Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann (née Todd) Lincoln (December 13, 1818 – July 16, 1882) was the wife of the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.
A member of a large, wealthy Kentucky family, Mary was well educated. After living in the Todd House and a finishing school during her teens, she moved to Springfield, Illinois, where she lived for a time with her married sister Elizabeth Edwards. Mary was courted by Stephen Douglas before she married Abraham Lincoln. Later they debated in their campaigns for the presidency. She and Lincoln had four sons together, only one of whom outlived her. Their home of about fifteen years still stands in Springfield.
Mary Lincoln suffered from migraine headaches, may have had bipolar disorder and had other severe illness through much of her adult life. She supported her husband throughout his presidency. She witnessed his being fatally shot when they were at Ford's Theatre together.
Read more about Mary Todd Lincoln: Early Life and Education, Marriage and Family, Lincoln's Career and Home Life, White House Years, Widow and Later Life, Death, Representations in Other Media, Family
Famous quotes containing the words todd lincoln, mary, todd and/or lincoln:
“Beautiful, glorious Scotland, has spoilt me for every other country!”
—Mary Todd Lincoln (1818–1882)
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry ‘til a more convenient season.”
—Mary Todd Lincoln (1818–1882)
“I never have been, am not now, and probably never shall be, in a mood of harassing the people, either North or South.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)