The Madness of Mary Lincoln

7. No More Insane than I Am

7 No More Insane than I Am That Mary Lincoln and the Br adwells knew they must harness the power of the popular press and public sentiment to aid in the widow’s release was evident in Mary’s first request to speak with the Chicago Times in July 1875; yet, between the July 13 Post and Mail story and James Bradwell’s acrimonious reply to Dr. Patterson’s August 18 letter, the papers were strangely devoid of any mention of the widow’s plight at Bellevue Place. Even Times editor Franc Wilkie, after two hours of conversation with Mary on August 7, had published nothing. All of this changed, however, when the Bradwells found their suggestions rejected and their visits and letters forbidden by Robert Lincoln. Since they could no longer lobby privately for Mary’s release, they decided to do so publicly. For the next two weeks, Mary Lincoln’s situation was in the local and national newspapers almost every day. Without consulting Dr. Patterson or Robert Lincoln, the Bradwells leaked to the Post and Mail that Mary Lincoln was partially restored to health, would go visit her sister in Springfield, and might not return to the sanitarium at all. The paper’s August 21 edition stated, “A legal lady of Chicago and her husband” had taken steps for Mary’s release, “it being implied that her contemplated visit to Springfield was the result of their friendly, if not professional, intercourse.”1 The Associated Press repeated the news the next day, as did the Chicago Tribune, saying it would be “received with pleasure by everyone,” especially by those friends of Mary who opposed her incarceration in the first place.2 Leaking this false information to the press was only the opening effort . On August 23, Judge Bradwell gave an interview with the Post and Mail, during which he repeatedly complained that Mary was the sane victim of an unjust confinement. Mrs. Lincoln ought not to be where she is now, and never ought to have been placed there. It was a gross outrage to imprison her there behind grates and bars, in a place understood to be for mad people. Why to be so shut up and guarded, and locked up at night, with the feeling that it may last for life, is enough to make almost any aged 94 95 . No More Insane than I Am and delicate woman crazy. She is no more insane today than you and I are.3 Bradwell said Mary had asked him what she had done to deserve such a fate; complained that she was not insane, but soon would be; and insisted that she did not want to be a prisoner. Interestingly, Bradwell did not attack or blame Robert Lincoln in any way during his interview, but instead denounced Dr. Patterson as a man with suspicious motives who needlessly censored Mary’s mail and was opposed to her freedom. Bradwell also tempered his rhetoric to say that he hoped Mary’s release could be achieved amicably, but that he was prepared to initiate “startling developments” if she stayed at Bellevue Place much longer. He modestly declined to specify what those developments would be, saying, “Let her get out of danger first.”4 With this interview, James Bradwell showed himself to be a formidable adversary. He made Mary’s case sound dire and desperate, implying that she was suffering and in “danger,” and that her jailer was needlessly apathetic. He characterized himself as a concerned friend who was acting with candor and credibility but was too much of a gentleman to offer threats. Perhaps most important, he set his condemnation on Dr. Patterson and not Robert Lincoln. This was a plan executed with acumen . The American public would not have tolerated an attack on Robert Lincoln. He was the only surviving son of the martyred president who had endured his father’s assassination and his mother’s insanity trial with nothing but sympathy and respect from the public. He also was a well-respected Chicago attorney who would have defended himself much more deftly than Dr. Patterson did, and Robert would have been supported by numerous political luminaries, including President Ulysses S. Grant.5 No, to accuse Dr. Patterson of mistreatment was a clever, and much safer, plan to evoke sympathy for the widow’s cause. The next day, August 24, Franc Wilkie published in the Chicago Times the account of his July 7 interview with...