Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-07-23
LINCOLN'S THREE LOVES.

LlNC0LN'S THREE LOVES.
From an Article by Frank G. Carpenter
c'Carp') in Lppincott's Magazine
President Lincoin's first love was a.
golden-haired blonde, who had cherry
lips, a clear blue eye, a neat figure, and
more than ordinary intellectual abil-
ity. Her name was Anne Rutledge She
wss the daughter OF tavern keeper in
Salem, III. Mr., Lincoln met her when
he was about twenty three, and after
q romantic courtship, became engaged
to her. She died before they could be
married; and Lincoln was so much af-
fected by her death that his biographer,
Ward Lamon, says his friends pro-
nounced him crazy for a time. He
was watched carefully, and became es-
pecially violent during storms, fogs,
and damp and gloomy weather. At
such times he would rave, declaring,
among other wild expressions, II can
never be reconciled to have the snow,
rain, and storms to beat upon her
grave" At this point he began to
quote, it is said, the poem which is so
we'll identified with him, beginning
Oh, why should the spirit OF mortal be
proud?
It is supposed that he was thinking
OF his first love during the times he so
often repeated it. Years afterward,
when he had become famous, he was
asked by an old friend as to the story
OF his love for Anne Rutledge, and he
said, II loved, ,er dearly She YVES a
handsome girl, and would have made
"a good and loving wife,"
Llncoln's next love was tall, fine.
looking woman, named Mary Owens,
with whom he became acquainted
about a year after Anne Rutledge
died. Upon her rejection of him he
wrote a letter to his friend Mrs. 0. H.
Browning, saying that he had been
inveigled into paying his addresses to
Miss Owens, but on being refused he
found he cared more for her than he
had thought, and proposed again. In
this letter he says
II most emphatically in this in
stance have made a fool Of myself. I
have come to the conclusion never
more to think of marrying, and for
this reason..-that / can never be sat-
isfied with anybody who would be fool
enough to have me-"
Still, it was not long after this that
he was engaged to Miss Mary Todd, q
we'll educated rosy brunette, OF Lex
lngton, KY, who was visiting at Spring
field, where Lincoln was member Of
the Illinois legislature Both Lincoln
and Stephen A. Douglas proposed to
to her. She refused Douglas and &C.
cepted Lincoln. Lincoln feared that
the match would not be a happy one,
and Ward l-an1on states that he failed
to be present at the time set for the GER
emony, though the guests were assem-
bled and the wedding feast prepared.
He became suddenly i'll, and It was
more than a year before the marriage
was consumated. It took place final
" in Springfield, and the couple began
their married life by boarding at the
Globe Hotel at 81 a week. Lincoln
was thirty-three years old at this
time and Mary Todd was twenty one.
SOME PRESIDENTS WHO GOT THE M11TEN.
A number of the Presidents have
been in love more than once, and sew
eral have suffered the pangs of love
unrequited. Washington Irving says
that Gen. Washington had q serious
passion at fifteen for some un-
known beauty which made him
really unhappy for q time.
The son OF President Tyler,
who is distantly related to the
Washington family, tells me that the
general tried to win the daughter OF
Colonel Cary, OF DENLY, Warwick
county, Virginia. Colonel Cary was
very wealthy, and Washington, who
paid attention to none but prospec-
tive heiresses, was much attracted by
one Of his daughters. He was a poor
major then, and he rode on horseback
to Warwick county, and called upon
Colonel Cary, a stiff old gentleman
with a ruff1ed shirt and much dignity,
asked Major Washington, as he alight-
ed from his horse
MAY inquire sir, what has caused
You to honor me with a visit at this
time?'
Major Washington blushingly re-
piled that he had come to ask per-
mission to pay his addresses to Miss
Cary with a view to marry her.
"Well, SIR" responded the stately
colonel, II would have you under
stand that my daughter rides in her
own carriage; and if that be your bust
ness you may as we'll mount your
horse, sir, and return"
Miss Cary afterwards married a
man named Amber, member of
one Of the noted. families of Vir-
ginia. She was present at the cele-
bration which took place after the
surrender at Yorktown, and it is
said that when she saw Washington
so highly honored she tainted away
III the realization Of the great mistake
she had made in not marrying him.
year or two after this, W hen Wash
ington had become a colonel, at twen-
ty-three: years of age, he fell in love
with May Philhpse, a rich New York
heiress, at whose house he spent a
week. The authorities are divided as
to whether he proposed to her or not.
All concede, however, that he was
sighted and went away very angry,
and it is charged that he carried his
anger to the extent of aiding in the
con6scation of the Phillipse estate
after the Revolution had become g.
success and his love had married his
rival
John Adams love affairs were nu-
merous. In l764, the year in which
he was married, he writes in his d.
AIRY
Il was OF an amorous disposition,
and very early, from ten to eleven
years Of age, was very fond of the So