■imw 
 
 THE 
 
 lllll 
 
 TRIAL 
 
 MARY TODD 
 
 LINCOLN 
 
 by 
 
 JAMES A. RHODES 
 
 ttitcC 
 
 DEANJAUCHIUS 
 
 :■ 
 
 
THE TRIAL OF 
 
 MARY TODD 
 
 LINCOLN 
 
 It is known to all Lincoln students that 
 in May 1875 Mary Todd Lincoln was ad- 
 judged insane and committed to an insti- 
 tution. The following fall she was quietly 
 allowed to leave the hospital and go to the 
 home of her sister, Mrs. Ninian Edwards, 
 in Springfield, and in June 1876 a second 
 sanity hearing declared her sane and able 
 to manage her own property. 
 
 James A. Rhodes and Dean Jauchius 
 have detected some unusual features in the 
 two sanity hearings and developed a theory 
 that the trials were rigged, primarily by 
 Judge David Davis and Leonard Swett, for 
 political reasons. The Trial of Mary Todd 
 Lincoln is their idea of how Swett and his 
 associates used Mary Lincoln as bait to 
 lure Robert Lincoln into a political trap. 
 
 Working along this line, the authors re- 
 construct the case so as to imply a full-scale 
 conspiracy which in several respects vio- 
 lated Mary Todd Lincoln's civil rights. 
 Their reconstruction presents a court pre- 
 pared to rule against Mrs. Lincoln : a hand- 
 picked jury selected and sworn in advance, 
 almost a score of witnesses and experts 
 ready to testify against her, and a lawyer 
 assigned to represent her who believed her 
 insane. 
 
 Rhodes and Jauchius believe the evi- 
 dence actually presented to establish Mary 
 
 (Continued on back flap) 
 
 $3.50 
 
I . 
 
 
 
 i\-<: •*■!■• ,w»-V'''-?i':ii:i..-i'' 
 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/trialofmarytoddlOOrhod 
 
The Trial of 
 Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 by 
 
 James A. Rhodes 
 
 and 
 
 Dean Jauchius 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY, INC. 
 
 Publishers 
 INDIANAPOLIS • NEW YORK 
 
COPYRIGHT (0 1 95 9 BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY, INC. 
 PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 FIRST EDITION 
 
 The Library of Congress has cataloged 
 this publication as follows: 
 
 Rhodes, James A. 
 
 The trial of Mary Todd Lincoln, by James A. Rhodes and 
 Dean Jauchius. [lsted.] Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill [1959]. 
 
 200 p. 22 cm. 
 Includes bibliography. 
 
 1. Lincoln, Mary (Todd) 1818-1882 — Fiction. I. Jauchius, Dean, 
 joint author, n. Title. 
 
 PZ4.R478Tr 813.5 59-7225 $ 
 
 Library of Congress. 
 
i 
 
 
 Counsel for the Defense 
 
 It is easy to think of Mary Todd Lincoln as one of 
 the heavy burdens Abraham Lincoln bore without 
 complaint. According to tradition, she was unpredict- 
 able, hysterical and unbalanced. Lincoln students in 
 the main have accepted this estimate without fully 
 examining the facts. Some, indeed, have done her the 
 injustice of apologizing for her. 
 
 The authors undertook to find out whether history 
 had treated her fairly. On the surface, the sanity hear- 
 ing which declared her a lunatic was the most damag- 
 ing count against her. In their investigation of this 
 proceeding they discovered something wrong. She was 
 no more eccentric than many around her. The authors' 
 digging uncovered a strong odor of kangaroo court. 
 The brazen injustice of this trial, the high-handed 
 denial of her civil rights made a travesty of the verdict 
 
 
6 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 and called for a broader re-examination. They found 
 that during the years in the White House she had let 
 herself appear in an unflattering light in order to shield 
 and guard her husband. They came to hold an entirely 
 new picture of this anguished woman. 
 
 The authors were convinced that Mary deserved her 
 day in court, and had never had it. And certainly she 
 deserved a more sincere and searching defense than 
 she was ever given. 
 
 Neither in the mental hospital to which she was 
 condemned, nor at any time previously, had she had 
 any of the benefits of modern psychiatric treatment. 
 She stood alone, unprotected. Because of her valiant 
 struggle and because of her great love and devotion to 
 her immortal husband and her sons, she deserves a 
 better niche in our history than the one to which she 
 has been consigned. 
 
 The legal and medical philosophy behind the "snake 
 pit" laws which summarily "put her away" operates 
 today. In large areas of the country many of these 
 same laws are still in force. 
 
 These are our thoughts as we complete The Trial 
 of Mary Todd Lincoln. 
 
 James A. Rhodes 
 Dean Jauchius 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
Chapter 1 
 
 A little more than ten years after the death of her 
 martyred husband, Mrs. Abraham Lincoln was placed 
 under arrest, taken into custody under threat of vio- 
 lence, hailed summarily into a courtroom — before a 
 jury already impaneled, sworn and waiting — tried, 
 found insane, ordered confined in an institution and 
 stripped of approximately $56,000 in cash and se- 
 curities. 
 
 By nightfall of the following day, she sat alone in 
 the gloom of a room with barred windows, branded 
 by court order as "Mary Lincoln, Lunatic." And in 
 the enforced solitude of that room, she could con- 
 template that she had been made the victim of an 
 elaborately contrived and smoothly executed plot to 
 put her away. She could ponder the fact that three 
 of the men involved most prominently in that plot- 
 ting had been intimate friends of her late husband. 
 Indeed, two of them had maneuvered for him the Re- 
 
10 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 publican presidential nomination of 1860 and then 
 prodded and pushed him down the political trail to 
 the White House. Mary Todd Lincoln could think, 
 too, that this scheme which they had planned so care- 
 fully against her had, to achieve its end, required 
 denial of every constitutional and statutory right af- 
 forded the accused. And she could reflect, bitterly, 
 that it had utilized as its primary instrument her eld- 
 est and only surviving son. It was cruel irony that 
 through his eldest son, men who had been his best 
 friends had managed to take away the freedom of 
 the desolate and troubled widow of the man univer- 
 sally hailed as "The Great Emancipator." 
 
 It actually happened. 
 
 The place was Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 The day was Tuesday, May 19, 1875. 
 
 The first sound of it, for Mary Todd Lincoln, an- 
 guished widow, was a knock at the door of her room 
 in the Chicago Grand Pacific Hotel. 
 
 The time was about 1:00 p.m. Here are the facts: 
 
 When Mary Lincoln opened that hotel-room door, 
 three people greeted her. They were a delivery boy, 
 Leonard T. Swett, a prominent Chicago lawyer who 
 had helped secure the presidential nomination for 
 Abraham Lincoln at the convention of 1860, and 
 Samuel M. Turner, manager of the hotel. 
 
 The bundle boy delivered eight pairs of lace cur- 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 11 
 
 tains which Mary Lincoln had purchased earlier in 
 the day. He left immediately. Swett, who wrote later 
 that Mary Lincoln seemed cheerful and glad to see 
 him, entered the room followed by Sam Turner, and 
 advised Mrs. Lincoln that she was under arrest. About 
 that time, according to Swett, Turner left the room. 
 
 Mary Lincoln was ladylike but firm. The conten- 
 tion that she was insane was preposterous. She was 
 abundantly able to care for herself. Where was her 
 son Robert? Who claimed she was insane? 
 
 Swett told her that Robert was waiting for her at 
 the courtroom. * He advised her that it was her son 
 who had filed the affidavit necessary to bring her to 
 trial. He said Judge David Davis, conservator of her 
 late husband's estate and the most prominent manipu- 
 lator in Lincoln's behalf at the national convention of 
 1860, believed her crazy. So did John T. Stuart, 
 mayor of Springfield and her cousin, he added. So 
 did he, Swett, and so did five physicians. Swett pro- 
 duced letters from the physicians for Mary to see. 
 
 Mary Lincoln decided stubbornly that she would 
 not go with Swett to the courtroom. Swett said she 
 had no choice in the matter. She had two alternatives, 
 though, as concerned how she was to be taken to court. 
 She could either go peaceably with him, or be hand- 
 cuffed and taken forcibly by two officers now waiting 
 downstairs. Which would it be? 
 
12 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Mary Lincoln chose to resist with words alone. 
 They were bitter, sarcastic words. She denounced 
 Swett and Judge Davis and Robert. She accused them 
 of having mercenary motives. And yet, Swett testi- 
 fies, she was ever the lady, never stooping to use of 
 common words or phrases. 
 
 When she had finished, Swett insisted again, and he 
 was rocklike and unyielding. It was a court order. 
 She must go with him or the officers. There was no 
 escape. 
 
 Mary Lincoln wept then. She threw up her hands 
 and prayed, and called upon Abraham to release her 
 and drive Swett away. And then she gave in. 
 
 Swett testifies that he refused to leave the room so 
 that she might change her clothing. He told Mary, 
 he says, that he feared she might commit suicide. And 
 so the resigned Mary Lincoln, erstwhile first lady of 
 the land, stepped into a closet, made the desired 
 changes and went along quietly. 
 
 The carriage took Mary Lincoln and her custodian 
 to the criminal court and county jail building at West 
 Hubbard and North Dearborn streets. A second car- 
 riage, bearing the two officers, Turner and Ben Ayer, 
 serving with Swett as counsel for Robert Lincoln, 
 followed them. 
 
 It must have been nearly 3 : 00 p.m. when the party 
 arrived at the courtroom. Swett says that Mary ar- 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 13 
 
 gued with him in her room "from twenty minutes past 
 one until half past two." 
 
 At any rate, a jury composed of twelve prominent 
 Chicago business and professional men, most of them 
 friends of Robert, had been impaneled, sworn and 
 waiting since two o'clock. The courtroom was filling 
 slowly with spectators. The increasing flow of them 
 measured the speed with which word of the nature of 
 this proceeding was flashing throughout the building. 
 
 Swett says that, when he opened the courtroom 
 door and Mary Lincoln saw the men inside, she re- 
 coiled, and he urged her to come right along, saying 
 that Robert was there and that he would sit beside 
 her. Thus assured, Mary Lincoln entered quietly and 
 sat down without speaking. 
 
 Swett went immediately to Robert, told him how 
 his mother had denounced him at the hotel and testi- 
 fies that he said: "We must act as though we were her 
 friends and come sit beside her and do everything as 
 though she was sane." 
 
 Robert walked to his mother, and she received him 
 kindly. Swett says he told Mrs. Lincoln that she was 
 entitled to counsel, that Isaac N. Arnold, her old 
 friend, was present, and that "he was your husband's 
 friend and maybe you would rather have him and 
 Robert sit beside you than have a stranger brought 
 in here." 
 
14 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Mary Lincoln agreed and Swett soon had Arnold 
 sitting with her. 
 
 Swett says he then went to Ben Ayer and advised 
 his colleague that the experience with Mrs. Lincoln 
 had tired him. He urged Ayer to take over. 
 
 But as they were conversing, Arnold, who had con- 
 ferred briefly with Mary Lincoln, approached them 
 and expressed doubt about the propriety of defending 
 Mary. He expressed a belief that she was insane. 
 
 "This means," Swett says he retorted, "that you 
 will put into her head that she can get some mis- 
 chievous lawyer to make us trouble; go and defend 
 her, and do your duty." 
 
 The well-oiled courtroom machinery, waiting and 
 ready since 2:00 p.m., got into motion immediately 
 after this exchange. On the bench was Judge M. R. M. 
 Wallace, a Democrat and known political enemy of 
 the late President Lincoln. He observed that the trial 
 was a hearing on an application to try the question of 
 the sanity of Mrs. Lincoln, and to appoint a con- 
 servator for her estate. Robert Lincoln's petition, he 
 told the jury, represented to the court that Mary Lin- 
 coln, widow of Abraham Lincoln, deceased, and a resi- 
 dent of Cook County, was insane, and that for her 
 benefit and for the safety of the community she 
 should be confined. 
 
 The petition also prayed that a conservator be 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • IS 
 
 appointed to manage and control Mary Lincoln's 
 estate, and estimated it to be valued "not exceeding 
 $75,000." 
 
 Robert Todd Lincoln's position was that he should 
 be named conservator. Judge Davis, handling his late 
 father's estate, was much too busy, he contended. 
 
 Specifically, then, Robert Lincoln wanted the court 
 to do two things: 1. Send his mother to an asylum. 
 2. Permit him to take over her estate. 
 
 To support his contention that his mother was a 
 lunatic, Robert Lincoln had summoned seventeen wit- 
 nesses. With at least some of these witnesses, the 
 testimony they were to give had been carefully gone 
 over. There is reason to believe that all of the wit- 
 nesses had been present at pretrial conferences. 
 
 By way of contrast, Mary Lincoln, the accused, had 
 not even been given time to select her own defense 
 attorney. One had conveniently been provided for 
 her. She had been given no opportunity to summon 
 friendly witnesses and no time to prepare a defense 
 against a charge and testimony to support it which 
 had been carefully assembled over a three-week pe- 
 riod. She had been denied the statutory right of par- 
 ticipating in the selection of the jury of her peers 
 through interrogation of prospective jurors and the 
 exercising of peremptory challenges which might be 
 deemed to be in her best interests. 
 
16 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 In short, she was being railroaded in a courtroom 
 pungent with a kangaroo odor and manned by a jury 
 having about it the air of one impaneled to convict. 
 
 In the next three hours a parade of seventeen wit- 
 nesses piled up a mountain of damaging testimony, 
 loaded with hearsay and with conclusions by those 
 testifying. And this testimony was neither challenged 
 nor examined by a meek little defense attorney famed 
 for representing and obtaining acquittals for women 
 in trouble with the law. The right of cross-examina- 
 tion was not invoked. 
 
 Ayer had conducted the case for the plaintiff so far. 
 Now that the final witness, Robert Todd Lincoln 
 himself, had finished, Swett took over again. He pre- 
 sented the final argument for the plaintiff to the jury, 
 saying that it was too bad about Mary Lincoln but 
 she was plainly deranged and must be put away. And 
 so the man who had first urged Robert to take this 
 action, and who then had served as Mary Lincoln's 
 arresting officer and custodian, now assumed the role 
 of prosecutor. He called for a quick verdict and got it. 
 The jurors deliberated for perhaps a full two minutes 
 and found Mary Lincoln insane. The specific wording 
 of the verdict which they managed to prepare and 
 sign in that brief space of time was: 
 
 "We the undersigned, jurors in the case of Mary 
 Lincoln who is alleged to be insane, having heard the 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 17 
 
 evidence adduced, are satisfied that the said Mary 
 Lincoln is insane, and is a fit person to be sent to the 
 State Hospital for the Insane: that she is a resident 
 of the County of Cook, in the State of Illinois: that 
 her age is 56 years; that her disease is of unknown 
 duration ; that the cause is unknown ; that the disease 
 is not with her hereditary; that she is not subject to 
 epilepsy: that she does not manifest homicidal or sui- 
 cidal tendencies and that she is not a pauper." 
 
 It was nearly a month before the court got around 
 to answering the second prayer in Robert Lincoln's 
 petition by appointing him conservator of his mother's 
 estate. But the court's first decision was quite prompt. 
 Judge Wallace immediately ruled: 
 
 "Whereupon, upon the verdict aforesaid, it is con- 
 sidered and adjudged by the Court that the said Mary 
 Lincoln is an insane person, and it is ordered that said 
 Mary Lincoln be committed to a State Hospital for 
 the Insane, and it is further ordered that a summons 
 be issued to the said Mary Lincoln commanding her to 
 appear before this Court and show cause if any she 
 has or can show why a conservator should not be 
 appointed to manage and control her estate." 
 
 In less than five hours — one hour and ten minutes 
 of this time consumed by Mary's argument with 
 Swett in her hotel room — Abraham Lincoln's widow 
 had been arrested, tried, found guilty and ordered im- 
 
18 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 prisoned. Now it remained for her to be relieved of 
 her wealth. Swett, instigator, architect, arresting of- 
 ficer, custodian and prosecutor, now took it on himself 
 to perform this final chore. 
 
 From the moment of her entry into the courtroom, 
 Swett testifies, "she never spoke." Now, she sought 
 to evade this final surrender of what she called "these 
 bonds I have saved for my necessities in my old age." 
 Swett threatened force again. He pointed out that he 
 could get an order of writ or have the sheriff take 
 them forcibly from her. He asked her to turn them 
 over to Robert. 
 
 Mary refused. Robert, she said, could never have 
 anything that belonged to her. 
 
 Swett suggested that she turn the securities over 
 to Arnold. Mary suggested that it be done in her 
 hotel room. "It is so hot here." 
 
 At her room in the Grand Pacific they took them 
 from her, and Swett says of the act, "and when she 
 did yield, although she yielded peaceably, she yielded 
 as to force." 
 
 Swett arranged for her care during the night and 
 left. Newspapers were informed the following morn- 
 ing that Mary Todd Lincoln had made an unsuccess- 
 ful attempt to poison herself. They printed the story. 
 
 Mary Lincoln was not sent to the State Hospital 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 19 
 
 for the Insane, as was suggested by the jury's verdict. 
 Instead, she was taken to Bellevue Place Sanatorium, 
 a private institution owned and operated by Dr. R. J. 
 Patterson at Batavia, Illinois. 
 
 This first sanity trial of Mary Todd Lincoln has 
 remained among the more obscure episodes in Ameri- 
 can history. Historians have been loath to illuminate 
 it. Lincoln students have tended to avoid careful 
 scrutiny of it. 
 
 But if they have given this first trial short notice, 
 they have given the second one even less attention. 
 It, too, had the same peculiar flavor as the first. It 
 lasted less than four minutes. Mary Lincoln was 
 found restored to reason and given her freedom. Her 
 lawyer was Leonard Swett ! 
 
 There are probably many valid reasons why his- 
 torians have given such scant attention to this peculiar 
 and coldly brutal treatment of Lincoln's aging widow. 
 Certainly, one of them is that the transcript of the 
 trial has long since disappeared. The exact circum- 
 stances of its disappearance are not known. It is 
 known that the son who was used as the instrument 
 for bringing his mother to trial and subsequent in- 
 carceration in an asylum expressed intent to do away 
 with certain records pertaining to the action. 
 
20 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 But if the disappearance of these papers is a valid 
 reason for failure to illuminate the trial or trials, it 
 also is a stimulant to one's curiosity. 
 
 Mary Todd Lincoln regarded the entire episode as 
 simply a plot to get her money, and she said so. How- 
 ever, in the light of subsequent events, this explana- 
 tion reeks too much of the easy answer. Her release 
 was managed within one year and one month by the 
 very man who first suggested the plan to put her away. 
 Her money was returned to her, along with a scrupu- 
 lous accounting by her son. 
 
 Historians have tended to regard the episode of the 
 first trial as a painful incident in the life of a tragic 
 figure who had suffered such blows that they deranged 
 her. But Mary Lincoln continued to exhibit, after 
 regaining her freedom, those same eccentricities which 
 were used to convince a jury of her derangement. 
 
 Granted that Mary Lincoln possessed more than 
 the usual number of eccentricities, it is not to be as- 
 sumed that she was possessed by them. Indeed, many 
 of them are quite understandable and are manifested 
 today in many, many persons whose sanity goes un- 
 challenged. 
 
 In Mary Lincoln, much more so than in most peo- 
 ple, the eccentricities are understandable. Her search 
 for love and understanding after the death of her hus- 
 band and three of her four children seemed a futile 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 21 
 
 one. She turned for friendship to the clerks in stores 
 which she patronized. It is an understatement to re- 
 mark that there was a "misunderstanding" between 
 Mary Todd Lincoln, the lonely widow, and Mary 
 Harlan Lincoln, Robert's wife. The feeling was suf- 
 ficiently strong to prevent Robert's mother from visit- 
 ing his home in Chicago. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln had been dead for ten years at 
 the time of Mary's first trial, and yet the hatreds and 
 the malevolence unleashed by the angry controversy 
 which had him at its storm center still seethed across 
 the land. Even the great financial panic which had 
 gripped the country since 1873 could not deter those 
 men who were dedicated to seeking out strange ven- 
 geances against Lincoln's memory. 
 
 But Lincoln had the martyr's cloak across his mem- 
 ory now, and he was becoming immortal. His name 
 already had risen to such giant proportions that his 
 memory would prove unassailable. Nothing could 
 damage it. Certainly, the spectacle of a little old lady 
 who was his widow sometimes acting strangely could 
 not hurt it. Indeed, this could only serve to emphasize 
 the extent of the tragedy which had fallen on her and 
 on the nation. 
 
 If Leonard Swett, Isaac N. Arnold and Judge David 
 Davis had been such close friends of Abraham Lin- 
 coln, why would they now turn on his helpless widow 
 
22 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 and railroad her into an asylum? And why would her 
 own son permit himself to be a part of it? Would not 
 that do more damage than service to Lincoln's 
 memory? 
 
 None of these three men had changed in their atti- 
 tudes toward Lincoln. They defended his good name 
 with eloquent ferocity when it came under attack 
 after his assassination. 
 
 Indeed, the very existence of such stark contrast 
 between Lincoln's known somber honesty and out- 
 spoken integrity and the conditions brought on by 
 spoilers and looters in power ten years later is what 
 suggests a much deeper and more basic political mo- 
 tive for the day of infamy in Mary Lincoln's life. 
 
 While Lincoln lived, Springfield and Chicago had 
 become the political capitals of the nation. Illinois 
 men ruled the political roost. Now, since his death, 
 and owing to the flow of favors from the fountainhead 
 of power in the White House, the geographical center 
 of political power was shifting eastward into Ohio, 
 even as the center of population shifted westward to 
 the Buckeye State. The spoils system, and excesses in 
 Washington, had brought men honestly devoted to 
 Lincoln and his integrity up short. A grave split 
 ripped through the new Republican Party. Stanch 
 supporters of U. S. Grant, or of what Grant stood for, 
 became known as Stalwarts. The reformist wing was 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 23 
 
 composed of men who became known as Liberal Re- 
 publicans, sometimes called half breeds by the Stal- 
 warts. 
 
 Judge David Davis, the old manipulator who traded 
 his way to the nomination of Abraham Lincoln in 
 I860, turned furiously on the men whom he believed 
 to be destroying his party's integrity. In 1872 he se- 
 cured nomination as the National Labor Party's can- 
 didate for President and sought nomination by the 
 Liberal Republican Party at that convention in Cin- 
 cinnati in June. There is strong suspicion that he 
 intended to obtain endorsement of his candidacy by 
 the Democratic National Convention and by the Lib- 
 eral Colored Republican Convention. But the Liberal 
 Republican Convention stopped him cold, nominating 
 Horace Greeley, distinguished editor of the New York 
 Tribune, instead. Greeley went on to win the Demo- 
 cratic National Convention nod and the approval of 
 the Liberal Colored Republicans only to lose to the 
 popular Hero of Appomattox in the fall election. 
 
 If Grant had overcome the liberal wing, however, 
 he had not overcome the resentment of its members. 
 As 1876— the next convention and election year — 
 approached, Grant began to speak of a third term. 
 There was too much objecting in the press, however, 
 and the Stalwarts began to cast about for a successor. 
 
 Robert Todd Lincoln, a stalwart Stalwart who gave 
 
24 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 unstintingly of his loyalty to the Grant crowd, was 
 yet too much of a sapling for presidential timber, but 
 the name was political magic. It could be used. And, 
 perhaps four or eight years hence, it would be the 
 name which would be used to keep the Stalwarts in 
 the White House. 
 
 Judge Davis, veteran politician, could hardly miss 
 this. Neither could Leonard Swett nor Isaac N. Ar- 
 nold. 
 
 Robert Lincoln said he regarded Judge David Davis 
 as a second father. There is evidence that Davis had 
 a similar, reciprocal affection for Robert. But no 
 affection, not even devotion to Abraham Lincoln, ever 
 swayed Davis from resorting to manipulations to 
 achieve victory in a political fight, and now Davis, an 
 independent turning Democrat, was in a political 
 fight. 
 
 How to damage Robert Lincoln to prevent him 
 from enjoying a political sleigh ride, or providing one 
 for the spoilers, on his father's name? How to do it 
 and yet leave the sacred memory of Abraham Lincoln 
 stainless? 
 
 It makes sense that they found their way to elimi- 
 nate Robert Lincoln as a serious political factor in the 
 drumhead sanity hearing on May 19 and its after- 
 math. They advised Robert Lincoln to push for his 
 mother's commitment; they helped him make the ar- 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 25 
 
 rangements and collect his witnesses. Swett made the 
 arrest, helped prosecute the case. Arnold was ap- 
 pointed to defend Mary Lincoln. After a request for 
 postponement was denied, he did almost nothing in 
 her behalf. The hearing swept through unchallenged 
 to the jury's verdict, which came so fast that it may 
 have been written out in advance of the trial. 
 
 Thus Robert Lincoln became the man who com- 
 mitted his mother to the insane asylum. Mary Lin- 
 coln's letters made it clear to many of her friends that 
 she believed he did it to get hold of her money. Before 
 long she interested Judge and Mrs. James Bradwell 
 in her case. These respected and influential people 
 likewise spread the word that she had been wronged 
 by her only surviving son. 
 
 After a few months she was "paroled" from the 
 mental hospital to her sister's home in Springfield. 
 Evidently she was not very crazy. 
 
 On June 15, 1876, James G. Blaine, a Grant Stal- 
 wart, was beaten in a strong bid to obtain the presi- 
 dential nomination. Governor Rutherford B. Hayes 
 of Ohio, a man of reformist sentiments, wrested the 
 nomination away from Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll's 
 "plumed knight" on the seventh ballot, and the reign 
 of the spoilers was apparently over. 
 
 And later in that same day, June 15, Mary Todd 
 Lincoln was adjudged sane and her property restored 
 
26 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 to her control in a proceeding which occupied, accord- 
 ing to the Chicago Tribune of the following day, "but 
 a few minutes." The timing is suggestive. During the 
 intervening thirteen months, the name of Robert Lin- 
 coln had been so hammered by an enraged mother and 
 by her allies, the Bradwells, that it could well have 
 suffered the most devastating political damage. 
 
 The second sanity hearing, which declared Mary 
 Todd Lincoln of sound mind and capable of handling 
 her own property, must have been as well arranged as 
 the first. It lasted less than five minutes. Leonard 
 Swett this time was on the other side of the fence 
 and represented her. There was no opposition. 
 
 Neither Robert Todd Lincoln nor his name ever 
 became a major force in national politics after his 
 participation in the sanity proceedings against his 
 mother. His last political gasp left him standing at 
 the depot in Chicago in 1880 looking after the presi- 
 dential band wagon as it pulled out. He had ridden 
 through thirty-six convention ballots with Grant, only 
 to see his hero finally fall before the late sprint of a 
 dark horse named James A. Garfield. 
 
 Robert Todd Lincoln became Garfield's secretary 
 of war, an appointment which clearly represented a 
 concession to the Stalwarts. He was the only member 
 of the official family to be retained by President Ar- 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 27 
 
 thur, the Stalwart Vice President who ascended to 
 the White House after Garfield's death from bullet 
 wounds inflicted by an assassin. And Arthur's reten- 
 tion of Lincoln underscored the fact that the son of 
 the Great Emancipator was the only Garfield cabinet 
 member fully acceptable to Grant admirers. 
 
 The name of Robert Lincoln was mentioned 
 vaguely here and there in 1881 and 1882 as a presi- 
 dential possibility for 1884, but there seems to have 
 been some stigma attached to his name by then. There 
 is ample reason to identify it as the fact that he had 
 sent his anguished mother to a lunatic asylum. 
 
 In this nation which her husband had so eloquently 
 characterized as "dedicated to the proposition that all 
 men are created equal," the most humble person was 
 entitled to a fair trial and to a virile defense, and yet 
 Mary Lincoln was given no real trial at all and only 
 a passive, yielding defense. Presented in the trial 
 episode which follows is the kind of defense to which 
 she was entitled, even if she had been a nobody, let 
 alone the widow of the Great Emancipator. Presented 
 are questions which ought to have been put to wit- 
 nesses who appeared against her, and the answers 
 which those witnesses would have been required to 
 give to avoid perjury. 
 
 The outcome of that infamous first trial can never 
 
28 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 be changed, but with the use of known facts, it is 
 possible to uncover the motive which demanded the 
 verdict so quickly rendered. 
 
 In a larger sense, the trial of Mary Lincoln was 
 much more than her first trying ordeal in that Chicago 
 courtroom in 1875 or her second brief encounter with 
 a most peculiar brand of justice in 1876 only hours 
 after the Stalwarts had been beaten in their bid to 
 retain a firm grip on the White House. These were 
 but small persecutions in a much longer trial which 
 commenced for her on the somber morning of April 
 15, 1865, when Abraham Lincoln drew his last breath. 
 
 Mary Todd Lincoln passed away July 16, 1882, at 
 Springfield, Illinois, after lapsing into a coma which 
 modern men of medicine generally believe to have 
 been diabetic. Death came to her in a cheerful room 
 of the house in which she and Abraham had become 
 man and wife. 
 
