How Mary Todd Lincoln Became a National Villain

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Today I refuse to worry about anything.

[00:00:05]>> I've not been so happy in J.

[00:00:09]>> Oh, don't say that.

[00:00:11]>> Why not if it's true?

[00:00:14]>> Because You can't die like this. Not now.

[00:00:37]>> Mother.

[00:00:38]>> Robert, you Daddy, he'll speak to daddy. He won't let himself die if he knows Daddy is here.

[00:00:46]>> DON'T LEAVE US.

[00:00:48]>> GET THIS woman out of here and don't let her come back.

[00:00:58]Oh god.

[00:01:00]>> Do you think that first ladies have it rough in our modern times? Think about every criticism you've ever heard lobed at a modern first lady. She's too ambitious, too outspoken, spends too much money on clothes. She doesn't smile enough. She smiles too much. She's not feminine enough. Now imagine facing all of that in the middle of a civil war while your brothers are fighting for the enemy while newspapers openly call you a traitor. while your 11-year-old son is dying upstairs and while your husband is dealing with the bloodiest conflict in American history and then your husband gets shot in the head right next to you while you're holding his hand.

[00:01:52]This is the untold story of Mary Todd Lincoln. One of the most vilified, criticized, and ultimately destroyed first ladies in American history. A woman who lost her mother at six, lost three of her four sons, lost her husband to an assassin's bullet, lost her freedom to an insane asylum, and lost her reputation to a nation that seemed to hate her from the moment she stepped into the White House. But maybe, just maybe, Mary Todd Lincoln wasn't crazy like they said she was. Maybe she was traumatized. Maybe she was grieving.

[00:02:35]Maybe the science of the time just didn't have the vocabulary for whatever she was going through. And my lord, was she going through a lot. Let's get into it. But first, if you enjoy these stories about the most scandalous people from yesterday year, subscribe to Tai's Hot Miss History. Now, on to why you are here.

[00:03:03]April 14th, 1865.

[00:03:07]Ford's Theater, Washington, DC. It is a Friday evening, and for the first time in 4 years, President Abraham Lincoln is happy. The civil war that nearly destroyed the country is effectively over. General Robert E. Lee surrendered just 5 days ago. the nation or what remains of it can finally begin to heal.

[00:03:32]And tonight, the president and his wife are doing something that they haven't done in what feels like forever. They're going on a date. Mary Lincoln has a migraine. She almost cancels.

[00:03:47]The headaches have been getting worse since her carriage accident 2 years ago.

[00:03:52]And tonight, the pain is particularly vicious. But Abraham insists. The newspapers have already announced they'll be attending. The people expect it. Besides, he tells her they need this. They need a night to just be a couple again. So Mary pushes through the pain. That's what she always does. They arrive late to Ford's theater. The play Our American Cousin is already underway.

[00:04:22]When the audience spots him entering the presidential box, the orchestra stops midcene and strikes up hail to the chief. The crowd rises in applause.

[00:04:33]Mary and Abraham settle into their seats. Beside their guests, Major Henry Wthbone and his fianceé, Clara Harris, the play resumes.

[00:04:44]They're watching and holding hands.

[00:04:47]After 23 years of marriage, after burying two children, after four years of bloody war, after all the fights, the separations, and the public humiliations, they're sitting in the dark, holding hands like teenagers. Mary leans in close and whispers to her husband. She's worried about what their guests might think of her being so affectionate in public.

[00:05:12]What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you? Abraham Lincoln smiles, unaware that these are the last words he will ever hear from his wife.

[00:05:23]And he replies, "His last words. She won't think anything about it."

[00:05:30]At 10:15, a single gunshot explodes through the theater. John Wilks Booth's Daringer finds its mark. A 44 caliber bullet enters the back of Lincoln's head, lodging behind his right eye. The president slumps forward. Mary screams, "They have shot the president."

[00:05:53]The next several hours are a blur of horror. Lincoln is carried across the street to the Peterson House, where he is laid diagonally across a bed too short for his tall frame. Mary sits vigil through the night, alternating between numb silence and hysterical screaming. At some point, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton reportedly snaps at her. Take that woman out and do not let her in again. At 7:22 the next morning, April 15th, 1865, without ever having regained consciousness, Abraham Lincoln dies. Mary is not in the room. She is too distraught to witness the moment.

[00:06:37]It's not that she's a selfish wife.

[00:06:40]That's not why she's not at his side.

[00:06:42]It's just that by this time, Mary Todd Lincoln has already endured more loss than most people experience in a lifetime. By the time that bullet strikes her husband, she has already buried her mother who died when Mary was six. Her son Eddie, who died at the very young age of three, and another of her sons, Willie, who died at 11, and three of her half brothers, who, by the way, died fighting for the Confederacy against her husband's army. She is already broken and she is about to spend the next 17 years being broken further by a nation that never loved her. A son who will betray her and a world that will brand her insane for the crime of grieving too much publicly. But to understand how we get there, we need to go back to the beginning.

[00:07:40]December 13th, 1818.

[00:07:43]Lexington, Kentucky. Maryanne Todd is born into one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in Kentucky. Her father, Robert Smith Todd, is a successful banker and politician. The family lives in a 14 room mansion. They own slaves. Mary never knows poverty.

[00:08:03]Not really. So why does she spend her entire adult life terrified of ending up destitute?

[00:08:10]That's the question to which we will keep returning. Mary is the fourth of seven children. Truly the middle child, a bright and vivacious girl who loves books, politics, and attention. Her childhood is comfortable. It's privileged.

[00:08:28]And then when she is 6 years old, everything changes. In 1925, Mary's mother, Eliza Parker Todd, dies in childbirth. It is Mary's first encounter with the grief that will define her life. One year later, her father remarries.

[00:08:48]Here's the announcement from an 1826 edition of the Republican banner.

[00:08:54]Elizabeth Betsy Humphrey's becomes Mary's stepmother, and the relationship is, to put it mildly, not good. Betsy goes on to have nine more children with Mary's father, Robert Todd. That's 15 children total in the household. And somewhere in that chaos, Mary gets lost.

[00:09:15]Her stepmother reportedly calls her a limb of Satan. Mary is shipped off to a boarding school purportedly for her education, but really, it seems just to get her out of the house and out of her stepmother's way.

[00:09:31]This childhood trauma, the lost mother, the hostile stepmother, the feeling of being unwanted in her own home likely contributes to the depression, anxiety, and obsessive fear of abandonment that will plague Mary for the rest of her life. Psychologists today might recognize the roots of her later behavior in these early wounds, but in the 1800s, she was just seen as a nutcase.

[00:09:59]But here's the thing about Mary Todd.

[00:10:02]She's not a victim. Not yet, anyway. She takes her pain and transforms it into ambition. At Madame Tel's finishing school, Mary becomes one of the best educated women in America. She learns to speak fluent French. She studies dance, drama, music, and literature.

