The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln

3. Release

a RELEASE May 20, 1875, was Mary Todd Lincoln's first day in the asylum. Dr. Patterson wrote in the ledger that her case was "one of mental impairment which probably dates back to the murder of President Lincoln-More pronounced since the death of her son, but especially aggravated during the last 2 months." Otherwise, the Bellevue records are not very revealing. Mrs. Lincoln was "cheerful," "contented," and "talkative" for the first five days of her confinement. Then she turned "rather depressed " and by the end ofthe month was "very melancholy" and no longer taking her daily carriage ride. She kept to her room most of the month of June. Patterson noted on July 2 that Mrs. Lincoln made an appointment to ride each morning but put it off when the time came. She had "a fit of crying" on July 5. Three days later she surprised the Bellevue staff by agreeing to see a woman reporter from the Chicago Evening Post and Mail. "Mrs. L. seemed to be glad to hear of her Chicago friends," the asylum record book noted. Whatever news the reporter brought must have seemed encouraging to Mary, for on July 15 she announced to Dr. Patterson that she wanted to go live with her sister in Springfield. Patterson said he thought that Mary had not "felt kindly" toward her sister in the past, to which Mary replied hotly, "It is the most natural thing in the world to wish to live with 53 54] RELEASE my sister-She raised me and I regard her as a sort of mother." Patterson wrote in the record book after the conversation that the "next moment she complained ofher getting so agueish [?] in Jacksonville Florida and forthwith wanted to get immediately to St. Augustine Fla. to live." Aside from general comments on Mrs. Lincoln's mood, documenting little inconsistencies in her statements or plans constituted the bulk ofthe doctor's notes on the case. Just two days before the conversation about her sister, for example, Patterson wrote that Mrs. Lincoln had promised to give a little boy named Wilmarth some stockings purchased especially for him. The doctor commented in his ledger that she bought the stockings in Chicago before meeting the boy.1 Mrs. Lincoln's statement about the stockings seems little more than a white lie, but what she said about her sister was rather disingenuous. Mary had harbored unkind feelings toward Elizabeth Todd Edwards for a long time, and Mrs. Edwards was, in fact, among the many relatives from whom Mrs. Lincoln had cut herselfoff. The statement came nearer the truth in another important respect: Elizabeth Edwards had a motherly understanding of, and affection for, her younger sister. In fact, if the sad story of Mary Todd Lincoln 's later life has any heroes or heroines in it, Elizabeth Todd Edwards is the prime candidate. This will no doubt surprise those who know Mrs. Edwards only from the standard biographies of Abraham or Mary Todd Lincoln. Until now, history has glimpsed Mrs. Edwards only on two occasions when she did not show to great advantage, once on the eve of Mary's marriage and once again on the very eve of Mary's death. Elizabeth was five years older than Mary, and mothering became her destined role when the girls' natural mother died in 1825. When she was nineteen Elizabeth married a junior at Lexington's Transylvania University. Ninian Wirt Edwards was the son of Illinois' territorial governor, Ninian Edwards, and a suitable mate for the oldest daughter of prominent Lexington businessman and politician Robert Smith Todd. The younger Edwards became a lawyer, businessman, and politician in Springfield, and his wife, thereby, a member ofa local social coterie as privileged as the one she had left in Lexington. After moving to Illinois with her husband in 1835, Elizabeth found it easy to continue her motherly role to the other Todd girls, who seemed RELEASE [ 55 plenty willing to leave their stepmother and seek mates in Springfield . Frances, the child born between Elizabeth and Mary, was the first to come. The Edwardses' charmed social circle soon brought her to Dr. William Wallace's attention, and Frances married him in the parlor of her sister's house. Mary was wed in the same parlor in 1842, and Elizabeth then sent for her sister Ann, six years younger than Mary, who met and married Springfield merchant Clark...