Sherry Chandler » 2008 » June » 16
Tucked into my registration packet at the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival, I found a copy of The Lincoln Herald, a publication of Lincoln Memorial University that bills itself as “the oldest, continuously published magazine devoted to the study of Abraham.”
As you might expect, Lincoln is ubiquitous at LMU, a school that “grew out of love and respect for Abraham Lincoln and today honors his name, values, and spirit.”
As the legend goes, in 1863 Lincoln suggested to General O. O. Howard, a Union Army officer, that when the Civil War ended he hoped General Howard would organize a great university for the loyal people of Cumberland Gap.
Oliver Otis Howard is perhaps better known as president of Howard University, known as “the black Harvard,” but he also founded LMU, for the education of “mountain whites.”
LMU students call themselves the Railsplitters and their Lincoln Museum contains more busts, gigantic and tiny, of Abraham Lincoln than I ever could have imagined seeing in one place.
But to get back to The Lincoln Herald. Bored in my motel room (the Cumberland Gap Inn in Cumberland Gap, Kentucky Tennessee with a view of guess what) and with no desire to connect to the chattering world of television, I thumbed through my complimentary copy of the Spring 2008 issue and landed on the article entitled “The Real Mrs. Lincoln: The Nature and Extent of Scholarship on Mary Todd Lincoln” by Robert P. Watson, Ph.D., Dale Berger, M.A., and Richard P. Yon, M.A.
I think Mary Todd Lincoln had a very hard life (see here and here). She lost three of her four children, one while in the White House. She lost relatives who were considered not just enemies but traitors to the country her husband led, but whom she must have mourned. Her husband was assassinated while she was seated beside him, holding his hand. She was reduced to near-poverty after leaving the White House, and her last remaining child committed her to an asylum in her old age (see details here). Whatever you may think of her, this is some pretty tough stuff.
Her biggest sin may have been that she was the less-than-saintly wife of our secular saint.
Watson et al. suggest that the occasion of the Lincoln bicentennial presents us with a unique opportunity to reconsider Mary Todd Lincoln:
It is not a question of whether MTL was one of the most interesting of all first ladies. Indeed she was a complex woman whose personality could alternatively (and sometimes simultaneously) be flirtatious, temperamental, fun-loving, depressed, ambitious, and more. That MTL was complex and controversial is certainly true. However, the relevant question is whether scholars are fair and accurate in their discussions and descriptions of Mrs. Lincoln.
There are several scandals and notable problems in MTL’s life that have become fodder for an “anti-MTL” history to the extent that one wonders if there is a MTL “myth.” As one noted MTL biographer has said of the matter, “The prevailing impression of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln is a caricature.” (p. 6)
[The quoted MTL biographer is Ruth Painter Randall, writing in The Abraham Lincoln Quarterly for September 1949. Samuel A. Schreiner, Jr., author of The Trials of Mrs. Lincoln (Univ Nebraska Press, 2005) expresses similar sentiments.]
Some of Mary Todd Lincolns erratic behavior may be attributable to the contradictions experienced by southern women, as described by Lillian Smith in Killers of the Dream.
I find much in MTL that can compare with HRC, not the least perhaps being that these seem to be the only two first ladies who are consistently called by their maiden names. Hillary Rodham Clinton by choice of course. I don’t know why Mary Todd Lincoln. Applying a little pop psychology, I wonder whether this consistent inclusion of the family name would indicate an insistence on Mary Todd’s part of an identity separate from her husband’s. Certainly that is what it means for Hillary Rodham.
Another similarity marked by both Watson et al. and Schreiner is that Mary Todd Lincoln was actively involved in her husband’s political career.
Even though early first ladies—or even those serving before Eleanor Roosevelt—did not have the opportunities or ability to be overtly political, the model indicates that some spouses were, in fact, political partners. MTL is considered to have been one such political partner …Along with Dolly Madison and Julia Tyler, MTL was one of the first presidential spouses to take a role in public affairs, political decisions, hosting, and social projects… It is well established that MTL took an interest in her husband’s career and politics in general and was keenly interested in his appointments, appearance and image, and the social events at the White House. (p. 16)
Jean H. Baker’s Mary Todd Lincoln (Norton, 1986) is referenced for a thorough examination of Mary Todd Lincoln’s activism and role in Lincoln’s political career. According to Watson et al.
MTL was a part of the Contraband Relief Association, which raised money and donations for supplies for blacks living in squalor in the capital city.
Indeed, the Civil War appears to have forged a new awareness and resolve for MTL to oppose the “peculiar institution” of slavery. It is both ironic and telling that MTL, a Southern belle, descended from slave owners, would come to be a critic of the inhumanity of slavery. MTL not only spoke out against slavery and on behalf of the Union army, but claimed to be proud that her maternal grandmother had helped enslaved blacks escape to the North on the famed “Underground Railroad.” She also befriended Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave, who became MTL’s personal tailor/seamstress and confidante during the war.
MTL was ahead of her time and a model for the modern first lady. It is possible that some of the criticism of her—like other active first ladies (Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Rodham Clinton)—was the result of her controversial social activism. (pp. 14-15)
In contrast to HRC, however, who since 1993 has consistently scored in the top half of ranking polls for first ladies, MTL is consistently in the bottom five. Eleanor Roosevelt is always Number 1. So controversy alone doesn’t account for Mary Todd Lincoln’s problems. (The polling figures from 1986-2003 are supplied by Watson et al.) Interestingly enough, the Bush first ladies, who were popular and uncontroversial, do not rank all that well. Barbara has fallen from eighth place in 1993 to 19th in 1997. She rose to places to 17th in 2003, when Laura ranked 20th. Both consistently lower than Clinton.
Some online resources for Mary Todd Lincoln:
Mary Todd Lincoln Research Site
Mary Todd Lincoln at Wikipedia
Mary Todd Lincoln at The White House
This post was written by sherry
The Summer 2008 edition of the New Southerner is now up with fiction and an interview from Thomas Rain Crow, poems by Sheri Wright (guaranteed edginess) and Micah Ling, creative ways to beat high food prices, and a very intriguing article called “We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Gas,” about a man in Indiana who converted his Chevy S10 pickup into an electric vehicle.
Download the issue as a free PDF or buy a print copy here.
Also, be sure to enter the New Southerner Literary Contest. They’re giving a $200 prize in each of three categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry. Erin Keane and Cecilia Woloch will act as judges for poetry, Kathryn Eastburne for nonfiction. Fiction judge(s) tba.
- 5,000 word limit for prose
- 50 line limit for poetry
- Entry Fee: $10 per entry
- Multiple entries accepted
- Postmark deadline: October 1, 2008
Complete guidelines at the link.
This post was written by sherry
