Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[LincolnToddFan]

Hi Eva E.,

As requested I read all three entries. Having read Jean Baker's biography of Mary I already knew about her opinion that there might have been "something more" to MTL's relationship with Wood than friendship. I think she is basing this on the fact that they became friends early in the AL Administration and Wood received an appointment to some post by recommendation of Mary. He went with her to New York to buy furniture and objets d'art for the WH several times and they became quite good friends. Someone sent AL a letter hinting at hanky panky between Wood and MTL and warning him that Wood would "stab you in your most private part". AL fired Wood. I am foggy on the details but some gossip was that MTL had been seen going to Wood's hotel by carriage, alone at night. Anyway Mary-for reasons I am not sure of-turned against Wood later. In her compilation of letters she calls him crazy and a drunk and speaks of him with utter contempt. If he had "the goods" on her why did he not go public with them as soon as she dropped him and started trashing him all over town?

I agree with Joan Chaconas. Wood was a slippery customer. MTL was a vain, insecure woman who was flirtatious and extremely susceptible to the kind of flattery of men like WW. She had the most poor judgment, and AL knew that his wife's vanity and other character flaws made her vulnerable to blackmail. If Wood had been her lover, she would have been VERY vulnerable indeed. So knowing this, why turn against him and allow AL to sack him? If she had had an affair with him that would have been motivation to keep him around, pay him off....anything other than fire him and spread the word that he was an insane boozehound. After a day or two of tension over the Wood letter things were back to normal between AL and MTL. AL's anger over the letter seemed to stem from the fact that his wife was putting herself and by extension HIM in the position of possibly being blackmailed, not because he believed she'd had an affair.

For all Mary's coquetry, she was at heart a religious woman, a Victorian, and a Southern belle. I of course don't know for sure, but I think there are lines she simply would not have crossed. An affair with some low level grifter while married to the President of the U.S. is one of them.