 The trial of Mary Todd Lincoln, therefore, did not 
 span a few infamous hours. It lasted for seventeen 
 years and three months, and the verdict of history is 
 that she was innocent. 
 
Chapter 2 
 
 Without the help, as well as the encouragement, 
 of Judge Davis, Leonard Swett and Isaac Arnold, 
 it seems unlikely that Robert Lincoln could so easily 
 have had his mother committed to a lunatic asylum. 
 He had collected seventeen witnesses, including 
 amenable doctors who had not examined her, store 
 clerks who thought her a little odd and private detec- 
 tives whom he had had following her "to protect her," 
 but he didn't have a strong case. 
 
 Isaac Arnold, who was appointed to represent Mrs. 
 Lincoln, was ordinarily an aggressive and capable law- 
 yer. On May 19 he was unaccountably meek. He did 
 not protest against the jury's having been selected 
 and sworn before Mrs. Lincoln arrived at court and 
 without challenge from the defense. He had not in- 
 vestigated the witnesses and checked their evidence. 
 
 29 
 
30 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 He did not cross-examine them and seek to invalidate 
 their testimony. In fact, he hardly opened his mouth. 
 
 Without a strong and energetic defense Mrs. Lin- 
 coln had no chance before a judge and jury ready to 
 rule against her. 
 
 Isaac Arnold, through inability or disinclination, 
 did not work up a defense. But even at this distance, 
 with many records destroyed, some no doubt indi- 
 rectly or directly by Robert Lincoln, it is still possible 
 to do what Isaac Arnold did not do — shred the case 
 presented by the attorneys and witnesses in behalf of 
 Mary Todd Lincoln's insanity. That case has now 
 been prepared. The jury has been investigated. The 
 witnesses have been checked and their testimony 
 evaluated. 
 
 Even in a hostile court a strong defense would have 
 scored damaging point after damaging point. Very 
 likely, with the judge and jury she faced, Mrs. Lin- 
 coln would still have been judged insane, but the 
 verdict would have been in spite of, not in accord 
 with, the facts presented. 
 
 The next few chapters will present the events of 
 May 19, 1875, again but with one difference. Instead 
 of an Isaac Arnold tacitly consenting to his client's 
 commitment to a lunatic asylum, she will be repre- 
 sented by a vigorous lawyer with a well-prepared de- 
 fense. Call him Isaac Arnold, the Isaac Arnold who 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln -31 
 
 was ordinarily an aggressive bulldog of a lawyer, a 
 hard fighter for his clients. In challenging the jury, 
 in cross-examining witnesses, he will make use of facts 
 that were available at the time and are available still, 
 facts that have been verified before they were allowed 
 to appear here. 
 
 To repeat, the trial as it will be told in the follow- 
 ing chapters never happened. It could have happened, 
 and in justice it should have happened. Was the 
 reason it did not a conspiracy on the part of Lincoln's 
 old friends to prevent his son from siding with the 
 spoilers in Washington and tearing down his father's 
 work? You are the jury. Follow the case and decide. 
 
 Mary Lincoln consulted her chatelaine watch with 
 sober, bluish-gray eyes and felt faintly startled. A 
 quarter after eleven! 
 
 Goodness! she thought. I must hurry about this. 
 There is so little time. 
 
 She cast a casual glance over her shoulder, as if it 
 were meant only to take in the pleasant May day in 
 Chicago. The man was still there. He always seemed 
 to be there. Why did men follow her? Would they 
 never stop? Did they want to harm her? 
 
 Mary Lincoln did not know, but the old fear drove 
 through her and hurried her stride. Perhaps she ought 
 to have remained in the hotel room, but there was 
 
32 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 something about a hotel room which always depressed 
 her. She had been glad to get out of it. Besides, it 
 was such a pleasant day, although the streets were 
 still muddy from recent rains. She did not look, but 
 she told herself that the dust ruffle of her black suit 
 dress must be terribly smudged with mud. 
 
 It was all right, she told herself. She had found a 
 friend, and today she would present that friend with 
 a token of her esteem. A chatelaine watch similar to 
 the one she wore. The girl named Beatrice had ad- 
 mired it so. 
 
 She turned her mind back to the hotel room. It 
 was the small window that bothered her most, she 
 decided. It formed a perfect frame for the chimney 
 on the building next door. It was a chimney which 
 constantly gave off black smoke, and this reminded 
 her of the great Chicago fire. She wouldn't be at all 
 surprised, she thought, if Chicago were to burn again. 
 It was rickety, really, behind its f agaded splendor. 
 
 Mary Lincoln could remember the great fire very 
 clearly. It had come in that somber October after 
 Tad's death at the Clifton House in July. That was 
 why she had not gone back to the Clifton House upon 
 her return to Chicago. She thought now of Tad. 
 Kind, sweet, loving Tad. 
 
 The old anguish shot through her. She was not 
 superstitious, but she told herself that somehow she 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 33 
 
 would always regard the great Chicago fire of 1871 
 as a sort of omen. Tad, she reflected, had been the 
 last of her sons who loved her, and after his passing, 
 her life had lain about her in ashes, as the great Chi- 
 cago business district was reduced to ashes. 
 
 Robert did not love her. Not really. She could see 
 it in his eyes. Robert was cold, and he mixed with 
 people who hated her. She sighed, wondering why 
 people hated her so. Why? 
 
 Robert, she thought with an expression of distaste, 
 was a Grant man. Mary Lincoln had never liked 
 General Grant. Now she was indignant at what he 
 was doing. Her generous mouth set itself firmly. 
 Abraham would never have permitted such goings on. 
 She told herself grimly that she would have seen to 
 that. 
 
 She turned her mind back to Tad. In some ways, 
 it seemed only yesterday that he had gasped his last 
 in the room filled with pain and anguish at the Clifton 
 House. And in others, it seemed so much longer than 
 four years ago. Here it was May 19, 1875. How time 
 does fly! She had been at the Grand Pacific Hotel 
 now for two months. Two months ago last Saturday. 
 
 Mary halted uncertainly before the embossed 
 faqade of Matson and Company. She felt her bonnet, 
 perched securely on her rich brown hair. This was 
 the store where she had seen and ordered the watch. 
 
34 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 She entered, her kid-gloved hands at the mourning 
 brooch beneath her cape; she could visualize the pic- 
 ture of Abraham on it now. 
 
 "May I help you, madame?" 
 
 She had not seen the clerk approach. He had come 
 up behind her. His voice startled her. She turned to 
 face him. He knew her, of course. He was studying 
 her intently. There was a strangeness in his eyes. 
 
 "I have come for the watch/' she said simply. "The 
 one I admired yesterday. Do you have it wrapped?" 
 
 The clerk said yes, he did have. He had had it gift- 
 wrapped as she wanted. Was there anything else? 
 
 That would be all for now, she said. 
 
 "Will you take it with you, madame, or shall I have 
 it delivered?" The clerk looked embarrassed. 
 
 Mary said she would take it with her. She was 
 thinking that she would have no more of this delivery 
 business. Somehow, Robert always seemed to find 
 out, and he would have her purchases returned. 
 
 The clerk handed the watch to her, and she saw 
 that the strangeness remained in his eyes. It made her 
 uncomfortable. She moved quickly through the door- 
 way and into the warm May sunshine again. Once 
 she looked back. The man was still following. Splin- 
 ters of apprehension raced through her. Did he mean 
 her harm? Was he some crank? One of Abraham's 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 35 
 
 enemies, perhaps? Abraham had had so many ene- 
 mies and they would not leave him alone. Not even 
 now. 
 
 Mary Lincoln shrugged imperceptibly. What did 
 it matter, really? They could never harm Abraham's 
 name now. He had been too big for them, a giant 
 among men. She managed a mysterious little smile, 
 which came to her sober eyes and mouth in her 
 smooth, round, unwrinkled face, and then left 
 abruptly. 
 
 She found the walk to the Charles Gossageand Com- 
 pany store most invigorating. Weariness had edged 
 her mind that morning for she had been quite unable 
 to sleep last night. Men kept following her. They 
 even followed her into the hotel. She reflected grimly 
 that Sam Turner, the manager, didn't believe her. 
 Neither did Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper at the hotel, ' 
 nor Maggie Gavin, the maid. They just didn't under- 
 stand her. 
 
 Was it unnatural to walk the floor when one 
 couldn't sleep? Mary Lincoln thought not. She had 
 done that as long as she could remember. So had 
 Abraham, when he lived. Often, late at night, she had 
 found him walking the floor at the White House. 
 
 There were a number of people abroad for such an 
 awkward hour of the morning. Some of them seemed 
 
36 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 to know her, and nodded. She nodded back. The 
 gentlemen tipped their hats. She thought that the 
 ladies ' eyes seemed curious. 
 
 She found Beatrice at the curtain counter, where 
 she always was. Mary Lincoln liked Beatrice very 
 much. She was a charming, lively-faced, merry-eyed 
 young woman. And such manners! She had fine man- 
 ners for a salesperson. Mary reflected that most sales- 
 persons she had known were inclined either to be 
 abrupt or obsequious to the point of being nauseating. 
 Beatrice was simply and genuinely affectionate. Some- 
 times, Mary Lincoln told herself, it was as though 
 Beatrice were her daughter. She felt the old grief 
 run through her then. She had always wanted a 
 daughter. Could she have had a daughter, she re- 
 flected, she would have liked her to be like Beatrice. 
 
 Beatrice greeted her warmly. "My dear Mrs. Lin- 
 coln! How nice to see you again! Isn't it a lovely 
 day? There is something about May days, I always 
 say. A fine day for a little stroll." A pleasant smile 
 was on Beatrice's lovely face. "You look very well, 
 Mrs. Lincoln. Are you sleeping better now?" 
 
 Mary Lincoln said yes, she was, thank you, think- 
 ing that a little white lie was understandable here. 
 No use to trouble such a sweet child. "My dear young 
 lady! You yourself look tired. Are you working so 
 terribly hard these days?" 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln *37 
 
 Beatrice said wryly not as hard as she'd like. It was 
 the depression. Wasn't it terrible, though? So many 
 people out of work. "Not many people come here to 
 purchase fine lace curtains such as these now. I do 
 hope they will keep me on here. The good Lord knows 
 it is little enough salary I draw as it is. They seem 
 to dislike women clerks, you see." 
 
 Mary Lincoln removed her kid gloves and extended 
 one small hand to feel the curtains. They were very 
 fine curtains. Very fine indeed. There had never been 
 better ones than this in the White House. 
 
 "They are lovely, my dear. I suppose you do have 
 little call for them, though, since the panic." 
 
 "Almost none at all." Beatrice sighed. "People are 
 most reluctant to buy." 
 
 "I shall take eight pairs of them," Mary Lincoln 
 decided. 
 
 Beatrice's blue eyes showed her surprise. Then she 
 blushed. "Oh, you needn't, really, ma'am. I did not 
 mean it that way at all. I did not mean that you 
 should buy some. . . ." 
 
 "It is all right, my dear. I shall need them one day, 
 perhaps. Have them delivered to my room at the 
 Grand Pacific." 
 
 "But . . ." 
 
 "No buts now, young lady. You have been very 
 kind to me." 
 
38 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Very well, Mrs. Lincoln. I'll have a bundle boy 
 bring them around." She hesitated. "Will it be the 
 usual charge?" 
 
 "No," Mary Lincoln decided. "No, I shall pay for 
 them. I have some money today, you see. I have 
 cashed one of my bonds." 
 
 Beatrice's eyes were on the chatelaine watch now. 
 It gleamed expensively against the somber black of 
 Mary Lincoln's clothing. 
 
 "It is such a pretty watch," Beatrice said. "I have 
 always admired it." 
 
 "I know," Mary said. "It gave me a thought, my 
 dear." She hesitated, then lifted the small, gift- 
 wrapped box and placed it before her on the counter. 
 "May I present you with a token of my esteem, my 
 dear young lady? You have been so kind and friendly 
 to me." 
 
 "Oh, Mrs. Lincoln. You shouldn't do these things! 
 Only last week it was the perfume. Such expensive 
 perfume, Mrs. Lincoln!" Beatrice's eyes were stab- 
 bing curiously at the package. 
 
 "Please," Mary Lincoln said. "You are a friend, 
 dear young lady. Friends are such a blessing. I have 
 so few real friends, you see." 
 
 Beatrice lifted the box carefully and then her slen- 
 der fingers were working eagerly at its wrappings. At 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 39 
 
 last, she had it open and she turned wide blue eyes 
 to Mary. 
 
 "How lovely!" 
 
 Mary Lincoln could see the tears starting. "Please, 
 child. Don't weep. It is as if you were a daughter, 
 you see. I have always wanted a daughter. Abraham 
 did, too." Mary Lincoln paused. "Dear, kind Abra- 
 ham. How he would have spoiled a daughter!" 
 
 "But I just couldn't, Mrs. Lincoln. I mean, we 
 are not supposed to accept gifts." 
 
 "Not accept gifts?" Mary Lincoln's smooth face 
 grew stern. "Who says you are not allowed to accept 
 gifts? Not allowed to accept offerings from the heart? 
 My dear young lady, you will keep this watch." A 
 plaintive note crept into her voice. She could not keep 
 it out. "Keep it and remember me as a friend." 
 
 "Oh, Mrs. Lincoln." Beatrice was suddenly 
 around the counter and embracing her. "Mother 
 Lincoln. Who can say anything about you? You are 
 so kind and good." 
 
 "There, there, my dear." Mary Lincoln felt a 
 mother's tenderness surge through her. This was a 
 sweet child. "There, there. Abraham and I have 
 many enemies, you see. I think sometimes that even 
 the worst of these do not know truly what it is 
 they do." 
 
40 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Mary had quieted the sobbing girl. Now she 
 turned slowly. She must go. She looked at her own 
 watch again. After noon! She must hurry. The 
 thought of lunch was not palatable to her. Neither 
 was the thought of returning to her room. But she 
 must go. She looked for the strange man. He was not 
 there now. She turned back to Beatrice. 
 
 "There will be a man here inquiring about me 
 soon," she said. "Do not tell him that I have pur- 
 chased anything. They do not understand, you see, 
 what my true need for such things is. No, do not tell 
 him about this purchase and do not tell him where I 
 am going. Why won't they leave me alone? Why do 
 they follow me? What do they mean to do?" 
 
 "You look strange, Mrs. Lincoln. Out of your eyes, 
 I mean. Is there something wrong?" Beatrice's yet 
 moist blue eyes were filled with anxiety now. 
 
 "No." Mary Lincoln sighed. "No, nothing is 
 wrong. My enemies are about me, you see, ready to 
 strike again and again at my husband's memory 
 through me. I suppose, my dear child, that they think 
 that I do not know this. They close in upon me these 
 days." Her generous mouth was set firmly. "But I 
 shall triumph in the end. Mark my words, my child. 
 I shall triumph." 
 
 The walk back to the hotel was very pleasant. She 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 41 
 
 was glad, now, that she had not taken the carriage. 
 The street banks were steep, anyway, and made it 
 very awkward for a lady. She felt better, too, for 
 having given Beatrice the watch. It made her feel so 
 good to do such things for her friends. Of all of the 
 things in the world, Mary Todd Lincoln told herself, 
 the greatest was to be surrounded by good friends. 
 She knew why it was she felt this way. Love and 
 affection had been ripped abruptly from her life. A 
 woman needs love and affection, she thought. A 
 woman needs them desperately. 
 
 The doorman at the Grand Pacific bowed, as al- 
 ways, but she detected a strangeness in his eyes, too. 
 The elevator operator watched her slyly, and she 
 wished she had not become so frightened the other 
 night. To think of it now embarrassed her. Imagine 
 running to the elevator in one's night clothing like a 
 frightened child with a fever! She told herself she 
 would not do that again, regardless of how frightened 
 she might become. 
 
 There was something almost desolate about the 
 room, in spite of its sumptuous furnishings. It 
 seemed to close in on her as she entered. She stared 
 at the small window, watching the black smoke belch 
 from the chimney beyond it. Again she thought of 
 Tad. 
 
42 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Poor Tad! It was terrible the way the boys back 
 in Springfield used to tease him. Tongue-tied Tad 
 they had called him. 
 
 That was why she had taken him to Europe. She 
 wanted to get him away from them. He was such a 
 bright child. It had helped, too. His diction had im- 
 proved tremendously. And then — the trip home. She 
 ought not to have come home, really. She had told 
 herself that at the time, but she was ill and her spirits 
 were low. The sea had been very rough. Heavy seas, 
 the captain had called them. It was during the trip 
 that Tad had taken the cold which brought his death. 
 Mary Lincoln felt the tears coming and pressed them 
 back. She took off her bonnet and cape, and then 
 moved to the picture of her husband. She picked 
 it up. 
 
 "Dear Abraham. They have said so many evil 
 things about you, my dear," she said softly. "So 
 many evil things. Men who pretended to be your 
 friends. Men such as Herndon. How lonely are these 
 years now that Tad, too, is gone! All of you have 
 gone. Eddie, Willie, you, Tad. Love has gone, leav- 
 ing only bitter ashes. Our enemies nourish, Abraham. 
 They have made a mockery of the truth and of those 
 things which you would have done. Were it not for 
 this anger at them which stirs within me, I might 
 have had done with it long ago. You must forgive me 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 43 
 
 for this, Abraham. I have not your strength of char- 
 acter, you see — your great compassion. They wrong 
 us and I want to forgive them, but I cannot. These 
 are bitter, bitter days for the Lincoln name." 
 
 Mary Lincoln rose, setting the picture down, and 
 strode to a window. Then she turned back to the pic- 
 ture, twisting off the wedding band on her finger to 
 study the words engraved inside. They were still 
 faintly legible. "Love is eternal," she muttered, rais- 
 ing sober blue-gray eyes again to the picture. 
 
 "Ah, Abraham, but that was sweet. Love is eter- 
 nal? Yes, I think it is. It stays with me these trying 
 years as nothing else. I feel it, sometimes, when I am 
 troubled and when I am not quite myself. You were 
 so gentle for such a big man and to think they said 
 that you were awkward! Is there awkwardness in 
 the grace of such love as ours? O Lord, help me to 
 stand his absence until that time when I may be with 
 him again. Give me his strength to stand these things 
 they say. Give me his wisdom to deal with villainy." 
 
 Mary Lincoln stirred then and moved to her favor- 
 ite chair. She must have some lunch. They had told 
 her to eat regularly. She did not feel hunger now. 
 Weariness assailed her. Why was it, she wondered, 
 that her face did not betray this great weariness? She 
 rose and walked to the mirror. Her rich brown hair 
 remained fine and unfaded. There were no lines on 
 
44 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 her smooth face. In the eyes, perhaps, there was a 
 kind of anguish. Nothing more. She sighed and re- 
 turned to the chair. 
 
 Drowsiness assailed her. She dozed. Eddie was 
 speaking to her now. Dear little Eddie. Only four. 
 They had told her it was diphtheria. He was stran- 
 gling, explaining to her in their Springfield home why 
 it was that his tall, somber father was not with him 
 at this hour. 
 
 "Papa don to tapila," he was saying. Papa gone 
 to the capital. Congressman Lincoln was, indeed, in 
 Washington. And a son was dying in Springfield. 
 
 The explosion startled her and she made a peculiar 
 motion as if to dab at her dress. It was there, where 
 the sleeve ballooned from the shoulder, that the blood 
 had spattered. And Abraham had fallen forward so 
 loosely. Dear God! He's been shot! 
 
 Another explosion! No. No, it was a knocking. 
 Someone was knocking at the door. She rose drowsily, 
 feeling dizzy, and put a hand on the chair to steady 
 herself. Then both hands went to her hair. She must 
 look a fright! 
 
 "One moment !" She said it with the voice of a 
 stranger and moved slowly toward the door. It would 
 be the bundle boy, of course, with the curtains. 
 Where to put them? In one of the trunks, she sup- 
 posed. She really shouldn't have purchased them. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 45 
 
 Not really. But Beatrice was such a sweet child. 
 
 She flipped the latch and opened the door. The 
 bundle boy, obscured by the packages he carried and 
 staggering under the load, entered. Mary Lincoln 
 fixed startled bluish-gray eyes on the men behind the 
 boy. Sam Turner, the Grand Pacific manager. And 
 Leonard T. Swett, the prominent attorney who had 
 been one of Abraham's good friends. 
 
 The two men stepped across the threshold and 
 Swett bowed slightly. The boy was fiddling with the 
 packages. He managed to set them down quickly and 
 departed. Mary Lincoln's hands flew again to her 
 mussed hair. Then one hand dropped to the mourning 
 brooch. 
 
 Swett, tall, spare, muscular and florid-faced, 
 stroked his beard and watched her soberly. She saw, 
 too, the strangeness in Turner's eyes. 
 
 "Gentlemen, you must excuse my appearance." 
 She was thinking of the mud on her skirt. 
 
 Swett moved to the chair, fidgeting with his hat, 
 and then motioned to it. "Never mind your hair, 
 Mrs. Lincoln. Sit down here. I have some bad news 
 for you." 
 
 Daggers of anxiety drove themselves through her. 
 Robert? Something must have happened to Robert. 
 Ah, her poor, fragile boys ! The old fear rose in her. 
 Not her last living son? She had believed him to be 
 
46 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 ill when she left Jacksonville. That was why she had 
 come. She had sensed it. No. No. She had read it 
 somewhere. Robert had been ill. 
 
 Mary Lincoln's knees suddenly felt weak. She sat 
 down abruptly, turning startled eyes to Swett. She 
 was vaguely aware that Sam Turner had left the 
 room. 
 
 Swett cleared his throat. "Mrs. Lincoln/' he said 
 sonorously, "your friends have with great unanimity 
 come to the conclusion that the troubles you have 
 been called to pass through have been too much and 
 have produced mental disease." 
 
 The words slapped cruelly at her comprehension. 
 What was this man saying? What did he mean? 
 
 "You mean," she said softly, "to say I am crazy, 
 then, do you?" 
 
 "Yes." Swett sighed almost as if with relief at 
 having got it into the open. "Yes. I regret to say 
 that is what your friends all think." 
 
 Her friends indeed ! Mary felt switches of fear and 
 anger now. No friends of hers! These were her ene- 
 mies — enemies of the Lincoln name ! But not Leonard 
 Swett. Could he have changed? Could he be turn- 
 ing against Abraham? 
 
 Mary experienced swirls of confusion. What was 
 going on here? She turned to her God. I shall fear no 
 evil, she thought, for thou art with me. She shouted 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 47 
 
 down her shrieking nerves and spoke calmly. "I am 
 much obliged to you, but I am abundantly able to care 
 for myself, and I don't need any aid from such friends. 
 Where is my son Robert? I want him to come here." 
 
 "You will see him in court," Swett said bluntly. 
 
 In court indeed? Could it be that they had gone 
 this far? 
 
 "The court? What . . . court . . . do . . . you . . . 
 mean?" Mary Lincoln's round, smooth face set 
 firmly. "Who says I am insane?" 
 
 "Judge Davis says so, and your cousin, John T. 
 Stuart; Robert says so; and I do not want to throw 
 the responsibility of this on others. I say so." 
 
 Swett was avoiding her eyes, but his voice was 
 firm with determination. His face swam before her. 
 Swett? Judge Davis? She had long known that they 
 did not care for her. But Abraham — they revered 
 her husband. Something was terribly amiss. Swett's 
 face swam before her. Robert? Robert? Waiting 
 in court . . . ? 
 
 Could this be political treachery? Did they want 
 her out of the way? 
 
 No, she decided tiredly. It didn't fit. This was . . . 
 she managed a grim little smile. It was almost bi- 
 partisan. Robert was a Stalwart Republican, a Grant 
 adherent. Swett and Davis hated Grant and all he 
 stood for. 
 
48 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 My last son, she thought tiredly. My last son has 
 left me completely now. Now I truly am all alone. 
 And from deep within her a great sob of anguish and 
 of yearning welled up and up, building as it came, 
 and at last it burst from her. Mary Lincoln felt as if 
 she surely must choke from the ring of cold, menacing 
 hostility now being drawn so closely about her. 
 
 Her hand, fluttering nervously, fell to the chate- 
 laine watch, and she thought of Beatrice. It com- 
 forted her. 
 
 "I have a friend," she said defensively. "I have a 
 friend. That I know." 
 
 
Chapter 3 
 
 Why had her son forsaken her, his mother? Mary 
 Todd Lincoln rose majestically from her chair in the 
 room which suddenly seemed to be stifling her. There 
 was determination in her stance. It was in her mouth 
 and eyes, too. 
 
 She would not yield, she thought. Robert had 
 joined the Pharisees about her. He was a Grant Stal- 
 wart, a spoils system man. But why had Swett as- 
 sumed the role of the Trojan Horse? It drove puzzle- 
 ment through her again, and she stepped back in con- 
 fusion. Then she decided. The enemies of Abraham 
 must be at her throat. She must not yield to them. 
 
 Avoiding her eyes, Swett pulled from a pocket sev- 
 eral letters and offered them to Mary. 
 
 "What are these?" she demanded. "I shall not be 
 served by you with any papers. Go away." 
 
 49 
 
50 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "These are letters, Mrs. Lincoln. They have been 
 prepared by five prominent Chicago physicians." 
 
 "What have these to do with me?" Mary wanted 
 to know. "I need no physicians now. I need friends 
 to help me." 
 
 "They are opinions establishing your insanity, 
 madame," Swett replied coldly. She could see im- 
 patience in his eyes. 
 
 "My insanity indeed." Mary let rage into her eyes, 
 but her voice remained soft. "I haven't seen these 
 physicians. They do not come to see me. They know 
 nothing about me. What does this mean?" 
 
 Swett's mouth set grimly. "It means that you are 
 under arrest, Mrs. Lincoln. Permit me to explain to 
 you that when a person is believed to be insane, an 
 affidavit must be filed in the county court, whereupon 
 a writ is issued. Ordinarily, the sheriff takes this writ 
 and proceeds to arrest the party and take him or her 
 to court. In this case, Robert has made the affidavit. 
 Two officers have come along with me, but I was con- 
 strained not to permit your person to be seized by 
 officers and forcibly taken to court. Therefore, I have 
 come in lieu of the officers to request that you go along 
 with me." 
 
 Mary Todd Lincoln flatly refused. Was she an 
 animal to be dragged off so abruptly to some Roman 
 holiday? She commenced pacing back and forth be- 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 51 
 
 fore the startled Swett. Could he not see, she de- 
 manded, that he and Robert were mere instruments 
 being manipulated by enemies of the very name of 
 Lincoln? No. Absolutely not. She would not submit 
 to this indignity and humiliation. She wanted coun- 
 sel. She wanted time. She would fight this and she 
 would win. 
 
 Swett listened silently, his eyes on the floor. When 
 she had finished, he raised determined eyes to her 
 troubled countenance. 
 
 "No thing in your case remains, madame, but to go 
 with me. You have no alternative. If you insist, then 
 I shall turn you over to the officers and let them take 
 you. There are two carriages waiting downstairs. 
 One of them is mine. The other belongs to the offi- 
 cers. If you choose not to come quietly, I must either 
 seize you forcibly or turn you over to those officers. 
 Rest assured that they will handcuff you if that be- 
 comes necessary. Certainly, they will take you to 
 court." 
 
 Swett paused and his face grew thoughtful. His 
 voice was softer, almost syrupy, when he spoke. 
 "How much better for you to put on your bonnet and 
 go along with me as you ordinarily would." 
 
 "Are there others besides Mr. Turner and the offi- 
 cers?" Mary wanted to know. "Is there a gallery of 
 our enemies drawn up outside to cheer as the widow 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
52 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 of Abraham Lincoln is taken forth in chains to the 
 arena?" 
 
 She had let the bitterness welling up within her 
 into her soft voice. It was edged with irony now. 
 
 "Only Ben Ayer," Swett said. "He waits outside 
 with the officers." 
 
 "Ah, Mr. Ayer. Another prominent Chicago law- 
 yer. Does it require such a magnificent array of legal 
 brain power, Mr. Swett, to crucify one little old lady 
 such as Mary Lincoln?" 
 
 She watched the blush rise in his face and saw the 
 shade of sadness cross it. He turned his eyes away. 
 His voice seemed muffled. "Mr. Ayer is your son 
 Robert's counsel, Mrs. Lincoln." 
 
 "Ah yes, my son Robert. I should say, Mr. Swett, 
 that he needs counsel from above, and not from a 
 mere man whose purposes do seem to fit a pattern of 
 connivances which has not been strange to me since 
 that Good Friday in 1865 when Abraham was shot 
 down. Why have you turned?" 
 
 "I am sorry, Mrs. Lincoln, that you are insane, 
 but I must do my duty." 
 
 "And you are attending to insane people, are you, 
 Mr. Swett? Allow me to suggest that you go home 
 and take care of your wife, then. I have heard some 
 stories on that subject about her." 
 
 Mary turned slowly to study the picture of Abra- 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 53 
 
 ham on the table. The eyes, she thought, were very 
 sad. His eyes were always sad. 
 
