement that Willie rather suddenly took a
turn for the worse and died, fits malaria fairly well. Perni-
cious malaria is recognized as a preventable disease. If
Willie did not have pernicious malaria, he had some other
form of preventable disease at least, as we now know
preventable disease.

It is somewhat apropos to say that Lincoln had smallpox.
This occurred while he was in the White House. In fact,
when he wrote and when he delivered the Gettysburg ad-
dress, he was in that three-day febrile period of smallpox
which precedes the eruption. The speech was written, as
Dr. William E. Barton 2 has shown, in greatest part within
twenty-four hours of its delivery. Soon after the exercises the
President went to a room in his host's house to rest. On the
way back to Washington he complained of headache and lay
down much of the time. Before the next cabinet meeting he
was broken out, and the diagnosis was made. We find Lincoln
saying of the office-seekers : " Let them come. I now have
something I can give them." The Stoddard account of Lin-

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 197. * Bibliography, No. 10, p. 97.

140

SOCIAL INFLUENCES

coin's attack of smallpox goes into much detail, both from
the clinical standpoint and as to the measures of control
which were undertaken. All contacts, including the family,
were vaccinated. Mrs. Lincoln deserves credit for the fact
that, though her husband had smallpox and while ill was
cared for in the home, she and Tad escaped the disease.

These incidents are cited to add to the showing that the
I incoln household was at least unfortunate with respect to
preventable diseases. Present-day careful mothers prevent
their families from having diphtheria, scarlet fever, small-
pox, tuberculosis, pleurisy, and bilious fever. 1

Barton 2 has this to say of Mrs. Lincoln as the mother
of children older than babies : " She was not a model mother.
She was too nervous, too impetuous; her chidings and her
caresses depended too much upon her own moods. In times
of sickness she was too anxious and too excitable to be a
good nurse. But she loved her children passionately."

SOCIAL INFLUENCES

In the second decade of the Springfield life Mrs. Lin-
coln's social position was better than in the first. We find
the Lincolns entertaining their friends and political associ-
ates more frequently, and they are known to have attended
some dinners and more formal affairs.

Mrs. Lincoln's sister Elizabeth Edwards was ambitious
for her very capable, though not very aggressive, husband.
She hoped to see him in the "seat of the mighty" once
occupied and adorned by his father, Governor Ninian Ed-
wards. When the legislature was in session, Mrs. Edwards
was accustomed to entertain some of the politically powerful.

1 While it has no direct bearing, it is of some interest that Mrs. Lincoln's father
died of cholera, and Lincoln's mother of milk-sickness. Mrs. Lincoln did not keep
contagion out of her home, it is true; at the same time she was not less successful
than were other mothers of the period. Measured by present-day standards, her
record in this particular would be called a poor one; but using the standards of her
day, it was good enough.

2 Bibliography, No. 9, Vol. I, p. 326.

PARTIES IN SPRINGFIELD

At times she gave large and elaborate receptions. Mr
and Mrs. Lincoln were usually present. Incidentally, theri
eventually grew up some rivalry in husband-promotion be-
tween these ambitious sisters.

On one occasion the Lincolns gave a reception to which
they invited five hundred people. Most of them came, though
a conflicting reception held in Jacksonville caused some of
the invited guests to absent themselves.

The society people of Springfield had more time for Mrs.
Lincoln in this second decade. It is also certain that the
Lincolns were spending more money on entertaining. It fol-
lows that the social neglect from which Mrs. Lincoln suf-
fered, and which did much to strain her personality, was less
in evidence.

The following letter * written by Mrs. Lincoln to her half-
sister Emilie Todd Helm, February 16, 1856, shows that
there were many parties in Springfield, which the Lincolns
were attending and of which, at least on one occasion, they
were hosts :

" Within the last three weeks there has been a party al-
most every night, and some two or three grand fetes are
coming off this week. I may surprise you when I mention
that I am recovering from the slight fatigue of a very large,
and I really believe a very handsome, entertainment at
least, our friends flatter us by saying so. About five hundred
were invited, yet owing to an unlucky rain three hundred
only favored us by their presence. And the same evening in
Jacksonville Col. Warren gave a bridal party to his son who
married Miss Birchall of this place, which occasion robbed
us of some of our friends. You will think we have enlarged
our borders since you were here. Three evenings since, Gov-
ernor Bissell gave a very large party. I thought of you fre-
quently when I saw so many of your acquaintances beauti-
fully dressed and dancing very happily. . . . The first part
of the winter was so quiet."

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 121.

142

THE LINCOLN HOUSE IN SPRINGFIELD

In November 1856 Mrs. Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Helm of
the improvements in Springfield : l u You can scarcely im-
agine a place improving more rapidly than ours. Almost
palaces of homes have been reared since you were here.
Hundreds of houses have been going up this season, and
some of them very elegant. Governor Matteson's house is
just completed. The whole place has cost him, he says,
$100,000, but he is now worth a million."

Between 1851 and 1861 Mrs. Lincoln stayed very closely
in Springfield, as behooved the mother of three boys, one an
infant. The cottage on Eighth Street was their home during
the entire period. In fact, the Lincolns called this house
home for about seventeen years of the somewhat more than
eighteen years of their joint Springfield life. The house was
a one-story-and-attic frame cottage during thirteen of the
years that the Lincoln family occupied it. Nevertheless,
it was ample for the mother, father, and three boys. Be-
sides the main house there was an ell, together providing
a bedroom for the parents, a children's room, parlor, dining-
room, kitchen, and some space besides a great luxury of
room and accommodation according to the standards of
Lincoln's youth, and with less crowding than even his wife
had been accustomed to when she was of her children's age.
The second story was not added to the house until Septem-
ber 1857. O n tne authority of a statement by Bunn to Conk-
ling, and a letter by Gurley, A. J. Beveridge says: 2 " While
Lincoln was in Chicago on the Rock Island Bridge case
(September 826, 1857), Mrs. Lincoln had the half story
of their house made into a full second story, the whole house
painted, and the rooms papered."

There was a stable, a large yard, and room for a garden,
though relatives say that the family did not make use of the
space for either flowers or vegetables. Help was scarce and
hard to keep, and Lincoln was now a busy lawyer and
an active politician, while Mrs. Lincoln was occupied with

1 Ibid., p. 123. * Bibliography, No. 18, p. 605.

143

"HOME BODY"

nursing and caring for the baby born in 1853, besides look-
ing after two older boys, as to both home care and prepara-
tion of lessons for school.

I. N. Arnold is authority for the statement that there
were some dinner parties, for which the food was outstand-
ingly good. Doubtless Mrs. Lincoln exchanged visits with
her three sisters and her many Springfield cousins. She was
visited by Emilie Todd, later Mrs. Helm, who probably
divided her Springfield stay between the homes of her three
Springfield half-sisters. No other member of the Lexington
family ever came to visit Mrs. Lincoln. 1 If Levi's daughter
got there before Mrs. Lincoln went to Washington, she
stayed with Mrs. Smith. It is not known that Mrs. Lincoln
left Springfield in this period except to go to Niagara Falls
and the East in 1857. How could she? There was no one to
care for the baby, not to mention the older boys. She went
to Alton for a day to attend one of the Lincoln-Douglas de-
bates, but there is no record of her hearing any other of
these epoch-marking discussions. She was in Chicago at least
once, in November 1860. There must have been a few other
trips that we do not know about. St. Louis is within one hun-
dred miles of Springfield, yet we have no proof that she was
there. Perhaps the bitterness of factional strife, and the
blind, irrational distrust and hatred of Lincoln that was
so manifest in the South after 1856, kept her from visit-
ing some of the Kentucky friends of her youth. Whatever
the reason may have been, no one accused Mrs. Lincoln of
being a gadabout while she lived in Springfield. On the con-
trary, during these years she was a " home body." Her life
may have been very humdrum and everyday and exception-
ally free from all external causes of emotional reaction.

1 Robert S. Todd visited Mrs. Lincoln and the other Springfield daughters when
Robert Todd Lincoln was a few weeks old.

144

THE LINCOLNS AND THE TRUMBULLS

POLITICS

Between 1851 and 1861 Lincoln ran for the Senate twice
and was defeated both times.

The first of these defeats, that by Lyman Tnimbull, he
and Mrs. Lincoln are said to have been very bitter about,
Beveridge says : * " Mrs. Lincoln was determined her hus-
band should win, and when she saw the triumph of Trum-
bull her anger was so fierce, unreasoning, and permanent
that she refused then and ever afterward to speak to the
wife of the victor, Julia Jayne, the intimate of her young
womanhood and until now her closest friend." There is con-
firmation of the fact that Lincoln's failure in this contest
was a source of disappointment and caused him to lose faith
in some of his friends; it is also true that Mrs. Lincoln
was even more disappointed, but I am assured by descend-
ants of Senator Trumbull that, according to the family
tradition, the statement exaggerates the facts. The night
of the Trumbull nomination the Lincolns attended some-
thing of a reception given by Mrs. Edwards at her home,
and there met the Trumbulls. The meeting was a friendly
one, and no bitterness or unpleasantness is intimated by any
of the several biographers who tell of this event. Miss
Julia Jayne was one of the few who were in attendance when
Mrs. Lincoln was married, and if there were bridesmaids,
Miss Jayne was one of them. It is true that in later life, as
Mrs. Trumbull, and especially in the Washington years, she
and Mrs. Lincoln did not see much of each other. The
Trumbull success in the senatorial campaign may have been
in part responsible, but it is probable that political differ-
ences between Lincoln and Senator Trumbull were the prin-
cipal reason for any coolness there may have been. Senator
Trumbull and Lincoln were usually in opposing political
parties, or in opposing factions of the same party. The

1 Bibliography, No. 18, p. 286.

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES

statement that Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Trumbull never spoke
afterwards is not true. It has some bearing on this question
that, when President Johnson adopted and advocated the
Lincoln reunion policy making it the Johnson reconstruc-
tion policy, which was the real reason for his impeachment
by the opposition Trumbull committed political suicide by
voting against Johnson's removal. Trumbull went down to
his political death in support of the policies of Abraham
Lincoln. It is even more to the point that when Mrs. Lin-
coln's pension bill was before the Senate, and she was being
abused openly and covertly, Senator Trumbull was her
staunch defender.

The second contest for senator was likewise lost, but, in
spite of that fact, strategically this was the greatest political
success in Lincoln's life, the presidency alone excepted. The
Lincoln-Douglas debates did three things of supreme tactical
advantage for Lincoln. First, they tied him closely to, and
coupled him in the public mind with, the new party to which
he had given his allegiance two years before. Lincoln had
to win a right of leadership in this new party the party
that was soon to choose him as its presidential candidate;
that was to carry the political burden of winning a civil war;
and that was to remain dominant in American politics for
many years. Second, they made Lincoln nationally known.
When a Congressman, he had stumped for Taylor in New
England. He had made a few other speeches outside of his
own state. But until the reports of the Lincoln-Douglas de-
bates were read, the country at large had heard very little
of Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. Barton 1 attributes the
great rush to write campaign biographies in Illinois in 1860,
and Fell's urge to write the sketch for a Pennsylvania paper
in 1859, to the abysmal ignorance of the general public about
the party candidate. In 1856, after the Republican conven-
tion had nominated Fremont for president, a certain number
of delegates voted for Abraham Lincoln as nominee for vice-

1 Bibliography, No. 12.
146

The youthful Lincoln.
From a photograph taken in Princeton, Illinois, July ./, 1856.

POLITICAL DEFEATS AXD SUCCESSES

president. When he was given this information as news,
Lincoln said these delegates must have been voting for
the then better-known Abraham Lincoln of Massachusetts.
The third advantageous result of the Lincoln-Douglas de-
bates was the setting up of questions which were certain to
eliminate Douglas from Illinois, and national, politics. In
1860, Douglas was one of the four candidates for president,
but the position which Lincoln had forced him into on the
slavery question, in these debates, made it impossible for
the Democratic party to unite on him as its candidate. In
the election the Democrats split their vote between the
Douglas ticket and that headed by Breckinridge. The vote
for these two tickets, when added, surpassed the vote for
the Lincoln ticket, but under the electoral law Lincoln was
elected President. Had there been no division in the Demo-
cratic party in 1860, it would have won. That the Demo-
crats split their vote and failed was a result of the Lincoln
strategy in 1858.

Barton * says that Abraham Lincoln kept rather well out
of politics from 1849 to 1854. General Winfield Scott was
his party candidate in 1852, and Lincoln was a candidate
for elector from Illinois. Both were defeated. In the latter
part of 1854 the Republican party in Illinois was launched,
but Lincoln did not join at that time. Not until 1856 did he
take the plunge from the dying, or dead, Whig party to the
new one. Lincoln participated in the campaign of 1856, but
not in a conspicuous way.

In 1860 Lincoln was the nominee of the state Republican
convention for president. He received the nomination in
Chicago a few weeks later, and his electors triumphed at the
general election in November. In March 1861 he was inau-
gurated as President.

Thus in this decade he was defeated as a candidate for
elector, and twice as a candidate for senator; and he wit-
nessed the death of the political party to which he belonged.

i Bibliography, No. 9, VoL I, p. 287.

MRS. LINCOLN'S SECOND OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED

_j- j-j- j- j-j- _f~ j-_r_r _r j~ <~ i" ~~i~~~~~~~~i~~i~j~j-j-j- j-j- j- _j~_r -T- j~ ,rj-^- j- j~_r- _j- r- _r JL

He held no office and received no salary from any division
of the government.

The effect of these several failures on Mrs. Lincoln could
not have been other than bad. Of this there is some con-
firmatory evidence as to the first of the senatorial contests.
Mrs. Lincoln was buoyed through many a disappointment,
however, by the faith she had in her husband's political acu-
men and personal popularity. Those who think Mrs. Lincoln
was shrewder and a better politician than her husband
and there are many who are on record to that effect cite
as one bit of proof the fact that in this decade she prevented
her husband from re-entering the Illinois legislature. He had
been a candidate for United States senator and as such had
achieved an enviable reputation, in spite of defeat. Never-
theless, he was anxious to accept election to the legislature.
She recognized that this would not be good politics and
finally so convinced him, causing him to forgo his yearnings
and decline the position.

There was little in the record of the first half or three
fourths of their married life to sustain her faith in her
husband's political future. But in 1858 came the Lincoln-
Douglas debates, and with them a recognition of her hus-
band's political possibilities. In November 1860 the coun-
try decided that she had been right when she said Abraham
Lincoln would be president. On March 4, 1861 her second
great objective was achieved. In this decade the combined
influence of political events, of Lincoln's political successes
and failures, on Mrs. Lincoln's personality was good, or, at
least, more wholesome than not.

FINANCES

Financial worries for the Lincolns were less acute in the
fifties than in the forties. This is of importance, because
when Mrs. Lincoln later became unbalanced, money was the
thread which ran through the fabric of her aberrations. The

148

LINCOLN'S FINANCES, 1851-61

Freudian school says that when such is the character of a
disturbed mentality, the source may be found in a scar-
city of money in the earlier years of life, or in an unsatisfied
yearning for money at some time. Many would say that the
Todds must have had a money mania, and that Mary in-
herited a money-madness streak. They might add : Was not
her father a banker ?

In the second decade of the Springfield life Lincoln's in-
come was rising. He was an attorney for the Illinois Central
Railroad, and that corporation was his best client from the
financial standpoint. In this period he was engaged in the
McCormick reaper litigation and in the Rock Island Bridge
case. William H. Herndon, referring to Lincoln in this sec-
ond decade, wrote : " And now he began to make up for time
lost in politics, by studying law in earnest." Milton Hay and
Herndon both wrote of Lincoln's waste of time from his
studies in telling stories and in making contacts, so neces-
sary for a good trial lawyer; but they also show that there
were periods, especially after Lincoln returned from Con-
gress, when he was a rather studious lawyer, attending
closely to the business of the law and collecting moderately
well.

"Many lawyers and judges in Illinois became rich men
during the period before the Civil War; but their wealth
was not acquired by practicing law or administering justice.
It was obtained through wise and far-seeing investments,
for professional earnings were moderate." l

Thus Beveridge opens the second of two chapters which
deal more closely than others of his biography with the per-
sonal characteristics and affairs of the future President.
He drew on such reliable witnesses as Whitney, Swett,
Herndon, Davis, and Arnold, for evidence that Lincoln
in this period was never without cases and clients. In lower
courts he excelled as a pleader before juries. But, in spite
of his reputation as a jury pleader, Beveridge acclaims him

1 Bibliography, No. 18, p. 552.

149

THE LINCOLNS' FINANCES, 1851-61

as best before the state Supreme Court. Commenting on
the aspects of Lincoln's character suggested by the opening
paragraph quoted above, Beveridge says that Lincoln was
not an investor, but that he collected his fees and held
on to them. This writer then describes at length several
of Lincoln's more important cases, some of which brought
in good fees. In one the Illinois Central case he
charged a fee so high that the railroad would not pay it
without suit. It was compelled to pay, and, paying, retained
Lincoln as one of its lawyers up to the time he became Presi-
dent. He plunged into the Rock Island Bridge case and
earned back some of the money spent as he traveled round
in his senatorial campaigns. In August 1859 Lincoln wrote
to Governor J. W. Grimes of Iowa : 1 " I lost nearly all the
working part of last year giving my time to the canvass, and
I am altogether too poor to lose two years together."

In this decade Mrs. Lincoln was a beneficiary of two wills.
Robert Parker had left his estate to his wife for her use
during her lifetime, but it was entailed for the benefit of the
grandchildren, of whom Mrs. Lincoln was one. The settle-
ment of this estate resulted in a lawsuit which took Abra-
ham Lincoln, with his wife, to Lexington for his fifth, and
what proved to be his last, visit. The estate was consider-
able, but the division was into many parts. 2 Mrs. Lincoln
was also a beneficiary by reason of the death of her father,
Robert S. Todd. His estate, too, was a considerable one,
but again there were many heirs, and Mrs. Lincoln's share
was not large. However, the sums received from these
estates in the first half of the decade contributed somewhat
to the financial ease of the Lincolns.

The truth is that in the second decade of the Springfield
experience the Lincolns were not spending much money,
but they were living tolerably well and were not having to
worry about means to meet expenses. In Arnold's narrative
of their life in Springfield there is evidence of progressive

1 Letter dated August 1859. * Bibliography, No. 176, pp. 242 ff.

150

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY, 1851-61

improvement in financial status as the years passed. He
says: 1 " Lincoln lived simply, comfortably, and respectably,
with neither expensive tastes nor habits. His wants were
few and simple. He occupied a small, modest, comfortable,
wooden cottage such as is found everywhere in the villages
of our country. In the later Springfield years this cottage
had been enlarged and made more pretentious. . . . He
was in the habit of entertaining in a very simple way. Mrs.
Lincoln often entertained small numbers of friends at din-
ner, and somewhat larger groups at evening parties."

There is no reason for thinking the Lincolns had financial
worries in this decade. They were living on a scale that
suited Mrs. Lincoln reasonably well. The financial experi-
ence of this period did not contribute to her breakdown.

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY
IN THIS PERIOD

Mrs. Helm visited her half-sister in Springfield in the
first half of this range of years. She based the following
statement 2 partly on what she then saw and partly on her
observations during her stay in the White House :

"It has also been said that Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were
not happy. Mrs. Wallace denies this emphatically, and the
present writer's knowledge bears out Mrs. Wallace's as-
sertion. They understood each other thoroughly, and Mr.
Lincoln looked beyond the impulsive word and manner, and
knew that his wife was devoted to him and to his interests.
They lived in a quiet, unostentatious manner. She was very
fond of reading, and interested herself greatly in her hus-
band's political views and aspirations. She was fond of home
and made nearly all her children's clothes. She was a cheer-
ful woman, a delightful conversationalist, and well-informed
on all the subjects of the day. The present writer saw Mr.
and Mrs. Lincoln together for some part of every day for

1 Bibliography, No. 4, p. 82. * Bibliography, No. 72, and No. 73, p. 116.

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY, 1851-61

six months at one time, but saw nothing of the unhappiness
which is so often referred to. Many of Mr. Lincoln's ways,
such as going to answer his own doorbell, annoyed her, and
upon one occasion a member of her family said: ' Mary, if
I had a husband with a mind such as yours has I wouldn't
care what he did/ This pleased her very much and she
replied : ' It is very foolish it is a small thing to com-
plain of.' "

Frances Wallace's statement to which Mrs. Helm refers
was as follows i 1 " They did not lead an unhappy life at all.
She was devoted to him and her children, and he was cer-
tainly all to her that any husband could have been. . . .
And they say that Mrs. Lincoln was an ambitious woman.
But she was not an ambitious woman at all. She was devoted
to her home."

One of the men who knew the Lincolns in this period was
Arnold. He was the friend of Mrs. Lincoln then, and he
stood by her loyally in her Gethsemane. He wrote : 2
"I must not omit to mention the old-fashioned, generous
hospitality of Springfield, proverbial to this day throughout
the state. Among others I recall the dinner parties given
by Mrs. Lincoln in her modest and simple home. There was
always, on the part of both host and hostess, a cordial and
hearty western welcome which put every guest perfectly at
home. Mrs. Lincoln's table was famed for the excellence of
many Kentucky dishes. . . . Yet it was her genial manners
and ever kindly welcome, and Mr. Lincoln's wit, humor,
anecdote, and unrivaled conversation, which formed the
chief attraction."

Henry B. Rankin first met Abraham Lincoln in the
forties, but it was not until the fifties that he moved to
Springfield and entered the Lincoln-Herndon office in a
minor capacity. I have discussed Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln
with Rankin, and what he told of them is in accord with
what he said in the two books he has written. In the In-

1 Bibliography, No. x8x. * Bibliography, No. 4, p. 82.

The youthful Mrs. Lincoln.
From a photograph owned by Oliver R. Barrett.

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY, 1851-61

troduction to the second of these books * Ida M. Tarbell
wrote: "They are a precious contribution."

Rankin writes : " I was a verdant youth of nineteen when
I was calling on her at her home sixteen years after she be-
came Mrs. Lincoln, and I had the temerity to ask her how
and when she made her first acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln."
Mr. Rankin, when a boy in the law office, took a copy of
the Southern Literary Messenger to the Lincoln home, and
there met Mrs. Lincoln. He was charmed by her grace and
good manners, and her kindness to a country boy newly
come to town. Her evidence of culture and education won
his admiration. He has written the kindliest description of
her of which I know. From it the following quotations are
made : 2

" She thought quickly, spoke rapidly. Without intending
to wound, she sometimes hurt in sarcastic or witty remarks.
... It was remarked to me by one who had known Mrs.
Lincoln long and very intimately that her frank and spirited
manner, her candor of speech and independence of thought,
often gave offense where none was meant. . . . She was
never ungracious toward strangers, nor did she ever inten-
tionally wound a friend. . . . Always and everywhere she
showed her refinement and dignity of character. ... I
shall not in this writing seek for, or endeavor to set forth,
all the sources or motives, nor follow the trail, of either the
personality or the criticism of Mrs. Lincoln's foes much
less try to account for their animosity. . . . The writers
who have exhausted the resources of both gossip and fiction
to write Mr. Lincoln's early life down in a way calculated
to cheapen and coarsen those years with as much vulgarity
as possible are the same writers from whom have come the
attacks on Mrs. Lincoln in even worse caricatures. ... I
ask you to hear something about her life as I know it. ...
In none of these situations [the text recites a great many]
did I ever detect in Mrs. Lincoln aught but the most wifely

1 Bibliography, No. 148, p. 13. * Bibliography, No. 149, Chapter ix.

153

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY, 1851-61

and matronly proprieties and respect toward her husband
and her friends. She adapted herself cheerfully to all those
exacting functions required of Lincoln in his public life. . . .
I beg pardon of any reader for trailing my pen through such
trivial scandals. I have done it in the briefest possible way.
It is done to show the injustice and cruelty of much of the
false insinuations against Mrs. Lincoln that have found
their way into history. . . . The few I have mentioned
show how distorted many simple acts and incidents may be
made to appear when taken apart from their relation to
other facts with which they were connected."

What we find in the Lincoln biographies that follow
Herndon about Mrs. Lincoln's personality from 1842 to
1851 is not favorable to her. Beveridge's opinion is summed
up in the title which he uses for the chapter dealing with this
period. It is: "Years of Discipline." The title bears evi-
dence of having been chosen from the following paragraph,
in which he indicates his opinion of the effect on Lincoln of
his wife's behavior: 1

"Thus began his continuous and lifelong tutelage in hu-
mility, his instruction in patience, and the practice of that
supreme virtue which was to continue without ceasing, year
after year, decade after decade, as long as he lived. . . .
For his wife soon unchained that temper which grew more
savage through the years, and was exhibited in the sight and
hearing of many. She speedily became a c she-wolf, 1 as Hern-
don long afterward described her to Weik without knowing
that John Hay, as secretary to the President, had used a
similar but stronger and even more picturesque phrase about
Mrs. Lincoln."

That part of the Browning diary available is creditable
to Mrs. Lincoln, though little is said, and one hears much,
about what is in the suppressed part. Until that is known we
cannot weigh this diary. 2

1 Bibliography, No. 18, p. 356.

1 A foot-note in the chapter on Mrs. Lincoln in Barton's Life of Abraham Lincoln^
Vol. II, p. 416, reads as follows: "If any future biographer of Lincoln shall present

154

STRIKING A BALANCE

Lloyd Lewis wrote of the " Springfield tradition " : 1
11 Springfield knew Mrs. Lincoln of old; her erratic nerves,
her wild, sudden rages of temper."

B. F. Stoneberger, whose father rented the Lincoln house
and whose family lived there for several years, has told
me of conversations with Lincoln neighbors. 2 Charles
Arnold, who lived across the street, gave him the following
estimates of Mrs. Lincoln: "She was an educated woman,
and very ambitious for her husband. She was a very set
woman. She kept Mr. Lincoln from making several mistakes
that would have been fatal politically. She kept nagging her
husband on. Mr. Lincoln called her ' Puss,' and so did we.
We didn't think Puss Lincoln got a square deal."

Herndon wrote: 3 " In her domestic troubles I always
sympathized with Mrs. Lincoln. The world does not know
what she bore or how ill adapted she was to bear it."

STRIKING A BALANCE

Miss Mary Todd beginning her Springfield career was a
brilliant society girl with a boundless ambition and great de-
termination. Mrs. Mary Lincoln ending her Springfield life,
in 1860, was a sedate woman, but still with a boundless am-
bition and great determination. Her twenty years of Spring-
field life had added much without spoiling much. She had
failed to achieve several of her wishes, and these disappoint-
ments had sharpened her temper and made her irritable.
As to her irascible disposition within the family circle, the
evidence is reasonably conclusive, even though it bears the

other evidence, taken from an important document whose use is now forbidden for
any purpose derogatory to the character of Mrs. Lincoln, I suppose myself to be
familiar with that document; and while observing, as I am bound in honor to do so,
the conditions under which it is permitted to be read, I have taken its content fully
into account in my estimate of Mary Lincoln." This evidence follows a discussion
by Barton in which he reviews such of the charges as can be quoted.

1 Bibliography, No. 101, p. 133.

a Personal communication.

1 Bibliography, No. 75a, p. 230.

MARY TODD VS. MARY LINCOLN

marks of exaggeration. When it comes to personality de-
terioration manifested beyond this range, the evidence is
not convincing. She went through twenty years of experi-
ences for which she had been poorly trained except in two
or three fields. Many of these experiences were trying, espe-
cially to an ambitious, aggressive woman with small capacity
for accepting disappointments. Her trials had not over-
reached her power of resistance, however; her fiber was
tough enough to withstand what came to her. Her person-
ality had changed somewhat in its non-essentials, but it had
built up in some directions while it was being torn down
in others. Balancing the account, I think Mary Lincoln of
1860 was, in many respects, an improvement over Mary
Todd of 1840. However, she was approaching the limits
of her capacity to withstand. It will be shown shortly that
before she reached the White House, she gave one mani-
festation that she was in trouble, or was nearing it.

THE SPRINGFIELD LIFE IN
1860 AND 1861

After Mr* Lincoln was endorsed for president by the
Illinois state convention, he remained at home almost con-
tinuously until he started for Washington, in February 1 86 1.
Perhaps at no time before in his adult life did he remain so
long in one city as he did between his trip to New York for
the Cooper Union speech and his departure for the inaugu-
ration in Washington. Perhaps never before or after did he
make so few speeches. He did not practice law. None of
this, nor all of it, meant that time hung heavy on his hands,
or that he was without occupation. His family did not see
a great deal of him that year, in spite of his being tied to
Springfield.

The business of getting nominated was arduous, and that
of being elected was still more so. In receiving the numer-
ous delegations, Mrs. Lincoln had an opportunity to meet

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1860

a great many national characters, and usually she did the
right thing, although once she came near showing her new-
ness to like situations by proposing to serve refreshments
when to do so was not proper socially and would have been
hazardous politically. The husband candidate threaded the
maze of political expediency with skill, and the wife met the
bands of visitors and pilgrims adroitly, saying the appro-
priate thing always.

In this campaign the political attacks were uncommonly
harsh and raw. The question of slavery excited bitterness.
The cartoons were vile, and the charges made in newspaper
columns and political speeches were exceptionally rapacious.
The Lincolns had been through several campaigns since their
marriage, and there is no evidence that the shafts directed
against her husband hurt Mrs. Lincoln particularly. There
were no attacks on her. Things were " coming her way,"
and in such times her personality was not likely to suffer ; it
was restraint and disappointment that tended to curdle the
milk of her composition.

It was not difficult to foresee that Springfield and Sanga-
mon County were not to support Lincoln. On election night
he stayed up receiving returns until he learned that he had
carried his own ward. Knowing that his city and county had
gone against him, he soothed his soul with the local returns
the vote of his nearest neighbors and went to bed and
to sleep. The loss of the home town must have hurt Mrs.
Lincoln somewhat, but the returns showed that her husband
was to be president, and that recompensed for the loss of
Springfield. She could foresee that Lincoln would lose Lex-
ington. She knew that her own family was not supporting
him. Many old friends everywhere were deserting, and that
also hurt. But again success was more than an offset.

Following the election the press of the South was very
bitter toward Lincoln. In December the threats of secession
were made a reality by the action of South Carolina. In the
first months of the next year other states followed suit. Then

'57

THE FIRST FALSE NOTE

the Confederate government was organized. Civil War was
begun. This sequence of events was very disturbing to
Lincoln as he awaited his opportunity. He was constantly
busy writing letters, reading papers, advising and being ad-
vised, listening, thinking, planning, and perhaps worrying.
All of this must have registered on his wife, but her person-
ality seems to have been equal to the strain.

In January 1861 there occurred the first act of Mrs.
Lincoln indicating that she might not be mentally " right "
the first suspiciously false note. This developed in con-
nection with a trip she took to New York to make purchases,
some of which, according to the papers, were for the White
House. The details as well as the significance of this visit
will be set forth more fully in the following chapter.

CHAPTER SIX

The Peak and a Decline

Men in great flace are thrice servants.
FRANCIS BACON

INCIDENTS AFFECTING MRS.
LINCOLN

March 4, 1861 to April 14., 1865

1 86 1 March 4, Abraham Lincoln inaugurated as President
of the United States.

April 75, President Lincoln called for 75,000 vol-
unteers.

May 10, President Lincoln proclaimed martial law;
Civil War on.

May 23, Colonel E. E. Ellsworth lulled; his body lay
in state in the White House.
June 3, Stephen A. Douglas died.
Spring, it was becoming evident that there was to
be a friction between the White House and Wash-
ington " high society."

Summer, Mrs. Lincoln visited Saratoga, New York,
and Long Branch, New Jersey.
September I, Mrs. Lincoln visited Niagara Falls.
October 30, Willie Lincoln wrote a poem eulogizing
Colonel Edward Baker.

November, Mrs. Lincoln had returned to the White
House from her several trips.

1862 February 20, William W. (Willie) Lincoln died.
March g y Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac.
April 6-7, Battle of Shiloh. Samuel B. Todd killed.
June, Pekin, Illinois, a Council of the Union League
organized.

Summer, President and Mrs. Lincoln spent most of

the season in the Anderson cottage, Soldiers 1 Home,

Washington.

September 16-17, Battle of Antietam.

September 22, Emancipation Proclamation issued.

September, Mrs. Lincoln visited New York City,

at the Metropolitan Hotel.

November, in the Illinois congressional elections, the
vote indicated that the people were not behind the
administration.

November 2g y Mrs. Lincoln returned from a visit to
New England.

December 21, Mrs. Lincoln in Philadelphia, Con-
tinental Hotel.

1863 January I, slaves declared free.

January 12, Richardson, Democrat, elected Senator
from Illinois.

April, President and Mrs. Lincoln and Tad visited
the Army of the Potomac.
June, Yates prorogued the Illinois legislature.
July 1-3, Battle of Gettysburg.
July 4, surrender of Vicksburg. David H. Todd seri-
ously wounded at Vicksburg.

July, Mrs. Lincoln thrown from carriage, and her
head badly hurt.

August, Alexander H. Todd killed at Baton
Rouge.

September, Mrs. Lincoln at Fifth Avenue Hotel,
New York City.

September 20, General B. H. Helm killed at Chicka-
mauga.

October, Mrs. Helm visited Mrs. Lincoln in the
White House for one week.
November 19, Gettysburg address.
November, creditors of Mrs. Lincoln threatened to
sue her.

December 3-7, Mrs. Lincoln in New York City, Fifth
Avenue Hotel.

1864 February 22, General Grant appointed Commander-
in-Chief.

Spring, bitter feeling shown by General Fremont.
April 28, Mrs. Lincoln in New York City, Metro-
politan Hotel.

June 7, Lincoln nominated for president the second
time by Union, or Republican, party.
June 24, Mrs. Lincoln in Boston.
August 29, McClellan nominated for president by
the Democrats.

August 31, Mrs. Lincoln in Manchester, Vermont.
August, Battle of Mobile Bay.
September 3, Atlanta fell.
November, President Lincoln re-elected.
December, Robert T. Lincoln in the army on the
staff of General Grant.

1865 January 5, Yates elected Senator from Illinois.
January 17, Levi O. Todd died.
March 4, Abraham Lincoln inaugurated as President
for the second term.

March 22, President and Mrs. Lincoln visited City
Point.

April 3, Richmond fell.

April 4, President and Mrs. Lincoln visited Rich-
mond.

April 9, General Lee surrendered.
April 14, President Lincoln assassinated.

CHAPTER SIX

The Peak and a Decline

WHEN MRS. LINCOLN LEFT SPRINGFIELD FOR WASH-
ington she had gained everything in life that she had
set out to accomplish. Matrimony had been the goal of her
young womanhood, as was meet and proper; it was the
goal of every girl she grew up with. She and they accepted
that as true, gloried in it, and talked about it no small part
of their time. Well, she had married; and, more than that,
she had outmarried any of them. Her husband was the
President elect. She had outmarried her three sisters. Lin-
coln had proved a better catch than Edwards, the promis-
ing son of a rich father the grand chief of Illinois public
life for years. Ninian W. Edwards was a prominent man
in Springfield and in Illinois, but his success did not com-
pare with that of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. William Wallace
was an important man and well-to-do, a physician in Spring-
field; but Frances's husband could not match position with
Mary's. And, however successful C. M. Smith was as a
business man, as a matrimonial catch Ann's husband was
rated below that of her sister. No other Springfield girl
had done so well as Mary. Julia Jayne's husband was Sena-
tor Lyman Trumbull, but a president outranks a senator.
None of the Lexington girls had made a match which corn-
pared with Mary's, seen by the light of 1861. She had
boasted that Lincoln would be president; helping to make
him so had been one of her aims. Well, he had been elected I

163

NEW AIMS

Motherhood had been one of her plans, also as was
both customary and proper. She had borne four sons.
Three of them were going with her to the White House.
She and her husband had wanted economic security. That,
too, they had. They owed no one; they had a home and
several other pieces of real estate; there were a fair num-
ber of good loans and some ready money to their credit. It
is easy to understand that Mrs. Lincoln went away from
Springfield feeling that her life had been a success, and she
had very good reasons for being both satisfied and happy.

Now a new vista was opening. What were to be her aims
for the future? She was -of a nature that did not wait for
Fortune to lay things in her lap. When Opportunity came
her way, intent upon knocking at her door, it was in her
make-up to be at the gate waiting. If, perchance, she got a
late start, she would at least be ready to open the door
while the knocking was still going on.

Undoubtedly her first endeavor would be to make her hus-
band's administration a success, in so far as she could. To
effect this, the social life of the administration must
be successful. Diplomats must be impressed; the wives of
senators and congressmen must be kept friendly; the Wash-
ington resident society must be so pleased that they would
help to establish a background for her husband's efforts.
Perhaps she could help to make friends for the adminis-
tration among foreign governments. She could talk about
their literature with their representatives, and with those
from France in their own language. A war was on, and
the friendship of foreign representatives was unusually im-
portant. She was ambitious, and few deny it. She had social
ambitions, and in Washington social ambitions may be-
come political.

To discharge the duties of a wife and mother continued
to be a major objective. It is customary for the outgoing
Mistress of the White House to invite the incoming Lady
to visit her. On the occasion of this visit, the one explains

164.

MRS. LINCOLN MISTRESS OF WHITE HOUSE

to the other just how the domestic affairs are conducted
and introduces her to what may be called " the manage-
ment." The incoming Lady accepts the invitation and ab-
sorbs as much information as she can. All of this is by way
of training for the job in hand. Actually, none of the details
of the housekeeping are attended to by the President's wife.
Mrs. Lincoln, however, interfered with household manage-
ment rather more than others had done before her, thus
showing her lack of training in organization and administra-
tion. Had she left more of this routine to others, she would
have escaped some of the censure that was poured on her
head.

The duties of his office are so strenuous that the Presi-
dent has little time for his family, and the First Lady has
few opportunities to minister to her husband's comforts.
There is authority for the statement that Mrs. Lincoln
improved such opportunities as she had. She was criticized
for leaving the President too much alone while she shopped
in New York, but these criticisms even from her enemies
died down. Contradicting the charges that she neglected
her husband is the evidence that she laughed with him and
even joked at rare intervals, bossed him, made him take
rest and indulge in diversion, and dispelled his gloom
when he was in the depression sector of his cyclic per-
sonality. Doubtless she did some things that added to
his worries all mates do. But she also helped her hus-
band over some rough places. Lincoln stole away to play
with the children when he could. Julia Taft Bayne * tells
of his doing so in 1 86 1, and many others have confirmed it.
More than one man was shocked and some were outraged
and they told the world so over the play of the Presi-
dent with his boys.

Mrs. Lincoln's mother care continued. Willie was in his
eleventh and twelfth years. Great is the need of wisdom in
the mother of a child of that age. Tad was eight years old

1 Bibliography, No. 17, p. 109.

165

NEW PROBLEMS

when he went to Washington, and twelve when he left.
He, too, greatly needed a mother's care. In the White
House period Robert was in college and did not come in for
much of his mother's attention.

For the discharge of her duties in this epoch, Mrs. Lin-
coln's training rated from good to superior. She and her
husband had been married eighteen years, and therefore
she had been trained for her duties as his wife. She had had
seventeen years of training as a mother. For the social,
political, and diplomatic duties she had also had an unusual
training. Very few First Ladies have had such thorough
preparation.

If she analyzed the situation in 1861 as she probably
did she must have felt that she would be equal to her
new responsibilities. She had met problems before and
had found solutions for them. Her training for life had
proved good enough, and what she had not learned in her
youth she had been able to acquire. Her training for the
new field had been exceptionally good; she was prepared
for most that she could foresee. Whatever new problems
arose, she would find a way to meet them.

Dr. William E. Barton says of her that she was naturally
timid, and her courage was that of will-power; she drove
herself to be courageous, in spite of her timidity. I dis-
agree with Barton as to this characteristic of Mrs. Lincoln;
I think that she was fearless almost needlessly, blindly,
so. She entered life in Washington in high spirits, with no
signs of trepidation or fear. She was confident, happy, and
hopeful.

She little knew that an unkind fate was just round every
bend in the road lying in wait for her, ready to strike
when and where the blow would hurt worst.

In 1 86 1 Mrs. Lincoln traveled a good deal. She went to
New York City and to the seashore. There was a moderate
number of formal parties and dinners. By the summer of

166

The Anderson Building, United States Soldiers' Home,

Washington, D. C., where the Lincolns lived during

the summer, 1861 to 1864.

