From the Kitchen of Mrs. Lincoln

Like many of you out there in Americaland this year, I have been reading up on our 16th president lately. History was never really my thing (I've never referred to myself as a "buff" of anything), but my recent trip to Washington D.C. and the bicentennial of the birth of The Great Emancipator (or The Railsplitter, as some of his contemporaries called him) has inspired me to do some research on the subject.

Being a good little knee-jerk feminist, I decided to circumnavigate the rather overwhelming mountain of what modern historians call "Lincoln Scholarship" and read about Mary Todd Lincoln (the first wife of a US president to be called the "First Lady"). The much ignored, much maligned Mary Todd is nothing if not a vilified headstrong female, often portrayed as:

1. wildly emotional (Lincoln's White House secretaries nicknamed her The Hellcat, and not in a jovial, friendly kind of way: "hellcat" seems to be the 17th C. version of "crazy bitch"),

2. wack-o (ala her penchant for indulging in public temper tantrums and the infamous post-assassination insanity trial), and

3. selfish (her out of control spending habits and zeal for accumulating massive amounts of material goods—many of which she didn’t need and never used—are legendary).

From what I've read, it seems like all of these assessments are generally true. Having been a personal witness to the perils and symptoms of mental illness, I have to agree that she was indeed suffering from some sort of (probably inherited) psychological condition. Several of Mary’s close relations are known to have suffered severe bouts of mental illness—probably bipolar disorder, according to modern psychologists—and spent significant time in asylums. Add to that the pressure and intense scrutiny of life as the wife of the president of the United States (during a time of intense strife and upheaval), the estrangement of her family (the aristocratic Todd family looked down their noses at Lincoln: the Jeb Clampett of Illinois lawyers, not to mention most Todds sided with the Confederacy), plus the early death of 3 of her 4 children, and it seems amazing that Mary was able to hold it together as well as she did.

Mary is a pretty fascinating woman, and I’ve enjoyed reading about her. Surprisingly, I’ve managed to keep a fairly level head as far as taking sides goes; while I think she has been unfairly treated by most historians (as well as the Washington society and press she tried--and failed--to woo), that doesn’t mean she was some wrongly accused martyr…she was unreasonable, vain, stuck up and, frankly, girlfriend had issues.

And about that cold-hearted Washington society that ended up shunning Mary: would we, the Little People, have much patience for some uppity, hard-to-deal-with, ego-maniacle, blue blood politician's heiress wife with a sense of entitlement these days? We tend to scoff at the Old Money purebreds, swift-boating them all the way back to their elitist Ketchup empires. And if someone gets hurt feelings or shows a little vulnerability, they get shouted down by those who say that this is the life that they have chosen and they should get used to the fact that they are going to be under a microscope. Public figures--and their families--will, and always have been scrutinized for faults. Imagine what that kind of stress would do to someone with bipolar disorder, or even you or I over the long haul.

Anyone wanting to read up on the first First Lady would do well to read Jason Emerson’s The Madness of Mary Lincoln, which examines new documents discovered during the years of Mary’s confinement at Bellevue Place Sanitarium. Catherine Clinton’s recent bio Mrs. Lincoln: A Life is worth reading, but focuses more on Mary’s youth and the White House years, and tends towards the sentimental. I can’t wait for Emerson’s Robert Lincoln bio, due out next year: Giant in the Shadows.