Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-08-03
IURSDAY. AUGUST 3, 1882.

yided YOU wish it; while on the other hand,
I am willing and even anxious to bind you
faster, if can be convinced that it will in any
considerable degree add to your happiness.
This, indeed, is the whole question with me.
Nothing would make me more miserable than
to believe you were misunderstanding more
happy than to know You were So"
This is the language of an honorable man,
cool lover and practiced hand in the Eng
lish language. Miss Owens declined his hand
and lived to marry another man at her home
in Kentucky and have two SONS in the Confed-
crate army Lamon prints also a letter of
Lincoln to Mrs. O. II. Browning in 1888, re-
viewing this affair in terms it must be con-
fessed, brutally derogatory to the young wo-
mans personal appearance and parts. Lin
coin was evidently mortified by his rejection,
and ignobly attempted to represent to Mrs.
Browning 1.-THE wife of his new-found legis-
lative FRIEND that the object of his affections
had been unworthy of them.
1t was not two years 1880 before another
Springfield matron, Mrs. Ninian w. Edwards,
had Kentucky sister to live with her, Mary
Todd, daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Lexing-
ton, Miss Todd was of distinguished family
in both States, her mother had died young
and she had been educated by''a French lady,"
She had keen sense of the ridiculous, was
sharp, ambitious, high tempered according to
Lamon, "high-bred, proud, brilliant, witty.
and with will that bent every one else to her
purposes, she took Lincoln captive the very
moment she considered it eXpedient to do so. y
She was ambitious to be the wife of a Pres-
dent, and was courted by Douglas until she
dismissed him for his bad morals. She said to
one of her mates, who had married a wealthy
old gentleman, II would rather marry good
man, man of mind, with hope, and bright
prospects ahead for position, fame and power
than to marry all the horses, gold and bones
in the world" Lincoln and Miss Todd be-
came engaged, though a pretty sister of Ed
wards came near shipwrecking even this match.
Pretty girls must have been distressingly thick
in those days, when Kentucky was sending
her best blood into Illinois. Lincoln felt
the Edwards attachment so strongly that he
begged to he released from Miss Todd, (the
Edwards girl married another man, for Lin
coin never mentioned it to her, and he ''ran
off the track" again. to use the expression by
which he once described his first attack OF in
sanity. He was ''as crazy as loon" forneary
a year. and did not attend the session OF the
Legislature of 1S41-42 to which he had been
chosen. They had to keep ''knives and IA
zors away from him. AS he came out of it,
the Edwardses advised Abe and Mary not to
marry, as they were untitled to each other,
and probably in consequence of this advice,
they-went and married on Zone or two
hours notice." Lincoln told his friend Math-
eny, who made out the license, "Jim, shall
have to marry that GIRL" and he ''looked as
if he was going to the slaughter" and said
she was driven into it," by the Edwards
family But perhaps these expressions ought
not to be taken too seriously. Lamon prints
letters from Lincoln to Speed earlier in the
year, indicating his embarrassing position, his
''great agony" as LamOn calls it.
The ''Shields duel'' was fought a month or
two before the marriage and was occasiOned
by Miss Todd's satirical sketches in the SAN
canon Journal. These sketches were dated
from the 'Lost Townships" a humorous ex-
preston of indefiniteness in locality which
had a local point, and were written in YER
nacular and signed 'Rebecca." The last one
was in verse and signed 'Cathleen." That
Miss Todd was no green Western girl is
evinced by the spirit of these sketches OF To-
cal life, which are reproduced in Lannon's Life
of Lincoln. She teased Shields in them, and
he demanding to know the author, Lincoln
accepted the responsibility.
Mary Todd made a faithful wife and Mr..
Lincoln faithful husband. She had de-
cidedly ambitious and political bent, but it
must be said to her honor that he1 intimate
relations with Southern families were never
known to have embarrassed Mr.. Lincoln in
the Presidency. She was the first of the West
ern wives to fill the White House at time
when people were disposed to carp at Lincoln
because kid glove did not fit him. That she
was not success as a social mistress OF the
White House, in comparison with Mrs. Hayes
and Mrs. Garfield will not be counted heavily
against her. Mr. Lincoln was not happy to
the degree of an ideal match in his marriage
relations but Herndon, who knows the inner
life of the husband and wife, says : "All that
know ennobles them BOTH"