SOCIETY, 1861 TO 1864

1861 the attitude of society toward the Lincolns became
noticeably hostile perhaps no more than in March, but
more openly so. The progress of the war was a source of
uneasiness and unhappiness. Ellsworth, the dashing young
leader of the Zouaves, was killed, and the Lincolns had his
body carried to the White House. The Battle of Bull Run
had a profound effect on Washington psychology.

Early in 1862 Willie died, and there followed a pro-
longed period of grief. (While Judge David Davis de-
plored the death of Willie, he thought it might serve to
prevent Mrs. Lincoln from doing things for which she was
being criticized and which were reflecting on her husband.)
Thereafter the social atmosphere of the White House was
of another kind. Mrs. Lincoln wore mourning clothes and
mourning jewelry and she wrote on mourning stationery.
There were no more public receptions or balls, and very
few dinners. The Lady of the White House devoted her
energies to visiting hospitals, convalescent stations, and
camps.

The purely social efforts of Mrs. Lincoln and the admin-
istration were not soon renewed after the death of Willie.
The social historians generally give two years as the length
of the social eclipse attributed to the period of mourning.
When there was some suggestion of awakening, in 1864,
the color was more military and political than social.

In 1863 the horrors of war and the perplexities that
arose out of it were many, but the spirits of the presidential
family were on the mend. In the latter part of the year it
was plain that the war was being won. The statesmanship
and major war strategy of the President were gaining for
him the confidence of thinking people, and this hopeful con-
dition was being reflected in the family circle.

In 1864 there was a political battle, and political excite-
ment always stimulated Mrs. Lincoln. To her this election
meant as much as did that of 1860. It offered the only solu-
tion she could see for her financial problem. It meant

167

FINANCES, 1861 TO 1864

indorsement of the Lincoln policies, and four more years of
power and position.

The Lincolns were greatly encouraged in November
1864. The President's own state had voted for him. Those
new friends in the north end had proved staunch; some of
the old central Illinois supporters who had wandered off
politically were now friendly. The victory of arms was in
sight; the critics had been silenced. The Lincoln sagacity
and wisdom were recognized.

In the spring of 1865 Mrs. Lincoln's spirits were again
buoyant. She emerged from the introvert state of insularity,
separateness, and resentment in which she had been most
of the time since Willie's death. She regained some of that
ambition and drive termed by some aggressiveness, and
by others audacity which characterized her personality
and which was so much in evidence in 1861. The war was
drawing to a close, and Lincoln was laying his plans for
the aftermath. There was work to be done, and he was
giving his wife a chance to help.

Came the second inaugural.

And then April the fourteenth I

FINANCIAL WORRIES

There should have been no financial worries for the Lin-
coln family during their years in the White House. For
Lincoln there were none. He went there owning a moderate
amount of real estate and having a fair accumulation of
liquid assets. He received a salary of twenty-five thousand
dollars yearly, which was much beyond his simple needs,
considering that the government bore most of the expense
of the presidential household. He was not only a man of
plain tastes and few wants, but thrifty and careful and a
good enough business man. He had told William H. Hern-
don to keep the old law sign up. When he was through in
Washington, he expected to take up his old work and his old

168

PURCHASES FOR THE WHITE HOUSE

partnership, and he never doubted his ability to make the
best living he had ever made. For Mrs. Lincoln, however,
the White House years were a financial nightmare.

In the latter part of January 1861 she and a party, of
which her merchant brother-in-law, C. M. Smith, was one,
went to New York City to do some shopping. Mrs. Lincoln
had sewed to some extent for herself and family, and she
had employed the best dressmakers in Springfield; but she
was now about to enter Washington social life and wanted
a wardrobe befitting the occasion. A. T. Stewart and the
other great New York merchants extended credit and
courtesy to her as the President's wife. At this point is
recorded her first evidence of poor judgment in money mat-
ters ; the peculiar direction and bent of this error were later
to become a quality of her insanity. She bought dress-goods,
particularly silks, and ornaments, and jewelry for her neck
and ears, and used this newly acquired credit to the breaking-
point. Her purchase of lace curtains for the White House is
not easily understood.

During four years Mrs. Lincoln continued to use her
credit. Her husband had no knowledge of all this. The best
information we have of the harrowing experience comes
from Mrs. Keckley. 1 Mrs. Lincoln began negotiations for
dresses with Elizabeth Keckley on March 5. The dress-
maker used the material bought in New York in making
fifteen or sixteen dresses in the spring and early summer
of 1 86 1. Dressmaking was somewhat halted by the death
of Willie, in 1862. Thereafter Mrs. Lincoln wore mourn-
ing, but in time her black garments became of an expensive
kind, and mourning jewelry was costly.

Mrs. Keckley says: " In endeavoring to make a display
becoming her exalted position, she had to incur many ex-
penses. Mr. Lincoln's salary was inadequate to meet them,
and she was forced to run in debt. She bought the most
expensive goods on credit, and, in 1864, enormous unpaid

1 Bibliography, No. 85, pp. 15-28.

169

FINANCIAL WORRIES

bills stared her in the face." Mrs. Lincoln is quoted as
saying: 1 " I have contracted large debts of which he knows
nothing and which he will be unable to pay if he is de-
feated." Mrs. Lincoln was strong in her counsel to Lincoln
to run for a second term, and one of her reasons was that
she hoped to be able in the second term to save enough to
pay these bills. Mrs. Keckley wrote : " The debts consisted
chiefly of store bills. . . . Altogether the amount was
$27,000. The principal part of this was owed to Stewart.
. . . She owed at the time of the President's death
$70,000." The debts had gradually piled up year by year,
but if the high figure given by Mrs. Keckley is correct, it
was not so until 1865. Mrs. Morrow wrote: 2 "When
Mrs. Lincoln entered the White House she plunged into an
orgy of spending that lasted four years. In 1863, Mrs. Lin-
coln owed $27,000, and New York creditors threatened to
sue her." At times threats were made to ask Mr. Lincoln
to pay the bills, and at other times suggestions were made
of the unpleasantness of publicity. Mrs. Keckley wrote
that sometimes Mrs. Lincoln was hysterical over financial
worries and fears. 8

Ben Perley Poore 4 grouped the several forces responsible
for the undoing of Mrs. Lincoln as her social-political-
personal enemies. His grouping is comprehensive, but it
leaves out two factors for which Mrs. Lincoln, rather than
her enemies, was responsible, and both are too important to
be overlooked : one was her emotional mourning; the other,
her anxiety due to the debt.

1 Bibliography, No. 85, pp. 149, 204.

2 Bibliography, No. 121, p. 145.

8 I have seen a bill for more than $3,000, rendered by Gait and Company in
1865. This bill represented jewelry, silverware, and ornaments purchased by Mrs.
Lincoln during two months prior to April 14, 1865.

* Bibliography, No. 141, p. 115.

170

By permission of Mr. Cameron

Abraham Lincoln while President.

From a photograph owned by S. R. Cameron,
Chicago.

WAR POLITICS

POLITICS

To be a successful politician one must have a certain
mental and emotional make-up, either inherited or acquired
by experience. One must know practical psychology: how
the individual thinks and, what is more important, how the
mob thinks or, is it not better to say, feels. One must
be a strategist in human emotions and conduct, or an op-
portunist. One must have a certain quality of detachment,
known by some as being " hard-boiled."

The politics of the Lincoln period were the most dif-
ficult that any president has ever known. To the ordinary
difficulties were added those peculiar features which war
develops and this was a civil war. The political intricacies
were again doubled. Lincoln's war politics were based upon
a concept of the Constitution, under which he proposed to
reconstruct the Union. Many who gave him full support
in his war policies were bitterly opposed to his foundations
for reconstruction. This added to the difficulties of his war
politics. Ranking well up in the list of difficulties were
those which pertain to the first national success of a political
party. In this instance the new party was an admixture of
old-line Abolitionists and their new political affiliates, and
between the two groups was an unbridgeable chasm.
Abraham Lincoln was a master politician and handled the
situations that arose as no other man could have done.
Nevertheless, all well-inf orrned persons know of the bitter-
ness with which Lincoln was attacked by his antagonists in
the North, and even in his own state, during the war period.

Mrs. Lincoln was also a politician of no mean ability
and with much desire to indulge. Indulge she did. Her
activities were bitterly resented for two reasons, for only
one of which was she responsible. Her mind was so con-
stituted that she could not play politics with detachment.
She thought of politics in terms of offices to be filled. Her

171

POLITICS AND ANTAGONISMS

letters show that she was often engaged in seeking jobs for
relatives or personal friends. The many letters she wrote
in which she was not advocating relatives or friends for
office generally showed a tendency to punish or reward for
old political scores. She was alert in her efforts to protect
her husband from those who, she thought, intended to use
him. She threw her influence, by correspondence and other-
wise, against those who had injured him or had tried to do
so. Could she have had her way, the President's Cabinet
would have been limited to men who met one standard, and
that: Had they been fair to Mr. Lincoln? Would they be
loyal to him? Politicians resented the very personal way in
which she played politics.

In this period Mrs. Lincoln began to show conspicuously
a quality which grew out of a personality trait of an earlier
period. In her young womanhood she was gossipy, interested
in talking and writing about people and events, and some-
what indifferent as to the consequences. In the Washington
period she began to make, or she showed an increased habit
of making, direct, sharp, personal references to politicians
and others whom she did not like or distrusted. This quality
was much more in evidence after 1865; in fact, it was a
characteristic of her deteriorated personality in the later
period. 1

The other group of antagonisms above referred to, and
for which she was not responsible, was her Southern an-
tecedents and affiliations.

For the light they shed on the Washington popular mind
in the spring of 1 86 1, let us read some comments by Albert
Shaw: 2

" Prejudice and slander now [1860 i] found fresh op-
portunity. Some vestiges of these prevailing misunderstand-
ings lingered in the popular mind for more than half a
century. . . . When Abraham Lincoln came to the center

1 See letter to James Gordon Bennett, October 4, 1862, in the Brown University
Lincoln Collection, and many others.
* Bibliography, No. 158, Vol. II, p. 232.

172

CHARGES AGAINST MRS. LIXCOLX

of the stage he was encompassed by invisible walls of preju-
dice and animosity. . . . Few people could overcome the
feeling that Lincoln was merely the glorified rail-splitter.
. . . There were unfounded rumors that Lincoln was part
Negro. . . ."

This is a mild statement of the bitter antagonism to
Lincoln and the resultant vilification of him which was the
order of the day in 1860 and '61 and continued in part until
1865. Following his assassination, the country at large tried
to make amends, and Washington kept step. All has been
done that could have been to correct the false statements
that were made about him.

Some of the charges against Mrs. Lincoln, quoted by
Shaw, were as follows:

" The extreme antislavery elements, and these became
increasingly large, grew deeply suspicious because Mrs. Lin-
coln had come from Kentucky. It was enough for the cen-
sorious fanatics that her own brothers and other relatives
were living in the South and were serving in the Confederate
Army. Some people have believed until this day that
Mrs. Lincoln was a Southern spy in the White House. The
extreme elements in the South, on the other hand, hated
Mrs. Lincoln because, in point of fact, she was intensely
loyal to her husband and to the Union cause, although of
Southern origin. People in the back districts of all the
Southern states were told that Mrs. Lincoln had Negro
blood in her veins and was profligate in her personal life.
. . . Mary Todd, Lincoln's wife, had been more unpleas-
antly criticized from various standpoints private and public
than any other woman in the long succession of Mistresses
of the White House. . . . Far more intense and more
penetrating, however, was the sectional prejudice due to
the cleavage between North and South. The nation's capital
city always a hotbed of malicious gossip was domi-
nated in the social sense by Southern sympathizers. The
District of Columbia, wedged in between Virginia and

PREJUDICE AND ANIMOSITY

Maryland, was sullenly hostile to the idea of having the
Lincoln family in the White House."

Mrs. Lincoln's case differs from that of Mr. Lincoln.
There has been no great effort to refute the lies that were
told of her, and, as Shaw says, " Some vestiges of these . . .
misunderstandings lingered in the popular mind for more
than half a century." So great were the walls of prejudice
and animosity against her, and so few were the defenders,
that Shaw's designation, " vestiges of misunderstandings,"
is not strong or broad enough.

Laura C. Holloway, one of the most widely read of the
historians who have dealt with the social side of official
Washington, expresses the following estimates and opinions
of Mrs. Lincoln: 1

" Mrs. Lincoln did not rightly estimate the importance
of conciliatory address with friend and foe alike, and seemed
not conscious of the immense assistance which as the wife
of a public man she had it in her power to give her hus-
band. . . . She was very ambitious. . . . Mrs. Lincoln
was a fortunate woman, in that she secured the measure
of her ambition, but it was the impartial judgment of her
friends that she was not a happy person. . . . She was
fond of society and pleased with excitement. She would
have made the White House socially what it was under
other administrations, but that was impossible. She found
herself surrounded on every side by people who were ready
to exaggerate her shortcomings, find fault with her deport-
ment on all occasions, and criticize her performance of all
her official duties. . . . Mrs. Lincoln was a lone woman
during much of the time she spent in the White House.
. . . The New Year's reception of 1865 was the most
brilliant entertainment given by the administration."

Edna M. Colman assayed her as follows : 2

" She was willful, impulsive, and quick-tempered. . . .
In her the social graces were highly developed. . . . High-

1 Bibliography, No. 80, pp. 528-44. * Bibliography, No. 44, pp. 287-3x8.

RELATIVES IN THE ARMIES

spirited, independent, and with a frankness that was often
offensive and a wit that could be caustic, she failed to win
the hearts of the people. . . . From the very beginning,
criticism and prejudice made her path a difficult one. She
was accused of disloyalty and, in later days, of actually
supplying information to the South."

On one occasion Mrs. Lincoln talked to Mrs. Keek-
ley about a charge that she was a Southern sympathizer
which appeared in the Chicago Tribune, telling her:
" The Tribune, instead of saying three of my brothers are
in the Southern army, might have said, my half-broth-
ers." And she added : Cfc I have not seen them since they
were infants. . . . My early home was truly a boarding-
school."

Instead of multiplying citations, let us see what are the
facts about Mrs. Lincoln's relatives in the armies.

She had several relatives in the Confederate Army; three
were killed in battle, and two died subsequent to the war
from wounds. Her full brother George R. C. Todd was a
surgeon in that army. Doctor Todd had been estranged
from the family, however, long before 1861. Two of those
killed in battle were her half-brothers, and a third half-
brother was severely wounded. General B. H. Helm, the
husband of a half-sister, was a Confederate officer and was
killed. General Helm had married into the family fifteen
years after Mrs. Lincoln left home. Another brother-in-
law to be, W. W. Herr, was a Confederate soldier, but the
war was over when he married her half-sister; Mrs. Lin-
coln never saw him.

But she was not without relatives in the Union Army.
Mrs. Wallace's son-in-law was in that army. Two cousins,
Porter by name, had the title of general in McClellan's
army. Several of the Todd relatives and connections in Illi-
nois fought under the Stars and Stripes. Her full brother
Levi O. was Union in his sentiments, but his age and
the condition of his health prevented his taking part in

WASHINGTON SOCIETY

hostilities; he died in 1865. In all probability Mrs. Lincoln
had more relatives in the Northern army than in the South-
ern. And, finally, the Kentucky Todds were a branch of the
Pennsylvania stem.

SOCIETY

Washington society was well organized in 1860. The
first aristocracy had been carried down with the fall of
John Quincy Adams in 1828; Jackson had sacked the town
socially in his day; but gradually the social nobility had
come back into their own, and they had had almost thirty
years in which to cc dig in." It was a Democratic regime,
with a big D, but when it came to setting up the word with
a lower-case letter, the thing did not go. There was an in-
terruption with the Whigs and Harrison in 1840. That
was not much of a change because Harrison was cut from
the same pattern as they; but, more important, he was
shortly replaced by Tyler. There was a slight interim with
Taylor and Fillmore, but on the whole the social flow from
Jackson to Buchanan was wonderfully even, as politics go
in a capital city.

Genevieve Forbes Herrick, 1 writing of the present-day
organization of society in Washington, illustrates her story
schematically. Her illustration zones society, and the zones
and their occupants, from within outwards, are these:

In the center are the " cave-dwellers." Next in social
influence are the " money-bags." Third in rank are the
" residential highbrows," including the " Georgetown high-
brows." Then come fourth, the " diplomatic corps "; fifth,
the " army-and-navy circle"; and, last, the "political
group."

She assigns the Civil. War as the birth period of present-
day Washington society with its system of zoning. It is
true that the present personnel inherited the organization

1 Bibliography, No. 77.
176

WASHINGTON SOCIETY

from a crew which began operating in Civil War time, but
beyond that her statement misleads.

Society is not creative. It does not originate; it merely
co-ordinates existing forces, organizes them, and lays down
rules for them. It is a machine, and not a genetic force. The
Civil War organization took over an older order. There
were " cave-dwellers " in Washington when the Lincolns
arrived, and they were intrenched. Mr. Poore, Mrs. Ellett,
Mrs. Clemmer, Miss Colman and Miss Holloway tell who
they were and what were their credentials. We read such
names as Mrs. Alexander Slidell, Mrs. Rose Greenhow,
Mrs. Givin, Mrs. Jeffry, Mrs. Sallie Ward Hunt, Mrs.
Charles Eames, Mrs. Woodbury, Mrs. Pickens, Mrs. Par-
ker, Mrs. Hoover, the Misses Green, and the Tayloes.
Mrs. Ellett records at least a score more of ladies each of
whom belonged to what are now known as the " cave-
dwellers," the " army-and-navy circle," or the ** money-
bags." Most of them were Southern Democrats, with for-
tunes dependent on slavery. Many of them were from New
England and the industrial East, with fortunes founded on
industry and commerce. The combination of the business
East and the slave-holding South was on a satisfactory
basis in the drawing-room. For thirty years these " cave-
dwellers " had reigned with but little to disturb their
serenity.

Then came the rise of a new party without antecedents.
That was horrible to contemplate ! There were zealots and
Abolitionists among its adherents. But the big " X " quan-
tity was those who were coming from beyond the moun-
tains, from the lands whence Indians had been expelled but
recently. They were the " great unwashed." The " cave-
dwellers " viewed them with alarm, just as their social for-
bears had viewed Andrew Jackson when he burst in at the
head of his ruffians in March 1829. (At least, that is the
way Washington society regarded it.) Was there to be
another Polly Eaton? The Abolitionists were " poison," but

177

MRS. LINCOLN AND WASHINGTON SOCIETY

most of them had education and culture. These Westerners
were likely to scalp one !

Of the Lincolns they knew almost nothing. Mr. Lincoln
was very ugly and awkward; he could not possibly have
good manners. Some of them may have remembered him
when he was in the House, but probably not; he had been
just one more congressman living in a second-rate boarding-
house. A few could report on Mrs. Lincoln. Mrs. Sallie
Ward Hunt had known the Todds in Lexington, but that
was many years ago; so had the Breckinridges, and the
Clays of the second generation, and Benjamin Gratz and
his family. Mrs. Jacob Thompson may have remembered
her from the old congressional boarding-house, but she did
not know much about her and she probably had left Wash-
ington before the inauguration.

The "cave-dwellers " are a very shrewd lot; they have
considerable power of adaptability. They decided to attend
the first reception. Mrs. Ellett wrote : * " At Mrs. Lincoln's
first drawing-room reception the elite of the metropolis
was in attendance. . . . Not only was the elite of Wash-
ington society represented, but the wealthy and fashionable
circles of nearly every state from Maine to Louisiana, and
from the Atlantic to the Pacific." She commented on the
success of Mrs. Lincoln at this reception: " Mrs. Lincoln
seemed to have impressed foreigners most favorably. . . .
Her spirit was equal to any emergency." Of Mrs. Lincoln
at the inaugural ball she said: "All eyes were turned on
Mrs. Lincoln, whose exquisite toilet and admirable ease
and grace won compliments from thousands."

But presently there came a change. Mrs. Lincoln was
not treated as she had expected to be for one reason by
one, for another by another. She resented this. She un-
leashed her vitriolic tongue. What she said was carried to
the^" cave-dwellers." They did not talk back, for that is not
their way; they turned " thumbs down," and the technique

1 Bibliography, No. 53, pp. 521-60.

178

The White House during Lincoln's administration.
From a photograph in the Frederick H. Meserx collection.

MRS. LINCOLN AXD WASHINGTON SOCIETY

consisted in ignoring the President's wife. They felt that
they were strong enough to do that. And they were, so
far as the present was concerned. Poore, writing of the
presidential New Year's reception in 1862, said: 1 t% The
crowd, indeed, as looked upon by old residents, appeared to
present new faces almost entirely." Poore said of another
function: "Washington society refused to be comforted.
Those within its charmed circle would not visit the White
House nor have any intercourse with the members of the
administration."

Mrs. Herrick in her sprightly story states : ~ " The
things that are written and the things that are said
above all, the things that are whispered." The gossip about
Mrs. Lincoln began with whisperings, but ended otherwise
when it ended at all ; it found its way into the newspapers
and thus to the eyes of the person most concerned.

Here are some of the charges, culled from books in most
instances, and special newspaper stories in others :

From Mary Ames Clemmer: 3

" It was the misfortune of Mrs. Lincoln to be the only
woman personally assailed who ever presided in the White
House. . . . Yet in reviewing the character of the Presi-
dents' wives we shall see that there was never one who en-
tered the White House with such a feeling of self-satisfac-
tion, which amounted to personal exaltation, as did Mary
Lincoln. To her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambi-
tion. . . .

"Mrs. Lincoln, presuming to abolish the time-honored
but costly state dinners of the White House, increased her
personal unpopularity to an intense degree. . . .

" The newspapers teemed with gossip concerning the new
Lady of the White House. While her sister-women sewed,
scraped lint, made bandages, and gave their all to country
and to death, the wife of its President spent her time in

1 Bibliography, No. 141, p. 115. 3 Bibliography, No. 41.

* Bibliography, No. 77.

179

CHARGES AGAINST MRS. LINCOLN

rolling to and fro between Washington and New York, in-
tent on extravagant purchases for herself and the White
House. Mrs. Lincoln seemed to have nothing to do but to
shop, and the reports of her lavish bargains in the news-
papers were vulgar and sensational in the extreme.

" Letters of rebuke, of expostulation, of anathema even,
addressed to her personally, came in from every direction.
Not a day did not bring her many such communications de-
nouncing her mode of life, her conduct; calling upon her to
fulfill the obligations and meet the opportunities of her high
station. . . .

" Thus, while disgracing the state by her own example,
she still sought to meddle in its affairs. . . . Prodigal in
her personal expenditures, she brought shame upon the
President's House by petty economies which had never dis-
graced it before. . . . From the moment Mrs. Lincoln
began to receive recriminating letters, she considered herself
an injured individual, the honored object of every jealousy
and spite, and a martyr to her high position. . . .

" It was not strange that Mrs. Lincoln was not able to
leave the White House for five weeks after her husband's
death. ... It was her misfortune that she had so armed
public sympathy against her, by years of indifference to the
sorrows of others, that when her own hour of supreme an-
guish came there were few to comfort and many to assail
. . . led to the accusation which so aroused public sympathy
against her : that she was robbing the nation's House, and
carrying the national property with her into retirement. This
accusation, which clings to her to this day, was probably
unjust.

" The public also did Mrs. Lincoln injustice in consider-
ing her an illiterate, ignorant woman. She was well born,
gently reared, and her education above the average given
to girls in her youth. She had quick perceptions and an al-
most unrivaled power of mimicry. ... Can write a more
graceful letter than one educated woman in fifty. . . .

180

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

" The career of Mrs. Lincoln had chilled the people to
expect little from the feminine administrator of the White
House, but from Martha Patterson they received much.
. . . From the nation's Home which they had redeemed
and honored, the Johnsons went back. . . ."

Poore wrote of the ball given in February 1 862 : T " Most
of the Senate was present, but not many from the House.
. . . There was no dancing, nor was it generally known
that Mrs. Lincoln had been up the two nights previous
watching at the bedside of her two sick children. Both the
President and Mrs. Lincoln left the gay throng several
times to go up to see their darling Willie. . . . The Aboli-
tionists throughout the country were merciless in their
criticism of the President and Mrs. Lincoln for giving this
reception when the soldiers were in cheerless bivouacs or
comfortless hospitals, and a Philadelphia poet wrote a scan-
dalous ode on the occasion, entitled, The Queen Must
Dance."

Mrs. Keckley wrote : 2 " I do not forget, before the pub-
lic journals vilified Mrs. Lincoln, that ladies who moved in
the Washington circle freely canvassed her character among
themselves. They gloated over many a tale of scandal that
grew out of gossip in their own circle."

W. O. Stoddard, writing out of his experiences while resi-
dent in the White House, said : s

" People in great need of something spry to write about
or talk about are picking up all sorts of stray gossip related
to assorted occurrences under this roof, and they are mak-
ing strange work of it. It is a work they will not cease from.

" The fact that she [Mrs. Lincoln] has so many enemies
strikes you as one of the curiosities of this venomous time,
for she never in any way has harmed one of the men or
women who are so recklessly assailing her. She says she is
willing to do her duty and to sit through the evening while

1 Bibliography, No. 141, p. 121. l Bibliography, No. 168, p. 52.

* Bibliography, No. 85, Preface, p. 15.

181

WASHINGTON SOCIETY

her guests are pulling her to pieces. . . . Every woman
who has yet arrived has come as a critic, and not one of them
will be capable of doing her kindly justice. They will show
no mercy. . . .

" She was well educated, of good family, and was noted
for her keenness of wit. She was well prepared for her
duties in Washington. But that she should make a success
here, under such circumstances, under the focalized bitter-
ness of all possible adverse criticisms, was simply out of the
question. . . . She has done vastly better than ill-natured
critics are willing to admit. They are a jury impaneled to
convict on every count of every indictment which any slan-
derous tongue may bring against her, and they have already
succeeded in so poisoning the popular mind that it will never
be able to judge her fairly. . . .

" She is accused of being a traitor. . . .*

"Mr. Lincoln's vilest foes are writing direct to Mrs.
Lincoln. They are willing to vent their infernal malice upon
his unoffending wife. . . . 2

" Society women call socially in pretended exchange of
social courtesies, but really in order to gather ammunition
with which to attack her. . . , 8

" She has no lack of visitors, but the old-time society of
the city of Washington has been shattered to its foundations
and the social structure of the new takes form slowly."

Stoddard depicted the charm of this old-time society
which he calls antediluvian its grace and its beauty; but
he states that it was an aristocracy founded on slavery; it
sensed that its day was at an end, and it used all its powers
to checkmate the forces that were destroying its position.
Such is human nature and always has been, and on all social
levels.

Charles Francis Adams tells of a visit to Mrs. Eames's
salon, saying: "If the President caught it at Sumner's din-
ner, his wife caught it at Mrs. Eames's reception. All man-

* Bibliography, No. 168, p. 35. Ibid., p. 36. Ibid., p. 176.

182

CHARGES AGAINST MRS. LINCOLN

ner of stories about her were flying around. She wanted to
do the right thing but, not knowing how, was too weak and
proud to ask. Servants are leaving because they must live
with gentlefolks."

W. H. Russell wrote in the London Times: 1 "I was
agreeably disappointed in Mrs. Lincoln, as the " secesh '
ladies in Washington had been amusing themselves by anec-
dotes which could scarcely have been founded on facts." He
went to a reception at the White House, March 30, 1861,
and wrote : " Only two or three ladies were in the drawing-
room. The Washington ladies have not yet made up their
minds that Mrs. Lincoln is the fashion."

Barton 2 gives some of the abusive things that were said
of Mrs. Lincoln, among them: that she did not love her
husband and was planning to elope with a Russian count;
that she was a Confederate spy in touch with the Confed-
erate Army through her relatives, some of whom visited
at the White House in ribald songs around campfires
her name was joined with that of Jefferson Davis; that
she was heartless and vain, giving balls and dinners when
the nation was in distress, and war was levying its toll ; that
she discontinued state balls and dinners to save her money;
that she neglected her husband to travel. These stories
Barton pronounced " as false as they were foul." He says
of her that she was loyal to the country and to her husband.

Among other charges against Mrs. Lincoln, found cited
in Honore Willsie Morrow's book and in other places, were
these : 3

A cabinet member accused her of falsifying the White
House accounts in 1862. Lincoln beat his wife while
drunk. Lincoln forbade Sumner the house because of in-
discretions with Mrs. Lincoln. "There are spies in the
White House." " Mrs. Lincoln is a spy."

So far as her Washington social aims were concerned,

1 Bibliography, No. 121. Bibliography, No. 121, No. 122, and No. xz.

8 Bibliography, No. 9; No. zi; No. 15, p. 334.

183

THE DEATH OF WILLIE

Mrs. Lincoln was a failure. For this undertaking she had
considered herself highly qualified. She had embarrassed
herself financially in securing an equipment of clothes and
jewelry. She had taken the job seriously and had set about
it with her accustomed energy and aggressiveness. The op-
position had been too strong for her. The hostility of the
social atmosphere in March 1861 she had failed to change.
She heard many of the charges against her. They hurt her;
they seared 1

MOURNING

Within these four years Mrs. Lincoln suffered two of the
three major tragedies of her life. Her emotional reactions
to these two deaths left her a wreck. Her recovery from the
first was incomplete when the second blow fell. Her financial
worries after June 1865 were so great that she appeared
to recover from the second loss with a rapidity that was
not expected. She sought support for her pension bill rather
than listeners for the story of her sorrows. The recupera-
tion was superficial, however the marks were on her soul
to the end of her journey.

THE DEATH OF WILLIE

In February 1862 the Lincolns lost Willie, their third
son. Elizabeth Grimsley wrote of Mrs. Lincoln: 1 ". . .
and with it [Willie's death] had gone part of the doting
mother's heart also, which was never more to find peace and
comfort, mourning and refusing to be comforted, as only
such impassioned natures yield to grief."

Mrs. Lincoln did not attend the funeral of this son. Nor
did she ever attend the funeral of any of her immediate
family.

Mrs. Keckley,' writing of March 1862, said 2 that so

l Bibliography, No. 67. * Bibliography, No. 85.

184

MOURNING

prolonged and profound was her depression that Mr. Lin-
coln once put his arm around her and, pointing toward a
hospital for the insane which lay within view, made the re-
mark: " Mary, if you do not control yourself we will have
to put you over there."

Emilie Todd Helm is the authority for the statement
that, subsequent to the death of Willie, Mrs. Lincoln had
hallucinations. An entry in her diary, made while she was
a guest in the White House in October 1863, reads: 1
" After I had said good-night and gone to my room last
night, there was a gentle knock at the door and Sister
Mary's voice said, * Emilie, may I come in? ' "

Mrs. Lincoln then attempted to console Mrs. Helm on
the recent death of her husband by telling her the dead still
lived and could visit their loved ones. Quoting Mrs. Lincoln
from the diary: " '. . . When my noble little Willie was
first taken from me there was not a ray of light. ... If
Willie did not come to comfort me I would still be drowned
in tears, and while I long inexpressibly to touch him, to hold
him in my arms, and still grieve that he has no future in
this world that I might watch with a mother's heart he
lives, Emilie. He comes to me every night and stands at
the foot of my bed with the same sweet, adorable srnile he
has always had; he does not always come alone; little Eddie
is sometimes with him, and twice he has come with our
brother, Alex. 1 "

And Mrs. Helm continues: ec . . . It is unnatural and
abnormal, it frightens me. It does not seem like Sister Mary
to be so wrought up. She is on a terrible strain and her
smiles seem forced."

THE DEATH OF LINCOLN

The death of the President came to Mrs. Lincoln with-
out preparation. In August 1866 she said to William H.

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 226 S.

185

THE DEATH OF LINCOLN

Herndon: x " I often told Mr. Lincoln that God would not
let any harm come to him. He had passed through four
long years terrible and bloody years unscathed." In
his account of Lincoln's death W. J. Ferguson says: 2
11 Mrs. Lincoln was the first person to realize what had
happened. She sprang to the front of the box and called
for someone to stop the escaping murderer. Then she sank
back in a chair, apparently in a daze. The account which
pictures Mrs. Lincoln's dress as covered with blood is in-
correct, since no blood flowed from the wound until the
bearers started with the wounded man to the house across
the street." The general contemporary reports picture Mrs.
Lincoln as following crying loudly, almost yelling, in her
grief. Poore wrote: " Mrs. Lincoln in a frantic condition
was assisted in crossing the street, uttering heart-rending
shrieks." The descriptions of her mourning subsequent to
the night of his death use such terms as " convulsions,"
" spasms of grief," " convulsive sobbing," as was the case
when Willie died. She remained in bed for several weeks,
her violent emotional outbreaks painful to hear and very
distressing to all. She did not attend her husband's funeral,
but she did insist that Willie's body be carried home with
that of his father.

For several weeks President Johnson was not able to
function from the White House, because Mrs. Lincoln's
sorrow had so undermined her health that she could not
assume the task of moving.

These two violent emotional disturbances, occurring
within about three years of each other, were important
causes of Mrs. Lincoln's personality disintegration. After
the death of Willie her conduct was very plainly toward
the introvert type, and so it ran for two years. The reac-
tion of 1864, followed by the greater normalcy of 1865,
was of great assistance; but before she was well estab-
lished in it, the calamity of 1865 befell her.

1 Bibliography, No. 750, p. 514. * Bibliography, No. 58.

186

CHAPTER SEVEN

Taking Toll

Pomfey bad* Sulla recollect that more worshiped the rising than the set-
ting sun.

Life cf Pom fey

INCIDENTS AFFECTING MRS.
LINCOLN

May 1865 to May 20, 1875

1865 May 4, President Lincoln buried in Springfield,
Illinois.

May 22, Mrs. Lincoln and family left Washington
for Chicago; they arrived May 24 and went to the
Tremont House.

May 31, Mrs. Lincoln moved to a Hyde Park
boarding-house.

June II, Mrs. Lincoln wrote to Governor R. J.
Oglesby, laying down conditions as to the Lincoln
tomb.

December 22, Mrs. Lincoln and Robert in Spring-
field; Mr. Lincoln's body transferred to tomb.

1866 Mrs. Lincoln in Chicago.

Robert T. Lincoln, in Chicago, was studying law in the

office of Scammon, McCagg, and Fuller (afterwards

Chief Justice Fuller). 1

May 22, Mrs. Lincoln bought and occupied the house

on West Washington Street.

September 6, Mrs. Lincoln interviewed by Herndon,

St. Nicholas Hotel, Springfield.

November, Herndon delivered his lecture on Ann

Rutledge and Mrs. Lincoln; Robert bitter against

Herndon for the Ann Rutledge myth and other

statements.

1867 Mrs. Lincoln in Chicago.

February 26, Robert Lincoln admitted to the bar.
Robert Lincoln in the firm, Scammon and Lincoln;
lived with his mother at 375 West Washington
Street (old number). 2

1 Edwards's Chicago Directory. * Bailey's Chicago Directory.

March, Mrs. Lincoln first wrote Mrs. Keckley about
selling her jewelry.

March, Mrs. Lincoln expressed bitterness against
Herndon for the Ann Rutledge lecture.
April 14, President Andrew Johnson in Chicago;
Mrs. Lincoln in Springfield to visit the Lincoln tomb.
May i (about}, Mrs. Lincoln rented her West
Washington Street house and moved to the Clifton
House.

July, Mrs. Lincoln in Racine, Wisconsin.
September 19, Mrs. Lincoln in New York. The pro-
posed auction episode.

October 13, Mrs. Lincoln was boarding with D. Cole,
at 460 West Washington Street, Chicago (old
number).

November, Mrs. Lincoln's brother-in-law, Dr. Wil-
liam Wallace, died.

1868 Mrs. Lincoln traveled in New England, Pennsyl-
vania, and elsewhere. In Chicago much of the time,
at the Clifton House.

Robert Lincoln was practicing law alone ; living at the
Tremont House. 1

May 1 6, Senate failed by one vote to depose President
Johnson on impeachment.
June, Mrs. Lincoln in Chicago.

July to September, Mrs. Lincoln in Cresson, Pennsyl-
vania.

September I, Mrs. Lincoln expected to sail for Eu-
rope, but did not.

September 24, Robert T. Lincoln married Mary
Harlan.

Later in the autumn, Mrs. Lincoln with Tad went
to Europe.
November, U. S. Grant elected President.

1869 January 25, Mrs. Lincoln's letter written from

1 Edwards's Chicago Directory.

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was read to the Senate.

February, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad in Frankfurt am

Main.

October 12, Robert's daughter, Mary, born.

December 3, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad in London.

December 29, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad in Frankfurt

am Main ; Tad in school.

1870 February 12, Mrs. Lincoln in Florence, Italy.
March 22, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad in Frankfurt am
Main; Tad in school.

May to August, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad in Germany;

Tad in school

May 2, Mrs. Lincoln's pension bill passed the House,

May ig, Mrs. Lincoln visited Tad in school at Ober

Ursel, near Frankfurt.

June 29, Mrs. Lincoln in Frankfurt am Main.

July 14, The pension bill passed the Senate.

August /7, Mrs. Lincoln in Frankfurt am Main.

September I to December, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad in

England.

1871 January and February, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad in
London ; Tad in school.

March, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad sailed for home ; Tad
ill.

May, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad were staying with
Robert Lincoln and family on Wabash Avenue in
Chicago ; Tad's illness continued.
June, Mrs. Lincoln and Tad at the Clifton House;
Tad seriously ill.

July 15, Tad died at the Clifton House; funeral from
Robert's home on Wabash Avenue ; burial in Spring-
field.

1872 and 1873 Mrs. Lincoln's name not in Chicago or
Springfield directories. 1

1 1 have found nothing which tells definitely where Mrs. Lincoln was between
the autumn of 1871 and the spring of 1874. There is no record on the subject, and

1874 ^ rs - Lincoln's name reappeared in the Lakeside Di-
rectory of Chicago; address, Grand Central Hotel.
April 6, Mrs. Lincoln sold the Washington Street
house.

Summer, Mrs. Lincoln in Waukesha, Wisconsin,
drinking the waters for her health.
Winter, Mrs. Lincoln in Florida.

1875 Until March 12, Mrs. Lincoln in Florida.

April, Mrs. Lincoln at the Grand Pacific Hotel,

Chicago.

May ig, Mrs. Lincoln tried for sanity.

no letters written by her during this period have come to light. She was in Chicago
at times, for Dr. Willis Danforth testified that he treated her after Tad died and
prior to 1875; she was living in Hyde Park when he treated her. She probably was
in Chicago'in April 1874, when she sold her house. Mrs. Fitzgerald, who was her
companion nurse, says that Mrs. Lincoln was often in Springfield and traveled
considerably. These are about the only known facts for these years.

CHAPTER SEVEX

Taking Toll

AFTER A PERIOD OF EMOTIONAL ILLNESS WHICH cox-
jfTLfined her to bed, and the length of which irked many
people, Mrs. Lincoln left the White House, May 22, 1865,
and went with her family to Chicago. There she lived rather
obscurely, simply, and inexpensively for several years. She
spent most of the time in boarding-houses, though she lived
at the Clifton House for a while, and for another period in
the house she purchased on West Washington Street.

She devoted her attention to Tad. She dabbled somewhat
in spiritualism, and she visited her husband's tomb from
time to time. She traveled a good deal, sometimes to the
mountains and other resorts because this was the period in
which she gave most evidence of ill health. Other trips were
for the purpose of attempting to sell her wardrobe and of
promoting her pension bill. There was one long European
trip, the ostensible purpose of which was to educate Tad.
The underlying purpose unquestionably, however, was to
escape the bitter debate when the pension bill should come
up in Congress. By that time the auction episode had taught
her what politicians and newspapers could do in this line,
and doubtless Senator Sumner had warned her what to
expect. Possibly another reason for this trip was her poor
health; this she gave when discussing her proposed journey.
She had planned to go to Europe earlier than she did, and
had even engaged passage. She assigned her poor health

THE LINCOLN MONUMENT

and her poverty as reasons for waiting. Probably the mar-
riage of her son Robert was also a factor.

Within one week of Mrs. Lincoln's arrival in Chicago
from Washington (May 24, 1865), she was in a quarrel
with Governor Oglesby and the Lincoln Monument Commis-
sion, but this disagreement was not serious. In it she was op-
posed editorially by the Springfield Journal; but she was
supported by the Chicago Tribune. She won most of her con-
tentions, and, having been victorious, she appeared to be
satisfied. When Lincoln's body was moved to its permanent
resting-place, on December 22, 1865, Mrs. Lincoln and
Robert went to Springfield to witness the transfer. Tad,
being in Racine at school, did not go. Elizabeth Keckley mis-
takenly writes x that Mrs. Lincoln did not visit her husband's
grave until April 14, 1866.