[00:10:23]She develops a razor sharp wit and an encyclopedic knowledge of politics, a subject young women are absolutely not supposed to care about. And she develops a very specific goal. She is going to marry a man who will become president of the United States. She says this out loud multiple times. People laugh at her, but you and I know they won't be laughing for long.

[00:10:58]1839 Springfield, Illinois. At 23 years old, Mary moves to Springfield to live with her married sister, Elizabeth Todd Edwards. The plan is simple. Find a husband. Mary enters Springfield society like a tornado in a ball gown. She is witty. She is well read. She can discuss politics with the same fluency that other young women discuss embroidery.

[00:11:24]And she is being courted by one of the most promising young politicians in the state, Steven A. Douglas. That Steven A.

[00:11:33]Douglas, the man who will later debate Abraham Lincoln in one of the most famous political showdowns in American history. The man Lincoln will defeat for the presidency. Steven courts Mary first. He is polished, successful, and clearly going places. But Mary has her eye on someone else, someone taller, someone rougher around the edges, someone with a much less certain future.

[00:12:02]Abraham Lincoln is a struggling lawyer with a total of about one year of formal education. He is awkward in social situations. He dresses badly. He tells long, meandering jokes that don't always land. Mary's family thinks she's making a terrible mistake. Here's how the newspapers will later describe her choice. The future president now brought his broken heart and wounded pride to the feet of Miss Mary Todd, whom Stephen A. Douglas was courting at the same time, and she accepted Lincoln as the most likely to become president, that being the measure of her ambition.

[00:12:41]The implication is clear. Mary chose Lincoln not for love, but for calculated ambition. She picked the winner. That's what critics say. But here's what those critics miss. Mary sees something in Lincoln that others don't. She sees his potential. She sees his intellect. And yes, she believes he will become president. But she also eventually falls genuinely in love with him.

[00:13:10]Their courtship is stormy. There's a broken engagement in 1841. Historians still debate exactly what happened.

[00:13:20]Lincoln may have fallen for another woman briefly. He may have simply panicked at the commitment. Whatever the cause, they separate for over a year.

[00:13:29]And then somehow they find their way back to each other. November 4th, 1842.

[00:13:37]Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln are married in her sister Elizabeth's parlor. It is a small ceremony and hastily arranged. Mary's family is not pleased, but she doesn't care. She has made her choice. Abraham slips a ring onto her finger. Inside it is inscribed, AL to Mary, November 4th, 1842.

[00:14:02]Love is eternal. She will be wearing that ring when she dies 40 years later.

[00:14:13]The Lincoln marriage is complicated. The children come quickly. Robert Todd Lincoln is born in August 1843.

[00:14:23]Edward Eddie Baker Lincoln arrives in March 1846.

[00:14:29]They are genuinely devoted to each other, but they are also two difficult people with clashing temperaments.

[00:14:37]Abraham is frequently absent, traveling the legal circuit for months at a time.

[00:14:42]Mary's left alone with the children, managing the household, battling loneliness and what we would probably recognize today as clinical depression.

[00:14:52]She has severe migraines. She has mood swings. She has a temper that Abraham's law partner, William H. Hearnden, will later describe in unflattering detail.

[00:15:03]She is not an easy person to live with, but then again, neither is Abraham.

[00:15:09]Then, in February 1850, her second son, 3-year-old Eddie, dies. The cause is likely tuberculosis.

[00:15:18]Mary is devastated. This is her first experience with the specific particular horror of losing a child. But unfortunately for her, it won't be her last. But for now, life goes on. In December 1850, just 10 months after Eddie's death, William Willie Wallace Lincoln is born. Thomas Tad Lincoln follows in April 1853.

[00:15:45]Four sons. Only one of them will outlive his mother.

[00:15:55]March 4th, 1861.

[00:15:58]Mary Todd Lincoln becomes the first lady of the United States. Her husband has just been inaugurated as the 16th president. The country is tearing itself apart. Seven southern states have already seceded. War is coming.

[00:16:15]And from the very first moment, Washington society makes it clear, Mary Lincoln is not welcome here. The Norfol Post would later print that, quote, Mary Lincoln was the most unpopular lady that has ever occupied the White House. She was hotty, silly, and extravagant and showy." End quote. Their criticisms are relentless and contradictory. She's too western, too unsophisticated for the refined tastes of the capital. She has coarse manners.

[00:16:52]She dresses too extravagantly. She doesn't dress extravagantly enough. She is too political. She's not political enough. But the most damaging accusation is this. Mary Todd Lincoln is a Confederate sympathizer. And this is where her family history becomes a problem. Remember how I said she comes from a slaveowning Kentucky family?

[00:17:16]Remember those three halfb brothers who died in the war? They didn't die fighting for the Union. They died fighting against it. They were Confederate soldiers.

[00:17:26]And here's what the North Carolina Argus had to say when one of her brothers died in a battle a year after Lincoln's inauguration.

[00:17:34]Mrs. Lincoln's brother killed. Mr. Sam B. Todd, brother of Mrs. Lincoln died on the battlefield of Shiloh of wounds received in the action of the 7th of April. The New Orleans Delta says he was a gallant private in the Crescent Regiment and died in defense of his country against the hireling invaders whom the husband of her sister, Mr. Abraham Lincoln, sent to desolate and dishonor our people.

[00:18:03]It must be a pleasant reflection to Mrs. Abraham Lincoln amid her vulgar attempts to ape royal fashions with her balls and suarees at the federal capital that a gallant brother should have thus fallen by the hands of her husband's mercenaries.

[00:18:21]Do you see what's happening here?

[00:18:23]Southern newspapers are using Mary's grief against her. her brother just died and they're calling it a pleasant reflection that this happened while Mary was trying to ape royal fashions in Washington. Ape royal fashions like to poorly and clumsily imitate the royals.

[00:18:44]They're being sarcastic and in the most nasty way saying it must be so nice for her that while she's busy playing pretend queen, her own brother died fighting against her husband's army. But it gets worse. Northern newspapers suspect her disloyalty, too. As the war marched on, so did the allegations against Mary. The Pedaluma Argus printed in 1864, quote, "The widow of the General Helm, who was killed at Chikamaga, is a sister to Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln must be disloyal."

[00:19:21]According to abolition logic, loyal people don't have relatives in the rebel army.

[00:19:28]So Mary is trapped. If she mourns her brothers, she's a traitor to her husband, the union, and the office of the president. If she doesn't mourn them, she's a traitor to her family and her southern roose. Either way, she's going to be trashed by the press. Yet, she tries. She writes letters defending her loyalty to Kentucky while pledging her devotion to the Union. She divides money to causes supporting freed slaves.

[00:19:58]You can see that in this November 1862 edition of the National Republican.

[00:20:03]Quote, "The Anglo-Affrican says that it learns from Mrs. Lizzy Keckley, the presiding officer of the Contraband Relief Association of Washington, that Mrs. Abraham Lincoln has made to her within a day or two the generous contribution of $200 for the relief of the suffering freed men in and around Washington. But that's not enough.

