The books written about Abraham Lincoln are countless. Biographers and historians have long divided the fields of research: Lincoln's legal career, his presidency, his depressions, his Christianity, members of his government ... There is even a separate book that describes one hundred of the best books about Lincoln. Of course, a whole library of works about the president’s family will also be typed, the main character of which was his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. All America once loved Lincoln, almost everyone shared and hostility to his wife.
Bellevue Place Patient
In the second half of the nineteenth century, in the suburbs of Chicago, there was a psychiatric boarding house for wealthy women. The regime here was liberal - there were no guards, locks, bars or straitjackets. The patients lived in separate wards, more reminiscent of ordinary rooms, could go to the city and dine with the family of Dr. Patterson. The only restrictions were medical control, as well as the requirement to sleep and take medicine in a boarding house.
One of the patients in the psychiatric hospital was the widowed wife of Abraham Lincoln, Mary. She fell into the walls of the boarding house in 1875, but there were practically no documents about this period of the life of the first lady. Only after almost a century and a half, papers suddenly surfaced in the archives of Kentucky - exactly where the sixteenth president of the United States of America was born. The documents were handed over to Dr. Patterson’s granddaughter, who found them in the basement of her own home.
The folder contained personal letters, an arrest warrant for Mary Todd Lincoln, medical certificates, a list of medications being taken, and so on. Apparently, Lincoln left the papers in a boarding house for the mentally unbalanced, her son Robert Lincoln, who filed a petition for forced treatment of the mother, did not pick them up either.
Confirmation of rumors
There is no doubt that Mary was unbalanced, but whether she was mentally ill remained unknown until recently. Discovered documents have confirmed that Lincoln’s wife did suffer from a mental illness.
Modern doctors have also suggested that Mary Todd Lincoln suffered from progressive anemia. The disease usually begins with an autoimmune lesion of the digestive system, obvious symptoms begin to manifest only after a few years. The irritability of the first lady, and the scenes of jealousy, and attacks of delirium, and hallucinations fit into the clinical picture.
The causes of Mary's illness are not known for certain. Most likely, she was simply predisposed to this pathology genetically. The biochemically depleted brain of a woman simply could not cope with all the trials that fell to her lot - three of her four children died before they reached the age of nineteen.
Unhappy marriage
The pair went down the aisle, which for Lincoln was thorny, in 1842. This marriage was hardly planned by higher forces. The old bachelor either offered the girl a hand or changed his mind, although she was a profitable party. Mary was educated, rich, pretty enough.
After marriage, Mary Todd Lincoln was a jealous, grumpy and moody woman. She was hysterical and unpredictable. Mary continually mocked the awkward figure of her husband, publicly noted flaws in his appearance, and could even splash coffee on his face. She was pleased to humiliate the famous husband with strangers. The first lady now felt special royal blood, then she could take bribes.
Hatred of her husband was justified not only by the state of health of Mary. She came from a slave family, and several of her siblings died in the Confederate army. So the relatives considered the woman who married Lincoln (for them, a national criminal) to be a traitor. The husband found Mary excuses, because of the four sons, they lost three.
From euphoria to depression
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his widow moved to Chicago to her only son. In those years, her character became even worse. The woman was either euphoric or depressed. There was no middle ground. She became suspicious and sewed her savings in the lower skirts of the dress. The president’s widow was fond of spiritualism, tried several times to commit suicide by jumping out of a window, sometimes she saw fires.
Robert Lincoln managed to force her mother to be sent for treatment, but she stayed in a psychiatric boarding house for only three months. Mary Lincoln did not want to put up with the fact that “she was a victim of psychiatric terror,” as the press wrote. Due to the hype, she was discharged and sent to her sister. Soon, the women left for a long time in Europe.
In the care of the sister
After the psychiatric boarding house, little is known about the state of health of the widow of the president. Mary Todd Lincoln did not want to see her son again. She sent him letters full of accusations of betrayal and the desire to seize the inheritance as soon as possible. A year before the woman’s death, a sort of ceasefire took place - Mary met her son when he already became Minister of War in the Garfield government.
The biography of Mary Todd Lincoln ended with her death in 1882. The son proved himself well in business and politics, got a loving family and three children. Grandson Mary died at 16 years old after an unsuccessful operation, on it the genus of the sixteenth US president on the male line was interrupted.