Robert knew that his mother was mentally unbalanced,
for he had written his fiancee to that effect as early as 1 867- 2
When Mrs. Lincoln was in Europe in 1870, she wrote her
daughter-in-law affectionate letters in which there is no sug-
gestion of bitterness against Robert; but after 1871 and
until 1875 there are no letters to be found, to Mrs. Robert
Lincoln or to anyone else at least, none that I have been
able to locate. Mrs. Fitzgerald was with her as an attend-
ant, and from Eddie Foy (the actor), her son, 8 we learn
that in this period the family thought it advisable to have
Mrs. Lincoln guarded. That she was in Chicago part of the
time is shown by the testimony of Dr. Willis Danforth. Un-
doubtedly she traveled a great deal Eddie Foy's state-
ment indicates that. Significance lies in her restlessness, and
also in the fact that she avoided her family and friends.

The re-election of Lincoln in 1 864 had meant a great deal
to Mrs. Lincoln. It was gratifying to know that his policy
had won, his wisdom been vindicated. And, then, the

1 Bibliography, No. 85, p. 226. Bibliography, No. 60.

2 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 267.

194

The Clifton House, Chicago.
picture owed by The Chicago Historical * octet j

HOPES AND AIMS

war was drawing to a close. Success in battle had helped to
win the election, and winning the election had speeded the
end of the war. Beyond all this the early spring of 1865
was a harbinger of hope for her. She saw a possibility of pay-
ing the bills owed the New York City and the Washington
merchants a possibility that she could not have seen if
the election had gone against her husband. It is likely that
Mrs. Lincoln intended to renew her struggle for social
recognition. She was now in a strategic position, and the
old group that had opposed her so effectively in 1861 had
lost slaves, property, and caste, and were no longer able to
turn u thumbs down." That she and her husband hoped to
see their son Robert married to Mary Harlan, the daughter
of their close friends, Senator and Mrs. James Harlan, is
undoubtedly true. They hoped to see him finish his formal
education and launch himself in his chosen profession. They
hoped for a family of grandchildren. They would see Tad,
also, finish his education and take a place in the world.

Certain it is that she had political aims. President Lincoln
was contriving to present his idea of reconstruction to the
country, and his wife was being given certain tasks. We
can readily understand that Mrs. Lincoln in March 1865 was
well out of her " Slough of Despond " and again felt herself
headed for success.

When she left the White House at the end of May 1865,
the picture was different. She had lost her husband, her
position as First Lady of the Land, her ambitions, her hopes,
and her opportunities. All was ashes. Nothing for which she
had planned and striven remained to her. She had her two
boys, and that was all.

After she had begun to emerge from her hysterical emo-
tionalism, she did as it was her nature to do: she set a
new goal financial independence. The explanation of this
as her objective is easily understood. Her debts were unpaid
Mrs. Keckley said they totaled $70,000 when Lincoln
died. Since he left no will, his estate was to be distributed

*95

FINANCIAL WORRIES

by law. The inventory showed that it amounted to over
$100,000 in good securities, not counting the value of the
real estate. Under the Illinois law, Mrs. Lincoln would
eventually receive one third of the personal property,
amounting to something less than $40,000. She needed
nearly twice that amount to pay her debts. If she paid them,
she would be penniless. Her creditors were not patient and
could be expected to become more insistent. Even if she es-
caped the debts, the earnings of her widow's portion would
be inadequate to meet her needs. She must get additional
revenue. This became her great purpose and about her only
one, beyond that of mothering her sons.

For the first time in her adult life she found herself un-
trained for the pursuit of her major objective. She had
helped her husband to make money by saving in the Spring-
field days, but that experience was not adequate for the need
which now confronted her. How was she to get the debts
paid and to find money for her living? The story of her
plans and schemes, some of them far-seeing and wise, and
some foolish, will be next discussed. We cannot understand
Mrs. Lincoln unless we keep in mind the mess she had got
herself into, her desperate need, the objective for which
she was striving, and her eventual achievement of that aim.

Before the end of June 1865 t* 16 necessity of paying the
old debts became a source of trouble. In that month and
for the remainder of the year Mr. Williamson and B. F.
Davis were writing letters on this subject. It was proposed
in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and perhaps other cities
that funds be raised by public subscription to pay the finan-
cial obligations of the widow of the martyred President.
Several newspapers took up the suggestion. Mr. Williamson
had a scheme for collecting money to pay them, and this
met with some enthusiasm from Mrs. Lincoln at first. There
are several letters to him in which she was very cordial and
from which one can readily infer that she thought he was

196

MRS. LINCOLN'S DEBT

her friend and would be able to raise a substantial sum to
apply on her obligations to her creditors. Later in the year
the tone of the correspondence indicated that Mrs. Lincoln
thought him more interested in A. T. Stewart, Lord and
Taylor, and Gait and Company, than he was in the Presi-
dent's widow. That Williamson was quite active is shown
by a letter from Secretary of the Interior James Harlan,
later Robert Lincoln's father-in-law, saying that William-
son was pressing for payment of Mrs. Lincoln's debt. That
he spoke from the standpoint of the creditors was evident.
Mrs. Lincoln closed his relation to the matter by the follow-
ing letter : 1

Chicago^ Xos. loth,
1867.
MR. WILLIAMSON

MY DEAR SIR!

Your note is received and you will allow me to say, that I
have not the least intention of going to Europe. If I should
ever do so, with my present means, it would be with the hope,
that I might live more comfortably there on my small income,
than here. You men have the advantage of us women, in being
able to go out in the world and earning a living. There need be
no more correspondence on the subject of sending your daugh-
ter one of my dresses. When they are returned to me I shall do
so. I am having chills, every other day, therefore I am un-
able to keep up a correspondence with any one therefore
my silence, with this explanation, and with your good sense
and feeling, will not be attributed to any want of friendship.
I am greatly indisposed and my physician orders quiet as
little writing and reading as possible. This climate is very
trying to me in the winter season. When, my dresses are re-
turned to me, I will remember my promise, I cannot do so
before. My health is too poor, for me to be disturbed by idle
rumors. I would gladly keep up a correspondence with your-
self and other friends, if I could do so without injury to myself.
At the proper time, my promise, regarding your daughter, will
be kept so there will be no more writing on the subject
I have given up housekeeping and am boarding in the plainest

1 Original Letter in the Lincoln Collection, Brown University, Providence.
Rhode Island.

797

THE WARDROBE AUCTION EPISODE

manner, so I can appreciate your expression, about high
prices I wish we, all, could be unmindful of our daily neces-
sities, by having sufficient to live upon. There is no more
expensive place than Chicago. I am writing, with a fever on
me after a chill and against a positive promise given my
physician. So, in the future, my silence by all friends, I hope,
will be understood.

I remain, truly your friend

MRS. L.

From the summer of 1865 and until 1870 the urge to get
money was an obsession with her. I have read many of her
letters written between 1865 and 1871, and in most of them
she complains of poverty, of the poor way in which she,
Robert, and Tad are compelled to live ; and always coupled
with this theme is the subject of money-getting. She wrote
often of people to whom Lincoln had loaned money before
he went to Washington, and of measures for making them
pay the estate. In one collection of her letters, there are
ten written in 1866 dealing with her poverty and the humilia-
tion and discomfort it occasioned her, and with efforts to get
more money; there are eleven written in 1867 and one in
1868, dealing with these two themes.

In the later months of 1867 Mrs. Lincoln shifted her
efforts to get money from the plan for a national subscrip-
tion to the proposed auction.

THE WARDROBE AUCTION EPISODE

Mrs. Keckley says that Mrs. Lincoln discussed selling
some of her clothing and jewelry, in order to raise money
to pay her debts, as early as 1863. In 1864 she again men-
tioned the subject. In 1865 she told Mrs. Keckley: " We
will leave the White House poorer than when we came.
. . . Lizzie, I may see the day when I shall be obliged to
sell a part of my wardrobe."

When she went to Chicago in May 1865, she remained
there for a year or two. She and Tad boarded in the

198

THE WARDROBE AUCTION EPISODE

Tremont House, the Hyde Park Hotel, the Clifton House,
and in one or more boarding-houses and lived for one year
in the Washington Street house. Together they had a yearly
income, from Abraham Lincoln's estate, of about $3,400.

In March 1867 Mrs. Lincoln wrote Mrs. Keckley for
the first time about selling her wardrobe, saying: " I can-
not live on $1,700 a year. 7 ' She would have to give up her
house, and board. In August she wrote Mrs. Keckley to meet
her in New York to arrange for the sale of her clothes.
After one or two postponements they met there, September
17, 1867.

A New York firm had been in negotiation with Mrs. Lin-
coln for the sale of her wardrobe and jewelry and had con-
vinced her that enough would be realized to pay off the debts
and to add something to her store of bonds. The scheme
was visionary and reflected discredit on the judgment of
those who proposed it; it was in poor taste; it was bad
political policy. Further discussion of its shortcomings is not
necessary. In so far as Mrs. Lincoln was responsible for her
participation, she was censurable.

But the storm which broke when the scheme was pub-
lished was far beyond the limits of justice. The papers
boiled with condemnation. Mrs. Kecklev says : " The news-
paper denunciations which particularly hurt her were those
in the New York Evening Express, and New York tforld,
and Chicago Times. . . . But above all, she complained of
Thurlow Weed and the Albany Evening Journal." On Janu-
ary 13, 1868 Mrs. Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Orne: * " I under-
stand the New York World is visiting its spleen and spite
against the government by attacking poor me. Broken down
as I am with my agonizing sorrow it might at least have
spared me this cruelty."

The Albany Journal said editorially: " Mrs. Lincoln has
dishonored herself, her country, and the memory of her
lamented husband." Thurlow Weed wrote further in his

1 Letter in the Lincoln Collection, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

199

THE WARDROBE AUCTION EPISODE

paper: "The Republicans, through Congress, would have
made proper arrangements for the maintenance of Mrs.
Lincoln had she so deported herself as to inspire respect.
No president's wife ever before accumulated such valuable
effects. Those accumulations are suggestive of fat contracts
and corrupt disposal of patronage."

The Pittsburgh Commercial said: " Mrs. Lincoln, whose
judgment and taste have never been rated high . . ." The
Cleveland Herald commented : " It has been believed that
charity and oblivion were the cloaks that should cover Mrs.
Lincoln's career as Mistress of the White House. It took
$100,000 to make good the spoliation at the White House,
and let it be proved who had the benefit of such plundering."
The Philadelphia Evening Telegraph asked how had Mrs.
Lincoln managed to squander $25,000 in less than two years.
The Norwich (Connecticut) Advertiser said: "There is a
nasty history connected with this Lincoln woman's occu-
pancy of the White House that will come out some day."
The Hartford Evening Press wrote : " The exhibition she
has recently made of herself surprises no one."

Some of the papers, and particularly the Springfield
(Illinois) Journal, took a kindlier view, alleging that she
was insane and that this proposed wardrobe sale was an-
other proof of the fact. On October 9 the New York
Tribune printed a letter, signed B, which said: " No doubt
Mrs. Lincoln is deranged has been for years past, and
will end her life in a lunatic asylum."

The Ohio Statesman wrote in a different vein. It was
Democratic and found here an opportunity to discredit its
opponents. It said: "The bitterness and ferocity of the
Republican press in their attack on Mrs. Lincoln is without
a parallel in the history of newspaper warfare. Blackguards
and slanderers join in the effort to traduce the wife of a man
whom they profess to be without a peer. Such things are dis-
graceful."

Mrs. Lincoln read these abusive articles and was dumb-

200

The house, on Washington Street ' now Boulevard-, Chicago,

owned by Mrs. Lincoln, in -jzhich she lived in iSM and iS6~
(indicated by the crosses : .

HOUSEHOLD GOODS SOLD

founded. She complained of Weed, ascribed his bitterness
to an old quarrel ; complained of the New York World and
of the Chicago Republican, a paper owned by Bunn and other
Springfield men who had fattened on patronage given them
by her husband. She gained nothing by striking back; she
only made matters worse.

After shifting the plan several times Mrs. Lincoln dis-
playing great indecision, unsound judgment, and bad taste at
every turn the matter was dropped, with some financial
loss and more loss of prestige. The fight had continued for
about three months when she returned to Chicago in utter
rout. On January 28, 1868 she wrote to Mrs. Keckley: " I
am so miserable I feel like taking my own life " ; and : u The
probability is I shall need few more clothes. My rest is near
at hand." '

In the course of time the debts were cleared up. It is said
that the merchants scaled their bills somewhat. Some of the
congressional appropriation of the President's salary to
Mrs. Lincoln was used to pay a part; Mrs. Lincoln is said
to have paid a part; and the Republican campaign commit-
tee, still another. With this the incident closed.

Soon after the passing of this auction episode, in the
autumn of 1867, Mrs. Lincoln sold her household furniture
to John Alston, in whose house in Hyde Park, Chicago,
she was then living. She received $2,094.50, paid in two
notes " given by John Alston to Mar)- Lincoln."

It is worth noting that this transaction, unlike the ward-
robe episode, did not lead to newspaper notice or to abuse.
The papers made no comment on this sale, and the politi-
cians raised no row. Probably no one heard of it until
the story appeared in the Chicago Tribune many years
later. 1

The household goods thus sold were doubtless some she
had used when she lived on Washington Street though

1 March 20, 1927.

2OI

THE PENSION FIGHT

not all, for in March 1870 she wrote her daughter-in-law
about things in that house: 1 "... Anything and every-
thing is yours. . . . My mind was so distracted with my
grief in that house, 375 [West Washington Street], I can-
not remember where anything was put. It will be such a relief
to me to know that articles can be used and enjoyed by
you. . . ."

The knowledge of this sale to Mr. Alston is of some serv-
ice in disclosing one source of Mrs. Lincoln's money. She
continued to make sales of furniture, clothing, books, jew-
elry, and miscellaneous articles whenever that was possible.
All of this is of importance, in that it shows the fixedness of
her purpose to convert her personal property, such as clothes
and furniture, into cash and bonds to get all the money
she could.

THE PENSION FIGHT

A much better illustration of Mrs. Lincoln's money ob-
session is shown by her persistent, pushing effort to get a
pension. This effort was finally successful, and the victory
solved her economic problem, thus offsetting some of the
harm done her peace of mind as well as her personality by
the rancor of the fight.

In 1868 and until 1870 she concentrated her plans and
expended her energy in this cause, but ever and anon her
mind would hark back to the possibilities of a national sub-
scription. In a letter, undated, but written probably some
time in the autumn of 1869, Mrs. Lincoln compared the
gratitude of the country to Mrs. Rawlins with its ingrati-
tude toward her, saying : 2

" We have so recently seen an exhibition of the extent
of the influence in the case of Mrs. Rawlins in whose case
almost a hundred thousand dollars was raised whilst I,
the beloved wife of the great and good man whose life was

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 281.

Letter in the Lincoln Collection, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
202

THE PENSION FIGHT

sacrificed in his country's cause, have often to endure priva-
tions which I would not venture to whisper to anyone. I
mention all this by way of showing you what General Grant
can do if he so desires. With my knowledge of Mr. Sumner's
great and noble nature, rely upon it he will highly appreciate
your communication to him and depend upon it he will be
heard from regarding it. One word from General Grant
could do everything he cannot possibly withhold it. But
there is one thing, my dear Mrs. Orne, I earnestly request
it is this that whatever views your friends write you re-
garding the probable result of the action in Congress do
not withhold them from me even if they are not flattering to
the cause. I would prefer not to deceive myself with vain
hopes and yet when I think of failure I tremble much.
My situation mortifies me very much now without a recog-
nition either in shape of a pension or a generous allowance
I can only see still greater future discomfort."

(The purpose of this letter was to secure the aid of Mrs.
Orne in obtaining the pension. She especially wanted Mrs.
Orne to use her influence directly and indirectly on President
Grant.)

In 1927 the Springfield (Massachusetts) News carried
the following news items : 1

"Washington, Sept. 16 Letters of Mrs. Mary Todd
Lincoln, widow of the Great Emancipator, indicate very bit-
ter days after her husband's decease. The country was not
so grateful as it should have been. It had other heroes whom
it was rewarding on a more generous scale. The letters are
more than 50 years old and were recently disposed of at auc-
tion sale here.

" They were written when Mrs. Lincoln, broken in cour-
age and health by financial and other worries that came
upon her after the assassination of her husband, wrote
appeals to friends in power asking them to use their

1 September 16, 1927. Copies of these quotations were sent me by George F.
Hambrecht, Madison, Wisconsin.

203

THE PENSION FIGHT

influence to have Congress pass an appropriation for her
assistance. . . .

" Mrs. Lincoln . . . wrote to Mrs. Orne, wife of Rep-
resentative Orne of Chicago, saying : c Gen. Grant, whose
services to his country were certainly " not superior " to my
husband's, within the last 1 8 months has had three elegant
mansions presented to him, a salary of $13,000 which he
now enjoys. On New Year's day he is to be presented with
$100,000, an elegant library in Boston, and the prospect of
his being made president with his salary increased to $25,000
a year. Life is certainly " couleur de rose " for him, if it is
all darkness and gloom to the unhappy family of the fallen
chief.'

" The following letter was written from Marienbad,
where Mrs. Lincoln had been ordered to go by her physi-
cian : c How strangely surprising are the events that are
hourly occurring in our lives I I went into F. only 20 min-
utes away by rail to get Taddie some school books see
my physician about a new medicine he had given me and
see the papers. An English paper said that Senator Conn had
decided against me on the ground that I had property to the
amount of $65,000. A fearful and wicked invention of the
enemy, which infamous falsehood will consign me to a most
painful state of existence all my days Will your country
with all its noble hearted men allow this ? Neither you or I
believe it I became very sick I was assisted into a cab
went to the house of this good friend My physician
was sent for and after seeing me he declared another attack
of sickness such as I had in the winter would follow if I
were hurried away and he said that I must not leave this
place. 1

"There were 12 letters in all and in one on January 13,
1870 ... she said: '. . . But do you tell me that already
this Congress has given an appropriation to Grant to refur-
nish the White House ? Whilst the wife of the great chief-
tain whose life was sacrificed for his country living in an

204

THE PENSION FIGHT

uncarpeted apartment ill in bed without a menial to hand
her a cup of cold water. It appears strange that God in His
mysterious providence permits such terrible changes and con-
trasts. My only prayer now is that my life will soon be
passed. My health has completely broken down by priva-
tion I have been called upon to pass through. . . .'

" It is surprising to learn that the nation at the time was
so cold to lend any aid to the widow of the martyred Presi-
dent. But it is regarded as apparent that in those days the
country had an eye only for the living heroes of the time
and was very generous to Grant. Lincoln, it is recalled, has
become great only in recent times. They used to say bad
things of him in his lifetime. Now he is apotheosized to the
skies and most deservedly so. If the nation did not provide
the widow with a decent home to live in and a decent in-
come, it has erected in Washington a Greek temple to the
memory of Lincoln, costing more than $3,000,000. . . .

" The country has since been more generous to the widows
of the Presidents and has been disposed to appropriate
$5,000 a year for them. . . ."

The pension bill was drawn by Senator Sumner, or at his
instigation, though he did not introduce it. It went into the
Senate of the Fortieth Congress on January 17, 1869. On
January 25 the Honorable Benjamin Wade of Ohio,
president of the Senate, had the following letter read in the
Senate chamber : *

To THE HONORABLE VICE-PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF
THE SENATE:

I herewith most respectfully present to the Honorable
Senate of the United States an application for a pension.
I am a widow of a President of the United States, whose life
was sacrificed in his country's service. That sad calamity has
greatly impaired my health, and by advice of my physicians
I have come over to Germany to try the mineral water, and
during the winter to go to Italy. But my financial means do

1 Bibliography, No. 38, January 26, 1869.

20S

THE PENSION FIGHT

not permit me to take advantage of the urgent advice given
me, nor can I live in a style becoming the widow of the chief
magistrate of a great nation, although I live as economically
as I can. In consideration of the great services which my
deeply lamented husband has rendered to the United States,
and of the fearful loss I have sustained by his untimely death
his martyrdom, I may say I respectfully submit to your
honorable body this petition, hoping that a yearly pension
may be granted me that I may have less pecuniary cares.
I remain

Most respectfully,

MRS. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The letter was written from Frankfurt am Main, Ger-
many, but as reproduced in the Globe (Record) bears no
date and no postmark. It was referred to the Committee
on Pensions, where the bill had already gone. This bill did
not pass the Fortieth Congress. When General Grant was
inaugurated as President, March 4, 1869, an extra session of
the Forty-first Congress was called. The pension bill was
reintroduced in the Senate, 1 becoming Senate Bill No. 19,
and in the House, becoming House Bill No. 1950. In the
Senate it was referred to the Committee on Pensions, con-
sisting of Senators Edmunds of Vermont, Tipton of Ne-
braska, Spencer, Pratt, Brownlow, Schurz, and McCreery.
The Senate bill never got beyond this committee, though
when House Bill No. 1950 had passed the House and came
into the Senate, the Senate committee report was read into
the record. It was charged by Senator Sumner that the com-
mittee tried to smother the bill, and there are indications that
the charge was true. For instance, one of the obstructing
measures that was voted down was a motion to postpone
indefinitely.

After the bill had been in the Senate for much more than
a year, it was finally forced onto the floor for general debate.
Many parliamentary devices were tried to defeat it without
a direct vote and without open debate. There were several

1 Bibliography, No. 45, Senate Proceedings, Forty-first Congress.
206

REPORT ON THE PEXSIOX BILL

other motions that appear to have been made with intent
to kill it without having a record made. Finally the issue was
joined. It began with the reading of the adverse Senate
committee report, which was said to have been unanimously
indorsed by the committee. Senator Edmunds did not par-
ticipate in the debate after his opening statement (it was
said he had been ill for some time), and the burden of the
opposition was carried by the second on the committee, Sena-
tor Tipton. This gentleman and several others insisted that
the Senate accept the committee report as a conclusion based
on deep study, and that the Senate vote be in accordance
with it.

The report was drawn on legal and parliamentary lines,
in the main. It opposed the bill because ( I ) President Lin-
coln was not a military officer; (2) there was no precedent
for such a pension; (3) the proposal was not in line with
the policy of the government; (4) Mrs. Lincoln was not
destitute.

Congress had voted her $22,000 of Mr. Lincoln's salary,
and the report of her husband's estate showed that it had
inventoried $110,000 in bonds and stocks, of which Mrs.
Lincoln's portion was $36,765.60 a total of $58,765.60,
not including her part of the real estate. 1

So far the report was worthy of careful consideration, at
least. But it proceeded to insinuate that Mrs. Lincoln had
appropriated public property for her own use in " no incon-
siderable amount"; that she had been the beneficiary
of public subscriptions; that approximately $60,000 was
enough for any American widow, though it might not be for
royalty; and it closed as follows: " Other facts bearing on
this subject which it is probably not needful to refer to, but
which are generally known, and evidence in respect to which
is in the possession of the committee," etc.

The debate was long and at times bitter. The earlier
speeches in opposition, delivered by Senators Edmunds,

1 Mrs. Lincoln did not share in the real estate.

207

DEBATE ON THE PENSION BILL

Morrill, and Howell, were confined to the legal and pre-
cedent parts of the report. Senator McCreery said Lincoln
was a frugal man and had left his wife provided for. He
began the personal trend of the later discussion by criticiz-
ing Mrs. Lincoln for traveling in Europe. Senator Thurman
was opposed to the bill for legal reasons ; so was Senator
Saulsbury. Then Senator Yates of Illinois broke into the dis-
cussion with a bitter speech, from which the following is
taken : " There are recollections and memories, sad and
silent and deep, that I will not recall publicly, which induce
me to vote against this bill. ... A woman should be true
to her husband. ... I will not go into details. . . . My
tongue is sealed. ... I believe that, could Mr. Lincoln
speak from the abodes of heaven, he would say as I do. . .
This is not a case to which we should extend charity. ... I
happen to know that she and her family all through the war
sympathized with the Rebellion."

This bitter personal tirade against Mrs. Lincoln helped
to pass the bill. Senator Howell rose to say: " I utterly re-
fuse to take cognizance of slanders against the lady." Sena-
tor Saulsbury said: " I protest here against any imputations
against the character of Mrs. Lincoln." Senator Trumbull
said: " She is a lady known to the country, and of her per-
sonally I need not speak. . . . The widow of Abraham Lin-
coln, she was his companion in the most trying period of this
country's history. . . . She shall not suffer." Senator Cor-
bett explained that Mrs. Lincoln was in Europe to educate
her son. This evoked a storm of protests against education
of boys in Europe and of criticisms of royalty and those who
aped it. Senator Fenton said: " Mrs. Lincoln may be indis-
creet, she may have forfeited a measure of the respect natu-
rally given to one in her position ; yet she is the widow of
Abraham Lincoln."

Then Senator Tipton attempted to bring the discussion
back to a personal basis. He referred to the wardrobe-selling
episode and the consequent condemnation of Mrs. Lincoln.

208

THE PENSION FIGHT WON

Senator Cameron told of his association with Lincoln in his
Cabinet: " He often talked with me about his finances. He
once told me he was worth ten thousand dollars. . . . He
may have saved a little while President. . . . He was a
frugal man. ... A great deal of the opposition to this bill
is due to prejudice political prejudice and social prejudice
got up in this city. . . . When Mr. Lincoln and his fam-
ily came here, the society of Washington was very adverse
to him or to any other Republican family that might come
here, and they were in a great measure ostracized. The
ladies and even the gentlemen the gossips of the town
did all they could to make a bad reputation for Mrs. Lincoln,
and they tried to do so for the President. They failed as to
the President, but they did carry their venom so far as to
destroy the social position of his wife." Senator Morrill
said : " She has abundant stores. Anyone who knows her
character knows that she does not spend her money for
nothing. If she ever had it, she has it now. She should come
home and educate her boy here. She should not be encour-
aged to go abroad."

This is what was said on the floor in open session. It found
its way into the newspapers and was read by Mrs. Lincoln.
What was said in open meeting was tame compared with
what was said in other surroundings. Said the Committee
Report: "Other facts . . . not needful to refer to, but
which are generally known . . ." ; those other facts which
Senator Yates " will not recall publicly. . . , My tongue is
sealed."

On July 14, 1870 the bill passed the Senate by a vote of
28 to 24. Twenty senators did not vote, among them Sena-
tor Harlan. Of the seven members who, Senator Tipton
said, voted against the bill in committee, Senator Schurz.
voted for it on the floor; Senators Tipton, Pratt, and Mc-
Creery voted against it on the floor; Senator Edmunds was
paired against it ; and Senators Spencer and Brownlow were
absent without tie.

209

THE FIRST TRIP TO EUROPE

The bill had passed the House on May 2, 1870 with the
following vote: " yeas, 85, nays, 77; not voting, 77."

THE FIRST TRIP TO EUROPE

The first European trip, that of 1868 to 1871, did not
meet with the full approval of Judge David Davis, Tad's
guardian, but, on the other hand, he offered no great objec-
tion. The record shows that the trip caused him trouble in
keeping the estate accounts straight, and he said more on
that score than he did in opposition to the trip itself.

The reason Mrs. Lincoln usually gave for the trip was
to secure the best educational advantages for Tad. On July
18, 1868, however, she wrote Mrs. White from Cresson,
Pennsylvania, that she expected to sail from Baltimore on
August i, that her address until October i would be Edin-
burgh, and that she was going because of her own health,
saying: 1 "In my very feeble health I am endeavoring to
catch every mountain breeze in hopes that strength may be
given rne for the sea voyage before me. In my hours of
great bodily suffering which now occur quite frequently . . .
I am suffering so much. I am scarcely able to sit up. ... I
have brooded so much over my great loss that, with others,
I now feel assured the change that I am now about making
is the only thing left me to prolong my life."

Mrs. Lincoln delayed starting for Europe several months.
After she got there, she wandered very little, living incon-
spicuously and quietly. General Adam Badeau wrote : 2
" While I was Consul-General in London, I learned of her
living in an obscure quarter, greatly neglected. I went to
see her and invited her to my house. She declined in fine
style, her note of thanks betraying how rare such courtesies
had become to her." He added: " She went abroad doing

1 Original Letter owned by Oliver R. Barrett, Chicago, Illinois.

* Bibliography, No. 73, p. 272. General Badeau wrote in the New York World;
his letter was quoted and commented on by P. L. Shipman, Louisville Courier-
Journal.

2IO

THE FIRST TRIP TO EUROPE

strange things and carrying the honored name of Abraham
Lincoln into strange and sometimes unfit company, for she
was greatly neglected and felt the neglect." This statement
is true, provided the term " unfit company " is interpreted
as meaning company entirely proper, but not on Mrs. Lin-
coln's former social level; otherwise, it is not.

Her letters indicate that she was interested above all else
in promoting the passage of her pension bill. She was resent-
ful and bitter when she learned of supposed friends who had
failed her and enemies who had abused her. Her money urge
dominated her letters from Europe, but they were gracious
and kindly toward the correspondents and their families.
They are the letters of an intelligent and a courteous, but
not a well-poised, woman. Incidentally, I do not recall a let-
ter written by Mrs. Lincoln in this period that does not
contain some reference to her poor health. Such allusions are
more numerous in this period than in any other.

Almost immediately upon their arrival in Germany, Tad
went into a boarding-school, and his mother located herself
where she could see him frequently. This two years was a
very profitable season for emotional and backward Tad. He
progressed satisfactorily in his studies, for one thing. Ger-
man discipline supplied just his need. There is no wonder
that his brother, Robert, was well pleased with him when
they met again in March 1871. He traveled with his mother
somewhat, but not enough to interfere with his studies. The
latter part of his foreign schooling was in England.

In the winter of 1870-1 his mother had a severe cough,
and her physician advised her to go to Italy. In March, Tad
and his mother started home. He may have been ill when
they left Europe, for he was ill when they landed. Mother
and son went on to Chicago. There Tad was ill during the
entire spring, and until death took him.

211

THE DEATH OF TAD

The Chicago Tribune published the following : x

" At 7.30 on yesterday [Saturday] morning Tad Lincoln
died at the Clifton House on Wabash Avenue, where he had
been staying since his return from Europe. The cause of his
death was dropsy of the chest. The first symptoms showed
themselves while he was abroad, but it was not until his re-
turn, the middle of May, that his condition became alarm-
ing. The disease made its appearance in the left chest, after-
wards attacking the right chest, and soon after it caused
death by compression of the heart. He was convalescent at
one time, but he got up one night slightly clad and swooned.
This was followed by a relapse, after which he grew steadily
worse. He was attended by Dr. Charles Oilman Smith."

The administrator's report to the Sangamon County
Court shows that Drs. H. A. Johnson and N. S. Davis were
called in consultation.

The Chicago Tribune 2 said that Tad's body was removed
from the Clifton House to the home of his brother, Robert,
on Wabash Avenue, Chicago, where there were brief funeral
exercises and a sermon by a Baptist minister, after which the
body was taken to the Edwards home in Springfield. The
funeral services were held in the First Presbyterian Church,
Springfield. The Tribune story also states that " Mrs. Lin-
coln was not able to accompany the body of her son to
Springfield, owing to her complete prostration caused by her
intense grief and her continued watching at the bedside."

A fatal pleurisy developing in an eighteen-year-old boy
and lasting six months was probably tubercular in origin. It
may have been due to infection with some microbe other than
the tubercle bacillus, but the chances are against that.

About one week after Tad's death Robert wrote Judge
Davis that his mother was doing as well as could be ex-

1 July 1 6, 1871. July 18, 1871.

212

MRS. LINCOLN, 1871 TO 1875

pected. In writing this he measured what was to be expected
by his recollection of her hysterical outbreaks on the occa-
sion of other deaths in their immediate family. The meager
information we have from other sources is that Mrs. Lin-
coln mourned in 1871 as she had done in 1862 and in 1865,
after the deaths of her son and her husband.

Mrs. Lincoln was now a woman fifty-three years old. The
physiology of a woman of that age may be such that the
maintenance of emotional calm is not easy. She was passing
out of the stage of life in which headaches may be promi-
nent. After the beginning of 1 865 we find but two references
to her having violent headaches : one, May 22, 1 865, as she
left the White House; and the other, November 23, 1867,
during the auction episode. She was now approaching the
age when migraine and most other forms of sick headache
are not a source of much trouble, but she was not quite in
this zone of equanimity at the time of Tad's death.

Between 1871 and 1875 Mrs. Lincoln must have been in
a very abnormal frame of mind. There is almost no record.
She wrote no letters which have remained behind, talked
with no people who later grew reminiscent, and created no
scenes that found place in the newspapers. What we know of
her life in these years is limited to what Dr. Willis Dan-
f orth testified as to her health ; the reports of what her com-
panion nurse (Eddie Foy's mother) observed; the gossip
about her presence in Waukesha, Wisconsin, drinking the
waters ; and a stay in the mild winter climate of Florida.
Mrs. Lincoln's wanderings in Europe took her several times
to resorts having reputations as " cures," and more than
once she reported that her physicians had advised her to go
to Italy, where the breezes were balmy, or to some other
place where her physical well-being would be promoted.

213.

THE FIRST SANITY TRIAL

THE FIRST TRIAL

Mrs. Lincoln was in Florida in the winter of 1874-5.
Robert, a man of prominence, married and the father of
three children, was living with his family in Chicago. On
March 12, 1875 Mrs. Lincoln telegraphed Dr. R. N. Isham
that her son was very ill; to go to see him and to take care
of him until she could get there. Doctor Isham, greatly sur-
prised, called on Robert and found him well and at work
in his office. They telegraphed Mrs. Lincoln that there
was no cause for worry, and that she should remain in
Florida. Persisting in her delusion, however, she started for
Chicago. When she reached Chicago, Robert met her at
the train and took her to the Grand Pacific Hotel, where
she remained until May 20.

Her conduct was so abnormal that Robert Lincoln ad-
vised with his friends and those of his father and mother as
to what should be done. Confinement in an institution seemed
to be unavoidable. That could be brought about only by hav-
ing an insanity investigation and trial, legal procedures which
required the filing of charges. These charges, signed by
Robert T. Lincoln, were duly filed.

The case was heard, May 19, 1875, by Judge M. R. M.
Wallace. 1 The jury chosen to hear the evidence was : Dr. S.
C. Blake, Charles B. Farwell, J. McGregor Adams, S. B.
Parkhurst, Lyman J. Gage, C. M. Henderson, James A.
Mason, D. R. Cameron, William Stewart, S. M. Moore,
H. C. Durand, and Thomas Cogswell. Dr. S. C. Blake was
city physician, and the others were the leading wholesale
merchants and bankers in Chicago. The lawyers were, B. F.
Ayer, Leonard Swett, and L N. Arnold the ablest in the
city, and old friends of Mrs. Lincoln and her husband. Mrs.
Lincoln was present.

1 Bibliography, No. 46, May 19, 1875, p. 596.
214

THE FIRST SANITY TRIAD

The testimony against the defendant falls under three
heads :

A number of people who had had opportunity to observe
her behavior in the Grand Pacific Hotel during the month or
more she had lived there preceding the trial related what
they had seen her do and heard her say; actions that differed
from ordinary, normal behavior.

A second array of witnesses, representatives of retail busi-
ness houses at which Mrs. Lincoln traded, told of the reck-
less way in which she purchased goods particularly dress-
goods, toilet articles, jewelry, and household goods. She
would buy cloth by the bolt; would purchase a store's entire
stock of something. Her detailed bill at Gossage's, the prin-
cipal retail dry-goods house of the time, was put in evidence.

Five physicians, Drs. Willis Danforth, R. N. Isham, N. S.
Davis, H. A. Johnson, and C. G. Smith, testified. The last
four gave opinion evidence. In substance, it was that Mrs.
Lincoln was of unsound mind and not in mental condition to
manage her property.

Dr. Danforth testified more in detail, to the effect that
she was of unsound mind and incapable of managing her
property :

" In 1873 I treated Mrs. Lincoln several weeks for fever
and nervous derangement of the head, and observed at that
time indications of mental disturbance. She had strange im-
aginings; thought that someone was at work on her head,
and that an Indian was removing the bones from her face
and pulling wires out of her eyes. I visited her again in 1874
when she was suffering from debility of the nervous system.
She complained that someone was taking steel springs from
her head and would not let her rest ; that she was going to
die within a few days, and that she had been admonished to
that effect by her husband. She imagined that she heard raps
on a table conveying the time of her death, and would sit and
ask questions and repeat the supposed answer the table would
give. . . ."

215

ROBERT LINCOLN'S TESTIMONY

He continued: "Her derangement is not dependent on
the condition of her body, or arising from physical disease.
I called upon her a week ago . . . when she spoke of her
stay in Florida, of the pleasant time she had there, of the
scenery, and of the manners and customs of the Southern
people. She appeared ... to be in excellent health, and her
former hallucinations appeared to have passed away. She
said her reason for returning from Florida was that she was
not well. She startled me somewhat by saying that an attempt
had been made to poison her on her journey back. She had
been very thirsty, and at a wayside station not far from
Jacksonville she took a cup of coffee in which she discovered
poison. ... I ... am of opinion that she is insane. On
general topics her conversation was rational."

Robert Lincoln's testimony, in part, was as follows:

" I do not know why mother thought I was sick. ... I
have not been sick in ten years. ... I met her in the car
upon her arrival from the South, and upon meeting me she
was startled. She had the appearance of good health, and
did not seem fatigued by the trip. I asked her to come to my
house, but she declined, and went to the hotel. . . . She
told me that at the first breakfast she took after leaving
Jacksonville an attempt was made to poison her. I occupied
a room adjoining hers that night [the night after her ar-
rival in Chicago] . She slept well that night, but subsequently
was restless, and would come to rny door in her night-dress
and rap. Twice in one night she aroused me, and asked to
sleep in my room. I admitted her, gave her my bed, and slept
on the lounge. . . . About April i she ceased tapping at
my door, as I had told her that if she persisted I would leave
the hotel.

" I went to her room April i and found her but slightly
dressed. She left the room in that condition under some pre-
text, and the next I knew of her she was going down in the
elevator to the office. I had the elevator stopped, and tried
to induce her to return to her room. She regarded my inter-

216

MRS. LINCOLN DECLARED INSANE

ference as impertinent, and declined to leave the elevator,
but I put my arms about her and gently forced her. She
screamed, * You are going to murder me.' After a while she
said that the man who took her pocketbook had promised
to return it at a certain hour. She said the man was a wander-
ing Jew she had met in Florida. She then took a seat next the
wall, and professed to be repeating what the man was saying
to her through the wall. . . .

" I called on her the first week in April, and she told me
that all Chicago was going to be destroyed by fire, and that
she was going to send her valuables to some country town.
She said Milwaukee was too near Oshkosh, where there had
been a terrible fire the night before. She told me that my
house would be the only one saved, and I suggested to her to
leave her trunks with me. The following Sunday she showed
me securities for $57,000 which she carried in her pocket.
She has spent large sums of money recently. She has bought
$600 worth of lace curtains; three watches, costing $450;
$700 worth of other jewelry; $200 worth of soaps and per-
fumes ; and a whole piece of silk.

" I have had a conference with her cousin and Mayor
Stuart, of Springfield, and Judge Davis, of the Supreme
Court, all of whom advised me in the course I have taken. I
do not regard it safe to allow her to remain longer unre-
strained. She has long been a source of great anxiety. . . .
She has no home, and does not visit my house because of a
misunderstanding with my wife. She has always been kind
to me. She has been of unsound mind since the death of her
husband, and has been irresponsible for the last ten years.
I regard her as eccentric and unmanageable. There was no
cause for her recent purchases, as her trunks are filled with
dresses she never wears. She never wears jewelry."

The jury brought in a verdict " that the said Mary Lin-
coln is insane, and is a fit person to be sent to the State Hos-
pital for the Insane; that she is a resident . . . ; that her
age is 56 years; that her disease is of unknown duration;

217

MRS. LINCOLN DECLARED INSANE

that the cause is unknown ; that the disease is not with her
hereditary; that she is not subject to epilepsy; that she does
not manifest homicidal or suicidal tendencies; and that she is
not a pauper." This verdict was signed by each of the jurors
above mentioned.

