Part 5 (1/2)

Q. What is the chief end of man?A. The chief end of man is to glorify G.o.d and enjoy Him forever.

In 1832, at age fourteen, Mary entered Madame Mentelle's Boarding School. As a rule, Mary would have ended her education after her five years at Dr. Ward's, as only a few thousand girls in America received more than four years of education. Augustus and Charlotte Mentelle, the aristocratic directors of the school, had fled France in 1792 during the French Revolution. Mary received a fine cla.s.sical education, including French, which set her apart from many of the women she would come to know as an adult.

That year Mary's family moved into a new and even more impressive home on Main Street, with fourteen rooms, both a single and a double parlor, six bedrooms, and formal gardens. The Todds valued both education and fine living.

When Henry Clay visited Lexington in the summer of 1832 while campaigning for the presidency, Mary had already developed a remarkable knowledge of politics. Four years before, at age ten, she had refused on principle to attend a Lexington event honoring presidential candidate Andrew Jackson and had argued with a pro-Jackson neighbor. Now a pa.s.sionate Whig, she spoke up at a dinner honoring Clay to promise him her support. She quickly added, in everyone's hearing, that she, too, expected to live in Was.h.i.+ngton some day.

While growing up in Lexington, Mary encountered slavery everywhere. The production of hemp on the bluegra.s.s plantations in the surrounding countryside depended on slave labor. White families used slaves for work inside and outside their homes. By the time Mary was twelve, her father had one slave for every member of his family. The female slaves cooked the meals, washed and sewed the clothes, and looked after the children. The male slaves did everything outside the house, including taking care of the horses.

Lexington was a major slave market. Traders drove groups of slaves-men, women, and children-right past Mary's home on their way to the Deep South. She saw the slaves, young and old, shackled together two by two. As Mary walked to and from school, she frequently observed the slave auctions held at Cheapside, Lexington's public meeting place adjacent to the Fayette County Courthouse on the town square. On another corner of the square stood the black locust whipping post, erected in 1826. As a slave master whipped a slave, a cry would pierce the air of this self-proclaimed civilized town.

BY THE TIME MARY was eighteen, she was considered by her friends, female and male, a pretty young woman. Five feet two inches tall, with soft brown hair, she had a broad forehead, a small upturned nose, blue eyes, and a rosy complexion. Mary exhibited a strong-minded determination to get her way, and the inner circle of her family knew ”her temper and tongue.” A prominent chin gave the impression of a resolute personality. Her hands darted impulsively in gestures as she spoke. was eighteen, she was considered by her friends, female and male, a pretty young woman. Five feet two inches tall, with soft brown hair, she had a broad forehead, a small upturned nose, blue eyes, and a rosy complexion. Mary exhibited a strong-minded determination to get her way, and the inner circle of her family knew ”her temper and tongue.” A prominent chin gave the impression of a resolute personality. Her hands darted impulsively in gestures as she spoke.

In the spring of 1837, Mary decided to follow a Todd family pattern and visit Springfield, Illinois. Mary's older sister Elizabeth had married Ninian Edwards, son of the governor of Illinois, and moved with him to Springfield. After the death of their mother, Elizabeth had been as much a mother as a sister to Mary. Their sister Frances also lived in Springfield, as did an uncle, Dr. John Todd, and three cousins, John Todd Stuart, Lincoln's law partner; Stephen T. Logan, his future law partner; and John J. Hardin. The Todds and the Stuarts-Kentuckians, Scottish, and Presbyterian-were forming a veritable clan in Springfield.

In early May, Mary boarded the train for Frankfort, Kentucky, to begin a journey by train, boat, and stagecoach to Springfield. If all connections were made, it would take her two weeks to arrive at Elizabeth and Ninian Edwards's impressive new home on Second Street in the southern part of the city. She may have learned from John Todd Stuart that he had invited a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln to join him as a partner, but it is doubtful she met Lincoln on this visit. She returned to Lexington in the fall of 1837; they would not meet for another two years.

