Lincoln Letter to John Stuart

[Liz Rosenthal]

I don't mean to be a Negative Nelly, but I was disappointed with Shenk's book. I don't think it told students of Lincoln anything they did not already know; at the same time, I think he overstated Lincoln's "melancholy." Certainly, Lincoln had those two very well-documented bad episodes, in '35 and '41, but in both cases there is no reason to believe that he didn't successfully get over them. However, Shenk argues that Lincoln was *always* depressed, and just developed techniques to function despite the depression.

The idea that Lincoln could have worked through what would have amounted to clinical depression sounds great, but as someone with clinical depression in my own family, it has always appeared to me that this sort of affliction - left untreated - saps energy and self-esteem and prevents people from functioning well in society or reaching their potential. Lincoln lived at a time when there was no treatment for depression, yet he was at least as high an achiever, with limitless stores of energy, as any great individual of history.

It's true that many people claimed, when they looked at Lincoln's face in repose, that he appeared miserable, but I really believe that they were mistaking introspection for despair. Let's not forget Herndon's observation of his law partner's capacity for deep thought.

That anyone else in Lincoln's place as president during the terrible Civil War wouldn't have suffered periods of profound sadness is unlikely - if such a hypothetical substitute president had any feelings at all.

And I find it interesting that, after Lincoln's bad spell in '41, he was not known to have suffered any other acute bouts of misery. Perhaps what he needed was a loving, devoted spouse... and he had that, before very long.