Mary Todd Lincoln's faux pas (plural), worse, and much worse

[LincolnToddFan]

(06-12-2014 10:47 AM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  Gene, you can read Burlingame's unedited manuscript here.

The reference to Baker's funeral is in Volume 2, Chapter 25, p. 2772.

http://www.knox.edu/academics/distinctiv...-life.html

By the way, I don't think Burlingame gives enough credit to Lincoln for loving this difficult woman. With all the horror of the war upon him, Lincoln still took the time to reach out to Mary by asking her to go on a solitary carriage ride with him on April 14. There is no way he would have done that if he did not love her. Whatever matters to me is how Lincoln treated Mary, not how I personally feel about her.

So true Linda!

Those are the type of authors that I find most credible. Burlingame only seems interested in stories/anecdotes that portray MTL at her absolute worst. Admittedly there are many of those. But there are also stories of her kindness to hospitalized Union soldiers and her loyalty to the Union cause. What about her courage? Her decision to remain in Washington at her husband's side when Lincoln's own military aides suggested she and the children leave the capital for their own safety? What about her trip to Fort Stevens with Lincoln? What of her concern for contraband former slaves in D.C?

Are those examples of notorious faux pas as well?

By the way, according to Lincoln, it was Mary who named all four of their children. It was HER decision to name their second son Edward Baker Lincoln.( How typical of the author to mention that Baker was so great a friend to AL that his second son was named for him, but doesn't mention WHERE the idea to give him that name came from!)

Mary's name gesture tells me more about her esteem for the guy than what she wore to his funeral!

I've posted this before, but an extremely negative look at MTL does not put Abraham Lincoln-who Burlingame apparently feels is beyond approach-in a good light. According to quite a few people who spent time with them, he loved his difficult troubled wife in spite of everything.

And if he did not, as Burlingame believes-then he was the most dishonest, weak and deceitful of men.