In the summer of 1839, Mary returned to Springfield, intent on staying this time for more than a visit. She quickly became part of a clique of young women and men calling themselves ”the Coterie” who often gathered at the Edwardses' two-story brick home at the top of ”Aristocracy Hill.” James C. Conkling, a lawyer who had moved to Springfield in 1838 and a member of the Coterie, described Mary as ”the very creature of excitement,” and said she ”never enjoys herself more than when in society and surrounded by a company of merry friends.” When one day Mary mimicked the mannerisms of some of her suitors, Ninian Edwards exclaimed, ”Mary could make a bishop forget his prayers.”

Some of the most marriageable young men in Springfield attended Coterie gatherings, including Stephen A. Douglas; Edward D. Baker; Lyman Trumbull, a slender, good-looking lawyer from Belleville; and James s.h.i.+elds, a native of Ireland, who became auditor of the state of Illinois in 1839. A new invitee was Abraham Lincoln.

Next door to Mary's sister lived attorney Lawrason Levering. His sister, Mercy Levering, a visitor from Baltimore, quickly became Mary's dearest friend in Springfield. For many years Mary and Mercy exchanged long letters. Letter writing was an opportunity for women to share intimate feelings they could not express in public, even in conversation between friends. Mary's correspondence reveals a young woman of intellectual depth and emotional intensity capable of communicating her thoughts and feelings in lucid prose. She wrote in small, slanted script, filling up every sheet right to the borders of the page, her writing style a metaphor for the way she wanted to extend her life right up to and sometimes beyond the prescribed female sphere of her day.

Ninian and Elizabeth Edwards hosted the Coterie at their home on Aristocracy Hill Elizabeth never liked Lincoln, believing him to be beneath Mary's social station.

Mary attracted many suitors-old and young, short and tall. A lawyer and legislator named Edwin Webb became very interested, but Mary told Mercy he was ”a widower of modest merit,” besides ”there being a slight difference of some eighteen or twenty summers in our years.” Stephen Douglas had moved from Jacksonville to Springfield in 1837 after his appointment as register of the Land Office. He and Mary were seen frequently about town together, and rumors circulated about their relations.h.i.+p. Was it friends.h.i.+p or romance?

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND Mary Todd probably first became aware of each other in the summer of 1839. They pushed the old axiom ”opposites attract” to its limits. Mary described herself a ”ruddy Mary Todd probably first became aware of each other in the summer of 1839. They pushed the old axiom ”opposites attract” to its limits. Mary described herself a ”ruddy pineknot, pineknot, ” but in truth she was pretty and perky. Mary's sister Frances described Lincoln as ”the plainest man” in Springfield. Mary was well educated, whereas Abraham had received the barest of formal schooling. ” but in truth she was pretty and perky. Mary's sister Frances described Lincoln as ”the plainest man” in Springfield. Mary was well educated, whereas Abraham had received the barest of formal schooling.

The differences between Abraham and Mary's social standing were exhibited for all to see on the dance floor. James Conkling, Mercy's beau, wrote her that when Lincoln danced he gave the impression of being ”old Father Jupiter bending down from the clouds to see what's going on.” Lincoln disliked dancing, but perhaps he could not resist asking this good-looking, witty young woman. ”Miss Todd, I want to dance with you in the worst way,” he said.

Later, Mary, with a mischievous smile, recounted the dance to her cousin Elizabeth, saying, ”And he certainly did.”

There were other, deeper differences, yet to be discovered in this oddly matched couple. But in many ways, they were alike. Both prized education and had worked hard to achieve it. In Mary, Lincoln recognized a soul mate in intellectual curiosity and learning.

Lincoln's courts.h.i.+p of Mary was a romance of the mind as well as the heart. Their mutual enjoyment of ideas and politics put Abraham at ease. They both loved poetry, especially that of Robert Burns, and enjoyed reading aloud to each other. Lincoln, who often led in conversations with men, found himself listening to Mary. Elizabeth Edwards happened upon them once when they were together and observed, ”Mary led the conversation-Lincoln would listen and gaze on her as if drawn by some superior power.”

