Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[RJNorton]

This is a question that probably can not ever be answered with certainty.

Here is another opinion. It comes from Mike Burkhimer's 100 Essential Lincoln Books. In discussing Mrs. Keckly's description of certain scenes in the White House, Mike writes:

"Much more controversial is the recounting of Lincoln taking his grief-stricken wife to a window and pointing in the direction of an asylum. Lincoln supposedly said, "Mother, do you see that large white building on the hill yonder? Try to control your grief, or it will drive you mad, and we will have to send you there." Historians will long debate the truth of that episode."