In Mary's personal letters....

[LincolnToddFan]

I have the wonderful Linda Leavitt-Turner compilation of MTL's letters...about 600 in all. She was an amazingly complex woman. She was smart, shrewd, funny, passionate and opinionated...as well as incredibly selfish and self-deluded at times. I understand why she made so many enemies in her day.

Her letters are fascinating because in the midst of all the narcissism contained in them, there is an occasional glimpse of awareness that is heartbreaking. For example in a letter to her friend Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts written only weeks after the assassination, she confides her sorrowful regret that she never got to say good-bye to AL and that she never had the opportunity to beg his forgiveness for any unhappiness she had caused him. That to me, was very revealing and poignant.

Another thing that struck me was that never, not even once, did she ever question Lincoln's love for her, his devotion to her. Not even when Herndon began his Ann Rutledge tour. The love and devotion between them is an absolute conviction, every time she writes about him and their marriage. At one time she lets slip to a friend that AL once told her that she was his "weakness". Considering everything we know about the dynamics of that relationship, I suspect that there is some truth to that remark.

It would explain so much about why he put up with her for so long, in my opinion.