Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-19
THE LOVES OF LINCOLN.
The Complicated Story of His Several
COurtships and Final Marriage.
His Early Insanity and the One Mean
Act Of His Life.

The following narrative is collated from
Ward Lannon's forthcoming biography Of
Lincoln, by the Boston correspondent Of
the New York Tribune:
"Late in 1882, or early in 1888, Mr.. Lin
coin went to board in a tavern in New
Salem, Ill, kept by James Rutledge. Ann
Rutledge, the third daughter Of this family,
was at that time about nineteen, and was
probably the most refined woman with
whom Mr.. Lincoln had then ever conYersed
"A modest, delicate creature, fascinating,
were it only by force of contrast with the
rude people by whom both were surrounded.
All witnesses unite in praising her. Mrs.
Hardin Bale, woman of the neighborhood
who knew her well, said:
"She had auburn hair, blue eyes, fair
complexion, was a pretty, kind, tender,
good-hearted woman, beloved by all who
knew her, McNamar, Hill aad Lincoln all
courted her at the same time" The men
who spoke of her described her with yet
more enthusiasm.
SIZE HAD \ SAD STORY,
When little more than seventeen she be-
came engaged to MeNsmarl Ee left her to
go to the assistance Of his parents in the
State of New Y ork, promising to return as
soon as possible; but weeks grew months,
and even years, and still he did not come.
She had loved him at first, but the love
seems to have cooled with his long absence;
and at length she responded to the passion
ate and impetuoUs attachment OF young
Lincoln. But she felt that she must not
marry until she could obtain release ffom
McNamar. She wrote to him in vain, as she
had waited in vain for his coming; and in
1885 she died, IS some say of brain fever,
induced by her anxiety of mind. In her
grave, Lincoln was wont to declare,
HIS HEART LAY BURIED.
A few days before her death he was sum-
moned to her bedside; but what happened
in that solemn conference was known only
to him and the dying girl. But when he
left her and stopped at the house of John
Jones, on his way home, Jones saw signs
of the most terrible distress in his face and
his manner. When Ann actually died and
was buried, his grief became frantic; he
lost all self control, even the consciousness
of his own identity, and all his New-Salem
friends pronounced him insane. "He was
watched with especial vigilance during
storms, fogs, damp and gloomy weather,
for fear of an accident. AT such times he
raved piteously, declaring, among other
wild expressions of his woe, j Can never
become reconciled to have the snow, rains,
and storms beat upon her grave" His
fIiend, Bowln Greene, took charge of
him, and it was several weeks before it vas
considered safe to let him 60 back to his old
haunts and his old employment. He was
never precisely ~
THE SAME MAN AGAIN.
He had always been subject to periods of
great mental depression, but after this they
were more frequent and alarming. 1t was
then that he began to repeat the poem which
poor in itself, is immortalized by his
adoption Of it: 'Oh why should the spirit
Of mortal be proud?" A few weeks after
the death of Ann Rutledge, her other lover,
McNamar, returned TO New Salem; and he
seems to have mOurned for ne as deeply if
not as wildly as did Lincoln, as passionate
a constancy; but dead Is dead. If bis
heart was in AIMS grave, himself walked
the earth, In those immense boots of his,
very real and not an ideal man In 1895,
little more than a year after Ann
Rutledge's death, he saw again
MISS MARY OWENS,
whom he had met and somewhat admired
three years before, She was large, hand
some, matrOnly-lookjng woman of twenty
eight or twenty nine-a very different type
of person from the gentle, sensitive Ann,
Miss Owens seems TO have prided herself
much on her education which she says
was different from that of Lincoln;;" but
her letters are written in high-foWn, in
hated style, which is far from conveying an
impression Of superior intellectual power.
Lincoln asked her to marry him, but she
waited awhile, in order to becC me thor
Oughly acquainted with him, and then re-
fused him. She did not think him coarse
or cruel, but she did think him thOughtless,
careles not altogether as polite as he
might be; n short, as she herself expresses
it, deficient in those little links which
make up the great chain of woman's hap
piness." The 'little links" being of so
great importance to her, she doubtless de-
cided wisely. After this decision, Lincoln
was guilty of tEFE !
THE ONE MEANNESS OF HIS LIFE, 4
of which, but for the researches of the BIZ
ographer, we should have been spared the
knowledge. He wrote letter TO Mrs. o.
II. Browning, telling The story of his &C
quaintance with Miss Owens, in q manner
most unfair and most humiliatiI G TO the
lady. Mr.. LamOn speaks Of its publication
as "a painful duty" 1t would have been,