11 Whereupon, upon the verdict aforesaid, it is considered
and adjudged by the Court that the said Mary Lincoln is an
insane person. And it is ordered . . . that a summons be is-
sued to the said Mary Lincoln commanding her to appear be-
fore this Court and show cause, if any she has or can show,
why a conservator should not be appointed to manage and
control her estate."

In accordance with the findings, Mrs. Lincoln was com-
mitted to a private sanatorium, and her son, Robert T.
Lincoln, was appointed conservator.

The trial was quietly conducted, and the crowd which
filled the court-room was awed and kindly. The newspapers
handled the story in a very sympathetic way, both in their
news columns and editorially.

In this part of Mrs. Lincoln's life there were few influ-
ences that made for the good of her personality, and many
that worked against it. Among those that were most harmful
were : the death of Tad and her emotional breakdown there-
after; the quarrels with the politicians and the press about
the debts, including the notoriety over the auction episode;
the battle in Congress over her pension ; and the minor dis-
agreement over the location of President Lincoln's tomb.
She was hurt by the Herndon lectures, and this added
slightly to the aggregation of woes that broke her down.

218

CHAPTER EIGHT

Mending Her Fences

Hott, many women are born too highly organized in sense and soul for the
highway they 'must walk with feet unshod.

O. W. HOLMES

MRS. LINCOLN HER LAST YEARS
May 20, 1875 to July 16, 1882

1875 May 20-September 10, in Bellevue Place Sanatorium,
Batavia, Illinois; thereafter with Mrs. N. W. Ed-
wards, Springfield.

1876 In Springfield with Mrs. Edwards.
June 15, in Chicago for her second trial.

October I (about) , left Springfield for Pau, France.
December I, ". . , had been in Pau six weeks*"

1877 April 12, in Pau.

Went to Marseilles and Naples.
April 22, in Sorrento.

1878 July 4, in Pau.

1879 December, in Europe, mostly in Pau.
Injured by fall.

1880 October, reached America.

1 88 1 In Springfield.

Autumn, went to New York to be treated by Dr.
Lewis A. Sayre.

1882 January 16, pension increased to $5,000 a year by
Congress, which also voted her $15,000 in addition.
March, returned to Springfield.

Summer, suffered from boils ; refused to go to the sea-
shore.

July 1 6, died in Springfield.
Buried in the Lincoln tomb.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Mending Her Fences

THE NATURE OF MRS. LINCOLN'S IMMEDIATE REACTION
to the tragic episode of her trial, the testimony she
heard, and the verdict of the jury is indicated by the follow-
ing extracts from the Chicago Tribune: a

" During the absence of the jury, Robert T. Lincoln ap-
proached his mother and extended his hand. She grasped
it fondly, remarking with a degree of emphasis, ' Robert,
I did not think you would do this. 1 . . The verdict was
received by Mrs. Lincoln without any visible emotions. She
was stolid and unmoved. . . . Subsequently she was . . .
taken to the Grand Pacific Hotel to remain over night under
proper guards. . . . About 11.30 o'clock last night it was
found necessary to send for an officer to watch over
Mrs. Lincoln, whose lunatic symptoms became quite vio-
lent. ..."

ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE

When the jury at Mrs. Lincoln's first trial returned their
verdict, they used a form, the blanks of which they filled in.
Some findings not suggested by the form were written in.
One of these written-in statements was that Mrs. Lincoln
". . . had no homicidal or suicidal tendencies." The first

1 May 20, 1875.

221

ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE

needs no comment, but certain events and some things Mrs.
Lincoln said about suicide call for notice.

Elizabeth Keckley 1 wrote that Mrs. Lincoln once dis-
cussed suicide with her, about 1863. In January 1867 she
wrote Mrs. Keckley that she was tempted to commit suicide.
The danger that Mrs. Lincoln would take her own life was
one possibility that was talked of at the meeting of physi-
cians and friends held on the Saturday before May 19, 1 875.

On May 21 the Chicago dailies carried a story relating
an attempt at suicide made by Mrs. Lincoln the previous
day. In some way she had eluded her attendants, left the
hotel, gone to a drug-store in the Grand Pacific Hotel, and
asked for some laudanum and camphor for neuralgia of her
arm. Knowing her mental condition, the druggist told her
to call again in half an hour, at which time it would be ready.
When she left, he trailed her to Rogers and Smith's drug-
store, Adams and Clark streets, where he heard her order
the same drugs. Slipping into the prescription department,
he told the clerk the circumstances, whereupon the clerk
declined to sell laudanum to Mrs. Lincoln. She then went
to Dale's drug-store and repeated the order, and again the
sleuthing druggist was able to prevent the sale. After this
she returned to the Grand Pacific drug-store and was given
a bottle of colored camphor water, labeled " Laudanum and
Camphor.*' She left the drug-store and, while under observa-
tion, drank the mixture. In ten minutes she returned for
more of the same medicine. She was given a bottle of the
same placebo, and this she swallowed. 2 Meanwhile her son,
who had been summoned, arrived and took his mother in
charge.

There is no reason to disbelieve this story because of the
jury verdict, or for any other reason. Many people have
momentary urges to self-destruction many thoroughly
sane people. If such people yield, it is done promptly and
under impulse. There is no evidence that these urges with

1 Bibliography, No. 85, p. 364. 2 Bibliography, No. 38, May 21, 1875.

222

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NEW OBJECTIVES

Mrs. Lincoln were more than momentary, or that she ever
had any trouble in resisting them. The nature of her mental
malady was such that efforts at suicide were not to be
expected.

Prior to 1875 she never had long periods of deep melan-
cholia, if she ever had at any time. In 1879 and 1880 she
was alone in Europe. If she had wanted to commit suicide,
she had ample opportunity then, not to mention the chances
she had while in Springfield and New York. Experience
proved this part of the verdict right.

NEW OBJECTIVES

As Mrs. Lincoln rode to the sanatorium in the private
car of a railroad president, she was under the charge of the
court and in the immediate care of physicians. If her eye
images could have registered on her brain, she would have
seen the beautiful Fox River valley in its spring robes of
flowers, trees in new life, and pastures of green grass where
dairy cows were grazing. It was a beautiful panorama, but
it could not register. The highways into Mrs. Lincoln's
brain were closed. Could her ears have registered, she
would have known that birds were singing. But her mind
lay covered by the ashes of her hopes, and nothing could
penetrate from the outside world. Her husband and three
of her children were dead; her ambitions were blasted; she
had no future; her friends had deserted her; her son had
more than failed her his had been the blow that started
her to Batavia ; a court had decreed her insane ; her property
had been taken from her.

She did not long remain hopeless. Within a few days she
had decided on a policy. Her first desire was to get away
from the sanatorium. She set to work on this with some of
her old-time energy. Again she took up her pen, not used
to any great extent since her battle for a pension. When
this objective was reached and she was in her sister's home,

223

MRS. LINCOLN IN THE SANATORIUM

she began a drive to have the court declare her sane. Fol-
lowing this, she resolved to disprove the statements made
by Dr. R. J. Patterson in his letter, and by witnesses at
the first trial. In the summer of 1875 she had read Dr. Pat-
terson's letter saying that she could not restrain herself;
if released, she would wander continually and widely, and
no one could stay her. She knew that much of the testimony
at her trial related to her inability to manage her property
and to her uncontrollable urge to spend money lavishly.

She made a great resolve, which dominated her conduct
up to the moment of her death. She would show the world
that she could restrain herself; that she could master her
urge to buy like a spendthrift; that, far from being a slave
to " wanderlust," she could live quietly in one place.

MRS. LINCOLN IN THE
SANATORIUM

Mrs. Lincoln reached Batavia after nightfall on May 20.
She remained there until the following September 10. Dur-
ing these several months she wrote many letters in her effort
to be released; this desire was the theme of the Bradwell
correspondence. She complained of the attendant's being
with her constantly, of the windows' being barred, and of
the loss of her property. She was considerably disturbed
about nine trunks of dress-goods and curtains which had
been removed to Milwaukee and were held in storage there.
The agitation led the newspapers to send reporters to investi-
gate. They found that the institution was an attractive build-
ing, in which one could recognize a little resemblance to the
White House. Mrs. Lincoln had a very pleasant room. An
attendant was with her. There were bars on the window.
The patient was allowed much liberty, however; she and
her attendant drove frequently in a carriage; she was al-
lowed to shop in Aurora. She did not appear to be unhappy
in her surroundings.

224

THE SECOXD SANITY TRIAL

The reporters said she talked as though the sanatorium
was the White House, and Mr. Lincoln was within. During
much of the time when in her room, she kept the curtains
drawn, and lighted the room with candles. She had great
quantities of dress-goods and lace curtains, mostly in closets
in unopened packages. A great deal of such merchandise had
been returned to the stores that sold it to her. Some mer-
chants made a practice of accepting her orders, delivering
the goods, and then sending for them within a day or two.

The continued " battering," public and private, through
newspapers and other channels, finally caused Dr. Patterson
to write a letter to the press. In this he said that Mrs.
Lincoln could not restrain herself, and that no one else,
outside of an institution, could. If she were released, she
would wander over the country, dissipating her estate. If
he ever became convinced to the contrary, he would gladly
recommend that she be released.

Accepting this as an honest statement, Mrs. Lincoln be-
gan a campaign, direct and indirect, to have her sister Mrs.
Edwards ask that she be sent to the Edwards home in
Springfield. Finally Dr. Patterson and, presumably, Robert
Lincoln and Judge Wallace gave consent. On September 10,
1875 N. W. Edwards escorted Mrs. Lincoln from Batavia
to his home. She remained there quietly enough until about
October I, 1876.

In June 1876 Mrs. Lincoln and Mr. Edwards asked
Judge Wallace to reopen the case. The request was granted.
The jury impaneled for this hearing consisted of Dr. R. M.
Paddock, D. J. Weatherhead, S. F. Knowles, Cyrus Glea-
son, W. J. Drew, D. Kimball, R. F. Wild, W. G. Lyon,
C. A. Chapin, H. Dahl, W. S. Dunham, and William Rob-
erts. The attorney was Leonard Swett. Robert Lincoln did
not appear, but he was represented as offering no oppo-
sition and waiving all technicalities. Dr. Patterson did not
appear. The only witness was N. W. Edwards. He is
quoted as swearing: " They say she is of sound mind. . . .

225

THE SECOND SANITY TRIAL

Her friends all say she is capable of managing her prop-
erty. ..." And, finally : " We think she is sane and capable
of managing her property." *

This jury found that Mary Lincoln was sane. The con-
servator was ordered to make a report to the court, to
restore Mrs. Lincoln's property to her, and then to be
discharged.

The Chicago Tribune of June 16, 1876 said: "Mrs.
Lincoln was adjudged sane and her property was restored
to her control. The proceedings were of an amicable na-
ture. . . . The whole proceedings occupied but a few
minutes. . . ."

The action was based on a petition of Mary Lincoln in
which she averred th.it : " She is a proper person to have
the care and management of her estate." Every point in the
petition relates to property. The newspaper report reads
that the jury verdict was: "Mary Lincoln is restored to
reason, and is capable to manage her estate."

The proceedings and the outcome of this trial indicate
that there had been an agreement to declare Mrs. Lincoln
sane without giving much attention to the facts. The only
testimony given the jury was opinion evidence, and that,
hearsay. It is a reasonable conclusion that Robert Lin-
coln, Mr. and Mrs. N. W. Edwards, Mrs. William Wallace,
Judge John T. Stuart, and other members of the family,
Mr. I. N. Arnold and other friends had agreed to let Mrs.
Lincoln have her way, and believed that in doing so she
would not harm herself or her estate. Events justified this
agreement. After 1876 Mrs. Lincoln's mind undoubtedly
was just as much disorganized as it had been in 1875, and
in 1 882 it was more so. But in spite of that, she so conducted
herself as to justify the course her friends had taken.
She carried out her resolution in spite of her personality
deterioration.

1 Proceedings, June term, County Court, 1876, Hon. M. R. M. Wallace, Judge.

226

THE SECOND TRIP TO EUROPE

Mrs. Lincoln remained in Mrs. Edwards's home until
October I, 1876 not much more than three and a half
months after this verdict, and thirteen months after her re-
turn there from Batavia. On December i, 1876 she was in
Pau, France. A letter shows that she was there on April 1 2,
1877, and she probably remained until the spring of 1878,
when she went to Italy.

A letter from Robert Lincoln, written to Rev. Henry
Darling of New York, dated November 17, 1877, said: 1
" My mother is now somewhere in Europe but she has, for
unfortunate reasons, ceased to communicate with me, and
I do not know her present address although, of course, I
can by writing to some of her friends obtain it in case
of need."

By July 1878 she was back in Pau and suffering great pain
from boils. By August her weight was down to a hundred
and ten pounds. So far as we can discover, Mrs. Lincoln
stayed closely in Pau, going nowhere except for one short
trip, first to Marseilles and then to Italy. She seems to have
taken an apartment and to have lived quietly and very much
alone. She wrote few letters ; in fact, I do not know of one.
She was now sixty years old and considered herself in feeble
health.

In December 1879 she was on a step-ladder fixing the
curtains in her simple home, in which she appears to have
done her own work, when she fell and hurt her back seri-
ously, she thought. This was in Pau. When she was able
to travel, she returned to America, arriving in October 1880.

She went to Springfield, to stay in Mrs. Edwards's home.
After about a year there, still troubled by the effects of
her fall, she went to New York City, to be under the care
of Dr. Lewis A. Sayre, the leading orthopedic surgeon of

1 Letter in the Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Illinois.

227

MRS. LINCOLN, 1875 TO 1882

America in his day. (Mrs. Lincoln may have chosen him
because relatives of his were prominent in the life of
Lexington. They were the founders of Sayre Institute, one
of the several colleges in Lexington during her residence
there.)

She" spent much of the winter of 1881-2 in New York
City, living in a quiet, inexpensive boarding-house. In inter-
views, given after her death, Dr. Sayre said he did not have
a very vivid mental picture of Mrs. Lincoln; she seemed to
be very poor, and complained frequently of her inadequate
means.

While she was under Dr. Sayre's care, Congress increased
her pension to five thousand dollars a year. President Gar-
field had been assassinated recently, and the bill to increase
this pension accompanied one for Mrs. Garfield's relief.
Congress also voted her another sum of money. On this oc-
casion Senator John A. Logan's pension and bonus bill
stirred no controversy, and it went through without inter-
ference.

In March 1882 Mrs. Lincoln returned to Mrs. Ed-
wards's home, and there remained until July 16, 1882.
In the early summer she was again afflicted with boils,
and was very ill and uncomfortable. Her family tried
to persuade her to go to the seashore, but she would
not.

Between the date when Mrs. Lincoln left Chicago for
Batavia and July 1882, seven years and two months elapsed.
Nearly four of these years were spent in Europe, and more
than three in Mrs. Edwards's home, the remainder being
divided between the sanatorium at Batavia and Dr. Sayre's
in New York.

The record of Mrs. Lincoln's life at Pau is most incom-
plete. But she must have deported herself in a seemly fash-
ion. She was alone, but she got into no difficulties. She is
entitled to credit for self-restraint.

228

MRS. LINCOLN AGAIN IN SPRINGFIELD

Laura C. Holloway writes: 1 "In the autumn of 1880
she [Mrs. Lincoln] returned to the United States. She was
no better from her long journeyings. Her mind was as un-
settled as it was in 1875. - She was, from the time of
Mr. Lincoln's death, a mental and physical wreck; and it
was patent to her family that she would never recover from
the catastrophe which had overwhelmed her."

As to her conduct in Springfield, we have some testimony
from her two sisters Elizabeth Edwards and Frances Wal-
lace and from Dr. T. W. Dresser; that of various of her
relatives given in personal communications, and of several
friends, likewise given. This is substantially what they all
agree on:

She lived very quietly in her sister's home. Her room
was on the second floor, where she remained nearly all the
time. Frequently during the day she would have the cur-
tains drawn and candles lighted, as she had done in the
sanator'um. She would see no one in her room except rela-
tives and close friends. There were times when she refused
to see even her sisters.

Her rooms were cluttered with silks and other dress-
goods and lace curtain material. One relative said there
were sixty trunks and boxes. There was an excess of jewelry.

At intervals her conversation showed that her mind was
quite disordered, but most of the time she talked very sensi-
bly. She did not have storms or tantrums ; was not demon-
strably emotional; had no " spells "; spoke much about her
dead; had many spiritualistic trends; cherished some ani-
mosities; liked to discuss people and to gossip. Most of her
gossip was about people she once knew well and events of
the past.

Callers on Mrs. Edwards sometimes saw her pass through
the halls. She did not speak, as a rule. She was likely to be
dressed in black, and sometimes overdressed. Occasionally
she would chat of the old days with some visiting friend

1 Bibliography, No. 80, p. 544.

MRS. LINCOLN AGAIN IN SPRINGFIELD

thus encountered. The children of the town, going to school,
would pass the Edwards home in some awe because of
stories they had heard.

When Mrs. Edwards drove out, she was sometimes ac-
companied by Mrs. Lincoln. On these occasions Mrs. Lin-
coln sat in a rear corner of a closed carriage. Stopping in
front of the stores, Mrs. Edwards would go inside to shop
while Mrs. Lincoln remained in the vehicle. At times old
friends would go to the conveyance to hand in bundles or
to assist Mrs. Edwards, and Mrs. Lincoln would speak to
them quietly.

B. F. Stoneberger x describes her in this period as a frail,
small woman who would go into a dry-goods store, purchase
some dress-goods by the yard, throw her purchases across
her arm, and go away. Those who saw her making pur-
chases would repeat stories of her trunks of unused dress-
goods.

Summing it up, her behavior in Springfield, before going
to Europe and afterwards, was that of a calm, quiet woman,
sixty years old, indulging in memories, nursing her dislikes,
occasionally rebelling against her immediate family and
friends, but usually quiet and inoffensive; hoarding her pos-
sessions, but with no interest in them.

She had a mild, emotional insanity which caused her to
act as does a case of schizophrenia 2 living alone, apart,
and letting the world take care of itself.

1 Personal narrative.

2 "Bleuler's term for dementia precox, representing split personality." Bibli-
ography, No. 48.

230

CHAPTER NINE

Financial Security and
Insecurity

The horse doth with the horseman run away.
ABRAHAM COWLEY

CHAPTER NINE

Financial Security and
Insecurity

A THE RESULT OF THE 1875 TRIAL OF MRS. LINCOLN,
the jury wrote into the verdict the following : x ". . .
to show cause, if any she has or can show, why a conservator
should not be appointed to manage and control her estate."
Her son, Robert T. Lincoln, was appointed conservator,
and shortly thereafter the estate was turned over to hinu
Much of the testimony in this first trial had been to the
effect that Mrs. Lincoln was not mentally in condition to
manage her business affairs.

The result of the 1876 trial was a verdict 2 which read in
part: "Mary Lincoln is restored to reason and is capable
to manage her estate." This decision was responsive to testi-
mony the jurors had heard from Ninian W. Edwards, the
only witness who testified. In accordance with it Robert T.
Lincoln filed his report, which was approved, and the con-
servator was discharged.

That these sanity trials should have revolved round mat-
ters of money was natural, since aberrations on this subject
were an outstanding quality of Mrs. Lincoln's thinking at
the time of her court appearances and for many years prior
thereto. Worry about finances was not the fundamental
cause of her mental disturbance, but financial worries largely
contributed to the process of change through which her
mind and personality went. Many of her great difficulties

1 Bibliography, No. 46, 1875. 2 Ibid., 1876.

233

FINANCIAL SECURITY AND INSECURITY

j. j- j-j-j j- j- j- j- <-_-_!- _r j- J~ -m- f f_f-j-j~j~j~J--f~J- J--T-T J" J~ J" J~_r j~ J~ j~ J~ _r~ j~ J~ j~_i~ J~_r^^_^_

arose out of controversies over money and property. When
her intellectual processes had become disordered, money
and property dominated her talk, her letters, and her acts.
Though they did not originate her trouble, they contributed
to it and finally characterized it.

Levi, her grandfather, and Robert S. Todd, her father,
appear to have had property acquisitive qualities of mind
of no small order, but these functioned easily and always
within the limits of normalcy. Levi, having returned from
war, acquired fine farming properties in the Blue-Grass
region of Kentucky and owned a good home property
adjoining that of Henry Clay, in the close vicinity of
Lexington. Robert S. Todd was a banker, a merchant, a
manufacturer, a farmer, and a politician. He was a good
illustration of the " business man in politics." He frequently
held offices of profit, and there was never a charge that he
did not know and did not always respect the laws of " meum
et tuum " in his business relations. He wanted what was
coming to him, but he respected the rights of others.

Mrs. Lincoln's grandfather on her mother's side willed
his considerable property to his widow, but entailed it to
his descendants. The widow handled the property well. At
her death the heirs fell into dispute, and litigation over the
estate followed. And about this time the Robert S. Todd
heirs some of them also Parker heirs were quarreling
and litigating over their father's estate. This somewhat dif-
ferent behavior or mental quality, as well as the financial
happenings themselves, is significant in a study of the per-
sonality and mentality of Mrs. Lincoln.

We know nothing positive about Mary Todd's finances
when she lived in Lexington, and such consideration as is
given them must be based on inference. Robert S. Todd, her
father, was a business man of standing, who lived in a good
house and moved in the best circles. He certainly earned
enough to keep his family well and to accumulate property.

234

FINANCES IN LEXINGTON AND SPRINGFIELD

The children of the first wife spent some of their time in
the very fine home of their mother's mother, the " Widow "
Parker. Her grandmother was fond of Mary and doubtless
gave her much. However, the Todd family was a large one ;
there were fourteen children who were reared, supported,
educated, and established by their father. The scale of living
in Lexington, in the social group in which the Todds moved,
was high for that time, though it would not be now; society
was not then on a basis of competitive expenditure.

We can infer that Mary Todd the child and Mary Todd
the young woman never suffered for the comforts of life ;
always had plenty of food and good clothing, and the privi-
lege of buying what she needed. She should never have had
any of those money longings that corrode the characters of
some people, both rich and poor. It is also a reasonable in-
ference that Mary Todd was never able to be lavish in the
expenditure of money or to be extravagant, had she cared
to be. Probably she did not care to be. The best conclusion
is that the money hunger which Mrs. Lincoln later showed
was not present when she was in Lexington.

There is no information as to how Elizabeth Edwards's
sisters were financed when they lived with her. Her state-
ments show that she wrote to Frances and Mary in Lexing-
ton, offering them a home with her. This may have meant
that when they lived in her home, they were at no expense
for board, lodging, and laundry ; but it does not mean that
the hostess sister paid for their clothes, their travel, or their
incidental expenses. We may infer that Mr. Todd must
have given his daughters money to pay the expense of travel
and incidentals when they left home. They went away with
clothing, and no doubt he sent money to them from time
to time afterwards, though not a great deal. The home ties
were strained; not many letters were exchanged; Frances
and Mary both married in Springfield with none of the
family from Lexington in attendance. It is not likely that

235

FINANCES IN SPRINGFIELD

there was a monthly allowance, for such was not customary.
Money was more probably sent at irregular intervals, and
on request.

The accounts of Mary Todd's life in Springfield do not
show that she dressed extravagantly. Her clothing was ap-
propriate, but it was not indicative of " money to burn."
In one of Frances Wallace's statements 1 about the Lincoln-
Todd wedding and the white silk dress someone said her
sister wore are these sentences : " Mrs. Lincoln never had
a white silk dress in her life till she went to Washington
to live. After I was married I gave her my white satin dress
and told her to wear it until it got soiled, but then to give it
back to me. She was not married in it. It was too soiled.
She may have married in a white Swiss muslin, but I think
not. I think it was delaine or something of that kind."

After their wedding Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln boarded at the
Globe Tavern, for four dollars a week; next they moved
into a rented house on Monroe Street; and after that they
bought a simple, inexpensive house. During the first decade
of married life there were financial worries. Lincoln helped
his father's family with some contributions, and he paid off
the New Salem debts. He supported his own family. He
was playing the political game, and that was, and is, expen-
sive for an honest man with high standards. His earnings
at the bar were not large, and he held a paying office only
once, and that for but two years. I. N. Arnold 2 estimated
Lincoln's income from his law practice at from two thousand
to three thousand dollars a year, saying that he had a very
large, and it might have been a very lucrative, practice, but
that his fees were ridiculously small. Two to three thousand
dollars a year was the annual income according to William
H. Herndon, 8 who knew better than anyone else. It is also
the figure given by J. F. Newton. 4

Lincoln was a frugal, thrifty man; he met his obligations

2 ur 7 ' 2- X8l- ' Bibliography, No. 75 a, p. 44?-

8 Bibhography, No. 4, p. 83. 4 Bibliography, No. 127, p. 43.

FINANCES IN SPRINGFIELD

and in addition put away some money. There are records
that show him lending money comparatively early in his
married life. The account which he ran at Smith's store, and
which can still be seen in Springfield, includes such items as
cloth, buttons, and thread and indicates that Mrs. Lincoln
made the children's clothes as well as some of her own and
Mr. Lincoln's, and that they lived modestly and sensibly.
That she had a reputation in Springfield for being careful
is shown in the letter written by her cousin Mrs. Grimsley,
from Washington, in which Mrs. Lincoln is said to be living
frugally there, as she did in Springfield. Newton says : l
" During the first four years after he left Congress he was
often hard pressed for money." Oliver R. Barrett does not
think that Mrs. Lincoln suffered any privation in this period.
I agree with him, at least to this extent: the deprivations
of the period were not considerable enough to have left any
harmful effects on her personality. They probably did Mrs.
Lincoln more good than harm. There must be some more
plausible origin of her money hunger than this.

In the decade between 1851 and 1 86 1 the Lincoln finances
improved considerably. Dr. William E. Barton says that
" the financial pressure eased up.' 1 This is reflected in the
family expenditures. The Lincolns were entertaining and
giving even elaborate parties. They could not keep up with
the Edwardses in such matters, but they were somewhat in
the game. This called for more money to be spent on the
household, and also for finer clothes and more of them.
A second story was build on the house, and other additions
were made; some town real estate was purchased. Except
the Bloomington property, all of this real estate was still
included in the Lincoln estate in 1865. There was more
money to loan. In this period there were good fees and re-
tainers. The Parker and the Todd estates were settled and
they added something, though it was not a great amount.
There are reasons for thinking that Lincoln made a little

ilbid. "

FINANCES, 1851 TO 1861

more than he spent during each year of the period. His
friends Arnold and Whitney say that when he went to
Washington he had accumulated ten thousand dollars. This
estimate was conservative, at least. Herndon, however,
quotes Lincoln as saying, in 1858 : x " I am absolutely with-
out money now even for household expenses."

Just as in the previous decade, we fail to find in the ex-
periences of these ten years any adequate explanation of the
money hunger which characterizes Mrs. Lincoln's conduct
between 1865 and 1875. ^ * s natural to suppose that Mrs.
Lincoln had desires for the finery she saw other women wear,
and to spend as they spent, and in the " Springfield tradi-
tion " there are statements that she spent a good deal on
clothes and personal adornment. All of this has some weight,
but it does not give enough basis for a quality that became
so dominant.

As Mrs. Lincoln laid her plans for Washington, she knew
that her husband was to have one uphill fight and she was to
have another. His party was new to Washington, and there
was prejudice against it there. She must not hamper him by
letting Washington regard her as uncouth or, worse still,
as a frump. On the other hand, if she could win Washington
society, she would be able to help him win his battles. This
story needs no chart for women readers, nor is it new matter
for husbands. She had the society manner; she knew form
and ceremonial; she knew polite conversation. She needed
clothes and jewelry, and with those she felt that she could
hold her own or better. They must be good clothes and of
the latest style.

In January 1861 she went to New York, and there began
the foundation for her major trouble. She bought what was
necessary for her campaign, as she saw it. Her brother-in-
law the Springfield merchant was there to advise her and
otherwise to help. She had the advice of New York mer-
chants who knew the Washington game better than she

1 Bibliography, No. 75a, p. 447.
2 3 8

By permission of Jl/r. Sweet

Ear-rings owned by Mrs. Lincoln;

now in the possession of Homer Sweet, Battle Creek,

Michigan.

FINANCIAL BAD JUDGMENT

did. When she finished buying, her bill called for a larger
sum of money than she had and more than she felt she could
ask her husband for or even tell him of. Just here she made
her second crucial mistake, in keeping from her husband all
knowledge of her debt. Her first error was one of judg-
ment; her second was that and something more.

Mrs. Keckley * was quoting Mrs. Lincoln's arguments in
explaining why she piled up her enormous debt. She wrote
that Mrs. Lincoln was very much aware of the dignity of
her position as Mistress of the White House, and of the
need that she should make a proper display of dresses and
jewelry. Soon after she arrived at the White House, she
sent for Elizabeth Keckley, who, she had heard, was an
excellent dressmaker and reasonable in her prices. After
driving some close bargains Mrs. Lincoln engaged Mrs.
Keckley to make sixteen dresses. Subsequently, she kept her
busy working overtime, trying to make dresses as fast as she
bought material. Work as hard as she would, Mrs. Keckley
never could catch up ; the supply came in too fast. After the
President's death Mrs. Lincoln said the Republican poli-
ticians must pay those bills. She had contracted them be-
cause, as the wife of the first Republican President, she had
to make a proper showing.

In spite of her efforts, the social battle went against her.
She decided that one way to improve her chances was to buy
more clothes and jewelry another error in judgment. By
now the bills had reached a figure that made it difficult for
her to see a way out. Very good business men have gradu-
ally become mired financially, with no recognition of finan-
cial danger until suddenly they have discovered themselves
trapped with no hope of escape. Now she had genuine finan-
cial worries, and there was that most trying complication
her husband did not know, and a confession might have to
come. The foundation of a money urge was appearing.
Many a good business man has known the experience of

1 Bibliography, No. 85, pp. 28, 144, 147-

239

FINANCIAL INSECURITY

having one exhibition of bad business judgment lead to
another and then to a succession of them. Finally Mrs. Lin-
coln's debts mounted, Mrs. Keckley says, to seventy thou-
sand dollars, nearly as much as her husband's salary as
President for three years. Mrs. Lincoln's thinking was fast
getting to the point where " bad judgment " is not the term
that best fits it. Worry over the debts, and anxiety about her
husband's reaction, were being piled on top of disappoint-
ments in social recognition, the bitterness of political ani-
mosities, and the emotions due to loss of relatives and
friends in the Civil War.

Then came the plan for a second term. She saw in that
her salvation. Certainly it gave her a breathing-spell, a ray
of hope ; and, in so far as it did, her decision to help bring
it about was good judgment. How it was going to save her,
one cannot easily see. Viewed from this standpoint, her judg-
ment was still poor. Every business man, however, has seen
cases in which luck or inventiveness or originality or some-
thing opens a way out of situations that seemed hopeless.
We think of business men who have accepted such chances
and won as being " brave," " courageous," " willing to take
a chance," and as having both rare judgment and keen fore-
sight. If they take the chance and lose, opinion does not deal
so pleasantly with them.

With the assassination of Lincoln, down went his wife's
house of cards.

On September 12, 1865 Mrs. Lincoln wrote Judge David
Davis, relating a conversation she had had with her husband
in March, at City Point. The war was being won, peace
was in sight, and four more years of position and power
were to be their lot. He apparently relaxed and became
domestic, confiding, and forthright, as he had been before
the pressure of the presidency had made it well-nigh impos-
sible for him to be Lincoln the husband. He told his wife of
his yearning for peace and quiet, of his desire, finally, to be
buried in a silent, country churchyard; then he spoke of his

240

FINANCIAL SITUATION, 1865

finances. She wrote of what Lincoln had told her : he had
saved his money until he had enough capital so that the
expense of living could be borne by the interest from his
investments ; he hoped to save all of his salary for the four
years between 1865 and 1869.

Upon his death Lincoln's estate went into court, and
Judge Davis was appointed the administrator. Since there
was no will, and Tad was a minor, we can follow the family
finances quite well during the next seven years. Judge Davis's
reports were made periodically. They are official and public
records, copies of which are in the Illinois State Historical
Society Library, where I have studied them. Illinois law pro-
vides that the children receive the real estate, and Mrs. Lin-
coln's share was limited to one third of the stocks, bonds, and
other personal property of her husband's estate. The real
estate consisted of the homestead in Springfield, one town
lot in Lincoln, one hundred and twenty acres of farmland
in Crawford County, Iowa, and forty acres in Tama County,
Iowa. The report of the Committee on Pensions, United
States Senate, Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses, reads:
"The report of her husband's estate shows that it inven-
toried $110,000 in bonds and stocks, and Mrs. Lincoln's
portion was $36,765.60. Her yearly income from the estate
was given at $1,700." The usual figures given elsewhere
range from $1,700 to $2,000 a year.

Here was the situation that confronted her: She owed
somewhere between $27,000 and $70,000, and she had
$36,765.60 with which to pay the debt; or, not paying the
debt, she had a yearly income of $1,700, the interest on her
bonds. Outright payment of the debt by her was impossible.
Her $1,700 a year income was not enough for her to live
on and make any payment on the debt. She could not expect
much help from her sons ; Tad, the minor with his property
in the hands of the court, had the same annual income as she,
and Robert was not established in a profession or in business.
Congress gave her $22,000 of her husband's salary for the

241

FINANCIAL DILEMMA

year. She used some to pay on the debt and a part to live on,
but most of it went to buy the house in Chicago, which cost
her $18,000. Let us say that all of this should have gone to
paying her debts ; at least, she should not have used any of it
to buy a house. But would it have been wisdom to throw all
of the money into a hole that it would not nearly fill ?

Buying the house proved to be poor judgment. She sold
it for $20,000, it is true, making $2,000 on the investment;
but she found its upkeep so expensive that she could not
afford to live in it, and during the eight years she owned it,
the rent received did not much more than pay taxes, upkeep,
and interest on investment. This purchase might be called
something worse than poor judgment, but many a business
man, lawyer, or even court has viewed leniently a widow's
efforts to acquire a home.

Mrs. Lincoln's dilemma was great. She tried to get the
merchants to take back most of the material they had sold
her, it is said ; but they could not see the business advantage
of doing so. In the last half of 1865 an effort was made to
collect money to pay Mrs. Lincoln's debts. The several let-
ters from Mrs. Lincoln to Mr. Williamson and others show
her very anxious to have this movement succeed. There is
no record that any money was collected in this particular
drive, though it is generally thought that political associates
of her husband helped in the final settlement of the debts.
Meanwhile she offered some of her dresses and jewelry at
private sale, but few came forward to buy.

Then came the awful mistake of the attempted auction.
Most of the responsibility for this mistake should be borne
by others, but Mrs. Lincoln was a willing party to it, abetted
it,^ and schemed and planned to make it go. Mrs. Keckley
said that in money matters in the White House days Mrs.
Lincoln was " penny wise and pound foolish." Even stronger
terms must be used to designate the blunder of the proposed
auction. This episode probably increased rather than di-
minished the debts, though not to any considerable extent.

242

FINANCIAL INSECURITY

Not long after that, and before her petition to Congress for
a pension, the debts had been settled somehow and they no
longer harassed Mrs. Lincoln.

The settlement of the debts left her with $1,700 a year
income for herself, and a like amount for Tad. Judge
Davis's accounts show that she pooled her income and his,
but in spite of this they found it difficult to pay household
expenses, bills for clothing, and tuition and educational ex-
penses for the boy. The correspondence shows that the
administrator worked diligently, but without entire suc-
cess, to keep the accounts within the technicalities of legal
requirements.

About a year after the end of the auction fiasco, the ques-
tion of a pension for Mrs. Lincoln was raised. When the
Committee on Pensions made its report, it claimed to think
that Mrs. Lincoln had an estate of $60,000. The members
knew all about the debts; they knew she had been con-
fronted with a debt said to be $70,000, and that some of her
money had gone for that. Men on that Committee had
probably contributed to the fund that helped finally to pay
off the debt one of the senators referred to a subscrip-
tion for her. Senator Tipton, who was conducting the oppo-
sition, alluded to the proposed auction as having contributed
to her assets. He knew it had not, and he should have known
that it actually added a little to her liabilities. They charged
her with bad faith, but, while her course is not wholly de-
fensible, it was fully as above-board as theirs. She finally
received a pension of $3,000, and that, with her $1,700 in-
come from the estate, put her in a very comfortable finan-
cial position.

Judged by the result, this strife for a pension showed wis-
dom on Mrs. Lincoln's part. But her efforts to accomplish
the end and especially the letters she wrote the method
she employed subjected her to criticism. Her correspond-
ence in pushing her claim was voluminous, and many of her
letters dealing with the matter are available now. In these

243

FINANCES, 1870 TO 1876

letters she often showed bad taste. She was persistent, in-
trusive, and often unfair. Her urge for money had become
pathologic.

In 1870 Mrs. Lincoln's pension of $250 a month was be-
gun. Tad was of college age, the hostile comment on Mrs.
Lincoln quieted, and early in the next year they came home
from Europe. One year after payments of the pension began,
Tad died.

When Tad Lincoln died, he was still a minor, and con-
sequently his estate was under the control of the San-
gamon County courts and Judge Davis as guardian and ad-
ministrator. The reports of the administrator, as shown by
the court record, set forth that Tad owned liquid assets
worth, at face value, $37,065.16, principally in United
States gold bonds. Judge Davis reported that the estate
also owned a half-interest in three pieces of real estate, which
were under the management of Robert T. Lincoln. The
latter filed a sworn statement that the real estate was rented
for very small annual rentals, that at Lincoln bringing in
only forty dollars a year. Mrs. Lincoln appears to have re-
ceived one half the bonds, or $18,532.58; she "made no
claim to interest in the real estate." 1

From 1872 to 1875 Mrs. Lincoln had enough income to
free her from financial worries. In 1874 she is said to have
written a will, but later to have destroyed or lost it. In 1875
her estate went into court, and from that time until the fall
of 1876 we again learn of her finances from the court
records. 2

In December 1875 Robert Lincoln asked the approval of
the court in giving Mrs. Lincoln at Springfield the many
trunks and boxes of clothing once stored at Milwaukee and
Chicago. A similar petition related to a box of jewelry.
One box is said to have been filled with keys.

In June 1876 Robert Lincoln reported her estate as worth
$68,750. Her income for the year was $11,140.35. Some

l Bibliography, No. 153. * Records, Cook County, Illinois, Court.

244

MARY LINCOLN, FINANCIER

of this income, $4,264.38, was used to buy bonds to be
added to the principal. Some of it was used to pay bills for
lace curtains and other merchandise purchased before the
first trial. The merchants had taken back part of the goods
and credited the account with $549.83, and probably
there were other credits of which there is no record. If the
congressional appropriation of $22,000 be added to the
amount Mrs. Lincoln received from her husband's estate,
the sum practically equals the amount of the estate when it
was placed in charge of Robert Lincoln in 1875. In this ten
years she had spent her income from all sources, or most
of it, but she had not used any of the principal. She had
been extravagant at times and somewhat unwise in money
matters, but she had been clear enough mentally not to spend
any part of her principal.

When N. W. Edwards testified that she had lived within
her means in 1875 and 1876, he told the truth. From 1865
to 1875 she had bought insanely and lavishly, and she had
had a mad urge for money; but she had kept within her
means. If Mrs. Lincoln's mentality were to be measured by
that standard alone, then the only period in which she was
unbalanced would be between 1861 and 1865.

"Mary Lincoln, financier," date 1865, was bankrupt;
" Mary Lincoln, financier," date 1875, was solvent good
enough for a heavy loan at any bank.

In 1882 Congress increased Mrs. Lincoln's pension to
$5,000 a year, and gave her $15,000 in addition with which
to meet her pressing obligations, of which, incidentally, she
then had none. In explaining the increase in Mrs. Lincoln's
estate between 1876, when Robert Lincoln relinquished his
control as conservator, and 1882, when he became adminis-
trator, the addition of this flat sum of money and the greater
monthly pension payments for about half a year must be
taken into account. 1

Upon the death of Mrs. Lincoln her financial affairs again

l Bibliography, No. 128, July 18, 1882 (New York City Library).

245

MARY LINCOLN, FINANCIER

became a matter of court record. 1 On October 4, 1882 Rob-
ert T. Lincoln filed an inventory of his mother's estate show-
ing a value of $77,555. The final and complete inventory,
settlement, and report were filed on November 6, 1884,
showing an inventory of $84,035. Robert Lincoln swore
". . . that the personal estate of Mary Lincoln will proba-
bly amount to the sum of $90,000." Between 1 876 and 1882
the estate had increased from about $70,000 to about
$90,000. It is true that during this time she had the help
and wise counsel of Mr. Edwards, Judge Davis, and other
friends, but not all of the virtue of the performance should
pass to them. She was alone in Europe for four years, for
one thing. In 1875 they thought she could not manage her
property. The answer is the bankruptcy of 1865, set against
the inventories of 1865, 1875, and 1882.

