[>] “in the thundering tones”: AL, “Temperance Address,” February 22, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 271–79.
“Old School” Calvinism: Allen C. Guelzo, “Abraham Lincoln and the Doctrine of Necessity,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 18 (Winter 1997), http://jala.press.uiuc.edu/18.1/guelzo.html, March 31, 2005.
“There is but one thing”: AL to Mary Speed, September 27, 1841, CWL, vol. 1, 261.
“If from all these causes”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, January 3?, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 265.
[>] “you are safe”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, February 13, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 269–70.
“not to some false and ruinous”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, January 3?, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 265.
she had taken ill: Mrs. William C. Bullitt to John Bullitt, February 9, 1842, Bullitt Family Papers, Filson Historical Society.
“ The death scenes”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, February 3, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 267–68.
[>] “There’s a divinity”: Herndon’s Lincoln, vol. 3, 436. This phrase is from Hamlet, act 5, scene 2.
like billiard balls: This was a popular metaphor among scientists and philosophers explaining the “doctrine of necessity.” See, for example, William Godwin, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Book IV: Operation of Opinion in Societies, Individuals; Chapter VIII: Inferences from the Doctrine of Necessity. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/godwin/pj4/pj4_8.html, April 1, 2005.
“His idea was that”: Herndon’s Lincoln, vol. 3, 597.
“I once contended”: ibid., 438.
“strikes and cuts”: WHH to Jesse W. Weik, February 25, 1887, Hidden Lincoln, 181.
“what I understand is called”: AL, “Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity,” July 31, 1846, CWL, vol. 1, 382.
“Virtually all of the major”: Guelzo, “Abraham Lincoln and the Doctrine of Necessity,” http://jala.press.uiuc.edu/18.1/guelzo.html, para. 15.
[>] “watchmaker God”: Jacoby, Freethinkers, 4.
“The universal sense of mankind”: AL, “Temperance Address,” February 22, 1842,
CWL, vol. 1, 275.
“The truth is”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, July 4, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 289.
[>] “It made a deep impression”: Joshua F. Speed to WHH, September 17, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 342. When Mrs. Speed requested a photograph of Lincoln as president, he wrote on it: “For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed from whose pious hands I accepted the present of an Oxford Bible Twenty years ago.” Joshua F. Speed to WHH, December 6, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 500.
“priest ridden”: This quote is from a letter that appeared in the Beardstown Chronicle on November 1, 1834. Though it was signed “Samuel Hill,” a shopkeeper in New Salem, Douglas L. Wilson argues persuasively that Lincoln was the author. “Abraham Lincoln Versus Peter Cartwright,” Lincoln Before Washington: New Perspectives on the Illinois Years (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 55–73.
“Tell your mother”: AL to Mary Speed, September 27, 1841, CWL, vol. 1, 261.
James professed himself: Louis Menand writes of James, “Although he believed in the legitimacy of the religious response to the universe, he was never able to attain its consolation himself. All his efforts to make contact with God, or to enter into what he could regard as a spiritual state of mind, were unsuccessful. ‘My personal position is simple,’ he wrote two years after the publication of The Varieties of Religious Experience to one of the book’s critics. ‘I have no living sense of commerce with a God.’ And then, in an understatement: ‘I envy those who have, for I know that the addition of such a sense would help me greatly.’” Louis Menand, “William James and the Case of the Epileptic Patient,” New York Review of Books, December 17, 1998, citing William James to James H. Leuba, April 17, 1904.
“He always seemed to deplore”: Albert T. Bledsoe, review of Ward Hill Lamon’s Life of Abraham Lincoln, in Southern Review (April 1873). Reprinted in Lincoln among His Friends, 483–84.
[>] “intense anxiety and trepidation”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, February 25, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 280.
“How miserably things seem”: ibid., 281.
one of Benjamin Rush’s prescriptions: Rush, Medical Inquiries, 126.
[>] “Before I resolve”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, July 4, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 288.
“I believe now”: ibid., 289.
“for without, you would not”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, October 5, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 303.
“commenced choaking & sobbing”: Abner Y. Ellis, statement for WHH, January 23, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 173.
[>] “glooming”: James H. Matheny, interview with WHH, May 3, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 251.
“I think if I were you”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, February 13, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 269–70.
