Mary Lincoln's presence at Abraham's death-bed

[Eva Elisabeth]

The arguments for having Mary out of the room may be reasonable (especially to all not in Mary’s situation), but to me they seem not human. Many people would have acted the same as Mary did, and I think this is the more natural behaviour than being totally under control. (Mediterranian and Near Eastern cultures even had and still have professional mourners payed for loud, almost hysteric beweeping. This is really bloodcurdling.) Mary had to share her husband with his duties and all the people most of the time, and even in this moment she was banned while others that were much more distant to Lincoln were allowed to stay.
Gene, you say “they wanted to be near Mr Lincoln when the end came”. This is exactly what Mary wanted. I just found a quote that she repeatedly exclaimed: “Oh, why did you not tell me that he was dying?” (NY Herald, April 16,1865).
Reason is one thing, but IMO tolerance of others emotions is sometimes important, too. And it’s always easy to be reasonable if you haven’t experienced the opposite yourself.

I wonder if the others, in case Stanton had not been there, would have banned her, too.

Another question: Who exactly was in the room with Lincoln when he died? AFAIK, Robert, the cabinet members (except of Seward, of course), Sumner, Rev. Gurley, Hay, and Dres. Leale, Taft, Stone and Barnes. Anyone else? And what happened to Rathbone after he had been wounded?