What are you reading now?

[Donna McCreary]

(09-06-2012 10:14 AM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  Donna,

If Mrs. Davis had really been Mrs. Lincoln, do you think that the Northerners would have accepted her better than they did Mary? Do you think that Mary's background as a perceived "Southerner" from Kentucky worked against her as First Lady?

I would assume that having relatives fighting for the Confederacy had to taint her, but do you think she would have gotten the same mistreatment if all of her family had been Unionists? Do you think that having to follow Buchanan's popular niece, Harriet Lane, as the "official social hostess of D.C." also worked against her?

Laurie, I'm not sure that any woman would have been accepted in the White House in 1861 - just as I am not sure that any candidate for the Presidency would have been widely accepted. The election was close - there were many candidates - no majority was going to be happy.
Perhaps Varina would have been better accepted because she had lived in Washington City for many years.
I don't think that Mary's Kentucky origin worked against her as much as having lived in Illinois. She was an uncouth Westerner!
Mary's loyalities were questioned due to her fighting Confederate brothers. This gave Lincoln's political enemies foder for their fuel. If Mary had been born and raised in New York, and the press could have found one cousin fighting for the South, he would have been used against Mary. I doubt that any family from Kentucky or Illinois had every member taking one side or the other during the war. But Mary's family did not just fight for the south, they were vocal about their positions - thus causing both Abraham and Mary stress and embarrassment.

I am not sure if having followed Harriet Lane hurt Mary or not. Afterall, it was a new administration - people expect change. I think maybe the ever popular Kate Chase did more damage than Harriet Lane.

In the end, these are only my opinions -- speculations at best.