Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage

Ruth Painter Randall

• Publisher: Golden Springs Publishing
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781787200265
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

More fascinating than fiction, this is the moving story of the most misunderstood woman in American history…
The truth about Mary Lincoln has for nearly a century been hidden under a mountain of myth.
They said Lincoln really loved Ann Rutledge. That he had tried to avoid marriage to Mary Todd, that his wife hurt him politically though she drove him to the Presidency, that she embarrassed him financially as well as socially and inflicted on him the agony of adjustment to her psychopathic personality.
Now for the first time, the true woman beneath the myth is presented. The veil of legend surrounding Mary Lincoln is torn aside and an entirely new picture of a woman and a marriage emerges.
Here, through the eyes of the people who knew the Lincolns, through the long-lost telegrams and letters they sent each other, comes the story of their day-to-day life together. It begins in Springfield, and there, many years later, it ends. But the truth of those years gives evidence to restore Mary Todd Lincoln to her rightful place in history and in the affections of the American people.
Acclaimed by the critics...
"Never has such a story seemed better worth telling or better told."—SATURDAY REVIEW
"This is an important and definitive volume."—AMERICAN HISTORY REVIEW
"Out of the most searching scrutiny ever leveled on the Lincolns' family affairs comes the picture of a tempestuous yet essentially happy marriage."—NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE
"This is a very moving book. It is also a nice example of what a first-rate historian can do with a difficult subject."—THE NEW YORKER
"It is a book that can be recommended without reservation: A combination of profound research and fine prose style, it meets both the requirements of the Lincoln scholar and the casual reader who is looking for a truly fascinating story."—SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

CHAPTER 1—YOUNG MARY IN YOUNG SPRINGFIELD

Springfield, Illinois, January 4, 1840. It was a cold, snowy evening as the stagecoach pulled into town, bearing among its passengers from St. Louis a young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin S. Edwards, who had decided to make the new state capital their home. The young wife looked with apprehensive eyes upon the raw little town with “No street lights, no sidewalks, and the mud so thick it was hard for the stage to pull through.” After depositing some of its passengers at the American House, the old coach went lumbering up through the dark to a large, stately house on the hill where the Centennial Building now stands.

It was the home of Benjamin’s brother, Ninian Wirt Edwards, with whom the couple were to stay until their own home was ready. Years later Benjamin’s wife described their arrival: “My heart was heavy at the thought of meeting strangers, but O! what a haven of rest it appeared to me when we entered that bright hospitable home and how quickly my fears were dispersed by the cordial welcome we received from all of the family.”

The opened door led into a richly furnished interior ablaze with candles, oil lamps, and cheerful open fires. Across that illumination there came to meet her a young woman whose face was aglow with friendliness and welcome. She was a small, pretty, plump girl with vivid coloring of blue eyes, white skin, and light chestnut hair, but what the bride noted was not a catalogue of features but the joyousness of her responsive spirit. “I was attracted toward her at once,” said Mrs. Edwards. “The sunshine in her heart was reflected in her face. She greeted me with such warmth of manner that I was made to feel perfectly at home and...she insisted upon my calling her by her first name, saying she knew we would be great friends and I must call her Mary.” So our spotlight comes to rest on Mary Todd as she was when Abraham Lincoln, her future husband, first knew her.

Mary Todd had come to Springfield in the fall of 1839 to make her home with her sister, Mrs. Ninian Wirt Edwards. It was a sensible arrangement for a number of reasons. Mary’s fine old home in Lexington, Kentucky, was presided over by a stepmother burdened with many children. Marriage was about the only career open to women in that Victorian era, and unmarried girls were at a premium in Springfield. Mary’s cousin, John J. Hardin, once playfully suggested that some enterprising person bring out “a cargo of the ladies” to Illinois, just as a shipload of prospective wives had been taken to colonial Virginia and disposed of at so many pounds of tobacco per head. He felt sure that if such a cargo were landed in Illinois, the entrepreneur would receive “at least several head of cattle apiece.”

