Lincoln (133 page)

87
with Matilda Edwards:
Those who blamed Matilda Edwards for the rupture seem to have their information from Mary Todd, who was looking for a face-saving reason for Lincoln’s actions. There is no credible evidence that Lincoln was in love with Matilda Edwards; to the contrary, Matilda told Elizabeth Edwards, “On my word he never mentioned such a subject to me: he never even stooped to pay me a compliment.”

87
“felt as always”:
WHH, interview with Mrs. N. W. Edwards, [Jan. 10, 1866], HWC. As Douglas L. Wilson has pointed out (“Abraham Lincoln and ‘That Fatal First of January’ “), it is difficult to construct a correct chronology of these events. I judge that the breaking of the engagement occurred on what Lincoln referred to as “that fatal first of Jany. ’41.” My guess is that Mary did not write her letter immediately but delayed by as much as a week. That would explain why Lincoln was able to go about his business in the legislature during the first week in January but was prostrated with guilt and depression during the second week.

87
might commit suicide:
WHH, interview with James Matheny, May 3, 1866, HWC.

87
“such dangerous things”:
WHH, interview with Joshua F. Speed, [1866], HWC.

87
“serious was apprehended”:
Wilson, “Abraham Lincoln and ‘That Fatal First of January,’ “p. 123.

87
“of my character”: CW,
1:289.

88
“she is otherwise”: CW,
1:282.

88
“on the earth”: CW,
1:228–229.

88
“a Duck fit”:
Wilson, “Abraham Lincoln and ‘That Fatal First of January,’” p. 124 and note.

88
“not loved again”:
Carl Sandburg and Paul M. Angle,
Mary Lincoln: Wife and Widow
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1932), pp. 179–180.

88
“of the law”:
Ibid., p. 180.

89
“for its promises”:
J.F. Speed to WHH, Sept. 17, 1866, HWC.

89
“to the truth”: CW,
1:261.

89
“creatures on board”: CW,
1:260.

89
“heavenly
black eyes”:
CW,
1:266.

89
doctor and patient:
I borrow this image from Wilson, “Abraham Lincoln and ‘That Fatal First of January,’” p. 127.

89
“for a while”: CW,
1:266–269.

89
“on defective nerves”: CW,
1:265.

89
“happiest of men”: CW,
1:270.

90
“of Jany. ’41”: CW,
1:282.

90
“pardon it in me”: CW,
1:303.

90
“Be friends again
”:
Herndon’s Lincoln,
2:227.

90
except Dr. Henry:
See Harry E. Pratt,
Dr. Anson G. Henry: Lincoln’s Physician and Friend
(Harrogate, Tenn.: Lincoln Memorial University, 1944), and Wayne C. Temple,
Dr. Anson G. Henry: Personal Physician to the Lincolns
(Milwaukee: Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin, 1988).

90
“husband and wife”:
WHH, interview with Mrs. N. W. Edwards, [Jan. 10, 1866], HWC.

91
“out of the question”: CW,
1:294–295.

91
“and
so
interesting”: CW,
1:295–296.

91
“Rebecca, the widow”:
Beveridge, 1:343–344.

91
the code duello:.
For a spirited account of the Lincoln-Shields affair, see James E. Myers,
The
Astonishing Saber Duel of Abraham Lincoln
(Springfield, Ill.: Lincoln-Herndon Building Publishers, 1968). The letters exchanged by the principals and their seconds are included in
Herndon’s Lincoln,
2: 243–259.

92
“much of menace”: CW,
1:299.

92
“such
degradation”: Beveridge, 1:345.

92
“of his backbone”: Herndon’s Lincoln,
2:260.

92
“for political effect”:
Ibid., 2:256.

92
“mention it again”:
Turner,
Mary Todd Lincoln,
pp. 296, 299.

93
“eyes and ears”:
WHH, interview with Mrs. N. W. Edwards, [Jan. 10, 1866], HWC.

93
“to the slaughter”:
WHH, interview with James Matheny, May 3, 1866, HWC.

93
“hell, I suppose”: Herndon’s Lincoln,
2:229.

The title of this chapter comes from Joel H. Silbey’s excellent article, “‘Always a Whig in Polities’: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln,”
Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association
8 (1986): 21–42, an interpretation that I have drawn on heavily. A thoughtful chapter in Daniel Walker Howe’s
The Political Culture of the American Whigs
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) places Lincoln in the Whig tradition. Gabor S. Boritt’s magisterial
Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream
(Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1978) is especially valuable on Lincoln’s economic ideas.

On Lincoln’s legal career all the works cited in the previous chapter continue to be valuable, but I have drawn most heavily on John J. Duff, A.
Lincoln: Prairie Lawyer
(New York: Rinehart & Co., 1960). My account of the Lincoln & Herndon partnership repeats, often in the same words, material I included in
Lincoln’s Herndon
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948).