" Mary Lincoln, financier," 1882, was a solid, substantial
enterprise on a splendid financial basis and entitled to an
A-i rating by Dun or Bradstreet.

This statement is something more than fair to Mrs. Lin-
coln, in that it implies great business acumen. To make it
square with the facts, certain exceptional sources of income
must be taken into consideration.

Congress gave her two sums of money $22,000 at one
time, and $15,000 at another. She received a pension of
$3,000 for several years, and of $5,000 for several months.
And the heavy debt was somehow satisfied without great
reduction of Mrs. Lincoln's capital; the portion she paid
was far short of the amount of the debt. To have a correct
estimate of her financial ability we should count among her
liabilities only so much of the debt as she paid.

Mrs. Lincoln's investments were practically all gilt-edged.
Her husband owned some of dubious value when he lived
in Springfield, but his savings as President went into govern-
ment bonds. Mrs. Lincoln's share of her husband's estate

1 Book 9 of Inventories, p. 418; Probate Record, No. 24, p. 572; County Court,
Sangamon County, Illinois.

246

MARY LINCOLN, FINANCIER

was in securities of this type, and whatever she added to it
was of the same kind. In 1866 she wrote to N. Brooks 1
asking him if he could sell " some Nevada claims and also a
petroleum claim " which she then owned. Brooks says that
among her holdings were certain wildcat stocks sent to her in
her days of prosperity. She knew the breed and she tried to
get them out of her strong-box.

Finally, the period 1865 to 1882 taken as a whole was
one in which investments increased in value. This was espe-
cially true of the government bonds and other high-grade
securities such as she owned. The great panic of 1873 and
several lesser panics wiped out a multitude of fortunes ; many
rich men were impoverished. These were passing episodes,
however, the recession of waves. The period was really one
of great growth in fortunes, in national wealth, in industry
and commerce, and, most of all, in the power of money.
Mrs. Lincoln had inherited the best of all securities, and she
had retained and added to them. The inventory value of a
given security was greater in 1882 than in 1865. Her invest-
ments were in her country's future, and she sat by and saw
them increase in value.

It all sums up thus : Mrs. Lincoln at times spent money
lavishly and prodigally, but she never spent enough to dis-
turb or endanger her principal or to hazard her financial
future.

Worry about finances was an outstanding factor in the
breakdown of her personality and mentality. Thought of
money shaped many of her mental vagaries and peculiar
activities after 1861, and especially between 1865 and 1871.
She showed very poor financial judgment between 1861 and
1865, when her relations with the New York merchants are
viewed solely in that light; but in 1865 her financial judg-
ment was good. It was also good after 1875, a period of
legally established insanity.

1 Bibliography, No. 25, p. 124.

247

CHAPTER TEN

The Help and Harm
of Politics

He that leadeth into caftivity shall go into caftmty; he that Mlleth with
the sword must be killed with the sword.

REVELATION xiii, 10

It were good, therefore, that men in their innovations wotdd follow the
examfte of time itself, which indeed innooateth greatly, but quietly and
by degrees scarcely to be ferceived*

FRANCIS BACON

CHAPTER TEN

The Help and Harm
of Politics

POLITICS WERE THE LADDER ON WHICH MRS. LINCOLN
climbed to the summit of her ambition, and they were
one of the agencies that precipitated her downfall. Lin-
coln's politics, and the relation of his wife to them, are a
theme worthy of more space than can be given here. The
only aspects considered at any length are the effects on Mrs.
Lincoln of certain political battles.

Elizabeth Norris x gives several illustrations of Mary
Todd's Whig partisanship in her youth. When she went to
Springfield, she merely transferred herself from one politi-
cal atmosphere into another.

When Abraham Lincoln married into the influential Todd
family in Springfield, his friends thought he had strength-
ened himself politically. Superficially considered, this did
not prove to be correct. In the early forties he wrote some
of his friends in New Salem that, while the people in Sanga-
mon County had rejected him, he was happy in thinking that
those who had known him longest and best the people of
New Salem and Menard County were loyal to him. This
was written twelve years after he had arrived in New Salem.
Twelve years later still, he was to learn that his old sec-
tion had deserted him politically, never to return not
even when he needed them so badly in 1862 and i864- a

1 Bibliography, Nos. 72 and 73.

2 The facts as to the results of the several elections in Illinois in which Lincoln

251

POLITICS

^f^f^f ^.r^r-f J~ J~ *->-*- r *~ f * < ~ ^-~-~- ^ ^^^..^^.^^.^.^.^.^^ .. _ ^.^

Considered more carefully, this charge of aristocracy which
cut Abraham Lincoln so deeply as we know because he
wrote of it more than once was of service to him politi-
cally. It meant that his old Democratic and southern Illinois
affiliations were breaking. Had these persisted, he would
never have been President ; as they dissolved, he made new
ties and found new supporters in the north end of the state.
These were the foundations on which his political fortune
after 1856 was built.

Lincoln's political experiences between 1842 and 1860
tried his mettle continuously. A man with less wisdom,
shrewdness, and patience would have been eliminated very
early. In the first half of the period he won but one con-
test, and that only by an agreement between a group of
three men, that each would have a try at one term in Con-
gress. It is true that his other contests were hopeless be-
cause he was running as a Whig in a state that always voted
the Democratic ticket. Neither his successes nor his failures
had particular significance for either him or his wife. In
the second decade of the Springfield period Lincoln con-
tinued to lose his political battles, the state being still con-
sistently Democratic. The great event of supreme political
importance to him was the death of the Whig party and his
transfer to the Republican party.

Mrs. Lincoln was a better Whig, with more Whig back-
ground, than her husband. Her Lexington connections of
one kind and another helped to convert him from a Whig
on Illinois issues to a nationally minded Whig. In this period
her political acumen prevented her husband from making
two tactical mistakes of great moment. More than one
biographer, basing his opinion on the events of this period,
has said that Mrs. Lincoln had more political wisdom, fore-
had SL political and personal interest were found in the following sources: T. C. Pease
(Bibliography, No. 146); A. C. Cole (Bibliography, No. 43); the Daffy News Alma-
nac; the New York Tribune Almanac. These sources supply some facts that are not
matters of general information. My conclusions are based on these facts.

252

ELECTIONS, 1856 TO 1864

sight, and intuitive knowledge of men than her husband.
She is credited by William H. Townsend * with having
contributed indirectly to most of Lincoln's interest in and
knowledge of slavery, at any rate. Mrs. Lincoln went with
her husband into the Republican party whole-heartedly and
without reservation. Dr. William E. Barton wrote : 2 " Mrs.
Lincoln declared truthfully that when her husband left the
old Whig party and joined a new party opposed to the exten-
sion of slavery she encouraged him to make no half-way
matter of it."

After the election of 1856 Mrs. Lincoln wrote her half-
sister Emilie Todd Helm: 8 "The election resulted very
much as I expected, not hoped. Although Mr. Lincoln is,
or was, a Fremont man, you must not include him with so
many of those who belong to that party, as Abolitionist. In
principle he is far from it. All he desires is that slavery
should not be extended. . . . The Democrats in our state
have been defeated in their governor so there is a crumb of
comfort for each and all. What day is so dark that there is
no ray of sunshine to penetrate the gloom ? "

The election of 1 860 meant a great deal to Mrs. Lincoln.
It demonstrated Lincoln's foresight in cutting away from
his old southern Illinois supporters and taking up with the
people of the north end of the state. In this election he car-
ried Illinois because of that northern support, despite the
disaffection of southern Illinois, including his old coun-
ties, Sangamon and Menard. His views carried the north
end of the state again in 1862 and also in 1864, the south
end still being in the opposition. Mrs. Lincoln shared in the
satisfaction which this confirmation of his judgment brought,
but this was no more than a minor in its effect on her per-
sonality. The exultation at the realization of her hopes was
a powerful stimulus to that part of her make-up which we
designate as drive.

1 Bibliography, No. 176, p. 136. 3 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 124.

* Bibliography, No. n.

253

POLITICS, 1861 TO 1865

The events of the presidential period had a different
effect. The politics were more bitter than any she had ever
known. To the ordinary animosities were added those of war
politics. The politics of the period, while very harassing to
Lincoln, were highly educational and even wholesome to
him. Both his intellectuality and his personality were bene-
fited by them. On the other hand, they were baneful to his
wife. Senator Cameron linked politics with society as the
leading agencies in tearing her down.

Two of the many political battles of 1861 to 1865 espe-
cially concerned Mrs. Lincoln.

In 1864 she was intensely interested in Lincoln's re-
election. If he failed, she saw no way out of her financial
difficulties, for one thing. For another, re-election would
vindicate her husband. The war would be over, and life in
Washington should be more pleasant for both of them. The
re-election of Lincoln may be considered one of the molding
forces in her life, as had been the success of 1860. The vic-
tory revived Mrs. Lincoln's interest in life. Under its stimu-
lus her personality recovered from its period of introversion,
isolation, and resentment. She regained her normal drive.

Mrs. Lincoln was the victim of some political battles,
largely within her husband's party and many of them not
fought until after his death. For these there were many
causes, but none approximated in importance the issue of re-
union or reconstruction. That issue Lincoln foresaw in the
very beginning, and he laid his plans early. He could not
foresee how long it was to continue, how far-reaching it was
to be, or how the animosities it engendered were to operate
to the hurt of his family.

Lincoln had an unusual capacity for seeing into the future.
It was not supernatural, as some have said, but the result of
a capacity to learn; of open-mindedness, clear reasoning,
vision, and common sense. When he was debating with
Douglas, he saw beyond the senatorial contest to the presi-
dential election of 1860. Had those debates been covered

254

THE RECONSTRUCTION CAMPAIGN

by a present-day reporter rather than by a man of the
Joseph Medill type, and in 1932 instead of seventy-odd
years before, the headlines might have been: " Lincoln Puts
Douglas on the Spot." When it came to making a new Mason
and Dixon's line, Lincoln was far-seeing enough to move it
from Pennsylvania to Tennessee. When it came to writing
an Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln knew how to do it
even to dividing Louisiana into three parts, like all Gaul,
and Virginia into two.

And Lincoln knew more about reconstruction in March
1 86 1 than we know seventy years later. He never asked
Congress to declare war. He started with the theory that the
objective was to reconstruct the Union. He launched his war
on that theory ; on that he fought and won it.

When the question was fighting the war and providing
machinery and money for it, " Old Thad " Stevens behaved
like a wheel-horse; not even Stanton or Seward pulled better
than he. But whenever the question of reconstruction bobbed
up, " Old Thad " was at once fighting against, not with, Lin-
coln, and he was able to draw in with him more than one
prominent war statesman. By the end of 1864 the time had
come to plan the reconstruction campaign. By February
1865 the campaign was under way. Stevens had the House,
and that was hopeless. Sumner must be captured; in him lay
Lincoln's hope for the Senate. Sumner was assigned to Mrs.
Lincoln. She was to get him for the trip to City Point. On
that trip Lincoln hoped to win him over. Grant was to have
a part in the program; he was to handle the old soldiers, per-
haps with some help from Sherman. Alexander H. Stephens
was to be the arm for the South.

Toward the end the Cabinet knew about it and, so far as
is known, all approved at that stage, though they had re-
jected it cold when Lincoln had first asked them to con-
sider it.

It was not until Andrew Johnson was President and had
met a few times with his Cabinet that he learned the plan

255

THE LINCOLN REUNION POLICY

and became a convert to it. In a short while the Lincoln re-
union policy was known as the Johnson reconstruction pol-
icy. The old Thad Stevens army of opposition to the Lincoln
reunion policy was still aligned in hostility to it under its new
name. Johnson lacked the political sagacity of his predeces-
sor and permitted the interjection of new issues. What was
even more vital, he failed to capitalize Lincoln's responsibil-
ity for the plan. The bitter impeachment battle resulted.

Allan Nevins * has written convincingly in proof of the
similarity in essentials of the Lincoln reunion policy, as he
terms it, and what is more commonly known as the Johnson
reconstruction policy ; and the dissimilarity of both to the re-
construction policy of Thad Stevens and his associates.

C. H. McCarthy 2 understood the Lincoln plan to be es-
sentially that of Johnson or, rather, the Johnson plan
was essentially that of Lincoln and diametrically opposite
to that of Stevens. But in his opinion the Lincoln plan was
not complete in detail at the time of the assassination.

However crude we may now consider Lincoln's plan, it
should not be forgotten that with him the paramount con-
sideration was the overthrow of the Confederacy. It was not
without its advantages: it aimed to restore with as little
technicality and innovation as possible the Union of the
Fathers ; with some exceptions, the natural leaders of South-
ern society were to participate in the work of reorganiza-
tion ; and the author of this simple plan approached his diffi-
cult task in a generous and enlightened spirit.

McCarthy analyzed not only the Lincoln plan, but the
reaction to it of several of the states, and expressed his con-
fidence in Lincoln's ability to make it succeed, saying: 8
" His uniform success in dealing with other embarrassing
questions appears to justify the opinion that he would not
have failed altogether in solving the greater problem pre-
sented by the return of peace."

256

1 Bibliography, No. 126, p. 51. s Ibid., p. 406.

2 Bibliography, No. 116, pp. 496-7.

POLITICS AND THE PEXSIOX FIGHT

It is a reasonable inference that A. C. Cole agrees with
the Nevins and McCarthy opinion, that the Johnson policy
of reconstruction was in principle the Lincoln policy of re-
union; for he wrote: 1 "It seemed that Johnson inherited
the elephant " a characterization which indicates the au-
thor's opinion that the question might have been destruc-
tive to Lincoln, as it proved to be to Johnson. However, says
Nevins : 2 " The secret rejoicing of the radicals when Lincoln
fell was the rejoicing of men who knew that he would almost
certainly have been too strong for them."

The impeachment proceedings against President John-
son had their political foundation in the battle over recon-
struction, although the contest itself was over secondary de-
velopments. The animosities that these proceedings, as such,
engendered were largely within the Republican party.

Mrs. Lincoln was caught in the aftermath, at least twice.
In 1867, when the proposed auction episode was attracting
so much newspaper notice, the politicians were " in a frame
of mind." Bitterness and hatred were in the air. Just when
the politicians' nerves were at their rawest, Mrs. Lincoln
made her mistake. When the vitriolic anger of Thurlow
Weed and other politicians and political editors was poured
out, it fell on her head and there was no protection
for her.

Next came the congressional battle over the pension. This
lasted eighteen months, from first to last mostly latent,
but flaring up periodically. It occupied space in the news-
papers, as well as time in the Senate. In the debate everyone
who mentioned Abraham Lincoln did so with praise, but
many of those who spoke of Mrs. Lincoln spoke with dis-
paragement. There were whisperings and innuendoes.

This debate began in the Fortieth Congress, before the
same Senate that had tried the impeachment case. In the
action finally taken in the Forty-first Congress, there were
twenty-seven senators voting who had also voted on the

1 Bibliography, No. 43, p. 138. * Bibliography, No. 126.

257

POLITICS AND THE PENSION FIGHT

charges for removal on the impeachment; there were thir-
teen senators still in the Senate who had sat on the impeach-
ment trial, but who did not vote in the pension matter, being
recorded as absent. Of the senators who voted to sustain
the President, only one voted for Mrs. Lincoln, and six
against her. Of those who voted to depose the President,
fourteen voted for Mrs. Lincoln, and six against her ; four-
teen others who voted in the impeachment proceedings had
dropped out of the Senate. Of the senators new to the Forty-
first Congress, fourteen voted for Mrs. Lincoln, and eight
against her. During the debate the charge was made that the
Democrats would vote for Mrs. Lincoln. The outcome
showed that they had voted against her; they had voted for
Johnson. They were for President Lincoln's policy of re-
construction, but against his widow. Seven tenths of those
who had voted against Lincoln's policy voted for his widow,
and three tenths against her.

This evidence seems to show that there was not much di-
rect relation between the votes on these two matters. I do not
claim that the partisanship for or against the one carried
over into the consideration of the other, as such, to any de-
termining extent. It is my contention that the bitter personal
feeling, the hatred, and the partisanship developed in the im-
peachment proceedings and trial determined the votes of
many among both those for the pension bill and those
against it. 1

Certain dates given in juxtaposition will help in the under-
standing of these relationships. The fight between President
Johnson and Thad Stevens and his allies began in the
spring of 1865. The wardrobe-auction episode occurred in
September 1867. President Johnson was tried by the Senate
in May 1868. Mrs. Lincoln's application for a pension was

1 My conclusions as to the relations between the Lincoln reunion policy, the
Johnson reconstruction policy, the debates and votes on the impeachment of Presi-
dent Johnson, and the bill to pension Mrs. Lincoln are based on: Allan Nevins
(Bibliography, No. 135); C. H. McCarthy (Bibliography, No. 125); and the daily
reports of congressional proceedings as found in the Congressional Globe (Record),
1867-71.

258

POLITICAL CONFLICTS

filed in January 1869, and the pension was voted in July
1870.

Of the forces that dethroned Mrs. Lincoln's reason, none
except the death of her husband and children outranked the
two political conflicts between 1866 and 1870: the projected
auction episode, and the pension fight.

259

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Was Religion A Help?

// we are told a man Is religious, we still ask: What are his morals* But If
we hear at -first that he has honest morals and is a man of natural justice^
we seldom think of the other question whether he is religious or devout.

SHAFTESBURY

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Was Religion A Help?

THE TODD FAMILY IN LEXINGTON WAS A RELIGIOUS
household, but not puritanical or devoutly following
church forms and exercises. Among the forbears of Betsy
Humphreys Todd were ministers some of them of the
New England variety but the home was not run as a New
England preacher ancestor might have exacted. In Lexing-
ton the family was Presbyterian. The adults attended that
church with the customary regularity, and the children went
both to Sunday school and to church.

In Springfield Mary Todd was an Episcopalian. She was
married by an Episcopal rector. After the death of Edward
the family transferred its allegiance to the Presbyterian
church, and Mrs. Lincoln attended this church until the
family left for Washington. In Washington, also, the Lin-
coins attended the Presbyterian church. The funeral exer-
cises for Lincoln, both in Washington and in Springfield,
were under Presbyterian direction.

After leaving Washington, Mrs. Lincoln did not engage
in any church activities or manifest any great interest in
church affairs. The funeral exercises for Tad in Chicago
were conducted by a Baptist clergyman, but those in Spring-
field by a Presbyterian. Mrs. Lincoln's funeral sermon was
preached by Dr. Reed, pastor of the Presbyterian church
in Springfield.

This easy transference of allegiance from one church to

263

RELIGION

another might indicate that Mrs. Lincoln had not studied the
creed of any church closely or had not accepted any one as
superior to the others. She probably knew little about church
tenets and changed from one to the other in accordance with
the preferences of the household in which she happened to
be living. It is generally accepted that her change of member-
ship from the Episcopal to the Presbyterian church was be-
cause of Lincoln's appreciation of the sermon preached by
the Presbyterian minister at Edward's funeral.

Nor is there evidence that Mrs. Lincoln studied, or even
read, her Bible, as Mr. Lincoln did so frequently. She did
not quote it in her letters, nor did she make reference to
Biblical history or characters.

But Mrs. Lincoln was religious, in spite of these para-
doxes in her observances. Her conversation and writing gave
evidence of a fundamental belief in God. She frequently re-
ferred to God and His influence on the lives of men. Such
statements as that God had protected her husband from
harm showed her belief that God participated in the affairs
of individual men.

While her character and behavior were influenced to only
a slight extent by the organized church, her religious ideals
were responsible to a far greater extent for her acts and her
attitudes.

The religious influence, if it may Be called such, which
dominated her later life more than any other was spiritual-
ism. She and Lincoln were somewhat under the influence
of spiritualists before they went to Washington. In that city
the contacts were more frequent and the influence was
greater.

In the last century and a half there have been several re-
vivals of spiritualism and, naturally enough, these have
tended to come in times of war. The great waves of emotion
which characterize war, the deaths of loved ones, the transi-
tion from one world to another without that preparation
of the emotions of those left behind which a death from

264

MRS. LINCOLN AND SPIRITUALISM

disease gives opportunity for, recognition of forces beyond
the control of men all this creates a soil in which spiritual-
ism flowers.

In 1 86 1 public circles in Washington were very much
under the influence of the spiritualist cult. Many men of
prominence were convinced or half-way persuaded. It was
into such an atmosphere that the Lincolns came. There was a
something in Lincoln's make-up which made him listen with
a good deal of sympathy to what the members of this sect
said. In Mrs. Lincoln an unwillingness to surrender her chil-
dren to death supplied a strong urge to take up spiritualism.
Her acceptance of enough of it to keep her in supposed
touch with Willie after his death is evidenced by Mrs.
Helm's diary. She again indulged in " spiritualistic visita-
tions " after her husband's death and, somewhat, after
Tad's. It appears to be true, however, that she was less
in touch with spiritualists, and had fewer " visitations "
after the last of the three deaths than after the other
two, though Dr. Danforth told of some seances she partici-
pated in.

Just how close Mrs. Lincoln and, for that matter, Presi-
dent Lincoln were to the spiritualists' organization is not
easy to ascertain. There are books, pamphlets, and news-
paper articles on the subject, but they leave one very much
in the dark. There are no records signed by them and no
written documents proving that they ever had any connection
with the organization. We have no difficulty, however, in
finding notices of visits by spiritualists in Chicago, Batavia,
Springfield, and Washington. That these people were re-
ceived and conversed with, there can be no doubt. But about
it all there was always mystery. Names are seldom given,
and addresses never. The allusions are to " mysterious visi-
tors " and " unknown men."

N. Brooks x credited Elizabeth Keckley with putting Mrs.
Lincoln in the hands of a fraudulent spiritualist, who in

1 Bibliography, No. 25, p. 64.

265

RELIGION

1862 served as a medium through whom Mrs. Lincoln sup-
posedly held converse with Willie.

To sum up the effect of religion on Mrs. Lincoln's per-
sonality : Her youthful grounding in religion contributed to
her character, as well as to her behavior, and influenced her
personality favorably. In the periods of storm and stress in
her adult life, religion was not of great service to her. It was
not a haven in which she took refuge, nor a rock on which
she stood. It was not an instrument which she used, either
as a shield or as a spear. The only religion, or near religion,
which affected her emotionally in her great trials was spir-
itualism, and that did her more harm than good.

266

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Influence of Society

f is an old saying A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with
sword.

DEMOCRITUS

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Influence of Society

TN WRITING OF THE EFFECTS OF SOCIETY ON MRS. LINCOLN,

JLI am referring to that which the society editor deals with,
and not to the " society " of the sociologist. The possibility
of being misunderstood has caused some society editors to
seek to avoid trouble by calling the social group with which
they deal " polite society." The connotations have prevented
this term from finding acceptance. Some have tried " aris-
tocracy " and other terms which imply exclusiveness, but in
a democracy it is dangerous to use such words in connection
with the name of anyone who depends on the people for
support. In 1845 * Lincoln was writing letters and showing
other signs of anxiety because the adjective " aristocratic "
was being applied to him.

Society did much for Mrs. Lincoln when she was in the
constructive phases of her evolution. Then came the period
of destruction, wherein it did its best to annihilate her.

Mary Todd was born into no mean social atmosphere.
She inherited the position in Kentucky of two generations
of Todds, Parkers, and Porters. She knew the homes, the
parents, and the young women of the best social circles in
the Blue-Grass country. She spent years training for society
and worked zealously to perfect herself in its arts. She was
like a racehorse that was being prepared and pointed. For
some reason, doubtless a good one, she did not make a social

1 Bibliography, No. 9, p. 275.

269

THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIETY

debut in Lexington, though she probably went to such parties
as it was customary for a " sub-deb " to attend.

It was in Springfield that Miss Todd had her social career.
She made her debut under the powerful auspices of the
Edwards-Todd clan, and she participated in all the social
and socio-political functions of the vigorous new state capi-
tal. She crowded into three years all of her social experiences
as a matrimonially inclined young woman.

Society was her friend in these years. If we accept the
theory that she had an introvert personality, no part of the
education of Mary Tofld was of greater benefit to her than
that of these three years of young womanhood, because they
required association with others.

During the first part of Mrs. Lincoln's married life in
Springfield, society neglected her in a way that caused those
who knew her when she first came to Springfield to wonder.
But she was a busy woman occupied with her babies, her
husband, and her home; and she did not have much time to
mope. Had there been fewer duties, the harm done by the
social neglect would have registered more.

In the later years of her married life in Springfield, soci-
ety was more of a factor. Emilie Todd, afterwards Mrs.
Helm, made her a long visit, and this helped the renewal
of social relations with the acquaintances of the old days,
and the making of new friends. After that, the Lincolns
themselves gave some large parties, and participated in the
social functions of the Executive Mansion. Springfield was
doing its part in the education of Mrs. Lincoln for the posi-
tion of Mistress of the White House.

The first heavy debit against society in Mrs. Lincoln's
account-book is that found among the Washington entries.
Several of her biographers, and those who knew her best,
gave her social ambitions as in the van among her great
hopes and aspirations. She went to Washington giving evi-
dence that she knew her social opportunity had come, and
that she was ready to throw her great capacity for drive

270

MRS. LINCOLN AXD SOCIETY

into achieving success. The drubbing Washington society
gave her the social ostracism was part of her great
frustration the greatest that had ever come to her.

A careful reader of W. O. Stoddard's 1 story concludes
that he placed this disappointment in the front rank of those
forces which broke down Mrs. Lincoln's personality. Sena-
tor Cameron, addressing the United States Senate, 2 charged
Washington society with a full measure of responsibility.

Between her arrival in Chicago in 1 865 and her departure
for Europe in 1868, society ignored Mrs. Lincoln, but that
did not harm her. In Washington she had had hopes, cher-
ished ambitions, and dreamed dreams; social pre-eminence
was among her desires. In Chicago she dreamed nothing;
hope had been abandoned ; society now had neither rewards
nor punishments for her. Her mind was running to plans for
financial security, and she was indifferent as to the rest of
the world. In Europe, from 1868 to 1871, she wrote letters
to old society friends and occasionally referred to them
in her letters, but what was in her mind, as her letters reveal,
was the possibility of their helping her to get a pension.
Adam Badeau 8 wrote that he pitied her because of her loneli-
ness in London, but there is no acceptable evidence that she
cared what people did or thought, except as this bore on
the pension bill or as it related to Tad. In this period she
was very much introvert and restless, and social interests
would have been of great help to her personality.

Chicago society continued to ignore Mrs. Lincoln after
1871, and she returned a typical introvert response. She
lived among strangers almost altogether between 1871 and
1875. She wrote to no one. She lived in hotels and alone ex-
cept for companion nurses.

She was in Waukesha in 1874, in search of health; and
the accounts tell us of trips to the spring and long, lonely
walks, but not a word of social intercourse or of friendli-
ness toward her. She was in Florida in the winter of 1874,

1 Bibliography, No. 168. 2 Bibliography, No. 45. * Bibliography, No. 6.

271

MKS. LINCOLN AND SOCIETY

at least, and she must have looked in on society a little be-
cause she wrote her impressions of Southern social life
in a very detached way, almost as though she were among
some foreign people, observing them and writing of them.

She was still more of an introvert, or schizoid, 1 in Spring-
field after 1875, and in France in the same period. Society
was quite willing to pay no heed to her, and she was more
than willing to be left alone. She saw almost no one except
the members of her family and a few old friends, and if she
wrote letters, I know of none that has been found.

To the tragedy of Mary Lincoln society made just one
major contribution the Washington experiences. But that
was enough.

1 "Resembling schizophrenia, a term applied by Bleuler to the shut-in, unsocial,
introspective type of personality." Bibliography, No. 48.

272

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Physical Phases of Her
Personality

Mental and physical perfection are fundamentally connected and
when the present causes of incongruity hove worked, themselves out, be
ever found united.

HERBERT SPENCER

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Physical Phases of Her
Personality

THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT MRS. LINCOLN'S
appearance her facial lines and angles, expression,
size, stature, shape, and posture, all combined to make what
is called, colloquially, " looks" are of two sorts : pictures
of her, and written descriptions by a number of writers.

The only pictures of Mary Todd prior to her marriage
are the two or more portraits painted by Katherine Helm,
based on a daguerreotype which may have been taken in
1839 or possibly earlier. There are no other pictures for
twenty years, so far as I have discovered. Some photo-
graphs must have been taken between 1850 and 1860, but
I have not been able to identify them. Between 1861 and
1865 many were taken, and a letter to Brady shows that
Mrs. Lincoln exercised critical control over the taking of
these and over their promulgation.

The group pictures of the Lincoln family were generally
fabricated, but the individual pictures assembled to make the
combinations were genuine. After 1865 the supply of pic-
tures diminishes almost to the vanishing-point. I have found
none taken later than 1871.

There are several descriptions of Mrs. Lincoln's looks
and carriage. Elizabeth Norris wrote of Mary Todd as she
was at about the age of thirteen to sixteen. Miss Helm's
description 1 of Miss Todd, and her paintings of her at

1 Bibliography, No. 73.

275

APPEARANCE AS CHILD AND YOUNG WOMAN

eighteen to twenty years, were doubtless criticized by mem-
bers of the family who knew Mary in her younger years.

There are several descriptions of her appearance as a
young woman in Springfield society, and during the years of
married life in Springfield. The society writers of Washing-
ton tell of her appearance, and also of her dress and jew-
elry, in 1 86 1 to 1865. Between 1865 and 1882 what is
written relates more to her appearance as to health than to
her looks.

AS A CHILD

Mrs. Norris wrote of her appearance: 1 "She had clear,
blue eyes, long lashes, light brown hair with a glint of
bronze, and a lovely complexion. Her figure was beautiful,
and no old master ever modeled a more perfect arm and
hand. Even as a schoolgirl in her gingham dress she was cer-
tainly very beautiful."

AS A YOUNG WOMAN

Miss Helm's description of Mrs. Lincoln as she was in
1840 is entitled to some consideration. It came from one
of her family, on whose knowledge it was based. Besides,
Miss Helm is a painter of portraits, and her best-known
works are the portraits of her aunt. "Mary," said Miss
Helm, 2 " although not strictly beautiful, was more than
pretty. She had a broad, white forehead, eyebrows sharply
but delicately marked, a straight nose, short upper lip, and
an expressive mouth curling into an adorable, slow-coming
smile that brought dimples into her cheeks and glinted long-
lashed, blue eyes. . . . Spirited carriage of her head. . . .
Plump round figure . . . intelligent bright face . . .
lovely complexion . . . soft brown hair."

Reproductions of two of the three portraits of Mary

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 52. * Ibid., p. 73, and Bibliography, No. 72.
276

Mary Todd when about twenty years old.

From a portrait painted from a daguerreotype, by Katherine Helm.
The portrait is now owned by William H. Townsend.

HER APPEARANCE IN SPRINGFIELD

Todd painted by Miss Helm are found in her biography of
her aunt, 1 and one in Townsend's Lincoln and His Wife's
Home Town. These pictures show a good-looking, whole-
some, healthy girl with fine features and an excellent car-
riage ; a good neck, shoulders, and arms. The eyes are quite
light in color, and the amount of the white ball showing is
about right. The individual features are good. At the same
time the combination is not one that would entitle her to
the distinction of being called beautiful, without the use of
a qualifying word. In no account of Miss Todd's appear-
ance do we find her described simply as "beautiful."

AS A WIFE

E. B. Washburne informs us 2 that I. N. Arnold was a
friend of Abraham Lincoln's from 1840 to 1865, an d he was
acquainted with Mrs. Lincoln until 1875, at least. Arnold
describes her as : " Of medium height, and form rather full
and round; a dark brunette with a rosy tinge to her cheeks,
eyes gray-blue, hair abundant, and dark brown in color."
This description probably applied to Mrs. Lincoln as Arnold
saw her when he was being entertained in the Lincoln home
in Springfield. This was principally about 1855.

H. B. Rankin wrote of Mrs. Lincoln, as she impressed
him in 1856 or thereabouts: 8 "In personal appearance
Mrs. Lincoln was not strikingly commanding, nor was she
considered handsome. . . . Her features, not of a strictly
regular or beautiful type, were yet pretty when viewed in
connection with her complexion, her soft brown hair, and
her clear blue eyes. She was not of a conventional type. She
had a plump, rounded figure and was rather short in stature.
Physically, mentally, emotionally she was the extreme oppo-
site of Mr. Lincoln."

In what was written of Miss Todd in her young

1 Bibliography, No. 73. 8 Bibliography, No. 149, p. 160.

Bibliography, No. 4, p. 69.

277

HER APPEARANCE IN WASHINGTON

womanhood, we find no reference to shortness or plumpness.
Most women expect to get stout after the age of thirty, and
Mrs. Lincoln lived up to this expectation. The descriptions of
her written after 1850 all include some reference to shortness
and plumpness. This impression, which most people had of
her, was partly due to contrast with her long, lean husband
and partly to the styles. In 1860 dresses made the wearers
appear latitudinous. But a part of Mrs. Lincoln's apparent
dumpiness was due to the individual and not to the height of
her husband nor to her clothes. She was stout, and her fea-
tures carried a definite impression of fatness. And, as she
became stouter, the descriptions of her became progressively
less appealing to the vanity of a woman.

One writer described Mrs. Lincoln when she entered
Washington life as "ugly." Ben Perley Poore limited his
criticism of her at her first reception to a statement that she
wore a wreath of flowers " which did not become her." l
Genevieve Forbes Herrick wrote: 2 "Abraham Lincoln and
a short lady at his side, in blue and white checked silk, held
their first reception." Dr. William E. Barton, though he
doubted its accuracy, gave a story 8 to the effect that, as they
started for the reception room, Lincoln announced: " Ladies
and gentlemen, here is the long and the short of the Presi-
dency." " The long," said Barton, " was six feet four. The
short, five feet nothing. . . . But Mary Todd Lincoln
walked proudly beside the tall man whom she always said
she married in full faith that he would one day be President,
c because, you know, he really isn't handsome.' "

I have been able to find only one report which spoke of
Mrs. Lincoln in this period as being pretty, or even hand-
some. Most of the reports describe her clothes, her man-
ners, or the way she carried herself anything but her
looks.

Elizabeth Keckley described Mrs. Lincoln as follows : * " I

1 Bibliography, No. 141, p. 116. * Bibliography, No. u.

2 Bibliography, No. 77. Bibliography, No. 85, p. 28.

278

HER APPEARANCE IN LATER LIFE

saw a lady inclined to stoutness. She was about forty years
of age. . . . She had a beautiful neck and arms, and low
dresses were becoming to her."

Stoddard said she was " a pleasant looking woman, well
educated, and with a renown for keen wit."

Senator James Harlan, the father of Mrs. Robert T.
Lincoln, described Mrs. Lincoln at the first inauguration as
being : " Fair, of about medium height, but, standing near
her husband, by comparison seemed short." T

Miss Helm, writing of the same period, 2 said she was still
strikingly youthful and attractive in appearance. She was
" fair and forty," but not fat, as she weighed only a hun-
dred and thirty pounds. " Her hair, a lovely chestnut, with
glints of bronze, had as yet not a gray thread. Her beautiful
shoulders and arms gleamed like pearls. She held her head
high, slightly tilted back, possibly because she had so tall a
husband to look up to. She was not tall, but seemed shorter
than she really was by the side of her towering husband.
More than merely pretty, she was both brilliant and fas-
cinating." Miss Helm's is much the most flattering descrip-
tion of her aunt's appearance in 1861 to 1865 that has come
from any source. Julia Taf t Bayne, 3 however, described Mrs.
Lincoln in 1861 as being " nearly beautiful."

Some time after 1876 Mrs. Lincoln lost flesh. Her rela-
tives in Springfield describe her as being thin as well as short.
They give her weight in that period as a hundred and ten
pounds or even less. B. F. Stoneberger describes her as small
and thin, almost wizened. The New York description of her
as she returned from Europe in 1880 would indicate that
she was senile in appearance. At that time she was " little
and thin, wrinkled and gray, and she looked like an old

woman."

1 Bibliography, No. 73, p. 167. * Bibliography, No. 17, p. 8.

1 Ibid. p. 175.

HER FEATURES IN DETAIL

An analysis of Mrs. Lincoln's size, weight, posture,
and features throws some light on her mentality and her
personality.

Her head was large and broad. The cranium was so large
that it indicated a brain of extra size and weight for the
size and weight of its owner. Her method of combing her
hair parted in the middle, carried laterally to expose the
brow, and then downward to cover the upper two thirds of
the ears accentuated the height and size of the brow and
the size of the face. The dark color of the hair threw her
prominent white forehead into further contrast. The com-
bination of head and upper part of the face marks Mrs.
Lincoln as of an intellectual type. This does not mean that
all intellectuals have heads and upper faces of this type, but
it does indicate a probability that she was an intellectual
woman.

There are none of those prominences of the face which,
when present, indicate enlarged sinuses, but which are usually
credited to something else such as overhanging brows.
The space between Mrs. Lincoln's eyes and between her
eyebrows was broad. The eyebrows make one think there
might have been " tricks of the trade " even in that day.

Mrs. Lincoln's mid face tells us less about her type, espe-
cially if we limit this region to the features between the
brows and the upper lips. Her eyes were blue. Miss Helm's
portrait gives the eyes an expression of directness and frank-
ness, the keynote of the picture. In photographs taken in
later years there is not the same domination of the whole by
the expression of the eyes. While some of this difference in
appearance is due to other causes, a part of it results from
the pose, and a larger part from the relative size of the
aperture of the lids. In the three portraits that Miss Helm
painted, the eyes are never looking toward the spectator;
280

By permission of il/r. Camtron

Mrs. Lincoln.
From a photograph owned by S. R. Cameron, Chicago.

HER FEATURES IN DETAIL

in the photographs the tendency was to take the face even
more in profile. Mrs. Lincoln's later pictures do not indicate
that her eyes were prominent. They appear to be somewhat
small and inconspicuous features in a broad, fat face. What-
ever the cause may have been, the effect was that her face
lost one of its best features the expression of her youth-
ful eyes as she acquired age.

Mrs. Lincoln's nose was her poorest feature. A glance at
her profile and near-profile pictures gives an impression of
pug-nose. A closer look shows that the pug-nose effect was
due to poor development of the bony part of the nose in the
eye-and-bridge region rather than to an upturning of the
tip. The lower part of the nose is better developed. When
her features began to be changed by the deposition of fat,
this lower segment of the nose received more than its quota,
and no other change did more to rob her of her good looks.
She ultimately became fat-nosed.

Her cheek-bones were not high. In this region, as in the
lower forehead, there was no indication of large sinuses.
But if the mid section of the face, especially its bony frame-
work, did not cause the mid face to push as far forward as
the forehead and chin, it was broad enough in fact, too
broad. Most of the suggestion of breadth of face, however,
is found only in the later pictures, and resulted from the
fattening process.

Just as Mrs. Lincoln's "brain-box," forehead, and upper
face proclaimed her an intelligent woman, the lower part of
it stamped her as aggressive and determined. The configu-
ration of the upper part of the face is determined by bony
formations, the pattern being dependent on the need of
space for brains. That of the lower part is determined by
muscles and fat, as well as by the development of the upper
and lower jaw-bones. Except in her youthful portraits, it is
her mouth that dominates Mrs. Lincoln's features. Her lips
were not broad and sensuous; in fact, they were not quite
heavy enough without being thin-lipped. Had they shown

281

HER FEATURES IN DETAIL

a little more vermilion, she would have been better-looking.
The distinguishing feature of her mouth was that it formed
a straight line, curving neither upward nor downward, and
her lips closed firmly. The upper lip was a trifle too broad
because her nose was a little too short. Her lower jaw and
chin were well developed. Her teeth met well, neither jaw
protruding. She was not iron-jawed, nor was her chin square.

If the face above the tip of the nose be covered by the
hand, the part remaining in view appears to be rather over-
developed. Much of that appearance was due to fat. But
after allowing for that, the well-developed bones and the
firm, strong muscles indicate that the possessor of that face
knew what she wanted when she wanted it, and intended to
get it if she could.

