Wayne Temple thesis on why the Lincolns got married quick.

[Mike B.]

This is something that is not important to whether Lincoln was a great man, (he was) but I am curious to what people think.

Wayne Temple laid out the idea that the Lincolns married so suddenly in 1842, because Mary was pregnant in "From Skeptic to Prophet" a wonderful book on Lincoln's religion.

Burlingame accepts this thesis and there is some circumstantial evidence. Robert's birth was very close to the normal gestation period of a baby conceived in late October. In "Lincoln Day by Day," Lincoln was in Springfield in the last few days of October. (I know there is wide variance on gestiation time though). Mary's sister Elizabeth was quite mad at the lack of warning of the wedding.

Is it possible that the Lincolns while planning to get married soon, paniced at the idea Mary may have been ovulating and married suddenly November 4th 1842?

Such things can never be proved, but it would explain some of the things Lincoln did around the time.

Now I totally reject the notion that Mary was trying to "trap" Lincoln. It takes to to tango as they say. Lincoln would have rejected such a notion. And Lincoln himself once wrote a bit of doggeral making fun of men who sleep with a lot of women and then call women who do anything similar names.