 "And you, my husband's friend, would take me and 
 lock me up in an asylum, would you?" 
 
 She felt the scalding tears come then. She had 
 hoped to avoid this, but it was too much. Too futile. 
 She raised her hands imploringly, and turned her face 
 upward, so that the tears coursed under her smooth 
 chin now and bathed her throat. 
 
 "O God, please return to me my Abraham that I 
 may be delivered from mine enemies. Send him, Good 
 Lord, that he may release me, and drive them away ! " 
 
 "Please, Mrs. Lincoln, I implore you . . ." 
 
 She turned on him abruptly, her eyes flashing. 
 
 "Why are you doing this to me, Mr. Swett? What 
 manner of evil is this in you? Why do you, of all 
 people, believe a poor widow to be insane? Why? 
 
 Swett sighed and shifted his weight impatiently. 
 "Well, Mrs. Lincoln, did you not telegraph Dr. Isham 
 several months ago that Robert was sick when, in 
 fact, your son's health was never better? Was that 
 not what you advised him from Jacksonville, Florida? 
 And did you not, that same day, send a telegram to 
 Robert, too, and say to him in it that he should rouse 
 himself and live for his mother? Didn't you? And 
 did not you tell him that you pray every night that 
 he might be spared?" 
 
54 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Ah, Mr. Swett, and that I do. I do pray every 
 night that my only remaining son be spared. Cannot 
 you understand this great anxiety within me? Yes, 
 even Robert, I fancy, is taken from me now. He is 
 my only son left to me. The others, you see, are dead. 
 They are gone." 
 
 "Really, now, Mrs. Lincoln." Swett's voice was 
 filled with impatience. "What does that have to do 
 with the present circumstances?" 
 
 "Have you ever had even one son die in your arms, 
 Mr. Swett?" 
 
 "No, but . . ." 
 
 "I have, sir," Mary said softly. "Eddie was only 
 four then. It was the first of February, a cold and 
 bitter day in 1850. I can remember it so clearly. He 
 was taken ill, you know, in December. They said it 
 was diphtheria. I think only God really knows what 
 it was that came to take him from me. He grew 
 weaker and weaker, and then he died. Of such is the 
 kingdom of Heaven, Mr. Swett. We had that put on 
 his marker, you know. He was so young. So very 
 young to die." 
 
 "I am sorry, Mrs. Lincoln. But this is 1875, 
 madame. That was so long ago. Twenty-five years 
 ago, madame." 
 
 "It is as yesterday to a mother," Mary said tiredly. 
 The fight was oozing from her now, leaving her limp 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 55 
 
 and exhausted. "Time cannot heal such bruises on a 
 mother's heart, you see. It is a special kind of hell, 
 sir, to watch a child die, a child whose trusting eyes 
 do say to you that he is certain you will not let any- 
 thing happen to him, you see. A special kind of hell, 
 Mr. Swett. It is the reproach that comes into those 
 eyes with death's calling. No. It is as yesterday, you 
 see. It was yesterday." 
 
 Mary paused, going to the window to look out. 
 She was aware of Swett's startled face as he moved 
 quickly toward her. She turned about. He stopped, 
 anxiety across his florid, bearded countenance. 
 
 "But I have lost three sons, Mr. Swett. Not one, 
 you understand. Three. Willie was next. He was 
 just twelve, and we were in the White House then. 
 It, too, came in February. It was the twentieth and 
 we were at war in that year. 1862. That horrible 
 war . . ." 
 
 "Thirteen years, Mrs. Lincoln." 
 
 "Yesterday," she insisted. "It was only yesterday, 
 Mr. Swett. Bilious fever, they called it. He lived only 
 eleven days after being stricken. I remember. Fort 
 Donelson had fallen then to General Grant. Fort 
 Henry, too. It fell first, I think. And then Donelson. 
 Yes. And then Willie. All I have left of him is a 
 withered bouquet. It was in his hand, and I had them 
 fetch it to me. ..." 
 
56 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "You must not trouble yourself so, madame. We 
 must go. They wait for us at the courtroom." 
 
 She ignored him, staring into the kind of distance 
 which reaches back across the years of pain and 
 sorrow. 
 
 "Why cannot Robert understand this anxiety for 
 him which possesses me? Lives there a mother gifted 
 with a mother's great love who does not fret within 
 her mind constantly about her children — how they 
 are, how they progress? What is their health? you 
 think. Are they all right? And then to lose three of 
 them! Is this to render immunity, then, to anxiety 
 for the fourth and last one? Is it? There is no vac- 
 cination against mother love, Mr. Swett. It is — " she 
 fingered the worn gold wedding ring — "it is eternal, 
 you see, as the love from which it came." 
 
 "Your strange horror of fire, madame. Is this not a 
 symptom of lunacy? Why do you say to people that 
 this city will surely burn again?" 
 
 "Ah, Mr. Swett. Have I satisfied you, then, con- 
 cerning my fears for Robert, who now turns on his 
 mother? Is it, then, that only two deaths will buy off 
 such insanity as this? Tad was the sweetest one, you 
 see. I think it was because he was most often hurt. 
 Speech was difficult for him. His cleft palate was his 
 cross in life, and he bore it well, sir. Children jeered 
 at him and mocked him here in Chicago. They 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 57 
 
 shouted Tongue-tied Tad' at him and laughed to see 
 the pain this brought on his proud little face. God 
 forgive me if, perhaps, I loved him more. He would 
 have taken it, but I could not. We moved many times 
 until, I thought, this land which boasts of freedom, 
 and this widow of a man who gave that proud boast 
 shining glory, must seek freedom from mockery on 
 foreign shores. Is it not ironic, Mr. Swett? The son 
 of a man they called the Great Emancipator must go 
 abroad to find freedom from intolerance." 
 
 "If you will excuse me, Mrs. Lincoln? That is not 
 the question here. You see ..." 
 
 "His condition did improve in Europe, Mr. Swett," 
 she cut him off. "I saw it first in Germany, at Frank- 
 fort on the Main. And in England he had a wonder- 
 ful tutor. But I became ill. Conditions abroad, you 
 see, are not so advanced as here, in our country. I 
 became ill and wanted again to come home. We came 
 through heavy seas and it was very cold, and Tad 
 took a cold one day while strolling on the deck. He 
 died right here in the Clifton House. It was so very 
 hot. It was in July, you know. So very hot, and yet 
 Tad was so cold. He just suffocated, my tender, lov- 
 ing Tad. Just could not breathe. His face turned 
 blue. He was dead." 
 
 "But the fire. You have a lunacy about fire. . . ." 
 
 "No lunacy," she retorted. "The fire came in 
 
58 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 October of that year. It was an omen, perhaps. The 
 fire which burned Chicago down came after my son 
 Tad died here." 
 
 "We must get to the courtroom, Mrs. Lincoln. The 
 trial . . ." 
 
 "Yes. The trial. My trial has been so long, Mr. 
 Swett. It began on Good Friday in 1865. I remember 
 how packed the theater was, and how the Union sol- 
 diers stood about it with their long muskets as if 
 these would keep out the malevolence which seethed 
 about my Abraham. The blood is here. See it here?" 
 She fingered her right sleeve. "Blood of my husband. 
 There was not even a final word. I knew, even as 
 they carried him away. Perhaps if Robert had been 
 there . . . But he was not. He would not come with 
 us. Abraham wanted him to do so, but he would not. 
 He was not there beside me then, and he is not here 
 beside me now." 
 
 "We were deeply sorry, Mrs. Lincoln. All of us 
 were sorry. But that is not the question before us 
 now. I must insist, madame, that we leave for the 
 courtroom." 
 
 "He died in the line of duty," she said. "He died 
 as those soldiers who went before him. He was a sol- 
 dier, too. He was the commander in chief. And so I 
 asked for a pension and they put a bill in Congress 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 59 
 
 for it. And this is when the hate was transferred to 
 me. I am sure you remember what happened in our 
 Congress, Mr. Swett. I am the only woman whose 
 name was ever dragged through such mud and mire 
 in those dignified houses which some have called the 
 temples of our democracy. Temples indeed ! Vilifica- 
 tion! Slander! And in the United States Senate! 
 Oh, I have saved this calumny, Mr. Swett, for I want 
 to remember it. I have the Congressional Globes in 
 which those speeches appeared." 
 
 Mary moved to the closet and picked up the thumb- 
 worn copies, studying them. 
 
 "Hear this villainy, Mr. Swett. Hear this calumny 
 and tell this grieving widow who now has lost four 
 sons if her eccentricities are not well rooted in in- 
 famous slanders in our noble Senate. Senator Yates 
 is speaking here, you see. He said: 'There are recol- 
 lections and memories, sad, silent and deep that I will 
 not recall publicly, which induce me to vote against 
 the bill. A woman should be true to her husband. I 
 will not go into details. I believe that, could Mr. Lin- 
 coln speak from the abode of Heaven, he would say 
 as I do. This is not a case where we should extend 
 charity. I happen to know that she and her family all 
 through the war were sympathizers with the rebel- 
 lion.' This is what our noble Senator Yates told the 
 
60 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 world about Mary Lincoln, sir. That she was untrue 
 to her eternal love. And that she was a traitorous 
 first lady in the White House!" 
 
 "Come now, Mrs. Lincoln. Some men are cruel 
 with words, but you must not carry on so." 
 
 "And with deeds as well as words, sir. You come 
 to me and say come with me, Mary Todd Lincoln, 
 and I will take you to a courtroom and then will put 
 you away in a dungeon. You say I am insane because 
 an anger burns at me for those injustices fostered by 
 mine enemies who now sit aside and jeer at what you 
 do. Do you know, sir, that Senator Tipton pointed 
 out that even a dog which had belonged to Abraham 
 would be kept immune to this day from indignity? 
 Why not, then, his poor widow? Am I less than a 
 dog to be treated thus?" 
 
 "I must insist, Mrs. Lincoln. I really must." 
 
 "Yes, you must, Mr. Swett. I daresay this is for 
 reasons best known to yourself. Yes, I suppose that 
 one may conclude that I am mentally depressed. But 
 insane, Mr. Swett? No. Never!" 
 
 "Well, mentally depressed then, Mrs. Lincoln. We 
 must go. We must be going." 
 
 "Yes, mentally depressed. Who would not be? 
 Poor Abraham's body was hardly in the grave before 
 that devil's advocate Herndon, his own law partner, 
 mind you, produced the most vicious lies of them all." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 61 
 
 "We must overlook Herndon, Mrs. Lincoln. A man 
 addicted as he is to alcohol cannot be mentally 
 sound." 
 
 "Yes, overlook such insanity as sears a widow's 
 very soul with its malice, but put that widow into 
 chains for her reactions to it. This is wild and fearful 
 reasoning, Mr. Swett." 
 
 Mary returned to the closet and put the thumb- 
 worn Globes away. 
 
 "I even helped this Herndon," Mary said. "I 
 thought to be kind to him and so I met him in the 
 Nicholas Hotel at Springfield and he pretended to me 
 to be my husband's friend. I turned to him for ad- 
 vice, and I told him, therefore, many family secrets, 
 trusting him with them. I thought his book would be 
 a monument to the memory and the goodness of my 
 dear Abraham, and for this faith he repaid me with 
 malicious treachery. Lies! All lies!" 
 
 "Not all, Mrs. Lincoln. It was not such a bad 
 book as that." 
 
 Mary was fingering her wedding ring again. "He 
 said Abraham loved Nancy Rutledge better than his 
 own life. This was a vicious fiction. He said that 
 Abraham loved another and had told me so. Do you 
 realize, Mr. Swett, how feminine dignity reels before 
 such mendacious ferocity? He raised a question as to 
 the death of our children and its devilish imputation 
 
62 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 was aimed at me. He said that Abraham once fled 
 and left me spurned at the altar. He even raised a 
 question as to the legitimacy of Abraham's birth and 
 described him as 'rising from a stagnant, putrid pool.' 
 He called my husband infidel and atheist, my husband 
 whom I have seen on his knees imploring God to give 
 him wisdom for his people." 
 
 "Your husband is not on trial here, Mrs. Lincoln. 
 Please control yourself. Come with me as you nor- 
 mally would." 
 
 "Ah, but Abraham is on trial, Mr. Swett. You and 
 others have put him there, you see, for I am in his 
 shadow constantly." 
 
 "I cannot agree with that contention, madame." 
 
 "For two thousand pieces of silver," Mary said 
 thoughtfully, "this Lamon bought Herndon's material 
 and under his name he published all of this calumny. 
 His name, you see, but with a pen dipped in villainy 
 by Chauncey Black, the son of a judge who was a 
 well-known enemy of Abraham." 
 
 "But friends bought up copies, Mrs. Lincoln, and 
 destroyed them." 
 
 "Yes. I know that. But there are others still about. 
 Words such as these once written cannot be recalled, 
 Mr. Swett. These words have woven false threads 
 into the fabric of history. If only one reader believes 
 them, is not Abraham's memory damaged for it?" 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 63 
 
 "Newspapers called you mad, Mrs. Lincoln, when 
 you wanted to auction off your clothing." Swett was 
 pacing impatiently now. 
 
 "Yes. Those were furious articles, Mr. Swett." 
 
 "You caused much embarrassment to Robert with 
 those eccentricities." 
 
 "Eccentricities indeed! If this was madness, it was 
 merchant madness! Merchants suggested the auc- 
 tion so that I might pay off debts. And why not? 
 People wanted these garments because they loved me, 
 you see. But Robert left me. He scolded me and 
 left me. He was furious at the articles in the news- 
 papers; like a maniac and almost threatened his life. 
 And only dear Tad, who yet lived then, prevented me 
 from taking mine." 
 
 Mary sat again, looking at her dress, and she could 
 feel the weight of the folded bonds sewn into the spe- 
 cial pocket of her first petticoat. "I have fifty-six 
 thousand dollars' worth of bonds," she said tiredly. 
 "That is what you all are after, I suppose. I know 
 what you want with them." 
 
 Swett stopped his pacing and gave her an impatient 
 stare. "I insist." 
 
 "Very well." She said it as a deep sigh. Her eyes 
 studied her muddied skirt. "See my dress, Mr. Swett? 
 It is all muddy from shopping. I must change my 
 dress and certainly you would not humiliate me and 
 
64 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 compel me to undress myself in your presence ?" 
 
 Swett blushed. "I regret that you should throw the 
 necessity on me, madame. There is no need for a 
 change in your dress. However, whatever comes, it 
 might as well be understood here and now that I am 
 not going to leave you and you must go with me." 
 
 "And why won't you leave me alone a moment?" 
 Mary wanted to know. 
 
 "Because if I do, Mrs. Lincoln, I am afraid you will 
 jump out of the window." 
 
 "It is you, Mr. Swett, who should jump out of the 
 window." Mary rose slowly, studying the large closet 
 in which she had placed the Congressional Globes. 
 She moved to it, deciding it would have to do, and 
 entered, closing the door behind her. In the darkness 
 she found the dress she sought and managed to make 
 the change. Then she re-entered the room. 
 
 Swett was waiting. A mixture of impatience and 
 anxiety was stamped on his face. 
 
 "Will you take my arm, Mrs. Lincoln?" he said. 
 She was putting on her bonnet. 
 
 "No, thank you." Mary felt the switches of anger 
 again. "I can walk yet." 
 
 They had to wait for the elevator. Mary wondered 
 if Swett would speak further about it out here, in the 
 open, with people about. She decided to change the 
 subject and was still discussing the panic when they 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 65 
 
 reached the steep grade leading to the street. Swett 
 offered to help her into the carriage, but she shrugged 
 him off. 
 
 "No," she said abruptly. "I ride with you from 
 compulsion, Mr. Swett, but I beg you not to touch 
 me." 
 
 They were silent during the ride to the courtroom. 
 Swett spoke only to answer her question as to where 
 it was. He said it was at North Dearborn Street and 
 West Hubbard. Mary turned, once, to look back. 
 The carriage with two policemen, Sam Turner and 
 Ben Ayer in it followed them at a distance. 
 
 They moved quietly through the courthouse to the 
 courtroom. Swett opened the heavy door abruptly 
 and the murmur of voices reached Mary. There were 
 strange men standing about, and she drew back fear- 
 fully. Perhaps one of them wanted to kill her, as that 
 crazed one had shot poor Abraham. 
 
 "Come right along, Mrs. Lincoln," Swett's syrupy 
 voice urged her. "Robert is in here and I will sit 
 by you." 
 
 Fear weakened Mary Lincoln's knees. She felt the 
 perspiration start in her palms. His words did not 
 reassure her, but there was no turning back now. She 
 entered slowly and seated herself in the chair desig- 
 nated by Swett. 
 
 She watched as Swett walked across the murmur- 
 
66 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 filled courtroom toward a man. The man turned, and 
 she saw with a start that it was Robert. Her only living 
 son looked across the courtroom at her and then moved 
 toward her. 
 
 "Mother," he said, and she thought his voice quiv- 
 ered just a bit. 
 
 "Sit down, my son," she said kindly. "Sit by me 
 in my hour of need." 
 
Chapter 4 
 
 Mary Todd Lincoln sat quietly beside her son in 
 the courtroom commencing to fill with murmuring 
 people and hoped desperately that this was all some 
 terrible dream. She had known such dreams since 
 Abraham had gone, but never one quite so strange as 
 this one. Her small hand went to the mourning brooch 
 with the sad-faced image on it. 
 
 Swett moved over to her, and his voice brushed 
 through her whirling thoughts. 
 
 "You are entitled to counsel, Mrs. Lincoln," he 
 was saying. "Your old friend, Mr. Arnold, is here. 
 He was your husband's friend, and I imagine that you 
 would rather have him and Robert sit beside you than 
 any stranger?" 
 
 Mary Lincoln thought that over. Robert was a 
 stranger now. And Isaac N. Arnold? Was he truly 
 yet a friend? Leonard Swett had been Abraham's 
 
 67 
 
68 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 friend, too, and now he had turned against her for 
 some strange reason beyond her. Leonard Swett, the 
 man who had placed Abraham's name in nomination 
 right here in Chicago. And now he was soiling that 
 name through her. Was Arnold with them? Should 
 she trust the diminutive lawyer? She decided she 
 would and saw relief in Swett's eyes when she said so. 
 
 Mary let her eyes roam about the courtroom. It 
 was filling slowly with curious faces. She reflected 
 grimly that the word must be spreading rapidly 
 throughout the building. The jury box was already 
 filled, she noticed, and as she studied the faces turned 
 toward her, she started in surprise. Most of them she 
 knew, some of them quite well. 
 
 She prodded her memory and told herself the 
 names: Lyman Gage, the bank president; J. Mc- 
 Gregor Adams of Crerar and Adams Company, the 
 railway supply firm; Mr. Parkhurst and James A. 
 Mason, the prominent foundryman; Charles B. 
 Farwell of the wholesale drygoods firm; Charles Hen- 
 derson and Mr. Cameron; Thomas Cogswell, the 
 jeweler; William Stewart of Stewart and Aldrich 
 Company; Silas Moore, real estate and loans; Henry 
 Durand of the groceries firm, and a final man whose 
 face Mary could not place. They were Robert's 
 friends, she told herself, not hers. 
 
 The soft voice of Isaac N. Arnold penetrated her 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 69 
 
 thoughts. She managed a faint smile and extended 
 her hand. He took it gently, bowing slightly, and 
 kissed it. 
 
 "Good day to you, Mrs. Lincoln. It is such a pleas- 
 ure to see you again, but I am sorry that we must 
 meet in such circumstances." 
 
 Mary was thinking that Isaac Arnold had not 
 changed. He was the same diminutive, bearded, po- 
 lite little man with the old school manner. She studied 
 his eyes and decided he was, indeed, friendly. 
 
 "This is the day," she replied soberly, "that my 
 enemies have been waiting for." 
 
 "I suspect, Mrs. Lincoln, that perhaps this is the 
 day your enemies have been planning for." Arnold's 
 gentle face was grim; his sharp, even features stiff. 
 
 The abrupt pounding of the gavel by the bailiff in- 
 terrupted them. Mary looked about as persons in the 
 courtroom rose to their feet. She rose, too, listening 
 to the bailiff intone: "State of Illinois, County of 
 Cook, in the County Court of Cook County. This 
 court will now be in order." 
 
 Shock and apprehension raced through her as she 
 saw the large man in a jurist's robe who entered the 
 courtroom by the door behind the bailiff and mounted 
 the bench. Martin R. M. Wallace! It couldn't be! 
 Was this Democrat who had hated her husband to be 
 her judge? 
 
70 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Judge Wallace seated himself ponderously and 
 murmurs swept the courtroom as people sat down. 
 Judge Wallace leaned forward toward the bailiff, and 
 Mary could see his lips moving. The bailiff turned, 
 lifting a paper. 
 
 "The case of Robert Todd Lincoln versus Mary 
 Todd Lincoln," he droned. A faint sigh seemed to 
 run through the audience. "Application to try the 
 question of insanity of Mary Todd Lincoln.' ' 
 
 This time the sigh rose in volume, and Judge Wal- 
 lace used the gavel vigorously. 
 
 "This court will be in order. Expressions from the 
 audience will be dealt with severely." The judge's 
 eyes were on Mary Lincoln now. "The court wishes 
 to observe that the jury has already been impaneled 
 and sworn and that the court is, and has been, ready 
 for this proceeding to begin. Are all of the parties now 
 present and prepared to proceed?" 
 
 Arnold flashed a glance at Ayer, who was saying the 
 plaintiff was ready, your honor. He squeezed Mary's 
 small hand and rose slowly; drawing back his coat, 
 thrusting his thumbs into the sleeve openings of his 
 vest, he moved slowly toward the bench. 
 
 "If the court please, may counsel for the defense 
 offer the observation that the defendant Mary Lincoln 
 was arrested at one o'clock this day and that it is now 
 but two fifty-five. It is obvious per se that no person 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 71 
 
 could possibly come here in such short order to face 
 such grave charges and be expected to be ready to de- 
 fend herself against them. For this obvious reason, I 
 move that this trial be recessed until June 19 next in 
 order that my client be given a just and proper period 
 of time in which to prepare her defense." 
 
 "The motion is overruled," Judge Wallace droned 
 sonorously. "The hearing will proceed." 
 
 "If the court please, your honor." Mary heard the 
 surprise in Arnold's smooth voice. "I move that this 
 hearing be recessed, then, until at least tomorrow at 
 this time in order that we may be given twenty-four 
 hours to prepare for this proceeding." 
 
 "The motion is overruled," Judge Wallace intoned. 
 "The hearing will proceed." 
 
 Mary watched the flush rise in Arnold's neck and 
 ears. "Your Honor," he was saying, "I am begging 
 this court in the presence of Almighty God for mercy. 
 With that in mind, I move that the court grant a one- 
 hour recess in order that counsel for the defense may 
 familiarize himself with the serious charges brought 
 here." 
 
 "Mr. Arnold," Judge Wallace said, "there is not 
 going to be a recess. Not even for five minutes. This 
 court has waited long enough. This bench has ap- 
 pointed you, Mr. Arnold, to defend this defendant. 
 Since you have long been a friend of the family, this 
 
72 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 court must take notice that you should be familiar 
 with the actions of this defendant and with the 
 charges brought here as a result of those actions." 
 
 "I am familiar, your honor," Arnold said, "with 
 the fact that this honorable woman and erstwhile first 
 lady is being pilfered of statutory rights. If the court 
 please, we are dealing with a most delicate subject in 
 a most indelicate manner. I move for a fifteen-minute 
 recess." 
 
 "Motion denied. Proceed with the hearing." 
 
 "A question, if the court pleases." Arnold's smooth 
 voice was edged with the anger of frustration now. 
 
 "Proceed, Mr. Arnold." 
 
 "How is it that this jury was impaneled without 
 counsel for the defense being given opportunity to 
 challenge a single member? How is it that this jury 
 is sworn? May I observe, again, that this poor little 
 lady was arrested less than two hours ago in her room 
 and brought here under threat of force? What sort 
 of jury is this? Is this jury impaneled to weigh and 
 decide, or has it been impaneled to convict?" 
 
 Mary listened to the murmur of excitement ripple 
 through the growing audience. The gavel demanded 
 silence. "Mr. Arnold, the court admonishes you to 
 watch your tongue." Mary thought the judge sounded 
 perturbed. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 73 
 
 "May I have a copy of the charges preferred 
 against my client?" 
 
 "If there is no objection?" Judge Wallace stared 
 at Ayer. Mary watched her son's lawyer shake his 
 head. "Your request is granted." 
 
 Arnold wanted to know if the defense was to enjoy 
 the privilege of producing friendly witnesses and 
 might cross-examine hostile witnesses. Judge Wallace 
 said these privileges would be granted. 
 
 "And if the court please, I ask again, your honor, 
 if it is not most unusual for a jury to be impaneled 
 without giving the defense the right to question pros- 
 pective jurors, or the statutory privilege of exercising 
 challenge?" 
 
 Ayer rose quickly. "Your honor, we find nothing 
 wrong with interrogation of jurymen by Mr. Arnold 
 in so far as their qualifications are concerned." 
 
 Arnold managed an exaggerated bow toward Ayer 
 and moved toward the jury box. Mary watched the 
 jurymen shuffle nervously. 
 
 Arnold had halted before Juror Cogswell. "Will 
 you state your full name and business for the court, 
 Mr. Cogswell?" 
 
 "Thomas Cogswell, associated with the firm of 
 Cogswell-Weber Company, jewelers." 
 
 "Yes. And do you know Mary Todd Lincoln?" 
 
74 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Only through the trade." 
 
 "Through the trade? And what do you know of her 
 through the trade, Mr. Cogswell?" 
 
 "She is a little slow in paying her bills, sir." 
 
 "Ah, yes. And I suppose that during this present 
 panic, Mr. Cogswell, all your other customers are 
 most prompt in paying their obligations?" 
 
 "No, sir. We have many persons on our books." 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Cogswell. Now, Dr. Blake . . ." 
 Arnold had halted before the man whose face was 
 strange to Mary. "You are the city physician of Chi- 
 cago. Is that correct?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And you frequently treat people who are in men- 
 tal distress?" 
 
 "Oh, no, sir." 
 
 "Infrequently, then?" 
 
 "Hardly ever, sir." 
 
 "Hardly ever? That means you treat such persons 
 intermittently, I assume?" 
 
 "Well, as a matter of fact, only once . . ." 
 
 "Ah, yes. Only once. Now, Doctor, in view of 
 such broad experience, do you profess to be qualified 
 to judge if a person is sane or not?" 
 
 "No, sir. I am a trained medical administrator." 
 
 Mary turned curious eyes to the audience. She 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 75 
 
 saw some men writing and realized that these must 
 be newspapermen. Arnold's voice droned on as he 
 moved through the jury. 
 
 Mary closed her eyes. Weariness assailed her. I 
 wonder, she thought, how long it will take? How 
 long will it take them to do this to me? 
 
 She turned sober eyes back to Arnold as he com- 
 pleted his questioning. He had moved back before 
 the bench. 
 
 "If the court pleases, the defense finds this entire 
 jury objectionable and requests that new jurors be 
 called and that defendant's counsel be permitted to 
 examine each one." 
 
 "Mr. Arnold," Judge Wallace grated, "your repu- 
 tation is known to this court, but we are not going 
 to deal here today with inferences or innuendoes. 
 This jury has been fairly impaneled and is ready to 
 hear this case, and it will hear this case." 
 
 "In the name of common decency, your honor, I 
 ask that the court take notice of the violations of this 
 defendant's statutory rights which have taken place 
 here. I suggest, sir, that it begs of remedy." 
 
 "The court cannot see," Judge Wallace said, 
 "where the statutory rights of this defendant have 
 been denied. We will now hear from Mr. Ayer, coun- 
 sel for the petitioner." 
 
76 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Mary watched Arnold's shoulders droop visibly. 
 He turned, strode to her and dropped into his chair. 
 His eyes were flashings 
 
 Ben Ayer had risen slowly to his feet. Now he 
 turned toward the jury and raised his voice. 
 
 "If the court please, we have here today the case 
 of an anguished and embarrassed son who has been 
 forced to represent that his mother, Mary Todd Lin- 
 coln, is insane and that for her benefit and the safety 
 of the community she should be confined in an asy- 
 lum. This woman has in her possession a large sum 
 of money, and it is known beyond all doubt that she 
 had been profligate with money in the past. This 
 woman is absolutely non compos mentis — incapable 
 of managing her substantial estate. The truth of 
 these allegations will be proved beyond all doubt. It 
 will be shown that Mary Todd Lincoln's mind has 
 failed beneath the weight of the blows which have 
 fallen on her, and then she must be declared insane 
 and a conservator appointed to manage her estate. 
 Testimony will disclose that the defendant is emo- 
 tionally unstable and as a result suffers from hallu- 
 cinations which induce abnormal conduct." 
 
 Ayer finished and returned to his chair. 
 
