Lincoln & Herndon

[RJNorton]

In The Hidden Lincoln there are some comments by Herndon regarding the Lincoln children and Mary and Abraham. Here are a couple of stories told to Weik by Herndon. Why does Mary seem to get 100% of the blame and Abraham 0%?

"Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln never lived a harmonious life, and when she wanted to go to church or to some gathering, she would go at all events and leave Lincoln to take care of the babies. Mrs. Lincoln couldn't keep a hired girl because she was tyrannical to her and Lincoln perforce was compelled to look after the children. Of a Sunday, Lincoln might be seen, if in summer in his shirtsleeves, hauling his babies in a little wagon up and down the pavement north and south on Eighth Street. Sometimes Lincoln would become so abstracted that the young one would fall out and squall, Lincoln moving on the while.

Someone would call Lincoln's attention to what was going on; he would turn back, pick up the child, soothe it, pacify it, etc., and then proceed up and down the pavement as before. So abstracted was he that he did not know what or how he was doing and I suppose cared less. If the little one fell out and Lincoln was told of it, he would say: "This puts me in mind of a story that I heard down in New Salem," and then Lincoln would tell his story and tell it well. The man and Lincoln would sit down on the curbstone of the pavement and finish the forenoon in stories, and when Mr. Lincoln saw Mrs. Lincoln coming from church she screaming because Lincoln had the child out of doors in the fresh air he ran into his room and gently took what followed you know, a hell of scolding. Poor Abe, I can see him now running and crouching.

It happened that sometimes Lincoln would come down to our office of a Sunday with one or two of his little children, hauling them in the same little wagon, and in our office, then and there, write declarations, pleas, and other legal papers. The children spoilt ones to be sure would tear up the office, scatter the books, smash up pens, spill the ink, and p s all over the floor. I have felt many and many a time that I wanted to wring their little necks, and yet out of respect for Lincoln I kept my mouth shut. Lincoln did not note what his children were doing or had done. When Lincoln finished his business, he would haul his children back home and meet the same old scolding or a new and intensified one. He bore all quite philosophically. Jesus, what a home Lincoln's was! What a wife!"