"Herndon was born mediocre"

[Mike B.]

Herndon speculated that Lincoln's unhappy marriage may have spurred him on in politics because it was a way to escape. The late Richard Nelson Current has said that it may have been the other way around. Lincoln's interest in politics kept him from focusing more on his marriage. Mary once said that if Lincoln had stayed home more she could have loved him better.

My own view is the truth is that politics was Lincoln's first love, not Mary Todd, not Ann Rutledge, or anyone else. He ran for office before he really knew either of them. His "ambition was a little engine that knew no rest."

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Herndon speculated that Lincoln's unhappy marriage may have spurred him on in politics because it was a way to escape. The late Richard Nelson Current has said that it may have been the other way around. Lincoln's interest in politics kept him from focusing more on his marriage. Mary once said that if Lincoln had stayed home more she could have loved him better.

My own view is the truth is that politics was Lincoln's first love, not Mary Todd, not Ann Rutledge, or anyone else. He ran for office before he really knew either of them. His "ambition was a little engine that knew no rest."

It should also be pointed out it wasn't just Ann Rutledge or the relevations on the Lincoln marriage that people reacted negatively. A lot of it was Herndon's talk about Lincoln's religion. Herndon and Lincoln were not atheists but they did not accept many of the orthodox ideas of Christianity at the time.

This was shocking to many people.

Herndon felt the truth of this was very important because he thought ministers and the Republican Party were turning Lincoln into something he wasn't on this.

Now Herndon is not the final word on the subject of Lincoln's religion, but as with Ann Rutledge and other things. He believed in what he called the "necessary truth" that biographers must believe in.