[00:20:27]Nothing she does is ever enough. People either choose to believe that her true loyalties lie with the South or with the North. There is no nuance and the criticisms keep coming. Now, before I get to Mary's out of control spending, I just want to tell you to keep Lizzie Keckley's name in your memory. She's not just a random mention in a newspaper.

[00:20:50]We'll circle back around to her in a moment. That's not going to be pretty.

[00:21:00]Now, I'm not going to pretend that Mary Lincoln was perfect because she wasn't.

[00:21:06]She was far from it. And here's where things get complicated.

[00:21:10]Congress appropriates $20,000 for renovations to the White House, a building that, to be fair, is in genuinely shabby condition. Mary takes on the project with enthusiasm, but perhaps too much enthusiasm.

[00:21:27]She massively overspends the budget. She buys expensive furnishings, china, clothes, and jewelry. She runs up credit at jewelers, particularly a shop called G and Brothers. She throws lavish balls during wartime. Events that are seen as tonedeaf at best, obscene at worst. The weekly Raleigh Register printed a story about it in an 1862 edition, and the writer did not hold back. The Yankee papers severely denounced the great ball recently given by that quintessence of parvinuism and vulgarity, Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. It was the first ball ever given at the White House, and the Yankee editors regarded and its reported splenders as a shameless outrage upon the country, now struggling at an expense of $2 million a day for its existence.

[00:22:22]So, parvinuism, that's another word for social climbing. Someone who suddenly acquires wealth and status, but supposedly lacks the proper manners to deserve it. It's a classbased insult, and it cuts deeply. Once again, Mary is portrayed as a hick who threw a good old-fashioned hoown at the White House.

[00:22:46]Government officials reportedly tell the president that Mrs. Lincoln is involved in ethically insensitive conduct. There are allegations of financial fraud, false expense claims, kickbacks from contractors. Lincoln is furious and ashamed when he learns the extent of Mary's spending.

[00:23:08]But she's still his wife, so he has to protect her in some kind of way. So he comes up with an excuse for her. He says that her behavior is the result of partial insanity. And those were his words. Now, before we judge Mary too harshly, let's add some context. Yes, she over spent by a lot. Yes, her timing was terrible. Actually, the worst. but also she is a woman with no formal power living in a world where her only avenue for influence is through domestic display. She's trying to prove that she belongs in Washington society, a society that has made it abundantly clear that she does not belong. Is she spending money to fill an emotional void?

[00:23:59]Probably. Is she using shopping as a coping mechanism for depression and anxiety? almost certainly. Does that excuse the financial impropriety?

[00:24:11]Hell no. But it explains it. Her extreme spending does not come from nowhere. She has seen what happens to women who aren't perceived as belonging. She is trying to buy her way into acceptance.

[00:24:26]It doesn't work, but she doesn't know what else to do.

[00:24:35]February 5th, 1862.

[00:24:39]Mary hosts a grand ball at the White House. She wears a half morning dress in respect to Queen Victoria, who recently lost her husband, the love of her life, Prince Albert. The event is criticized as extravagant during wartime. But Mary presses forward. She has something to prove. A lot of people know that once again, she's trying to fit into this high society world. What no one knows is that upstairs, 11-year-old Willie Lincoln is burning with fever. Then, 15 days after this grand ball on February 20th, 1862, Willie dies. The cause is likely typhoid fever contracted from the contaminated water supply at the White House.

[00:25:30]The Evening Star covers the tragedy the next day. Death of Willie Lincoln. The public rejoicings at the recent successes of the Union arms will be clouded by the intelligence of the death of the second son of the president and the country will sympathize with the bereaveved parents in such a heavy affliction. Willie Lincoln was a boy of unusual intelligence and was a favorite with all who visited the White House.

[00:25:58]Mary completely collapses. She remains in bed for weeks. She cannot eat. She cannot function. She has visions of Willie visiting her at night, standing at the foot of her bed, watching her.

[00:26:13]She turns to spiritualism, holding seances at the White House, desperately trying to contact her dead son. Her sister, Emily Todd Helm, visiting later, notes Mary's nervous, excitable behavior.

[00:26:31]Mary comes close to being institutionalized right there in the White House, just months after losing her child. And 1862 isn't done with her yet. 1862 is a nightmare year for her, and the hits keep coming.

[00:26:50]While Mary is still reeling from Willy's death, her brothers are dying on the Confederate battlefields. The press doesn't miss the opportunity.

[00:27:00]Just 3 months after her son Willy's death, the Huntington Democrat reported, "Mrs. Abraham Lincoln's brother, Captain Todd, a Confederate officer, died recently of wounds received in the battle at Pittsburgh Landing. It would be inhuman in Mrs. Lincoln not to mourn for the loss of a brother. And yet, what a commentary that would be upon the death of a rebel, mourning in our national capital for the death of a traitor. Damned does she mourns. Damned if she doesn't, but she won't get to stop mourning anytime soon because, like I said, 1862 was a nightmare. Another brother dies just a few months later.

[00:27:44]The St. Lewis Globe Democrat told the story. Mrs. Lincoln's brother killed a brother of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, Captain Alex H. Todd, who was in the rebel army, was killed in the late fight at Baton Rouge. Another day, another death.

[00:28:07]July 2nd, 1863.

[00:28:10]This is one of the most important dates in Mary Lincoln's story, and it doesn't get discussed very much. Mary is riding in a carriage near Mount Pleasant Army Hospital. Suddenly, the driver's seat becomes loose. Some historians believe this was sabotage, an assassination attempt on the president, who was supposed to be in the carriage that day.

[00:28:34]The horses bolt. Mary leaps from the moving carriage to save herself. and hits her head on a sharp stone. The wound is deep. She bleeds heavily. She's taken to Carver Army Hospital where Dr. Judson C. Nelson treats her. The wound becomes infected, a common and dangerous complication in the Civil War era. Mary is bedridden for 3 weeks. Lincoln telegraphs their son, Robert, dramatically understating the severity.

[00:29:06]The telegraph reads, "Your mother very slightly hurt by her fall. That's it."

[00:29:13]But it is not slight. According to Robert, Mary never fully recovered from her head injury. Her migraines become more frequent and severe. Her behavior becomes more erratic. Modern historians have speculated that she may have suffered traumatic brain injury, damage that would have gone undiagnosed and untreated in the 1860s.

[00:29:39]And here's what makes this even more heartbreaking. While Mary is lying injured, Lincoln barely has time to visit her. He is consumed by the Battle of Gettysburg, which is raging at that very moment. He is being President Lincoln right now.

[00:29:57]The fate of the nation hangs in the balance. So his wife's head wound has to wait. This deepens Mary's sense of isolation and fear. She is alone. She is suffering and no one seems to care.

[00:30:17]Afternoon, April 14th, 1865.

[00:30:21]Abraham and Mary take a carriage ride alone through Washington. It is one of the happiest afternoons they have spent together in years. The war is over.

