Madness of Mary Lincoln

[Susan Higginbotham]

Swett did allow Mary to go to a closet in her room and change clothes (he was afraid she might jump out a window if he left the room), and he advised her that if she did not come with him voluntarily, he might have to turn her over to police, who might handcuff her. I think he was trying to handle the matter as delicately as he could under the very difficult circumstances. Elizabeth Grimsley Brown wrote to Robert Lincoln that she did not believe that he, John Todd Stuart, or Elizabeth herself could have persuaded Mary voluntarily to go before a jury, and I think she was right in that assessment.