There was no cargo, but the matter was being well attended to by relatives. Unattached females were being imported into many homes for a “visit,” and that word was liberally interpreted in those days of difficult transportation. The same autumn that Mary Todd came to the Edwards mansion, Mercy Levering, an attractive girl from Baltimore, arrived next door to visit her brother until the following spring. A devoted friendship developed between the two girls and they had a companionable winter together.

After Mercy left, Mary was delighted when, in the fall of 1840, another visitor came to the Edwards home, Matilda Edwards from Alton, a cousin of Ninian. Matilda’s letters indicate she had greatly looked forward to a visit in the state capital but found the rawness of Springfield quite disillusioning. To use her own words in a letter to her brother: “...this garden of Eden is fast losing the charms with which my fancy decked it. The...dazling mantle woven by your imaginative sister finds not the wearer in the fascinations of Springfield.” Like the young bride of the stagecoach, Matilda quickly formed an affectionate and lasting friendship with Mary Todd, whom she described in the same letter as “a Very lovely and sprightly girl.”

A more strategic location for matrimonial alliances than Ninian’s home could hardly have been found. Frances Todd, an older sister of Mary’s, had already “visited” there successfully, and was now the wife of Dr. William S. Wallace, a well-to-do physician and druggist of Springfield. Ninian Wirt Edwards, son of Governor Ninian Edwards, was prominent and influential, as were the various family connections both of himself and his wife, Elizabeth Todd Edwards. His home was the center of the aristocratic “Edwards clique” and all distinguished visitors to the town, especially when the legislature was in session, found their way up the gentle slope to the house on the hill where hospitality was on a lavish, old-fashioned scale. There pretty girls, dressed as nearly as possible like the fashion plates in the latest Godey’s Lady’s Book, were ready to make life interesting with Victorian coquetry.

The younger set who gathered at the Edwards mansion called themselves “the coterie.” It was a remarkable selection of vivid, individual personalities and a number of its names were to be written down in the nation’s history. The group seethed with interest in politics, literature, romance, parties, and the perennial fun of youth. Some of its members, like Matilda Edwards, were good letter writers, and with the aid of these faded letters they can be made to describe each other while revealing their own personalities.

Shortly after Mercy Levering’s arrival at her brother’s home there were signs that her visit was going to be successful. A young lawyer, James C. Conkling, gay and delightful in his epistles, promptly began to court her. When Mercy returned to Baltimore in the spring of 1840, both young Conkling and Mary wrote her long letters. James Conkling obligingly and accurately describes Mary Todd in a letter written in September: “She is the very creature of excitement you know and never enjoys herself more than when in society and surrounded by a company of merry friends.” He and Mary (who had just returned from a visit to an uncle) had taken part in a wedding. He playfully referred to her increased plumpness: “But my official capacity on that occasion [the wedding] reminds me of my blooming partner who has just returned from Missouri. Verily, I believe the further West a young lady goes the better her health becomes. If she comes here she is sure to grow—if she visits Missouri she will soon grow out of your recollection and if she should visit the Rocky Mountains I know not what would become of her.”

There is a delightful story that gives, for a moment, a flash-back to this lively coterie of young people. Sometime during the winter of 1839-1840 there was a rainy period which made the famous Springfield mud even worse than usual. Mud must have been a topic as perennial as the weather judging by old manuscripts of those days; men could hardly pull their feet out of it and carriages mired down around the square.

With unpaved streets Mary Todd and Mercy Levering had been housebound for days in their homes on the hill, and Mary wanted to go downtown. Finally she had a prankish inspiration and sent word to Mercy that she would like her company in an adventure. The two girls took a bundle of shingles as they went to town, dropping them one by one and jumping from shingle to shingle to keep out of the mud. Perhaps the shingles gave out, or perhaps it was not as much fun as it had seemed at first. Anyway, Mary hailed a two-wheeled dray driven by a little drayman named Ellis Hart and rode home in it, to the great shaking of Springfield’s Victorian heads. Tut, tut, was the attitude, no lady should make herself conspicuous like that! What is this young generation coming to? Mercy, with more propriety, refused to ride in the dray and the story leaves her stuck in the mud.

