Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[STS Lincolnite]

(12-19-2017 06:01 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I don't believe either that Mr. Lincoln would have committed his wife to an asylum...

I also agree that such a statement as his would have been a normal male response of the time to try and curb hysterical behavior.

Like you, I don't think Lincoln would have actually had Mary committed but I can see him "threatening" something of the sort. And I would suppose that males would be the ones more likely to make the direct "threat" of institutionalization to their wife. But I also could see a female confidant saying something similar. Not in this exact anachronistic language, but something like "you need to get it together or your husband will send you to an asylum." As you said, it didn't take much to have a woman committed so I'm sure there were a number of women who knew a peer or two who had been committed (even if for only a short time). It could have been done quietly or otherwise - depending on the woman's social standing I suppose. I'm sure the threat of institutionalization in an insane asylum to any woman of the time would have put a scare into them.