Mary Todd Lincoln


Mary Ann Todd Lincoln was First Lady of the United States from 1861 until the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, in 1865. Mary Todd was born into a large and wealthy slave-owning family in Kentucky, although Mary never owned slaves and in her adulthood came to oppose slavery. Well educated, after finishing-school in her late teens, she moved to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. She lived there with her married sister Elizabeth Todd Edwards, the wife of an Illinois congressman. Before she married Abraham Lincoln, Mary was courted by his long-time political opponent Stephen A. Douglas.
Mary Lincoln staunchly supported her husband's career and political ambitions, and throughout his presidency, she was active in keeping national morale high during the American Civil War. She acted as the White House social coordinator, throwing lavish balls and redecorating the White House at great expense; her spending was the source of much consternation. She was seated next to Abraham when he was assassinated in the President's Box at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865.
The Lincolns had four sons of whom only the eldest, Robert, survived both parents. The deaths of her husband and three of their sons weighed heavily on her. Young Thomas, who died suddenly in 1871, had just spent an extended time traveling with her after Robert married. Mary Lincoln suffered from physical and mental health issues. She had frequent headaches which were exacerbated by a head injury in 1863. She likely suffered from depression or possibly bipolar disorder. She was briefly institutionalized for psychiatric illness in 1875, and then spent several years traveling in Europe. She later retired to her sister's home in Springfield, where she died in 1882 at age 63. She is buried with her husband and three younger sons in the Lincoln Tomb, a National Historic Landmark.

Early life and education

Todd was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky, as the fourth of seven children of Robert Smith Todd, a banker, and Elizabeth "Eliza" Todd. In 1825, when she was six, her mother died in childbirth. Her father then married Elizabeth "Betsy" Humphreys in 1826 and they had nine children together. There is conflicting evidence about Todd's relationship with her stepmother. From 1832, Mary and her family lived in what is now known as the Mary Todd Lincoln House, an elegant 14-room residence at 578 West Main Street in Lexington.
Mary's paternal great-grandfather, David Levi Todd, was born in County Longford, Ireland, and immigrated through Pennsylvania to Kentucky. Another great-grandfather, Andrew Porter, was the son of an Irish immigrant to New Hampshire and later Pennsylvania. Her maternal great-great-grandfather Samuel McDowell was born in Scotland, and emigrated to Pennsylvania. Other Todd ancestors came from England.
At an early age, Mary was sent to Madame Mentelle's finishing school, where the curriculum concentrated on French and literature. She learned to speak French fluently and studied dance, drama, music, and social graces. By age 20, she was regarded as witty and gregarious with a grasp of politics. Like her family, she was a Whig.
Mary began living with her sister Elizabeth Porter Edwards in Springfield, Illinois, in October 1839. Elizabeth was married to Ninian W. Edwards, son of a former governor. He served as Mary's guardian. Mary was popular among the gentry of Springfield, and though she was courted by the rising young lawyer and Democratic Party politician Stephen A. Douglas and others, she chose Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Whig.

Marriage and family

Todd met Lincoln, then a struggling lawyer, at the house of her older sister Elizabeth Edwards. The two formed a connection due to their mutual interest in politics and were soon engaged. However, Elizabeth and her husband, Ninian Edwards, disapproved of the relationship due to Lincoln's lower-class status, along with his indefinite future. Their engagement was broken off on New Year's Day of 1841, which the future president referred to as "that fatal first of January". In the following weeks after their breakup, Lincoln went into a depression, and was described by his then business partner as "reduced and emaciated in his appearance".
After a year and a half, the couple secretly rekindled their relationship and married on November 4, 1842. Todd was 23 and Lincoln was 33. Lincoln allegedly met Ninian on the street the day of their wedding and confessed his plan to marry the latter's sister-in-law, to which Ninian, feeling responsible for Todd, demanded they wed at his own house. Likewise, the bride did not tell her sister about her marriage until the day of, to which Elizabeth acquiesced.
After their wedding, the couple moved into a one-room apartment in a tavern, where Todd gave birth to their first son, Robert Todd Lincoln. Around a year later, they moved to a more spacious, one-and-a-half-story cottage.
Their four sons, all born in Springfield, Illinois, were:
Robert and Tad survived to adulthood and the death of their father, and only Robert outlived his mother.

Lincoln's career and home life

While Lincoln pursued his increasingly successful career as a Springfield lawyer, Mary supervised their growing household. Their house, where they resided from 1844 until 1861, still stands in Springfield and has been designated the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. During Lincoln's years as an Illinois circuit lawyer, Mary was often left alone for months at a time to raise their children and run the household. Mary supported her husband socially and politically, not least when Lincoln was elected president in 1860.
Mary cooked for Lincoln often during his presidency. Raised by a wealthy family, her cooking was simple, but satisfied Lincoln's tastes, which included imported oysters.

