Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1931-02-12
Pen Picture
Of Lincoln S
Last Hours

Last Day." by Mrs. Honore Willsie
Morrow, which brought to light two
hitherto unpublished letters OF the
great Presidents widow, Mary Todd
Lincoln.
The letters were written to Frank
Carpenter, a New York artist who had
painted the Presidents portrait two
years before, and friend Of the Lin
coin family. They were occasioned by
his request for photographs of the
entire family as they were in 1861
when the President himself and the
son, Willie, were alive, that from these
he might build group for a painting
Of the family.
The letters are the possessions OF
Paul Coster, Jr., of New York, who
inherited them from his late uncle,
Robert Coster. They reveal Mary Todd
Lincoln in a light in which she has
possibly never before been pictured.
They show her, the author says, mot
as Xantippe, not as clod, but as a
lovable, cultured, suffering human
SOUL"
The author bemoans the fact that
such a rich source of facts regarding
the martyred Lincoln should have been
neglected by biographers and histo-
rians of the day.
"Fifty years too late" she writes,
Historians are beginning to realize
that Lincoln's wife could have given
them more than any other human be-
ing about his psychology and his his
tory; could have given them precious
facts. Nothing I have read has shown
me so clearly as these letters what
history has lost by their inexcusable
neglect.
"For nearly fifty years the name
Of Mary Lincoln has been shrOuded
in contumely. She has been written
into history as coarse, ill-educated
scold, q curse to her husband and her
children-and then, through the dis
covery Of letters such as these she
suddenly, after half century, reveals
herself to u.s."
The letters were written while the
widow was still in the throes Of the
shock attendant to the assassination
of her husband. She had, says the
author, fled to Chicago and had bur-
led herself in a hotel in Hyde Park
with her two sons.
Throughout both letters there is evil
dence of her grief over the loss Of
her husband and her son. The memo
~ of the fatal day is indelibly i'm
printed in her memory.
"How / WISH" runs the letter, "you
could have seen my dear husband the
last three weeks of his life. Having
a realizing sense that the unnatural
conflict was near it's close, and being
most of the time away from w.
Washington, where he had endured
such conflicts of mind within the last
four years, feeling so encouraged, he
freely gave vent to his cheerfulness.
"DOwn the Potomac, he was almost
boyish in his mirth and reminded me
of his original nature, what had al
ways remembered of him, in our own
home free from care, surrounded by
those he loved so well and by whom
he was so idolized.
"The Friday, / never saw him so
supremacy cheerful-his manner was
almost playful. At three o'clock in the
afternoon he drove out with me In
the open carriage. In starting l asked
him If anyone should accompany us.
He Immediately replied, No, prefer
to ride by ourselves today
During the ride he was so gay that
I said to him, Dear husband, you al
most startle me by your great cheer
fulness.' He replied, And well may
feel so, Mary. I consider this day the
war has come to a close And then
added, we must both be more cheer
full in the future-between the war
and the loss of our darling Willie-we
have both been very miserable
Every word then uttered is deeply
engraven on my poor, broken heart"
In the second epistle written De-
cember 8, 1865, she refers to the late
Thanksgiving day as, 'the saddest of
all my very sad days. Only
those who have suffered and lost what
hduC lllC oO WCll WOItu llNluS LUZ Ndu
fully understand the return Of ami
versaries."
She again refers to the dead Willie
and tells the artists that in the pic
ture of him she has sent for the fam
lily group, "justice is not done him
he was a very beautiful boy with a
most spiritual expression of face"
Carpenter was running a series in
New York paper, says the author,
on his White House experiences, and
he had used part Of Mrs. Lincoln's
letter. She rebuked him with:
II must say 1 was greatly surprised
to see simple letter Of mine, writ
ten when my heart was bursting with
its great sorrow, in print. will for
give youth the hope 1t may never
occur against. Louis Globe-Demo-
crat.
Imaginary Competition.
While the young sutton was wait