Abraham Lincoln: History in an Hour. Kat Smutz

Ann Todd moved to Springfield. Her father was a slaveholder named Robert S. Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. Mary’s mother, Eliza Parker Todd, had died and Mary did not get along well with her stepmother, Elizabeth Humphreys Todd. Mary had come to live with her sister, Elizabeth Edwards, one of six siblings. Of the young men who vied for her attention, Mary chose Abraham Lincoln, the law partner of her cousin, David Todd Stuart. They were an excellent example of social opposites attracting.

      Mary Todd Lincoln, in her role as First Lady of the United States. Photo by Mathew Brady.

      Lincoln was a dirt-poor, self-educated farm boy from the frontier wilderness who had worked to pull himself up to a better place in the world. Mary was an accomplished young woman from a wealthy, prominent Kentucky family. Lincoln opposed slavery, while Mary’s father and many of her other family members were slaveholders. He was sombre and quiet. She was outgoing. He was six feet four inches tall, and she five feet two.

      Once they were engaged, their wedding day was set for 1 January 1841. For reasons which remain unclear, Lincoln chose that day to break off the engagement. However, one of his closest friends, Joshua Speed, had returned to Kentucky to take over his father’s plantation after he died. Speed had married and seemed happy; this perhaps reassured Lincoln that married life could be content. Lincoln reconciled with Mary and on 4 November 1842 they were married.

      Thomas ‘Tad’ Lincoln, c.1860s, wearing uniform given to him by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Image by Mathew Brady

       THE POLITICS OF SLAVERY

      In the early days of the formation of the United States, politics was a serious and sometimes dangerous subject. The people of America had fought a war to earn the right to govern themselves. However, fierce differences of opinion persisted, and the wrong remark at the wrong time could become a matter of life and death. It was early in his political career that Lincoln learned just how deadly it could be.

      In 1842 Lincoln was challenged by James Shields, the state auditor for Illinois, over an article Lincoln had written. The ‘Lost Township’ article was published in the Sangamon Journal and signed ‘Rebecca’. Shields took offence at remarks in the article that he felt were directed at him. He demanded Lincoln retract the article. Correspondence between the two failed to satisfy Shields and he set forth terms for a duel. Lincoln met with Shields on Sunflower Island in the Mississippi River near Alton, Illinois, on 22 September 1842. At the last moment, the ‘seconds’ chosen by the two duellists convinced Lincoln and Shields to call off the fight.

      If a man was willing to kill over an insult, a difference in political opinion could be even more dangerous. Opposition to slavery could be a risky political choice for a politician during Abraham Lincoln’s time. While Lincoln made his position on slavery clear, he denied allegations that he was an abolitionist. Such an accusation held the potential to alienate voters who opposed slavery.