[00:30:31]Robert E. Lee has surrendered. And for the first time, the Lincoln can talk about the future. They discuss what comes after the presidency. Maybe they'll travel to California, maybe Europe. Abraham wants to visit Jerusalem, the holy land he has read about his whole life. They talk about whether to return to Springfield or settle in Chicago. Mary describes this conversation as one of the happiest moments of her marriage. For a few hours, they are not the president and the first lady. They are just Abraham and Mary making plans together. That night, they go to Ford's Theater, and we know how that ends.

[00:31:19]Mary is so griefstricken that she cannot attend her husband's funeral. She remains in the White House for over a month, far longer than propriety allows.

[00:31:31]The world understands that she is grieving, but it's time for her to go.

[00:31:35]Vice President Andrew Johnson is waiting to move in, but Mary refuses to leave.

[00:31:41]She cannot face the world outside. She cannot accept reality and move on, which also means move out. She is no longer the first lady. The White House is no longer her residence.

[00:31:56]On April 29th, she receives a condolence letter from Queen Victoria, the same queen whose morning dress Mary had imitated just 3 years earlier. Victoria writes from a place of genuine empathy, having lost her own husband a few years ago. In her response, Mary pens words that capture the depth of her grief. I have received the letter which your majesty has had the kindness to write, and I am deeply grateful for its expressions of tender sympathy, coming as they do from a heart which from its own sorrow can appreciate the intense grief I now endure.

[00:32:35]Finally, on May 23rd, Mary leaves the White House. She moves to Chicago with her sons, Robert and Tad. She cannot face returning to Springfield, the city where she and Abraham had shared their happiest moments. The memories would be too painful.

[00:33:00]Abraham Lincoln has left Mary a very sad woman and a relatively wealthy one. She inherits approximately $80,000, the equivalent of about $2 million today. She also has $56,000 in government bonds. She is not poor by any stretch of the imagination, but Mary is convinced she is about to become destitute.

[00:33:26]This is not rational. Objectively, she has more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of her life.

[00:33:34]But the terror of poverty is overwhelming and constant. She obsesses over money. She hoards. She writes letters begging for financial assistance to anyone who will listen. Why? Well, historians have offered various explanations. Childhood trauma from feeling unwanted in her father's home.

[00:33:56]The general procarity of women's financial positions of the 19th century.

[00:34:01]She isn't the average widow whose husband has left her with nothing or even worse in debt. She's in no danger of being out on the streets, but she thinks she is. Possible mental illness exacerbated by grief and the head injury can explain this new unlocked fear of hers. But maybe it's just all of it.

[00:34:24]Mary has lived a lifetime of grief in the past four years. Whatever the cause, Mary's financial anxiety will lead her to make some very questionable decisions in the coming years.

[00:34:42]September 1867, 2 years after Lincoln's assassination, Mary travels to New York City under a false name, Mrs. Clark.

[00:34:54]But she's not fooling anybody. When the New York Herald got the word about the fake Mrs. Clark, they quickly printed a story about the real Mrs. Abraham Lincoln on September 27th, 1867.

[00:35:09]Quote, "It is reported that Mrs. Abraham Lincoln is at one of the Uptown hotels under the assumed name of Mrs. Clark.

[00:35:18]She is here for the purpose of replenishing an almost exhausted purse by the sale of wearing apparel which she no longer requires outside of the White House. Mrs. Lincoln's income is stated to be only $1700 perom.

[00:35:35]Now, it's worth pointing out that $1,700 in 1867 is equivalent to roughly $37,000 today. So, that would not have been a ton of money, but remember, she's getting this in addition to all of the money that she inherited. In reality, she is set for life. Nevertheless, Mary has a plan, a desperate, ill-conceived plan that will destroy what little remains of her reputation. She has connected with two commission brokers named WH Brady and SC Keys. the scheme.

[00:36:13]Sell her expensive White House wardrobe, the very clothes that caused so much controversy during the war. And if Republicans don't step up to buy them, Mary threatens to release damaging information that will embarrass the party. It is essentially blackmail and it goes spectacularly wrong. I'm sure that you saw that coming. The newspapers published Mary's own explanation for the scheme and surprise surprise, it doesn't help her case. But Brooklyn Eagle printed her own words about it in 1867.

[00:36:50]The sale of Mrs. Lincoln's wardrobe, very bitter letter from the lady touching the ingratitude of the politicians. Through the ingratitude of the Republicans toward the memory of the lamented president, the family of their chief has been left to suffer want and destitution. Therefore, it is natural to suppose that when it became imperatively necessary for Mrs. Lincoln, the honored and beloved wife of the late president, to dispose of apparel and jewelry to enable her to meet the common daily necessities of life. It was certainly in better taste that Mrs. Clark, rather than Mrs. Lincoln should appear in the proceeding.

[00:37:32]So, I want to be clear that Mary is writing about herself in third person, justifying her actions for this money grab while she is literally a wealthy woman. But they proceed with the scheme.

[00:37:45]Brady displays the clothes in a public showroom with Mary's name prominently attached. The scandal is immediate and brutal. The press calls her mercenary.

[00:37:56]They accuse her of disgracing Lincoln's memory. Later that month, they point out correctly that she is far from destitute. The whole thing is a public relations disaster.

[00:38:09]The Buffalo Courier, November 18th, 1867.

[00:38:14]Mary Lincoln's poverty. Honorable David Davis, administrator of the late Abraham Lincoln, made a final settlement of the estate at Springfield last Thursday.

[00:38:26]After paying all the debts, they remained $110,29462, which divided among the widow and heirs gives $36,765.30 to Mrs. Lincoln and the same amount to each son.

[00:38:46]Now the public had proof that Mary was not only okay but way better off than most of the American public. So her scheme fails. Mary raises almost no money. Her reputation lies in tatters and the newspapers publish her desperate letters exposing her private thoughts to national ridicule.

[00:39:14]1868.

[00:39:16]If you think the old clothes scandal was bad, wait until you hear about Elizabeth Keckley. That's Lizzy Keckley. Remember I told you to hold on to her name earlier? Well, Elizabeth, who was called Lizzy Keckley, is an extraordinary woman born into slavery. She purchased her freedom and became one of the most sought after dress makers in Washington DC. She is Mary Lincoln's personal modist, her dress maker, and more importantly, her closest confidant during the White House years. Well, she wrote a book. This one, Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckley.

[00:39:57]Behind the scenes, or 30 years a slave and four years in the White House. Her intention apparently is to defend Mary and help her financially by generating sympathy. The effect is the exact opposite. The book reveals intimate details of Mary's private life. It includes Mary's personal letters, desperate, embarrassing letters begging Elizabeth for help during the old clothes scandal. It describes private moments in the Lincoln marriage. It violates every norm of Victorian privacy. And to put it more frankly, it makes some white people question whether black women should even be allowed to read and write if this is what they're going to do with the privilege. You know, tear down and expose the white women they work for, even though that was not Lizz's intention at all. Here's what a reviewer had to say about the book in the Springfield Daily Republican in April of 1868.

