There seems to have been a lot in the news lately about terrible things politicians and people related to them have (supposedly) done. There’s been all sorts of uproars about President Biden’s son, Hillary Clinton, various senators and governors, etc. But I guess these things have been going on about as long as our country has existed.
Rumors exist, even today, that Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham, was suspected of bing a Confederate Spy. I’d heard this a few times over the years and never thought much about it, but decided it deserved some of my extensive research — here’s what I found…
Abraham Lincoln is usually regarded as savior of the United States, but his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln is remembered as a shrew and ranked by historians as the worst First Lady in American history.
Being the president’s wife is tough job — the hours are long and the demands are exhausting. Most first ladies manage to get through it ok, but for Mary Todd Lincoln, it was an agonizing experience. She was subject of relentless criticism, suffered borderline mental illness, and numerous personal tragedies.
Mary loved her husband — she married him despite the disapproval of her family and social peers. She admired Lincoln as a good, honest, talented man and was excited that he won the presidency in 1860. But because Mary was a native of Kentucky, that meant that she was a Southerner by birth, and rumors swirled throughout the Civil War that the first lady was, in fact, a Confederate Spy.
It’s easy to see how these rumors got started — historians believe Mary sincerely agreed with and supported President Lincoln’s political beliefs and, like him, wanted the nation to become whole again. But one of Mary’s brothers, three half-brothers, and three brothers-in-law all served in the Confederate army during the Civil War. Because of that, people wondered if she could truly support the Union, so not surprisingly, some people — including many of Lincoln’s political enemies —started a whisper campaign that maybe Mary wasn’t the Unionist she said she was.
The whispered rumor that Mary Todd Lincoln was a Confederate spy was just one of many things that made her time in the White House miserable. The Belles of Washington Society considered her silly and uncouth and took every opportunity to criticize her. For example, when she hosted a large party in the White House as the war raged, she was condemned for her extravagance, and because two of her sons were sick at the time, she was castigated as being unmotherly and “cold.” All of this was made worse by Mary’s many emotional and physical issues. She suffered from excruciating headaches and she also experienced violent mood swings. These mood swings caused more than one White House aide to describe her as unpredictable and difficult to get along with.
On top of all that, she lost three of her four sons to various ailments — and — witnessed the assassination of her husband, at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. Mary Todd Lincoln never fully recovered from that incident.
After Lincoln’t death, she returned to Illinois and fell into a deep depression. Her sole surviving son, Robert, committed her to an insane asylum — she was released three months later, but never forgave him for his betrayal. She died on July 16, 1882, at her sister’s home in Illinois — she was 63.
Mary Todd Lincoln was a flawed woman that did her best under difficult circumstances. It’s probably unfair, and inaccurate, for her character to be questioned by untrue rumors regarding her patriotism.
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