 Arnold rose slowly. "The defense offers no state- 
 ment at this time, your honor, but requests that this 
 jury again be sworn, in the presence of the accused, 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 77 
 
 and that each juror weigh carefully the wording of the 
 oath which is given to them." 
 
 Color rose in Judge Wallace's face. "The jury has 
 been once sworn and this is sufficient. Mr. Ayer will 
 proceed without further delay." 
 
 Ayer rose. "The petitioner now calls Dr. Willis 
 Danforth." 
 
 Mary watched the bailiff open a door and then re- 
 turn with a tall, bearded man following him. Mary 
 recognized the physician. He seemed to avoid her 
 eyes as he was being sworn, and then he sat down in 
 the witness chair. 
 
 Ayer moved quickly to a position beside the first 
 witness so that he faced the jury. 
 
 "State your name please." 
 
 "Willis Danforth." 
 
 "And your occupation, sir?" 
 
 "I am a doctor, a professor of surgery and a gyne- 
 cologist at Chicago Homeopathic College." 
 
 "You are acquainted with Mrs. Lincoln, Doctor?" 
 
 "Yes. Professionally. I treated her for several 
 weeks in November of 1873 for fever and nervous 
 derangement of the head." 
 
 "Objection!" Arnold had leaped to his feet. "I 
 object to the use of the word derangement." 
 
 "Objection overruled. Proceed, Mr. Ayer." Judge 
 Wallace looked bored. 
 
78 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Did you observe anything of particular interest 
 at that time, Doctor?" 
 
 Doctor Danforth said indeed he did. He had ob- 
 served at the time indications of mental disturbance. 
 "She had strange imaginings." 
 
 "Such as what, Doctor?" 
 
 "Well, she thought that someone was at work at 
 her head and that an Indian was removing bones 
 from her face." Murmuring swept through the court- 
 room and Danforth halted. Judge Wallace pounded 
 for silence. 
 
 Danforth continued: "And pulling wires from her 
 eyes. I visited her again in September 1874, and 
 found a debility of her nervous system. She com- 
 plained to me that someone was taking steel springs 
 from her head and would not let her rest and that she 
 was going to die soon. Within a few days, she said. 
 She said her husband had told her that. She also 
 imagined that she heard raps upon a table and that 
 these conveyed to her the time of her death. She sat 
 at the table and asked questions and repeated answers 
 which she claimed the table was giving her." 
 
 "Would you say, Doctor, that this derangement 
 was the result of any condition of her body?" 
 
 "No, sir, I would not. She was not diseased." 
 
 "And have you seen her, Doctor, since last year?" 
 
 "Yes. I called on her at the Grand Pacific a week 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 79 
 
 ago and she appeared to be in excellent health. She 
 spoke of her stay in Jacksonville, Florida, and of the 
 pleasant time she had there. Her former hallucina- 
 tions seemed to have passed. She said, however, that 
 she was not well and that an attempt was made to 
 poison her as she came north at a wayside station near 
 Jacksonville. She said she discovered poison in her 
 coffee." 
 
 "Did you see any traces of poison about her, sir?" 
 
 "I did not." 
 
 "And what was your opinion then, sir?" 
 
 "That Mary Lincoln was and is insane." 
 
 Mary listened to a sigh of gasps about the court- 
 room. She stared at Danforth, but he avoided her 
 eyes. 
 
 "Cross-examine," Judge Wallace said. 
 
 Arnold took the place where Ayer had stood. "I 
 will ask you, Doctor, if it is not true that when a 
 woman reaches a certain age chemical changes occur 
 within her body which are accompanied by melan- 
 cholia?" 
 
 "That is true." 
 
 "And is Mrs. Lincoln at, or beyond that age?" 
 
 "I would say so. Yes." 
 
 "Now, Doctor, you have testified that in 1873 you 
 treated Mrs. Lincoln for a 'nervous derangement of 
 the head?" 
 
80 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Not of the mind, or of the brain? But of the 
 head?" 
 
 "That is what I said." 
 
 "Such as a stiff neck, Doctor?" 
 
 "I object!" Ayer leaped to his feet. 
 
 "Objection sustained. What the witness said speaks 
 for itself." 
 
 Arnold managed a significant glance at the jury. 
 "Now, Doctor, is it not true that Mrs. Lincoln told 
 you that she felt as if someone were pulling bones 
 from her face, such as an Indian scalping her, and 
 that she felt ill, and that she felt as if someone might 
 have poisoned her?" 
 
 "I do not remember her exact words." 
 
 "I see. Then you are not certain beyond doubt just 
 what it was that she said. Is that right?" 
 
 "Objection. The witness is having words put in 
 his mouth." 
 
 "Objection sustained." 
 
 Arnold threw another grim look at the jury. "I will 
 ask you, Doctor, whether you have ever reported any 
 of these findings to the plaintiff, Robert Todd Lin- 
 coln?" 
 
 "Objection." 
 
 "Objection sustained. Mr. Lincoln is not on trial 
 here." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 81 
 
 "Mr. Robert Lincoln is not, if the court please/' 
 Arnold shot back. "Mr. Abraham Lincoln seems to 
 be." He paused. "That will be all, Doctor. Thank 
 you." 
 
 "The plaintiff calls Samuel M. Turner." 
 
 Arnold sat down slowly as if he was tired. Mary 
 felt his hand squeeze hers reassuringly. She managed 
 a grim smile. 
 
 Ayer waited until Turner had been sworn. 
 
 "State your name and occupation, please." 
 
 "Samuel M. Turner, manager of the Grand Pacific 
 Hotel." 
 
 "You are acquainted with the defendant, Mary 
 Todd Lincoln?" 
 
 "Yes, since last March fifteenth, when she came to 
 my hotel." 
 
 "And have you noticed anything unusual about her 
 actions since that time?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. She visited me at the office on the first 
 of April. She had a shawl wrapped about her head 
 and she said for me to come into the reception room 
 with her as she had something to say to me. She said 
 something was wrong about the house — that she 
 could hear strange noises in the rooms. I went with 
 her and heard nothing, and when I was about to leave 
 she turned to me, scared-like, and said not to leave 
 her; she was afraid to be left alone." 
 
82 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "And what did you do then, Mr. Turner?" 
 
 "Why, I left her in charge of a female employee 
 and returned to my. office." 
 
 "And was that the end of it?" 
 
 "Oh, no, sir. I had hardly reached my office when 
 a messenger came and told me that Mrs. Lincoln was 
 at the elevator and wished to see me. She told me 
 this time that there was a strange man in the corridor 
 and that he was going to molest her. I went up to her 
 rooms with her and walked through them, but I found 
 no strange men. Mrs. Lincoln was much excited, 
 though, and said that she would like to go to some 
 lady boarder's room so that she might be safe. I es- 
 corted her to Mrs. Dodge's room, but Mrs. Dodge 
 was at dinner. I left her and told her I would return 
 soon." 
 
 "Yes. And was that the end of it?" 
 
 "No, sir. She called me again and I went to her 
 and found her quite exercised and wild in appearance. 
 She repeated to me her fears." 
 
 "And what did you then conclude, Mr. Turner?" 
 
 "Objection! This calls for a conclusion by the wit- 
 ness." Arnold's voice cracked like a whip. 
 
 "Overruled. This witness is permitted to draw a 
 conclusion from such activities." 
 
 "I figured she was deranged, sir." 
 
 "Your witness, Mr. Arnold." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 83 
 
 Arnold moved again to the place vacated by Ayer. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Turner, you say that when you explored 
 the living area of Mrs. Lincoln you found no strange 
 man. Is that right?" 
 
 "That is correct." 
 
 "Did you see anyone at all, as a matter of fact?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I believe so. That is, I must have seen 
 some persons." 
 
 "And are Pinkerton men strangers to you, Mr. 
 Turner?" 
 
 "I don't know what you mean, sir." 
 
 "I mean are Pinkerton men — the ones who have 
 been watching Mrs. Lincoln and following her — are 
 they strangers to you." 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "But they might be strange to Mrs. Lincoln. Is that 
 right?" 
 
 "Objection! " Ayer leaped to his feet. "Mr. Turner 
 cannot testify concerning how something may appear 
 to Mrs. Lincoln." 
 
 "Objection sustained," Judge Wallace droned. 
 
 "Very well." Arnold tugged at one ear. "You do 
 know, Mr. Turner, that Pinkerton men were watching 
 Mrs. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. I knew that." 
 
 "And they were given the run of your establish- 
 ment?" 
 
84 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "I beg your pardon?" 
 
 "I said, they were free to roam your hotel at will." 
 
 "I suppose so." 
 
 "And they watched Mrs. Lincoln's every move?" 
 
 "That is what they were hired to do." 
 
 "And in view of the constant peeping by these men 
 at Mrs. Lincoln, do you still regard it as a symptom 
 of derangement in her that she was frightened?" 
 
 "Well, I can understand it better, since you put it 
 that way." 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Turner. That is all." 
 
 Mrs. Allen was the next witness. Mary watched 
 with sober eyes as she took the stand. Mrs. Allen was 
 very abrupt with her. Mary did not like Mrs. Allen. 
 Ayer dispensed quickly with the introduction of the 
 witness; her name and the fact that she was the 
 housekeeper at the hotel. 
 
 "Do you consider Mrs. Lincoln to be normal, Mrs. 
 Allen?" Ayer's voice was softly encouraging. 
 
 "No, sir, I sure don't." 
 
 "And why not, Mrs. Allen?" 
 
 "The lady is so awful nervous, and she's feared of 
 a small window in her room. Says it means bad for 
 her. Last Wednesday, the madame mixed several 
 kinds of medicine and swallowed it and she has a 
 large closet filled with packages. She sure ought to be 
 put away, sir, and cared for right like." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 85 
 
 "Your witness, Mr. Arnold." 
 
 Smiling faintly, Ayer returned to his seat beside 
 Robert Lincoln. 
 
 "Now, Mrs. Allen," Arnold began softly, "you say 
 that Mrs. Lincoln mixed several kinds of medicine 
 together and then swallowed the mixture?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And do you know, Mrs. Allen, what Mrs. Lin- 
 coln's instructions were regarding that medicine?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "You do not know whether or not the mixing of 
 this medicine was, in fact, prescribed by the attend- 
 ing physician?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "Then, in fact, Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Lincoln may 
 simply have been following a doctor's orders." 
 
 "Yes, sir. I guess so." 
 
 "You guess so, you say? You guessed then, too, 
 didn't you, Mrs. Allen? Do you say, now, that this 
 mixing of medicine indicated insanity?" 
 
 "I guess not, sir." 
 
 "Now, Mrs. Allen, you testified, I believe, that 
 Mrs. Lincoln has a large closet filled with packages?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Where do you keep packages, Mrs. Allen?" 
 
 "Why, I . . ." 
 
 "As a matter of fact, any neat housekeeper, and I 
 
86 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 am sure you are quite neat, would keep packages in 
 a closet rather than leave them lying about a room. 
 Isn't that right?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. I guess it is." 
 
 "You are quite a guesser, Mrs. Allen. That is all." 
 
 Maggie Gavin, the next witness, moved slowly to 
 the stand, her plain, dull face showing fear. Mary 
 Lincoln felt sorry for her. She meant well, Mary 
 thought, but was so fearful of losing her job at the 
 hotel that she bowed to everyone's slightest whim. 
 
 Ayer was stern and firm with her. "Now, Miss 
 Gavin, have you ever seen Mrs. Lincoln act 
 strangely?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Will you tell the court about it?" 
 
 "Well, sir, she said once she heard people speaking 
 to her through the wall, she did. She was very wor- 
 ried about her son, and once she told me to listen to 
 voices she heard through the floor. She said a man 
 had taken her pocketbook, but I found it in a bureau 
 drawer. Then she called me to the window and 
 pointed to smoke coming from a chimney on the 
 building next door and said the city was burning. 
 She's bought lots of packages and several new trunks 
 lately." 
 
 "Yes. Is there anything else?" 
 
 "Well, sir, once she said she was afraid to stay in 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 87 
 
 her room and she went to Mr. Robert's room in her 
 nightdress." 
 
 "And to what conclusion did these activities by 
 Mrs. Lincoln lead you?" 
 
 "I ain't sure o' what you said, sir." 
 
 "I said, what do you think of Mrs. Lincoln?" 
 
 "She's batty, sir. Just plain batty." 
 
 "Thank you, Miss Gavin. Your witness, Mr. Ar- 
 nold." 
 
 "My dear Miss Gavin," Arnold began softly, "you 
 are a chambermaid. Is that correct?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And you work in the hotel in which Mrs. Lincoln 
 resides?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And each room in that hotel is soundproofed?" 
 
 "Oh, no, sir." Maggie Gavin's plain face looked 
 surprised. 
 
 "Mrs. Lincoln's room is soundproofed then?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "Is it possible to hear through the walls?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. I suppose so." 
 
 "Well, can you or can't you?" 
 
 "You can, sir." 
 
 "Now, Miss Gavin, since we have established that 
 Mrs. Lincoln might very well have heard voices from 
 the walls, is there ..." 
 
88 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Objection!" Ayer looked indignant. "That has 
 not been established. I ask that the witness' answer 
 be stricken from the record." 
 
 Judge Wallace sustained the objection and ordered 
 the clerk to strike the answer. 
 
 "I will ask you, Miss Gavin," Arnold said slowly 
 as if controlling anger, "if you have ever heard voices 
 through the walls at the hotel?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And have you heard noises on the floor below 
 through the floor?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And have you ever looked up suddenly and seen 
 smoke and concluded that something was burning?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Do you consider that this makes you insane, Miss 
 Gavin?" 
 
 "Oh, no, sir! No, indeed!" 
 
 "Thank you, Miss Gavin. That will be all." 
 
 Mary recognized John, the waiter at the Grand 
 Pacific, as the next witness. His name, he told Ayer, 
 was John Fitzhenry, and he was second waiter at the 
 Grand Pacific. She remembered, as he told of it, how 
 she had asked him to summon Mr. Turner that day 
 when she had seen strange men watching her and was 
 afraid. 
 
 Arnold said he had no cross-examination. "This 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 89 
 
 man has testified," he said grimly, "that Mrs. Lincoln 
 became fearful of strange men and called for the hotel 
 manager. He has not testified that such an action in- 
 dicates insanity." 
 
 Judge Wallace rapped his gavel sharply. "The 
 clerk will strike Mr. Arnold's remarks. I warn you 
 again, Counselor, that this court will not tolerate these 
 flippant asides of yours. Watch your tongue." 
 
 Charles Dodge, cashier of the hotel, simply cor- 
 roborated the waiter's statements, Mary thought. He 
 did not say he regarded her as crazy. She sighed, 
 watching as Arnold moved to cross-examine and won- 
 dered why he bothered. The man had said nothing. 
 Absolutely nothing. 
 
 "Mr. Dodge," Arnold began slowly, "you recited 
 your testimony very well." 
 
 "Thank you, sir." 
 
 "Who drilled you in it?" Arnold's voice lashed 
 like a whip now. 
 
 "Objection!" Ayer leaped to his feet. "That is, if 
 the court please, a leading question." 
 
 "Objection sustained." 
 
 "Now, Mr. Dodge, as cashier of the Grand Pacific 
 you would know the owner of it. Is that correct?" 
 
 Mary's eyes widened. What was Isaac Arnold 
 up to? 
 
 "Yes, sir," Dodge said. "I know the owner, sir." 
 
90 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "By name?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And by sight?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "You know him well?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. Not socially, sir. But I speak with him 
 often." 
 
 "Yes. Now, Mr. Dodge, will you tell the court the 
 name of the owner of the Grand Pacific Hotel?" 
 
 "Mr. Lyman Gage, sir." 
 
 "Yes. And do you see Mr. Gage in this room?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Please tell the court where you see Mr. Gage." 
 
 "He is on the jury." 
 
 "Very well, Mr. Dodge. Now. Did Mr. Gage ask 
 you to come here today?" 
 
 "He was the first to speak to me about it." 
 
 "I see. Others have spoken to you about it?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And you discussed with them what you would 
 say?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Objection!" Ayer's voice came late. He rose an- 
 grily. "Mr. Arnold seeks to intimidate a witness." 
 
 "Objection sustained. Mr. Arnold, you will confine 
 your questioning to facts relating to the matter at 
 hand." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 91 
 
 "If the court please, your honor," Arnold snapped, 
 "the defense regards any conspiracy with witnesses as 
 related directly to the matter at hand." 
 
 Murmuring rose in the room again. Judge Wallace 
 used his gavel furiously. "Another such outburst, Mr. 
 Arnold, and I shall consider a contempt of court cita- 
 tion to be required." 
 
 "Very well, your honor. Now, Mr. Dodge, as an 
 employee of Mr. Gage, you are inclined to be respon- 
 sive to his wishes. Is that correct?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I suppose so." 
 
 "And these other employees who have appeared as 
 witnesses against Mrs. Lincoln also would feel 
 similarly, I imagine?" 
 
 "I would imagine so, sir." 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Dodge. No further questions." 
 
 Mary was surprised to see Mr. Seaton, the United 
 States Express Company agent. She remembered, 
 however, that she had, indeed, sent eleven trunks to 
 Milwaukee last April. It had been her plan, she re- 
 membered, to spend an extended vacation in Mil- 
 waukee. Was that, too, to be held as insanity? 
 
 Arnold disposed of Seaton briefly. 
 
 "Mr. Seaton, you have sent many trunks for many 
 people, I take it?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Including those of famous ladies of the theater?" 
 
92 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "And those famous ladies usually had only one or 
 two trunks?" 
 
 "No, sir. Some of them had as many as a dozen or 
 more." 
 
 "They were staying here for some time, then?" 
 
 "For a week maybe. Maybe two weeks." 
 
 "And you considered them quite sane?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Even though they carried possibly a score of 
 trunks with them for only a one or two weeks' stay?" 
 
 "Yes, sir. They were first ladies of the stage, sir. 
 They had to dress the part, sir." 
 
 "And this is the first lady of our country, Mr. 
 Seaton. Do you not think she should dress the part, 
 too?" 
 
 "I suppose so, sir." 
 
 "Do you think her insane because she shipped 
 eleven trunks to a place where she intended to spend 
 the entire summer?" 
 
 "No, sir. Her manner was strange, sir." 
 
 "But not insane?" 
 
 "Strange, sir. I did not say the lady was insane." 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Seaton. I do not think her insane 
 either. No more questions." 
 
 Dr. Isham was the next witness. Mary guessed that 
 he would testify concerning the telegram she had sent 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 93 
 
 him from Jacksonville. She guessed correctly. The 
 doctor said he had received the telegram March 12 
 last and that it said: "My belief is my son is sick. I 
 start for Chicago tomorrow." He said Robert was not 
 ill at the time and that he telegraphed her to that 
 effect. He said Robert, too, telegraphed her to re- 
 main in Florida. 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln also received a telegraph. It read: 
 'My dearly beloved son, Robert T. Lincoln: Rouse 
 yourself and live for your mother. You are all I have; 
 from this hour, all I have is yours. I pray every night 
 that you may be spared to your mother.' " 
 
 Arnold's cross-examination again was brief. 
 
 "Doctor, how did you come by the telegram sent 
 to Robert Lincoln?" 
 
 "He gave it to me." 
 
 "I see." Arnold turned to look directly at Robert 
 Lincoln. "You are, Doctor, the nephew of Mr. Lin- 
 coln's law partner, is that right?" 
 
 "Yes. That is correct." 
 
 "And you have discussed this trial with your uncle 
 and Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Objection!" Ayer's face looked troubled. "I re- 
 peat, your honor, that Mr. Lincoln is not on trial 
 here." 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln is on trial before a higher court than 
 this one, Mr. Ayer." 
 
94 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "I ask the court to compel my colleague," Ayer 
 said bluntly, "to confine his remarks to the case at 
 hand." 
 
 "And the court so orders, Mr. Ayer." Judge Wal- 
 lace was glowering at Arnold. 
 
 "I have no more questions, your honor, if I cannot 
 explore the intricacies of relationship and motive 
 which have precipitated this piece of infamy." 
 
 Arnold sat down disgustedly. 
 
 Ayer rose and walked to the witness chair. He 
 stood to one side and placed his hand upon the back 
 of it. Then he said slowly, "I now call Robert Todd 
 Lincoln as a witness." 
 
 Mary felt stabs of pain as her only living son rose 
 and walked to the witness chair. What would he say 
 about her? Why was he doing this to her? Why? 
 
 She shifted in her chair, her thoughts whirling. The 
 space beside her was empty now. Her son had left 
 her to side against her. Mary Todd Lincoln looked 
 at her son and felt the wash of tears down her cheeks. 
 
Chapter 5 
 
 Robert Todd Lincoln sat down slowly in the wit- 
 ness chair, as if he was very tired. His eyes were 
 large, and Mary thought she saw fear and pain in 
 them. His face was pale and drawn. He gripped the 
 arms of the witness chair nervously. 
 
 Robert averted his eyes from her, but she could 
 see that they were moist. 
 
 "Your name, sir?" 
 
 "Robert Todd Lincoln." 
 
 "And your relationship to this case?" 
 
 "I am the petitioner." 
 
 Ayer turned to look at Mary. "And this defendant 
 is related to you?" 
 
 "She is." Robert's voice was muffled. "She is my 
 mother." 
 
 95 
 
96 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Do you have a statement which you wish to make 
 to the court at this time?" 
 
 "I do." 
 
 "Please proceed, Mr. Lincoln." 
 
 Robert spoke slowly, and his voice seemed muffled. 
 Only the slowness of his speech reminded her of 
 Abraham, Mary thought. Otherwise, he was com- 
 pletely different. It was as if he were a stranger. In- 
 deed, she thought, he was a stranger. She had never 
 understood Robert at all. 
 
 Robert was reviewing the death of his three broth- 
 ers — her sons — and that anguished period after his 
 father was shot down. It was most unpleasant, he 
 was saying, for a son to have to face up to it, but the 
 strain had been too much for his dear mother. Her 
 mind had cracked. She was quite insane. 
 
 Arnold's soft voice interrupted her concentration 
 on Robert's words. She turned to look into his small, 
 bearded face. The eyes were gravely thoughtful. 
 
 "Robert is a Stalwart, isn't he, Mary?" 
 
 "Why . . ." Mary studied the small man intently. 
 What did this have to do with her sanity? "Yes, he 
 is an ardent supporter of General Grant." 
 
 "Do you approve?" Arnold's face was intent as he 
 waited for her answer. 
 
 "I have never approved of General Grant," Mary 
 said abruptly, "and I certainly do not approve of his 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 97 
 
 spoils system and of those things which are being 
 done with aid from the White House." 
 
 "Have you ever heard Robert's name mentioned in 
 connection with political matters?" 
 
 "There has been some talk," Mary said thought- 
 fully. "He is so young, though. And he professes to 
 be disinterested." 
 
 "Yes," Arnold said. "So did Abraham." He 
 studied her intently. "Did you know that Swett and 
 Judge Davis are anti-Stalwarts? Liberal Republi- 
 cans?" 
 
 "I had heard that," Mary said. "I can understand 
 it. They were very devoted to Abraham and under- 
 standably proud of his integrity." 
 
 "Yes," Arnold said thoughtfully. "They would re- 
 sent any use of the Lincoln name to further the 
 spoilers' policies, wouldn't they?" 
 
 And with that cryptic observation, Arnold said no 
 more. They turned to listen to Robert's testimony 
 again. 
 
 Robert was now telling about his mother's concern 
 for him when she insisted that he was ill. He did not 
 understand why she had said that. He hadn't been 
 ill in years. Realization that his mother was insane 
 had been most sad to contemplate. That was why he 
 had taken this action. It would be to her best inter- 
 ests to be put away for treatment. As it was now she 
 
98 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 was a menace to herself. There was no mercenary 
 angle to this. He did not want her money. He had 
 money in trust for her, as a matter of fact. 
 
 "When she came up from Florida, I met her at the 
 railroad car and was quite startled to find her looking 
 fit and in good health. She did not even seem fatigued 
 by the trip. I asked her if she would not like to come 
 to my house and stay, but she said no, and went to the 
 hotel. I accompanied her, and we had supper to- 
 gether. She told me that someone had attempted to 
 poison her at the first breakfast she took after de- 
 parting from Jacksonville. She said it was put into 
 her coffee. I took a room adjoining hers that night 
 and she slept well. But on subsequent nights, she be- 
 came restless and repeatedly came to my door in her 
 nightdress and aroused me by rapping. Twice in one 
 night she did this, and asked to sleep in my room. 
 I gave her my bed and slept on the lounge." 
 
 Robert sighed and twisted nervously in the chair. 
 Then he bowed his head into one hand. 
 
 "I summoned Dr. Isham to attend to her. That 
 was about the time she ceased tapping at my door. 
 I had told her rather sternly that if she persisted, I 
 would leave the hotel. I went to her room April first 
 and found her but slightly dressed, and she left the 
 room and the next I knew of her she was going down 
 to the office in an elevator. I had the elevator stopped 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 99 
 
 and sought to persuade her to return to her room. 
 She said I was being impertinent by interfering and 
 would not leave the elevator. I put my arms about 
 her, thinking to force her to leave, and she commenced 
 screaming. She said, 'You are going to murder me.' 
 After a while, she said a man she had met in Florida 
 had taken her pocketbook and that he was going to 
 return it at five o'clock. Then she sat down by the 
 wall and said he was talking to her and began carry- 
 ing on a conversation. 
 
 "I called on her during the last week in April, and 
 she told me that all of Chicago was going to be burned 
 and that she was going to send her trunks to some 
 country town. She kept her trunks in the Fidelity 
 Safe Deposit Company's building, you see. She said 
 she had changed her mind about sending them to Mil- 
 waukee. She said it was too near Oshkosh, and there 
 had been a terrible fire there the night before. She 
 told me that my house would be the only one saved. 
 I suggested to her, then, that she leave her trunks 
 with me." 
 
 Robert hesitated, as if thinking. 
 
 "And did anything occur the following Sunday, 
 Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Yes. Yes, the following Sunday she showed to me 
 securities valued at fifty-seven thousand dollars which 
 she carried in her pocket. She had been spending 
 
100 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 large sums of money; she bought six hundred dollars' 
 worth of lace curtains, three watches costing four hun- 
 dred fifty dollars, other jewelry worth seven hundred 
 dollars, soaps and perfumeries worth two hundred dol- 
 lars, and a whole piece of silk." 
 
 "Yes. Now tell the court, Mr. Lincoln, whether, in 
 your opinion, Mrs. Mary Lincoln is sane?" 
 
 "She is without doubt insane," Robert said. His 
 voice was muffled. Mary felt shock clear through her 
 to hear him say it this way. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Lincoln," Ayer said, "when you came 
 to that sad conclusion, what course did you take?" 
 
 "I had a conference with my mother's cousin, 
 Mayor Stuart of Springfield, and Judge Davis of the 
 Supreme Court. All advised me to take this course." 
 
 "Do you regard it as safe," Ayer wanted to know, 
 "to allow her to remain longer unrestrained?" 
 
 "I do not," Robert said. "She has long been a 
 source of great anxiety to me. I have had Pinkerton 
 men watching her for the past three weeks. Their 
 only duty has been to look after her when she went 
 on the street. After all, she had no real home, and 
 declined to visit my house because of a misunder- 
 standing between her and my wife. My mother has 
 always been kind to me, but I fear she has been of 
 unsound mind since my father was shot. She has been 
 irresponsible for at least ten years. She is eccentric 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 101 
 
 and unmanageable. There was no reason on earth for 
 her recent purchases. Her trunks are filled with 
 dresses which she has never worn, and, as you know, 
 she has not worn jewelry since my father's death." 
 
 "That is all, Mr. Lincoln. Your witness, Mr. Ar- 
 nold." 
 
 Arnold rose slowly, turned deliberately and patted 
 Mary's hand. She had dried her tears and was staring 
 at Robert with a stunned expression in her eyes. He 
 would not look at her, and this hurt her as much, she 
 thought, as what he had just said. 
 
 Arnold took his position and studied Robert soberly 
 for possibly a full minute. The courtroom suddenly 
 was very quiet. Mary wished someone would make 
 some noise. It seemed unbearably quiet. 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln," Arnold said softly, at last, "I wish 
 you to look at your mother." 
 
 Mary watched as Robert's eyes lifted slowly to her 
 bluish-gray ones. She felt the tears start again. 
 
 "You do love your mother very much, don't you, 
 Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Yes." His voice sounded husky. 
 
 "Are you aware, Mr. Lincoln, that your mother 
 read in a Florida newspaper that you were ill?" 
 
 "No. I had not heard that." 
 
 "Didn't you ask your mother how she had come by 
 such misinformation?" 
 
102 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "I don't know. It just didn't occur to me." 
 
 "You said, in your lengthy statement, Mr. Lincoln, 
 that you did not want any money from your mother. 
 Is that correct?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "You are certain of that?" 
 
 "Yes. Positive." 
 
