I wanted to write this with out much historic content. I wanted to ask questions that I cannot answer. I want to pose questions that perhaps no one can answer either. When it comes to Lincoln there are some serious holes in his personality. There are some serious holes in the historic record. There are some serious holes in his friends recollections. What we are left with a somewhat half baked historic pie.
Lincoln was known to have so many friends and yet in reality there seems to be only a few close friends...Judge David Davis said once that Lincoln was a cold fellow, never said thank you for anything or was warm to any person. Perhaps his closest friend was Joshua Speed. He and Speed were good friends, shared a bed for 3 years and were wildly romantic to be romantic and get married...They spent most of there time figuring out how to meet the fairer sex.
I know all the stories that are said about Lincoln and Speed and they are basically just wishful thinking for people who want to put it in that type of light. What am I saying, Lincoln for as far as I can see was not at all gay. He is listed as such with so many groups who have hardly a idea of his history. James Buchanan the President before Lincoln was most probably gay...But I never see him listed like Lincoln...Well Buchanan was not a successful President and few list him for much of anything.
Lincoln was a strange man, he had some odd personal habits. He could be awkward and ungainly, but in another sense he could be a warm interesting person and in the right moment very charming. In Lincoln, Mary Todd saw this. She would become his wife and spend 23 or so years with him.
Lincoln was a complex fellow in his moods ...On the surface he was funny and a great speaker, but deep down he seemed to drip with sadness. Walt Whitman the poet saw Lincoln ride by once during the civil war and noted the sad face of the President.
Those that knew him knew that he was often to found in near deathly sadness and then in the greatest of happiness and mirth. He would laugh out loud for things that were not funny and would love to make fun of silly little things...Once when walking with William Seward his secretary of State down the street in Washington they came to a tea shop that had a sign saying "T.R. Strong" Lincoln looked at it and said "But coffee R stronger" and he and Seward laughed like schoolgirls!
I am of the opinion that he used people a lot, and used the facade of being from the country and not knowing what he was doing was wrong. I think he wanted many to think that he was a simpleton, and not too much. Then he would be able to destroy that person.
Lincoln was given many great gifts in life. One was a good sense of humor, another was a hard shell, and lastly a mind of amazing properties.
There has never been a President who could write like Lincoln. Yes he had a lot of help in his work, much from Seward...He did a vast majority of it on his own.
But what about Lincoln as a person, he seemed to be a bit crazy. Maybe when he became President the times were so crazy, that only a man many thought to be crazy could see the ship of state through the storm.
He loved the company of men rather than women, many men in those days did. Many Presidents in our history were the same.. One of Lincoln's kindred spirits was John Hay (1838-1905).. Hay was Lincoln's assistant Secretary. He had a lucid mind and was full of fun and had a remarkable sense of conversation. He was perfect for the President.
Lincoln spent a lot of time with his Secretaries and they formed a very tight bond. His Private Secretary was John George Nicolay and his assistant was John Hay. They had great fun with Lincoln.
Hay would often write about Lincoln walking the halls not being able to sleep and waking them up and reading some humorous passages from book or another. Lincoln would be howling with laughter....His dress was most odd..He would wear a long nightshirt and his long legs would be sticking out and he looked at times like an ostrich. They referred to Lincoln as the Tycoon...But they adored the man.
It seems that his closest friends didn't just like him , they adored him. It may be said for other individuals in our history...that people either loved or hated them.
Believe me, there were millions who hated Abraham Lincoln.
So getting back to my beginnings here with this....Who was Lincoln? What do we really know of him? There are so many holes that will never be filled.
There are stories of him babbling at mirrors...Or seeing his image double in a mirror and stating that he would live through one term and die in the next....But is this true? There are some many stories of Lincoln that are totally untrue.
He was the perfect man for his time? Yes, indeed. He did things that no President before ever dreamed of doing before him. Was he crazy? Perhaps a bit...But sometimes craziness is the answer to great problems. Look at many of our greatest inventors..Many of them were as crazy as Hell...We often forget the fact that Lincoln was also an inventor. He is the only President in American history to have a patent! The only one.
Was he henpecked by his wife....I am sure of it, but they did indeed love each other in their own way. Mary Todd was very good for Lincoln. She was very refined and knew many.
It was just the terrible times that caused so much trouble for the Lincoln family. Death threats and the like were a daily item...Lincoln lived with it but Mary had a hard time with it. When she got depressed nothing made her feel better than to go shopping...And she did! Lincoln went through the roof when he saw what she had bought....He yelled at her and called them "Flub dubbs"...
They were oddly suited for each other. They made a good team. The loss of a child in 1862 brought them even closer together. But she became more problematic.
Robert Lincoln who was once described as being more of a Todd than a Lincoln had a rather cool relationship with his father. They were not at all alike.
When it came to the Todd family Lincoln would often joke that God only uses one d in his name but the Todd's need 2!
She liked to be proper he liked to be funny...Sometimes they did not see eye to eye on this issue...Often war would erupt if instead of stating that she was finishing up her dressing gown he would state that she was putting on her trotting harness! He would laugh she would growl...and soon the Hellcat as Lincoln's assistant secretary Hay called her was yelling and screaming like a wild animal.
Lincoln in his life rarely showed or shared his feelings with others...His law partners save for his last were not close. Billy Herndon knew Lincoln as few ever would or could. He would come into their law office in a terrible depressed mood and Billy would put a shade across the room to allow Lincoln to collect himself. Herndon was of the thought that Mrs. Lincoln was responsible for many of these events.
He was very much a great thinker, although a very slow thinker. He did not like to be put on the spot to speak or say anything lest he say something stupid. He knew his limits. He used his gifts carefully.
So what did Lincoln think of his friends, assistants, rivals, and peers. More often than not there is no record. Not to say there never was. But Lincoln has always had his protectors. There was an image to keep and if anything did not fit the image it was gone.
It is a well known fact that Robert Lincoln spent a lot of time burning many of his fathers papers...That was a terrible crime. No one knows what was lost...But probably what would show Lincoln in a more human personal style was in those letters and notes that Robert Lincoln burned.
So who is this animal called Abraham Lincoln? He was a complex, ruthless, charming, biased, cunning, careful, funny man.....As Billy Herndon his law partner once said of Lincoln ...That he used men like Chess pieces, discarding them after they lost their usefulness....
History has made him into something far different than that...But we have to remember he was a politician.
I am sure there is so much more to say on Lincoln and I plan too...But this should be enough for a not too short narrative on that strange yet amazing man from Springfield, Illinois......Abraham Lincoln
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