First Lady of the United States

During her White House years, Mary Lincoln faced many personal difficulties generated by political divisions within the nation. Her family was from a border state where slavery was permitted. Several of her half-brothers served in the Confederate Army and were killed in action, and one brother served the Confederacy as a surgeon.
Mary staunchly supported her husband in his quest to save the Union and was strictly loyal to his policies. Considered a "westerner" although she had grown up in the more refined Upper South city of Lexington, Mary worked hard to serve as her husband's First Lady in Washington, D.C., a political center dominated by eastern culture. Lincoln was regarded as the first "western" president, and critics described Mary's manners as coarse and pretentious. She had difficulty negotiating White House social responsibilities and rivalries, spoils-seeking solicitors, and baiting newspapers in a climate of high national intrigue in Civil War Washington. She refurbished the White House, which included extensive redecorating of all the public and private rooms as well as the purchase of new china, which led to extensive overspending. The president was very angry over the cost, even though Congress eventually passed two additional appropriations to cover these expenses. Mary also was a frequent purchaser of fine jewelry and on many occasions bought jewelry on credit from the local Galt & Bro. jewelers. Upon President Lincoln's death, she had a large amount of debt with the jeweler, which was subsequently waived, and much of the jewelry was returned.
Mary suffered from severe headaches, described as migraines, throughout her adult life, as well as protracted depression. Her headaches seemed to become more frequent after she suffered a head injury in a carriage accident during her White House years. A history of mood swings, fierce temper, public outbursts throughout Lincoln's presidency, as well as excessive spending, has led some historians and psychologists to argue that Mary suffered from bipolar disorder. Another theory holds that Mary's manic and depressive episodes, as well as many of her physical symptoms, could be explained as manifestations of pernicious anemia. Mary Lincoln's grief over Willie's death was so devastating that she took to her bed for three weeks, so desolated that she could not attend his funeral or look after Tad. Mary was so distraught for many months that Lincoln had to employ a nurse to look after her.
During her White House years, she often visited hospitals around Washington to give flowers and fruit to wounded soldiers. She took the time to write letters for them to send to their loved ones. From time to time, she accompanied Lincoln on military visits to the field. Responsible for hosting many social functions, she has often been blamed by historians for spending too much money on the White House.

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

As the American Civil War ended, Mrs. Lincoln expected to continue as the First Lady of a nation at peace. President Lincoln awoke the morning of April 14, 1865, in a pleasant mood. Robert E. Lee had surrendered several days before to Ulysses Grant, and now the President was awaiting word from North Carolina on the surrender of Joseph E. Johnston. The morning papers carried the announcement that the President and his wife would be attending the theater that evening. At one point, Mary developed a headache and was inclined to stay home, but Lincoln told her they must attend because newspapers had announced that he would.
Mrs. Lincoln sat with her husband watching the comic play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre, along with their guests Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris. During the third act, Mr. Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln drew closer together, holding hands while enjoying the play. In the last conversation the Lincolns would ever have, Mary whispered to her husband, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" The president smiled and replied, "She won't think anything about it".
At about 10:15 pm, President Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth. Mary was holding Abraham's hand when the shooting occurred. Lincoln, who had immediately lost consciousness, was held up in his rocking chair by a hysterical Mary. As Lincoln was carried out of the box by doctors, Mary composed herself briefly and gave Major Edwin Eliaphron Bedee the president's private papers from his pockets. Mrs. Lincoln accompanied her husband across the street to the Petersen House, where he was taken to a back bedroom and laid crosswise on the bed there, where Lincoln's Cabinet was summoned, except William Seward, who had been seriously attacked by Lewis Powell, just as Booth was about to carry out his assassination at Ford's Theater, several minutes earlier. Their oldest son, Robert, sat with Lincoln throughout the night and to the following morning, Saturday, April 15, 1865. Harris stated, "Poor Mrs. Lincoln, all through that dreadful night would look at me with horror & scream, "Oh! my husband's blood, my dear husband's blood... It was Henry's blood, not the president's, but explanations were pointless." At one point, Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, ordered Mary from the room as she was so unhinged with grief.
President Lincoln remained in a coma for approximately nine hours before he died at 7:22 a.m. at the age of 56. Shortly before 7a.m. Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln's side, and, as Dixon reported, "she again seated herself by the President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name." As he died, his breathing grew quieter, his face more calm. According to some accounts, at his last drawn breath, on the morning after the assassination, he smiled broadly and then expired. Historians, most notably author Lee Davis have emphasized Lincoln's peaceful appearance when and after he died: "It was the first time in four years, probably, that a peaceful expression crossed his face." Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Lincoln Administration, Maunsell Bradhurst Field wrote, "I had never seen upon the President's face an expression more genial and pleasing." The President's secretary, John Hay, said, "A look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".