Every picture shows a broad, sweeping curve or wrinkle
extending from the nose region outward, passing below the
eminence of the cheek, skirting round the corners of the
mouth, and losing itself on the upper part of the lower jaw.
The angles of the mouth are pulled downward ever so
slightly, and the muscles, skin, and tissues are set in that
position. This is the only suggestion of wrinkles that the
pictures show. Wrinkles of the face, at least those which
precede the criss-cross wrinkles of very old age, are the re-
sult of persistent muscle-pulling. Had Mrs. Lincoln been
a chronic laugher, that broad face-curve would have been
more pronounced, and it would have pulled upward toward
the top of the curve. Secondary upward curves would have
developed around the corners of the mouth. As it was, this
large curved wrinkle was of the type so frequently found in
rather serious men whose features are a little too heavy.
Had Mrs. Lincoln been more fun-making, the corners of
her mouth would have had a different slant. Had she had a
sense of humor, or better enjoyed a good joke, she would
have had a rather different squint around her eye regions,
and radiating wrinkles across the temples would have
resulted.

282

HER FEATURES IX DETAIL'

In her entire face there was not one bad feature. Nor
were her features out of level or out of harmony and bal-
ance. When she was young, she came very near being pretty,
even strikingly so. Probably at every period of her life she
was prettier than she was regarded. Her features were not
of the type that give more than a fair break to their pos-
sessors. There was a little too much face, and her brow was
rather too prominent. The eyes showed not quite enough of
the " clinging " type to prejudice in her favor. But it was,
above all, the firm mouth and strong under jaw, the expres-
sion of the face from the nose down, that would make her
appear inferior to others in good looks.

The change in Mrs. Lincoln's face that robbed it of its
beauty was largely the result of the fattening process. As
time passed and she stored up fat, it was her lot to have an
undue amount deposited in her face. This coarsened her
features and emphasized the effects of maturity.

It is unfortunate that there is no photograph of Mrs. Lin-
coln taken after her weight had fallen to a hundred and
ten pounds, and her trials had caused muscle wrinkles to de-
velop here and there. The chances are that she then regained
something of her youthful good looks. At least her features
were less heavy and coarse.

When fat is absorbed in the neck region, longitudinal
wrinkles appear. Probably in her time of emaciation her neck
lost its beauty. But the face may have become more attrac-
tive. It is the expressions of emotions, determination, joy,
and sorrow that register on the face as wrinkles; the absorp-
tion of face fat is of secondary importance. As the wrinkles
came out around her eyes and mouth, and as certain features
became less large, the likelihood is that she gained more in
looks than she lost.

Mrs. Lincoln's neck was always good. It was not even bad
when she was stoutest. Her dresses usually showed her neck
well.

Her arms were also good. The Springfield Journal said

283

HER FEATURES IN DETAIL

she was a woman of great strength, meaning resistance, en-
durance, persistence, and determination, rather than muscle
strength. There are pictures of her, however, which show
arms that might have had strong muscles.

Her hands were small and very shapely. This indicates
that her feet, as nature made them, were of the same type.
The hands and feet are composed predominantly of bone,
and the general type of the one is followed by the other.
But talking of her feet is pure speculation. In that age
women's feet were used to stand on.

I have found no very definite statement as to Mrs. Lin-
coln's height. We read that she was not short as compared
with other women. She stood erect. Her posture was good.
The probability is that she was taller than she gave the im-
pression of being. No weight over a hundred and thirty is
recorded, but she must have weighed more than that part
of the time. The impression she gave was of an under-
height, overweight woman at least, after 1855 and until
about 1876.

Her movements were quick and suggestive of aggressive-
ness. She spoke a little rapidly.

Students of Mary Lincoln's personality should not over-
look the lessons which a close study of her face, head, and
physical characteristics convey.

284

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Her Mental and Personality
Qualities

The mind is its own flace y and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell) a hell of heaven.

MILTON, Paradise Lost

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Her Mental and Personality
Qualities

THERE IS NO POPULAR INTEREST IN MRS. LINCOLN'S
intellectual ability. She wrote no books, and no state
documents are attributed to her. She was not a professional
woman, nor a leading light in anything. She was no Queen
Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, Cleopatra, Madame de Stael,
nor even a Dolly Madison. She did not engage in intrigue,
and she made no impression on public affairs. Her name
will go down in history as that of a wife.

There would be no popular interest in her as a wife except
that she was the wife of Abraham Lincoln, the most studied
and the most frequently portrayed man in American
public affairs, at least. Even though she was the wife of
Lincoln, she might have escaped exceptional public interest
but for certain things that were said about her. Those of
her qualities that are discussed relate to her personality
rather than to her intellectuality. The peculiarities of her
behavior resulted from her emotions rather than from her
thinking.

Popular interest in her continued to the end of her career,
even in those years after her husband had died and she was
living a private life in retirement, where her behavior was
interesting because it was peculiar. Here, again, the interest
was in the personality rather than in the intellect, because
her conduct was determined by an insanity of her emotions,
rather than of her mind.

287

PERSONALITY AND MENTALITY

To make the distinction between thinking and feeling,
between emotional acts and those dominated by intellect,
between intelligence and personality, and to hold these dis-
tinctions always clearly in mind, is not an easy matter.

The distinction that Webster makes is as follows : *
"Personality. That which constitutes distinction of person;
distinctive personal character; individuality. Personality
implies complex being or character having distinctive and
persistent traits, among which reason, self-consciousness,
and self -activity are usually reckoned as essential."

"Mentality. Mental endowment or acumen; mental
power; mind considered as a characteristic."

The definition of " mentality " given by the Oxford Dic-
tionary is: 2 " Intellectual quality, intellectuality."

The term " personality " is used here in a broad sense.
It includes intellectuality (which, in turn, includes intelli-
gence and mentality). It also includes emotional reactions,
personal appearance, facial expression, carriage. Its major
heads are physical, intellectual, and emotional. There are
many minor heads, such as character, taste, likability,
energy, aggressiveness, habits, graciousness, and many
others. In Mrs. Lincoln the greatest interest attaches to
her emotional reactions. That which set her apart all
through the years of her adult life was her personality,
and particularly that part of it which related to her emo-
tional reactions. From the reputed contact of the child
Mary with Henry Clay, to the end of Mrs. Lincoln's days,
the impressions she made on people related principally to
the emotional. She had likes and dislikes, and these begot
likes and dislikes in others. She had animosities, and these
were paid back in the same medium.

1 Bibliography, No. 185. * Bibliography, No. 124.

288

HER PERSONALITY IN YOUTH

YOUTH

Mary Todd at about eight years of age is described by
William H. Townsend x as : u A sprightly but curiously
complex little creature, high-strung, headstrong, precocious,
warm-hearted, sympathetic, and generous; fond of birds,
flowers, party dresses." We do not know where this very
careful investigator found the basis for this estimate. If she
was fond of flowers and birds at the age of eight, she lost
that fondness before she reached twenty-eight. Neither she
nor Mr. Lincoln showed a fondness for flowers in Spring-
field or in Washington.

Frances Wallace wrote: 2 " Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Lin-
coln loved the beautiful. I have planted flowers in their
front yard myself to hide nakedness, ugliness, etc. . . .
have done it often and often. Mrs. Lincoln never planted
trees, roses . . . never made a garden ; at least, not more
than once or twice."

Katherine Helm, who did not know her aunt, but who
knew of her from her own mother and other members of
the family who did, uses these descriptive terms about
Mary Todd : 3 " Very studious. . . . Far in advance of
other girls of her age in education. ... A mind that en-
abled her to grasp and thoroughly understand [this is
Mrs. Norris's statement]. . . . The life of the school . . .
companionable . . . vivacious. ... In this Kentucky period
she was imperious, impatient, and tending to revolt."

WOMANHOOD

Emilie Todd Helm, who was at home when Mrs. Lincoln
visited Lexington in 1847 and 1848, who visited Mrs. Lin-
coln in Springfield in 1856 and in Washington in 1862, and

1 Bibliography, No. 176, p. 51. * Bibliography, No. 73.

2 Bibliography, No. 182, p. 289.

289

HER PERSONALITY IN WOMANHOOD

who had the further advantage of discussing her half-sister
with their close relatives, gave this estimate of her: l " She
was singularly sensitive. She was also impulsive and made
no attempt to conceal her feelings; indeed, it would have
been an impossibility had she desired to do so, for her face
was an index to every passing emotion. . . . Without de-
siring to wound she occasionally indulged in sarcastic, witty
remarks that cut like a Damascus blade; but there was no
malice behind them. She was full of humor, but never un-
refined. Perfectly frank and extremely spirited, her candor
of speech and independence of thought often gave offense
where none was meant."

J. F. Newton wrote of her : 2 " Mary Todd, a Kentucky
girl of distinguished lineage, highly cultured, compact of
brilliance, coquetry, and wit. . . . Lincoln had not met
such a woman before, and he was captivated by her clever-
ness, vivacity, and beauty."

Some of the qualifying statements about her as a young
woman are: "... as spirited, accomplished, and self-
confident a young woman as Springfield had ever seen " ; 8
"... brilliant, witty, highly educated, ambitious, spirited,
with a touch of audacity." *

Of the exhibit material awaiting analysis none surpasses
some letters which she .wrote to friends and social acquaint-
ances. These reveal a young woman of education and a
good letter-writer. She was vivacious and witty. Her letters
were filled with gossip, mostly very kindly, but some of it
critical. Plainly, her mind ran to people and social events.
She was interested in what was happening and what was
being said. These letters, when compared with those written
to friends in later years, are seen to lack some of the grace,
form, and ceremonial of the later products, but they show
that the interest she had in people was just as character-
istic in 1840 as it was in 1870 and in the years between.

1 Bibliography, No. 72. Bibliography, No. 170, p. 043.

* Bibliography, No. 127. Bibliography, No. 172, Vol. I, p. 173.

290

INTEREST IX PERSONALITIES AND EVENTS

We can accept that, then, as an ingrained quality of her
mind. 1

Extracts from three letters written to Emilie Todd, later
Mrs. Helm, in 1856, illustrate well this quality of Mrs. Lin-
coln's mind her interest in personalities and events. She
wrote : 2 " Colonel Warren gave a bridal party to his son,
who married Miss Birchall. . . . Miss Dunlap is spend-
ing the winter with her sister, Mrs. Me, looking very
pretty, but the beaux do not appear so numerous as the
winter you passed here. . . . Dr. and Mrs. Brown, also
Mr. Dwight Brown and his wife, are residing here. . . .
I saw Elizabeth this afternoon. . . . Julia and Mrs. Baker
are in Peoria at the fair, from thence go to St. Louis. . . .
Julia has nothing but her dear husband and silk quilts to
occupy her mind. How different the daily routine of some
of our lives I . . . Nothing pleases me better than to re-
ceive a letter from an absent friend, so remember, dear
Emilie, when you desire to be particularly acceptable, write
me one of your agreeable missives and do not wait for a
return of each from a staid matron and, moreover, the
mother of three noisy boys. . . . Reminds me of your ques-
tion relative to Lydia M. The hour of her patient lover's
deliverance is at hand. They are to be married privately, I
expect. . . . Some of us who had a very handsome dress
for the season thought it would be in good taste for
Mrs. Matteson, in consideration of their being about to
leave their present habitation, to give a general reception.
. . . This fall, in visiting Mrs. M., I met a sister of
Mrs. Maginnis, a very pretty, well-bred woman from
Joliet. . . . Frances Wallace returned two or three days
ago from her visit to Pennsylvania. . . . Mr. Edwards's
family are well. . . . Mr. Baker and Julia are still with
them. Miss lies was married some three weeks ago. . . .
Mr. Scott is frequently here playing the devoted to Julia.

1 The Peoria letters owned by Oliver R. Barrett and Logan Hay are also good
illustrations of Mrs. Lincoln's gossipy tendencies.

2 Owned by Miss Helm. Bibliography, No. 73, p. 120 ff.

2QI

HER PERSONALITY IN WOMANHOOD

... I suspect the family would not be averse to him. . . .
Charley R. was on a visit to him in Lexington. . . . He,
it is said, is to be married this winter to Jennie Barrett, a
lovely girl. Mr. R. took tea with us an evening or two since
and made particular inquiries about Mother. Still as rough
and uncultivated as ever, although some years since mar-
ried an accomplished Georgia belle with the advantage of
some years in Washington."

In the writings about her social life she is described as
having been talkative, bright, and an excellent conversa-
tionalist, so long as she was allowed to pick her own ground.
Her talk was almost altogether about people and events
personalities and gossip. She was not especially good at the
exchange of social chatter, but when it came to saying clever
things or reciting some event in which she could imitate
someone, she was a source of great merriment. She had
plenty of wit, but she was without humor. She could make
others laugh, and was very fond of doing so, but she was
not a good laugher. No one has ever pictured her with a
twinkle in her eye, and her pictures never show the crow's-
feet at the outer corner of the eye, nor the upturned corners
of the mouth, which comedians know mean mirth.

Her wit was cutting at times, and sometimes what she
said hurt. Her mimicry also made some enemies for her.
A fair estimate is that she was admired more than she was
liked.

She did not " mother " her beaux nor flatter them by
simulating an interest in them. She dazzled rather than
warmed them. Her conversation was not flattering nor
soothing to those on whose ears it fell. She was not a " cling-
ing vine." No sap-headed boy left her presence certain that
he was a Daniel Webster, or a " mute, inglorious Milton."
No boy loved her from the same impulse that made him
love his mother. The reaction to her in society was com-
posed far more of admiration and even wonder than
it was of sympathy, friendliness, and affection.

292

HER EMOTIONALISM

Ward H. Larnon describes Mrs. Lincoln as ". . . high-
bred, proud, brilliant, witty, and with a will that bent every-
one else to her purpose. Her tongue and her pen were
equally sharp." x

J. W. Weik, following Herndon, as he nearly always
did, wrote: 2 " She was an excellent judge of human nature;
a better reader of men's motives than her husband. . . .
A shrewd observer. . . . She coveted place and power
. . . wanted to be a leader in society, and her ambition
knew no bounds. . . . She was devoid of patience, toler-
ance, and self-control."

Dr. William E. Barton uses the following terms : 3 " Pas-
sionate, high-strung, extremely temperamental, ardent, quick
to fly into a passion, and as ready to get over it. ... She
never did anything by halves. She either loved or hated,
and she did it with intensity."

EMOTIONALISM

Emotionalism is a part of the picture of Mrs. Lincoln,
from the earliest record we have. Until her marriage there
were few limitations and fewer restraints. When exacting
interests, such as those of wifehood, motherhood, and the
cares of the household, began to limit Mrs. Lincoln, and
life started to multiply restraints, certain peculiarities of
her personality began to come to the fore. They had been
present all the time, but hitherto they had not been dis-
cordant or out of harmony. Now they commenced to be
sources of disharmony. The spirit which so many admired
in the girl grew to be in the woman the temper which made
enemies. The gossip which in the girl was harmless enough
now aroused unpleasant gossip in return. The tendency to
criticize, to mimic, to make fun of people while it made
her no friends, but was even admired in her schoolgirl days

1 Bibliography, No. 99, p. 238.

1 Bibliography, No. 186, pp. 94-7.

1 Bibliography, No. u. Also No. 9, Vol. II, p. 410.

293

WHAT LINCOLN MAY HAVE THOUGHT

now was provocative of enmities. The out-of-the-ordi-
nariness which in the young girl caused laughter, entertained,
and was esteemed brilliant, now became proof of abnormal
personality. The quality in the young person was the same
as that in the older, except that it had grown stronger or,
coming back to the harmony simile, louder. But the setting
was not the same. Dissimilarity in setting and in degree
caused the quality to be looked on differently.

WHAT MR. LINCOLN MAY HAVE
THOUGHT

Charles F. Gunther, who began collecting Lincoln relics
while Mrs. Lincoln was still alive, bought objects of interest
to Chicago and to her during the years when she was resi-
dent in that city. Mr. Barrett says that some of these were
brought to Mr. Gunther by Mrs. Lincoln herself, and others
she sent by messenger. Among the articles purchased by
Mr. Gunther and later sold to Mr. Barrett was a book,
The Elements of Character, by Mary G. Chandler, 1 on the
title-page of which was written: " Mary A. Lincoln." The
handwriting is Mr. Lincoln's, and the supposition is that
he wrote " A. Lincoln n in the book, and subsequently pre-
fixed " Mary " to it. Marks were found on the margin of
various pages. On the fly-leaf Mr. Gunther had indicated
the location of these marginal lines and had written that
they were made by Mr. Lincoln, which information he, pre-
sumably, received from Mrs. Lincoln.

It is reasonable to infer that Lincoln saw that his wife
was not getting along as well as she might. He had been
somewhat disturbed over the way she had taken Edward's
death. He had other reasons for thinking that all was not
going well with her. He may have sensed that some of the
trouble lay in her personality, although in that day psy-
chologists knew but little on that subject. He was a politi-

1 Bibliography, No. 31.
204

No. i

No. 2

No. 3

No. I. Signature from a copy of a
book on character written by

Miss Chandler,
owned by Oliver R. Barrett.

By permission of -YTr. Barrett

No. 2. Signature from the back of

a photograph of Mrs. Lincoln,

owned by Oliver R. Barrett. The writing

is probably that of Mrs. Lincoln.

By permission of Mr. Barrett

No. 3. Mrs. Lincoln's signature,
from one of her letters in the possession of
the John Hay Library, Brown University.
By permission of the John Hay Library

WHAT LINCOLN MAY HAVE THOUGHT

cian, and a skillful one, and every politician is a good prac-
tical psychologist, whether he knows it or not. Lincoln knew
as much about applied psychology as the professors did.
As he read this book, he probably decided that his wife
could read it with advantage. It had something that she
needed. Let us examine it analytically, looking for light
on what Lincoln thought of his wife's personality, of her
qualities that might be bettered, and of suggestions as to
how to better them.

There is a chapter on character, most of which is given
over to statements of the author's opinions on what is not
character. She held that character is a spiritual develop-
ment, for which in the end one will receive the rewards and
the punishments to which it is entitled. " But if we do not
succeed in attaining true health, wealth, and power, the re-
sponsibility is all our own."

On page 10, in the same chapter, this is marked: "A
wisely trained character never stops to ask, What will
society think of me if I do this thing or leave it undone? "
The spirit of the passage and its setting is: " Hew to the
line, let the chips fall where they may."

Another marked passage in this chapter (though not
listed by Mr. Gunther) reads: " If we would train char-
acter into genuine goodness, we should observe whether
evil in ourselves or in others offends us because it is opposed
to the will of God. If the former be the case we shall find
ourselves angry; if the latter, we shall be sorrowful. Anger
is, in its very nature, egotistic and selfish."

A marked paragraph on page 36 refers to children who
are governed by their affections. (Preceding chapters had
been concerned with children governed by imagination, and
with others governed by thought.) "There is still a third
class of a calmer aspect. Its members may not shine so
brightly, but there is more warmth in their rays. They will
not learn so much nor so rapidly as some, but their whole
being is permeated by what they know. They are constantly

295

WAS MRS. LINCOLN JEALOUS?

out. This was very embarrassing to Mrs. Grant. " She was
absolutely jealous of poor ugly Abraham Lincoln," wrote
General Badeau. 1

General Horace Porter, who was also in the hack, wrote
a story 2 about Mrs. Lincoln's outbreak, but he attributed
it to the jolting she got from the team trotting over a
corduroy road.

Other instances of Mrs. Lincoln's jealousy were given by
Badeau. " She was jealous of Mrs. Orne for riding horse-
back with Lincoln. . . . She became frenzied. . . . She
called Mrs. Orne bad names . . . tried to have General
Orne removed. . . . During all this visit similar scenes
were occurring. Mrs. Lincoln repeatedly attacked her hus-
band in the presence of officers, and I never suffered greater
humiliation and pain. . . . General Sherman was a wit-
ness of some of these episodes and mentioned them in his

memoirs."

General W. T. Sherman does mention at least one of
these episodes. 3 He tells of discussing it with Captain
Barnes, who was also a witness. However, he does not
give jealousy as the reason for Mrs. Lincoln's outbreak.

General Badeau quotes Mrs. Stanton as saying that she
did not visit Mrs. Lincoln. She refused to go to Ford's
Theater with President and Mrs. Lincoln the night of the
assassination unless General and Mrs. Grant would go.
" I will not sit without you in the box with Mrs. Lincoln,"
Mrs. Stanton is quoted as having said to Mrs. Grant. The
context of this quotation indicates that General Badeau
thought Mrs. Stanton was actuated by fear of Mrs. Lin-
coln's jealousy of her husband.

This is all the evidence I know of that jealousy of her
husband was one of the bad qualities of Mrs. Lincoln's

1 Bibliography, No. 6. (This letter is in the New York Library, and is marked
"Ford Collection." It is from General Adam Badeau, dated January 8, but with
no year. It may have been 1875.)

2 Bibliography, No. 142, pp. 412, 414.
* Bibliography, No. 159.

298

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY

personality. I do not think there is enough proof to sustain
the charge. Too many frank people, eager to find unkind
things to say, made no reference to Mrs. Lincoln as jealous
even what might be termed normally so.

In the main, the influences which operated on Mrs. Lin-
coln's personality prior to 1861 were constructive, while
those of the succeeding years were destructive. In each pe-
riod there were subordinate forces as well as those that
dominated, and in between there was a border zone in which
the groups were nearly of equal importance.

We may say, roughly, that after she went to Washing-
ton, the destructive forces were in the ascendancy. In that
life the strain on her personality became immeasurably
greater. It was her twilight zone. Most of the analyses of
her personality written by those who knew her then dealt
with her shortcomings ; though some who wrote were close
enough to see and to write of qualities that the herd knew
little of. Of these W. O. Stoddard was the only one with
good opportunities for observation, coupled with a back-
ground of understanding. An old Illinois friend and politi-
cal supporter of her husband, he was serving as a private
secretary to the President, in charge of personal as distin-
guished from political relations, and in daily contact with
Mrs. Lincoln for almost four years. He wrote of her good
mind and her other good qualities, and he also told of
her personality and the difficulties it raised for herself and
others. This he did in a frank, straightforward way un-
derstandingly and kindly.

It is difficult to say just when Stoddard got the opinions
and matured his own views, as expressed in the next state-
ment quoted. 1 His book did not appear until 1884, but it
deals with the 1861-4 period and is written in the pres-
ent tense. It seems probable that he set down his views
at the time he was writing of, but that he made additions

1 Bibliography, No. 168, p. 62.

299

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY

and subtractions before publishing them, twenty years
later.

" At first it was not easy to understand why a lady who
could be one day so kindly, so considerate, so generous, so
thoughtful, and so hopeful could upon another day appear
so unreasonable, so irritable, so despondent, even so nig-
gardly, and so prone to see the wrong side of men, women,
and events. It is easier to understand it all and to deal with
it after a few words from an eminent medical practitioner."

This can only mean that some time prior to 1864 a physi-
cian recognized Mrs. Lincoln's trouble and told Stoddard
what it was, and that thereafter he was able to recognize
the limits of her responsibility. Could others have known as
much as Stoddard did, history would have been kinder to
Mary Lincoln.

F. B. Carpenter has very little to say about Mrs. Lincoln.
He gives one story 1 of an exchange of repartee with Secre-
tary of War Stanton, which serves to show her spirit and
her quickness of wit. What, for our purposes, is more im-
portant, this sally is an illustration of the type of witticism
which made Mrs. Lincoln so many enemies.

Mrs. Keckley made several statements of her opinion of
Mrs. Lincoln's mentality; 2 among these: " She was shrewd
and far-seeing."

The impression which Julia Taft Bayne 8 got of Mrs.
Lincoln was that of a kindly, loving, and very considerate
woman, although she gives at least two minor instances in
which Mrs. Lincoln took advantage of her position as First
Lady to get for herself dresses, ribbons, and other articles
of adornment that belonged to other people. At one time,
seeing on the hat of Mrs. Bayne's mother, Mrs. Taft, some
ribbon which she fancied, she connived to get it off. The re-
quest quite flabbergasted Mrs. Taft and she was disposed
to refuse and resist, even to the extent of sitting on her hat.

1 Bibliography, No. 28, p. 201 * Bibliography, No. 17, p. 43.

9 Bibliography, No. 85, pp. 136, 204.

300

Mrs. Lincoln,
from a photograph owned by Oliver R. Barrett.

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY

In her indignation, she told Mr. Taft of the astounding re-
quest. He recognized that women in good society do not pull
ribbons out of other women's hats, but this case was differ-
ent. Mrs. Lincoln lived in the White House. Mrs. Taft did
not sit on her hat, and Mrs. Lincoln got the ribbon. This,
and other similar incidents, caused Mrs. Bayne to write:
11 Mrs. Lincoln wants what she wants when she wants it,
and she accepts no substitute."

Mrs. Bayne gives another occurrence which tells us some-
thing else of Mrs. Lincoln. On this occasion she told young
Julia of Edward, her son who had died more than ten years
before. She grew very emotional in her recital of Edward's
good qualities and of the circumstances of his death. Soon
she was crying hysterically, just as though his death had but
recently occurred.

Mrs. Lincoln had a mind far above the average quality
as regards capacity for observation, for ability to read and
in other ways acquire information, and for analysis. Her
mind was of the introvert type, but with great determina-
tion, force, and drive. She had a good memory and an ade-
quate use of words. Her judgment was about as good as
that of the average person, and she was not without wisdom.
She had more than the usual insight into motives what
is called " intuition." She could foresee, but otherwise her
imagination was not above the average.

Her rating on other qualities which, added to mentality,
went to make up her personality, is as follows:

Her society manners were exceptionally good. Her per-
sonal appearance, features, facial expression, stature, build,
and posture were in her favor. She had physical as well as
social grace. She was emotional, with the qualities of a per-
son given to obeying the emotions. She responded unhappily
to restraint. She evoked admiration, envy, and jealousy
more than she did friendliness, fraternal spirit, sympathy,
and love. She liked to shine ; she did not care to warm, or, if

301

MRS. LINCOLN'S PERSONALITY

she did, she did not know how. She had character and the
idealism and basic religious feeling of the people of breed-
ing and character from whom she sprang, but she was not
consistent in observing religious forms. She was a virtuous,
domestic woman, with the principles of such women.

The weak points of her mind were : too great seriousness
and an inability to laugh at herself; capacity to ridicule
others, but not herself ; lack of hurnor. Except for her hus-
band and children, her family affections were not strong.
She did not have an artistic sense, nor love of beauty for
beauty's sake, in either color, form, or sound. " She wanted
what she wanted when she wanted it," and she could not
stand failure to get it.

Great weaknesses of her personality, in addition to those
indicated in their contrast relations, were : inability to with-
stand restraint; a tendency to hysteria; and a disposition
to disregard the point of view and feelings of others, to give
offense, to resent criticism, to give way to anger, to remem-
ber hurts, to be revengeful. Jealousy was a minor in her
make-up, but envy was a major.

No psychologist nor psychiatrist has ever stated the mat-
ter better than did Samuel Butler, nor could anyone sum-
marize Mrs. Lincoln better than did that wise philosopher
when he wrote : x " All our lives long we are engaged in the
process of accommodating ourselves to our surroundings;
living is nothing else than this process of accommodation.
When we fail a little we are stupid. When we flagrantly fail
we are mad. A life will be successful or not, according as the
power of accommodation is equal to or unequal to the strain
of fusing and adjusting internal and external chances."

1 Bibliography, No. 27.

302

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On the Rocks

With curious art the brain too -finely wrought
Preys on itself and is destroyed by thought.

CHURCHILL

Woe! woe! to all who plunder from the immortal mind
Its bright and glorious crown.

J. G. WHITTIER

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On the Rocks

IT IS NEVER EASY TO SAY WHEN TWILIGHT ENDS AND NIGHT
begins. For our purposes we class Mrs. Lincoln's mind
as insane after 1865, and what follows in this chapter bears
particularly on its disturbed qualities.

THE TYPE OF HER INSANITY

None of the physicians * who testified when Mrs. Lincoln
was on trial were specialists in mental disorders. In conse-
quence, they made no effort to diagnose the type of their

1 The physicians who attended Mrs. Lincoln were all men of standing. Dr. N. S.
Davis was born in New York in 1817, graduated in medicine in 1834, and came to
Chicago to become a professor in Rush Medical College in 1849. He is commonly
known as " the father of the American Medical Association." In 1875 he was the
most prominent medical man in Chicago. Dr. H. A. Johnson, born in 1822, was
graduated from the University of Michigan in 1849, an d ^ rom ^ us * 1 Medical College
in 1852. He and Dr. Davis were among the founders of the Chicago Medical
College. For many years he was a member of the Chicago Board of Health. Dr. R. N.
Isham was also a prominent physician. He was born in 1831, and was graduated
from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1854. He was in charge of the Marine
Hospital for several years and, in addition, was an associate of Drs. Davis and John-
son on the Chicago Medical College faculty. Dr. S. C. Blake was city physician of
Chicago from 1865 to 1867. Dr. R. M. Paddock lived in the south-western corner of
Cook County, in the direction of Joliet. Dr. T. W. Dresser was born in 1 837. He was
graduated from the Medical University of New York City in 1864. Dr. R. J. Patter-
son, born in Massachusetts in 1816, was graduated in medicine in 1842. He founded
the Bellevue Place Sanatorium at Batavia, Illinois, in 1867, but before that he had
been connected with hospitals for the insane such as the Ohio Insane Hospital,
Indiana Insane Hospital, and Iowa Insane Asylum. He was an associate of Drs.
Davis, Johnson, and Isham on the faculty of the Chicago Medical College. Dr. Willis
Danforth was born in 1826 and was graduated at the Rock Island Medical College
in 1849. For several years he was Professor of Surgery and Gynecology at the

305

THE TYPE OF HER INSANITY

patient's insanity. They swore briefly that she was insane,
irresponsible, and unable to manage her property.

Dr. T. W. Dresser, her family physician for years and
the son of the minister who married her and Mr. Lincoln,
wrote: 1 " While the whole world was finding fault with her
temper and disposition, it was clear to me that her trouble
was a cerebral disease." He meant that he knew her to be
insane, but beyond that he did not go in his diagnosis.

One of the physicians who testified, Dr. Willis Danforth,
gave a description of her behavior in some detail, but made
no attempt to interpret the meaning of her symptoms. He
described hallucinations of sight and hearing, and various
others, including delusions of persecution.

After her death, the Chicago Times 2 had a story of her
mental disturbance which contained the following informa-
tion:

" She became possessed of some peculiar whims. One was
that she would suddenly come to poverty and want. She
could not be shaken out of this belief even though she ad-
mitted that she owned $60,000 in bonds and she had no
debts. Another queer fancy she had was for accumulating
window curtains. While staying at a hotel in Chicago, with
no prospect of ever again keeping house, she had piled up
in her room over sixty pairs of lace curtains. When her mind
was instable she rarely bought articles singly. When she
purchased dress-goods, it was by the bolt, lace curtains in

Chicago Homeopathic College. At the time he attended Mrs. Lincoln, in 1872 and
thereabouts, his office was at 1224 Wabash Avenue (old number), Chicago. About
1880 he moved to Milwaukee. Dr. Charles Oilman Smith was born in Exeter, New
Hampshire, in 1828; was graduated from Harvard University in 1847, went to
Philadelphia for his medical education, and was graduated from the University
of Pennsylvania in 1851. He settled in Chicago in 1853. Drs. Davis, Johnson,
Isham, Danforth, and Smith testified in the 1875 trial. Dr. Blake was on the jury.
Dr. Paddock was on the jury in the 1876 trial. Dr. Smith also attended Tad in his
last illness, and Drs. Davis and Johnson were consultants. Dr. Danforth attended
Mrs. Lincoln at times between 1872 and 1875. Dr. Patterson was in charge of
Mrs. Lincoln at Batavia. Dr. Dresser attended her in Springfield.

i Bibliography, No. 75c, p. 351.

8 July 17, 1882.

306

MRS. LINCOLN'S SYMPTOMS

pairs, watches in threes. On one occasion it was the entire
stock of one article." This is confirmed by accounts from
other sources.

In Eddie Foy's narrative of his life, 1 there appears some
evidence from his mother as to Mrs. Lincoln's symptoms,
after 1871 and before 1875. He wrote: " Mother was em-
ployed as a sort of nurse, guard, and companion to Mrs.
Lincoln." He fixed the period as beginning in February
1872 by relating the period of employment to the date of
Jim Fiske's death. Continuing, he said: " Mrs. Lincoln had
always been a woman of rather unusual disposition. After
her husband's assassination she fell into deep melancholy
and after her son Tad died, she suffered from periods of
mild insanity. She had many strange delusions. At these
times she thought gas was an invention of the devil and
would have nothing but candles in her room. At other times,
she insisted on the shades being drawn and the room kept
perfectly dark. Mother was with her at Springfield most of
the time but made one or two Southern trips with her in
winter. The position was a trying one and Mother gave it
up twice, but each time the kinsmen induced her to come back
after she had had a short rest. She remained with Mrs. Lin-
coln until toward the close of the latter's life, when that un-
fortunate lady became so much unbalanced that the family
thought it best to place her in a private sanatorium."

On August 28, 1875 Dr. Patterson wrote a letter, 2 ad-
dressed to the editor of the Chicago Tribune, giving an
account of Mrs. Lincoln while in the sanatorium. " She is
certainly much improved, both mentally and physically, but
I have not at any time regarded her as a person of a sound
mind. ... I heard all the testimony at the trial and saw
no reason to doubt the correctness of the verdict. I believe
her now to be insane. . . . The question of her removal
has received careful consideration. . . . The proposition
having been made that she should go and live with her sister,

1 Bibliography, No. 60. * Bibliography, No, 83, September I, 1875.

307

HER BEHAVIOR IN THE SANATORIUM

*^-^*^"^'^'^'^'^'^'^ n -*^-* n -*^-*' J '~*' -r-*-~*~-*~-n-*^*^-*~~*~^*~-*~-n-*--*--^^'^'^>^'^^>^^^^ i^i^^i^ ^ i*i^

I at once said if she should do this in good faith I should
favor it. ... In accordance with this, Mr. Lincoln [Rob-
ert] made efforts to transfer her to Springfield. ... It is
well known that there are certain insane persons who need
what, in medico-legal science, is termed c interdiction,' which
does not necessarily imply restraint. If time should show
that Mrs. Lincoln needs only the former, all will rejoice to
see any possible enlargement of her privileges. ... I am
still unwilling to throw any obstacles in the way of giving
her an opportunity to have a home with her sister. But I am
willing to record the opinion that, such is the character of
her malady, she will not be content to do this, and that the
experiment, if made, will result only in giving the coveted
opportunity to make extended rambles, to renew the indul-
gence of her purchasing mania, and other morbid mental
manifestations. . . ." Returning to her behavior more di-
rectly, he said: "She will not remain indoors except by her
own choice more than two or three waking hours of any day.
She receives calls from ladies of her acquaintance in Bata-
via and may return them. She has been called on by General
Farnsworth and by some of her relatives from Springfield."

On July 2, 1875 the Illinois State Journal copied a story
from the New York Tribune, which was written by a special
correspondent and gives evidence of stating Dr. Patterson's
opinions, as follows : " No restraint other than a prudent
supervision is necessary. At present her derangement ex-
hibits itself mainly in a general mental feebleness and inca-
pacity. No encouragement is held out that Mrs. Lincoln
will ever become permanently well."

Dr. E. Swain, a dentist and Civil War veteran who lived
near by, called on Mrs. Lincoln at the sanatorium. He re-
ported that she was under the delusion that she was still in
the White House.

A reporter who visited the sanatorium, because of re-
ports that had grown out of the Bradwell correspondence,
also wrote that Mrs. Lincoln was under the delusion that

308

HER BEHAVIOR AFTER RELEASE

she was still in the White House, and that Mr. Lincoln was
with her. At times they were alone together, she thought, and
over him she exercised a motherly care. At other times pub-
lic receptions were being held, or important visitors were
being entertained. She complained of rappings on the wall,
and of people talking in the next room. She had many hal-
lucinations and not a few fixed delusions. She showed irre-
sponsibility in her purchases made in Aurora. She was al-
lowed to drive through the beautiful surrounding country,
and she called on some of the neighbors and was visited by
them in turn.

After Mrs. Lincoln's release from Batavia and until her
death she behaved differently. A change had come over her
and she was quite unlike her former self. She was no longer
aggressive or offensive; she fought no battles, indulged in
no hysteria. She did not purchase goods wildly nor show
other evidences of prodigality. She traveled but twice, and
both trips showed judgment. Her long, quiet stay in Pau,
away from emotions and people who excited them, was wise
in its conception and in its execution. Her trip to New York
was for a purpose. But these incidents, occurrences, and at-
titudes do not mean that mental soundness had been at-
tained; they mean that Mrs. Lincoln had acquired the
ability to yield to restraint self-restraint and restraint by
others. She continued to have hallucinations and delusions,
to be at once a miser and a spendthrift (though both quali-
ties were restrained), to cherish grudges against her family
and friends, to keep in a dark room, and to avoid life. Even
more significant, they confirm the opinion that her person-
ality was of the introvert type.

This introvert type of personality disturbance Mrs. Lin-
coln manifested in a striking way from the time she was re-
leased from the sanatorium until her death, in 1882. It is
true that the European record is most fragmentary, but such
information as there is indicates that Mrs. Lincoln lived the
life of a hermit. What is said of her in Springfield goes to

309

HER JUDGMENT IN FINANCIAL, MATTERS

prove that she lived away from everybody and everything
after she returned from Europe.

In 1882 there was some evidence of slowly developing
dementia. Laura C. Holloway says : x " During the last few
months of her life she was most of the time little cognizant
of what was taking place about her."

MONEY

When Mrs. Lincoln's sanity was passed on legally, the
feature of her mental disturbance which her son and his
lawyers had largely in mind was unsound judgment in
financial matters. In the ten years preceding this trial Robert
had felt some responsibility for his mother and her affairs,
and it was this phase of her behavior that had occasioned
him most worry. He knew that it had been the cause of
the auction and the pension episodes; and the bitter experi-
ences of these had greatly impressed his young mind. Much
of the evidence presented at the first trial, and practically
all of that brought out in the second, related to Mrs. Lin-
coln's ability to manage her property.

Nothing in Mrs. Lincoln's history prior to the middle or
latter part of her Springfield residence throws any direct
light on this quality. As to the Springfield days, there are a
few references to frugality, combined with a tendency to
spend money somewhat extravagantly on dress.

About a month before the family was ready to leave
Springfield, Mrs. Lincoln did something that has been in-
terpreted as being the first indication of mental disturbance.
This was going to New York " to make purchases for the
White House." Katherine Helm says 2 she went, and for
the purpose indicated. The Cleveland Herald carried a
news item that Mrs. Lincoln and party had passed through
that city en route to New York. On January 17 Mrs. Lincoln
wrote to Judge David Davis from New York. On Janu-

* Bibliography, No. 80, p. 544. 2 Bibliography, No. 73.

310

HER FINANCIAL TANGLES

ary 24 she was back in Springfield. Beyond doubt the pur-
pose of the trip was to shop, but it is not certain that she
bought anything for the White House except, possibly,
some curtains. Probably " the purchases for the White
House " might better have read: " purchase of dresses to
be worn in the White House."

Much more significant are those financial tangles in which
Mrs. Lincoln was involved after she got to Washington,
coupled with the reports of coexistent parsimoniousness and
prodigality.

Elizabeth Keckley's narrative is supplemented by evi-
dence from other sources. After due allowance has been
made for carping, there remains enough proof to estab-
lish the fact that Mrs. Lincoln, between 1861 and 1865,
was most foolishly extravagant and at the same time de-
cidedly near, close, or frugal.

Between 1865 and 1871 the mania for getting money
drove her into embarrassing situations. It caused her to write
letters in which she fawned and pleaded for help and in
which she was also very uncomplimentary and unfair to
those who failed to meet her exactions. In this period she
indulged in some extravagances. Occasionally the character
of these indicated insanity, as was testified at the trial. After
1871 the mania for money-getting was not particularly
manifested, and after 1875 the extravagance in buying and
other spending was less in evidence. Frugality now de-
veloped into miserliness and dominated the mind of Mrs.
Lincoln on its financial side.

An illustration of the nature of her imbalance is sup-
plied by a controversy which she precipitated in 1881. Mrs.
Lincoln was advised by Dr. Lewis A. Sayre to get a maid or
nurse, because of her crippled condition caused by the Pau
accident. She replied that she could not afford one ; her means
were limited to her pension of $3,000; she formerly had had
an income of $1,400 from her husband's estate, but she
had lost that.