[00:41:00]A fresh book of scandal. If all of the lately emancipated black women of the south are at liberty to improve their freedom and the education it is proposed to give them and writing up what their past or present mistresses may say, while combing their back hair in the privacy of their own apartments, it may well be questioned whether the magnificent endowment of Mr. Peabody is not more of a curse than a blessing.

[00:41:27]Now, when this writer speaks of Mr. Peabody, the writer is referring to George Peabody, who had just donated $2 million to educate Southerners the year before. And this reviewer is suggesting that teaching black women to read and write might be a curse if they're going to use it like this. But the truth was that Mr. Peabody's donation went to already existing schools. So less than 7% of that $2 million was used to educate black students. So you see what's happening here. The criticism isn't just about the book's content.

[00:42:04]It's about who wrote it. A black woman dared to write about a white first lady.

[00:42:10]The racist outrage is barely concealed.

[00:42:13]The book is called Indecent by a traitorous eavesdropper.

[00:42:19]Mary feels deeply betrayed. She ends the friendship immediately and permanently.

[00:42:24]She never speaks to Lizzy again, and the book is a commercial failure. Robert Lincoln may have worked to suppress its distribution. Copies are pulled from bookstore shelves. Lizzy loses most of her white customers. Her dress making business is ruined. Both women's reputations are destroyed. No one wins.

[00:42:47]But Lizzy loses more. And sadly, she really was just trying to help Mary. But soon enough, Mary will be looking for financial help from another source.

[00:43:05]For years, Mary lobbies Congress for a widow's pension. She argues that she deserves the same consideration given to the widows of soldiers. After all, her husband was the fallen commander of the entire army. The Seligman family advocates on her behalf. They are prominent Jewish bankers who helped finance the Union during the Civil War.

[00:43:31]And here's an interesting side note for my Titanic people. One of the Sailman brothers, James, would later have a daughter named Fuette. She married Benjamin Guggenheim.

[00:43:43]that Benjamin Guggenheim, the one who went down with the Titanic in 1912. But back to Mary, it's great for her that she has the help of the Salem family because Congress is having none of her foolishness. As you can see here in the Vermont Chronicle from July 2nd, 1870.

[00:44:02]Senator George Edmunds of Vermont, the chairman of the Committee of Pensions from 1869 to 1873, the man who makes the decisions on whether she will get this increased pension, makes an argument on the Senate floor. Mr. Edmund's remarks in the Senate on the bill giving an annual pension of $3,000 to Mrs. Mary Lincoln produced an effect. He called the attention of senators to the fact that there are 321,000 widows in this country made widows just as Mrs. Lincoln was by the events of the war. They had no one to look after them.

[00:44:41]The highest pension paid to any of them is $360.

[00:44:46]And this too, but probably half a dozen.

[00:44:49]Many of them suffer every year for the absolute necessaries of life.

[00:44:55]The argument against the pension is essentially why should Mary Lincoln get special treatment when hundreds of thousands of other war widows are struggling? It's a fair point, I guess, but it really seems as though Mary is forcing an argument where there is none.

[00:45:13]Did she fight hard for all war widows to get big pensions? The answer is no. She feels that she is special, that her situation is special. And this is another one of those things that makes Mary an unsympathetic character. Just hang on. You're going to see that she has it in her to fight for someone else as long as they are in the right class in society. In the following weeks, the papers will continue to harp on about how Mary does not deserve a pension. The Selicmans have paid for her to travel to Germany, and that's where the American public wants her to stay. The Pittsburgh Post wrote it plainly. Quote, "We hope Mary Lincoln will spend the balance of her days drinking Vichy water and eating cheese out of this country." The fear that she would expose some of the rascality of a few of the shining lights and forced attention to her clamors for a pension. She was not entitled to any, neither on the ground of poverty or services. She has over $75,000 in her own right, enough for any woman and far too much for a madam who never did know how to behave herself." End quote. Well, this is hot and heavy stuff. Notice the writer doesn't call her Mrs. Lincoln or the former first lady. She's just a madam. And that word choice is no accident. It's a loaded and layered insult. It's deliberately not calling her Mrs. Lincoln or the former first lady. Titles that would afford her dignity and status. Instead, one, it's mocking her pretentions to European sophistication, something that you and I know she was teased about as first lady and now using the French term while telling her to stay in Europe. Two, it could carry a whiff of the other meaning of madam, a woman who runs a brothel or at minimum a woman of questionable reputation. Three, paired with never did know how to behave herself, that's calling her vulgar, ill-bred, and unfit for polite society. So, it's not just this lady. It's a deliberate status emotion wrapped in an insult to her character. The writer is saying, "You're no first lady. You're just some woman with too much money and no class." But after having her ass handed to her by the American press, she finally gets what she wants, what she thinks she needs, more money. After years of effort, Congress finally grants Mary a pension of $3,000 annually. It passes by a rather narrow margin.

[00:48:08]The St. Johnsbury Times reported, "Mrs. Mary Lincoln gets her pension by a vote of 28 to 20. It's not the victory Mary hoped for. The amount is less than she wanted. The vote was close and the public debate has once again dragged her name through the mud." End quote. And no wonder that's $75,000 a year in today's money. You can imagine that a nation full of people who are hurting financially after a war don't think that this already rich woman needs all of that money guaranteed every year. But Mary's financial victories don't outweigh her personal losses and she's headed for some more.

[00:49:01]But for now, with her pension finally secured, Mary can breathe a little easier in her European exile. She and Tad have been living in Germany since 1868, supported by the Selikman family, and she's actually thriving. Mary and Tad make their base in Frankfurt, Germany at the Hotel Danglair, a rather upscale hotel. Tad is attending boarding school and Mary's not just sitting at home working on needle point projects.

[00:49:30]She's traveling all over Europe.

[00:49:33]Germany, France, Scotland, Belgium. Not too bad for a lady who's just trying to get by on the little bit of money she has. She even finds herself shopping with the royals on one awkward occasion in Nice when she encounters Victoria, Princess Royal, Queen Victoria's daughter. They look at each other but don't speak. The princess never knows who Mary is because Mary is shopping incognito and she dare not reveal her identity to anyone.

[00:50:04]It's little things like this that make it appear that maybe Mary knew deep down that she wasn't povertystricken.

[00:50:12]These years in Europe are relatively peaceful years for Mary, but that's about to change.

[00:50:18]May 1871, Mary and Tad sail back to America. On the voyage home, Tad catches a cold that develops into something much worse. At first, it looks like puricy, a painful condition caused by inflammation of the membrane surrounding the lungs or tuberculosis.

[00:50:39]And by the time they reach Chicago, his condition is grave. Two months later, Mary experiences more profound grief.

[00:50:50]July 15th, 1871.

[00:50:55]Thomas Lincoln, universally known as Tad Lincoln, died at the Clifton House in this city at 7:00 this morning. His disease was dropsy of the heart. His 18th birthday occurred in May. He was taken ill in a few days after returning from Europe. During his illness, his mother has been his almost constant attendant.

