Lincoln Letter to John Stuart

[Craig Hipkins]

Ladies and Gents,

Some of you have probably already read the book Lincoln's Melancholy by Joshua Wolf Shenk. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it. I have kept it on my desk, and have been reading certain parts of it again. The book gives excellent insight into Lincoln's state of mind before and during his Presidency.

One of the things that Shenk mentions in the book is a letter that Lincoln wrote to his law partner John Stuart in January of 1841. This was shortly after his supposed break-up with Mary Todd. He writes:

I am now the most miserable man living. If what I felt were distributed to the whole human family there would not be one happy face on the earth. I must die or be better it appears to me. I awfully forbode I shall not. The matter you speak of on my account you may attend to as you see fit, as I fear I shall be unable to attend to business. If I could be myself, I would rather stay here with Judge Logan. I can write no more.

Although I am no doctor, and not really qualified to give a diagnosis for what Shenk calls "Lincoln's Melancholy", I believe that Lincoln might have had suicidal thoughts. The fact that he did not kill himself, but went on with life and persevered leads me to conclude that these suicidal thoughts might have been a sort of "fantasy." He might have asked himself the question "what if I were to kill myself?" The fact that he says "I must die or be better it appears to me" leads me to this conclusion. Why would he mention the word "die?" Curious to hear what others have to say about this.

Craig