Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[Lewis Gannett]

Hi David,

That's a very intriguing excerpt but I am not sure how it proves that AL discussed Ann Rutledge with Speed. It sounds like Speed is speculating that the doctor's letter might have contained some reference to Rutledge based solely on the fact that the doctor refused to read it aloud?

Exactly. It goes like this: Lincoln doesn't reveal to Speed a passage in a letter from Lincoln to a Dr. Drake. Speed speculates that the passage COULD have been about Ann Rutledge. But Speed doesn't find out, because Lincoln never shows him the mysterious passage. What might we conclude? Lincoln doesn't seem to have told Speed about Ann Rutledge. Speed was actually reduced to saying (to Herndon) that he never found out if Ann was or was not mentioned in a letter that he himself had never seen! That, along with "It's all new to me," is the sum total of what Herndon managed to extract from Joshua Speed about Ann Rutledge. Well, there's one other oddball Speed reference to Ann but I won't belabor it. What does it mean? I for one think it means a lot. If Lincoln's mental breakdown in New Salem in late August/early September 1835 expressed the grief of a passionate lover, why didn't he allude to it even once to Speed?