Did Lincoln Regret Marrying Mary?

[Eva Elisabeth]

(12-13-2013 06:56 PM)Mike B. Wrote:  Strongly disagree on this point.
Lincoln became President because of georgraphy, availability, the failure of the Seward team, his awesome political skills and judgement, the contacts he made on the circut that ran his campaign. To say that Mary "made" Lincoln President is really unhistorical. It is hard to point to any evidence this is true."

It was a contemporary who said this. Can a statement by a contemporary be considered unhistorical? It is what Albert S. Edwards surely told from his very personal point of view, but still witnessed as a contemporate. Also, the statement wasn't "Mary made Lincoln President" but "she had more to do with making Mr. Lincoln President than many people think". This is absolutely not identical! I agree on all the factors you listed having their share in A. Lincoln's election. But Mary also backed him and wasn't passive, I think she pushed him additionally (especially emotionally) to his personal striving. This strong private support was another share in his success, I think, since he was not by many expected turning out to be the winner. And IMO he acknowledged this when after getting the news of being elected he ran home allegedly* shouting:"Mary, Mary, WE are elected!"

Hasn't the proverb "Behind every great man there's a great woman" often proven to contain a grain of truth? Even if it's just the private and emotional support she provided?

*I would love to know who reported this quote first(-hand). It's in Jean Baker's M.L.-biography, and she refers to p.46 in W. Steven's "A reporter's Lincoln", but I can't find it on that page nor anywhere else in that book. Does anyone know?

---

(12-13-2013 06:56 PM)Mike B. Wrote:  Need to disagree with this point. Mary was getting older (for the time). Lincoln was a rising man, Whig floor leader and soon Congressman. She did not pick a dud. Heck, he even became President.
One other point. The Todd sisters moved to Springfield to marry. Elizabeth who was considered the most attractive, she was the oldest sister who married an Edwards one of the first families of the state. Francis married a doctor, and Ann (who Mary hated, but looked like her physically) married a merchant.

It bears out saying that Mary made the best choice. Both Elizabeth's and Francis's husbands hit Lincoln up for jobs when he was President because they needed the money. Ironically, the one I think that helped Lincoln the most was Ann's husband who Lincoln wrote his First Inaugeral Address in his office.

Was this foreseeable at the time Mary married him? Or even after his single term in Congress when he mainly practised law for a long time?
The point of the argument above was what Mary gave up at the time she decided for marrying A. Lincoln. Could she have expected he could ever offer her the standard of life she had been used to? And if - when? There were much more prosperous candidates, like Stephen Douglass, who courted Mary.
Mary might have believed in A. Lincolns qualities and future, but she got at that time not much support for her decision from her family, just the opposite.

Yes, very, very much later, they came and begged.