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

[Rob Wick]

Roger,

If one accepts the truthfulness of Mary's political sagacity (which where Lincoln is concerned I'm skeptical), criticizing the speech would have been understandable, given that Lincoln would be seeking reelection that year and every speech would count.

I wondered if Sandburg accepted a story that was spurious, but given that Paul Angle was a participant in the project, and Sandburg had been chastened by his experiences with Wilma Minor, I think the quotation was correct. There is correspondence between Sandburg and Angle where Angle corrects some mistakes that Sandburg made, and I've seen nothing in Sandburg's papers where the story is called into question.

Best
Rob