Lincoln and Syphilis

[Rob Wick]

Gene,

I wonder if the lens one views Lincoln with makes a difference in accepting or rejecting this story? Personally, I've never accepted the "scrubbed and sanitized for your protection" version of Lincoln. After all, this is the frontier we're talking about. Ida Tarbell, while accepting its warts, tried to sanitize the time for Lincoln by making it into a rough-hewn paradise full of adventure for a young boy. Even Lincoln himself disputed that by his actions of getting out as soon as he could. I think she seriously overreached in doing so.

As for Herndon, I don't agree that he stretched the truth as you say. Thomas Lincoln may not have been shiftless, but he certainly wasn't the type of man Lincoln modeled himself after. I cannot dispute that Herndon's personal distaste for Mary colored his presentation, but neither can one dispute that Lincoln's home life was not idyllic. And as for Ann Rutledge, I've always believed, especially after the Menard Axis story appeared years BEFORE Herndon's lecture, that he pretty much got Lincoln's reaction correct (although as I've previously stated I don't believe Ann was the only woman Lincoln ever loved).

As for Lincoln's reputation, my guess is that if Lincoln ever utilized prostitutes, it was during his time in New Salem. At that point, he really didn't have much of a reputation to protect. Plus, given that his neighbors (both married and single) likely visited prostitutes themselves, there would have been little if any scandal.

Lincoln was a product of the frontier, for all the good and the bad that entails. Let me add, however, that once he was serious about his law and political careers, his concern for his reputation certainly was alive in his mind, hence his reply to Peter Cartwright as to the charges of being an infidel.

Best
Rob