 "Now I ask you, Mr. Lincoln, if it is not a fact that 
 in December 1868, in a letter to your mother, who 
 then was living at Frankfort on the Main in Germany, 
 you requested the loan of approximately fifty-one 
 thousand dollars' worth of 1881 bonds, which loan 
 was to be used in connection with the construction 
 here, in Chicago, of twenty-eight houses for specula- 
 tive building purposes?" 
 
 "That was different, sir. It offered ten per cent on 
 the money for five years." 
 
 "I ask you, Mr. Lincoln, if that is true?" 
 
 "It is." 
 
 "Yes. How, then, do you reconcile that with your 
 statement that you did not want any money from 
 your mother?" 
 
 "I meant recently." 
 
 "How recently, sir?" 
 
 "Since she has been insane." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 103 
 
 "Did you not testify, Mr. Lincoln, that your mother 
 has, in your opinion, been of unsound mind for the 
 past ten years?" 
 
 "I think that is what I said." 
 
 "Do you want the clerk to read what you said?" 
 
 "No. That is what I said." 
 
 "Then, Mr. Lincoln, that would mean that you 
 sought to obtain a large sum of money from your 
 mother believing her to be insane?" 
 
 "Object! Object! Object!" Ayer stormed toward 
 the bench. "I respectfully suggest once again to the 
 court that Mr. Lincoln is not on trial here." 
 
 "And I suggest, Mr. Ayer, that Mr. Lincoln is on 
 trial. He has made the allegation that his mother is 
 insane, involving a question of both her good name 
 and her freedom. This is a sanity trial, I grant you, 
 but I am not certain in my own mind just who is of 
 unsound mind here. The Good Lord knows that cer- 
 tainly it is not Mary Todd Lincoln!" Arnold's face 
 was white with anger and his voice snapped and 
 popped at Ayer. Ayer withdrew several steps. 
 
 "The court," Judge Wallace said sonorously, "will 
 sustain the objection by counsel for the plaintiff." 
 Wallace glowered at Arnold but said no more. 
 
 "You said, Mr. Lincoln, that you have money in 
 trust for your mother?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
104 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Objection." Ayer was on his feet again. "If your 
 honor please, I see no valid reason for Mr. Arnold's 
 pursuit of this line of questioning." 
 
 Judge Wallace stared uncertainly at Arnold. 
 
 "Your honor," Arnold said, in a voice of outraged 
 innocence, "I am only following a line of questioning 
 suggested by the witness himself. I did not bring up 
 the subject of this money. Mr. Lincoln volunteered 
 it. If it was germane to the case then, your honor, 
 why is it not germane now?" 
 
 "Objection overruled," Judge Wallace decided re- 
 luctantly. 
 
 "Is it not a fact, Mr. Lincoln, that this money 
 which you claim to have in trust for your mother is, 
 in fact, an obligation to her which you are paying at 
 one hundred twenty-five dollars per month?" 
 
 "My mother calls it a loan, I suppose." 
 
 "She gave to you a certain large sum of money, 
 Mr. Lincoln, and you are returning it at the rate of 
 one hundred twenty-five dollars monthly. Is that 
 right?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Then I cannot see where Mrs. Lincoln errs in 
 terming it a loan. Now, Mr. Lincoln, is it not true 
 that you raged at your mother and then left her in a 
 fit of anger when she sought to sell some of her cloth- 
 
 
The Trial of Masy Todd Lincoln • 105 
 
 ing to collectors in order to raise money to pay cer- 
 tain debts?" 
 
 "I became quite exercised, yes." 
 
 "Why, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "I was a young attorney establishing a practice. 
 It would have caused me professional embarrassment. 
 Besides, she did not need the clothing in the first 
 place." 
 
 "No more than you needed twenty-eight houses, 
 Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 Ayer bellowed an objection. Judge Wallace said, 
 "Sustained." 
 
 "So you objected to your mother selling her cloth- 
 ing on the grounds of personal embarrassment?" 
 
 "Yes. It would have hurt my career." 
 
 "Your career, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And who would you say launched you on that 
 career, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Why, I suppose it was my mother." 
 
 "Yes. Your mother. She prepared you for and 
 used her influence to get you into Harvard, did 
 she not?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "She insisted that you finish your education there 
 before taking up arms in the great war?" 
 
106 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Yes." Robert's voice seemed more muffled now. 
 
 "And then she demanded for you a commission and 
 a place as an officer on the staff of General Grant?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "She has never raised one hand against furtherance 
 of your career, but, in fact, has consistently advanced 
 that career. Is that right?" 
 
 "Yes. I suppose so." 
 
 "We are not dealing in suppositions, Mr. Lincoln. 
 Has she or hasn't she?" 
 
 "She has." 
 
 "Yes. Now, Mr. Lincoln. Why did you not re- 
 ciprocate?" 
 
 "I do not follow you, sir." 
 
 "Why did you not discuss your mother's eccen- 
 tricities with her instead of hatching this plot four 
 days ago and declining to notify her of it until one 
 o'clock today?" 
 
 "Objection!" Ayer's face was beet-red. In con- 
 trast Robert Lincoln looked very pale. 
 
 "Objection sustained." 
 
 "She gave you time to finish your education, Mr. 
 Lincoln," Arnold persisted. "Why did you not give 
 her time to prepare a defense?" 
 
 "Objection," Ayer roared again. "Mr. Arnold is 
 badgering the witness." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 107 
 
 "Objection sustained," Judge Wallace said. "Mr. 
 Arnold, you will cease this line of questioning." 
 
 "Very well, your honor." Arnold tucked a clenched 
 fist into the beard beneath his chin and studied the 
 witness thoughtfully. 
 
 "Mr. Lincoln," he said softly, "you have said that 
 there was a misunderstanding between your wife and 
 your mother." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Of what nature?" 
 
 "I cannot say." 
 
 "And have you sought to resolve that misunder- 
 standing?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "I cannot say. I have been very busy." 
 
 "So busy, Mr. Lincoln, that you cannot seek to 
 straighten out a misunderstanding which prevents 
 your mother from coming into her only remaining 
 son's home?" 
 
 "I do not understand it," he said. "They used to 
 have such affection for one another." 
 
 "Have you tried to understand it, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "I suppose not." 
 
 "I see. You would not say, then, that the antago- 
 nism of Mary Harlan, your wife, to Mary Todd Lin- 
 
108 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 coin, your mother, is due to the influence of your 
 wife's father, the senator?" 
 
 The flush rose slowly in Robert Lincoln's face. 
 
 "I would prefer not to say." 
 
 "I see. Very well, Mr. Lincoln. Now, you believe, 
 do you, that your mother suffered hallucinations when 
 she told you that someone sought to poison her?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Do you find it so strange that there is hostility to 
 even the name of Lincoln south of the Mason-Dixon 
 line?" 
 
 "No. But I do not believe that anyone tried to 
 poison her." 
 
 "But you do not know, do you, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Not of a certainty." 
 
 "Yes. Not of a certainty. And you would not take 
 her word for it?" 
 
 "I could not." 
 
 "I see. And why not?" 
 
 "I question her reliability, her mental competence." 
 
 "Oh. You question her reliability. Now, Mr. Lin- 
 coln, you said that your mother showed to you fifty- 
 seven thousand dollars' worth of securities?" 
 
 "Yes. In bonds." 
 
 "You are certain of the amount, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "I believe so." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 109 
 
 "My mother gave me the figure." 
 
 "Ah. Your mother told you?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And you believed her?" 
 
 "I had no reason to doubt her." 
 
 "Ah. You do not doubt her ability to count, but 
 you doubt her reliability about the attempt to poison 
 her?" 
 
 "Well, I . . ." 
 
 "Objection!" Ayer was glaring at Arnold. 
 
 "I will overrule that objection, Mr. Ayer. Proceed, 
 Mr. Arnold." 
 
 "Thank you, your honor." Arnold turned back to 
 Robert. "You complained, Mr. Lincoln, of your 
 mother's purchases of perfumeries, jewelry and other 
 items?" 
 
 "I mentioned them." 
 
 "Because you thought it indicated insanity?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Lincoln, that per- 
 haps your mother purchased those items to give them 
 to certain friends?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Were you not aware, during these years, that 
 your mother was very lonely and wanted love and 
 friendship?" 
 
 "I have been quite busy." 
 
110 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Lincoln, you have." Arnold studied him. 
 "But you were not too busy to handle Tad's money 
 when a court had decreed that Judge Davis should 
 handle his estate, were you?" 
 
 Robert looked startled. He darted a glance at 
 Mary. Her smooth countenance was expressionless. 
 
 "Judge Davis was quite busy." 
 
 "We have any number of very busy people in- 
 volved here, don't we, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 Robert did not answer, but a flush rose in his face. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Lincoln, when your mother waived her 
 right under law to two thirds of Tad's estate, did you 
 not advise Judge Davis that 'This is very generous 
 on her part'?" 
 
 "I did. It was generous." 
 
 "Ah. Then it was generosity?" 
 
 "I looked at it that way." 
 
 "You did not regard it as insanity when she gave 
 something to you, then? Only when she gave some- 
 thing to others?" 
 
 "Objection! Mr. Arnold is not propounding ques- 
 tions. He is drawing conclusions." 
 
 "Sustained," Judge Wallace said. 
 
 "Very well. I need not draw conclusions. I apolo- 
 gize to the court," Arnold said. His voice was tinged 
 with irony. "The conclusion here speaks for itself." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 111 
 
 After a pause he went on. "Mr. Lincoln, am I cor- 
 rect in recalling that you said you have had Pinkerton 
 men watching your mother?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Night and day?" 
 
 "Practically, yes." 
 
 "And yet you find it strange that she has seen 
 them and assumed that someone was seeking to do 
 her harm?" 
 
 "I did not say that." 
 
 "You say that these men were to protect your 
 mother?" 
 
 "Yes. They were to look after her." 
 
 "You did not employ them, then, to gather evidence 
 for this trial?" 
 
 "Of course not!" 
 
 "But much of the testimony elicited here today 
 comes from the reports of those men. Is that right?" 
 
 "I suppose so." 
 
 "And who has been paying for the Pinkerton serv- 
 ice, Mr. Lincoln?" 
 
 "There has been no payment yet." 
 
 "I see. And now if your mother is put away, Mr. 
 Lincoln, will you pay this obligation from her 
 money?" 
 
 "Objection!" Ayer was watching the bench. 
 
112 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Sustained," Judge Wallace decided. "The wit- 
 ness cannot testify to something which has not yet 
 been done." 
 
 "If your honor please," Arnold said, "the witness 
 can testify to his intent to do something." 
 
 "Mr. Arnold, this witness does not yet have control 
 of his mother's money and there has been no indica- 
 tion that he will have." 
 
 "Very well, your honor." Arnold turned back to 
 Robert Lincoln. "Now, Mr. Lincoln, assuming that 
 your dear mother does have some eccentricities, don't 
 you believe that the villainous lies of Herndon and 
 Lamon concerning your late father contributed to 
 them?" 
 
 "I imagine that they did." 
 
 "And she has stood alone against these enemies?" 
 
 "Objection! Mr. Arnold propounds a question 
 based on an assumption." 
 
 "Objection sustained." 
 
 Arnold paused and threw a long, significant glance 
 at the jury. Then he threw back his shoulders. 
 
 "The defense has no further use of Mr. Lincoln, 
 your honor." Arnold turned abruptly and sat down 
 beside Mary. There was a grim little smile on his 
 lips. 
 
 Mary Lincoln clutched at his sleeve. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 113 
 
 "I am glad you are finished with him, Isaac. Let 
 us not torture the poor boy any more." 
 
 "But this is your defense, Mrs. Lincoln!" Arnold 
 studied her and she saw the surprise in his eyes. 
 
 "He will suffer a lifetime for having done this 
 now," Mary said. "He is more sensitive than per- 
 ceptive, I fear. Let us give him as much peace of 
 mind as possible." 
 
 "Would you trade your freedom for this, then, my 
 dear lady?" 
 
 "Yes. It is done," Mary said. "My day will come. 
 The day will come when Leonard Swett himself will 
 set me free." 
 
 The next witness gave his name as J. R. Albertson 
 and said he was a salesman for Matson and Com- 
 pany. Mary recognized him as the man who had 
 looked at her so strangely when she purchased the 
 chatelaine watch this morning. Under questioning by 
 Ayer, he said he knew Mrs. Lincoln, that she had 
 come to the store and made expensive and reckless 
 purchases, and acted in a queer way generally. 
 
 Again Arnold dealt with the witness briefly. 
 
 "You say, Mr. Albertson, that Mrs. Lincoln acted 
 in a queer way generally?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Will you describe what you mean?" 
 
114 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Well, she was in a hurry, like this morning, and 
 she paid for the watch she bought." 
 
 "I see. You find it strange for people to pay for 
 merchandise these days, do you?" 
 
 "No, sir. I mean, she always seemed troubled, al- 
 most sneaky." 
 
 "I see. As if someone might be following her and 
 watching her every move?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And in view of Mr. Lincoln's testimony that 
 Pinkerton men were watching her night and day, can 
 you now understand her actions?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I believe I can." 
 
 "Thank you. That will be all." 
 
 The next witness was J. B. Stone, a salesman with 
 Allen and Mackey, and he testified that he sold Mrs. 
 Lincoln three hundred dollars' worth of lace curtains. 
 "I thought she did not know what she was doing at 
 this time, though." 
 
 Arnold studied the man gravely. 
 
 "But you sold her the curtains anyway?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Business is business, sir." 
 
 "Yes. Business is business, Mr. Stone. I have no 
 further questions for such lack of integrity as this." 
 
 Mary watched Dr. Davis take the stand. He had 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln -115 
 
 been kind to her. Why would he testify against her? 
 Ayer was looking grim. 
 
 "Now, Dr. Davis, you have examined Mrs. Lin- 
 coln, have you not?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And what was your conclusion?" 
 
 "She had no symptoms of epilepsy, but I did not 
 regard her as safe to be left alone." 
 
 "You visited her, I believe, years ago, Doctor?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And what did you find then?" 
 
 "She was eccentric, sir, as many of us are. She was 
 extremely nervous. But ..." Dr. Davis hesitated, 
 and his eyes sought out Mary Lincoln. "I saw noth- 
 ing in her to indicate unsoundness of mind." 
 
 Ayer looked stunned. "No further questions." 
 
 Judge Wallace looked at Arnold. Arnold rose. "If 
 the court please, the defense has no further questions 
 of a witness for the plaintiff who speaks against the 
 plaintiff's case." 
 
 The next four witnesses were brief. W. H. Wooster, 
 the Wabash Avenue jeweler, said Mrs. Lincoln pur- 
 chased watches and spectacles from him, contracting 
 a bill of three hundred dollars, but that the goods 
 were taken to Robert and he returned them. J. S. 
 Townsend of a jewelry firm and E. T. Moulton of a 
 drygoods house disclosed similar dealings. T. C. Mat- 
 
116 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 tock detailed dealings with Mrs. Lincoln and said he 
 thought her insane. 
 
 Arnold waived cross-examination, but looked inter- 
 ested, Mary thought, when Dr. Johnson took the stand 
 to testify that he was satisfied, from evidence he had 
 heard, that she was deranged. 
 
 Arnold's voice was disarmingly soft. 
 
 "You say, Doctor, that you believe my client to 
 be insane from the evidence you have heard?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And do you know the rule of hearsay evidence, 
 Doctor?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "It is not admissible," Arnold snapped. "I move 
 that this man's statements be stricken for that 
 reason." 
 
 "Motion denied." Judge Wallace managed a bored 
 look. "A doctor is entitled to form conclusions from 
 what he has heard." 
 
 "But is he entitled to make a diagnosis on the basis 
 of hearsay, your honor?" Arnold asked grimly. 
 
 Then he returned to his chair and listened to Dr. 
 Smith, the next witness. The doctor said he had 
 listened to the evidence and observed Mrs. Lincoln's 
 actions, and was of the opinion that her mind was not 
 sound. Ayer was satisfied with that. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln -117 
 
 Arnold moved slowly to Dr. Smith, studying him 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "You are Dr. Charles Gilman Smith?" 
 
 "That is my name, yes." 
 
 "You have treated Mrs. Lincoln professionally?" 
 
 "I have not, sir." 
 
 "I see. Then you, too, are basing your diagnosis 
 on what you have been told?" 
 
 "Yes. What I have been told and what I have 
 heard here." 
 
 "And you have assumed that all of this testimony 
 is true?" 
 
 "Yes." The doctor looked surprised. Ayer's objec- 
 tion thundered through the room. The judge said, 
 "Sustained." 
 
 "You doctored Tad Lincoln, did you not?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And other youngsters?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And you always diagnose their illnesses from 
 what you are told?" 
 
 "Of course not. I examine them." 
 
 "Ah, so? And why is that?" 
 
 "Why, I want to be sure before prescribing medi- 
 cine." 
 
 "But you do not care to exercise such caution now 
 
118 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 when the remedy to be prescribed is confinement be- 
 hind barred doors, is that it?" 
 
 "Objection," Ayer bellowed. 
 
 "Sustained," Judge Wallace said. 
 
 "During that time when you were doctoring Tad 
 Lincoln, how did Mrs. Lincoln's actions strike you, 
 Doctor?" Arnold was ignoring Ayer. 
 
 "She was quite nervous and upset." 
 
 "Would you say she was a typically distraught 
 mother?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "No more than that?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Now, Dr. Smith, to what do you attribute these 
 eccentricities and this nervousness which some seek 
 to indict as insanity?" 
 
 "Objection!" Ayer turned angrily to Arnold. 
 "Counsel for the defense is again putting words in a 
 witness' mouth." 
 
 "It seems only fair," Arnold growled. "A sort of 
 reciprocal privilege." He managed a surprised look. 
 "I am astounded that Mr. Ayer should object to that 
 practice, but I shall rephrase the question." 
 
 "Proceed, Mr. Arnold," Judge Wallace said. 
 
 "I will ask you, Dr. Smith, to what do you attribute 
 the present condition of Mrs. Lincoln?" 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln '119 
 
 "If she is not of sound mind, sir, I attribute it to 
 recent events in her history." 
 
 "Thank you, Doctor. That is all." 
 
 Ayer rose slowly. "If the court please, I shall now 
 recall Mr. Robert Lincoln." 
 
 "Is this necessary, sir?" Judge Wallace looked 
 startled. 
 
 "There is a final question which we desire, for the 
 benefit of the Lincoln name, to have answered," 
 Ayer said. 
 
 "Very well, Mr. Ayer. Proceed." 
 
 Robert moved slowly to the witness chair. His eyes 
 were downcast. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Lincoln," Ayer said, "will you tell the 
 court whether or not insanity is hereditary in your 
 family." 
 
 "It is not," Robert said in a low voice. 
 
 "And will you tell us your mother's age?" 
 
 "She is fifty-six," Robert said. 
 
 "That is all, sir," Ayer said. "The plaintiff rests." 
 
 "I assume that there are no witnesses for the de- 
 fense?" Judge Wallace inquired smugly. 
 
 Arnold rose to his feet and walked slowly toward 
 the bench, and Mary's eyes followed him. 
 
 "That would seem to be a safe assumption, your 
 honor, since my client and I have been denied oppor- 
 
120 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 tunity to summon friendly witnesses. However, even 
 within the narrow limits of these unduly harsh and 
 penalizing restrictions imposed on us, we have one 
 witness.'' 
 
 Mary felt surprise wash through her. Where had 
 Arnold obtained a witness? Her eyes went to Leonard 
 Swett's face. It was a surprised and troubled coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 "The defense now calls Mary Todd Lincoln," Ar- 
 nold said. 
 
Chapter 6 
 
 Arnold moved to help her as Mary Lincoln stepped 
 up onto the small platform and sat down in the wit- 
 ness chair. She was watching his face and his broad 
 wink startled her. Swett was still staring at her and 
 Robert had raised his head slowly to do so too. Mary 
 turned her eyes straight ahead and waited. 
 
 "Now, my dear," Arnold said softly, "I will ask 
 you if it is not true that you are Mary Todd Lincoln, 
 widow of our great president?" 
 
 Mary said yes softly and Arnold encouraged her 
 to speak louder. 
 
 "Yes," she said. 
 
 "And you were sitting beside him when he was 
 shot down and his blood was on your dress." 
 
 "Yes. Right here it was." Mary fingered a sleeve, 
 
 121 
 
122 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 feeling the old splinters of grief being driven through 
 her. 
 
 "And before that dreadful day you had lost two 
 children and seven years later you lost a third son." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Now, Mrs. Lincoln, I will ask you if you did not 
 rather expect that Robert would look after your in- 
 terests after these tragic occurrences?" 
 
 "No," she said, watching surprise cross Swett's 
 face. "No. Not Robert. He tended to remain aloof 
 from me." 
 
 "And did he ever consult you on business matters?" 
 
 "Only when he wanted money." 
 
 "Only when he wanted money," Arnold repeated. 
 "Yes. Now I will ask you, Mrs. Lincoln, if you were 
 given any notice previous to about one o'clock this 
 afternoon that this sanity action was to be taken 
 against you by your son?" 
 
 "No. I had no idea." 
 
 "But you knew men were following you? Spying 
 on you?" 
 
 "I was aware that strange men were constantly fol- 
 lowing me, yes." 
 
 "And it troubled you?" 
 
 "Yes. Since Abraham's death, you see, I have had 
 a fear of strange men." 
 
 "Yes. I see. Now you have heard your son testify 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 123 
 
 that these men were following you for your protec- 
 tion ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Did he tell you that Pinkerton men had been 
 assigned to maintain surveillance on you?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "And when you told him that strange men were 
 following you, did he not then inform you in order to 
 relieve your mind and alleviate your fears?" 
 
 "No. He said I was imagining things." 
 
 "I see. And you lived in the Grand Pacific Hotel 
 and not your son's home while here?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why, Mrs. Lincoln?" 
 
 "Robert's wife, Mary Harlan, does not like me. I 
 would not have felt comfortable." 
 
 "You would not have been made to feel at home in 
 your only surviving son's house?" 
 
 "I would not have felt at home there. That is 
 correct." 
 
 "And so you have been alone, for all intents and 
 purposes, since Tad's death, then." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Very lonely?" 
 
 "Very." 
 
 "And you have sought friends." 
 
 "I have found friends," she said. "I have my sister, 
 
124 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Elizabeth, at Springfield, and her husband, Ninian 
 Edwards." 
 
 "Then why did you not go there, my dear?" 
 
 "Memories," Mary said, feeling grief twist her face 
 again. She fingered the gold ring on her finger. 
 "Abraham and I were married there, in that house on 
 the hill. Sometimes it seems as if it were but yes- 
 terday." 
 
 "I see," Arnold said softly. "But you have, on oc- 
 casions, stayed with them." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And did they ever question your sanity?" 
 
 "No. Never." 
 
 "And do you question your sanity, Mary Lincoln?" 
 
 "Of course not. I am quite capable of managing 
 my own affairs." 
 
 "Robert's only intimate conversations with you, 
 then, in these years since Abraham's death, has con- 
 cerned money?" 
 
 "Primarily, yes." 
 
 "And do you think now that money is the reason 
 for the present proceeding?" 
 
 "I would rather not answer that, Mr. Arnold." 
 
 "You do not want to tell the world that your son 
 seeks to put you away simply to get your money?" 
 
 "Must I answer that question, sir? Must I?" 
 
 "No," Arnold said. "I apologize. I do not believe 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 125 
 
 that the question requires a response from you, 
 madame. Your silence is more eloquent than words." 
 
 Arnold turned to Swett and Ayer. "Your witness, 
 Mr. Ayer." 
 
 Ben Ayer rose and said he had no questions. The 
 judge eyed Arnold questioningly. Arnold said the de- 
 fense rested. Mary returned to her seat and watched 
 Leonard Swett rise and move to the jurors to pace 
 slowly back and forth before them. 
 
 "Gentlemen of the jury," Swett intoned ponder- 
 ously, "there falls upon me now the painful task of 
 summarizing for you the testimony in this delicate 
 case; testimony which demonstrates beyond all doubt 
 that Mrs. Lincoln is, indeed, insane. I say to you that 
 in the opinion of her most intimate friends, this poor 
 woman has been insane since the assassination, and 
 that the weight of her woes has been too great for 
 her mind to bear. Recently, as she grew more un- 
 sound in her actions, Judge Davis, John T. Stuart 
 and the physicians who had been consulted, and who 
 have testified, advised that the present action was not 
 only proper, but would, in fact, be a kindness to this 
 aggrieved woman. We can understand and sympa- 
 thize with her condition, gentlemen, for no other 
 woman in our national history has been asked to carry 
 such a cross. And yet, the question before us is not 
 one of whether Mary Todd Lincoln can be excused 
 
126 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 for her condition. The question goes to that condition 
 itself. Is she or is she not insane? That is the only 
 question which this jury must decide. I therefore call 
 upon this jury to render the only possible verdict in- 
 dicated by the testimony, and without delay." 
 
 Arnold rose slowly as Swett sat down. He moved 
 to the position vacated by the burly lawyer and com- 
 menced pacing back and forth before the jurors in 
 thoughtful silence. At last he paused to face them, 
 and he spoke. 
 
 "Gentlemen of the jury, what insanity is there, I 
 ask you, in seeking the friendship of others? What 
 madness is there in being kind to people? What un- 
 soundness? If this be madness, gentlemen, then let 
 us have more of it in this world, for this is the madness 
 of Christ. This is what he brought to the world. Love 
 is the most powerful force in all of this world, gentle- 
 men. Without love, the world would be completely 
 mad. And woman, born of man, seeks love. It is a 
 food of the soul, and without it, the feminine heart 
 pines away to dust; withers coldly. 
 
 "Mary Todd Lincoln brought four sons into this 
 world, gentlemen, and her mother love was about 
 them as a shield. And one by one, three of them who 
 loved her were taken from her. Between the loss of 
 her second son and her third one, a husband doomed 
 to martyrdom but destined for immortality fell beside 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 127 
 
 her so very close that his life blood spilled upon her 
 garments. 
 
 "It is, perhaps, possible for us to visualize the hor- 
 ror of that moment, gentlemen, but I fancy that not 
 one of us can know the anguish for this woman, let 
 alone the persistent terror which followed; fear that 
 another madman, armed and gushing wild Latin 
 phrases, might seek to strike down also the lonely 
 widow of a giant among men who fell for a cause 
 which, thank God, he lived to see free thousands from 
 chains of iron laced with intolerance. 
 
 "But she must live on, you see, for there were two 
 sons left to her then. She lived for them. And then 
 Tad was taken from her and she turned to Robert, a 
 woman alone, standing in a shadow of greatness 
 which falls across all of us; standing alone in that 
 shadow in the bitter ashes of what had been her life. 
 And as she turned to this last surviving son to give him 
 and his wife her love and affection, where was the 
 return of it? Where did reciprocal love and affection 
 flee now? Where was this protective arm of a son 
 which should have been about her? Where could the 
 widow of the Great Emancipator go? The kind of 
 intolerance which her prince of freedom for all men 
 hated now seethed about her, and she was required to 
 face it alone. 
 
 "Ah, gentlemen, we have heard here today words 
 
128 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 which have the sound of a slattern's gossip and we are 
 asked to swallow them as the gospel truth. We have 
 heard phrases which glitter with hard malice and 
 which have the ring of careful calculation. We have 
 heard of voices through walls and through floors, and 
 we have heard testimony that it is madness for Mary 
 Todd Lincoln to hear such things, but quite normal 
 for others to hear them. We have heard an only sur- 
 viving son brand his mother as quite mad since that 
 dark Good Friday in 1865 when Abraham Lincoln was 
 shot down. And yet, we have heard that same son 
 testify that his mother was sufficiently sane, in his 
 opinion, that he might correspond with her regarding 
 a loan of money for speculative purposes. We have 
 heard him say that a misunderstanding barred his 
 mother from the threshold of his home, and that he 
 was too busy to seek to resolve this misunderstanding. 
 
 "Is it so strange, then, that Mary Todd Lincoln 
 sought friendship and compassion and understanding 
 from others? Where else could she turn? Three sons 
 were dead and Abraham was dead, and her only sur- 
 viving son did not want her about because he feared 
 that her eccentricities might embarrass him and harm 
 the career on which she had launched him. 
 
 "I remember my good friend, Abraham Lincoln, as 
 he stood tall and straight at the Capitol, only weeks 
 before he was shot down, and told his country how he 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 129 
 
 hoped to sew up the grave wounds inflicted on his 
 people by civil war. That was in March of 1865 and 
 he was delivering his second inaugural address. It is 
 a curious thing, gentlemen, and most fortunate for us, 
 I believe, that we can know from what he said there 
 how he would react today with regard to this grave 
 matter which now confronts us here. How? How can 
 we know this, you ask? 
 
