A new work on Emilie Todd Helm's visit to Lincoln's White House

[Donna McCreary]

(01-25-2015 06:27 PM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  

(01-25-2015 06:03 PM)Gene C Wrote:  

(01-25-2015 01:54 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Did Emile and Mary remain estranged for the rest of Mary's life, then?

I believe they did, but mainly because of Emilie.
This article is from today's Central Kentucky News
http://www.centralkynews.com/amnews/life...b072b.html

They did remain estranged. Emilie wrote a letter to President Lincoln on October 30, 1864 and that is the last known communication between Abraham/Mary and Emilie. It was a scathing letter, from what I can gather, in which she more or less blamed Lincoln for all the misfortunes that she had suffered. She did however see and speak to RTL in March 1865. She kept up a cordial relationship with him until he died in 1926. Yes she outlived him. She died at age 93 in 1930.

Emilie told a a friend of hers (who in later years became a friend to me) that both Elizabeth Edwards and Frances Wallace had tried to bring the two estranged sisters together. Mary refuses. Emilie wrote a few years to Mary, and Mary returned them unopened.

I understand Mary's feelings on this. There was an 18-year age difference between the two women. Mary had taken Emilie into her Springfield home for an extended visited. She defended Emilie's presence in the White House. Mary and Abraham loved Emilie like a daughter. Lincoln had offered Ben a position of high rank in the military during the War. Instead, Emilie and Ben supported the Confederacy -- something Mary took personally. Mary defended Emilie's presence in the White House after Ben's death. The accusation that it was Lincoln's fault that Levi had died, and the reference to the "minnie ball" was too much for Mary. Emilie never took an oath of allegiance to the United States - she lived the rest of life rallying around the Confederate cause. To welcome Emilie with open arms was an unthinkable act for Mary.

One of these days, I am going to write something about Emilie and her relationship with Robert Lincoln. Most people do not know how deep their connection was -- or how deep Emilie and her children were in Robert's pockets.