Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Detailed Contents
- List of Maps and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- How This Book Came to Be
- 1 Introduction
- PART ONE LINCOLN THE POLITICIAN AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF
- PART TWO LINCOLN'S MORAL CHARACTER
- 7 Lincoln's Virtues
- 8 Other Salient Features of Lincoln's Character and Personality
- 9 Lincoln's Marriage and Family Life, and What They Reveal about His Character
- 10 Was Lincoln a Racist?
- 11 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
9 - Lincoln's Marriage and Family Life, and What They Reveal about His Character
from PART TWO - LINCOLN'S MORAL CHARACTER
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Detailed Contents
- List of Maps and Figures
- Acknowledgments
- How This Book Came to Be
- 1 Introduction
- PART ONE LINCOLN THE POLITICIAN AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF
- PART TWO LINCOLN'S MORAL CHARACTER
- 7 Lincoln's Virtues
- 8 Other Salient Features of Lincoln's Character and Personality
- 9 Lincoln's Marriage and Family Life, and What They Reveal about His Character
- 10 Was Lincoln a Racist?
- 11 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
I. Lincoln's Marriage and What It Reveals about His Character
Lincoln married a very troubled and temperamental woman. It is important to ask what his marriage reveals about him as a person.
1. Mary Lincoln's Faults
A. Her Violent Temper. A number of people who knew her reported that Mary Todd Lincoln committed acts of physical violence against her husband and others.
Michael Burlingame recounts an example of her violent temper that was reported by Mrs. Jacob Early:
Lincoln got a taste of her temper shortly after their wedding. One morning at the Globe Tavern [where they lived after becoming married] she arrived late from breakfast, as usual, inconveniencing the other guests. Boardinghouse etiquette dictated that, in the morning, no one could eat until all guests were seated at the table. Lincoln, evidently irritated and embarrassed, gently chided her as she entered the room. She instantly sprang up, threw a cup of hot coffee at him and fled in hysterics.
A similar event took place at dinner one night in December 1860. Thurlow Weed witnessed her outburst when Lincoln “cracked a joke which displeased Mrs. Lincoln because she erroneously imagined it to be at her expense. Quicker than a flash she picked up a cup of hot tea and flung it clear across the table at Mr. Lincoln's head.”
Herndon interviewed several people who gave similar reports about Mary Lincoln's temper. Margaret Ryan, who worked as a maid in the Lincoln home, said that Mary hit her husband on the head with a piece of wood while he was reading in the parlor and cut his nose. The lawyers in court noticed his face the next day, but no one asked any questions. Springfield resident Stephen Whitehurst said that he saw Mary chase her husband with a knife in the Lincolns' garden.
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- Lincoln's Ethics , pp. 308 - 334Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
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