Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[David Lockmiller]

(06-24-2014 04:33 PM)Lewis Gannett Wrote:  [T]he more credible of the New Salem informants (e.g., Elizabeth Abell) professed no personal knowledge of AL-AR romance, and those who did claim knowledge were suspect, some of them--William "Slick Willy" Greene, for example--highly suspect. By the way, Hannah Armstrong had nothing at all to say about Rutledge romance. (Michael Burlingame's claim to the contrary is based on a weirdly flimsy newspaper quote from a daughter of Hannah's published in I think 1930. This is what you call desperate evidence.)

This is getting stranger and stranger.

Mr. Gannett makes the claim above that Elizabeth Abell "professed no personal knowledge of the AL-AR romance."

Yet, Professor David Herbert Donald states in his Pulitzer Prize winning book Lincoln at page 57: "[Lincoln] told Mrs. Bennett Abell, with whom he was staying, 'that he could not bare [sic] the idea of its raining on her grave.'" If Mrs. Abell "professed no personal knowledge of the AL-AR romance," then Mrs. Abell must have been absolutely stupefied as to why Lincoln became so upset at the thought of the rain falling on her grave.

And, Professor Burlingame in his book Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Vol. One, page 100 wrote: "Elizabeth Abell, who witnessed the depth of Lincoln's grief, recalled that 'he was staying with us at the time of her death,' which was a great shock to him and I never seen a man mourn for a companion more than he did for her.' The 'community said he was crazy' but 'he was not crazy,' though 'he was very disponding a long time.'"

Professor Burlingame cites as the source for these comments by Elizabeth Abell (who Mr. Gannett describes above as "one of the more credible of the New Salem informants) as a statement made by her to Herdon on 15 Feb. 1867 (Herndon's Informants), pp. 556-557.

And, then, Mr. Gannett disparages the entire testimony made by William G. Greene in an interview with William Herndon at Elm Wood, Illinois on May 30, 1865 by referring to Greene as William "Slick Willy" Greene, without citing any basis for this character assassination. Professor Burlingame at page 100, on the other hand, appears to consider William Greene to be a credible source and quotes the story he told at length:

William Greene testified that "after the sudden death of one whom his soul & heart dearly & lov[e]d," Lincoln's friends were "[c]ompelled to keep watch and ward over Mr Lincoln," for he was "from the sudden shock somewhat temporarily deranged. We watched during sotrms--fogs--damp gloomy weather Mr Lincoln for fear of an accident. He said 'I can never be recondiled to have the snow--rains & storms to beat on her grave.'"

Professor Burlingame quotes (again, at page 100) William Greene's comments regarding the duration of Lincoln's recovery made to another interviewer Paul Hull in 1887 for an article entitled "Another Lincoln Tale" which was published by the New York Mail and Express on page 16 of the February 15, 1896 issue.

"Long after Anne died," Greene reported, "Abe and I would be alone perhaps in the grocery on a rainy night, and Abe would sit there, his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands, the tears dropping through his fingers."

In order to complete this section, I thought that I would quote from Professor Burlingame's book (page 100) , the "desperate evidence" provided by Eliza Armstrong Smith, the daughter of Hannah Armstrong, in correspondence to the Lerna, Illinois, Eagle which was published on September 19, 1930 (if my reading of the citation is correct):

"Another surrogate mother, Hannah Armstrong, saw 'Lincoln weep like a baby over the death of Ann Rutledge.'"

In summary, according to Mr. Gannett, one witness who he believed, Elizabeth Abell, was quoted by Professor David Herbert Donald as being told by Lincoln that "that he could not bare [sic] the idea of its raining on her grave." Mr. Gannett then thoroughly discredits additional testimony of the same nature because it comes from William "Slick Willy" Greene, without a word as to how William Greene earned Mr. Gannett's condemnation. Professor Burlingame, on the other hand, appears to disagree with Mr. Gannett's assessment of William Greene's character. And, according to Mr. Gannett, the daughter of Hannah Armstrong was "desperate" to get her name in a small Illinois town newspaper.