ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5008, 2 August 1926, Page 2

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

STORY OF HIS WOOING* BRIDE LEFT WAITING. Of the four children, all sons, born to Abraha,m Lincoln Only one grew up to manhood; and that was the Mr Robert Todd Lincoln whofee death has just been, recorded. ■ It jvas on November 4, 1842, that Abraham Lincoln married Miss Mary Todd at Springfield, Illinois, - and a yearjater the eldest son of the marriage, the now deceased Mr Lincoln, was born. Like ma,ny another great man Abraham Lincoln has left but few descendants behind, and, in tact, according to some of his biographers, he seems, to have been in doubt about marrying at all, and at the first attempt left the future Mrs Lincoln waiting in vain in her wedding finery for the bridegroom to appear. This episode in the career of President Lincoln ik surrounded by a good dea.l ot mystery (states a writer in the “Dominion”). Some biographers dismiss it as a myth, others' give all the variegated details ad lib. It seems that round about 1840 Abraham Lincoln, then 31 years of age, was finding a good deal of time for social diversion, despite his clcise attachment to law a,nd politics. He was a member of the committee which ran the Springfield cotillion parties, and he is asserted to have been prone to offer himsejf in marriage on slight provocation. Among the ladies thus honoured was Miss Rickard, aged sixteen—at least the lady in later years claimed to have refused one of Lincoln’s numerous proposals. Anyway, a few months later Lincoln was paying great atten-' tion to a new arrival at Springfield, a Miss Mary Todd, a well-educated and accomplished lady, who had come on a visit to her sister, Mrs Ninian Edwards, and who was soon surrounded by a bevy of admirers, including most of the managers of the cotillion parties. Lincoln, despite his unprepossessing exterior, was first favourite, but his wboing was peculiar. The lady was of jealous and exacting disposition, and Lincoln casual in the extreme in remembering to turn up to take her to merry-makings. After frequent tiffs on the lady finding herself all dressed up with nowhere to go, the wedding was finally fixed, according to a much-disputed version, for January 1, 1841. Everything was ready, the supper was laid 1 , the bride arrayed, and the guests assembled, but the - bridegroom tarried. As time slipped, away find there was still no appearanCe a search was made of the town with no result, and the ceremony had perforce to be called oiff. It was alleged that Lincoln, who was subject to % fits of moody depression, had on this occasion reached such a depth of despondency his friends took possession of his hunting knives, razors, and firearms lest hq might do hims.elf an injury. One story is that by the time the wedding was due Lincoln had Ifallen. too mu'ch in love with Miss Matilda Edwards to want to go ahead with marrying her aunt. Miss Ida M. Tarbell, in her biography of Lincoln, re- ; jects the whole story of Lincoln failing to appear at- any wedding ceremony in January, but. other biographers are there with chapter and verse for everything. Miss Tailbell gets as far. as admitting that Lincoln broke his, engagement, and that the general opinion was that the parties were wholly unsuited to each other. Whatever happened at this date, matters were later patched up and nearly two years afterwards at a very quiet cereimony Lincoln was duly married to Miss Todd.

Even on this second occasion Mr Lincoln is recorded as being extremely glum at the prospect of his leap into matrimony. Pale and trembling, < he was. making his way towards the 1 Edwards’ mansion, and a friend, not knowing what was, alfoot, asked whither he was going. “To Hell, I suppose,” said Lincoln. During the ceremony, when the groom was putting on the ring, he repeated the words, ‘‘With this ring I thee endow with all my goods and chattels, lands and tenements.” A backwoods Judge Brown, unfamiliar With this, version of the marriage ceremony, was standing near by, and burst in with : “God Almighty, Lincoln, the Statute fixes all that I”

A further episode in this unusual wocting was a challenge to .a duel by another suitor for Miss Todd’s hand, a Mr Shields. This followed an anonymous newspaper correspondence in which the lady took a hand. Lincoln had the choice of weapons, and chose broadswords. The conditions he imposed were that a plank ten feet long and dine inches broad shqiuld be laid on the ground between .the two opponents, and .that whoever crossed it should forfeit his life. On each side was to be another plank distant from the centre plank the length of the broadswords and three feet additional. If either man stepped back over these planks he was deemed to have lost the dual. This sitrange encounter was called off at the last moment by the intervention of friends. Lincoln said he chose broadswords because he believed he could disarm Shields without killing him, and he didn’t want pistols as he wasn’t anxious to have “the d d fellow” kill him.