[00:51:19]There has always existed the warmest affection between the two brothers. Mrs. Lincoln is almost completely prostrated by her affliction. Tad is 18 years old.

[00:51:31]Mary has now lost three of her four sons. Eddie at three, Willie at 11, Tad at 18. Only Robert survives.

[00:51:44]Something breaks in Mary that will never be repaired.

[00:51:54]After Tad's death, Mary's behavior becomes increasingly erratic. She is paranoid. She believes someone will murder her. She carries 56 to $57,000 in bonds sewn into her pett coats.

[00:52:10]Terrified that her money will be stolen, yet simultaneously convinced she is impoverished, her shopping becomes compulsive. She buys items in bulk that she will never use. Eight pairs of lace curtains for windows she doesn't even have. She stays in hotels, checking in and out erratically, moving from place to place.

[00:52:34]She wanders the streets at night in her night gown. She sees visions and hears voices. She looks out of her window and she sees smoke rising from a chimney, then screams that Chicago is burning again, referring to the great Chicago fire of 1871 that killed approximately 300 people. Most disturbing of all, she tells doctors she believes an Indian spirit is removing the bones from her face, that wires are being pulled out of her eyes. Modern historians and psychiatrists have offered various diagnoses. Bipolar disorder, major depression, possibly pernicious anemia, possibly long-term effects from her 1863 head injury. Whatever the clinical explanation, Mary is clearly suffering.

[00:53:27]Robert Lincoln watches his mother with growing alarm and embarrassment.

[00:53:33]And then there's the ghost photograph.

[00:53:43]1872, Mary visits a spiritualist named William H. Mummler in Boston. Just like with her clothing scandal, she gives a false name. This time it's Mrs. Lindal.

[00:53:58]Mumbler is famous or infamous depending on how you see it for his spiritual photographs. He claims to be able to capture images of the dead alongside the living. Grieving families flock to him, desperate for one last glimpse of lost loved ones.

[00:54:18]Mumbler takes Mary's portrait. When the photograph is developed, there appears to be a ghostly figure standing behind her. hands resting on her shoulders. It is Abraham Lincoln, or so William Mumbler claims.

[00:54:35]Mary is reportedly overwhelmed. Finally, proof that her husband's spirit is still with her. Finally, confirmation that he has not truly left.

[00:54:47]So, just how William Mumbler knows that Mrs. Lindall is Mary is unknown. There are a number of theories I'll share with you. The one that I think is the most likely theory. One source says Mary went to Mumbler because quote her dead husband had appeared to her at a seance earlier in Boston. In Boston she attended that seance herself.

[00:55:13]That medium told Mary she should visit Mumbler's studio. End quote. And in those days, to keep up their act and to keep the money flowing, mediums and psychics often shared information about wealthy clients. You know, like, if you don't want to take my word for it, go see Madam Such and such or the great blah blah blah. He'll tell you. Then that way, the wealthy client gets double confirmation from two sources who knew nothing about what the other one had said. Wink wink. So, in Mary's case, that Boston medium may have sent word ahead to William Mumbler. Or maybe Mary went straight to him on her own because of his well-known reputation, his bad reputation. Here's what I mean. I feel like Mary was looking for the answer that she wanted to hear, and William Mumbler had already been exposed as a fraud in 1868.

[00:56:14]ET Barnum, as in Barnum and Bailey Circus, exposed William Mumbler at his eventual fraud trial a few years before Mary met him. Barnum demonstrated the technique that William Mumbler used. It was a simple double exposure created by using a previously prepared glass plate featuring the image of the quote unquote ghost. Mumbler had access to photographs of Abraham Lincoln. The rest was dark room trickery. Even though William was acquitted by the end of his trial, his technique of contacting the dead was well known. So perhaps Mary so desperately wanted to believe she could contact Abraham that she intentionally fell for a con artist. Her grief made her vulnerable and someone exploited that vulnerability for profit. Now, the photograph of the fake ghost of Abraham Lincoln still exists today, housed at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And we all know that it's a hoax. Whether Mary knows this or not in the early 1870s is still a mystery, but this will not be the last time that someone exploits Mary.

[00:57:40]March and April 1875, Robert Lincoln, Mary's only living son, hires Pinkerton detectives to follow his mother. They document her erratic behavior, her compulsive shopping, her paranoid statements, and her midnight wanderings. Robert consults with doctors who declare Mary insane without ever examining her personally. Why? Because he is planning to have his mother institutionalized without her knowledge.

[00:58:14]May 19th, 1875.

[00:58:18]Morning.

[00:58:19]Mary is summoned to the Cook County Courthouse in Chicago. She has no idea what is happening. She thinks it might be about finances. When she arrives, she discovers that she is on trial for insanity.

[00:58:35]17 witnesses testify against Mary. Hotel staff describe her wondering and paranoia. Shopkeepers describe her obsessive purchasing. Doctors who have never examined her declare her insane based on secondhand reports.

[00:58:53]Mary is not allowed to testify in her own defense. No defense witnesses are called on her behalf. Her own son, Robert Todd Lincoln, is the one who filed the petition. The jury deliberates for 10 minutes. The verdict?

[00:59:11]Insane.

[00:59:13]Mary has been declared legally incompetent. Robert is appointed conservator of her estate. He now controls her money. the very money she has been so terrified of losing since she was in the White House.

[00:59:33]May 19th, 1875 evening.

[00:59:38]Immediately after the verdict, Mary is taken to the Grand Pacific Hotel under guard. Robert and a doctor watch her closely. She tries to leave multiple times. They stop her each and every time. Her life is no longer in her control. And of course, this all makes front page news the next morning, May 20th. The headline is long, huge, and embarrassing.

[01:00:05]Clouded reason. Trial of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln for insanity. Why her relatives and friends were driven to this painful course. Testimony of physicians as to her mental unsoundness.

[01:00:19]Hearing strange voices, fears of murder, sickness of her son, what was seen by the employees of the hotel. Tradesmen testify concerning her purchases of goods. She is found insane and will be sent to Betavia.

[01:00:35]Scenes in court. Mary decides that she's going to do something about her predicament.

[01:00:42]She's going to take her life back, even if it means that she has to end it. She does something that reveals the true depth of her despair. She slips away to a pharmacy. She asks the pharmacist for linum, an opiumbased painkiller and campher, a poison. The same drug that before her husband's civil war was used by slaveholders to sedate unruly slaves.

[01:01:09]the same drug that slaves would take themselves in large enough quantities to end their own lives and free themselves from the horrors of slavery.

[01:01:20]Well, Robert has anticipated that his mother will take such drastic measures to rid herself of her new condition. He is a step ahead of her. He has already warned the pharmacist. So, the pharmacist refuses to sell to her. Mary tries another pharmacy.

[01:01:40]Don't know why Robert didn't see that coming, but oh well. This time she is successful. She obtains the lottinum.