This age-old prescription: Robert Burton, in his classic Anatomy of Melancholy, wrote, “I write of melancholy, by being busy to avoid melancholy. There is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness, no better cure than business.” Courtesy of Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/etext/10800.
“To Hell, I suppose”: Herndon’s Lincoln, vol. 2, 229.
“Lincoln looked and acted”: James H. Matheny, interview with WHH, May 3, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 251.
“A. L. to Mary”: Wayne C. Temple, Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic to Prophet (Mahomet, Ill.: Mayhaven, 1995), 27.
6. THE REIGN OF REASON
[>] popular psychological theory: This is a paraphrase of Daniel Walker Howe, The Making of the American Self, 5–6.
“It will in future”: AL, “Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois,” January 27, 1838, CWL, vol. 1, 115.
“most powerful moral effort”: AL, “Temperance Address,” February 22, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 275, 279.
[>] “many of his friends feared”: Robert B. Rutledge to WHH, November 30, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 426. Lincoln used the same imagery when he referred to Matthew Gentry as “a human form with reason fled.”
Lincoln bemoaned his inability: See AL to Mrs. Orville [Eliza] Browning, April 1, 1838, CWL, vol. 1, 117–19, and AL to Joshua F. Speed, July 4, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 28890.
In 1840, he once mocked: Replying to a speech by the Democrat Jesse B. Thomas, Lincoln mocked the man’s past and imitated his voice and gestures, the effect being “absolutely overwhelming and withering,” said an observer. Lincoln among His Friends, 467. Thomas scampered away in tears. Lincoln hunted him down the next day to apologize; years later, he said he still regretted it deeply. Herndon’s Lincoln, vol. 1, 198. Lincoln’s chagrin may have been compounded by knowledge that Thomas was not well mentally. He committed suicide on May 4, 1853. Bateman, Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, 521. See Robert Bray, “‘The Power to Hurt’: Lincoln’s Early Use of Satire and Invective,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Winter 1995, http://jala.press .uiuc.edu/16.1/bray.html, March 31, 2005.
challenged him to a duel: For a recent treatment of this incident, see Douglas L. Wilson, “Lincoln’s Affair of Honor,” Atlantic Monthly, February 1998, 64–71.
“fancy, emotion, and imagination”: James H. Matheny, interview with WHH, November 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 431–32.
“There was a strong tinge”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, January 31, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 185.
“You are young, and I am older”: AL, “Verses: to Rosa Haggard,” September 28, 1858, CWL, vol. 3, 203.
[>] “grossly misdiagnosed”: James McCullough, Jr., Treatment for Chronic Depression: Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) (New York: Guilford Press, 2000), 8.
“a burden which they habitually bear”: Emil Kraepelin, Manic-Depressive Insanity and Paranoia, edited by G. M. Robertson (Edinburgh: Livingstone, 1921), 192.
[>] “rather an unladylike profession”: Mary Todd to Mercy Ann Levering, December 1840, MTL, Life and Letters, 21.
Once she caused: Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, 81–82.
By law, she became: For one popular take on domestic expe
ctations in the mid-nineteenth century, see Catharine Beecher, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, originally published in 1841.
Mary Lincoln: Jennifer Fleischner, Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave (New York: Broadway Books, 2003), 7.
their first child: For the dates of births and deaths in the Lincoln family, see “Family Record in Abraham Lincoln’s Bible,” November 4, 1842–April 4, 1853, CWL, vol. 1, 304.
a cottage at Eighth and Jackson: David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), 96. For a thorough treatment of Lincoln’s home, see Wayne C. Temple, By Square and Compasses: The Building of Lincoln’s Home and Its Saga (Bloomington, Ill.: Ashlar Press, 1984).
time at home shrank: Writes Charles Strozier, “A subtle shift had occurred in the pattern of Lincoln’s absences between 1843 and 1850—they had lengthened. In the early days of his marriage he seldom stayed away more than two weeks and determinedly broke up longer trips into two- and three-week units. By 1850, however, he took five long trips that lasted one, four, four, six, and one weeks, in that order . . . The same pattern holds true for the next few years.” Charles B. Strozier, Lincoln’s Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings (New York: Basic Books, 1982), 117, citing Day by Day.
an 830–mile journey: Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, 108.
In the year Eddie was born: ibid. There were two main circuit trips a year, from September to January and March to June. Leonard Swett to J. H. Drummond, May 27, 1860, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln.