 "Ah, gentlemen! In Abraham Lincoln, as in but 
 few other men since Christ, were rooted the qualities 
 of faith and hope and charity. And his greatest qual- 
 ity was the greatest one, you see. Sweet charity! 
 How would he react indeed? Permit me to recall for 
 you his magnanimous words: With malice toward 
 none ; with charity for all ; with firmness in the right, 
 as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 
 finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's 
 wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the 
 battle, and for his widow, and his orphan . . .' Yes, 
 gentlemen. His widow and his orphan. He spoke elo- 
 quently for the widows of others who fell before him. 
 He championed them. I ask you, in the name of 
 Heaven above, can we do less today for the poor little 
 widow of the man who made that plea?" 
 
 Not once had Arnold moved from his position be- 
 fore the jury. Now, with an almost imperceptible 
 bow indicating that he was finished, he turned slowly, 
 
130 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 walked to the seat beside Mary and sat down. She 
 saw beads of sweat on his forehead. Then she turned, 
 at the sound of Judge Wallace's gavel, aware of a 
 murmuring in the courtroom. It ceased. 
 
 Judge Wallace fixed stern eyes on the jurors. 
 
 "The court desires to instruct this jury that the sole 
 question to be decided by it is the question of whether 
 or not Mrs. Lincoln is, in fact, insane, and should be 
 sent to an asylum. The jury will now retire to de- 
 liberate its verdict." 
 
 Arnold was quiet as the jury filed out. Mary felt 
 numb. Simply numb. She watched Robert rise and 
 walk to Leonard Swett. They conversed in under- 
 tones, both of them glancing occasionally at her. Then 
 Robert came to her and extended his hand, and to her 
 it was more as if she were some acquaintance than 
 his mother. She took his hand limply, thinking that 
 she really had nothing to say to him. Splinters of 
 anger began to race through her. She rose, drawing 
 herself up erectly. 
 
 "Robert," she said gravely. "I did not think you 
 would do this." 
 
 She watched as Robert bowed his head. His shoul- 
 ders shook. He wept. Swett approached quickly, 
 moving between Mary and her son. 
 
 "You must understand, Mrs. Lincoln," he said 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 131 
 
 smoothly, "that this is for your own good. No one 
 means you any harm." 
 
 "I am not persuaded by you, Mr. Swett," Mary 
 said coldly, "but I shall try to endure these perse- 
 cutions." 
 
 The murmuring in the courtroom ceased as the jury 
 returned, and this sudden silence halted any further 
 conversation with Swett. Mary Lincoln seated her- 
 self slowly, studying the faces of the jurors. They 
 were peculiarly set, she thought. She told herself: It 
 is against me. They will find against me. 
 
 Judge Wallace wielded his gavel vigorously and 
 Mary wondered why. There was no noise in the 
 courtroom, none at all. The shuffling of feet and the 
 nervous coughs had stopped. It was as if everyone 
 was holding his breath. 
 
 "Has the jury reached a verdict, Mr. Gage?" 
 
 "We have, your honor." 
 
 "Read the verdict, Mr. Gage." 
 
 Lyman Gage rose slowly, and the paper he held in 
 his hand betrayed his trembling. He cleared his throat 
 nervously. 
 
 " 'We, the undersigned, jurors in the case of Mary 
 Lincoln who is alleged to be insane, having heard the 
 evidence adduced, are satisfied that the said Mary 
 Lincoln is insane . . .' " 
 
132 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Sighing rippled through the room. People were stir- 
 ring now. Mary could see the newspapermen. They 
 were whispering excitedly among themselves. Judge 
 Wallace rapped the gavel angrily. The noise subsided. 
 
 " '. . . is insane, and is a fit person to be sent to a 
 State Hospital for the Insane: that she is a resident 
 of the County of Cook, in the State of Illinois ; that her 
 age is fifty-six years; that her disease is of unknown 
 duration; that the cause is unknown; that the disease 
 is not with her hereditary; that she is not subject to 
 epilepsy: that she does not manifest homicidal or 
 suicidal tendencies, and that she is not a pauper.' " 
 Gage read his own and the other eleven signatures. 
 Then he sat down. 
 
 Arnold had turned to Mary before the reading of 
 the verdict was completed. 
 
 "I feel deep shame, Mrs. Lincoln," he said, "that 
 anyone should do this to you." 
 
 "It is all right, Mr. Arnold. Perhaps they will send 
 me away, but it will not be for long." She eyed Ar- 
 nold levelly. "I know that you have done your best, 
 but I doubt that even my Abraham could have 
 changed this verdict." 
 
 Swett had gone to the bench and was conversing 
 with Judge Wallace. People were streaming from the 
 courtroom now, and Mary thought that it had become 
 a hollow, deserted place again. Arnold rose, excused 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 133 
 
 himself and strode to the Swett-Wallace conference. 
 He returned shortly, announcing that it had been de- 
 cided to send Mary to Bellevue Place Sanatorium at 
 Batavia, Illinois, owned and operated by Dr. R. J. 
 Patterson. 
 
 Swett was conferring again with Robert. Now he 
 turned and moved to Mary. 
 
 "Mrs. Lincoln," he said, "you have fifty-six thou- 
 sand dollars in money and bonds on your person, and 
 one of the unpleasant necessities of this case is that 
 you must surrender them. I could easily obtain a 
 court order, or even have the sheriff take them forcibly 
 from you, but I sincerely hope that you will not make 
 that necessary. Will you not give them properly to 
 Robert?" 
 
 Mary looked about for Arnold. He was standing 
 near by, receiving from the clerk a court order for her 
 delivery to an officer. She heard him ask for dupli- 
 cates. 
 
 Mary turned grimly to Swett. "No," she said. 
 "Robert cannot now have anything that belongs to 
 me." 
 
 "Here is Mr. Arnold," Swett said, gesturing towad 
 the diminutive counselor. "Won't you surrender them 
 to him?" 
 
 "I will not here," Mary said. "They are in my 
 underclothing. Certainly, Mr. Swett, you would not 
 
134 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 be indelicate to me in the presence of these others. 
 Please take me to my room. It is so hot in here." 
 
 "Very well, Mrs. Lincoln." Swett sighed. "I will 
 be glad to take you to your room. Nothing remains 
 but these bonds. Now if you will promise me that 
 after you get there you will give them to Mr. Arnold, 
 we will go there." 
 
 Mary said she promised that. "May we go now, 
 please?" 
 
 Only once during the ride did she speak up. She 
 turned to Arnold, saying, "Mr. Arnold, I have always 
 been very careful about my money matters. There is 
 no danger that anything will happen to the bonds. I 
 am very much fatigued. I need rest. Suppose you 
 come down tomorrow and we will talk this matter 
 over." 
 
 Arnold's face was grim and pale. He flashed a 
 glance at Swett and then looked away, and Mary felt 
 defeated. They did not speak of it again until Swett 
 had closed the door of her room behind them. Then 
 he turned to her. 
 
 "Mrs. Lincoln, you promised as a lady at the court 
 that if I would not permit those sheriffs to be rude 
 towards you, you would give the bonds to Mr. Arnold 
 as soon as we came to the room. Now, I am compelled 
 to exact the performance of that promise." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 135 
 
 Arnold studied Swett. "There should be a receipt 
 given," he said. 
 
 "Yes." Swett nodded agreeably. "I shall go and 
 get some paper." 
 
 He left the room and Mary looked at Arnold with 
 tears in her eyes. "What shall I do?" 
 
 "Compose yourself, dear lady. There is little which 
 can be done now." Arnold's voice was edged with de- 
 termination. "But do not fret. We shall win this one 
 yet. It will take time, now, my dear." 
 
 Swett returned, sat down and wrote out a receipt. 
 
 "Read the receipt," Mary commanded. 
 
 Swett complied. " ' Received of Mary Lincoln fifty 
 thousand dollars.' " 
 
 "Fifty-six thousand dollars," Mary corrected. 
 
 "I beg your pardon." Swett wrote another receipt, 
 read it to her and stood up. "Now, Mrs. Lincoln, the 
 receipt is all right, but we haven't got any bonds." 
 
 Mary felt the tears coming again. She rose. 
 
 "And you are not satisfied with locking me up in an 
 insane asylum, but now you are going to rob me of all 
 I have on earth? My husband is dead, and my chil- 
 dren are dead, and these bonds I have saved for my 
 necessities in my old age; now you are going to rob 
 me of them?" 
 
 "Please, Mrs. Lincoln." Swett looked embarrassed 
 
136 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 and uncomfortable. "It is for your own good. We do 
 not seek to rob you." 
 
 "Yes," she said. "Yes. It is robbery. You are rob- 
 bing me." 
 
 Mary felt defeated. Arnold nodded to her when 
 she looked at him again. She shrugged and moved to 
 the other side of the room. Wearily, as if the hem 
 were some great weight, she lifted her outer skirt and 
 tugged at the pocket sewn into the top petticoat. 
 
 "Mr. Arnold," she said at last, "will you help me 
 please?" Her voice was flat and toneless. 
 
 Arnold moved to her, knelt, and commenced strug- 
 gling to extricate the bonds from the pocket. At last, 
 he cast a glance upward at Mary. She nodded. He 
 grasped the pocket firmly and ripped it free. 
 
 "It is done," Mary Lincoln said. And in that mo- 
 ment, she would have given anything to see the cheer- 
 ful, kind, sweet face of her friend, Beatrice. 
 
Chapter 7 
 
 "We are as strangers now," Mary Lincoln said. 
 "Robert comes to see me regularly each week, but he 
 comes as a stranger. I think that I no longer know 
 him." 
 
 "We were dumbfounded," the tall, handsome 
 woman sitting across from Mary said. "Absolutely 
 dumbfounded. We came, of course, as soon as your 
 letter arrived. I fear that James and I both thought 
 at first blush that perhaps . . . perhaps you were ..." 
 
 "Yes," Mary said tiredly, nodding. "I can imagine." 
 
 "It was after we read your letter," the woman said, 
 "that we became convinced that this is an infamous 
 outrage. Then we examined the transcript and dis- 
 covered the unusual aspects of the entire affair." 
 
 "It was a political trial," Judge James B. Bradwell 
 growled. "There is a political tinge to it." 
 
 137 
 
138 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Mary experienced faint surprise. These were strong 
 words from another judge. 
 
 "I sensed it too/' Mary said. She sighed. "I have 
 not followed such things closely since . . . since Abra- 
 ham left me, but I did, indeed, sense it. But it doesn't 
 make sense, James. No sense at all." 
 
 Myra Bradwell said it seemed that way to her, too. 
 "After all, Judge Davis was never really a Republi- 
 can. He calls himself an independent, and now he is 
 breaking completely with the party in his anger at the 
 Grant people. Leonard Swett, I am sure, is no Stal- 
 wart, either. He reveres the memory of your great 
 husband, Mary, and he detests the Grant Stalwarts 
 and all that they stand for." 
 
 "Not Robert, though," Mary said. "He thinks the 
 sun rises and sets on Lys Grant. He is really very 
 close to the general." Mary managed to keep her dis- 
 like for Grant from her voice. She paused, studying 
 James and Myra Bradwell, and thanked God for 
 friends such as these. They were, after all, a most in- 
 fluential couple, one of the most influential in all of 
 Illinois. 
 
 "It doesn't fit, does it?" Mary said. "Why should 
 friends of Abraham Lincoln choose to do this to his 
 widow? There is too much of a mixture of Stalwart 
 and Reformist and Independent here." 
 
 "By George!" Judge Bradwell socked one fist into 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 139 
 
 an open palm and then commenced stroking his beard. 
 "Of course! That's it! Why did it not occur to me 
 before?" He rose and commenced pacing back and 
 forth. "How blind we have been!" 
 
 "James! What is it? What are you trying to say?" 
 Myra Bradwell rose from her chair to stare at her hus- 
 band. Mary watched the tall judge curiously. 
 
 "Of course it was political. Of course!" Judge 
 Bradwell's voice was tense with suppressed excite- 
 ment. He moved to Mary. "My dear lady, isn't it 
 true that politicians around Grant have shown signs 
 of using Robert's name for the political prestige of the 
 Lincoln label on their shoddy doings?" 
 
 Mary grimaced. She said yes, that was true. "Rob- 
 ert is becoming increasingly active in the Stalwart 
 ranks. Some say they are grooming him for the 
 Presidency some years hence." 
 
 "And who would be most interested in destroying 
 him then?" 
 
 Mary experienced slivers of surprise and under- 
 standing. "Why, the men who loved Abraham and 
 cherished his goodness and his integrity." 
 
 "Yes!" Judge Bradwell said emphatically, "You 
 see?" 
 
 Understanding was flashing across the intelligent 
 features of Myra Bradwell, but Mary's whirling 
 thoughts refused to settle down. She stammered 
 
140 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 something and Judge Bradwell placed a hand softly 
 upon her arm. 
 
 "My dear Mrs. Lincoln," he said, "they seek to de- 
 stroy Robert, your son, through you. When the Stal- 
 wart regime is faded and worn with its own shoddi- 
 ness, they would use a fresh new face and the Lincoln 
 name as their champion. They would use the name of 
 Lincoln to carry their banner and keep them in the 
 White House." 
 
 "Yes," Mary agreed slowly, "that is entirely pos- 
 sible. Even most probable." 
 
 "And Swett and Davis and such friends of Abra- 
 ham would resent this cynical exploitation of the 
 Great Emancipator's immortal name," Judge Brad- 
 well said. "They are clever, resourceful and experi- 
 enced politicians. They have demonstrated hereto- 
 fore that they will stoop to most anything to win." 
 
 "Yes," Mary said, thinking of the convention of 
 1860. "Yes, I understand that." 
 
 "And how far could a man bearing even the Lincoln 
 name go," the judge demanded triumphantly, "if they 
 could say of him that he sent his mother — the lonely 
 widow of his great father — to an asylum?" 
 
 Mary Lincoln winced at the word asylum, but her 
 small hands gripped the chair arms until her knuckles 
 were white. 
 
 "I see," she said, and her voice was filled with sad- 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 141 
 
 ness. "I see." And, she told herself, she did see. Old 
 Villain Davis was such a maneuverer. "It was Judge 
 Davis' work," she said. "It fits." 
 
 "Davis," Judge Bradwell said, snorting disdain- 
 fully. "A judge of the highest court in our land. 
 Swett, lawyer; officer of the court. Stuart, a blood 
 relative. And Robert. Your son, my poor, dear, be- 
 trayed woman, succumbed to their blandishments be- 
 cause of your money. They baited a political death- 
 trap with your bonds." 
 
 "It is just the kind of trick Old Villain Davis would 
 think of," Mary said. Anger burned through her 
 slowly. How could they have persuaded Robert to 
 turn against his own mother? She voiced the question 
 aloud. 
 
 "My dear lady," Judge Bradwell said. "It was you 
 yourself who suggested the mercenary motive. I 
 simply chose to look a little deeper." 
 
 "Robert has always been rather foolish about 
 money," Mary said. "Search for wealth is a compel- 
 ling force in his life." 
 
 "He was named conservator of your estate," Judge 
 Bradwell said with quiet significance. 
 
 Mary Lincoln felt twists of anguish now. "My 
 son," she said. "My only son." 
 
 Judge Bradwell bowed his head. "I am sorry, dear 
 lady." 
 
142 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Mary heard a sob. It was Myra Bradwell. "How 
 cruel/' Myra said. "How terribly cruel!" 
 
 "It is a mother's risk," Mary said slowly. "I re- 
 member Abraham saying that to me after Willie died." 
 Wistfully she touched the worn gold ring. "How 
 could this come from such love as ours?" She bowed 
 her head. 
 
 Myra Bradwell was staring at her husband. "We 
 must go and confront Swett with this," she said. "We 
 must bring this into the open." 
 
 "And advance the Stalwart cause? Make martyrs 
 of the spoilers' wing?" Judge Bradwell shook his 
 head. "No, my dear. There is a risk of that." 
 
 "What then?" Myra wanted to know. Mary lis- 
 tened intently. 
 
 "We must get Mary out of this place first," Judge 
 Bradwell said. 
 
 "Placed in someone's care?" 
 
 "Yes," the judge said. 
 
 "Elizabeth and dear, dear Ninian," Mary said 
 slowly. 
 
 "Of course," the judge said. 
 
 "Back to Springfield, where we were wed," Mary 
 said, fingering the ring again. Her voice sounded dis- 
 tant. 
 
 "But will they agree?" Myra said. 
 
 "I think they will," Judge Bradwell said grimly. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 143 
 
 "I think Swett will bend every effort when we con- 
 front him with his secret." 
 
 "And Dr. Patterson?" Mary wanted to know. 
 
 "He must stick to his original diagnosis," Judge 
 Bradwell said. "He must. But he can hardly oppose 
 a trial release." 
 
 "Yes. And then we must write letters," Myra said. 
 Her lively features were set determinedly. "Scores of 
 letters. We must write to all of our friends in the 
 East. We must heap scorn and condemnation upon 
 this Robert Lincoln." 
 
 Judge Bradwell was looking thoughtful. He sat 
 slowly. "Yes," he agreed, "but there is more. The 
 timing is important. We must gear the court action 
 to the next Republican convention. The Reformists 
 are growing quite strong. Swett and the others could 
 not oppose the action to . . ." Judge Bradwell hesi- 
 tated, smiling at Mary, "to restore you to sanity, my 
 dear." 
 
 Myra nodded slowly. "I see. If they have a strong 
 candidate in the running, it would jeopardize his 
 chances." 
 
 "The Stalwarts will run Blaine," Judge Bradwell 
 said. "Old Judge Davis might like to do something, 
 as he tried to do in 1872, but he's not big enough." 
 Judge Bradwell grinned. "Politically, I mean." 
 
 Myra Bradwell chuckled. "Of course." Mary 
 
144 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 smiled, thinking of Judge Davis' tremendous bulk. 
 
 "The Stalwarts will try to force a shift to a com- 
 promise candidate," Bradwell said. "That must be 
 their strategy. They have no one with which to coun- 
 ter Blaine. They must rely on a dark horse." 
 
 "When will they meet?" Mary eyed Judge Brad- 
 well inquisitively. 
 
 "Next June," he said. "Patience, dear lady." 
 
 "Nearly a year," Mary said slowly, and there was 
 dismay in her voice. She sighed. "I shall wait," she 
 said, "and write letters." 
 
 "Your friends will free you, my dear," Myra Brad- 
 well said. 
 
 "My friends," Mary said, savoring the word. She 
 stared at the couple grimly. "Leonard Swett himself 
 must set me free." 
 
 "Leonard Swett it will be," Judge Bradwell said. 
 
 "If he refuses?" Mary wanted to know. 
 
 "At the expense of his law practice, his whole 
 career?" Judge Bradwell said grimly. Mary shud- 
 dered at the naked fury in the big jurist's voice. 
 
 "When we are finished with him," Myra Bradwell 
 said, "he will be begging for the opportunity of free- 
 ing you, my dear." 
 
 And Mary Lincoln told herself that, now, she could 
 wait. 
 
 "We have much to do, my dear," Judge Bradwell 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 145 
 
 f 
 
 said, as they said their good-bys. "We shall go to 
 work immediately to get you to Springfield. We'll go 
 directly to Ninian and Elizabeth and have them make 
 the necessary request." 
 
 "About Judge Wallace ..." Mary began, but Judge 
 Bradwell cut her off. 
 
 "Leave him to me, my dear. I am sure he will 
 appreciate the significance of what I have reserved to 
 say to him." 
 
 "And Dr. Patterson?" Mary said. 
 
 "Can hardly choose to dispute the judgment of such 
 esteemed gentlemen as Swett, Robert, Davis and the 
 honorable judge," Judge Bradwell growled. 
 
 Mary Lincoln told herself a month later, after 
 Beatrice had come and wept and left her the Tribune, 
 that Judge Bradwell had, indeed, called the turn of it. 
 Dr. Patterson, apparently irked at publicity growing 
 from Ninian's request and from the Bradwell corre- 
 spondence, had sought to defend himself in a letter to 
 the newspaper. As Mary studied the letter, she told 
 herself: He has the unmitigated gall to tell the world 
 that I am yet possessed by insanity which did not 
 have me in the first place. But he has made a sorry 
 mistake, for in this letter he has predicted how I 
 will act. Therefore, I shan't act that way at all. I 
 shall prove him wrong, 
 
 Mary laid the newspaper down and turned her 
 
146 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 mind back to the day they had brought her here. 
 There were physicians in the private car of the rail- 
 road president, but she had ignored them to feast her 
 eyes on the lovely scenery of the Fox River Valley, 
 burgeoning with the brilliant greens and pastel colors 
 of late spring. The nagging headache, which always 
 felt to her as if someone were pulling steel wires from 
 her head, was gone now. The lovely view was sooth- 
 ing to her troubled mind. 
 
 She remembered that she had been ashamed, as she 
 rode to the steady click of the steel wheels over rail 
 joints, of her actions earlier in the day. At the time, 
 though, it had seemed perfectly plausible for her to 
 drink the mixture she believed to be laudanum and 
 camphor. Her head ached badly, and it occurred to 
 her that if the medicine soothed the pain of neuralgia 
 in her arm, as it did, it must certainly soothe the pain 
 in her head. It had been a foolish thing to do, she 
 told herself now. Robert and her enemies promptly 
 represented to the press that it was a suicide attempt. 
 She was glad, now, that the discerning drugstore clerk 
 had given her a harmless mixture instead of what she 
 had ordered. 
 
 Myra BradwelPs pleasant voice interrupted her 
 thoughts, and she turned to greet her friend warmly. 
 Myra said her husband wasn't with her this time. 
 "He's very busy and, as you no doubt have heard, has 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 147 
 
 brought forth a defensive statement from Dr. Pat- 
 terson." 
 
 Mary said yes, she was just reading it. She picked 
 up the Tribune. 
 
 "He is a man, I perceive, who suffers pangs of con- 
 science now," Myra said. "This flood of letters and 
 the resulting publicity in the papers trouble him 
 greatly. He says it is not true that he has certified 
 you to be of sound mind, though, Mary. Yet he ad- 
 mits that reports in the press about arrangements 
 being perfected for you to go to Springfield are true." 
 
 "Here is his mistake," Mary said grimly. She read 
 aloud: " 'I am willing to record the opinion that such 
 is the character of her malady she will not be con- 
 tent . . . and that the experiment . . . will result only 
 in giving the coveted opportunity to make extended 
 rambles, to renew the indulgence of her purchasing 
 mania and other morbid mental manifestations.' " 
 She put the newspaper down. "I shall disprove those 
 statements," Mary said firmly. "And I shall disprove 
 those statements made at my trial, too. I shall show 
 the world the kind of restraint of which Dr. Patter- 
 son says I am incapable. I shall master these urges to 
 buy which assail me, and I shall demonstrate ability 
 to live quietly in one place." 
 
 "My dear Mary," Myra said softly, "this wander- 
 lust which has gripped you since Abraham's death is 
 
148 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 perfectly understandable. You seek to escape intoler- 
 ance. There is no insanity in this." 
 
 "Yes, but there are politicians today who do not 
 want the widow of Abraham Lincoln in the public eye. 
 My appearance anywhere bestirs memories of a man 
 whose integrity as a president establishes sharp con- 
 trasts when put alongside the reputations of some 
 vandals now in office. " 
 
 Myra sighed. "How terrible/' she said, "to be 
 hated and feared by the Stalwarts, and to be used as 
 an instrument against their perpetuation in office by 
 the other wing. Is there no peace for you?" 
 
 "Yes," Mary said thoughtfully, "but I shall not 
 rush it." 
 
 Myra obviously had decided to change the subject. 
 "And is everything still all right with you, my dear?" 
 She stared about the room. "It seems pleasant 
 enough." 
 
 "Oh, my physical surroundings are nice enough," 
 Mary said. "I am permitted to shop now and then, 
 in Aurora. The food is good. I detest these barred 
 windows, of course, and the attendants are with me 
 constantly. It is the stigma which irritates me most — 
 the desire for vindication. It fairly overwhelms me at 
 times. It is something I must obtain for peace of 
 mind." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 149 
 
 "Have the reporters bothered you, my dear?" 
 Myra looked solicitous. 
 
 "Very little." Mary sighed. "They press one so, 
 you know, but then I suppose that their impatient 
 searching is but a requirement of their work. They 
 are gentlemen, really. I fear that I forget myself at 
 times. I fancy sometimes that I am back in the White 
 House, you see, and that Abraham is near me. Is it 
 madness to pretend? Those were happy days, you 
 see, even though the great war was all about us. I am 
 just a little old lady, then, pretending that I am with 
 what used to be. They interrupted my reminiscences 
 one afternoon, and I fear that I left with them the 
 impression that I truly believed myself back in Wash- 
 ington." 
 
 "They wrote that you keep the curtains drawn and 
 lighted candles about the room," Myra observed. 
 "You can understand that such news cannot help but 
 contribute to the impression which your persecutors 
 seek to preserve." 
 
 Mary sighed again. "How difficult it is," she said, 
 "for someone quite sane, but suspected of being a 
 lunatic, to act sane. Every little act is subjected to 
 strange scrutiny. The bars across my window bother 
 me, and so I draw the curtains now and then to hide 
 them from my view. I sit alone, you know. So often 
 
150 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 through the years I have done that. And now I sit 
 alone with living flesh and blood of me near by, in 
 Chicago, and still I have no sons left to me now. None 
 at all. Robert is some stranger. My son has gone 
 away." 
 
 "Dear lady," Myra said. She patted Mary's hand. 
 "I really must rush on. If the train is on time, I must." 
 
 "Trains are always on time," Mary Lincoln ob- 
 served, "when a dear one must leave." 
 
 Myra smiled. "I shall send word," she said. "I 
 intend to see Robert tomorrow. He tells me that he 
 is coming out here again. Perhaps he will be able to 
 tell you." 
 
 "It would," Mary Lincoln said, "be quite apropos." 
 
 "We expect it to be early this month," Myra said. 
 They exchanged fond farewells, and then Myra Brad- 
 well was gone. 
 
 It was early the following afternoon, a clear, bright 
 September day, that Robert and little Mary Lincoln 
 came to see Mary Todd Lincoln for the last time at 
 Bellevue. She was dozing by the window and it star- 
 tled her, at first, to see the child. Then she struggled 
 sleepily to her feet and smiled. 
 
 "My dear little Mary," she said. "I should have 
 liked to have a sunny child like you." 
 
 Her grandchild lisped a reply, and then Robert's 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln '151 
 
 shadow fell across her, and she erased the gentle smile. 
 Her mouth was set firmly in her smooth, round face. 
 She lifted sober eyes to her only living son. 
 
 "Ah, Robert. So you have come again?" 
 
 "Yes, Mother. How are you?" The eyes into 
 which she looked were troubled ones. 
 
 "I am well, Robert." Mary used the distant, de- 
 tached tone of voice which came naturally to her now 
 when she spoke with Robert, as with other strangers. 
 Her voice grew warm again. "And how is little 
 Abraham?" 
 
 "He is well, thank you." Robert's voice was a sigh. 
 "I have seen the Bradwells. Have they told you?" 
 
 Mary said Myra had told her that he would bring 
 word. 
 
 Robert sighed again. "The letters have been cruel," 
 he said. 
 
 "There is retributive justice in this world, Robert. 
 I have a stain upon me now. Nothing can erase it." 
 
 Robert's manner became eager now. "September 
 tenth," he said. "Ninian Edwards will come for you. 
 I shall escort you, too, if you wish." 
 
 "Ninian will suffice," she said, and there was a cold- 
 ness in her voice. "I should prefer only a friend." 
 
 She saw the hurt in Robert's face, and it twisted 
 inside her, but she said no more. It was strange, Mary 
 
152 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 thought at that moment, how much her son's troubled 
 brow looked like Abraham's. 
 
 "I have arranged for Amanda to be with you at 
 Springfield," Robert said. "You seem to prefer her 
 of all the . . . the attendants." 
 
 Mary said yes, that was true. 
 
 "I shall forward checks to Uncle Ninian for your 
 comfort and support, and if you will communicate 
 any other wishes to me, I shall see to them." 
 
 Mary ignored this. Instead, she moved to a closet 
 and said, "I have two doll babies here for Mary." Her 
 eyes returned to Mary and lighted again. "You will 
 love them, child. They are so sweet. Almost real, 
 they are. Fine workmanship. Made in Germany, I 
 believe." 
 
 She procured the dolls and tucked them into the 
 child's arms. 
 
 "Thank you, Grandmama," little Mary said. "They 
 are pretty, Grandmama." 
 
 "Little Mary." Mary Lincoln knelt to hug her 
 granddaughter and she felt tears come to her eyes. 
 "Children are a blessing," she said, wondering why 
 she should tell this to a small child. She rose suddenly, 
 and her eyes caught Robert's pained ones. "But they 
 can cause one great pain," she muttered. 
 
 They continued to talk as strangers, and Mary told 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 153 
 
 herself that Robert did not realize the extent of the 
 resentment against him now building within her. She 
 also realized, from his voice and actions, that he 
 thought her quite mad, and yet happier than she had 
 been. If he could only know! she thought. How it 
 would shock this man now strange to me if he were 
 to know! 
 
