Did Lincoln Regret Marrying Mary?

[RJNorton]

(12-14-2013 09:05 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  *I would love to know who reported this quote first(-hand). It's in Jean Baker's M.L.-biography, and she refers to p.46 in W. Steven's "A reporter's Lincoln", but I can't find it on that page nor anywhere else in that book. Does anyone know?

Eva, I found the quote on p. 311 of Michael Burlingame's The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln.

The source given is "Recollections of Henry C. Bowen" in Abraham Lincoln: Tributes from his Associates: Reminisces of Soldiers, Statesmen, and Citizens, edited by William Hayes Ward (New York, Thomas J. Crowell, 1895), p. 32.

So it was reported in 1895, but I don't know if that were (was?) the first. ("Was" sounds better to my ears, but I think "were" might be correct)

I checked Bowen's recollections, and he reported that in a conversation Lincoln told him:

"Before going to the Club that evening to get the election news as it came in, he said: "I told my wife to go to bed, as probably I should not be back before midnight. When at about twelve o'clock the news came informing me of my election I said: ' Boys, I think I will go home now; for there is a little woman there who would like to hear the news.' The Club gave me three rousing cheers, and then I left. On my arrival I went to my bedroom and found my wife sound asleep. I gently touched her shoulder and said, ' Mary '; she made no answer. I spoke again, a little louder, saying, ' Mary, Mary! we are elected!"

The Fehrenbachers write a little about the Bowen-Lincoln conversation in their book, and they give Bowen's recollection a grade of "D." Bowen reported the conversation took place at the Soldiers' Home in March 1861, but I don't think the Lincolns stayed there until 1862.