3*1

HER MANIA FOR MONEY

This interview started an unfortunate discussion. The
Springfield (Illinois) Journal* quoted Jacob Bunn as say-
ing his bank ". . . held in trust for her bonds worth
$60,000, the interest on which is $2,120 yearly. This is in
addition to her pension. While she was in Europe she spent
all her income, frequently drawing it in advance. But since
then she has saved $5,000. She now has a capital of $65,-
ooo and her yearly income is $5,300." Mr. Bunn's state-
ments were more than conservative.

The three-cornered fight in her mental make-up between
the desire to get, the desire to spend, and the desire to
hoard had lasted for nearly forty years. Sometimes one
combatant was on top, sometimes another. In the final
stretch miserliness held the field of battle.

Mrs. Lincoln inherited her financial type of mind. In her
childhood she and her teachers must have failed to catch
the meaning of the Tenth Commandment, and thus she
missed something she greatly needed. Her financial mental
qualities had no opportunity to show themselves prior to
her marriage. The influence of her husband's prudence
helped to develop the frugality feature of her complex.
Anticipated social demands of the White House caused her
to remove the restraints from her desire-to-spend quality.
Her urgent need of money between 1865 and the beginning
of her pension was responsible in that period for the com-
plete dominance of the mania for getting money. When
she received her pension in 1871, acquisitiveness, extrava-
gance, and frugality resumed their interrupted contest. The
testimony given at the trial made her aware of the error
of her extravagance, as well as its futility, and after that
miserliness had no difficulty in dominating this field of her
mind.

This complex of mania for money, extravagance, and
miserliness paradoxical as it appears to laymen is
well known to psychiatrists. It is present in many people

* July 1 8, 1882.
312

HER EMOTIONALISM

who are accepted as normal. In Mrs. Lincoln I think the
majority of psychiatrists would hold that it was developed
to the point where it did not prove actual insanity; that,
at most, it made of her not more than a border-line case.
All would agree as to the disintegrating effects of her
worries over financial insecurity.

EMOTIONALISM

Mrs. Lincoln inherited a considerable degree of emo-
tionalism, though in her forbears it was generally under
control and was not developed beyond the capacities of
the individual. Elizabeth Norris's account 1 indicates that
emotionalism was so prominent in Mary Todd as to be
foreboding.

The first account of a manifestation which was serious
in itself was that which followed the death of Eddie.
(Dr. William E. Barton did not think it was of great im-
port at that time.) The deaths of Willie, Tad, and Mr.
Lincoln were responsible for outbreaks that were of great
influence. These prolonged hysterical outbreaks were not
manifestations of a diseased mentality, and it is not as such
that they are given prominence in the portrayal of Mrs.
Lincoln's behavior.

When she mourned as she did, she was influenced partly
by the customs of her day and partly by her upbringing.
We must judge her by the customs of her times, and not by
those of ours.

Lyle Saxon quotes 2 from the diary of Lestant, who de-
scribed life in Louisiana in 1850. In a part of the diary he
deals with mourning customs and emotional exhibitions of
women, as follows : " The painful tale was told my aunt,
who immediately fainted, and during the day had many
fainting fits, which followed each other in rapid succession.
Her grief was great, and her cries and lamentations so

1 Bibliography, No. 72. * Bibliography, No. 155, pp. 234-6.

313

MRS. LINCOLN'S MOURNING

painful that everyone present could not but sympathize
with her, and in the whole house the whites and blacks were
bathed in tears. . . . Her grief continued. For the next
week she went from collapse into collapse."

The tragedies in Mrs. Lincoln's life occurred only twelve
and fifteen years after the period of which Lestant wrote,
and Mrs. Lincoln followed a method of mourning gen-
erally in vogue during her youth. She wore deep-mourning
clothes and mourning jewelry, wrote on black-bordered
paper, and talked and wrote of her dead from 1865 until
she died. She followed almost the same method for three
years prior to 1865. This was not greatly out of line with
the customs of the time.

Nor is our boasted twentieth century civilization above
the influence of environment on mourning methods. There
are circles in which wild and hysterical mourning is the rule,
and quiet acceptance of death raises questions. We have
seen the poor impoverish themselves by extravagant ex-
penditures on funerals; and recent history is replete with
stories of barbaric splendor at the grave-side of murderers,
racketeers, and other social outcasts.

The significance of Mrs. Lincoln's mourning was twofold.
It tended to wear down such emotional stability as she pos-
sessed ; it was a cause of her trouble, and not a manifesta-
tion. And it demonstrated a lack of equilibrium, stability,
and poise. This lack was shown in the tantrums of her child-
hood. There were other outbreaks of temper at other times.
It was this quality, becoming more and more evident, that
caused Lincoln to tell his wife in Washington that she was
letting her prejudices and her dislikes spoil her political
judgment. The crowning manifestations of her resentment
of frustration were her emotional outbreaks upon the deaths
of her husband and two children.

Yet while Mrs. Lincoln had temporary periods of great
emotionalism during her years of insanity, this quality was
not a continuing or characteristic symptom.

314

HER HALLUCINATIONS

HALLUCINATIONS AND DELUSIONS

Since hallucinations were so prominent in the composition
of Mrs. Lincoln's disturbed mind, and since these were not
due to the use of drugs, we must look for an explanation to
two causes: one, her type of mind; two, the experiences of
her life.

Hallucinations are almost normal with a considerable
percentage of children. The psychiatrists recognize what
they term the eidetic type of mind. Stedman's Medical Die-
tionary defines " eidetic " as : " Relating to the power of
visualization of objects previously seen or imagined. An
eidetic person is one possessing this power to a high degree."
Children of this type are given to realistic day-dreams in
which they see people and scenes with great particularity
and detail. They are credited with lying about these visions
with a coolness and assurance that cause parents and courts
great apprehension. It is, to a degree, a phenomenon of
childhood. Not much training is required to bring these
eidetic children out of the danger zone and to land them in
a state of assured normalcy. The specialists in children's
behavior say, however, that this eidetic type continues to
manifest itself throughout adult life, though not in vagaries
of vision. Persons of the type have photographic memories,
remember poetry well, can reproduce what they see or hear
in art or music. Some of them become spiritualists, and
some develop hallucinations.

No one tells of any ancestor from whom Mrs. Lincoln
might have inherited eidetic qualities, nor is there any story
of her youth or childhood that shows her to have an eidetic
constitution. Emilie Todd Helm's diary 1 contains the first
reference to Mrs. Lincoln's hallucinations. This related to
manifestations in 1863.

It was certain that Mrs. Lincoln was very much under the
influence of spiritualists and spiritualism. Her words, as

1 Bibliography, No. 72.

315

HER "WANDERLUST"

Mrs. Helm quotes them, 1 were evidently based on spir-
itualist dogma and creed. They were not the creations of a
disordered brain, and, not being so, they lose much of their
significance. An ability to agree with an unsound belief, or
to accept it as a religious creed, may indicate a lack of well-
balanced judgment, but it is not proof of mental unsound-
ness. In Mrs. Lincoln, as is so often the case with spiritual-
ists, wishful thinking was the chief reason for acceptance.

At the time of Mrs. Lincoln's trial the significance of
spiritualism and its possible relation to insanity was under
discussion in medical circles. It was in this period that
Dr. W. A. Hammond, 2 the leading psychiatrist of the times,
wrote a book entitled Spiritualism and Allied Causes and
Conditions of Nervous Derangement. Dr. Patterson was
certainly acquainted with Dr. Hammond's views, and Dr.
Danforth, who also said much about Mrs. Lincoln's visions,
may have known of it. Dr. Hammond was of the opinion
that spiritualism was both a cause of insanity, and a mani-
festation of mental unsoundness that at least bordered on
the pathologic. The rather general acceptance of the Ham-
mond view in 1875, and for several years thereafter, mili-
tated against Mrs. Lincoln.

"WANDERLUST"

Dr. Patterson based his opinion that Mrs. Lincoln was
irresponsible partly on her " wanderlust."

Prior to 1861 Mrs. Lincoln traveled very little, when all
things are considered. She went to Springfield and back to
Lexington in 1837. In 1839 she returned to Springfield and
stayed there steadily for twenty-two years, with the excep-
tion of one trip to Niagara, one to Washington, two or
three visits to her family in Lexington, and one or two
short trips. Between 1861 and 1865 she developed some-
thing of a mania for travel her foot " itched for the

1 Bibliography, No. 72. * Bibliography, No. 68.

316

THE TYPE OF HER INSANITY

road," in the parlance of the hobo. She indulged this " foot-
itch " enough to bring harsh criticism.

Between 1865 an ^ I 8?i she went to New York on busi-
ness once, and she visited her husband's grave in Springfield.
She went to health resorts several times. Most of the time
she had no home and stayed in hotels at resorts nearly as
much as she stayed in them in Chicago. On the first trip to
Europe she kept Tad in school, but she moved about some-
what extensively and frequently.

After 1871 and until 1875 she appears to have wandered
most of the time. In several instances, however, her visits
were in search of health. Between September 1875 and
October 1876 she stayed closely in her sister's home in
Springfield. Then came the second trip to Europe. She
appears not to have traveled much during those four years in
Europe. Her two visits to New York after 1880 were for
the purpose of securing expert orthopedic advice.

The conclusion is that Dr. Patterson over-emphasized
Mrs. Lincoln's desire to travel in his diagnosis and prog-
nosis.

Mrs. Lincoln's personality was the basis of her trouble,
and part of this was the result of inheritance. A larger part
was due to her education formal and informal, youthful
and adult, school and life. Her undoing was the reaction
between her personality and the experiences of her life.
C. L. McCollister says : x " There appears to be a limit to
the amount of mental stress and physical strain that every
individual is capable of bearing, determined not only by the
inherent qualities of the individual, but also by the envi-
ronmental conditions during the formation period of early
life."

Mrs. Lincoln's insanity was an emotional disturbance. It
was not until she was approaching the end that she devel-
oped any considerable degree of dementia. Hallucinations

1 Bibliography, No. 117.

317

WHEN DID SHE BECOME INSANE?

and delusions, over-emotionalism, lack of poise and stabil-
ity, poor judgment proceeding from prejudices and dislikes,
a paradoxical combination of miserliness and extravagance,
and an urge to travel were symtoms of her disorder. More
important than these symptoms, in ascertaining the type
of her insanity, was her habit of shutting herself in and
excluding the world, particularly when she failed to ac-
complish what she wanted. This was the more significant
because, mixed with this quality, were aggressiveness and
determination, both very prominent in her behavior
at times. She had an introvert personality, and she devel-
oped an insanity which was of the emotions, now called
" involutional."

WHEN DID SHE BECOME INSANE?

There is no accepted definition of insanity. Courts have
one definition, physicians a second, and lay people a third.
Not infrequently one court will decide that a person is
insane, while a second court will come to a contrary decision.
Physicians show the same lack of agreement. It is not to be
wondered at that persons who wrote of Mrs. Lincoln dif-
fered as to when she became irresponsible.

W. O. Stoddard saw that something was wrong soon
after 1861. The Chicago Times wrote of her: 1 " She had
always been of a nervous temperament. After her husband's
assassination she appeared always to be weighed down with
woe, and after the shock of Tad's death was added, she
showed marked symptoms of insanity. Many of her old-
time friends say she showed signs of insanity as far back
as 1860."

It is true, as the Times said, that it had been suggested
that she was insane before she went to Washington. Some
of the " Springfield tradition " said she was mentally un-
balanced in the second decade of the Springfield era. These,

1 July 17, 1882.

3'*

WHEN DID SHE BECOME INSANE?

however, were just gossipy stories and were never seriously
considered.

Jane Gray Swissheim wrote : * " I think she was never en-
tirely sane after the shock of her husband's murder ; but on
most subjects she was entirely clear."

Lloyd Lewis says 2 that Abraham Lincoln gave Mrs. Lin-
coln's mental state as one reason for having Robert con-
tinue in college rather than go to war. His words are:
" Since her sanity was always a matter of tender concern
to her husband, he had feared that her reason would topple
over if he [Robert] had been exposed to the dangers of
war." This implies a fear of insanity in 1861.

The Chicago Tribune states: 3 "This death [Tad's]
following that of her husband and, more remotely, that of
two other children, has been a fearful blow to Mrs. Lincoln.
Her physician [Dr. C. G. Smith] dreads that it may produce
insanity, though he is hopeful of averting so sad a calamity."
The Chicago Tribune* the day after the first trial, traced
her insanity to the death of her husband, saying the death
of Tad was a contributing cause.

Robert T. Lincoln 5 regarded his mother as unbalanced
as early as October 16, 1867. O n that date he wrote Mary
Harlan, who later became his wife: " My mother is
on one subject [money] not mentally responsible. . . .
It is hard to deal with one who is sane on all subjects but
one."

Eddie Foy, basing what he wrote on what his mother
told him, set the date of onset as 1871.' His mother, in
turn, was repeating what she had heard from Mrs. Lin-
coln's physicians, family, and friends.

Laura C. Holloway sets the date of onset as 1865, say-
ing : 7 ". . . from the time of Mr. Lincoln's death ... a
mental wreck . . . would never recover."

1 Bibliography, No. 169, July 18, 1882. * Bibliography, No. 73, p. 267.

2 Bibliography, No. 101, p. 29. Bibliography, No. 60.

* July 1 8, i 871. 7 Bibliography, No. p 80, pp. 539 ff.

4 May 20, 1875.

319

WHEN DID SHE BECOME INSANE?

H. C. Whitney * was of the opinion that Mrs. Lincoln
was not responsible for her acts after April 1 865.

F. F. Brown quotes the Hon. A. G. Riddle as agreeing
with this, in these words: 2 ". . . the national calamity
which unsettled her mind, as I always thought."

I. N. Arnold fixes the date of Mrs. Lincoln's mental aber-
ration as i87i: 8 "After 1871 Mrs. Lincoln, in the judg-
ment of her most intimate friends, was never entirely re-
sponsible for her conduct. She was peculiar and eccentric
and had various hallucinations." He describes her mental
attitude and conversation in the summer of 1865, however,
as being quite normal.

If called upon to decide between these several opinions,
I would say that Mrs. Lincoln was irresponsible after April
1865, and that between 1861 and 1865 she should not be
held accountable for some of her actions.

1 Bibliography, No. 190. Bibliography, No. 4, p. 433.

2 Bibliography, No. 26.

320

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Mutual Influence

Tew great men have flourished who, were they candid, tcould not ac-
knowledge the vast advantage they have experienced in the earlier years
of their careers from the sfirit and sympathy of woman.

DISRAELI

A fearl becomes red by the nearness of a rose.

SANSCRIT

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Mutual Influence

WHEN MARY TODD MET ABRAHAM LINCOLN SHE WAS
over twenty years old, and he was over thirty. When
they were married, she was nearly twenty-four years old,
and he was well on towards thirty-four. In the interval
of more than three years there was a period of about
eighteen months in which he saw very little of her. Their
married life lasted nearly twenty-two and a half years, dur-
ing which time they became the parents of four boys. To-
gether they bore the sorrow caused by the death of two of
them. They enjoyed together the training and upbringing
of these children, one to four years, two to twelve, one to
twenty-two.

Abraham Lincoln gave his wife opportunity. Through
him she came to be Mistress of the White House. He was
responsible for her acquaintance with many great men and
women. He was a politician with great acumen, and she,
too, was politically minded. Together they met defeats and
celebrated victories. Discussing this theme, one might be
justified in an excursion into these fields and many others,
but that would raise more questions than can be settled.

Several of their objectives were held in common. That
he influenced her through his intellect and his personality
needs no argument. It can be accepted as a fact, and the
only question to argue is as to the limits and bounds of that
influence. That she influenced him can also be accepted. The

323

MUTUAL INFLUENCE

questions to be discussed, then, are: How? In what quali-
ties? Within what limits?

When two such different, even divergent, types of mind
as those of this husband and wife are mated for more than
twenty years, there must be adjustments.

Dr. William E. Barton wrote : x " Abraham Lincoln and
Mary Todd were divinely constituted to make each other
uncomfortable, and it is fortunate that they were made so.
. . . She helped him to become a great man by not making
him too comfortable. Some men do not know how much
they have to be thankful for in this regard. . . . Mr. and
Mrs. Lincoln were not always happy together, but their
lives supplemented and enlarged each other. . . . They
took each other for better or for worse and they, and the
world, were better for it."

Mrs. Lincoln's mind crystallized early; Mr. Lincoln's,
late. Lincoln could learn from almost anyone ; Mrs. Lincoln,
after maturity, could not learn much from anyone. His was
a type of mind that offers large possibilities for adult edu-
cation ; hers was of the opposite type.

Lincoln's mind did not have great influence in shaping
that of Mrs. Lincoln. This is not saying she did not learn
from him, for she did. She was never a patient, forbearing,
forgiving woman that she could not be as long as she re-
tained confidence in herself. She did acquire, however, a
little of these qualities, as perhaps the following incidents
may show.

She disliked Jacob Bunn and wrote about him in anger to
Elizabeth Keckley, but she restrained her irritation and met
him graciously. She had some tiffs with the Mathers and,
remembering that they had fought her husband politically
more bitterly than she thought they should have done, she
refused to allow Lincoln's body to be buried in the ground
bought for the purpose from the Mathers. And yet when she
returned to Springfield, she went one day to the Mather

1 Bibliography, No. xi.
324

THE MIXD OF LINCOLX

home, wearing her deep widow's weeds, to show the family
that she was willing to forget and be friends. She did not
like William H. Herndon, but in 1866 she wrote him an ap-
pealing, kindly letter, in response to a letter asking for an
interview, and she saw him when she went to visit her hus-
band's grave, greeting him in friendly fashion.

She learned something of Lincoln's patience and forbear-
ance, but not much. Whatever business capacity she had she
must have learned from him, because previously she had
had no business experience, and between 1865 anc * 1882 she
showed considerable business ability. Certainly she learned
politics and a measure of statecraft from her husband. How-
ever, summing up all we know, and applying what is known
of psychology, the conclusion is that Lincoln did not succeed
in greatly changing his wife's personality or her mental
type. He tried when he gave her Mary G. Chandler's book.
Doubtless he tried all his married life, but Mrs. Lincoln was
of a type not easily changed.

INFLUENCE OF MRS. LINCOLN'S

MIND AND PERSONALITY ON

THOSE OF HER HUSBAND

The time has not come to write an adequate thesis on the
mind of Lincoln. What is written now cannot be final or con-
vincing; we need more information, but above all we need
closer analysis of that we have. Dr. Barton was at least
investigating this aspect of Lincoln, but either he did not
mature his opinions or he had not found time to record
them.

An investigation would necessarily include a study of
Lincoln's anatomy and physiology, his body type, features,
beard; his ways of thinking and talking, his ability as a
lawyer, his position on political questions ; a close analysis of
all speeches (similar to that Barton made of the Gettysburg
address), messages, and writings. It is to be hoped that

325

AN INHERITED QUALITY OF LINCOLN'S

someone will conduct to a conclusion some such comprehen-
sive study of the mind of Abraham Lincoln.

Meanwhile the purpose in writing these pages, which do
not logically belong in a study of Mrs. Lincoln's personality,
is to put on record as much of an answer as I have found to
one of the questions with which the study began.

A study of the influence of Mrs. Lincoln on her husband's
personality should begin with some understanding of his in-
herited qualities.

The members of his family, and even Lincoln himself, had
the habit of aligning themselves with the wife's clan not a
matriarchy, but a habit having some suggestions of that.
Let us start the story with Thomas Lincoln.

By the time Tom Lincoln had settled down in Elizabeth-
town, Kentucky, he had cut away from the Lincolns, and
only a few times thereafter did he encounter any of his own
blood except his children. When he met Nancy Hanks, she
was living with her aunt. After he married, his family affilia-
tions were with the Hanks family. When they moved from
Kentucky to Indiana, Nancy's uncle, aunt, and cousin went
with them. All of these Hankses, except Dennis, died and
were buried in Indiana by the side of Nancy and her daugh-
ter. When Tom and his household, including Dennis Hanks,
moved to Illinois, they went to the home of John Hanks, in
Macon County.

After Abraham moved to Sangamon County, he had no
family life until he married Mary Todd. After that he rarely
saw any of the Hankses, and he never saw any of the Lin-
colns, except for a few visits to his parents, an occasional
contact with Dennis, and a few brief visits with some of his
own very distant cousins. Is it to be wondered at that almost
no one knew of any Lincoln kin he had, and that few of the
Lincolns knew that the Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, nomi-
nated for president in 1860, was of the Kentucky family of
that name, not to mention that he was one of the Virginia
and Massachusetts Lincolns?

326

MRS. LINCOLN'S INFLUENCE ON LINCOLN

When Lincoln married, he followed the example of his
father and joined his wife's clan. There were many Todds in
Illinois. Among those in Springfield were Mary Todd's three
sisters; her uncle, Dr. John Todd, and his family; her
cousins, Judge John T. Stuart, Judge Stephen T. Logan,
and Congressman John J. Hardin. There were the hus-
bands, wives, and children of all of these and, possibly, a
number of other less prominent relations. This was a large
clan and a powerful one. It did much to promote the fortune
of Lincoln, one way or another and it also hampered him.
Certainly his wife's people, if not his wife, modified Lincoln
by the unconscious influences of family association.

Lewis M. Terman, of Stanford University, is quoted as
saying: 1 " Extensive tests over years indicate husbands are
prone, after marriage, to take on certain of the charac-
teristics of their wives and to surrender certain of their
attributes." Mary Day Winn writes : 2 " Psychologists tell
us that marriages in which woman is the dominating half
show a higher percentage of success than those which are
the other way round. . . . The higher the husband rises in
the scale of achievement, the more power he will probably
let his wife assume in the family. Compare the relative stand-
ing of the wife in the ditch-digger's home with her position
in that of the corporation president's." And then Miss Winn
quotes James L. Clark : 8 " The rear-seat status in the family
is an indication of strength rather than weakness."

The acceptance of this doctrine would make it possible to
hold that Mrs. Lincoln was the dominating member of the
firm of Abraham and Mary Lincoln, without committing
lese-majeste. But the facts will not justify the conclusion.

If we set side by side the Lincoln of 1 839 and the Lincoln
of 1865 and compare them point by point, detail by detail,
we realize that potent influences were at work in this twenty-
six-year period. I doubt if in all history there is an illustra-
tion of greater change in personality, mentality, and culture

1 Bibliography, No. 193. 2 Ibid. Ibid.

327

MRS. LINCOLN'S INFLUENCE ON LINCOLN

where the person under comparison was thirty years old at
the beginning of the observation. No single agency was re-
sponsible for the change in Abraham Lincoln, and certainly
I would not undertake to show that Mrs. Lincoln was
entitled to a great deal of the credit. There were certain
turning-points in Abraham Lincoln's life, and whoever or
whatever was exerting much influence during these episodes
can be said to be in a measure responsible for the changes
that resulted.

Albert J. Beveridge 1 regards the Shields duel episode as
one of these turning-points, if he does not think it of even
greater importance than this designation implies. He says :
" Thus ended the most lurid personal incident in Lincoln's
entire life, the significance of which in his development is
vital." Ida Tarbell 2 agrees with Beveridge as to the im-
portance of this affair; at least, in great measure. If Bever-
idge's view be accepted, Mary Todd deeply influenced Lin-
coln, because she was the cause of that incident. I am of the
opinion that, while the Shields duel episode changed Lin-
coln's political methods, it had no profound influence on his
mentality. Early in his life he was a good deal of a country
bumpkin, and not infrequently he wrote anonymous letters
that contained buffoonery. The Shields duel episode was
the somewhat dramatic and embarrassing event which ended
Lincoln's indulgence in clowning.

There is one suggestion that surpasses that of Beveridge
in its implications. It is that when Lincoln married Mary
Todd, there was an end to his periodic melancholia; or,
better, a mastery over it a mastery which pulled its teeth
and made it harmless. The suggestion comes from John G.
Nicolay, who wrote: 3 "His marriage to Miss Todd ended
all those mental perplexities and periods of despondency
from which he had suffered more or less during his several
love-affairs, extending over nearly a decade. Out of the keen

1 Bibliography, No. 18, p. 353. Bibliography, No. 133, p. 69.

* Bibliography, No. 170, p. 243.

328

LINCOLN'S MELANCHOLIA

anguish he had endured he finally gained that complete mas-
tery over his own spirit which Scripture declares to denote a
greatness superior to that of him who takes a city. Few men
have ever attained that complete domination of the will over
the emotions, of reason over passion, by which he was able,
in the years to come, to meet and solve the tremendous ques-
tions destiny had in store for him."

In connection with these statements Nicolay discussed the
Ann Rutledge and the Shields duel affairs. Evidently he
thought the peculiar melancholia was a temporary phase of
the Lincoln make-up and was one of the by-products of his
urge for mating. It was impersonal, as far as the woman was
concerned, and manifested itself during the Ann Rutledge,
Mary Owens, and Mary Todd affairs and other Lincoln as-
sociations with women. He regarded it as biological.

The " Lincoln blues " have been the subject of much dis-
cussion. Dr. Barton, who investigated the subject more in-
sistently than anyone else, was of the opinion that periodic
melancholia was an inherited trait of the Lincoln family, and
was known among them as the " Lincoln blues." He inter-
viewed cousins of Abraham Lincoln, who told him they had
the same personality fault as did other Lincolns, and that it
was something of a family peculiarity. They did not say
that it was peculiar to any period of life, or that it was
related to the mating urge. Barton certainly had read Nico-
lay at the time he interviewed the Lincoln cousins, but he
seems to have missed the suggestion that the melancholy
was related to the mating urge.

Dr. J. H. Kellogg, accepting the opinion of Judge Stuart,
attributed the periods of depression from which Lincoln suf-
fered to obstinate constipation and the frequent use of large
doses of calomel. Others have ascribed the attacks to ma-
laria then endemic in the Illinois country, as well as in
Kentucky and Indiana from which Lincoln is known to
have suffered. Others have attributed it to bad teeth ; and
still others, to bad feet.

329

LINCOLN'S MELANCHOLIA

Karl Menninger 1 classes Lincoln as a cyclic personality,
the melancholia being the depression stage of this type of
personality. It is not true that Lincoln had no return of these
attacks after his marriage, as might be inferred from what
Nicolay said. Menninger probably thinks the attacks were
finally overcome, because he takes the position that the Lin-
coln cyclic personality was trained into a greater " evenness."

J. F. Newton 2 quotes Nicolay and John Hay as ascribing
these fits of depression to the general mental depression of
pioneers fighting battles against privation and disease. He
quotes William H. Herndon as thinking three causes were
operating simultaneously: heredity, mourning for the lost
Ann Rutledge, and the unhappiness of his home. And then
he gives his own opinion, which was : " His sadness was
largely due to his temperament." Most Lincoln biographers
say Lincoln's blues were far from ending with his marriage.

Beveridge says 8 that melancholia was Lincoln's most
striking personality characteristic when he was practicing
law on the circuit between 1 840 and 1 860, basing his opinion
on incidents and opinions supplied by such intimate associates
as Leonard Swett, Judge David Davis, H. C. Whitney,
Herndon, and Matheny. In fact, he quotes Matheny as say-
ing that, when Lincoln " first came amongst us," he was any-
thing but melancholy, and the characteristic was later ac-
quired. This we know is also a mistake.

F. F. Brown 4 gives attacks of melancholy as having been
frequently observed in Washington after 1861.

Marriage did not cure Lincoln of his melancholia, and no
one can claim such a cure as a result of the influence of his
wife. On the other hand, there is so much evidence that Lin-
coln was subject to these attacks prior to his marriage that
we need not pay attention to the charge made by more than
one person that Mrs. Lincoln was the cause of them. It
is true that after his marriage he never fled when in bad

1 Bibliography, No. 119. Bibliography, No. 18, p. 521.

2 Bibliography, No. 127, pp. 316, 328, 329. 4 Bibliography, No. 26, p. 543.

330

THE EFFECT OF AX U X HAPPY HOME

" spells," as Herndon says he did after Ann Rutledge's death
and after the break with Mary Todd. But if, in time, there
was a difference in his reaction to the melancholy tendency
as the years rolled by, it was because with age, and perhaps
marriage, he had more responsibilities and he gained poise
and self-control. Much as we should like to think that mar-
riage cured Lincoln of his blues and, therefore, to his wife is
due some part of the credit, there are too many facts and
opinions that interpose.

THE EFFECT OF AN UNHAPPY
HOME

Herndon wrote: 1 "Mrs. Lincoln's fearless, witty, and
austere nature shrank instinctively from association with the
calm, imperturbable, and simple ways of her thoughtful and
absent-minded husband." He makes the statement that Lin-
coln's home life was unhappy, and he says it in more ways
than one. It was his opinion that the irascibility of Mrs. Lin-
coln caused her to quarrel with her husband, to tongue-lash
him considerably; and, at times, caused him to leave the
house to secure peace. He tells of Lincoln's staying week-
ends in circuit towns, absenting himself from home, eating
cheese and crackers in the office; and he retails gossip of
quarrels.

J. W. Weik's opinion 2 on the domestic discord of the
Lincoln family is a combination of that of Herndon, Davis,
Milton Hay, and Matheny all of them intimate friends
of Lincoln, who doubtless talked over the question with each
other more than once, particularly after Herndon's lectures
had become the occasion of forensic battles on the streets,
in the homes, and elsewhere in Springfield. This combined or
consensus opinion was then somewhat modified by Weik,
who had done much investigation on his own account. It was,
in substance, that domestic discord and a lack of peace and

1 Bibliography, No. 750. Bibliography, No. 186, pp. 89-93.

331

THE EFFECT OF AN UNHAPPY HOME

harmony in his home caused Lincoln to cultivate people
wherever they could be found; to stay in his office and study;
to work rather than follow a natural inclination to loaf com-
fortably and happily at home.

Oliver R. Barrett 1 holds about the same opinion. In
elaboration of the theme, he says that Mrs. Lincoln taught
her husband patience ; how to accept what he could not alter.
Had it not been for her and what she taught him, he could
never have invited Stanton and Chase into his Cabinet, or
stood them after they got there. Had his home been quieter
and more comfortable spiritually, he would have visited
less, made fewer acquaintances, read less.

Lloyd Lewis accepts this opinion also, saying: 2 "The
woman Lincoln loved, and who loved him, had a fiery, scold-
ing way that could be managed only with tolerant persua-
sion. . . . Instances like this seem typical of Lincoln's
genius for management. He guided the electorate as he
handled his wife."

These opinions as to the domestic relations of the Lin-
coins mean that Mrs. Lincoln's influence worked to Mr.
Lincoln's advantage, though working contrary to his com-
fort and peace of mind.

The following may be stated as general laws : Too much
comfort and satisfaction in the home tends to contentment
and stagnation. The man who is very popular, who fits in
very well, whose personality wins for him without effort, is
liable to accept his winnings and to become inactive and un-
progressive. Conversely, misfit conditions, within limits, pro-
mote that preparation and industry through which growth is
at its best.

That Mrs. Lincoln had more ambition than her husband,
as well as more drive and aggressiveness, is rather generally
accepted. Newton wrote: 8 ". . . guided also by his ambi-
tious little wife, who had been most unhappy during his

i Personal statement. * Bibliography, No. 127, p. 58.

* Bibliography, No. 101.

332

MRS. LINCOLN'S INFLUENCE ON LINCOLN

subsidence." Whitney's opinion was : * " The nation is largely
indebted to her for its autonomy, I do not doubt. As to the
full measure thereof God only knows."

In support of the view that Mrs. Lincoln influenced her
husband to be ambitious, Henry B. Rankin wrote: 2 "Above
all, she had the most constant and enduring faith in Lin-
coln's political future, and tried by every means in the range
of her unusually inspiring and vigorous personality to assist
her husband in season and some of her friends thought
out of season, when she saw Lincoln's ambition begin-
ning to fail." Ward H. Lamon wrote : 3 " From that day to
the day of the inauguration she never wavered in her faith
that her hopes would be realized." And, again, Newton
said: 4 "While not lazy, he was disposed to loaf and he
needed the prodding of his gifted and aspiring wife. Had
he married Ann Rutledge, or some other gentle country girl,
he would not now be known to fame."

We can accept the view that Mrs. Lincoln had more ambi-
tion and aggressiveness than her husband, since it is fully
in accord with what we know of the psychology of each. The
combination of her superior possession of these two quali-
ties, with her husband's foresight, wisdom, and genius for
influencing and winning men, was a great one and in the
end proved irresistible.

What information have we as to Mrs. Lincoln's influence
over her husband during his incumbency of the presidency?
How much of the Lincoln statesmanship, the Lincoln na-
tional policies, was the result of his wife's arguments, opin-
ions, and influence? Elizabeth Keckley 5 leads us to think
that her influence in this period was trivial. Lincoln was so
impressed by his wife's emotionalism that he had lost con-
fidence in her ability to weigh men fairly. His time was too
fully occupied, and his attention too much engaged for him

1 Bibliography, No. 190. 4 Bibliography, No. 127, p. 322.

8 Bibliography, No. 149, p- 122. * Bibliography, No. 85, p. 104.

* Bibliography, No. 99, p. 221.

333

LINCOLN'S MENTALITY

to talk seriously and at length with his wife, even if he had
not found out that her emotionalism was ruining her judg-
ment. The Lincoln policies, plans, and methods of the presi-
dential period were Lincolnesque. They give no evidence
of his wife's influence.

One of Herndon's estimates of Lincoln's mind was: 1
" Such was Lincoln's will. Because on one line of questions
the non-essentials he was pliable, and on the other he
was as immovable as the rocks, have arisen the contradic-
tory notions prevalent regarding him. It only remains to say
that he was inflexible and unbending when it was necessary
to be so, and not otherwise. At one moment he was pliable
and expansive as gentle air; at the next, as tenacious and
unyielding as gravity itself."

As a politician Lincoln's mind was Fabian. Politicians
have a Fabian psychology. They rise or fall, survive or per-
ish, according to how accurately they diagnose time, place,
and people, and act in accordance with the diagnosis. The
Lincoln mind, in certain of the exigencies to which it was
subjected, was as hard as rock. On some occasions it was
resilient, soft, yielding; on others, it was granite-like. When
a mind of this type is long in contact with a mind of Mrs.
Lincoln's type, it is the more resilient and pliant one that best
stands the friction.

Lincoln's outstanding mental characteristic was wisdom.
His judgment was clear and cold. The decisions of Mrs. Lin-
coln were too much swayed by her likes and dislikes, preju-
dices, and other emotions to be designated as wise, or based
on good judgment.

Summing it up, I cannot think that on matters of im-
portance or, in the long run, on many of lesser impor-
tance Mrs. Lincoln's mind influenced that of her hus-
band to any great extent.

1 Bibliography, No. 758, p. 609.

334

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Health

Till 9 like a clock worn out with eating time.
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.

DRYDEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Health

THERE IS NO INFORMATION ABOUT MARY TODD'S HEALTH
prior to the time she met Lincoln. The story of her Lex-
ington life indicates, in a general way, that she was in excel-
lent health, well nourished, and bubbling over with vitality.
She may have had her share of childhood infections, because
she was immune to scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid, and
smallpox when these diseases invaded her own household.
The Lincoln family infections 1 were in the persons of her
children and husband. She lived to be sixty-three years of
age and appears to have been sound in all her organs to the
day of her death, unless diabetes was an exception. To a
limited degree this may have meant that she had not suffered
severely from diphtheria, scarlet fever, rheumatism, and
some other diseases that often leave their marks on the vital
organs. Also, to a limited degree, this argues that she may
have acquired her immunities by the exposures of life
those that slowly confer protection rather than precipitate
into disease.

1 Abraham Lincoln, writing in the late fifties to his Kellogg kin, spoke of the
Springfield family as well as the Cincinnati family having scarlet fever. The Kellogg
child that was supposed to have the disease was Franklin Pierce Kellogg, born in
1852, who wrote me (April 4, 1931): "I do not remember any scarlet infection ex-
cept hives when about age seven (1860). School epidemic gave me holiday from a
schoolmarm, but my cousin Ed Smith (son of my half-aunt, of Springfield, 11L)
about that date had the scarlets."

337

MRS. LINCOLN'S HEADACHES

HEADACHES

The first reference to any ill health that Mrs. Lincoln had
related to headaches. On April 16, 1848 Lincoln wrote his
wife a letter 1 from which the following is quoted: "And
you are entirely free from headache? This is good con-
sidering it is the first Spring you have been free from it since
we were acquainted. I am afraid you will get so well and
fat . . ." trailing off into a jest. The letter was written
from Washington, where Lincoln was serving in Con-
gress, to Lexington, where his wife and two children were
visiting.

What does this quotation mean? Plainly, he was replying
to a letter in which his wife had written that she had suf-
fered no headaches. He said that she had had the disorder
" since we were acquainted," which means 1840. " It is the
first Spring you have been free from it. . . ." " Free from
it " means that she had the headache habit at least, that
she had frequent attacks. They must have been limited to the
springtime, or else they were much less violent and disabling
at other seasons. Evidently he is doubtful about this being
an end to the trouble, as she must have written in her letter
she thought or hoped. He knew too much about the course
of the headache habit, and about the nature of his wife's, to
agree quickly that there were to be no more.

Mrs. Lincoln's further history confirmed her husband's
doubt in the matter. From that time forward, the records
that refer to the more intimate details of Mrs. Lincoln's
affairs contain references to repeated headaches. This con-
tinues to be true until 1867.

If we can accept the negative evidence on the headache
habit as meaning that there were no headaches prior to
1839, we have this habit developing in a woman about
twenty-one years of age, becoming more disabling after

1 Collection of Oliver R. Barrett.

338

GEXERAL COMPLAINTS

marriage, and persisting until she is a little beyond fifty years
of age. About all the evidence there is indicates that Mrs.
Lincoln had some form of sick headache, or migraine, and
probably a form that is more frequently encountered among
women than men. It is in some way related to the sex organs
and, many times, to sex life. It becomes less disabling after
the menopause, the headaches recur less often, and the af-
fliction eventually discontinues.

GENERAL COMPLAINTS

Mrs. Lincoln's letters from 1850 until her death at
least all that have been found are filled with allusions to
her poor health. She seems not to have been very ill, or ever
to have had any definite disease, but she was usually com-
plaining of some symptom or other or some sickness. She
appears to have had the habit which many women and some
men have of writing and talking about their symptoms and
their illnesses.

In her letters written from Washington, Chicago, and
various other places many of which are in the North
she complains of chills and fevers. Because some of these
places are not malarial now, we cannot say that they were
not malarial then.

The references to poor health were a prominent theme
in Mrs. Lincoln's letters written between 1861 and 1865,
and almost a major in those written between 1865 an< 3 I 8?5-
Dr. Willis Danforth's testimony relates to physical as well
as mental illness, particularly about 1873. The two groups
of disorders were traveling hand in hand. When she was in
St. Augustine, Florida, in January 1875, she was sick in bed
for three weeks. Her illness was severe enough to make the
services of a nurse necessary.

In 1869 Mrs. Lincoln developed a persistent cough and
evidently considered that she had " weak lungs." Her physi-
cians may have agreed with her. In September 1870 she

339

THYROID TROUBLE

wrote to Mrs. Robert Lincoln from Leamington, England: 1
" I am coughing so badly I can scarcely write. In Liverpool
I was so ' completely sick.' . . . This is the first day I have
sat up. ... My physician says I must go to a drier climate.
. . . My health is again beginning to fail, as it did last
winter." On January 13, 1871 she wrote from London to
Mrs. Shipman : 2 " I get myself coughing most disagree-
ably." This may have been a transient bronchitis of no great
importance. However, Tad's last illness may have been an
effect of it. In the early spring of 1871 he developed a pleu-
risy that may have been tubercular.

One of the findings of the jury at the first trial was that
Mrs. Lincoln was " not subject to epilepsy." I have found
no evidence to the contrary. Mrs. Lincoln never had any
symptoms of major epilepsy, nor any suggestion of minor
epileptic manifestations. Her mind did not have the char-
acteristics accepted as those of the epileptic mind. Nor is
there any evidence of epilepsy in her family tree. The allu-
sion to this disease may have been required by law, or in re-
sponse to a suggestion found in the printed form supplied
by the court.

THYROID TROUBLE

In her youth Mrs. Lincoln was sometimes overactive.
This might have been the result of hyperthyroidism. In her
later life before the loss of weight which occurred as her
final years approached she appeared short and fat. After
1876 she did not often leave her room; her life was very
inactive.

