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

5. Rounding Out

CHAPTER FIVE Rounding Out Life is a quaint tuzzle. Bits the most incongruous join wit/~ each other tmd the scheme tlllUs becomu symmetrical and clear. - BULWER-LYTTON INCIDENTS AFFECTING MRS. LINCOLN January I8SI to Alarch I86I 1851 January 17, Thomas Lincoln (Abraham's father) died. Lincoln practicing law. 1852 Henry Clay and Daniel Webster died. Pierce elected President. Lincoln, candidate for Whig elector, defeated. Lincoln practicing law. 1853 April 4, Thomas Lincoln (Tad) born. Lincoln practicing law. December, Emilie Todd visited in Springfield. 1854 Abraham Lincoln candidate for Senate; beaten by Lyman Trumbull. Todd estate settled. February IO, the suit of Oldham, Todd, and Company vs. A. Lincoln dismissed. Whig party dying. October 4, speech on Nebraska question. 1855 Abraham Lincoln in Cincinnati on McCormick Reaper case. Republican party organizing. 1856 February, the Lincolns gave a large party. May 29, "Lost" speech delivered at Bloomington. Lincoln joined the Republican party. Lincoln defeated for nomination for vice-president. Lincoln began to have faint hopes of being a presidential possibility. November, Buchanan elected; Fremont defeated. N ovemher 23, Lincoln went to Chicago for three weeks. 1857 Summer, Mrs. Lincoln traveled to Niagara Falls and New York. Mrs. Lincoln laughingly told Mr. Lincoln that her next husband would be a dch man. " I sigh when I think poverty is my portion," she wrote. September 8, Abraham Lincoln in Chicago on Rock Island Bridge case. September 5-30, second story added to Lincoln house. R H. Helm visited Springfield. Lincoln began to take politics more seriously and to dress better. 1858 Lincoln candidate for Senate; beaten by Douglas. June 16, (( House Divided" speech. August to October, Lincoln-Douglas debates. 1859 Lincoln wrote autobiographical sketch for Jesse Fell. Fell wrote the first Lincoln biography. 1860 February 27, Cooper Union speech. May 18, Lincoln nominated for president. November 7, elected President. November 2 I, Lincoln went to Chicago to consult Hannibal Hamlin, 1. N. Arnold, and Ebenezer Peck, about cabinet positions; Mrs. Lincoln\ accompanied him. December 20, South Carolina seceded. 186I January 10, Mrs. Lincoln in New York shopping. January 24, Mrs. Lincoln back in Springfield. February I I, Lincoln and his family left Springfield for Washington. February 18, Jefferson Davis inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America. February 23, Lincoln arrived in Washington. Mrs. Lincoln in New York, Metropolitan HoteL March 2, Mrs. Lincoln arrived in Washington. CHAPTER FIVE Rounding Out T HIS DECADE BEGINS WITH MR. AND MRS. LINCOLN living quietly with their two children in their own home. At the start of it, she was a little over thirty-two years old; at the close she was more than forty-two. Lincoln was nine years and ten months her senior. In 185 I Robert was over seven years old and was going to school (a private academy in Springfield), and Willie was a' baby in arms. It was a period in which one more son was added to the family. There was no death of any close relative of Mrs. Lincoln's; in that respect the decade was a serene one. When they moved to the White House, Robert was past seventeen and in college ; Willie was in his eleventh year; and Tad lacked one month of being eight years old. Willie had been attending school in Springfield and was regarded as a good student, well up in his studies and abreast of the best of his class. On the other hand, there is no record that Tad had been in school up to this time. Mrs. Lincoln bore four boys. This alone as her contribution to society entitles her to commendation. In that era four children to the family was the requirement for continuance of the family stock, since the death-rate was high. She and her husband brought the requisite number of children into the world, and at intervals that prevented the home from being overcrowded, thus affording the parents opportunity to give attention to each. Had it not been for the 137 MRS. LINCOLN AS MOTHER OF BABIES death of Edward at four years, the children would have been close enough in age to have made effective the educational and social value of haternal contacts and influences, without being so close as to overtax the mother's time and energy. As it was, Robert was too old to exercise much influence on the lives of Willie and Tad, nor did they help him much. In the...