There seems to have been a lot in the news lately about terrible things politicians and people related to them have (supposedly) done. There\u2019s been all sorts of uproars about President Biden\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rumors exist, even today, that Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham, was suspected of bing a Confederate Spy. I\u2019d heard this a few times over the years and never thought much about it, but decided it deserved some of my extensive research \u2014 here\u2019s what I found\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.\u00a0
Being the president\u2019s wife is tough job \u2014 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary loved her husband \u2014 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\u2019s easy to see how these rumors got started \u2014 historians believe Mary sincerely agreed with and supported President Lincoln\u2019s political beliefs and, like him, wanted the nation to become whole again. But one of Mary\u2019s 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 \u2014 including many of Lincoln\u2019s political enemies \u2014started a whisper campaign that maybe Mary wasn\u2019t the Unionist she said she was.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201ccold.\u201d All of this was made worse by Mary\u2019s 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 \u2014 and \u2014 witnessed the assassination of her husband, at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. Mary Todd Lincoln never fully recovered from that incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Lincoln\u2019t death, she returned to Illinois and fell into a deep depression. Her sole surviving son, Robert, committed her to an insane asylum \u2014 she was released three months later, but never forgave him for his betrayal. She died on July 16, 1882, at her sister\u2019s home in Illinois \u2014 she was 63.
Mary Todd Lincoln was a flawed woman that did her best under difficult circumstances. It\u2019s probably unfair, and inaccurate, for her character to be questioned by untrue rumors regarding her patriotism.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There seems to have been a lot in the news lately about terrible things politicians and people related to them have (supposedly) done. There\u2019s been all sorts of uproars about President Biden\u2019s son, Hillary Clinton, various senators and governors, etc. … Continue reading