Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[David Lockmiller]

(06-17-2014 05:51 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(06-16-2014 07:18 PM)Hess1865 Wrote:  Mrs Grant and MTL did not get along at all-but we knew that.
Plus the General was the ultimate 'family man', and loved to spend as much time with them as he could. His love for Julia was beyond good, it was great.
So those are really the only reasons the Grants didn't go to the theater that night.
Plus I'm sure Julia wanted to get away from MTL ASAP!

Mr. Hess, I have also read a similar version as to why the Stantons turned down the Lincolns' invitation. Some books skip over Stanton and go right to the invitation of Thomas Eckert. But other books say that the Stantons had turned down the chance to go to the theater that evening with the Lincolns. I've read two possible reasons for this. One is that Stanton felt Lincoln shouldn't be going to the theater because it was too dangerous. The other is Ellen Stanton, like Julia Grant, did not like Mary Lincoln, and this was the actual reason for the Stantons' refusal to go that night.

Let's make a list of "the people that did not like Mary Lincoln."

1. Julia Grant
2. Ellen Stanton
3. Willian Herndon - Lincoln's law partner of many years and the person that Lincoln told upon leaving Springfield for the White House to not change the law firm nameplate just and that he would return someday to continue the law partnership
4. Judge David Davis - the man who as judge on the Eighth Circuit Court was the principal cause that Lincoln blossomed as a lawyer (in my opinion), the man who led the Republican campaign for nomination of Lincoln in Chicago as the party's Presidential candidate in 1860, and the man Lincoln chose to become an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. Professor David Donald Herbert stated in his book Lincoln that Judge Davis "detested" Mary Todd Lincoln.
5. John Hay - President Lincoln's personal secretary in the White House
6. John Nicolay - President Lincoln's personal secretary in the White House
7. Maid-servants hired by Mrs. Lincoln in Springfield (virtually all of them)
8. William S. Wood - railroad trip planner for the Lincoln's trip from Springfield to Washington DC in 1861. Although at one time Mary Todd Lincoln and William S. Wood appeared to be good friends (if not more), the two had a "falling out."

I am sure that there must be others that should be added to the list of "the people that did not like Mary Lincoln," but those are the ones that I can immediately recall at this time. If anyone wants to suggest other contemporary persons to be added to my list, please do so. But, be ready to provide documentary support for any suggested additions to my list.