Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[Lewis Gannett]

(06-25-2014 05:16 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(06-24-2014 10:29 PM)Lewis Gannett Wrote:  William Hanchett, one of the foremost scholars of the assassination, discusses the issue in a series of articles in the Lincoln Herald, "Abraham Lincoln and the Tripp Thesis." To my mind Hanchett doesn't fully solve it (he's extremely astute on other issues, however, very much worth reading). I have a hunch.

I am curious about your hunch. Although I am most definitely in the Lincoln was straight camp, I read those articles with great interest. I love Dr. Hanchett's book entitled The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies. But I came away from those Lincoln Herald articles with the strong impression Dr. Hanchett personally feels Lincoln was indeed gay. Is that your hunch?

RJ Norton: It's more than a hunch. William Hanchett makes it clear that he thinks that the Tripp thesis--that Lincoln found his primary emotional and sexual fulfillment with men--is correct. By the way, Tripp didn't use the term "gay." That's a 20th-century construct, although, truth be told, so is "homosexual" (in American usage, at least), and the term "same sex" is awkward. I've corresponded with Prof. Hanchett. He's a most impressive scholar. It's a shame that Dr. Tripp, who died in 2003, two years before his book was published, never got to know Hanchett. He would have found Hanchett's analysis of Herndon's outlook and motivations extremely interesting. Hanchett's four-part Lincoln Herald piece is must-read for anyone trying to make sense of Lincoln's early love life. In time I'm sure he'll be seen as a voice of clarity amid a much scholarly murk. The scenario he sketches about Herndon's cover-up of Lincoln's sexuality--via the Rutledge story, in part--is astounding. By the way, Hanchett's peers in Lincoln Studies have been at a total loss as to how to reply to a challenge he issued, which he put like this: I'm quoting from memory: "Either rebut Tripp or get started with rewriting Lincoln history." Strong words, wouldn't you say? The fact of the matter is that no one of stature in the Lincoln scholarly world has rebutted either Tripp or Hanchett, or for that matter my work in JALA on the Rutledge issue. There's a reason for that, I think: they can't rebut. Maybe you'd like to try? I mean that in a friendly way. It's been frustrating that no one in the Lincoln world has seen fit to take up Hanchett's challenge.

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(06-25-2014 07:51 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  Hello Lewis.

We put far too much emphasis (thanks to Herndon) on whether Ann Rutledge was Lincoln's "greatest" love. She was A love, but I doubt she was his greatest. I wonder whether Lincoln ever had a "greatest" love other than the love he felt for his biological mother. Your attempts to conflate the Rutledge story with whether or not Lincoln's primary erotic response was same-sex are well-laid out in your articles and your decision to work with C.A. Tripp, so I don't want to rehash them here. However, as I've constantly said, you never prove it. There were witnesses in New Salem who were just as credible, although you dismiss them by showing those who never saw evidence of a romance. I would hazard a guess that there were a number of people even in the small hamlet of New Salem who didn't know anything about what their neighbors did behind closed doors. James Randall--actually Ruth, since it was she who wrote "Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence" in his biography--constantly had it out for Herndon because he didn't practice what Randall termed "historianship." Randall had a lot of influence in the mid 20th century but John Simon and Douglas Wilson did much to restore Herndon's work, which has been savagely and unfairly criticized here (among other places).

As for Lincoln's sexual orientation, I will leave you with just one question. What does it matter? I don't discount Tripp's thesis because I find homosexuality repugnant (as I've told you in the past). I discount it because it's irrelevant and because there's no direct physical evidence; only a lot of innuendo from a determined advocate for a cause, which is what Tripp was. I would be interested to see where Sandburg and Roy Basler talk about "the sexual problem" given that it could mean what you think, or it could mean the sexual encounters Lincoln had with frontier prostitutes. And I have thoroughly combed Ida Tarbell's papers (which I suggested you or someone else do) and there is no references to her candidly or discretely talking about anything relating to Lincoln's sexual life.

Can you or anyone else show that but for Lincoln's sexual orientation, he would have issued or retracted the Emancipation Proclamation? No. Would he have directed the Civil War differently? No. Whether or not Lincoln's primary erotic response was same-sex is as irrelevant as to whether Lincoln was attracted to flaxen-haired daughters of frontier shopkeepers. It tells us something about who he was, but in the end it tells us very little about who he really was.

Best
Rob

Hi Rob. Good to hear from you. I have several things to say in reply & will get back to you later. In the meantime here's a comment on the "Does it matter?" question, which I myself have already raised in this thread. I'll put it bluntly: Does accurate history matter? Well of course it does, and that includes being frank about private lives. Lest you think that the private lives of significant historical figures are out of bounds, please tell me why John Y. Simon, Douglas L. Wilson, Michael Burlingame, and a host of other estimable Lincoln scholars have devoted copious quantities of print to the Ann Rutledge story. Why bother with Mary Todd if the private sphere doesn't matter? Rob, we've been over this before. Answer the question: If Lincoln's sexuality "doesn't matter," why does any element of private life matter?