[01:01:46]She takes the entire bottle. It should be enough to kill her. But Mary survives. Either the pharmacist diluted the mixture or she vomited it up before it could take full effect. We don't know for certain what happened. What we do know is that the widow of Abraham Lincoln, the woman who held her husband's hand as he was shot, who buried three of her four sons, who was mocked and vilified and accused of treason and now declared insane by her only surviving child, tried to end her own life. And the next morning, they took her to the asylum anyway.

[01:02:34]May 20th, 1875, Mary is taken by train to Betavia, Illinois and committed to Belleview Place, a private sanitarium for women run by Dr. Richard Patterson.

[01:02:47]It is by the standards of the time a relatively comfortable facility. This is not the kind of place that you might imagine when you think of insane asylums in the 1870s, which had reputations for being overcrowded, filthy, abusive, and literally having patients chained to walls, that sort of thing. No, Mary has a private room on the fourth floor, and she is treated with something resembling dignity, but she is still a prisoner.

[01:03:16]She cannot leave the grounds. Her mail is monitored. Her visitors are limited and her son, the one who put her here, controls every aspect of her life. Mary is furious. She's heartbroken, but she's not crazy and she's not stupid. She begins planning her escape.

[01:03:44]Summer 1875, Mary befriends another patient at Belu Place. Through this woman, she begins smuggling letters out of the facility.

[01:03:55]The letters are addressed to Myra Bradwell. Now, Myra Bradwell is one of the most remarkable women of the 19th century. She's a pioneering lawyer who had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court just for the right to practice law. She lost that case. The Supreme Court ruled that women could be excluded from the legal profession, but she kept fighting. In the meantime, she publishes a legal newspaper. She is a feminist and women's rights advocate. And even though she's not allowed to practice law herself, she's about to help Mary Todd Lincoln fight for her freedom.

[01:04:34]Myra and her husband, James Bradwell, who is a licensed attorney, take up Mary's case. They work with her sister, Elizabeth Edwards, who agrees to take Mary in if she can be released. Then something happens in plain sight.

[01:04:51]September 10th and 11th, 1875.

[01:04:55]From the panagramraph, Illinois news. Mrs. Mary Lincoln arrived at Springfield on Saturday morning in charge of her son, Robert. She is to be the guest of her sister, Mrs. Edwards, and it is hoped that she will be improved by her stay. She is not regarded as being any better in mind than when she first went to Bavia. The official story is that Mary is simply being transferred to her sister's care.

[01:05:25]The reality is more dramatic. Mary claims she is going for a carriage ride.

[01:05:31]Instead, she boards a train to Chicago.

[01:05:34]She meets with the Bradwells. They escort her to Springfield where she takes refuge with Elizabeth. Mary has escaped from the asylum. Plain and simple. A woman declared legally insane by a court, confined to an asylum, monitored at all times, and she orchestrated her own escape through secret letters, strategic alliances, and careful planning. Does that sound like the work of an insane person? You decide.

[01:06:10]June 15th, 1876.

[01:06:14]Mary stands trial again. This time a sanity hearing in Springfield. This time she has legal representation. James Radwell argues on her behalf. Medical experts testify that she is sane. The jury deliberates for 7 minutes, 3 minutes less than the first jury that found her to be insane. The Rock Island Argus told the story the next day. Mrs. Lincoln recovered in the county court this morning on petition of Mr. Edwards, brother of Mrs. Lincoln. And pause here, Mr. Edwards is not Mary's brother, he is her brother-in-law. Back to the papers, quote, a jury was impanled and having heard statements from Mr. Edwards to the effect that Mrs. Lincoln is now in condition to manage her estate properly and of Mr. Sweat, who appeared on behalf of Robert Lincoln to say that his client would be only too glad to have the decree of court reversed if the testimony given satisfied the jury.

[01:07:18]Thereupon the jury gave a verdict that said Mary Lincoln is restored to reason and is capable to manage and control her estate.

[01:07:27]Restored to reason. Mary regains control of her finances. She's a free woman again, thanks to the words of men.

[01:07:36]Notice that it wasn't her sister's word that freed her. It was her sister's husband who was heard. And even though Myra Bradwell was capable of representing Mary in court, it was Myra's husband who had to be the attorney on record. Quick side note, it might please you to know that Myra eventually won her case and was able to practice law. Illinois admitted her to the bar in 1890. The state actually backdated her admission to her original 1869 application date as a symbolic gesture.

[01:08:09]As for Mary, it's great that she won her freedom, but I have to be honest, her relationship with money remained deeply unhealthy for the rest of her life. The fear, the hoarding, the irrational anxiety, these never fully went away.

[01:08:27]Whether she needed the structure of conservatorship is a complicated question without a simple answer. It seems like Mary and Robert needed to meet someplace in the middle. Like maybe Mary did need some type of conservatorship in place, but she didn't need to be locked away. Again, it's complicated. What's not complicated is what happens next between Mary and Robert.

[01:09:00]Mary never forgives Robert. She demands the return of every possession he held during his conservatorship. She exchanges bitter letters with him, accusing him of theft and betrayal. She claims he had her committed just so he could steal money. Robert tries to reconcile. Mary refuses. She will never speak to her only surviving son again.

[01:09:28]The estrangement lasts for the rest of her life. This is one of the crulest ironies of Mary's story. She has lost so much. So many people, her mother, her husband, three of her four children, and now she voluntarily cuts off the one child she has left. Was Robert wrong to have her committed? Probably. The trial was rushed. Mary had no real defense, and the standards for determining insanity in 1875 were deeply flawed, especially when it came to women. Was Robert genuinely concerned about his mother's well-being. He could have been.

[01:10:08]After all, he watched her spiral for years. He saw the compulsive behavior, the paranoid delusions, the suicide attempt. Maybe he just didn't know what else to do. They were both wounded people trying to cope with impossible circumstances and they destroyed their relationship in the process. What do you think was the right call for Robert to make? Tell me in the comments.

[01:10:40]October 1876.

[01:10:43]Mary cannot face life in America. She fears Robert will try to institutionalize her again. So she sails for Europe, her second exile. She settles in Po, France, a small town in the south near the Pyrenees mountains.

[01:11:00]She lives in a modest boarding house.

[01:11:03]She continues her excessive shopping.

[01:11:06]But there's a problem. Her eyesight is failing. Severe cataracts make bright light unbearable for her now. She is increasingly isolated and alone.

[01:11:19]1879.

[01:11:21]Mary falls from a step ladder while hanging a picture. She suffers a serious spinal injury. Her mobility becomes increasingly limited. There's no way around it. Her health is failing rapidly. She cannot manage life on her own anymore.

[01:11:44]October 1880, Mary returns to Springfield. She moves into her sister's home, the same house in which she married Abraham Lincoln 38 years earlier.

[01:11:56]But the bright days of the 1840s are long gone. Now she is confined to a darkened room. The cataracts make any light agonizing. She is nearly blind.