Abraham and Mary also shared a pa.s.sion for politics. The daughter of a leading Whig in Kentucky, she attended speeches for Whig presidential candidate Harrison in 1840 and often discussed politics with her friends. She wrote to Mercy, ”This fall I became quite a politician, a politician, rather an unladylike profession.” rather an unladylike profession.”

But in the midst of delight there arose doubt. Unlike his political self-confidence, Lincoln's confidence that he could succeed in marriage was always on shaky ground. He doubted himself as much or more than Mary. His experience with Mary Owens was still fresh in his mind. At age thirty-one, a part-time politician at the beginning of a career in law, he joined many young men of his time who wondered whether they could support a wife. Remembering the embarra.s.sing attachment of his horse and surveying instruments in New Salem, not to mention his ”National Debt” from his failed store he was still paying off, Lincoln had many questions on his mind as his courts.h.i.+p of Mary advanced.

There was also the matter of the opposition of members of Mary's family. Older sister Elizabeth expressed her resistance to the relations.h.i.+p. She thought that Lincoln, who came to her elegant home in his Conestoga boots, was beneath Mary in every way. ”I warned Mary that she and Mr. Lincoln were not suitable. Mr. Edwards and myself believed they were different in nature, and education and raising.” She concluded, ”They were so different that they could not live happily as man and wife.”

Abraham and Mary courted in a s.e.xually segregated Victorian society. Various marriage manuals counseled lovers to ”test” each other. Women were encouraged to throw ”large and small obstacles in the path of the courting male to measure the depth and intensity of his romantic love.” Mary, whether or not she was following the advice of a manual, was very adept at this kind of testing.

A nineteenth-century Dictionary of Love Dictionary of Love stated that doubt was ”a great sharpener and intensifier of the tender pa.s.sions.” Lincoln could have been a case study for the stated that doubt was ”a great sharpener and intensifier of the tender pa.s.sions.” Lincoln could have been a case study for the Dictionary of Love, Dictionary of Love, first with his doubts about his love for Mary Owens, and now his doubts about himself in his developing relations.h.i.+p with Mary Todd. first with his doubts about his love for Mary Owens, and now his doubts about himself in his developing relations.h.i.+p with Mary Todd.

At some point in 1840, Abraham and Mary's relations.h.i.+p advanced from friends.h.i.+p to courting to an agreement that they might marry. This was not an engagement in the modern sense. He gave her no ring. They told no one of their decision. Rather, they had entered into an ”understanding.” Mary described this change as having ”lovers' eyes.”

By the end of that year, however, their relations.h.i.+p suddenly fell apart. It is not clear when or why the break occurred. It may have come on New Year's Day, 1841, but it might also have occurred earlier, during the month of December 1840.

There may have been another woman. Matilda Edwards, daughter of Whig politician Cyrus Edwards and cousin of Mary's brother-in-law Ninian Edwards, arrived at the Edwards home that fall. No one, male or female, could fail to notice the beautiful sixteen-year-old. Mary described her to Mercy Levering as ”a most interesting young lady,” who has ”drawn a concourse of beaux & company around us.”

Some contemporaries suggested that Lincoln may have been drawn by the ”fascinations” of young Matilda. He certainly may have looked, and Mary may have seen him look, but he also knew he was nearly twice Matilda's age.

Friends differed on who ended the relations.h.i.+p. Conkling thought that Mary broke their understanding; Joshua Speed believed that Lincoln did. Speed said his best friend ”went to see 'Mary'-told her that he did not love her.” He further believed that ”Lincoln did Love Miss Edwards” and ”Mary Saw it.” Lincoln, acting honorably, told Mary of ”the reason of his Change of mind” and she, in turn, ”released him.” The conversation over, according to Speed, Lincoln ”drew her down on his Knee-Kissed her-& parted.”