[>] “love him better”: James Gourley, interview with WHH, 1865–66, Herndon’s Informants, 453.
“little engine that knew no rest”: Herndon’s Lincoln, vol. 2, 375.
“a more restless ambition”: ibid., 295–96.
an unknown number were burned: Thomas F. Schwartz, the Illinois state historian, notes that the letter from AL to Mary Lincoln, June 12, 1848, was found in a “burn pile” in Springfield, as were Mary’s surviving letters to her husband at that time. Interview with author, February 11, 2002. As with many Victorians, Mary Lincoln believed in destroying correspondence. She wrote to Hannah Shearer, January 1, 1860, “Let the flames receive this, so soon as read.” MTL, Life and Letters, 62. Robert Todd Lincoln was known for destroying papers containing personal details, and probably did so during the decades he retained exclusive control over his father’s papers. See Lincoln Papers, vol. 1, 121–29.
“Will you be a good girl”: AL to Mary Lincoln, June 12, 1848, CWL, vol. 1, 477–78.
“I really wish to see you”: AL to Mary Lincoln, September 22, 1863, CWL, vol. 6, 474.
“She was very highly strung”: Helm, The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln, 32.
[>] “As we used familiarly”: O. H. Browning, interview with John G. Nicolay, June 17, 1875, An Oral History, 1.
tantrums of sadness: See Jesse Dubois, undated interview with Jesse W. Weik, Herndon’s Informants, 692, and Burlingame, Inner World, 273, citing WHH to Jesse Weik, January 23, 1886.
“very violent temper”: John T. Stuart, interview with John G. Nicolay, June 24, 1875, An Oral History, 15.
“one of her nervous spells”: Anna Eastman Johnson, interview with A. Longfellow Fiske, Commonweal, March 2, 1932, reprinted in Intimate Memories, 134. Johnson grew up in a house near the Lincolns’.
He kept a couch: Burlingame, Inner World, 272, citing Victor Kutchin to the editor of the New York Times, August 21, 1934, in New York Times, August 26, 1934. Kutchin had inherited the couch from Lincoln’s friend Mason Brayman.
“If she became excited”: Weik, The Real Lincoln, 121.
Once Mary Lincoln slapped: James Matheny, interview with WHH, January 1887, Herndon’s Informants, 713–14.
[>] “You, no doubt”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, October 22, 1846, CWL, vol. 1,390–91. “seem to derive personal gratification”: Hagop S. Akiskal, “Overview of Chronic Depressions and Their Clinical Management,” in Hagop Akiskal and Giovanni B. Casson, eds., Dysthymia and the Spectrum of Chronic Depressions (New York: Guilford Press, 1997), 24.
“The better part of one’s life”: AL to Joseph Gillespie, July 13 1849, CWL, vol. 2, 57–58.
“Every man is proud”: AL, “Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society,” September 30, 1859, CWL, vol. 3, 475.
[>] “Now if you should hear”: AL to Rickard S. Thomas, February 14, 1843, CWL, vol. 1, 307.
“The people of Sangamon”: AL to Martin S. Morris, March 26, 1843, CWL, vol. 1, 320.
Baker stepped aside: Baker had assured Lincoln he would bow out by September 1845. Edward Baker Lincoln was born on March 10, 1846. Donald W. Riddle, Lincoln Runs for Congress (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1948), 78, and “Family Record in Abraham Lincoln’s Bible,” November 4, 1842–April 4, 1853, CWL, vol. 1, 304.
In the general election: Riddle, Lincoln Runs for Congress, 177.
“Being elected to Congress”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, October 22, 1846, CWL, vol. 1, 39091.
“peculiar misfortune”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, February 25, 1842, CWL, vol. 1, 280.
“At this, my heart sank”: Mill’s case is discussed in Mike W. Martin, “Depression: Illness, Insight, and Identity,” Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 6, no. 4 (1999): 271–86; citing John Stuart Mill, Autobiography (New York: Penguin, 1989; orig. 1873), 112.
In extreme cases: Cohen, Out of the Blue, 118.
[>] Just days after: Lincoln sewed up the nomination when John J. Hardin withdrew from the race on February 16, 1846. Benjamin Thomas, Abraham Lincoln: A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1952), 107. He first wrote to Andrew Johnston mentioning his poetry on February 24, 1846. CWL, vol. 1, 366.
