Mary Todd Lincoln

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Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Todd Lincoln
Born	December 13, 1818 Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Died	July 16, 1882 Springfield, Illinois, USA
Occupation	First Lady of the United States
Spouse	Abraham Lincoln

Mary Ann Todd Lincoln (December 13, 1818 – July 16, 1882) was the First Lady of the United States when her husband, Abraham Lincoln, served as the sixteenth President, from 1861 until 1865.

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, she was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd and Eliza Parker, prominent residents of the city. They were slaveholders,as were their other relatives. At the age of twenty, Mary Todd moved to Illinois where her sister Elizabeth was living. Elizabeth introduced Mary to the young lawyer who would later become her husband; she was also courted by Stephen A. Douglas. Abraham and Mary Lincoln were married on November 4, 1842.

Their children were:

1. Robert Todd Lincoln : Springfield, Illinois August 1, 1843 – July 26, 1926 in Manchester, Vermont
2. Edward (Eddie) Baker Lincoln : Springfield March 10, 1846 – February 1, 1850 in Springfield
3. William (Willie) Wallace Lincoln : Springfield December 21, 1850 – February 20, 1862 in Washington, D.C.
4. Thomas (Tad) Lincoln : Springfield April 4, 1853 – July 16, 1871 in Chicago, Illinois.

The Lincolns' marriage was troubled at times. Of their four sons, only Robert and Tad survived into adulthood, and only Robert outlived his mother.

Mary Lincoln was well-educated and interested in public affairs, and shared her husband's fierce ambition. However, she was high-strung and touchy, and sometimes acted irrationally. She was almost instantly unpopular upon her arrival in the capital.

Newspapers at the time criticized her for using taxpayers' money to refurnish the White House (which had become quite worn and shabby) as well as to fund her personal shopping sprees. During the Civil War, there were persistent rumors that she was a Confederate sympathizer, and even a Confederate spy (several relatives served in the Confederate forces-three of her brothers died fighting for the South). Popular legend states that President Lincoln, upon hearing the rumors, personally vouched for her loyalty to the United States in a surprise appearance before the Committee on the Conduct of the War. Her visits with Union soldiers in the numerous hospitals in and around Washington went largely unnoticed by her contemporaries. ^[1]

After the President's assassination in April 1865, her reputation was further besmirched as former Lincoln aides and Cabinet members openly attacked her for being a spendthrift, difficult and arrogant (Lincoln's wartimes aides John Nicolay and John Hay privately referred to her as "the hell-cat").

In 1868, a former seamstress and confidante, Elizabeth Keckley, published Behind the Scenes, (or, Thirty years a slave, and four years in the White House). When the book proved controversial, Robert Todd Lincoln had it suppressed.

The deaths of her husband and her sons, Willie and Thomas (Tad), in time led to an overpowering sense of grief and the gradual onset of depression.

Mrs. Lincoln's "spend-thrift" ways and eccentric behavior concerned her son Robert. To gain control of his mother's finances, Robert had her committed to an insane asylum in Batavia, Illinois in 1875^{[citation needed]}, but she was free to move about the grounds and was released three months later. She never forgave her eldest son for what she regarded as his betrayal.

Mrs. Lincoln spent the next four years abroad taking up residence in Pau, France. She spent much of this time travelling in Europe.

Mrs. Lincoln's late years were marked by declining health. In 1879, she suffered spinal cord injuries in a fall from a step ladder. On her return to the US aboard an ocean liner in 1880, actress Sarah Bernhardt prevented her from falling down a staircase and sustaining further injury. She also suffered from cataracts that severely affected her eyesight. This may have contributed to her falls.

Mrs. Lincoln died at the Springfield, Illinois home of her sister Elizabeth on July 16, 1882, aged 63. She was interred within the Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.

Of Robert's children, Jessie Harlan Lincoln Beckwith (1875 - 1948) had two children (Mary Lincoln Beckwith ["Peggy," 1898 - 1975] and Robert ("Bud") Todd Lincoln Beckwith (1904 - 1985), neither of whom had children of their own. Robert's other daughter, Mary Todd Lincoln ("Mamie") (1869 - 1938) married Charles Bradley Isham in 1891. They had one son, Lincoln Isham (1892 - 1971). Lincoln Isham married Leahalma Correa in 1919, but died without children.

The last person known to be of direct Lincoln lineage, Robert's grandson "Bud" Beckwith, died in 1985. ^[2]

[edit] Trivia

• Her great uncle John Todd was killed in the last battle of the American Revolution-the Battle of Blue Licks.
• Her sister Elizabeth Todd was the daughter-in-law of Illinois Governor Ninian Edwards. Elizabeth's daughter Julia Edwards married Edward L. Baker, editor of the "Illinois State Journal" and son of Congressman David Jewett Baker.
• Her half sister Emilie Todd married CS General Benjamin Hardin Helm, son of Kentucky Governor John L. Helm. Governor Helm's wife was a 1st cousin 3 times removed of Colonel John Hardin who was related to three Kentucky congressman.
• A cousin was Kentucky Congressman/US General John Blair Smith Todd.

[edit] External links

• Mary Todd Lincoln House (National Park Service)
• Mary Todd Lincoln House (Official Home Page)
• Mary Todd Lincoln Research Site
• Mary Todd Lincoln in 1862 Harper's Weekly Newspaper
• Especially for students - An Overview of Mary Todd Lincoln's Life
• Mr. Lincoln's White House: Mary Todd Lincoln
• "Wet with Blood," Research Project on Mary Todd Lincoln's Cloak, Chicago History Museum (formerly Chicago Historical Society)

[edit] References

Preceded by Harriet Lane

First Lady of the United States 1861 – 1865

Succeeded by Eliza McCardle Johnson