The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-06-28

Screed to a Friend-Miss Owens Opin
ion After Her Marriage.
[From 1.-THE Life of Lincoln" by william Il
Herndon and Jesse W. Weik Copyright. 1888
by Jesse W. Weik. Copyright 1872, by d. APP
pleton q Co.
During the warm, dry summer months
Lincoln kept up the love siege without
apparent diminution of zeal He was as
assiduous as ever, and in August was anx
ious to force decision. On the 10th be
had a meeting with her which terminated
much like a drawn battle-at least il
seems to have afforded him but little en-
couragement, for on his return to Spring
field he Immediately INDUCED in an epis
tolary effusion stranger than any that pre-
ceded it:
FRIEND MARY-You will doubt think il
rather strange that should write you letter
the same day which we parted, and
can only account for it by supposing that see
ing you lately makes me think of you more
than usual while at cur late meeting we had
but few expressions of thoughts. You must
know that l cannot see you think of you
with entire Indifference and yet it may lie
that you are mistaken in regard to what my
real feelings towards you are. If l knew you
were not should not trouble you with this
letter. Perhaps any other man would know
8enough without further information, but
consider it my peculiar right to plead igno-
rance and your bounden duty to allow the plea.
| want i'll all cases to do right, and most par
ticularly so in all cases with women. want
at this particular time, more than anything
else, to do right to you and if knew it would
be doing right, as l rather suspect it would,
to let you alone would do it.. And for the
purpose Of making the matter plain pos
sble now say that you can drop the subject,
dismiss your thoughts-if you ever had any
from me forever, and leave this letter unan-
swered without calling forth one accusing MUIR
muir from me- And Twill even go further and
say that IL it will add anything to your com
fort or peace of mind to do so it is my sincere
wish that you should. Do not understand by
this that ! wish to cut your acquaintance.
mean no such thing. What do wish is that
our ft..ther acquaintance shall depend upon
yourself. If such further acquaintance would
contribute nothing to your happiness, / am
sure it would not to mine. If you feel yourself
in any degree bound to me, l am now willing
to release you, provided you wish it, while, on
the other hand am willing and even anxious
to bind you faster if l 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 mis-
cradle, nothing more happy, than to know you
We're So
In what have said l think cannot be mis-
understood, and to make myself understood is
the sole object Of this letter.
If it suits you best to not answer this-fare-
well--a long life and merry one attend you.
But if you conclude to write back speak as
plainly as l do. There be neither harm
danger in saying to me anything you think
just in the manner you think it. My respects
to your sister. Your friend, LINCOLN.
Ludicrous Letter.
For an account of the final outcome of
this Gr ire du cceur the reader is now re-
ferr the most ludicrous letter Mr..
Liz or wrote. 1t has been said, but
with l.ow much truth do not know, that
during his term as president the lady to
whom it was written, Mrs. o. III Brown
ing, wife of fellow member of the legis
lature, before giving copy of 1t to BIZ
ographer, wrote to Lincoln asking his con-
sent to the publication, but that he an
swered warning her against it because it
was too full of truth. The only biographer
who ever did insert it aIologized for its ap-
pearance in his book, regarding it for
many reasons as an extremely painful
duty. = If it could be withheld" he la
ments, and the act decently reconciled to
the conscience of biographer protesting
to be honest and candid, it should never
see the light in these pages. Its grotesque
ing the person of a lady whom the writer
was willing to marry, its imputation of
toothless and weather beaten old age to a
woman really young and handsome, it's
utter lack of that delicacy of tone and SEN
timent which one naturally expects a
gentleman to adopt when he thinks proper
to discuss the merits of his late mistress
all these and its defective photography 1t
would certainly be more agreeable to sup
press than to publish. But, if we begin
by emitting or mutilating a document
which sheds SO broad light upon one
part of his life and one phase of his char
acter, why may we not do the like as fast
and as often as the temptation arises? And
where shall the process cease?"
prefer not to take such a serious view
of the letter or its publication Ny idea |
is that Mr.. Lincoln got into one of his ir-
resistible moods of humor and fun-a
state of feeling into which he frequently
worked himseltto avert the overwhelming
effects OF his constitutional melancholy
and in the inspiration of the moment pen
ned this letter, which many regard as an
unfortunate composition. The class who
take such a gloomy view of the matter
should bear in mind that the letter was
written by Mr.. Lincoln in the fervor of
early manhood, just as he was emerging
from a most embarrassing situation, and
addressed to a friend who, he supposed,
would keep it sacredly sealed from the
public eye As matter of fact, Mr. Lin
coin was not gifted with a ready percep
ton of the propriety of things in all cases
Nothing with him was intuitive To have |
profound judgment and just discrimina-
ton he required time to think, and if facts
or events were forced before him in too
rapid succession the machinery of his |
judgment failed to work. A knowledge |
of this fact will account for the letter, and |
also serve to rob the offense, if any was |
committed, of half its severity.
How He Got Out of 1t.
The letter was written in the sanie |
month Miss Owens made her final depar- |
ture from Illinois:
SPRINGFIELD, April /, 1888.
I DEAR MADAM-Without apologizing for being |
tgotistical shall make the history Of so much |
Of my life as has elapsed since l saw you the |
Subject of this letter. And, by the way, now |
discover that. IN order to give full and in
telligible account Of the things have done and 4
suffered since ! saw you, / shall necess2rily
have to relate some that happened before.
1t was, then, in the autumn of 1880 III a
married lady of my acquaintance and who was
great friend OF mine, being about to ray a