 When Robert and little Mary had gone, Mary Lin- 
 coln turned to the ever-present attendant hovering 
 near by. "If you will order my carriage prepared and 
 alert my nurse," she said abruptly, "I should like to 
 go into Aurora tomorrow. I have some final shopping 
 to do." 
 
 She saved the gifts she obtained on that shopping 
 trip carefully, keeping them in a closet until Ninian 
 came for her. She told herself, thinking of Dr. Patter- 
 son's letter, that she must be careful about such pur- 
 chases now. This was no indulgence of a purchasing 
 mania, as he called it, but she thought she really 
 ought to give those who had been kind to her at this 
 place some little remembrance. Socks for the men, 
 perfume for the ladies. They would appreciate it 
 
 Ninian was in a jolly mood when he came. He had 
 arranged a private car for her, he said, for the trip to 
 Springfield. The Fox River Valley was a riot of fall 
 colors now. The trip would do her good, and she could 
 
154 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 rest at Springfield. Robert had remained with the 
 private car at the tracks. Dr. Patterson would join 
 them there. 
 
 It pleased Mary to distribute the gifts she had 
 bought. She gave each one to the person for whom 
 she meant it, and some of the ladies had tears in 
 their eyes. 
 
 "What about my property?" Mary wanted to 
 know. "There are so many trunks. Trunks here, 
 some in Milwaukee and some at Robert's house, I 
 believe." She stared down at her somber black attire. 
 "My box of jewels, I believe, is at the bank." 
 
 Ninian Edwards patted the small hand of his sister- 
 in-law. "Please do not fret about these things, Mary. 
 They will be attended to all in good time." 
 
 His presence reassured her. This was no trick of 
 Robert's, she told herself. Not with Ninian here. She 
 spoke briefly to Robert, nodded to Dr. Patterson and 
 seated herself by a window, staring into the distance. 
 Once in Springfield, she thought, there would be many 
 more letters to write. How long would it take, she 
 wondered, to get another trial? 
 
 The train lurched and moved forward, and she 
 caught a glimpse of herself reflected in the window. 
 Her face seemed very pale, almost as if chiseled from 
 white marble. Her bluish-gray eyes were large and 
 luminous, and her mouth sad. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 155 
 
 She thought, I am returning to the place where 
 Abraham and I were wed. There will be friends about 
 me again. 
 
 She blinked her eyes and ceased her meditations. 
 Then she focused them upon the brilliant autumn 
 hues now mottling the Fox River Valley. It had been 
 verdant with spring greens when last she saw it. Now 
 the frosts had come and painted colors across it. It 
 was like life, she thought. She was in her autumn, too. 
 How many years yet? How many? Mary Todd Lin- 
 coln felt tired and alone again. She could not mind it 
 when release came, she told herself, but neither would 
 she seek it. She straightened then, and thrust her 
 small chin forward resolutely. But first the trial, the 
 vindication. Then let it come when it would, but not 
 among strangers. 
 
 The room on the second floor of her sister's home in 
 Springfield was a pleasant, sunny one. Even during 
 the cold winter months, warm sunlight slanted 
 through the windows, and Mary Lincoln sat there 
 and wrote her letters and dreamed of the day when 
 she might have another trial. 
 
 A kind of peace she had not known for years set- 
 tled over her. Ninian was kind to her, and so was her 
 sister Elizabeth. Frances, her other sister, visited 
 now and then. Mary was always glad to see her, too. 
 That first day, after her arrival, she had seen the 
 
156 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 children, passing the house on their way to school. 
 They had stared curiously at the second-story win- 
 dow, and behind the curtains Mary flinched, wonder- 
 ing what stories these children had been told about 
 her presence here. 
 
 That was why she wanted the curtains drawn, she 
 told herself. There were no eyes filled with malice 
 here, but eyes filled with curiosity and pity hurt every 
 bit as much. And often, therefore, she wrote during 
 daylight hours by candlelight. A kind of intolerance 
 which Abraham had fought still lurked in the world 
 just beyond the windowsill. 
 
 The winter months wore on, their passing measured 
 by the steady scratching of Mary's busy pen. Spring 
 came and winter's coldness fled, and Mary did not 
 have the curtains drawn so often now. The long fight, 
 she told herself, was nearly over. She stared about the 
 room at her trunks and possessions. Why did she keep 
 them here, so close about her? She knew the answer 
 to that question. 
 
 They had tried, last year, to take everything from 
 her. Indeed, they had taken her money and her bonds. 
 And now she would collect her belongings once again 
 and have them with her in the twilight of her life. 
 
 It had seemed an eternity, really, she told herself, 
 that June day when Ninian's footsteps sounded on 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln -157 
 
 the stairs. He knocked and she said to come, and his 
 face was creased with a gentle smile as he entered. 
 
 "Mary, the arrangements are made." 
 
 Her heart leaped. To be free again, really free! 
 
 "I have conversed with Mr. Leonard Swett and he 
 is agreeable to our plan. We shall petition for re- 
 moval of Robert as your conservator and for restora- 
 tion of all rights, privileges and property. Mr. Swett 
 seems pleased that he is to be granted the privilege 
 of doing you this favor." 
 
 "Mr. Swett," Mary said grimly, "is undoing that 
 which he did to me a year ago." She studied Ninian. 
 "Will Robert be there?" 
 
 "He need not be," Ninian said. 
 
 "Good," Mary said. "I have caused a fury to rage 
 about him, and I do not want it in the courtroom 
 again." She paused. "And Dr. Patterson?" 
 
 "Will not be there," Ninian finished for her. "The 
 Bradwell correspondence has quite subdued him." 
 
 "When will it be?" she wanted to know. 
 
 "This afternoon," Ninian replied. "Blaine failed to 
 get the nomination. Judge Bradwell arranged it im- 
 mediately. Leonard Swett will be your attorney. It 
 is all arranged." 
 
 "As before." She said it as a statement of fact and 
 not as a question. 
 
158 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Ninian smiled. "As before," he said, "but much 
 less painfully. It should be very short." 
 
 "It is all arranged then," she said flatly. 
 
 "As before," he said, and she detected a kind of 
 joyous sarcasm in his voice. 
 
 "And so the Stalwarts have been downed," she 
 mused. 
 
 "It will require more than a nomination," Ninian 
 said. 
 
 "Yes." Mary grimaced. "They will try to get to 
 the nominee. Who is he?" 
 
 "Rutherford B. Hayes," Ninian said. "They say he 
 is a reformer." 
 
 "How I stopped them once," Mary said. "How I 
 kept them from their little games! And Abraham did 
 not even know. He trusted them, I suppose. I could 
 understand this. But I stopped them, and they hate 
 me for it yet." 
 
 "Yes," Ninian said. "I know, my dear." There 
 was a pause before Ninian went on. 
 
 "James and Myra Bradwell are overjoyed. They 
 have turned it for you, Mary." 
 
 "I will be free to manage my own affairs," she 
 mused. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Restored to sanity." Her voice was sarcastic. 
 
 "Yes." Ninian 's voice was sad. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln -159 
 
 "Mockery," she said. 
 
 "Mockery," he repeated. "But poetic justice, too." 
 
 The trip to Chicago, like the winter's waiting, 
 seemed an eternity. Her nose was smudged and she 
 felt sticky, but Mary Lincoln did not mind. The 
 trial came and then was over, lasting only minutes. 
 Ninian was the sole witness. He told the court that 
 her friends all said she was of sound mind and capable 
 of managing her own affairs. "We think she is sane 
 and capable of managing her own property." 
 
 "And Robert Lincoln, sir? What is his disposition 
 in this case?" 
 
 Judge Wallace had directed his query to Leonard 
 Swett. Mary watched color flow into the burly law- 
 yer's face. 
 
 "I had assumed, your honor, that the court had 
 been informed," Swett said. "Mr. Lincoln does not 
 oppose the action. He waives all technicalities." 
 
 "The court has been informed, Mr. Swett. The 
 court wanted it in the record." Judge Wallace paused. 
 "And Dr. Patterson?" 
 
 "The doctor chooses not to appear," Swett said 
 lamely. 
 
 Judge Wallace said he understood. He told the jury 
 it might retire and deliberate, but the foreman said 
 that would not be needed. 
 
 "You have a verdict ready, sir?" 
 
160 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Yes, your honor." 
 
 "And what is the verdict?" 
 
 The foreman read from a piece of paper: " 'We, the 
 undersigned jurors in the case wherein Mary Lincoln, 
 who was heretofore found to be insane and who is 
 now alleged to be restored to reason, having heard the 
 evidence in said cause, find that the said Mary Lin- 
 coln is restored to reason and is capable to manage 
 and control her estate. ' " 
 
 "Again," Mary Lincoln said, "the rehearsals have 
 been most thorough." 
 
 Ninian shushed her. She felt both a fury and a 
 jubilance rise within her. She managed to keep her 
 smooth countenance inscrutable. Only once, during 
 the return trip to Springfield, did she break her self- 
 imposed silence. Ninian turned to her thoughtfully. 
 
 "You are very quiet, Mary. Are you not satisfied?" 
 
 "I have been thinking, Ninian," she said. "I was 
 arrested, tried, found insane and ordered put away 
 within four hours' time. I came back, was tried, found 
 sane and ordered released in four minutes' time. Can 
 it be now that anyone will doubt that these were 
 political sanity trials?" 
 
 "Yes, dear Mary," Ninian said sadly. "There will 
 be doubt and ignorance. Some day, perhaps, the 
 world will know." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 161 
 
 "Yes," she said. She studied Ninian. "Rutherford 
 B. Hayes ... I do not know him. Is he a good man?" 
 
 Ninian shrugged. "Time will tell. Robert Inger- 
 soll's plumed knight thinks not." 
 
 "He is a prophet," Mary said, "without honor 
 'neath his visor." She studied for a moment. "And 
 Robert is a little boy lost." 
 
 And then Mary Todd Lincoln was silent, deep in 
 thought. She would now write Robert a letter which 
 he would carry seared into his mind and soul to his 
 dying day. 
 
 Vengeance is mine, she told herself, and though 
 she knew this was wrongful fury, she vowed to fol- 
 low it. 
 
 Upon arriving back in her room, Mary Todd Lin- 
 coln hurriedly procured her pen and paper and com- 
 menced to write, but the fury rose in her and choked 
 her, and she left it. For thirteen ugly months, she 
 thought, she had been marked and handled as a luna- 
 tic, and this was all because of a weakness in her son. 
 The stain which she now felt would last her life had 
 been dashed on her by men with political motives, and 
 they had betrayed her to her own son. 
 
 It was June nineteenth before she could bring her- 
 self to write the letter. Yet, she shrieked back at a 
 shrieking conscience, it must be done. Outside, some- 
 
162 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 one snickered and she started. Then she moved to the 
 heavy curtains and drew them closed. The candle 
 wicks stubbornly resisted her efforts to set fire to 
 them, but at last fliey flickered feebly and then 
 brightened. She adjusted them on the table and sat 
 down slowly, picked up her pen and dipped it thought- 
 fully. The months of bitterness welled up within her. 
 She put the pen to the paper and began: 
 
 Robert T. Lincoln do not fail to send me without 
 the least delay, all my paintings, my silver set and 
 other articles your wife appropriated. . . . 
 
 The pen scratched furiously as its user wrote angry, 
 calculated words. She paused at last to study her final 
 remarks, then nodded. 
 
 Send me all that I have written for, you have tried 
 your game of robbery long enough. On yesterday, I 
 received two telegrams from prominent Eastern law- 
 yers. You have injured yourself, not me, by your 
 wicked conduct. 
 
 Mary told herself that she did not really believe 
 this. Robert had been hurt, but not so much as she. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 163 
 
 There was a stain on her now. She was Mary Lin- 
 coln, Lunatic. 
 
 Mary studied the letter again soberly. She thought 
 of Mary and Abraham, Robert's children, and of 
 Jessie Harlan, who would not be a year old until 
 November. She sighed and thought then to tear the 
 letter to shreds and forget about it, but she could not 
 bring herself to do that. She picked up the pen again, 
 reluctantly, and signed the letter: Mrs. A. Lincoln. 
 
 Her restlessness increased during the weeks that 
 followed, and she thought more than once to pack up 
 and leave, but the words of Dr. Patterson's Tribune 
 letter haunted her. What was it he had written? Oh, 
 yes. About "the coveted opportunity to make ex- 
 tended rambles." 
 
 The mark of insanity with which they had stained 
 her was a burning shame on her now as October's chill 
 approached. Warm climates called to her. Where 
 would they be? 
 
 Pau, she thought. That was it. Pau, capital of the 
 old province of Beam, in France. Pau, where the air 
 was clear and warm and soothing, and where the sun 
 shone brightest in the winter months. An ideal resort 
 for nervous persons, she remembered. A place of 
 strangers, too. This, she told herself, was most im- 
 portant of all. 
 
164 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 She mentioned it to Elizabeth the following day, 
 and watched the startled look cross her sister's coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 "But your friends are about you now, Mary. 
 Would you leave them? And your things are here. 
 All of your things. It seemed to me, dear sister, that 
 Robert gave to you a most scrupulous accounting.' ' 
 
 "Yes, Lizzie." Mary sighed and managed a grim 
 little smile. "Including the expenditure of a hundred 
 and fifty-one dollars for hack hire and shadowing by 
 Pinkerton detectives." 
 
 "But would you go abroad, Mary? To a land of 
 strangers?" 
 
 "There is more tolerance for a Lincoln's widow 
 there than here," Mary said. "I cannot endure to 
 meet my former friends, Lizzie. They will never cease 
 to regard me as a lunatic. I feel it in their soothing 
 manner. If I should say the moon is made of green 
 cheese, they would heartily and smilingly agree with 
 me. I love you, but I cannot stay. I would be much 
 less unhappy in the midst of strangers." 
 
 Mary watched disappointment flood her sister's 
 eyes, and then surrender. Lizzie, Mary decided, 
 would not argue the matter further. 
 
 "And will you write again to Robert, Mary? Your 
 last letter to him has caused him great grief." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 165 
 
 "I know no Robert," Mary Lincoln said. "There 
 were three sons and they are taken from me now. I 
 do not know this Robert. Who is Robert?" 
 
 And Mary Lincoln turned from her sister and 
 mounted the stairs to her room. 
 
Chapter 8 
 
 Bundled in a blanket, Mary Todd Lincoln sat 
 quietly in the deck chair and watched the New York 
 skyline loom ever larger on the reeling horizon beyond 
 the steamer Atnerique's bow. 
 
 The sun was warm on her face, but the sea breeze 
 was chilly. It seemed to pierce the heavy robe in 
 which the ship's nurse had wrapped her. She shifted 
 uncomfortably, feeling the fiery flash of pain streak 
 up her back. She lay back wearily, reflecting how 
 very tired she was these days. If only she hadn't 
 fallen off that stepladder back in Pau, she reflected, 
 she might have made it. She might have lived out her 
 remaining years among those strangers whose very 
 ignorance of her true identity had been as a shield 
 about her. 
 
 These had been lonely years, she thought, with not 
 
 166 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 167 
 
 one familiar face in them. And yet they had been the 
 happiest ones she had spent since Abraham was shot 
 down. There was, she decided, a great deal to be said 
 for solitude. Mary sighed as she turned her mind to 
 Robert. She could not forgive him, nor Swett, nor 
 the others. Not even now, when it no longer mattered. 
 Robert was successful in his way. A good lawyer, 
 they said, and a good cabinet member. Mary thought 
 about that. 
 
 Mary turned her mind back to herself; there was 
 decidedly something wrong. The constant thirst, the 
 boils, the loss of weight and the failing sight; the 
 palsied hands, the great weariness and the sudden 
 onslaught of age marks long held back, which had 
 brought white to her hair and deep lines about her 
 eyes and mouth. She watched the ship's nurse ap- 
 proach, balancing a glass of water on a small tray. 
 The nurse smiled and bent low, so that she might take 
 the glass. She hesitated and then raised the glass 
 precariously to her lips to drink deeply, and when 
 she had finished, she breathed hard and then drank 
 again. At last she put the emptied glass back on the 
 tray. 
 
 "I have such a thirst," she said simply. "It is with 
 me all the time." The nurse's pleasant features were 
 blurred and Mary squinted to focus her eyes. 
 
 "Water is good for madame," the nurse said. Mary 
 
168 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 wondered if this nurse knew her true identity. She 
 doubted it. She had managed to keep the secret for 
 so long that she had become expert at it. Robert, her 
 only living son, had made her a stranger, she thought. 
 She could not bear the label he had fastened to her: 
 Mary Lincoln, Lunatic. 
 
 "I crave water so," she said. "It is one of many 
 torments. My back, the boils and the constant run- 
 ning waters." She felt a slight flush warm her cheeks 
 and wondered if it was indelicate to speak of it this 
 way. She decided not. This was a nurse. "It is most 
 inconvenient," she finished lamely. 
 
 The nurse's eyes were kind. Mary Lincoln thought 
 of Beatrice. She had the same sort of eyes. 
 
 "Are you comfortable, madame? Perhaps a little 
 stroll?" 
 
 Mary said no, she was much too tired for that. 
 Perhaps it was the air. "It has helped my appetite, 
 but I continue to lose weight. I am below one hun- 
 dred pounds now." 
 
 "Then you must conserve your strength, madame, 
 for the docking. It will be soon now. Are you all 
 packed and ready?" 
 
 Mary said yes, thank you, her baggage arrange- 
 ments had all been made. "Will it be soon now? lam 
 very anxious to set foot ashore again." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 169 
 
 i 
 
 She wasn't really, she told herself. She was not 
 anxious to set foot on American soil at all. There 
 was a stigma lurking here which attached to her. 
 There was a stain on her here which nothing could 
 erase now. Not even death. Her first-born had seen 
 to that. 
 
 Mary squirmed beneath the blanket again and 
 found a position in which the gnawing spinal pain 
 seemed not so great. She thought that perhaps she 
 ought to go directly to Dr. Lewis A. Sayre in New 
 York. He was the leading orthopedic surgeon of his 
 time. He could determine quickly if this great weari- 
 ness stemmed from her fall. She remembered, then, 
 that some had branded her insane because of her pre- 
 vious complaints about this other illness which had 
 grown with the years. She decided against going to 
 Dr. Sayre immediately. She would go back to Spring- 
 field, instead, and try to rest there. If her symptoms 
 grew worse, then she could come back here. 
 
 "Have you been abroad long, madame?" The 
 nurse's voice thrust itself into her thoughts. 
 
 "Four years," Mary said. "That is, it will be four 
 years in October. But this is October, isn't it?" 
 
 The nurse said yes. "The first. My! You have 
 been away for a long time." 
 
 Mary Lincoln sighed tiredly. October 1, 1880. "I 
 
170 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 spent most of the time in Pau, living in a small apart- 
 ment," she said. "I would be there yet had it not 
 been for the fall." 
 
 "The fall, madame?" The nurse looked interested 
 and Mary remembered that she had not told her 
 about that. 
 
 "It was such an irony," Mary said, and in spite of 
 herself, she smiled faintly. "Lace curtains have been 
 my downfall before." 
 
 "Lace curtains?" 
 
 "Yes. They were hanging crooked, you see. I 
 could never stand to see such curtains hanging 
 crooked, and so I fetched a ladder and climbed up to 
 adjust them. It was then I fell. It was painful. Very 
 painful. I was in bed for weeks." 
 
 Mary was thinking that Dr. Patterson could never 
 accuse her now of living in any manner but an un- 
 pretentious one. She had lived alone in the small 
 apartment, spending most of her time there. There 
 had been little prodding by the curious except for that 
 one time when a tourist from America thought he 
 recognized her and told others of it. That was in 
 April of 1877, she remembered. This, coupled with 
 the fact that the weather was getting colder at Pau 
 and the boils were bothering her again, had sent her 
 on a trip to Marseilles and Naples and Sorrento. The 
 warm sunshine seemed to help more than anything 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 171 
 
 else. But in the end she had returned to Pau. After 
 all, it was the most noted health resort in all of 
 Europe, and they said the Vichy water would be good 
 for her. 
 
 She grinned at that. The Vichy water had not 
 helped one bit as far as she was concerned. 
 
 "Is the pain of that fall still with you, madame? 
 Is that why you walk so slowly and so uncertainly ?" 
 
 Mary said that was a great part of it. "The weak- 
 ness is the rest. Sometimes when I am on my feet I 
 feel faint and weary and I must take hold of some- 
 thing to steady myself. It was not the fall alone. It 
 has been many things, many things through the 
 years." 
 
 "It will be good for you to get home again, madame. 
 It is good to be with friends and family. You have a 
 family, of course?" 
 
 Mary told the nurse about her sisters and her 
 grandnephew, Lewis Baker, Jr., but she did not men- 
 tion Robert. She thought again of her first-born son 
 and sighed. She had not communicated with him in 
 all this time. Maternal love and pride had only once 
 pierced the cold barrier which had risen between 
 them — when she read in a Parisian newspaper that 
 he was being mentioned as a possible presidential 
 candidate. She had derived a grim sort of pleasure 
 out of that. Robert would never make it, she told her- 
 
172 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 self. Not now. Politicians had seen to that at her 
 expense. 
 
 Mary told herself that her son did possess some 
 good qualities, but they were not those which had 
 marked Abraham as a man apart. Abraham, she 
 thought grimly, had been kind, even to his step- 
 mother. 
 
 Mary had not forgotten Robert's children, though. 
 This was particularly true of her little namesake 
 Mary. She wondered why they had nicknamed the 
 child Mamie. Through Lewis Baker she had sent 
 many small presents to the child. She turned her mind 
 back to Robert and felt the old bitterness well up 
 within her. God forgive her! She could not bring 
 herself to turn the other cheek. Not even to her own 
 flesh and blood. She sighed and decided that she was 
 not at all like Abraham in such matters. No. Not at 
 all. She was just not like her husband. She could 
 never forgive Robert for what he had done. 
 
 A young couple walked by, conversing animatedly 
 and pointing to the rising skyline of the great city 
 just ahead, and both turned curious faces toward her. 
 She lowered her eyes and averted her face. It was 
 curious, she thought, how she seemed to shrink away 
 from the outside world now. She decided she was 
 tired of faces. All faces. She found a certain ironic 
 humor in this. There had been years when she wanted 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 173 
 
 everyone to see her. The whole world. Now she did 
 not particularly care to see anyone. Not anyone. 
 
 "I will be most happy," she muttered, "when I am 
 with Abraham again." 
 
 "Oh? Is Abraham a son?" 
 
 "My husband," Mary said. 
 
 "And you have been away from him four years?" 
 The nurse looked puzzled. 
 
 "No. Fifteen years," Mary said. "Abraham is 
 dead." 
 
 "I wondered if you were married," the nurse said, 
 "and then I saw the ring." 
 
 "Ah yes, the ring." Mary studied it, and removed 
 it. It was very worn now, she thought. "It is Etrus- 
 can gold," she said simply. "I have had it many, 
 many years." Her eyes studied the inscription and 
 though it seemed blurred to her, she knew what it 
 said: A. L. to Mary, Nov. 4, 1842. Love is Eternal 
 "It is quite old," she said. "Thirty-eight years next 
 month, as a matter of fact." 
 
 "Thirty-eight years?" The nurse looked aston- 
 ished. 
 
 "Yes, my dear. More years than are upon you, I 
 venture." She managed a faint smile. "Yes, I 
 daresay." 
 
 "And your husband has been gone for fifteen 
 years," the nurse said slowly. "I am sorry, madame." 
 
174 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Mary felt the old anguish which always seemed so 
 fresh and new drive itself through her again. Pain 
 flamed up her spine and her vision blurred even more. 
 The crushing weariness seemed to make her sag in- 
 side. 
 
 "Yes, fifteen years. The war . . ." 
 
 "Oh. The Civil War?" The nurse looked sad. 
 "Yes, they say it took so many. That has been some 
 time now. I was a very little girl then." 
 
 "Sometimes," Mary said tiredly, "it seems like an 
 eternity, but then I can stand an eternity, you see. 
 Our love was eternal. It is eternal." 
 
 The young woman's eyes probed into hers now and 
 they softened. "It is good to know, madame, that 
 such love exists." She looked thoughtful and said, 
 "Fifteen years ... I thought that the war was over 
 then?" 
 
 "No," Mary said. "Sometimes I think it was only 
 just beginning then." 
 
 The nurse was studying her intently now and Mary 
 wondered what she thought. She remembered the 
 scrutiny she had given herself before the mirror this 
 morning when she had her new spectacles on. The 
 fat of middle age was gone, but her face seemed hag- 
 gard and drawn and the streaks of white through her 
 hair added to the impression of great age. Her cloth- 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 175 
 
 f 
 
 ing was ill fitting now because of her loss of weight. 
 Her hand sought out the outline of the mourning 
 brooch at her bosom. 
 
 "Only this remains unchanged," she said, and she 
 perceived that the nurse did not understand her re- 
 mark. 
 
 The bawling of deck hands interrupted them. The 
 nurse rose to her feet. "We are headed into the slip 
 now," she said. "Will you want to go back to your 
 stateroom, madame?" 
 
 Mary said yes, to straighten up and to pick up a 
 few personal things. The nurse helped her to her feet 
 and took her there. 
 
 Inside, she sat tiredly fussing with her hair and 
 then her bonnet. At last she rose and slipped into her 
 heavy coat. It must be rather warm in New York for 
 October, she thought, but there was a chill inside her 
 which she could not warm. The heavy coat would be 
 best. She pulled the coat about her frail figure and 
 walked uncertainly and with a noticeable limp to the 
 door. 
 
 The nurse was waiting for her, smiling. "I thought 
 that perhaps madame might like for me to escort her 
 down the gangplank," she explained. "It is rather 
 treacherous even when one has the best of footing." 
 
 "No," Mary decided firmly. "No, thank you, 
 
176 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 young lady. Do not misunderstand me please. I ap- 
 preciate your kindness and attention. It is just that 
 I must walk by myself here. What awaits me ashore 
 I do not seek to thrust on anyone." 
 
 There were times when the pain was not so bad, 
 she thought, but at those times the partial paralysis 
 of her legs seemed worse. And now the pain was not 
 so bad, but the deck seemed to writhe below her and 
 the footing was uncertain. She stared down the slope 
 of the gangplank, thrust one foot forward tentatively, 
 and then began descending. 
 
 As Mary Lincoln groped her way ashore, holding 
 desperately to the handrail, she heard loud cheering 
 and turned startled eyes to the milling throng below 
 and ahead of her. The hundreds of faces were blurred, 
 so that she could not make out the features on any one 
 of them, and yet they all seemed to be turned toward 
 her. She thought of turning back and seeking out the 
 ship's nurse, and then, for a fleeting moment, the old 
 lure called out to her, the old love of being seen and 
 greeted by the many. She took a firmer grip upon the 
 handrail, set her generous mouth firmly in a straight, 
 determined line and moved on. 
 
 The cheering and the cries of greeting grew louder 
 now. Mary Lincoln felt a flush of pride rise in her 
 cheeks, experienced a gnawing hope. Could this be 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln -177 
 
 for her? Yes, she told herself. It could be. Had not 
 she wired Elizabeth her intentions? Someone would 
 have come to meet her and take her to Springfield. 
 
 It must have got into the papers then! Yes, that 
 would be it. The newspapers. She was forgiven, and 
 not forgotten. The stain was gone. They were her 
 friends again. All of them. After all, she was the 
 widow of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 She reached the bottom of the gangplank and al- 
 most fell, staggering awkwardly as her feet hit the 
 pavement. Her back had commenced to throb again, 
 but she felt the flush of the old excitement in her 
 cheeks. It was an effort to walk this way, but she held 
 herself proudly erect. 
 
 The first snickers of amusement stunned and then 
 terrified her. She halted uncertainly, seeking to focus 
 her eyes on the hundreds of faces. She wished she had 
 put on her spectacles now. Someone near by laughed 
 and raised a hand to jab a pointing finger at her. She 
 drew back, feeling a sudden great emptiness inside of 
 her. It was then that she saw the policeman moving 
 swiftly toward her. 
 
 She flinched as he placed a heavy hand on her 
 shoulder, and thought of that time in her hotel room 
 in Chicago when Leonard Swett had placed her un- 
 der arrest. 
 
178 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "Back with ye now," the officer was saying. "Back 
 now, me woman. Make way here." 
 
 Mary Lincoln felt the strong arm in blue sweep her 
 aside. She stumbled clear, teetered and regained her 
 balance. Then she turned curious eyes to watch. A 
 beautiful woman — quite overdressed, she thought — 
 swept by toward a waiting carriage. Other women 
 followed. People were calling out and throwing kisses. 
 Mary Lincoln squinted with the effort to focus her 
 eyes, but the lady's face remained blurred. From the 
 noises of the crowd, though, she knew that this must 
 be someone of prominence. 
 
 Her curiosity overwhelmed her at last. 
 
 "Who was it, sir?" she inquired of a man next 
 to her. 
 
 She watched surprise cross his face. "You mean to 
 say, madame, that you did not recognize Madam 
 Sarah Bernhardt?" 
 
