Mrs. Abraham Lincoln: A Study of Her Personality and Her Influence on Lincoln

4. The Training of Maturity

CHAPTER FOUR The Training of Maturity The web of our tife is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; ouf' fJirtues W(}J~td be proud if our faults whipped tl~em not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our flirtues. -SHAKSPERE INCIDENTS AFFECTING MRS. LINCOLN Autumn I839 to I8SI 1839 Autumn, Mary Todd, living with Mrs. Edwards in Springfield, met Abraham Lincoln. 1840 Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois legislature; during the year, defeated for Whig elector. April I, Elodie Todd (Mrs. N. H. R. Dawson) born. Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd engaged to marry. I 841 January, engagement of Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln broken. April 14, Stuart and Lincoln dissolved partnership; Logan and Lincoln in partnership. September, Lincoln and Joshua Speed visited Lexington and Louisville. October 7, Katherine 'Bodley Todd (Mrs. W. W. Herr) born. 1842 November 4, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd married at the Edwards home. The Lincolns lived at the Globe Tavern. Illinois Whigs adopted the convention system. 1843 August 1, Robert T. Lincoln born. Visit from Robert S. Todd. Lincoln defeated for Congress. September 20, Logan and Lincoln partnership dissolved ; Lincoln and Herndon partnership begun. 1844 Lincoln defeated for elector for Henry Clay. The Lincolns lived on Monroe Street. The Lincolns bought the " Lincoln home." 1845 Abraham Lincoln laying plans for race for Congress; practicing law actively. 1846 March lO} Edward Baker Lincoln born. Lincoln elected to Congress. 1847 Lincoln attended River and Harbor Convention, Chicago; his first considerable political contact with northern Illinois. October, the Lincolns visited Lexington en route to Washington. 1848 Spring] Mrs. Lincoln in Lexington; Lincoln in Washington . Lincoln attended Whig National Convention, Philadelphia . Lincoln spoke in New England and other places, as member of the Whig National Committee. 1849 July l6} Robert S. Todd died. October, the Lincolns in Lexington in connection with lawsuit. 1850 January] Mrs. Eliza Parker, grandmother of Mrs. Lincoln, died. February I, Edward Baker Lincoln died. Spring, the Lincolns in Lexington. December 2 l} William Wallace Lincoln born. CHAPTER FOUR The Training of Maturity WHEN MARY TODD WENT TO HER SISTER'S HOME IN Springfield in 1837, she planned to enter society, and in the back of her head was the thought that she might marry and settle in Illinois. While there, she met several important people and went to many social functions . She sustained herself well enough, but, for some unexplained reason, she decided to quit society for the time and go back to school. When she returned to Springfield in r839, she may have been more confident of herself; at any rate, her plans were more definite. She bade her family good-by, took the train to the river at Frankfort, and traveled by boat down the rivers to 'Cairo, then up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and thence by stage to Springfield. She took her sister Frances's place in Mrs. Edwards's home. Elizabeth Edwards wrote: 1 "We had a vacancy in our family-wrote to Mary to come and make our home her home; she had a stepmother with whom she did not agree." Miss Mary Todd was now out to make a successful marriage , and she pursued her objective with intelligence, good sense, and good taste. She met Stephen A. Douglas and all the other eligible bachelors of Springfield. The Lexington record deals solely with the girls and women who were her associates and friends. The Springfield record is equally 1 Bibliography, No. 52. II3 FIRST MEETING WITH LINCOLN partial, but this time it is the young men who receive the attention. The young women are only secondary. Mary Todd did not meet Abraham Lincoln when she was in Springfield in 1837. He had been living there but a few months. He was associated in the law with her cousin, Judge John T. Stuart, and he had been an important member of the legislature in bringing the capital to Springfield. For these reasons it might be expected that he would have met her. In spite of them, however, Abraham Lincoln was not good society material then. He was poor, unlearned, and just acquiring a profession; he was ugly and awkward, and his clothes did not appeal to society ladies. He had no family backing. It is easy to understand why he was not invited by Mrs. Edwards to meet her sister, and why he did not meet her elsewhere, at social...