Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[Gene C]

This from "Journal of Abraham Lincoln Association, Winter 1993,
"William H Herndon and His Lincoln Informants" by Douglas Wilson

The most casual reader of modern Lincoln biography soon learns how Herndon botched the story of Lincoln's courtship of Mary Todd and described, down to the bridal flowers, an aborted wedding ceremony that never happened. And the aficionados of Mary Todd Lincoln, whose numbers are steadily growing, know all too well that Mary's character and reputation have had to be rescued from an opprobrium unfairly inflicted on her by Herndon's harsh and malicious portrait.

The well-informed student knows that Herndon was a drunk, that he was self-important and boastful of his intuitive powers, that he claimed credit for having introduced Lincoln to advanced views, that he coached his informants to tell him what he wanted to hear, and that he ignored testimony that he did not believe or could not accept, while at the same time giving credence to doubtful evidence

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/262986...w=fulltext