A friend of the girls, Dr. Elias H. Merryman, saw what happened. True to his delightful name, he wrote a gay jingle that circulated among the young people. Eight lines will illustrate the tenor of the verse:

Up flew windows, out popped heads,

To see this Lady gay

In silken cloak and feathers white

A riding on a dray.

At length arrived at Edwards’ gate

Hart backed the usual way

And taking out the iron pin

He rolled her off the dray.

The last line is another case of jesting about Mary’s plumpness. She good-naturedly referred to it herself in one of her letters: “I still am the same ruddy pineknot, only not quite so great an exuberance of flesh, as it once was my lot to contend with, although quite a sufficiency.” She gives here indirectly a glimpse of her rosy cheeks (often mentioned by others), and a suggestion of her abounding health and vitality.

The nearest one can get to a personality of the past is through letters written by the person. What does one find in Mary Todd’s letters to Mercy Levering in 1840? Two have been preserved, one written in July and one in December. The first, which came from Missouri where Mary was visiting leaves no doubt that she was, as is so often stated, a fluent and entertaining conversationalist. No wonder she gained weight on her visit. She was having a wonderful time with dances, excursions, parties, and new friends, all described with vivid interest. Her letters had rhythm and sparkle. Her quotations and aptly turned phrases show a feeling for language, an instinct for the right word. If the sentences are long or involved, a bit ornate or oversentimental, that was the literary style of the age. Although she had an unusually good education, she occasionally (like her future husband and the majority of humanity) slipped up on the spelling of a word.

Every new experience was a delight to Mary. She wrote Mercy of her visit to Boonville, “situated immediately on the river and a charming place.” She almost wished she could live there: “A life on the river to me has always had a charm, so much excitement, and this you have deemed necessary to my well-being; every day experience impresses me more fully with the belief.” She described herself as “on the wing of expectation.”

There is a trace of guilty feeling because she was having such a good time. In the eighteen-forties innocent enjoyment of life was apt to be considered wicked frivolity. The conscientious Matilda was to refuse to go to a ball even though Cousin Ninian urged her by pointing out that she would appear to great advantage. “No my brother,” wrote eighteen-year-old Matilda, “however inconsistant my life may be as a christian I hope I shall ever have strength to resist those worldly fascinations which if indulged in bring a reproach upon the cause of religion.” Mary Todd was a devoted church member but saw nothing wrong in having a good time, an attitude which brought her criticism then and later. Apparently Mercy had already made some remarks on the subject, for Mary’s letter continues: “Would it were in my power to follow your kind advice, my ever dear Merce and turn my thoughts from earthly vanities, to one higher than us all.” But neither did parties and gaiety fully satisfy her: “Every day proves the fallacy of our enjoyments, & that we are living for pleasures that do not recompense us for the pursuit.”

Mary’s letter contains overflowing affection for her friend, and a suggestion of her sensitiveness: “How much I wish you were near, ever have I found yours a congenial heart. In your presence I have almost thought aloud, and the thought that paineth most is, that such may never be again, yet, I trust that a happier day will dawn, near you, I would be most happy to sojourn in our earthly pilgrimmage.” The following is really a description of her own sunny spirit: “Cousin [Ann Todd] & myself take the world easy, as usual with me, you know, allow but few of its cares, to mar our serenity. We regularly take our afternoon siestas, and soon find our spirits wafted to the land of dreams. Then will I think of thee.”

Mary’s gaiety, blue eyes, and dimples had found an admirer in Missouri. One can almost see a wry smile and grimace as she wrote: “There is one being here, who cannot brook the mention of my return, an agreeable lawyer & grandson of Patrick Henry—what an honor! I shall never survive it—I wish you could see him, the most perfect original I ever met. My beaux have always been hard bargains at any rate.”

The letter of December 1840 is in more somber mood. Mary in this month had emotional experiences which she does not mention here directly, but certain words of hers are significant. “Why is it,” she asked, “that married folks always become so serious?” She noted of a friend after her marriage: “Her silver tones, the other evening were not quite so captain like as was their wont in former times.” It will be seen later that about this time Mary was pondering what she lightly here called “the crime of matrimony.” Perhaps she ironically used the word “crime” because her family were opposed to the particular matrimony she was then contemplating.