 Mary shook her head no and managed a sheepish 
 look. 
 
 "The first lady of the footlights!" the man said 
 admiringly. 
 
 A first lady? Mary Todd Lincoln turned away 
 slowly and saw then the familiar face of Lewis Baker. 
 As he came to her, she sobbed and put her head on his 
 chest, feeling the great weariness within her. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 179 
 
 "There, there, Auntie Mary," Lewis was saying. 
 "I'm sorry I was late. I have the carriage waiting." 
 
 "It is all right, Lewis," Mary Lincoln said at last. 
 "All right. Let us go quickly please. I have seen a 
 first lady just now, but there is no fascination in me 
 for first ladies any more." 
 
Chapter 9 
 
 "It is a fierce monotony filled with pain and pun- 
 gent grief/' Mary said slowly. She moved haltingly 
 across the room. Bright sunlight streamed in through 
 open windows. "God alone can ease my burden, 
 Lizzie, until I am reunited with my dearly beloved 
 husband and my children." 
 
 Mary Lincoln turned, with some effort, to face her 
 sister, and saw the torment in Lizzie's eyes. 
 
 a Do not grieve, dear Lizzie," she said. She felt her 
 mind rise then and soar to distant heights as it often 
 did when she thought of Abraham. "He walked 
 among them as a prince," she said. "Nothing they 
 have done or can do will ever change that now. Only 
 my return to him will assuage this sorrow which has 
 been about me these many years like a clinging 
 mantle." 
 
 180 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln - 181 
 
 "You walk much better today, Mary," Lizzie said, 
 and Mary heard the attempt at cheerfulness in her 
 sister's voice. "This long period abed is what has 
 made you melancholy. I do believe you are improving 
 rapidly now." 
 
 "The boils are so troublesome to me." Mary sighed. 
 "And my hands — see how swollen they are?" She 
 moved painfully to the small table near the bed. "I 
 must remove the ring until the swelling goes down." 
 She tugged at the worn gold band and felt weak for 
 the effort of it. It gave at last and she slipped it off, 
 peering at it, and then she placed it on the table. It 
 saddened her that she must do this. 
 
 "It is warm," Lizzie said. "Very warm. This has 
 been such a hot, dry summer. Is there anything which 
 would make you more comfortable?" 
 
 "Perhaps a glass of water, Lizzie. I have such a 
 thirst." 
 
 "Why, of course, dear Mary." Mary listened to the 
 sounds of Lizzie descending the stairs. Then she 
 stared at the small calendar at her small writing desk. 
 July 14, 1882. 
 
 "My Gethsemane is ever with me, dear Lord," she 
 said. "When will it be over? Oh, when?" 
 
 She had lasted it out for one year here on the hill 
 at Springfield and then decided on one last attempt to 
 ease the pain wracking her weary frame. Dr. Sayre 
 
182 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 in New York had been very kind, as she remembered 
 him when they were friends in Lexington. He told 
 her frankly that the inflammation of her spinal cord, 
 resulting from the fall at Pau, had partially paralyzed 
 the lower part of her body. He said it would get 
 worse, and that her entire body might be paralyzed 
 one day. She had written some friends about it, but 
 had elected not to tell Lizzie. Lizzie had enough wor- 
 ries as it was. 
 
 She found, at the Clarendon Hotel, where she 
 stayed, that she was becoming increasingly unable to 
 walk without the aid of a chair. Even using a 
 chair, she was likely to fall at times. It was a perse- 
 cution of a sort, she thought, but then her life was 
 rilled with persecutions. Another one made little dif- 
 ference really. After all, she was only waiting. 
 
 She held Robert at a distance from her still, and 
 yet, she told herself grudgingly, she was proud of him. 
 They were saying he was a good cabinet officer. She 
 told herself grimly that there must be some ironic 
 justice in Robert's presence at the shooting of poor 
 James Garfield. Robert was traveling about a great 
 deal now with President Arthur. He and his daughter 
 Mary had visited her every two or three weeks at the 
 hotel in New York, and later at the Turkish, Electric 
 and Roman Baths operated by Dr. Miller. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 183 
 
 Mary sighed. None of the treatments seemed to 
 help. And as the cold, wet March days passed and the 
 first blush of the spring of 1882 was yet a promise in 
 the air, she had returned to her sister's home. And 
 she thought, as she rode the rails back to Springfield 
 that time, that this might be the last of it. 
 
 It mattered little to her that in January of this 
 year Congress had increased her pension to five thou- 
 sand dollars a year. It had been important to her, 
 earlier, though, when the matter of Garfield's widow 
 and Grant's need of money came before the House 
 and Senate. At least, it had seemed important. Was 
 she not in direst poverty? 
 
 Mary sighed. She had found it increasingly diffi- 
 cult, through these years, to draw a line of distinction 
 between poverty of pocketbook and poverty of affec- 
 tion. Perhaps she ought to have tried more strenu- 
 ously to do so. She listened to Lizzie climbing the 
 stairs and reached eagerly for the glass of water. She 
 drank deeply, thanked her sister and sat down tiredly. 
 
 "It has been nearly forty years," he said thought- 
 fully. "Nearly forty years, Lizzie, since my feet 
 crossed the threshold of this house as a bride. That is 
 a long, long time, isn't it?" 
 
 Lizzie said yes, it was, but it would be best not to 
 think about it now. 
 
184 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 "But I dwell in the past, Lizzie. It is a fancy of 
 mine. The past is all I have, you see. There is no 
 afterglow to it. It is all what was and what might 
 have been." 
 
 "I understand, my dear, but you must think of 
 yourself now." 
 
 "Ich dien" Mary said in German. "I serve. I 
 serve a memory as best I can, and so I have for seven- 
 teen years now. Before that, God knows, I walked 
 beside him doing those things which I felt to be best 
 for him. If I erred in judgment, God forgive me." 
 
 "There was no error, dear sister." 
 
 "Yes. Perhaps. I fancy sometimes lately that I 
 can see errors now. But I was young and beautiful 
 once. They said that. Even those who spoke ill of me 
 and gossiped about me said that. And I was ambi- 
 tious, too, for my dearly beloved." 
 
 "Do not think of the past, Mary." 
 
 "I do not know why they whispered so. Washing- 
 ton is a place filled with animosities and cruel gossip 
 though. It is a carnivorous society there which feeds 
 on the meat of the gentle ones." 
 
 "You must rest, Mary." 
 
 "My rest is near at hand." 
 
 "You must not speak like this. Ah, Mary, you 
 speak of it so often these days. It is the heat." 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 185 
 
 "No, not the heat. I do not mind those things 
 which nature does to me. It has been what people 
 have done which yet afflicts me." 
 
 "I am driving out tomorrow, Mary. Perhaps you 
 would like to go with me again?" 
 
 "I should only just sit there, in the closed carriage 
 outside the store, and people would stare and point 
 and speak about me in hushed tones. Or perhaps I 
 would purchase some dressgoods, knowing all the 
 while that those about me would speak, after my de- 
 parture, of my trunks of unused goods. It is a certain 
 knowledge that is cruelty too." 
 
 Lizzie sighed. "As you wish, Mary." 
 
 "Have I been such a great burden to you, Lizzie? 
 I know I have. You and Ninian have been so kind." 
 
 "No burden, dear Mary. What little we have done 
 we owe to mankind and to you. We love you, dear 
 sister. We love you very much." 
 
 It comforted her. Mary told herself she needed 
 love. She needed all the love she could get. The 
 familiar numbness played about her knees and hips 
 now, and she rose and made her way to the bed. 
 
 "I shall rest awhile," she said. Lizzie nodded, bit- 
 ing her lip, and tiptoed from the room. And Mary 
 Todd Lincoln lay back to watch happier moments of 
 her life pass before her. 
 
186 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 She had only just dozed, she told herself, looking 
 up into Lizzie's anxious countenance. But Lizzie said 
 not, it was Saturday now, and Mary had not even 
 roused when they treated her boils. She must try to 
 eat something. 
 
 Mary said she would, watching astonishment spread 
 across her sister's face. She asked what was the mat- 
 ter? Lizzie had tears in her eyes. She turned away, 
 and Mary realized, with a start, that no sounds were 
 issuing from her mouth. 
 
 Lizzie and the doctor came and went away again, 
 during the day, and once Ninian came to her and 
 looked into her eyes and held her hand. 
 
 Night fell and they came with lamps. The pa- 
 ralysis gripped her with iron claws now. The pain was 
 fading. She could no longer feel the dull, drawing hurt 
 of the boils. She wished that they would turn up the 
 light. 
 
 She heard them say once that it was daylight now 
 and someone — her vision was so blurred she knew not 
 who — came and took the lamps away. They could not 
 fool her, she thought, grinning to herself. It was night 
 and they wanted her to rest. She closed her eyes 
 tiredly and the grip of the paralysis seemed to loosen 
 a bit. The blackness came then, swirling about her, 
 and yet, she thought, she could not sleep. 
 
 Once, she knew that Dr. Dresser was in the room 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln '187 
 
 again. She heard him speaking with Lizzie and heard 
 her sobbing. And then it was very quiet for a long 
 time. 
 
 She felt and heard the fresh breeze as it rustled the 
 curtains and blew into the room. She was glad. There 
 was a scent of rain about it. It had been so dry and 
 hot that a fresh rain would be good. 
 
 Mary Lincoln tried to move but failed. The pa- 
 ralysis was complete now, she thought. Then the 
 darkness came again, and this time, with it, a voice. 
 It rather startled her at first — perhaps because she 
 had not heard the softness of it for so many years. 
 What was it saying? She strained to hear. 
 
 It was a soft, compelling voice, filled with sym- 
 pathy and with love. And it was saying, as no other 
 voice quite like it ever could say: "Come, Mary dear. 
 Come to me. Your trial is ended now." 
 
 Mary found she could move then. She reached first 
 for the worn gold ring and was surprised to find that 
 it went so easily onto the swollen finger. 
 
 "Love is eternal," she said. 
 
 Then Mary Lincoln rose from her bed and went to 
 the voice. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 AND 
 
 INDEX 
 
Bibliography 
 
 Abraham Lincoln Quarterly. Published by Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Association, Springfield, 111. Issues of March 1945, Dec. 1945, 
 
 Dec. 1947, Sept. 1949, March 1950. 
 Angle, Paul M. ed. The Lincoln Reader. New Brunswick, 
 
 N. J., 1947. 
 Barton, William E. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. 2 vols. 
 
 Indianapolis, 1925. 
 
 . The Women Lincoln Loved. Indianapolis, 1927. 
 
 Bayne, Julia Taft. Tad Lincoln's Father. Boston, 1931. 
 Burgess, John W. The Administration of President Hayes. 
 
 New York, 1916. 
 Carpenter, Francis B. The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: 
 
 Six Months at the White House. Boston, 1883. 
 Colver, Anne. Mr. Lincoln's Wife. New York, 1943. 
 Evans, W. A., M.D. Mrs. Abraham Lincoln: A Study of Her 
 
 Personality and Influence on Lincoln. New York, 1932. 
 The First Year of American Heritage, Dec. 1954-1955. Issue of 
 
 Aug. 1955, p. 10. 
 Gernon, Blaine Brooks. The Lincolns in Chicago. Chicago, 
 
 1934. 
 Goltz, Carlos W. Incidents in the Life of Mary Todd Lincoln. 
 
 Sioux City, Iowa, 1928. 
 
 191 
 
192 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Grimsley, Elizabeth Todd. "Six Months in the White House," 
 
 Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Oct. 192 6- Jan. 
 
 1927, pp. 43-63. 
 Glyndon, Howard. "The Truth About Mrs. Lincoln," The 
 
 Independent, Aug. 10, 1'882. 
 Helm, Katherine. The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln. 
 
 New York, 1928. 
 Herndon, William H. A Letter to Isaac N. Arnold. Library of 
 
 Congress, privately printed, 1938. 
 — , and Weik, Jesse W. Hemdon's Life of Lincoln. New 
 
 York, 1889 and 1902. 
 Herr, John. In Defense of the Lincoln Family. Cynthiana, Ky., 
 
 1943. 
 Holden, Walter S. Abraham Lincoln, A Man of Inner Conflict. 
 
 Toronto, 1944. 
 Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. XXXI, No. 3 
 
 (Sept. 1938). Springfield, 111. 
 Keckley, Elizabeth. Behind the Scenes. New York, 1868. 
 
 Kent, C. William. "Lincoln and Davis," Third Annual Report 
 of the Ohio Valley Historical Association, Vol. Ill (1910), 
 51-61. 
 
 Kinnaird, Virginia. "Mrs. Lincoln as a White House Hostess," 
 Papers in Illinois Historical Society, 1938. 
 
 Lamon, Ward Hill. The Life of Abraham Lincoln; From His 
 Birth to His Inauguration as President. Boston, 1872. Ghost- 
 written by Chauncey F. Black. 
 
 Lorant, Stefan. A Picture of His Life; Books and Articles. 
 New York, 1957. 
 
 Mearns, David C. The Lincoln Papers: The Story of the Collec- 
 tion with Selections to July 4, 1861. 2 vols. New York, 1948. 
 
 Moos, Malcolm. The Republicans. New York, 1956. 
 
 Newton, Joseph F. Lincoln and Herndon. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 
 1910. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 193 
 
 Nicolay, Helen. Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln. New 
 York, 1912. 
 
 Nicolay, John G., and Hay, John. Abraham Lincoln: A His- 
 tory. New York, 1917. 
 
 Official Proceedings of the Republican National Conventions of 
 1868-1880. Charles W.Johnson, publisher, Minneapolis, 1903. 
 
 Papers in Illinois Historical Society, 1938, and Transcript for the 
 Year 1938. Illinois State Historical Society, 1939. 
 
 Randall, Ruth Painter. Mary Lincoln, Biography of a Mar- 
 riage. Boston, 1953. 
 
 . Lincoln's Sons. Boston, 1955. 
 
 Sandburg, Carl, and Angle, Paul M. Mary Lincoln, Wife 
 and Widow. New York, 1932. 
 
 Stoddard, William 0. Inside the White House in War Times. 
 New York, 1890. 
 
 Townsend, William Henry. Lincoln and His Wife's Home 
 Town. Indianapolis, 1929. 
 
 . Lincoln and the Blue Grass. Lexington, Ky., 1955. 
 
 Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society. Publication 
 of the Illinois State Historical Society. Nos. 37, 38, 39. 
 
 Wallace, Mrs. Frances (Todd). Lincoln's Marriage. News- 
 paper interview, Springfield, 111., Sept. 2, 1895. Privately 
 printed, 1917. 
 
 Warren, Louis A., ed. Lincoln Lore. Periodical published by 
 The Lincoln National Life Foundation, Fort Wayne, Indiana. 
 No. 155 (March 28, 1932), No. 193 (Dec. 19, 1932), No. 410 
 (Feb. 15, 1937), No. 1067 (Sept. 19, 1949), No. 1124 (Oct. 
 23, 1950), No. 1264 (June 29, 1953). 
 
 Whitney, Maj. Henry C. Life on the Circuit with Lincoln. 
 Boston, 1892. 
 
 Williams, Charles Richard. Diary and Letters of Ruther- 
 ford B. Hayes. Vols. 3 and 7, Hayes Series. Columbus, Ohio, 
 1922,1925. 
 
194 • The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 . The Life of Rutherford B. Hayes. Considered vols. 1 
 
 and 2, Hayes Series. Boston, 1914. 
 Wilson, Rufus Rockwell, ed. Intimate Memories of Lincoln. 
 Elmira,N.Y., 1945. 
 
 Manuscript Collections: 
 
 Cochran, William C. Letter to his mother, June 16, 1876— 
 Re: Republican Convention 1876. Hayes Memorial Library, 
 Fremont, Ohio. 
 
 Davis, David. MSS. Photostat of Leonard Swett's letter con- 
 cerning the Sanity Trial of Mrs. Lincoln. Chicago Historical 
 Society. 
 
 Hayes, Rutherford B. Campaign material — 1876 Convention. 
 Hayes Memorial Library, Fremont, Ohio. 
 
 . Personal Papers— 1849-1892. Ohio Historical Library, 
 
 Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 Herndon-Weik MSS. Library of Congress. 
 
 Illinois State Historical Library Collections. Miscellaneous 
 material. 
 
 Lincoln National Life Foundation Collection. Fort Wayne, In- 
 diana (Publisher of Lincoln Lore). Dr. R. Gerald McMurtry, 
 director. 
 
 Lincoln Administration Papers. Original records of Robert T. 
 Lincoln as conservator of his mother's property while she was 
 under judgment of insanity. Illinois State Historical Library. 
 
 Lincoln. Original Estate Papers of Abraham, Mary Todd, and 
 Thomas Lincoln. Probate Judge's Office, Sangamon County, 
 Springfield, 111. 
 
 Lincoln, Mary Todd. Court Records of Sanity Trial of, photo- 
 stats. Illinois State Historical Library. 
 
 Lincoln, Robert Todd. Papers of Abraham Lincoln. MSS. 
 Library of Congress. 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln • 195 
 
 f 
 
 Lincoln, Thomas "Tad." Guardianship, Papers of, photostats. 
 
 Probate Judge's Office, Sangamon County, Springfield, 111. 
 Nicolay, J. G. MSS. Library of Congress. 
 
 Newspapers: 
 
 Aurora, Illinois, Beacon-News. Dec. 11, Dec. 25, 1932; Jan. 1, 
 
 Jan. 8, 1933. 
 Chicago Post and Mail. July 13, 1875. 
 Chicago Tribune. May 20, May 21, Aug. 8, 1875. 
 
Index 
 
 Adams, J. McGregor, 68 
 Albertson, J. R., 113-114 
 
 Allen, Mrs. , 35, 84-86 
 
 Allen and Mackey Company, 
 
 114 
 "Amanda," 152 
 Amerique, the, 166 
 Arnold, Isaac N., appointed 
 counsel for Mary Todd Lin- 
 coln, 13-14, 67-68; receives 
 bonds from Mary T. Lin- 
 coln, 18, 133-136; relation- 
 ship with Abraham Lincoln, 
 21-22; character and de- 
 scription, 29-31, 69; mo- 
 tions for postponement of 
 trial, 70-72; interrogation 
 of jury, 73-75; asks reswear- 
 ing of jury, 76-77; in exami- 
 nation of witnesses, 79-94, 
 113-120; suspects political 
 motives, 96-97; cross-exami- 
 nation of Robert T. Lincoln, 
 101-113; calls Mary T. Lin- 
 coln as defense witness, 120- 
 125; statement for the de- 
 fense, 126-129; reaction to 
 verdict, 132 
 
 Arthur, Chester A., 26-27, 182 
 
 Aurora, 111., 148, 153 
 
 Ayer, Ben, part in arrest of 
 Mary Todd Lincoln, 12, 52, 
 65; as counsel for plaintiff, 
 14, 16, 70; approves Ar- 
 nold's interrogation of jury, 
 73; opening statement, 76; 
 examination of witnesses, 
 77-94, 113-118; in examina- 
 tion of Robert T. Lincoln, 
 94, 95-112, 119; waives 
 cross-examination of Mary 
 T. Lincoln, 125 
 
 Baker, Lewis, 172, 178-179 
 Baker, Lewis, Jr., 171 
 Batavia, 111., 19, 133 
 "Beatrice," 32, 36-40, 41, 145, 
 
 167 
 Bellevue Place Sanatorium, 
 
 Batavia, 111., 19, 133, 150 
 Bernhardt, Mme. Sarah, 178 
 Black, Chauncey F., 62 
 Blaine, James G., 25, 143, 144, 
 
 157 
 
 197 
 
198 
 
 The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 •,74 
 
 Blake, Dr. — 
 
 Bradwell, Judge James B., 25, 
 
 26, 137-145, 157, 158 
 Bradwell, Myra, 25, 26, 137- 
 
 145, 146-150, 151 158 
 
 Cameron 
 
 68 
 
 145, 155, 164, 177, 180-181, 
 
 183-185, 186 
 Edwards, Ninian, 124, 142, 
 
 145, 151, 153, 154, 155, 
 
 157-158, 159,160, 161, 185, 
 
 186 
 1881 bonds, 102 
 
 Chicago Homeopathic College, 
 
 77 Farwell, Charles B., 68 
 
 Chicago Tribune, 26, 145, 147, Fidelity Safe Deposit Com- 
 
 163 pany, 99 
 
 Clarendon Hotel, New York, Fitzhenry, John, 88 
 
 182 
 
 Clifton House, Chicago, 33, 57 Gage, Lyman, 68, 90, 91, 131- 
 
 Cogswell, Thomas, 68, 73-74 132 
 
 Cogswell-Weber Company, 73 
 Congressional Globe, 59, 61 
 Convention of 1860, 10, 11 
 Crerar and Adams Company, 
 68 
 
 Danforth, Dr. Willis, 77-80 
 Davis, Judge David, 11, 21, 
 23, 24, 29,47,97, 100, 110, 
 125, 140, 141, 145 
 
 Davis, Dr. , 114-115 
 
 Democratic National Conven- 
 tion, 23 
 Dodge, Charles, 89-91 
 
 Dodge, Mrs. , 82 
 
 Dresser, Dr. , 186 
 
 Durand, Henry, 68 
 
 Edwards, Elizabeth, 124, 142, 
 
 Garfield, James A., 26, 27, 182 
 Gavin, Maggie, 35, 86-88 
 Gossage and Company, 
 
 Charles, 35 
 Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, 
 
 10, 18, 33, 41, 81, 88, 89, 
 
 123 
 Grant, Ulysses S., 22, 23, 26, 
 
 47,96, 106, 138, 139 
 Greeley, Horace, 23 
 
 Hayes, Rutherford B., 25, 158, 
 
 161 
 Henderson, Charles, 68 
 Herndon, William H., 60-61, 
 
 62, 112 
 
 Ingersoll, Col. Robert G., 25, 
 161 
 
The Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 199 
 
 Isham, Dr. 
 
 -, 92-93, 98 
 
 Jacksonville, Fla., 79, 93, 98 
 Johnson, Dr. , 116 
 
 Lamon, Ward Hill, 62, 112 
 
 Liberal Republicans, 23, 97, 
 138-140, 143-144, 157-158 
 
 Liberal Colored Republican 
 Convention, 23 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 9-10, 21, 
 22, 23, 28, 35, 42-43, 44, 
 52, 53, 58, 60-62, 128-129, 
 142, 173, 187 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham (son of 
 Robert Todd), 151, 163 
 
 Lincoln, Edward, 44, 54 
 
 Lincoln, Jessie Harlan, 163 
 
 Lincoln, Mary (daughter of 
 Robert Todd), 150, 152, 
 153, 163, 172, 182 
 
 Lincoln, Mary Harlan, 21, 
 100, 107, 123 
 
 Lincoln, Robert Todd, as po- 
 litical instrument, 10, 23-25, 
 26, 31, 138-141; signs affi- 
 davit, 11, 50; greets Mary 
 T. Lincoln at court, 13, 66, 
 67; petitions to be conser- 
 vator of estate, 14-15; and 
 the trial records, 19, 30; re- 
 turns money after second 
 
 Lincoln, Robert Todd (Cont.) 
 trial, 20; offices held in 
 later years, 26-27, 167, 171- 
 172, 182; number of wit- 
 nesses for, 29; Mary T. 
 Lincoln's analysis of, 33; 
 returns her purchases, 34; 
 Mary T. Lincoln's concern 
 for, 45-46, 53-54, 56; her 
 telegram to, 53, 93; embar- 
 rassed at clothing auction, 
 63; testimony, 94, 95-101, 
 119; cross-examination of, 
 101-112; Mary T. Lin- 
 coln's testimony concerning, 
 122-123, 124; mentioned in 
 Arnold's summary state- 
 ment, 127, 128; weeps, 130; 
 receives bonds, 133; visits 
 to Mary T. Lincoln in sana- 
 torium, 137, 150-153; ac- 
 companies her to Spring- 
 field, 154; does not oppose 
 second trial, 159; Mary T. 
 Lincoln's bitter letter to, 
 162-163, 164-165 
 
 Lincoln, Thomas (Tad), 32, 
 33, 41, 42, 56-58, 63, 110, 
 117, 118, 127 
 
 Lincoln, William, 55, 142 
 
 Marseilles, France, 170 
 Mason, James A., 68 
 
200 • The Trial op Mary Todd Lincoln 
 
 Matson and Company, 3i-34, Stuart, John T., 11, 47, 100, 
 
 113 125, 141, 145 
 
 Mattock, T. C, 115-116 Swett, Leonard T., arrest of 
 
 Miller, Dr. , 182 Mary T. Lincoln, 10-12, 45- 
 
 Moore, Silas, 68 65; recommends Arnold as 
 
 Moulton, E. T., 115 her counsel, 13-14, 67-68; 
 
 summary statement to jury, 
 
 Naples, Italy, 170 16, 125-126; receives Mary 
 
 National Labor Party, 23 T. Lincoln's bonds, 18, 133- 
 
 Nicholas Hotel, Springfield, 61 136; Mary T. Lincoln's law- 
 yer at second trial, 19, 26, 
 
 Parkhurst, , 68 144, 145, 157, 159; attitude 
 
 Patterson, Dr. R. J., 19, 133, toward A. Lincoln, 21-22; 
 
 143, 145, 147, 154, 157, 159, political maneuvering of, 24- 
 
 163,170 25,97,138,140,141 
 Pau, France, 163, 166, 170, 
 
 171, 182 Tipton, Sen. Thomas Warren, 
 
 60 
 
 Rutledge, Nancy, 61 Townsend, J. S., 115 
 
 Trial records, disappearance 
 
 Sayre, Dr. Lewis A., 169, 181- of, 19-20, 30 
 
 182 Turkish, Electric and Roman 
 
 Seaton, , 91-92 Baths, New York, 182 
 
 Smith, Dr. Charles Gilman, Turner, Samuel M., 10, 11, 12, 
 
 116-119 35, 45, 46, 65, 81-84 
 Sorrento, Italy, 170 
 
 Stalwarts, 22, 23, 26, 28, 96, Wallace, Frances Todd, 155 
 
 97, 138, 140, 143, 144, 148, Wallace, Judge Martin R. M., 
 
 158 14, 17, 69-70, 71-119, 130, 
 
 Stewart, William, 68 131, 132, 145, 159 
 
 Stewart and Aldrich Company, Wooster, W. H., 115 
 
 68 
 
 Stone, J. B., 114 Yates, Sen. Richard, 59 
 

 
(Continued from front flap) 
 
 Todd Lincoln's insanity was flimsy and 
 would not have stood up if it had been 
 strongly contested by the defense. They 
 present this view by means of a contrast. 
 First they take the reader through the trial 
 as it actually took place, with no witnesses 
 for the defense and practically no activity 
 on the part of Mrs. Lincoln's assigned 
 attorney. Then in a series of courtroom 
 scenes they re-enact the trial as it might 
 have been if Mrs. Lincoln had been repre- 
 sented by an aggressive, well-prepared 
 lawyer. In their reconstruction Mrs. Lin- 
 coln's lawyer shreds much of the evidence 
 alleged against her. 
 
 If Mary Todd Lincoln's easy commit- 
 ment resulted from a conspiracy to slip it 
 through the court, why and for what pur- 
 pose? The authors take the view that sev- 
 eral of Lincoln's old friends were disturbed 
 by the corruption of the Grant administra- 
 tion and were bitterly opposed to the Grant 
 or Stalwart wing of the Republican Party. 
 Although Robert Lincoln was not himself 
 a major political figure he stood ready to 
 lend the magic of the Lincoln name to 
 Grant. The authors believe these men 
 wanted to smear Robert Lincoln without 
 tarnishing his father's name. If he could be 
 made to appear a man who put his mother 
 in an asylum to get her money their end 
 would be achieved. 
 
 At the end, the speculative reader looks 
 back over the reconstruction Rhodes and 
 Jauchius have made of the case and wonders 
 —it could all be true. 
 
/ 
 
 IT COULD BE TRUE 
 
 Was Mary Todd Lincoln railroaded into a mental insti- 
 tution by means of a conspiracy? 
 
 The authors maintain that she was. 
 
 How long was the jury out? 
 
 The authors say it was out less than five minutes. The 
 verdict was a written one, consisting of a medium-length 
 paragraph signed by all twelve jurors. It is hard to see how 
 they could have reached agreement and prepared their ver- 
 dict so rapidly. 
 
 Mary Todd Lincoln was unquestionably eccentric. Was 
 she in the legal sense of the word insane in May 1875? 
 
 The authors believe she was not, in spite of the court's 
 decision. 
 
 Did her mental condition noticeably improve in the thir- 
 teen months ending in June 1876? 
 
 The authors say there was practically no change. After 
 only about five months in hospital she was "paroled" to her 
 sister, Mrs. Ninian Edwards, in Springfield. 
 
 Did she have a more effective lawyer in her second sanity 
 hearing? 
 
 The authors point out that Leonard Swett argued for her 
 commitment in May 1875, and for her release as sane in 
 June 1876. Each time he won easily.