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1 The Springfield Interviews CONVERSATION WITH HON. 0 H BROWNING AT LELAND HOTEL SPRINGFIELD JUNE 17TH 18751 I THINK MR. L's INSANITY WAS BUT AN EXAGGERATED ATTACK of the fits of despondency or melancholy to which he was subject.2 I was here at the time-and when here attending court I used to live in Mr. Butlers family in which Mr. L was then boarding.3 Mr. L was engaged to Miss Mary Todd. She was here on a visit living at Mr. Edwards.4 Her father lived in Lexington Kentucky, and there was some reason why it was unpleasant for her to live at home at her father's.5 She was a girl of much vivacity in conversation, but was subject to similar spells of mental depression as Mr. L. As we used familiarly to state it she was always "either in the garret or cellar.,,6 She had taken a fancy to Mr. Lincoln and I always thought she did most of the courting until they became engaged. After an engagement of perhaps a year or so a Miss Matilda Edwards came to spend a winter here.7 She was a cousin to Ninian Edwards. Mr. Lincoln became very much attached to her, (Miss Matilda Edwards ) and finally fell desperately in love with her, and proposed to her, but she rejected him. Douglas also fell in love with and proposed to her, and she rejected him also.8 I think that Mr. Lincoln's aberration of mind resulted entirely from the situation he thus got himself into-he was engaged to Miss Todd, and in love with Miss Edwards, and his conscience troubled him dreadfully for the supposed injustice he had done, and the supposed violation of his word which he had committed. As I now remember his derange [mentl lasted only about a week or THE SPRINGFIELD INTERVIEWS such a matter. He was so much affected as to talk incoherently, and to be dilirious to the extent of not knowing what he was doing. In the course of a few days however it all passed off, leaving no trace whatever. I think it was only an intensification of his constitutional melancholyhis greater trials and embarrassments pressed him down to a lower point than at other times. With this exception he was always a man of very uniform character and temper. He had his moods like other men. He was sometimes jolly and genial, and again at other times absorbed and abstracted-but these alternations were only manifestations of his constitutional temperament -they came and went irregularly. He was sometimes mirthful and sometimes sad, but both moods quickly passed away and left him always the same man. In this affair of his courtship, he undoubtedly felt that he had made [a mistake] in having engaged himself to Miss Todd. But having done so, he felt himself in honor bound to act in perfect good faith towards her-and that good faith compelled him to fulfil his engagement with her, if she persisted in claiming the fulfillment of his word. In those times I was at Mr. Edwards' a great deal, and Miss Todd used to sit down with me, and talk to me sometimes till midnight, about this affair of hers with Mr. Lincoln. In these conversations I think it came out, that Mr. Lincoln had perhaps on one occasion told Miss Todd that he loved Matilda Edwards, and no doubt his conscience was greatly worked up by the supposed pain and injury which this avowal had inflicted upon her.9 I always doubted whether, had circumstances left him entirely free to act upon his own impulses, he would have voluntarily made proposals of marriage to Miss Todd.to There is no doubt of her exceeding anxiety to marry him. She made no concealment that she had very bitter feelings towards her rival Matilda Edwards. Miss Todd was thoroughly in earnest [inJ her endeavors to get Mr. Lincoln, while on the other hand Miss Edwards was something of a coquette . She afterwards married a Mr. Newton Strong who was a young man here with the rest of us in those days.n I always thought then and have thought ever since that in her affair with Mr Lincoln, Mary Todd did most of the courting. 2 .17.181.21] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 07:26 GMT) THE SPRINGFIELD INTERVIEWS There was never any other occasion to my knowledge, in the whole course of his...

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