JAMES CONKLING WROTE TO MERCY LEVERING, ”Poor L! how are the mighty fallen!” Lincoln had not simply fallen; he was overwhelmed. On January 2, 1841, the clerk of the state legislature called the roll four times, but Lincoln did not answer ”Present.” On Monday, January 4, Lincoln missed eight votes. On Tuesday, January 5, he did not answer to three afternoon roll calls. Lincoln was always regular in attendance, but his breakup with Mary had plunged him into such despair that he failed to show up to work.

Lincoln's melancholy became the talk of Springfield. Conkling told Mercy that when Lincoln finally returned to the legislature he was ”emaciated in appearance and seems scarcely to possess strength enough to speak above a whisper.” Joshua Speed removed Lincoln's razor for fear of what his friend might do.

Lincoln sent a letter to Mary's cousin, his former law partner John Todd Stuart, on January 23, 1842. ”I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth.” Lincoln was pessimistic about his future. ”Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.”

Nearly fifteen months later, Lincoln wrote to Speed and referred to ”the fatal first of Jany.'41.” What did he mean? It has long been a.s.sumed that Lincoln was referring to the breaking of his understanding with Mary. Read in the context of a series of letters with Speed, however, in which Speed was struggling with his own engagement and prospective marriage, the reference could also refer to the pain in Speed's life.

Mary also suffered, and her feelings for Lincoln had not diminished with absence and time. Nearly six months after the breakup, she wrote to Mercy, ”[Lincoln] deems me unworthy of notice, as I have not met him in the gay world for months, with the usual comfort of misery, imagine that others were as seldom gladdened by his presence as my humble self, yet I would the case were different, that 'Richard' should be himself again, much happiness would it afford me.”

When Mary placed quotation marks around ”Richard” she was referring to Shakespeare's Richard II. Mary would have been an unusual young woman to be familiar with Shakespeare. At first it seems an odd allusion. Richard II had ascended the English throne as a young man in 1377, but quickly proved to be unwise in his choice of counselors and reckless in his spending of money. Mary may have been expressing her concern about Abraham's mental well-being, and yet her confidence that, despite his humble beginnings, there was royalty in Lincoln's future.

SOMETIME IN 1842, more than a year after the split, Eliza Francis, wife of newspaper editor Simeon Francis, took matters into her own hands. She invited Abraham and Mary to her home, each not knowing the other was coming. Sitting in her parlor, Mrs. Francis urged Abraham and Mary to be friends again. It took a third person to get them to deal with the hurt and pain, and move toward forgiveness and reconciliation. Abraham and Mary began meeting clandestinely at the Francises' home and at the home of Lincoln's physician and Whig friend, Dr. Anson Henry.

That fall, when Lincoln and Mary were partic.i.p.ating in the biennial campaigning for state offices, Lincoln gave her an unusual gift. He tied up with a pink ribbon a list of the returns from the last three legislative elections in which he had been one of the winning candidates. Whether Mary found this romantic, we do not know.

One of the most bizarre episodes in Lincoln's life, which brought him face-to-face with the possibility of death, took place just as he and Mary were resuming their relations.h.i.+p. Early in 1842, the State Bank of Illinois had been forced to close. In August, the governor, treasurer, and auditor ordered county tax collectors not to accept the state's own paper notes for payment of taxes and school debts. Only gold and silver would be accepted. Citizens, however, had almost no gold or silver.

The problem escalated when state auditor James s.h.i.+elds issued an order advising state officers how to restore a sound currency. By this time, opposition to the state plan had begun to escalate. s.h.i.+elds, a young Irish immigrant and a rising Democratic politician, became the focus for a vigorous response by Illinois Whigs.

Lincoln, a staunch defender of the state bank, saw an opportunity to harvest some political hay in the upcoming 1842 election for state legislature and governor. Where best to attack the Democrats but in Lincoln's favorite vehicle-the newspaper?

