"Our One Common Country" author talk in Stratford, CT

[LincolnToddFan]

Eva E., I know the quote well, almost by heart...."I hope they are all dead...they would hang my husband and me beside him...when they chose against him, they chose against me" or something like that. Mary called her husband and the Union cause "the dearest of all things to us".

Typically, Michael Burlingame was critical of her comments. In his "Life" Volume II he labels her attitude shocking and "cold". But can anyone imagine with what glee he would tear into her if letters were discovered where she grieves over her lost Confederate kin, and expresses resentment at her husband for causing their deaths? Burlingame expounds at length on MTL's selfishness and strongly implies that she might have been unfaithful to AL. But regarding this admittedly over-exaggerated expression of distaste for her Confederate relatives, he rips her. He also doesn't bother to address the fact that she broke all contact with her favorite sister Emilie Todd Helm solely because Helm attacked her husband in a letter.

Simply unbelievable!

Anyway, I think Mary only said those things publically about her brothers for effect. She knew that the newspapers and Washington gossip were openly questioning her loyalty, and accusing her of being a spy.