[01:12:10]She weighs only nearly 100 lb. She is partially paralyzed from her fall and still she obsesses over her possessions and money. She is surrounded by trunks full of things, clothing, jewelry, cash, and the accumulated purchases of decades. She cannot let go. Robert lives nearby in Chicago. less than 200 miles separate them physically, but the emotional scars have not healed, and I can't rewrite their ending. I already told you that Mary never spoke to Robert again, and even at this point, they do not reconcile. Not even after this headline, which Robert surely would have seen from the evening mail on June 22nd, 1881.

[01:13:00]Lincoln's widow, Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of the assassinated president, is dying at her residence in Springfield. She's dying comparatively alone and unfriended. Her death will be a relief to her. For many years, her life has been wretched, overclouded by the shadow of mental weakness, and soured by the desertion or the animosity of the friends upon whom she relied for sympathy and support. It goes on to say, "After her death, we shall probably have a gush of sentiment over her." You see that? Probably. The paper speculates that the nation might mourn her loss.

[01:13:46]Even in what everyone assumes are her final days, the lack of concern for her persists.

[01:13:54]1881, President James Garfield is shot in an assassination attempt on July 2nd. He hangs on for dear life and finally succumbs to his wounds 79 days later on September 19th. So, remember when I said that Mary would fight for someone else if they were in the right class? Here it is. But I should be clear. I was being generous. She's getting ready to fight, but not really for first lady Lucricia Garfield. She's going to use Lucricia's new pension, $5,000 as a bargaining chip to get more money for herself. You heard me correctly.

[01:14:37]Mary from her sick bed lobbies for an increased pension. She uses President Garfield's widow as a comparison. If Lucricia Garfield deserves support, don't I? Here's the thing. The public actually likes Lucricia Garfield. She's sympathetic. She nursed her dying husband for 97 days. Mary couldn't even stand to be in the same room with President Lincoln when he was dying.

[01:15:04]Remember? So now, when it comes to First Lady Garfield, Americans are so moved by her loss that businessman Cyrus W. field organizes a public donation drive that raises nearly $360,000 for the widow and her children. On top of that, Congress grants her a $5,000 annual pension, $2,000 more than was granted to Mary. Mary Todd Lincoln got no such public outpouring. The nation didn't donate a dime to her, but she sees what Congress is doing for Lucricia and she wants the same treatment. If the new presidential widow deserves $5,000 a year, don't I deserve that much?

[01:15:50]Congress agrees. They increase her pension to $5,000 per year, matching Lucricia's plus an extra lump sum of $15,000.

[01:16:02]Mary gets the money, but she'll never get what Lucricia had. The sympathy of a nation or a sixf figure payday. Nowhere near the $360,000 that first Lady Lucricia Garfield received. But Mary did get a little something more out of the deal. You can see here in this article from the Rock Island Argus.

[01:16:25]Congress ordained that all letters and packages carried by post to and from Mary Lincoln, widow of the late Abraham Lincoln, will be carried free of postage during her natural life. So there, at least Congress gave her free postage for life. A very small consolation, especially considering that she was at the end of her life, but many would say it's more than she deserves for being so moneyhungry. Finally, Mary has the financial security she spent her whole life fearing she would lose, but she's too sick to enjoy it. And just so you know, Mary actually wants $10,000 per year, not $5,000. When she only gets the 5,000 plus the $15,000 lumpsum, she calls it a quote poultry sum. Even on her deathbed, it isn't enough. There is a reason the nation doesn't like her.

[01:17:36]July 15th, 1882.

[01:17:39]Mary suffers a stroke and she lapses into a coma. The date is an eerie coincidence. It is exactly 7 years to the day since Tad died. Less than 24 hours later, Mary Todd Lincoln dies at age 63 in her sister's home in Springfield, the city where her story with Abraham began. From the Decatur Daily Republican, death of Mrs. Lincoln, the death of Mrs. Mary Lincoln, relic of the late President Lincoln, which took place at Springfield last evening, will revive in the minds of the public the sad memories of an event which, while it appalls the world, produced in the hearts of all people a tender sympathy for anyone bearing the name of Lincoln.

[01:18:29]The shock of that terrible tragedy of April 1865 fell upon the woman who has just died with crushing force and for more than 17 years has lived in the shadow of her great grief. Little wonder it is that she has exhibited eccentricities bordering upon insanity or that her idiosyncries have sometimes taken such odd and unusual forms.

[01:18:55]End quote. She dies wealthy. $74,000 in bonds plus all those possessions she could never stop acquiring. The woman who lived in terror of poverty leaves behind a small fortune. Her wedding ring inscribed 40 years earlier with al to Mary November 4th 1842 love is eternal is placed on her finger for burial.

[01:19:25]Finally, Mary Todd Lincoln receives respect. It is the day of her funeral, July 19th, 1882.

[01:19:34]Flags fly at half mast. Stores close.

[01:19:38]Thousands attend her funeral. The city that once knew her as an ambitious young woman finally honors her as the widow of its most famous son. For the first time in years, she and her only surviving son, Robert Lincoln, are under the same roof at the first Presbyterian church in Springfield, Illinois. Yes, even Robert, the one who tried to put her away in an insane asylum, shows up, perhaps with grief on his heart, because like I told you, I can't rewrite their ending. They never reconciled.

[01:20:13]Nevertheless, Mary's remains are placed in a crypt in the Lincoln monument. She is laid to rest beside Abraham, beside Eddie, Willie, and Tad. And Robert is there. The Lincoln family is together again for the last time.

[01:20:33]Robert Todd Lincoln went on to become Secretary of War under Presidents Garfield and Arthur and later served as minister to the United Kingdom. He died in 1926, the last surviving member of his immediate family. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery far from the family tomb in Springfield where his father, brothers, and mother rest. It's worth mentioning that Robert carried on the Lincoln family curse of burying children. In 1890, Robert's only son, Abraham Lincoln II, died at age 16 from blood poisoning. He was buried at the Lincoln Tomb with his grandparents. But after Robert Lincoln died, his son's remains were transferred to the Arlington National Cemetery. That decision was made by Robert's wife who also had the same name as his mother Mary. Now remember I told you about the Sailikman family who took care of Mary when she was living in Germany and the whole Sailikman Guggenheim marriage.

[01:21:40]Well, the Sailikman Guggenheim marriage is not the only Titanic connection to this story. It occurred to me for the first time as I proofread this script that President Lincoln was shot on the same date that the Titanic struck the iceberg. Different years of course, but April 14th. And like Lincoln, the Titanic hung on by a thread to make it to see April 15th. I don't know how I didn't make that connection sooner as these dates are etched in my brain, just not together for these different events.

[01:22:16]Anyway, Meline Aster was married to the Titanic's richest passenger, John Jacob Aster IV. And like Mary Todd Lincoln, she faced a lot of public ridicule after her husband's death. But a lot of it was self-inflicted because of the man she chose for her third husband, an Italian boxer who was just a little more than half her age. I published a video about their saga that you can see here. I will also leave links to it in the description box and pinned comment.

[01:22:51]Thank you for letting me be a part of your day. My sources for this story are on the screen.

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