The Sangamo Journal Sangamo Journal had recently printed a satirical letter to the editor from ”Rebecca,” a country woman who lived in ”Lost Towns.h.i.+ps.” This letter, in its homely dialogue, enunciated important Whig ideas. Lincoln contacted editor Simeon Francis suggesting he write a follow-up letter. Lincoln a.s.sumed the persona of ”Rebecca” and sharpened his writing sword to attack s.h.i.+elds and the Democratic Party's policies. Lincoln showed his letter to Mary, and she and her friend Julia Jayne helped revise its humor and satire. had recently printed a satirical letter to the editor from ”Rebecca,” a country woman who lived in ”Lost Towns.h.i.+ps.” This letter, in its homely dialogue, enunciated important Whig ideas. Lincoln contacted editor Simeon Francis suggesting he write a follow-up letter. Lincoln a.s.sumed the persona of ”Rebecca” and sharpened his writing sword to attack s.h.i.+elds and the Democratic Party's policies. Lincoln showed his letter to Mary, and she and her friend Julia Jayne helped revise its humor and satire.

Published on September 2, 1842, ”Rebecca's” letter singled out s.h.i.+elds for ridicule because of his role in the currency dilemma. She minced no words: ”s.h.i.+elds is a fool as well as a liar.”

Lincoln described s.h.i.+elds at a party in Springfield. ”If I was deaf and blind I could tell him by the smell.” Placing s.h.i.+elds in the middle of a group of women, the usually gallant Lincoln auth.o.r.ed a particularly coa.r.s.e description: ”All the galls about town were there, and all the handsome widows, and married women, finickin about, trying to look like galls, tied as tight in the middle, and puffed out at both ends like bundles of fodder that hadn't been stacked yet, wanted stackin pretty bad.”

Silver, the reason for Lincoln's political invective, was now used against s.h.i.+elds with irony. ”He was paying his money to this one and that one, and tother one, and sufferin great loss because it wasn' silver instead of State paper.” Finally, Lincoln put words in s.h.i.+elds' mouth: ”Dear girls, it is distressing, it is distressing, but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know how much you suffer, but do, do but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know how much you suffer, but do, do remember, remember, it is not my fault that I am it is not my fault that I am so so handsome and handsome and so so interesting.” interesting.”

Mary and Julia, caught up in Lincoln's escapade, decided to expand the fun by writing a third Rebecca letter, published in the Sangamo Journal Sangamo Journal on September 16, 1842. on September 16, 1842.

s.h.i.+elds, known for his violent temper, became enraged. He demanded the name of the person who had heaped such scorn upon him. Francis told him it was Lincoln. Lincoln may have allowed Francis to reveal his name, perhaps to protect the names of the two young women. s.h.i.+elds's pride was hurt, but more important, Lincoln had threatened his aspiring political career.

s.h.i.+elds fought back. He confronted Lincoln in Tremont at the Tazewell County Courthouse. He intended to get a retraction from Lincoln. Or else. s.h.i.+elds challenged Lincoln to a duel. The state auditor, who had fought in the Black Hawk War, enjoyed a reputation as an outstanding marksman with pistols.

Dueling had become a recurring feature of American life in the early nineteenth century. The nation had been stunned when Alexander Hamilton died in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804, but the shock arose from the death of one of America's most talented leaders, not because of a duel. The first American duel took place in 1621 in the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay Colony. People of all walks of life partic.i.p.ated in duels, even as many states pa.s.sed anti-dueling laws. Dueling, according to the Illinois criminal statute of 1839, was a penitentiary offense, punishable by five years in prison.

As the person challenged, Lincoln had the prerogative to select the weapons. Aware of s.h.i.+elds's skills with firearms, Lincoln chose long cavalry broadswords instead of guns. Six feet four inches tall, Lincoln knew what a tremendous advantage his height and reach gave him over s.h.i.+elds, who was five feet nine inches.