The Travail of Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the 16th President, was the subject of our class discussion today. This beautiful and intelligent Kentucky belle no doubt brought a spark into the melancholy life of Abraham; yet, her mercurial temper and all-consuming need for attention robbed their marriage (and her position as First Lady) of so much potential.

Each of us in the class searched for sympathy for her: she buried three sons, and the surviving son had her institutionalized in a facility for the insane (which she was clearly was not). She witnessed the assassination of her husband on that fateful night at Ford's Theatre in April of 1865, and she was denied entrance to his bedside at the time of impending death.  To add insult to the injury of a broken heart, a life-time enemy, William Herndon, told  demoralizing stories of Lincoln's affection for Anne Rutledge. Herndon, Lincoln's one-time law-partner, asserted that the President had never really loved Mary, but had accepted his fate with her after the death of Miss Rutledge. Herndon went on the national circuit telling these stories--they were not confined to an intimate group of friends. 

With all of these sad stories, we still had difficulty feeling sorry for Mary. She was her own worst enemy.  I was appalled to read that when Abraham's favorite son Willie died (while they were in the White House), Mary spent large sums of money buying mourning clothes and jewelry!

I had hoped that learning more about her would lead me to see her as someone mistreated and misrepresented by historians, but the evidence overshadows any sympathetic interpretation of her life.

Having said all of this, I am convinced that she loved Abraham deeply and that she cherished her children. She suffered from the reputation-destroying combination of having a difficult personality in very difficult times.
Maybe research yet to be done will reveal a more positive side to Mary Todd Lincoln.