She mentioned the rejoicing in the recent election of General Harrison, and added: “This fall I became quite a politician, rather an unladylike profession...” She was aware that any female whose interest strayed from the purely domestic was thought either strong-minded or queer. Not for the world would Mary have laid herself open to such a charge. In a later letter she referred to her “weak woman’s heart”; if it sounds affected today, it was then becomingly feminine.

Saddened by the changes of time and probably by family wishes that were contrary to her own she gave to Mercy a poetic expression of her mood: “The icy hand of winter has set its seal upon the waters, the winds of Heaven visit the spot but roughly, the same stars shine down, yet not with the same liquid, mellow light as in the olden time.”

Young affairs went briskly on in the coterie. We have Mary in her turn describing Matilda, who had made quite an impression on Joshua Speed, a personable and susceptible young Kentuckian who kept a store in Springfield. Mercy, of course, had left Springfield before Matilda arrived. Mary’s letter continued: “On my return from Missouri, my time passed most heavily. I feel quite made up in my present companion, a congenial spirit I assure you. I know you would be pleased with Matilda Edwards, a lovelier girl I never saw. Mr. Speed’s ever changing heart I suspect is about offering its young affections at her shrine, with some others. There is considerable acquisition in our society of marriageable gentlemen, unfortunately only ‘birds of passage.’ Mr. Webb, a widower of modest merit, last winter, is our principal lion, dances attendance very frequently.”

It might have been added that Edwin B. Webb had two children and was earnestly wooing Mary for their second mother. Perhaps he recognized in her that maternal tenderness, that passionate love of children, which was her characteristic throughout life. But it was enough that she was good-looking, attractive, and had the best possible family connections. No more eligible girl could have been found.

Mary’s thoughts, however, were elsewhere. Mr. Webb’s efforts were in vain. She confided later ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• FOREWORD
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• CHAPTER 1-YOUNG MARY IN YOUNG SPRINGFIELD
• CHAPTER 2-JOSHUA SPEED’S FRIEND
• CHAPTER 3-“MIND-EDUCATION-RAISING”
• CHAPTER 4-BROKEN ENGAGEMENT
• CHAPTER 5-“I AWFULLY FOREBODE”
• CHAPTER 6-A DUEL PREVENTED BUT NOT A WEDDING
• CHAPTER 7-“FOUR DOLLARS A WEEK”
• CHAPTER 8-“WOMEN AND OXEN”
• CHAPTER 9-“THE HAPPIEST STAGES OF LIFE”
• CHAPTER 10-“TEARS ON THE JURY”
• CHAPTER 11-IN-LAW PROBLEMS
• CHAPTER 12-“LITTLE EDDIE”
• CHAPTER 13-“GOOD NEIGHBORS”
• CHAPTER 14-“FIZZLE-GIGS AND FIREWORKS”
• CHAPTER 15-WIDENING CIRCLE
• CHAPTER 16-TANGLED TALES AND GOODBY SPRINGFIELD
• CHAPTER 17-“PITS AND PINNACLES OF CHANGE”
• CHAPTER 18-“EMPANELED TO CONVICT”
• CHAPTER 19-ATTENTION OF THE PRESIDENT’S WIFE
• CHAPTER 20-FURTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE FIRST LADY
• CHAPTER 21-“FLUB DUBS” WITH COMPLICATIONS
• CHAPTER 22-WHITE HOUSE FAMILY
• CHAPTER 23-“FURNACE OF AFFLICTION”
• CHAPTER 24-DARK WHISPERINGS
• CHAPTER 25-TELEGRAMS
• CHAPTER 26-“IF HE IS RE-ELECTED”
• CHAPTER 27-“AS ARDENT AN ABOLITIONIST”
• CHAPTER 28-CITY POINT
• CHAPTER 29-LAST RIDE TOGETHER
• CHAPTER 30-“WITHOUT HIM”
• CHAPTER 31-HERNDON LECTURES ON ANN RUTLEDGE
• CHAPTER 32-THE OLD-CLOTHES SCANDAL
• CHAPTER 33-“WITHOUT TADDIE”: INSANITY?
• CHAPTER 34-“DEAR LEWIS”
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER