Mary's Reputation

[kerry]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I thought a lot of good points were brought up. One being that first ladies tend to be "headstrong" - reading histories of the first ladies, I was amazed at how strong their personalities were, even ones in more modern eras. Very few of the presidents wanted a perfect trophy wife or a silent partner - they tend to marry tough, capable women. Which, given the difficulties of political life, makes perfect sense, but I don't think it's acknowledged enough that men who become good leaders generally like a wife who asserts herself. Some of them seem to have been quite delighted with their "difficult" women - McKinley and Truman come to mind.

I'm working on a book that involves using newspaper sites to read every single article referencing Mary Lincoln during the war and its aftermath, and it's definitely interesting to see her reputation develop. Most of the corruption stuff was widely reported at the time, but Lincoln had it quietly dealt with or ignored it. He clearly knew a good deal of what was going on since it was everywhere. He kept his mouth shut (the smart thing to do). It's too bad he didn't live to speak a bit more about his experience as President for many reasons - perhaps he may have said some nice things about Mary that would have helped her image a bit. And of course he'd have had many more interesting things to say.