The Widow Lincoln
Mary Lincoln lived for seventeen years after her husband’s death. She celebrated the marriage of one son and mourned the death of another. She tried unorthodox schemes to pay off her debts and successfully petitioned Congress for a pension. She was confined to an asylum for several months and traveled in Europe for several years before her death in 1882.
The United States was a nation of widows in 1865, but Mary Lincoln was the first widow of an assassinated president. Overcome by the loss, she grieved alone, seeing only family and close friends. In mid-May 1865 she left the White House and moved to Chicago with sons Robert and Tad.
Like many widows, Mary had to adjust to a decreased income. Until Abraham Lincoln’s estate was settled, she was limited to an allowance of about $1500 per year. To pay off bills from before the assassination, she asked her sons’ former tutor to seek donations from businessmen and politicians. In December 1865 Congress voted to give her the $25,000 Abraham would have earned that year had he lived.
In 1867 Mary asked her dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley to help carry out a bold plan to sell a portion of her White House wardrobe. “The Old Clothes Scandal” resulted in negative publicity and little money. Mary recovered when Abraham’s estate was settled and she received $36,000 in cash and securities.
Mary Lincoln travelled extensively throughout her widowhood. Her 1870 guide to Beauchamp Tower & Tower of London is in the Mary Todd Lincoln House Collection.
After the marriage of her son Robert in 1868, Mary and Tad sailed for Europe and set up a home base in Frankfurt, Germany. While Tad attended school, Mary traveled in Germany and France. In the summer of 1869, they visited Paris, London, Scotland, and Belgium.
During the European years Mary followed the efforts of friends in Congress to secure her a pension like those given to Civil War soldiers’ widows. She wrote letters to members of Congress and asked others to work on her behalf. In July 1870, Congress approved an annual pension of $3000.
A year later Tad Lincoln died from a disease of the lungs after the return trip from Europe. Mary was devastated. For the next few years, she traveled in the United States and Canada and occasionally visited spiritualists in hopes of communicating with her lost loved ones.
While sightseeing in Florida in 1875 Mary had a premonition that led to one of the most controversial periods in her life. Convinced that her son Robert was ill, she rushed to Chicago, where the healthy Robert began to question his mother’s mental health. After observing her and consulting with doctors and friends, he decided that she needed to be placed in an asylum, where she could rest and recover. Illinois law required a jury trial to determine insanity, so Robert took his mother to court in May 1875.
The trial lasted three hours. Witnesses for the prosecution testified that Mary shopped excessively, complained about strange pains, and obsessed about imagined dangers. A jury of twelve men ruled her insane and appointed Robert as conservator of her estate. Mary—who did not know about the trial until that day—sat quietly through the proceedings.
The next day Robert took Mary to Bellevue Place Sanitarium in Batavia, Illinois. During her three-month stay there, she cooperated with the staff but wrote letters to friends to help with her release. In September 1875 she was discharged into the care of her sister Elizabeth in Springfield, Illinois. The following June, Elizabeth’s husband defended Mary in a second hearing with a jury that declared her “restored to reason.”
The debate about Mary Lincoln’s mental health that began in 1875 continues today. At the time, some observers acknowledged her unusual behavior but opposed her hospitalization. Others have attributed her behavior to medical conditions and the drugs used to treat them. Historians continue to argue whether Mary was a victim of disease, mental illness, an unhappy son, or the medical and legal systems of the time.
Engraving of Mary Lincoln’s funeral. Courtesy of Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
In September 1876 Mary sailed for Europe and lived in Pau, France, for several years. After hurting her back in a fall, she returned to the United States in 1880. Plagued by pain and poor vision—and possibly diabetes and arthritis—Mary stayed in two rooms in her sister Elizabeth’s home in Springfield. On July 15, 1882, the anniversary of Tad’s death, Mary collapsed and slipped into a coma. She died the next day.
One biographer has suggested that Mary would have been pleased with her funeral. Springfield businesses were closed during the funeral and hundreds of people lined up to attend the service. Three ministers conducted the service in a church decorated with elaborate floral arrangements. After the service the mourners traveled to Oak Ridge Cemetery, where Mary Todd Lincoln was laid to rest with her beloved husband.
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