Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[kerry]

(12-19-2017 07:47 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Did Mary ever dispute Keckley's statement about the asylum? Offhand, I can't think of any motive for Keckley's inventing it.

I think it's also important to remember that Lincoln and Mary were grieving the same loss, and that Lincoln was managing to carry on with his public duties nonetheless while Mary was having difficulty even bringing herself to get dressed. Under those circumstances he might well have thought that Mary needed a jolt, and threatening her with the asylum might well have provided it.

If she did dispute it, it doesn't survive. Interestingly, in Caroline Heally Dall's journal she claimed that Herndon told her *Lincoln* was insane for a time after Willie died. Newspaper reports at the time also said initially that he was taking it harder. One actually said this: "Mrs. Lincoln is more calm and even in her disposition, is less demonstrative and more guarded.—Hence she is able to control her feelings in such a manner that few, even those in the White House, will know how deeply she has felt this affliction." Another said: “Mr. Lincoln was completely prostrate at first by the death of his boy and some of his intimate friends were anxious for its effect upon him. Friday night, and all day Saturday, he was in a stupor of grief, and seems to care little even for great national events; but on Sunday he began to recover from the shock, and is now, though deeply bowed down by his great affliction, in nowise incapacitated for the duties of his position.” I think a lot of later accounts minimized Lincoln's grief because of the expectation that a man would be stoic, but it's clear he gained control quickly and Mary didn't.