Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[David Lockmiller]

(06-30-2014 11:14 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(06-30-2014 09:11 AM)Lewis Gannett Wrote:  One of the striking things about the [Abell's] testimony is that nobody, not even anyone in the Rutledge family, related an eyewitness memory of Lincoln courting Rutledge.

It is my understanding that there was at least one exception to your statement, and that exception was Mrs. Jeane Berry, sister of Ann Rutledge. Ida M. Tarbell wrote in her book The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln at page 218:

Many years ago a sister of Ann Rutledge, Mrs. Jeane Berry, told what she knew of Ann's love affairs; and her statement has been preserved in a diary kept by the Rev. R. D. Miller, now Superintendent of Schools of Menard County, with whom she had the conversation. She declared that Ann's "whole soul seemed wrapped up in Lincoln," and that they "would have been married in the fall or early winter" if Ann had lived. "After Ann died," said Mrs. Berry, "I remember that it was common talk about how sad Lincoln was; and I remember myself how sad he looked. They told me that every time he was in the neighborhood after she died, he would go alone to her grave and sit there in silence for hours.

I understand that you have a book that you are writing in which I believe that you will be making two related arguments 1) that there was really no significant love relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge and 2) that Abraham Lincoln was gay.

Any evidentiary weakness within the first argument would undoudtedly weaken the second argument. I underlined, italicized, and bolded the most important parts so that you would not miss them.

I have done some additional research on this issue and I intend to do more.

Professor Burlingame has added information from three other close relatives of Ann that you appear to have missed in your Lincoln scholarship research on this topic, Ann’s sisters -- Nancy and Sarah and her brother David. (See below Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Vol. One, page 99 - 100.)

“[A]ccording to Ann’s sister Nancy, ‘he [Lincoln] declared his love and was accepted for she loved him with a more mature and enduring affection than she had ever felt for McNamar. No one could have seen them together and not be convinced that they loved each other truly.’” (Source reference: Interview with Nancy Rutledge Prewitt, conducted by Margaret Flindt, Fairfield, Iowa, correspondence, 10 Feb., Chicago Inter-Ocean, 12 Feb. 1899.)

“Ann’s brother David urged her to marry Lincoln even before the return of her whilom fiancé, but she declined so that she could personally explain to McNamar her change of heart.” (Professor Burlingame did not provide a source reference in this instance.)

“According to her sister Sarah, Ann ‘had brain fever and was out of [her] head all the time till about two days before she died, when she came to herself and called for Abe.’ Bowling Green fetched Lincoln. When he arrived ‘everybody left the room and they talked together.’ Emerging from that room, Lincoln ‘stopped at the door and looked back. Both of them were crying.’ (Source reference: Sarah Rutledge Saunders, interview with Katherine Wheeler, Chicago Tribune Magazine, 22 Feb. 1922.)