Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1907-02-07
McNamar to marry Lincoln. Day,d.

McNamar to marry Lincoln. Dayid
Rutledge urged her tosmarry immee.
diately without regard to anything but
/ her own happiness, but she said she
could not consent to it until McNannar
came back and released her from her
pledge. At length, however, as Nc
Naniar's temperance became more
and more hopeless, she took a different
view Of it and then thought she would
become Abe's wife as soon as he found
the means Of decent livelihood. "Ann
told me once" says James NJ. in a let
ter to r. B: Rutledge, In coming from
camp meeting on Rock creek, 'that en-
gagements made too far ahead some
times failed, that one had failed (mean-
Ing her engagement with McNamar),
nnd gave me to understand that as
soon as certain studies were completed
she and Lincoln would be married.
In the summer of 1885 Ann showed
unmistakable symptoms Of failing
health, attributable, as most of the
neighborhood believed, to the distress
ing attitude she felt bound to maintain
between her two lovers. On the 25th
of August in that year she died Of
what the doctors chose to call ''brain
fever" In letter to Mr.. Herndon her
brother says: "You suggest that the
probable cause of AIMS sickness was
her conflicts, emotions, etc. AS to this
l cannot say I, however, have my
own private convictions. The charac-
ter Of her sickness was brain fever" A
few days before her death Lincoln was
summoned to her bedside. What hap
pened 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 ter
rible distress in his face and his con-
duct. When Ann actually died and
was buried, his grief became frantic.
He lost all self control, even the con-
sciousness of identity, and every friend
he had in New Salem pronounced him
Insane, mad, crazy "He was watched
with especial vigilance" as William
Green tells us, during storms, fogs,
damp, gloomy weather, for fear of. an
accident" At such times he raved pit
eously, declaring, among other wild
expressions Of his woe, II can never be
reconciled to have the snow, rains and
storms to beat upon her gravew
Lincoln Practically Insane. ..H
About three-quarters of a mile below
New Salem, at the foot Of the main
bluff and in hollow between two lat
eral bluffs, stood the house of Bowlin
Greene, built Of logs and weather
boarded Thither the friends Of Lin
coin, who apprehended a total abdica-
ton Of reason, determined to transport
him, partly for the benefit Of a mere
change of scene and partly to keep
him within constant reach Of his near
and noble friend Bowlin Greene. Dur
ing this period Of his darkened and
wavering intellect, when "accidents"
We're momentarily expected, it was dis
covered that Bowlin Greene possessed
power to persuade and guide him
proportional to the affection that had
subsisted between them in former and
better times. Bowlin Greene came for
him, but Lincoln was cunning and OBJ
stinate. 1t required the most artful
practices Of general conspiracy Of all
his friends to 'disarm his suspicious
and induce him to 80 and stay with his
most anxious and devoted friend. But
at last they succeeded. and Lincoln
remained down under the bluff for two
or three weeks, the object Of undis-
guised solicitude and Of the strictest
surveillance. At the end Of that time
his mind seemed to be restored, and it
was thought safe to let him go back
to his old haunts-to the study of law.
to the writing Of legal papers for bis
neighbors, to pettifogging before the
justice of the peace and perhaps to a
little surveying. But Mr.. Lincoln was
never precisely the same man again.
At the time Of his release he was thin,
haggard and careworn,, like one risen
from the verge of the grave. He had
always been subject. to fits of great
mental depression, but after this they
were more frequent, and alarming. It
was then that he began to repeat, with
cry listener with awe and to carry him
to the fresh grave Of Ann at every one
of his solemn periods, the lines enti-
tied Immortality; or, Oh. Why Should
the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud?' None
heard him but knew that he selected
these curieusly empty yet wonderfully
sad, impressive lines to celebrate
grief which lay with continual heavi-
ness on his heart, but to which he
could not with becoming delicacyt 'tli-
rectly a1lude. He muttered them as he
rambled through the woods or walked
by. the:>roaring Sangamon. He was
heard to murmur. them to himself as
he slipped into the, village at nightfall,
after long. walk of six miles and an
evening visit to the Concord graveyard,
and he would suddenly break out with
them In little Social assemblies after
noticeable periods Of silent gloom.
They came funbidden to his lips, while
the air Of affection in face and gesture,
the moving tones and touching modu-
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