Photographs are, commonly, well touched up before being
given out, and therefore may be misleading. In medical
clinics specializing in thyroid troubles, the photographs of
the patients kept in the files are " untouched." Some of Mrs.
Lincoln's pictures those taken toward the evening of her

1 Bibliography, No. 73, pp. 271-98. a Ibid., p. 289.

340

Mrs. Lincoln.
The puffiness of the face indicates a possible myxoedema.

HER HALLUCINATIONS

life are indicative of myxoedema. (Note the picture facing
page 341.) This possibility is increased by the symptoms
and attitudes recorded above. Myxoedema is a thyroid-
minus condition, or hypothyroidism, which develops rather
frequently in middle-aged women. It causes obesity, physi-
cal torpor, and mental slowness.

Beyond these indications there is no evidence that Mrs.
Lincoln had any thyroid trouble, and such evidence as is
cited is not of much value.

HALLUCINATIONS AND WHAT THEY

SUGGEST

Mrs. Lincoln's mental illness was characterized by hal-
lucinations. She saw persons who had no existence, and she
heard sounds that were not. This quality of mind mani-
fested first in 1862, frequently shown in 1865, an d very
much in evidence in 1875 and thereafter raises the ques-
tion whether she used drugs, since bromides and other sleep-
producing drugs, opiates, and whisky tend to promote hal-
lucinations. No proof is forthcoming. No part of the record
shows that she used drugs, and inquiry among those who
might have known has not revealed anything.

The disposition which Mrs. Lincoln is known to have
developed is suggestive of the long-continued use of seda-
tives of the bromide family. A woman of today, with her
symptoms, probably would have tried bromides and more
than one other sedative of that group. Here, too, proof is
lacking that Mrs. Lincoln used any bromides or barbituric
group drugs, and no one says that she did. Proof that Mrs.
Lincoln used opiates is entirely lacking.

The members of the Lincoln household were abstemious
in the purchase and use of liquors. Some have charged that
Lincoln was a drinking man, citing as proof purchases for
the household. Students of Abraham Lincoln have investi-
gated these charges and report them without foundation.

341

CONSEQUENCES OF HER FALL

Such infrequent purchases of alcoholics as were made for the
household were for domestic purposes, and neither wife nor
husband was ever a drinker.

DIABETES

There are many reasons for thinking that Mrs. Lincoln
had diabetes during the later years of her life, perhaps after
1875. Symptoms of diabetes may have caused her to leave
for France in October 1876. Pau was then a noted health
resort, though not especially renowned for the treatment of
diabetes. While in Pau, she drank Vichy water, and that has
enjoyed some reputation in connection with this disorder.
She drank these waters, but they did her no good. " How-
ever, I was not very much in need of them save for the con-
tinual running waters, so disagreeable and inconvenient,"
she is quoted as saying. The recurrent attacks of boils, the
reference to " continual running waters," and the use of
Vichy are suggestive of diabetes. Though hitherto a fat
woman, her weight fell to a hundred and ten pounds also
suggestive of diabetes.

THE FALL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Mrs. Lincoln's fall from a step-ladder, in Pau, caused her
to return to America and to her sister's home. It kept her
in bed for a number of weeks and no doubt occasioned con-
siderable pain. After returning to Springfield she went to
New York twice for treatment.

The New York Graphic l carried the following story of
her illness : " The chief injuries she sustained by this fall
manifested themselves in an inflammation of the spinal cord
and a partial paralysis of the lower part of her body. For
these injuries she twice consulted Dr. Lewis A. Sayre of this
city. In October 1881, she came to New York to see Doctor

ijuly 1 8, 1882.
342

HER FIXAL ILL X ESS

Sayre for the second time, taking rooms at the Clarendon
Hotel. About January, I, 1882, Doctor Sayre said : ' I found
she could not walk safely without the aid of a chair and even
then she was liable to fall at times.' Later, Mrs. Lincoln
moved to a water-cure establishment on 26th Street, where
she remained under Doctor Sayre's care until March, when
she returned to Springfield, but little improved in health."

Dr. Sayre's diagnosis indicated a severe injury. Yet none
of the stories relative to Mrs. Lincoln's life between March
and July 1882 make reference to any after-effects of this
injury.

FINAL ILLNESS AND DEATH

In 1882 Mrs. Lincoln was again suffering from boils, and
all the witnesses agree that she was very much underweight.
She remained in seclusion most of the time, in an artificially
lighted room. There is testimony that her mind showed evi-
dence of loss of quality. The summer of that year was in-
tensely hot and dry, and this added greatly to Mrs. Lin-
coln's discomfort.

That she was a sick woman her relatives could see, but
they had no suspicion that death was near. It is true that
she often talked of dying, but the family had heard similar
expressions from her more than once and had come to disre-
gard them.

On Friday, two days before the final issue, she became
distinctly worse. Some of the accounts indicate that on that
day she was in less pain from her boils at least she com-
plained less and at times she was heavy mentally prob-
ably no more than semi-conscious. As to what happened in
the sick-room on the next day there is not entire agreement.

The following is the account of her last illness and death
as given in the Illinois State Journal: * " Within the past few
days Mrs. Lincoln has been suffering from an attack of boils

i Monday, July 17, 1882.

343

FINAL ILLNESS AND DEATH

which caused her great pain and, no doubt, greatly increased
her nervousness. On Friday, last, she was up and walked
across the room. Again, on Saturday, she walked across the
room with a little assistance; but she grew worse later in
the day and about nine o'clock in the evening experienced
a paralysis which seemed to involve her whole system, so
that she was unable to articulate, to move any part of her
body, or to take food. She soon afterward passed into a
comatose state and so continued, breathing stertorously up
to 8.15 P.M., Sunday, when she died."

This was substantially the story telegraphed over the
United States and carried in a majority of the newspapers
which took notice of the passing of Mrs. Lincoln.

Dr. T. W. Dresser's death certificate read that she died
from "paralysis." Generally speaking, the word "paraly-
sis " is very loosely used. It might refer to any one of several
kinds of apoplexy, to diabetic coma, to unconsciousness due
to drugs or poisons, or to general paralysis of the insane,
called paresis. Dr. Dresser clarified the certificate with the
statement, given to William H. Herndon, 1 that he meant
apoplexy. There was no necropsy.

Mrs. Lincoln did not have general paresis, and her uncon-
sciousness was not due to drugs or poisons. The description
of her death, as given in the newspapers, is confirmatory of
Dr. Dresser's opinion that the immediate cause of death
was apoplexy, probably due to the rupture of a blood vessel
in the brain.

There is considerable suspicion of diabetic coma, in some
degree, during the last week of her life. Nor do the news-
paper accounts of her last three days preclude the possibility
that this was the immediate cause of her death. Apoplexy
merely seems to be the better explanation. However, there
is no contradiction between diabetes, and even diabetic coma,
and apoplexy.

Mrs. Lincoln was in her sixty-fourth year, and that is just

1 Bibliography, No. 7fa, p. 434.

344

FIXAL ILLNESS AXD DEATH

in the middle of the apoplexy period. She may have had, and
probably did have, diabetes. That disease damages the blood
vessel walls in a way that no other disease surpasses. Proof
of that is the frequency of diabetic gangrene. It is prob-
able that if Mrs. Lincoln had diabetes her disease had dam-
aged the walls of the blood vessels of her brain.

Mrs. Lincoln died on Sunday night, July 16, 1882, in the
home of her sister Mrs. Edwards. The funeral was delayed
until her son, Robert, then Secretary of War, could reach
Springfield from Washington. The funeral services were
held in the parlor in which she had been married.

Governor Cullom issued a proclamation in which he or-
dered all public activities suspended during the funeral exer-
cises, and asked all business houses and all citizens to unite
reverently in honoring Mary Lincoln for her own virtues
and out of respect to the memory of her husband. The
Mayor of Springfield proclaimed a suspension of business
and commended her virtues. Her body was borne from the
Edwards home to Oak Ridge Cemetery by Governor Cullom
and other leading citizens, while Springfield did her honor.
At last she was at rest by the side of her husband and her
children.

The newspaper comment of the Springfield papers ap-
pears kindly and even reverent. The Chicago papers were
equally considerate. The Chicago Times, so often bitter in
its attacks on Lincoln, joined in the tributes to his widow.
The newspapers everywhere seemed willing to cover her
memory with a mantle of charity. In Springfield gossip ap-
peared to be stilled and dislikes forgotten ; envy and enmity
were at an end; old enemies and old friends joined in re-
spectful tribute.

The years have passed. Those who knew her friend
and foe have died. But tradition lives. And tradition has
not been kind, or even just.

345

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Justice

He hath shewed thee y O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord re-
quire of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God?

MICAH vi, 8

JUSTICE TO MRS. LINCOLN

eloquence upon the part of Burke, when speaking of the
Queen of France. c Little did I dream that I should live to see
such disasters fall upon her in a nation of gallant men; a na-
tion of honor; cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords
would have left their scabbards to avenge even a look that
threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry has gone.'
May I also remind you of the words of the Earl of Oxford
to the Duke of Burgundy, when the latter spoke coarsely of
Margaret of Anjou. ' My lord, whatever may have been the
defects of my mistress, she is in distress and almost in
desolation.' "

W. O. Stoddard had the gift of prophecy when he gave
utterance to the following : 1 " People are picking up all sorts
of stray gossip relating to asserted occurrences under this
roof [the White House], and they are making strange work
out of some of it. It is a work they will not cease from. They
will do it to the very end so effectively that a host of excel-
lent people will one day close their eyes to the wife's robe
with her husband's blood. There will be in that day a strange
blindness and brutality concerning the awful shock produced
by an infernal murder. Then charity and chivalry alike will
be forgotten in the sneering comments which will follow the
remaining days of a disturbed rnind and a shattered nervous
system. Even the shadow of the tomb itself will, at last, not
be regarded as a sufficient curtain to prevent an unjust judg-
ment from peering and looking back to this time, and read-
ing in it nothing but the prurient scandals of this feverish
war time."

Howard Glyndon wrote : 2 " I think her extravagances of
behavior, her hallucinations, her sufferings of mind and body
have not met with that respect, that respectful silence and
sympathy from the American Press and people, which the
distinguished services of her husband to his country gave
them a right to command. Her erratic behavior has been
commented upon in a spirit which will not show well when all

1 Bibliography, No. 168, p. 63. 2 Bibliography, No. 61.

550

JUSTICE TO MRS. LINCOLN

the events connected with her life have become history. I
feel satisfied that in a few years Mrs. Lincoln will be
thought of with the sincerest pity and that there will be a
prevailing regret that the foibles and weaknesses of an un-
offending woman, whose mind was shaken, as well it might
be, by the sudden calamity which unhinged the whole nation,
have not been less offensively dealt with."

At some time in 1875 General Adam Badeau wrote: 1
" The verdict that her mind was diseased relieved Mrs.
Lincoln from the charge of heartlessness, of mercenary be-
havior, and of indifference to her husband's happiness. The
pitiful story of Miramar casts no slur on Maximilian's Em-
press, and the shadow of insanity thrown across the intel-
ligence of Mrs. Lincoln relieves her from reproach and
blame."

J. F. Newton wrote: 2 "She was never popular as the
First Lady of the Land, but that is no reason why her unfor-
tunate traits should be emphasized to the neglect of others
which were not only more numerous, but more lovely and
winning. Pitiful was her grief after the last great tragedy
which so shattered her mind that she was never herself
again. Yet to the end she was pursued by a prying press in
a manner so unmanly, so unchivalric, that one can find no
words severe enough for rebuke."

Dr. William E. Barton said: 8 " But if we are uninten-
tionally cruel to our Presidents, what shall be said of the
manner in which we treat their wives. Who among them has
escaped idle curiosity and even spiteful slander? . . . No
woman who has occupied the White House, unless pos-
sibly the wife of Andrew Jackson, has suffered such merci-
less slander. The time has come when it should be possible
to tell the truth concerning Mary Todd Lincoln."

If Abraham Lincoln had been able to foresee the harsh-
ness of the world toward his widow in the years of her

1 Bibliography, No. 6. Bibliography, No. 9, p. 409.

1 Bibliography, No. 127, p. 323.

351

JUSTICE TO MRS. LINCOLN

tribulations and sorrows, the following words by Mary G.
Chandler * would have precipitated an attack of melancholy:
"A few generations ago there was a spirit which armed it-
self with fagot and axe in order to destroy those who held
opinions in opposition to the dominant power. The axe and
fagot have disappeared but, alas for human nature! The
spirit that delighted in their use has not wholly passed away;
the flame and the sword it uses now are those of malignity
and hatred ; it does not scorch nor wound the body, but only
burns and sears the reputations of those whom it assails."

The science of behavior has developed far enough now
for a sense of fair play to support a demand for less con-
demnation of Mrs. Lincoln between 1861 and 1871; you
and I should be as understanding and sympathetic as Stod-
dard was after he had received the physician's opinion. Who
today would condemn Mrs. Lincoln for her behavior in the
last seventeen years of her life? If anyone does, he marks
himself as uninformed and unfair.

1 Bibliography, No. 31, p. 23.

352

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.- ~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~*

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363

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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364

Index

Adams, Charles Francis, 182-3
Adams, J. McGregor, 214
Adams, John Quincy, 176
Alston, John, 201, 202
Angle, P. M., 18-19
Arnold, Charles, 130, IJ5
Arnold, I. N., 14, 22, 126, 144,
149, ISO- 1 * J 52, 214, 226,
236, 238, 277, 320, 349
Audubon, 93
Ayer, B. F., 214

Badeau, Adam, 210-11, 271,
297, 298, 351

Baker, Julia, 291

Barlow, Thomas Harris, 95

Barnes, Captain, 298

Barrett, Jennie, 292

Barrett, Oliver R., 82, 210, 237,
291, 294, 332

Barton, William E., 3-4, 9, 14,
18, 60, 86, 140, 146, 147,
154-5, 166, 183, 237, 253,
278, 293, 313, 324* S^S,

329, 351
Bayne, Julia Taft, 24, 55, 59,

61, 69-70, 71, 104-5, 139,

165, 279, 300, 301
Beecher, Edward, II
Bell, John, 48

Bennett, James Gordon, 172
Beveridge, A. J., 46, 85, 143,

145, 149-50, 154, 328, 330
Birchall, Miss, 142, 291
Bissell, William H., 142
Black, 13

Blaigue, Mme, 99

Blake, S. C., 214, 305

Blennerhassett, Harman, 95

Bleuler, 230, 272

Boggs, Mrs., 912

Boswell, Mrs., 92

Bradwell, J. B., 27, 224, 308

Brady, 275

Breckinridge, John C., 89, 147

Briggs, Jane, 34

Briggs, Samuel, 34

Brooks, N., 59, 60, 61, 247, 265

Brown, Dwight, 291

Brown, F. F., 320, 330

Brown, John, 95

Brown, Mary Edwards, 28, 46,

77, 78
Brown, Samuel, 41-2, 87, 93,

Browning, O. H., 22
Browning diary, 154
Brownlow, Senator, 206, 209
Bryant, William Cullen, 122
Buchanan, James, 176
Bunn, Jacob, 143, 201, 312,

324

Burgundy, Duke of, 350
Burke, Edmund, 350
Burr, Aaron, 95, 99
Butler, Samuel, 302

Caldwell, Professor, 99
Calhoun, John, 121
Calhoun, John C., 89
Cameron, D. R., 214

Cameron, Simon, 209, 254, 271

ill

INDEX

Carpenter, F. B., 300
Carpenter, Lulu Boone, 578,

59
Carr, Eliza Todd (Mrs. Charles

M.), S6, 67, 77, 78
Cartwright, 124
Chandler, Mary G., 294, 325,

352

Chapin, C. A., 225
Chase, Salmon P., 332
Cigrand, B. J., 27
Clark, George Rogers, 32, 34,

Clark, James L., 327
Clay, Henry, 35, 88-9, 90, 93,

96, 98, 99, 103, 116, 127,

234, 288

Clay, Thomas H., 101
Clemmer, Mary Ames, 23, 177,

179-81

Cogswell, Thomas, 214
Cole, A. C., 252, 257
Colman, Edna M., 23, 174-5,

177
Conkling, 143

Conn, Senator, 204
Cooke, Professor, 100
Corbett, Senator, 208
Cordelia, Professor, 100
Crittenden, John J., 87
Crooks, Mayor, of Springfield,

Cullom, Shelby M., 345
Cunningham, Mrs. H. C., 118

Dahl, H., 225

Danforth, Willis, 25, 194, 213,
215-16, 265, 305-6, 316,

339

Darling, Henry, 227
Davis, B. F., 196
Davis, David, n, 25, 26, 59, 60,

61, 124, 125, 167, 210, 213,
iv

217, 240, 241, 243, 244,

246, 310, 330, 33i
Davis, Jefferson, 94, 183
Davis, N. S., 212, 215, 305, 306
Dawson, Elodie Todd, 51
Dawson, N. H. R., 51, 52
Douglas, Stephen A., 9, 44, 87,

88, 113, 122, 124, 125, 144,

146, 147, 148, 254, 255
Drake, Dan, 93, 96, 97, 100
Dresser, T. W., 229, 305, 306,

344

Drew, W. J., 225
Dudley, B. W., 87, 93, 94, 95,

101

Dunham, W. S., 225
Dunlap, Miss, 291
Durand, H. C., 214

Eames, C. M., 22

Eames, Mrs. Charles, 177, 182

Eaton, Polly, 177

Edmunds, Senator, 206, 207,

209
Edwards, Elizabeth (Mrs. N.

W.), 2 1-2, 43-5, 65, 66, 67,

77, 78, 79, 8 1, 85-6, 100,
113, 114, 119, 130, 145,
163, 225, 226, 227, 228,
229,230,235,291,307,308,

317, 345
Edwards, Ninian, 44, 81, 99,

122, 163
Edwards, Ninian Wirt, 43, 44,

78, 8 1, 99-100, 122, 163,
225-6, 233, 245, 246, 291

Ellett, Mrs. E. F., 23, 177, 178
Ellsworth, Ephraim E., 167

Farwell, Charles B., 214
Fearon, H. B., 90
Fell, Jesse, 9, 22, 146
Fenton, Senator, 208

INDEX

Ferguson, W. J., 186

Ferron, V., 100

Fillmore, Millard, 128, 176

Fiske, Jim, 307

Fitzgerald, Mrs., 194, 213, 307,

319

Flint, Timothy, 90
Fordham, E. P., 90-1
Foy, Eddie, 194, 213, 307, 319
Frazier, Oliver, 95
Fremont, John Charles, 146,

Gage, Lyman J., 214
Garfield, James A., 228
Garfield, Lucretia Randolph,

228

Giron, M., 101
Givin, Mrs., 177
Gleason, Cyrus, 225
Glyndon, Howard, 350-1
Grant, Julia Dent, 297, 298
Grant, Ulysses S., 53, 203, 204,

205, 206, 255, 298
Gratz, Benjamin, 178
Greenhow, Mrs. Rose, 177
Griffin, Mrs., 297
Grigsby, Mrs., 138
Grimes, J. W., 150
Grimsley, Elizabeth Todd, 23,

46, 55, 58 184, 237
Gunther, Charles F., 294, 295
Gurley, 143

Hambrecht, George F., 203

Hammond, W. A., 316

Hanks, Dennis, 326

Hanks, John, 326

Hanks, Nancy, see Lincoln,

Nancy Hanks
Hardin, John J., 40, 327
Harlan, James, 195, 197, 209,

279

Harlan, Mary, see Lincoln,
Mary Harlan

Harris, B. F., 122

Harrison, William Henry, 127,
176

Hart, Joel T., 95

Hay, John, 154, 330

Hay, Logan, 291

Hay, Milton, 149, 331

Heinl, Frank J., 122

Helm, B. H., 23, 51, 52, 175

Helm, Emilie Todd, 20, 21, 22,
23, 48, Si, 52, 65, 80, 102,
103, 143, 144, 151-2, 185,
253, 265, 270, 289-90, 291,
315, 3i6

Helm, Katherine, 19, 20, 21, 22,
65, 80, 82, 90, 94, 103, 104,
106, 107, 140, 275-6, 277,
279, 280, 289,291, 310

Henry, Patrick, 32

Hemingway, 47

Henderson, C. M., 214

Herndon, William H., 9, 10-13,
14, 15-17, 18-19, 22, 24,
86, 117-18, 120, 129, 149,
152, 154, 155, 168, 185-6,
218, 236, 238, 293, 297,

325, 330, 33i, 342
Herr, Katherine Todd, 48, 138

Herr,W.W., 51, i?S

Herrick, Genevieve Forbes, 23,

176, 278

Holland, J. G., 10
Holloway, Laura C., 23, 174,

177, 229, 310, 319
Holly, Dr., 93
Hoover, Mrs., 177
Houser, M. L., 9
Howell, Senator, 208
Humphreys, Alexander, 86
Humphreys, Mrs. Alexander,

86-7

INDEX

Humphreys, Charles, 97

Humphreys, Elizabeth, see
Todd, Elizabeth Hum-
phreys

Humphreys, Elizabeth (niece of
Betsy Humphreys Todd),
see Norris, Elizabeth
Humphreys

Hunt, Henry H., 98

Hunt, J. W., loo

Hunt, Sallie Ward, 177, 178

lies, Miss, 291

Isham, R. N., 214, 215, 305,
306

Jackson, Andrew, 89, 90, 99,

115-16, 176

Jackson, Mrs. Andrew, 351
Jayne, Julia, see Trumbull,

Julia Jayne
Jefferson, Thomas, 95
Jeffry, Mrs., 177
Johnson, Andrew, 146, 181, 186,

255-6, 257, 258
Johnson, H. A., 212, 215, 305,

306

Jordan, David Starr, 93
Jouett, 93, 95, 98

Keckley, Elizabeth, 23, 24, 55,
59, 60, 140, 169-70, 175,
181, 194, 195, 198, 199,
201, 222, 239, 240, 242,
265, 278-9, 297, 300, 311,

324, 333

Kellogg, C. H., 51
Kellogg, Franklin Pierce, 51,

337

Kellogg, J. H., 329
Kellogg, Margaret Todd, 51
Keys, Mrs. Edward D., 28, 65
Kimball, D., 225

Knowles, S. F., 225
Knox, 22
Koehler, G., 18
Koerner, Gustav, 88, 91-2

Lafayette, 89, 95, 97, 98, 100
Lamon, Ward H., 13, 14, 293,

333

Lanphier, Mrs. John C., 77, 78

Lestant, 313-14

Lewis, Lloyd, 58, 59, 155, 319,
332

Lincoln, Abraham, 3; and his
sons, 55-6, 58, 59, 165; and
his wife's family, 48, 49;
characteristics, 117-20; fi-
nances, 148-51, 168-9,
195-6, 209, 236-8, 241;
illness with smallpox,
140-1; influence of Mrs.
Lincoln on, 3, 4, 323-5,
326,327-31,332,333,334;
influence on Mrs. Lincoln,
3235; melancholia, 328
31; mentality, 324, 325-8,
334; opinion of his wife,
294-6, 314, 319, 333; po-
litical career: (1842-51)
127-8, 251-2; (1851-61)
145-8, 156, 157-8, 252-3,
254-5; (1861-5) 171-4,
195, 254-5; reunion plans,
2557; sources of informa-
tion about, 8-9, 10-19

Lincoln, Abraham (grandfather
of the President), 26

Lincoln, Abraham (of Mass.),

147
Lincoln, Edward Baker, 55,

126, 130, 139-40, 185, 263,

264, 301, 313, 319
Lincoln, Mary (daughter of

Robert T.), 53

INDEX

Lincoln, Mary Harlan (Mrs.

Robert T.), 69, 194, 195,

202, 217, 319, 340
Lincoln, Mary Todd (Mrs.

Abraham) :
achievement of objectives,

163-4

ancestry, 31-43, 61
and her sons, 52, 54, 56, 57,

60, 61, 126
and Lincoln's candidacy for

the Senate, 145, 148
and Lincoln's death, 180,

185-6, 240, 265, 313, 318,

319
and Lincoln's election to the

presidency, 115-16, 128,

and preventable diseases in
her family, 139-41

and slavery, 253

and society, 87, 92, 107, 108,
113, 114, 129, 130, 131,
141-2, 164, 167, 174, 178-
84, 195, 238, 239, 269-71,
272

and spiritualism, 193, 264-6,

appearance, 275; as a child,

2 75, 2 ?6; as a young
woman, 275-7; as a wife,

276, 277-9; in later years,
279

artistic sense, 289, 302

as hostess, 142, 144, 151, 152,

156-7, 166, 270
as Mistress of the White

House, 164-5, 166, 173-4,

178-84, 239, 312
as mother, 70, 131, I37~4i,

143-4, 164, 165-6
as wife, 151-2, 153-4, 155,

165, 166, 287; and see

home life, and influence on
Lincoln

at Niagara Falls, 144

at the Batavia Sanatorium,
223-5

at the Lincoln-Douglas de-
bate in Alton, 144

birth, 65

childhood, 65-9, 71, 72, 77-8,
83, 102-3, 235, 315

courtship, 117

death, 343-5

delusions, 216, 217, 225, 306,
307, 308-9, 318

dementia, 310, 317

diabetes, 337, 342, 344

discontent with Robert, 27,

53, 194

drugs, use of, 315, 341, 344

education, 78, 83-6, 107,
317

emotionalism, 71, 106, 126-7,
184, 186,193, 195,213,218,
287, 293-4, 301, 313, 314,
317,318, 333, 334

engagement to marry Lin-
coln, 78-9, 117, 1 20-1

ethical training, 67-9

extravagance, 238-9, 247,
309, 310, 311, 318; and see
irresponsible purchases

fall, at Pau, and its conse-
quences, 227-8, 311, 342

fearlessness, 104, 166

features, 280-4

final illness, 343-5

finances, 128-9, 148-51, 164,
167, 168-70, 195-210, 211,

217, 233-4,3i-i3, 319
hallucinations, 185, 215, 306,

309, 315, 3I7-I8, 320, 341,

350
headaches, 213, 338-9

vii

INDEX

health, 193-4, 211, 213, 229,

337-45
home life, 66-7, 79-81, 82,

130, 137, 139,151-2,331-2
house on Eighth Street,

Springfield, 143
immediacy, 70, 71, 104-5
in Chicago, 25, 58, 144, 193,

194, 198-9, 211, 214, 216-

17, 222, 271, 306-7

in Europe, 25, 210-11, 213,
227, 228, 246, 271, 272,

309, 317, 342
in Florida, 213, 214, 216,

271-2
influence of Lincoln upon,

323-5
influences upon, 138, 148,

157, 158, 299 ^
influence upon Lincoln, 3, 4,

323-5, 326, 327-31, 332,

333,334
inherited and transmitted

traits, 31-62, 66, 71, 234
in Lexington, 20, 21, 65-9,

77-8, 79-81, 83-7, 90, 92,

94-5, 101, 102-4, 107, 113,

126, 150, 234, 235, 263
in London, 271
in New York, 158, 166, 180,

199,227,228,238,309,310,

311, 317, 342-3
insanity, 194, 200, 214, 215-

18, 221, 229, 230; begin-
ning of, 158, 310, 318-20;
type of, 305-18

in Springfield, 21, 22, 71,
78-9, 83, 113-17, 120-1,
126-7, 128-31, 137-40,
141-6, 147-9, 150-8, 225,
227, 228, 236-8, 263, 270,
271, 309-10, 318-19

in Washington, 23, 71, 126,

Vlll

167-70, 171-5, 178-86,

263,311,314

in Waukesha, 271

irresponsible purchases, 158,
169-70, 184, 217, 230, 238-
40, 245, 247, 306-7, 309,

jealousy, 297-9, 302

love of adornment, 35

marriage, 15, 79, 121, 145,
236

mentality, 245, 247, 277, 287,
289, 290, 301, 324

objectives: (1842-51) 127;
(1861) 164; (1865) 195-6,
198, 202; (1875) 223-4

pension bill, 25, 146, 193,
202-10, 218, 243-4, 257-9,
271, 312

personality, 70, 218, 266, 287,
288; in youth, 71,
72, 80, 102-7, J o8, 288-9;
in womanhood, 151-2,
153-6, 166, 172, 174-5,
182, 233, 247, 289-302,

309, 317
pictures of, 94, 275, 276-7,

280-1, 283, 340-1
political aims, 195
political influences on person-

ality, 90, 128, 148, 157, 158,

253-4
political judgment, 115, 116,

148, 155, 157, 171-2, 251,
252-3,314,323,334
public opinion of, 4-5, 19,

345, 349-52

quoted, 43, 45-6, 69, 82, 142,
143, 170, 185, 186, 197-8,

201, 202-3, 204, 205-6,
210, 253, 291-2, 340

religion, 69, 126, 263-6
sanity trials, 25, 26, 31, 53,

INDEX

214-18, 221, 22S-6, 233,

36, 307, 3i6
sources of information about,

8-10, 14, 15-16, 1 8, 19-28
suicide, attempt at, 221-3
thyroid trouble, 340-1
travel, 193, 194, 316-17
"wanderlust," 224, 316-17
wardrobe sale, 25, 193, 198-

201, 208, 218, 242-3, 257,

259
youth, 78-9, 83, 84, 85-7, 90,

92, 94-5, 107, "3
Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, 326
Lincoln, Robert Todd, 17, 18,

25, ^6, 27, 35, 53-4, 59, 60,
61, 69, 126, 129, 137, 138,
144, 165, 194, 195, 197,
198, 211, 212-13, 214, 216-

17, 2l8, 221, 222, 225, 226,
227, 233, 241, 244, 245,

246, 308, 310, 319, 345
Lincoln, Thomas (father of

Abraham), 26, 326
Lincoln, Thomas (Tad), 12, 25,

26, 35, 57-6i, 70, 71, 137,
138, 140, 141, 144, 165-6,
193, 194, 195, 198-9, 204,

210, 211, 213, 218, 241,

243, 244, 263, 265, 271,

306, 307, 313, 317, 318,
319, 340

Lincoln, William Wallace, 55-7,
58, 61, 70, 126, 137, 138,
140, 144, 165, 167, 168,
169, 181, 184, 185, 186,
213, 265,266, 313,319

Logan, John A., 228

Logan, Stephen T., u, 42, 114,
327

Louis XIV, 84

Lovejoy, n

Lyon, W. G., 225

Maginnis, Mrs., 291
Margaret of Anjou, 350
Marshall, H., 95
Marshall, Thomas A., 95
Mason, James A., 214
Masters, Edgar Lee, 129
Matheny, 330, 331
Mather family, 324-5
Matteson, Joel A., 143
Matteson, Mrs., 291
Maximilian, 351
McCarthy, C. H., 256, 257,

258

McClellan, George B., 36
McCollister, C L., 317
McCormick, Cyrus, 95
McCoy, Dr., 60
McCreery, Senator, 206, 208,

209

McDowell, Ephraim, 94
Medill, Joseph, 255
Menefee, Richard H., 95
Menninger, Karl, 330
Mentelle, 84
Mentelle, Mme, 78, 84, 85, 86,

107

Mentelle, Mary, 101
Moore, S. M., 214
Morrill, Senator, 208, 209
Morris, M. M., 127
Morrow, Honor6 Willsie, 19,

170, 183

Napoleon, 8, 89

Nevins, Allan, 256, 257, 258

Newton, J. F., 12-13, 16, 236,

237, 290, 330, 332-3, 351
Nicolay, John G., 128, 3*8-9,

330

Norris, Elizabeth Humphreys,
19, 20, 21, 57, 79, 80, 86, 90,
102-3, 106, 107, 251, 275,
276, 289

INDEX

O'Bannon, H. L., 50
Oglesby, Richard J*, 194
Oldham, William, 47, 97, 99
Orne, General, 204, 298
One, Mrs., 199, 203, 204,

298
Owens, Mary, 87, 118-19, 120,

329
Owsley, Katherine Bodley, 85,

87
Oxford, Earl of, 350

Paddock, R. M., 225, 35>

306

Palen, 98
Parker, Eliza (mother of Mrs.

Lincoln), see Todd, Eliza

Parker
Parker, Eliza Porter, 37-8, 67,

77, 78, 80, 81, 126, 150,

234, 235

Parker, John, 100-01
Parker, R. B., 101
Parker, Robert, 37, 39, 150,

234

Parkhurst, S. B., 214
Patterson, A. B., 49-50
Patterson, Martha, 181
Patterson, R. J., 26, 27, 224,

225, 30S, 3o6, 307-8, 316,

317

Pease, T. C., 252
Peck, John Mason, 122
Peers, B. 0., 99
Pepin, 98
Peter, R., 94
Phillips, U. B., 90, 91
Pickens, Mrs., 177
Pinch, Esther, 29
Poore, Ben Perley, 23, 170, 177,

179, 186, 278
Porter, Andrew, 36-7, 39, 40,

Porter, David Rittenhouse, 36

Porter, Eliza Parker, 36, 37

Porter, G. B., 36

Porter, Horace, 298

Porter, James Madison, 36

Porter, Joe, 49

Porter, John Ewing, 36-7, 40

Porter, Robert, 34

Porter, W. A., 36

Power, J. C, 22

Pratt, Senator, 206, 209

Preston, Colonel, 34

Rafinesque, 93-4

Ranck, G. W., 84, 92-3, 95

Randolph, Thomas Jefferson,

101
Rankin, Henry B., 14, 22,

152-4, 277, 333
Rawlins, Mrs., 202
Reed, Rev. Dr., 263
Reed, Walker, 101
Remann, Henry, 55, 56
Richardson, 101
Riddle, A. G., 320
Roberts, William, 225
Russell, W. H., 183
Rutledge, Ann, 10, n, 14, 16,

17-18,19,87,329,330,331,

333

Sandburg, Carl, 14

Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez,

95-6

Saulsbury, Senator, 208
Saxon, Lyle, 313
Sayre, Lewis A., 227-8, 311,

342-3

Schaffer, 96
Schurz, Carl, 206, 209
Scott, , 291-2
Scott, Winfield, 147
Scripps, John L., 9, 23

INDEX

Seward, William Henry, 255

Shakspere, 5

Shaw, Albert, 107, 172-4

Sheriff, Patrick, 122

Sherman, William Tecumseh,

255, 298

Shields duel episode, 328, 329
Shipman, Mrs., 340
Shipman, P. L., 210
Singleton, Esther, 23
Slidell, Mrs. Alexander, 177
Smith, Ann Todd (Mrs. C. M.),

43, 44, 45-7, 49, 65, 66, 82,

130, 144, 163
Smith, Byrd, 96
Smith, C. M., 44, 45-6, 130,

163, 169, 238
Smith, Charles Oilman, 212,

215, 306, 319
Smith, Ed, 337
Speed, J. F., 120
Spencer, Senator, 206, 209
Stanton, Edwin M., 255, 300,

332

Stanton, Mrs., 298
Stedman, 315

Stephens, Alexander H., 255
Stevens, Thaddeus, 255, 256,

258

Stewart, A. T., 169, 197
Stewart, William, 214
Stockard, C. R., 62, 70-1
Stoddard, W. O., 5, 14, 24,

140-1, 181-2, 271, 279,

299-300, 318, 350, 352
Stoneberger, B. F., 130, 155,

230, 279
Stuart, John T., n, 42, 94, 114,

226, 327, 329
Stuart, Robert, 81, 94
Sumner, Charles, 183, 193, 203,

205, 206, 255
Swain, E., 308

Swett, Leonard, 149, 214, 225,

. 33 .
Swissheim, Jane Gray, 319

Taft, Mrs., 300-1

Tarbell, Ida M., 14-15, 153,

328
Taylor, Zachary, 127-8, 146,

176

Terman, Lewis M., 327
Thompson, Mrs. Jacob, 178
Thurman, Senator, 208
Tipton, Senator, 206, 207, 208,

209, 243
Todd, Alexander H., 48, 51, 79,

185
Todd, Ann, see Smith, Ann

Todd
Todd, Betsy Humphreys, see

Todd, Elizabeth Hum-
phreys

Todd, David, 32
Todd, David (son of Levi), 34,

42
Todd, David H. (half-brother

of Mrs. Lincoln), 48, 51,

Todd, Eliza, 38

Todd, Eliza (aunt of Mrs. Lin-
coln), see Carr, Eliza Todd

Todd, Elizabeth (sister of Mrs.
Lincoln), see Edwards,
Elizabeth Todd

Todd, Elizabeth Humphreys,
20, 38, 41, 42, 48, 49, 51,
56, 67, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81,
82, 83, 85, 86, 90, 94, 106,
113, 263

Todd, Eliza Parker, 38, 43, 48,
49, 51, 65-6, 67-8, 69, 77,
85, 138, 235

Todd, Elodie, see Dawson,
Elodie Todd

INDEX

Todd, Emilie P., see Helm,

Emilie Todd
Todd, Frances, see Wallace,

Frances Todd
Todd, George (son of G. R. C.),

49,50
Todd, George Rogers Clark,

37, 40-1, 43, 47, 49-50, 82,

175

Todd, John (great-uncle of

Mrs. Lincoln), 32, 33, 35,

39, 40, 41, 42, 327
Todd, Rev. John, 32, 35, 41
Todd, Katherine B., see Herr,

Katherine Todd
Todd, Levi (grandfather of

Mrs. Lincoln), 32, 33, 34,

35, 39, 40, 41, 42, 234
Todd, Levi O., 42, 43, 47-8, 65,

66, 79, 82, 126, 144, 175-6
Todd, Louisa, 47, 48
Todd, Margaret, see Kellogg,

Margaret Todd
Todd, Martha K., see White,

Martha Todd
Todd, Mary, see Lincoln, Mary

Todd
Todd, Robert (great-uncle of

Mrs. Lincoln), 32, 33, 34,

35,39,40,4^

Todd, Robert P., 65

Todd, Robert S., 33, 34~5, 38,
39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 48, 49,
51, 65, 66, 77, 78, 79, 80,
81, 82, 83, 87, 88, 90, 96-7,
98, 99, 100, 101-2, 103,
106, 126, 130, 144, 149,
150, 234, 235

Todd, Sam (uncle of Mrs. Lin-
coln), 39-40

Todd, Samuel B., 48, 51

Torrey, John, 93

Town, 102

xii

Townsend, William H., 20, 22,

38, 47, 48, 65, 84, 85, 118,

253, 277, 289
Trumbull, Julia Jayne, 145,

146, 163
Trumbull, Lyman, 145, 163,

208
Tyler, John, 36, 127, 176

Vincent, T., 101

Wade, Benjamin, 205
Wallace, Frances Todd (Mrs.
William), 21-2, 43, 44, 45,
65, 66, 79, 81-2, 113, 117,
128-9, 130, 151, 152, 163,
175, 226, 229, 235, 236,
289, 291

Wallace, Joseph, 22
Wallace, M. R. M., 214, 225,

226

Wallace, William, 44, 45, 163
Ward, Dr., 84, 86, 102
Warren, Colonel, 142, 291
Washburne, E. B., 14, 277
Washington, George, 12, 36
Weatherhead, D. J., 225
Weber, Jessie Palmer, 46
Webster, Daniel, 89
Weed, Thurlow, 199-200, 201
Weems, Mason Locke, 12
Weik, J. W., 13, 18, 154, 293,

331-2

Whaler, James, 93-4, 108
White, Clement, 51, 52
White, Horace, 12
White, Hugh M., 89
White, Martha Todd, 48, 51, 52,

210
Whitney, H. C., 149, 238, 320,

330, 333

Wickliffe, Robert, 97, 99, 100
Wild, R. F., 225

INDEX

Williams, 22
Williamson, 196-7? 2 4 2
Williamson, Mrs., 51
Willis, N. P., 55
Winn, Mary Day, 87-8, 327

Woodbury, Mrs., 177

Xarnpis, 100

Yates, Senator, 208, 209

Xlll

A NOTE ON THE TYPE IN
WHICH THIS BOOK IS SET

JL HIS book has been set in a modern adapta-
tion of a type designed by William Caslon,
the first (1692-1766), who, it is generally con-
ceded, brought the old-style letter to its
highest perfection.

An artistic, easily-read type, Caslon has
had two centuries of ever-increasing popu-
larity in our own country it is of interest to
note that the first copies of the Declaration of
Independence and the first paper currency
distributed to the citizens of the new-born
nation were printed in this type face.

SET UP, ELECTROTYPED,

PRINTED, AND BOUND
BY THE PLIMPTON PRESS,

NORWOOD, MASS.

PAPER MANUFACTURED BY

CURTIS AND BROTHER, NEWARK,

DELAWARE

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