Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[David Lockmiller]

Lewis Gannet wrote in an earlier post:

Speed wrote to Herndon about Ann Rutledge, after Lincoln's death: "It is all new to me" (Herndon's Informants, 431).

I was curious about the whole letter and specifically the thoughts Speed had about the veracity of the Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln love story. I do not have the book and even the San Francisco Library does not carry the book. But I was finally able to find it on the internet. The complete paragraph in question and the two paragraphs that follow are as follows:

"I thank you for your last lecture [Herndon’s “Ann Rutledge” lecture]. It is all new to me – But so true to my appreciation of Lincoln’s character that independent of my knowledge of you, I would almost swear to it.

Lincoln wrote a letter (a long one which he read to me [i.e. Speed]) to Dr. Drake of Cincinnati descriptive of his case. Its date would be in Decer 40 or early in January 41. – I think that he must have informed Dr. D of his early love for Miss Rutledge –as there was a part of the letter which he would not read.

It would be worth much to you if you could procure the original -"

(Herndon's Informants, 431)

I know that others might disagree, but I think that Speed's thoughts on the subject are clear and unequivocal: "But so true to my appreciation of Lincoln’s character that independent of my knowledge of you, I would almost swear to it."

And thus Speed was able to conclude in the next paragraph of the letter:

"I think that he must have informed Dr. D of his early love for Miss Rutledge –as there was a part of the letter which he would not read."

This to me was indicative of the depth of feeling that Lincoln had for Ann Rutledge. To one friend (William Greene) he complained that the thought "that the snows and rains fall upon her grave filled him with indescribable grief."