Ruth P. Randall’s
Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage
(Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1953) needs to be balanced with William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik,
Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life
(Chicago: Belford-Clarke Co., 1890). Jean H. Baker,
Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography
(New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1987), is shrewd and insightful. Michael Burlingame,
The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), which presents an exceedingly hostile account of Mary Lincoln, appeared too late for me to consider it in preparing the present biography.

Donald W. Riddle,
Lincoln Runs for Congress
(New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1948) is a thorough account of Lincoln’s quest for office.

94
“of profound wonder”: CW,
1:305.

94
“a presidential chair”: CW,
1:114.

94
“rooms for boarders”:
Baker,
Mary Todd Lincoln,
pp. 99–100; “The Lincolns’ Globe Tavern,” in
The Collected Writings of James T. Hickey
(Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1990), pp. 49–73. It is not clear whether the Lincolns paid $4 a week each or for both.

95
Globe was stingy:
Mrs. David Davis to Mrs. Daniel R. Williams, Feb. 23, 1846, photostat, David Davis MSS, Chicago Historical Society.

95
“say, exactly yet”: CW,
1:319.

95
“does Butler appoint?”: CW,
1:325.

95
“love and tenderness”:
Randall,
Mary Lincoln,
p. 81.

95
“expressed the least”:
Charles B. Strozier,
Lincoln’s Quest for Union
(New York: Basic Books, 1982), p. 78.

96
Todd had purchased:
The case was
Todd
v.
Ware
(1844). The very extensive file on this case in the Lincoln Legal Papers shows what careful attention Lincoln paid to the minute details of his father-in-law’s case.

96
in her hand:
Baker,
Mary Todd Lincoln,
p. 103.

96
home of their own:
On Lincoln’s house, see Wayne C. Temple’s authoritative
By Square and
Compasses: The Building of Lincoln’s Home and Its Saga
(Bloomington, Ill.: Ashlar Press, 1984). Also valuable are several reports prepared for the National Park Service: Floyd Mansberger, “Archaeological Investigations at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Springfield, Illinois” (1987); Vergil E. Noble, “Further Archaeological Investigations at Lincoln National Historic Site, Springfield, Illinois” (1988); and Katherine B. Menz, “Furnishings Plan ...: The Lincoln Home” (1983). I have profited enormously from a private conducted tour of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site that Mr. Norman D. Hellmers, the superintendent, gave me and have learned much from the careful drawings of the house and outbuildings that he kindly provided.

96
“calling, is
diligence”:
CW,
10:19.

97
fees of $10:
Harry E. Pratt, “Lincoln and Bankruptcy Laws,”
Illinois Bar Journal
31 (Jan. 1943): 201–206. The staff of the Lincoln Legal Papers has recently discovered complete transcripts of twelve bankruptcy cases in which Logan and Lincoln appeared. These will make possible a much fuller treatment of Lincoln’s practice in bankruptcy proceedings.
Lincoln Legal Briefs
(October–December 1994), No. 32.

97
seventeen cases: Day by Day,
1:195. For pleadings in these cases, see Rufus Rockwell Wilson, ed.,
Uncollected Works of Abraham Lincoln
(Elmira, N.Y.: Primavera Press, 1948), 2:252–254, 211.

97
Tinsley Building:
Paul M. Angle, “Where Lincoln Practiced Law,”
Lincoln Centennial Association
Papers, 1927
(Springfield, Ill.: Lincoln Centennial Association, 1927), pp. 30–31.

97
“in the wrong”:
WHH, “Lincoln as Lawyer Politician and Statesman,” undated monograph, [1887], HWC

98
“will of Juries”:
“Stephen T. Logan Talks About Lincoln,”
Lincoln Centennial Association Bulletin
12 (Sept. 1, 1928): 3.

98
“fine-tooth combs”:
John J. Duff, “This Was a Lawyer,”
JISHS
52 (Spring 1959): 158.

98
“make a speech”: CW,
10:19.

98
“want to reach”: Herndon’s Lincoln,
2:325.

98
a courtroom litigator:
For thoughtful appraisals of Lincoln as a lawyer, see Charles W. Moores, “Abraham Lincoln: Lawyer,”
Indiana Historical Society Publications 7
(1922): 483–535; Benjamin P. Thomas, “Abe Lincoln, Country Lawyer,”
Atlantic Monthly
193 (Feb. 1954): 57–61; Cullom Davis,
Lincoln the Lawyer
(Springfield, Ill.: Lincoln Legal Papers, 1990); and Cullom Davis, “Abraham Lincoln, Esq.: The Symbiosis of Law and Politics,” unpublished paper (Springfield, Ill., 1992).