“heart-sickening”: AL to WHH, June 22, 1848, CWL, vol. 1, 490.
“In this troublesome world”: AL to Mary Lincoln, April 16, 1848, CWL, vol. 1, 465.
[>] personal favorites of Lincoln’s: Lincoln famously called Clay his “beau ideal of a statesman.” AL, “First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, CWL, vol. 3, 29. Webster, he said, was the author of the best piece of political rhetoric he knew, the “Reply to Hayne.” Herndon’s Lincoln, vol. 3, 478.
Lincoln backed Taylor: Albert J. Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928), vol. 1, 441–43.
“abandoned”: AL, “Remarks and Resolution Introduced in the United States House of Representatives Concerning Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia,” January 10, 1849, CWL, vol. 2, 22n.4.
“political suicide”: Herndon’s Lincoln, vol. 3, 306. “In fact,” writes Charles Strozier, “Lincoln had not really failed in Congress. The scholarly consensus is that he performed reasonably well for a freshman Congressman. But his own sense was one of failure. He was profoundly depressed at his inability to perform up to the level of expectation of his grandiose ambitions. Unless one appreciates how much Lincoln expected of himself, his depression seems odd and misplaced. But it is in these terms—general and psychological rather than narrowly political—that Lincoln’s statements to Herndon about committing political suicide in Washington make sense.” Strozier, Lincoln’s Quest for Union, 167.
“It will now mortify me deeply”: AL to Josiah M. Lucas, April 25, 1849, CWL, vol. 2, 43–44.
trample all my wishes: For a thorough treatment of this episode, see Thomas F. Schwartz, “An Egregious Political Blunder: Justin Butterfield, Lincoln, and Illinois Whiggery,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 8 (1986), http://jala.press.uiuc.edu/8/schwartz.html, March 31, 2005.
As a consolation: John Stuart, interview with WHH, 1865–66, Herndon’s Informants, 479–80. Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, vol. 1,493, points out that no official record exists that the job was offered to Lincoln.
“disgusted”: Charles H. Hart to WHH, March 3, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 223.
[>] “As you make no mention”: AL to John D. Johnston, February 23, 1850, CWL, vol. 2, 76–77.
Two years later: AL to John D. Johnston, January 12, 1851, CWL, vol. 2, 96. “because it appeared to me”: ibid.
His son did not Rodney Davis, “Abraham Lincoln: Son and Father,” Edgar S. and Ruth W. Burkhardt Lecture Series (Galesburg, Ill.: Knox College, 1997), 11.
“open souled”: Mentor Graham, interview with WHH, May 29, 1865, Herndon’s Informants, 11.
[>] “the most secretive”: WHH to J. E. Remsberg, September 10, 1887, published by H. E. Barker, 1917, copy in ISHL.
“If he had griefs”: Joseph Gillespie to WHH, December 8, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 507–8.
“he was not”: Mary Lincoln to Josiah Holland, December 4, 1865, MTL, Life and Letters, 293.
“His reason and his logic”: James H. Matheny, interview with WHH, November 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 431–32.
“blue spells”: Gibson William Harris, “My Recollections of Abraham Lincoln,” Farm and Fireside 27, no. 7 (January 1, 1905): 25. Harris’s recollections ran serially in the magazine between December 1, 1904, and February 15, 1905.
“That Star gazing”: Abner Y. Ellis to WHH, December 6, 1866, Herndon’s Informants, 500.
Three years later: Presley Judson Edwards, “Memoirs,” n.p.
[>] “I was sitting with”: Whitney, Life on the Circuit, 139–40.
“One morning, I was awakened”: ibid., 47–48.
“The most marked”: Weik, The Real Lincoln, 111–12.
[>] “he might be seen”: Jonathan Birch, interview with Jesse W. Weik, Herndon’s Informants, 727–28.
“alone in his gloom”: Herndon wrote a number of times about finding Lincoln depressed in the morning. See WHH to Jesse Weik, January 11, 1886, Hidden Lincoln, 133–34; “Lincoln’s Domestic Life,” Herndon-Weik Ms.
[>] “was part of his nature”: Henry Whitney to WHH, June 23, 1887, Herndon’s Informants, 617.
“With depression”: Cohen, Out of the Blue, 69.
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