ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S WIFE

Evening Star, Issue 21099, 11 May 1932, Page 1

ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S WIFE

A CURIOUS PERSONALITY Mr Morns A. Briggs, a Chicago bookseller, who is a specialist in the literature relating to Lincoln, has compiled a list ol 3,5U0 books and pamphlets dealing with Lincoln. And each year a number ol new books is added to the list by American publishers. The latest addition is ‘ Mrs Abranam Lincoln,' which is described by the author (Dr \V. A. Evans) as a study of her personality and influence on Lincoln. The author, who is a Southerner, attempts to rescue from calumny the Southern woman who was the wife of the President who extinguished the Confederacy. • The story of Lincoln’s married life has frequently been told, and usually with a lack of sympathy tor his wife. There is no doubt that he chose an unsuitable partner. She was unsuitable in the early years of their married life, when she complained of his uncouth manners and domestic habits, and though socially superior to Lincoln when he was a struggling lawyer in a small town her social errors and gaucheries made her the butt of Washington society when she was mistress of White House. It was said during the Civil War that she was a Confederate spy, that she made use of information she extracted from her husband to betray the cause of the Union. The soldiers at Washington sang ribald songs about her and Jeff Davis. “No woman who has occupied the White House has been more vulnerable to attack than Mary Todd Lincoln ; and no one of them, unless possibly the wife of President Andrew Jackson, suffered- such merciless slander," writes Rev. W. B, Barton, a leading authority in America on all matters relating to Lincoln. “ Most of her blood relations were on the side of the Confederacy. Her brothers were Confederate officers ; her sisters were the wives of Confederate soldiers. Her heart must have been torn in her divided personal sympathies, but through it all there is one continuous line of testimony unbroken by any creditable record of any disloyal word or treasonable act. She deserves very high commendation for a loyalty which under very trying circumstances she unfalteringly maintained.” But she made Lincoln’s domestic life uncomfortable. She nagged him day and night, so that he was glad to get away from her. She became extravagant after she went to White House, and made expensive purchases which before the end of her husband’s first term as President resulted in the accumulation of debts totalling £14,000, of which Lincoln knew nothing. It was said that she was a victim of a cerebral disease, which after the assassination of her husband developed into insanity. Her application to Congress for a pension was granted—but not until bitter 'bings had been said about her in both Houses while the matter was under discussion. At the instigation of her son Robert she was placed in a private asylum at Batavia. Illinois, in May, 1875, and she was discharged as cured a year later: but the cure was not permanent. Pile went abroad, and returned to America in 1880. She went to live in Springfield with her .sister, Mrs Edwards. Bbo used to shut herself in a darkened room during tho day and usn a candle for light. She accumulated large quantities of silk and dress goods which she never used. She died in 1882 at the age of sixty-three.