Are those stories about Mary abusive to Abraham overstated???

[AussieMick]

I dont think that enough balance has been given to the benefits that Abraham Lincoln gained through being married to Mary. Obviously we'll never be able to quantify the pluses and negatives.

we'll never know how Mary's opinions about the Cabinet members and Generals etc affected Lincoln's decisions ... but you can bet that she wasnt backward in telling him. Certainly those opinions wouldnt have been perfect ... and Lincoln's decisions wernt always great , but overall he seems to have got it right (and better than anyone else IMO would have done).

When he was running for office, I suggest that she would have given him support that was essential to his success.

Would he have been able to write Gettysburg address ? ( I know that he was under huge stress from Mary at that time ... but maybe that gave him extra focus) Would he have been able to cope with the huge losses in the Civil War?

If he had been unmarried , or married to someone else, would he have been the same man?