Letter to Francis B. Carpenter

Mary Lincoln (1818–1882)
From Kate Chopin: Complete Novels & Stories

Interesting Links

“Lincoln Through the Eyes of History: Harold Holzer on Francis Carpenter” (Friends of the Lincoln Collection)

“Mary Todd Lincoln on Life after the White House, 1870” (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Previous Story of the Week selections
• “Lincoln’s Assassination,” Elizabeth Keckly
• “The Giant Sufferer,” Gideon Welles
• “Eulogy for Abraham Lincoln,” Frederick Douglass

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President Lincoln Assassinated!! The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning
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The Lincoln Family in 1861, c. 1865–66, black and white oils on canvas by Francis Bicknell Carpenter (1830–1900). The painting was made into a popular engraving by John Chester Buttre (1821-1893) and displayed in homes for decades. From left to right, Mary Lincoln, Willie, Robert, Tad, and President Lincoln. Collection of the New York Historical Society, via White House Historical Association

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The following introduction has been adapted and expanded from the headnotes included in President Lincoln Assassinated!! The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning (edited by Harold Holzer).

Despite her grief-stricken seclusion in the White House in the weeks following the assassination of her husband, Mary Todd Lincoln had been able to successfully exert her will in a dispute over his burial. As the funeral train neared Illinois, a committee of prominent Springfield citizens pressed to have President Lincoln interred in a specially built tomb in the middle of the city. She refused, insisting that he be buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery and threatening to have his body moved to Chicago if her wishes were ignored.

Mrs. Lincoln finally left the White House five weeks after the assassination, on May 22, 1865. Unable to bear the prospect of returning to her home in Springfield, she moved into a series of Chicago hotels with her sons Robert and Tad. In November, she answered an inquiry from the artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter, who had been commissioned by a New York publisher to paint a portrait of the Lincoln family in 1861, before the death of eleven-year-old Willie Lincoln; he now hoped to finish it as a composite painting based on photographs. Her response, interspersed with sorrowful recollections, recommended a portrait of her in “black velvet” by Mathew Brady; an image of Willie, which she enclosed (probably a picture made by Brady shortly before the boy’s death); and a photograph of her oldest son, Robert, produced by John Corbin’s studio in Washington in the spring of 1865 (although Carpenter obviously used this photo, taken about 1860, as the basis for his painting). Her letter also included a surprisingly intimate recollection of her last carriage ride with her husband.

A successful portrait painter, Carpenter had worked at the White House from February to July 1864 while painting his heroic canvas The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, which depicts Lincoln presenting the proclamation to his cabinet on July 22, 1862. During a visit to Brady’s studio in February 1864, Carpenter persuaded Lincoln to be photographed looking at a picture album with his son Tad. Released to the public only after the assassination, the photograph became an immediate bestseller, and Carpenter used it to complete his painting of the family.

Having played a crucial role in visually defining Lincoln as emancipator and loving family man, Carpenter turned to writing. His article “In Memoriam,” printed in Hours at Home, a religious magazine, in June 1865, was followed by “Anecdotes and Reminiscences of President Lincoln,” which appeared in the summer of that year as an epilogue to Henry J. Raymond’s highly popular post-assassination biography, The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln (which Mary Lincoln extols in her letter). Carpenter would further help shape the memory of Lincoln by publishing a successful memoir, Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln: The Story of a Picture, in 1866. Although Mary Lincoln would praise Carpenter’s family portrait, in 1867 she became angry when his memoir Six Months at the White House was retitled The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln and dismissed him as “this stranger,” a “silly adventurer” who had “scarcely” known the President at all.

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For this week’s selection, we depart from the usual format and reproduce the entire text of Mary Lincoln’s letter below. You may also download it as a PDF or view it in Google Docs, and this selection may be photocopied and distributed for classroom or educational use.

Letter to Francis B. Carpenter

Chicago Nov 15th

My Dear Sir:

Your last letter, has been received—It would be utterly impossible for me, in my present nervous state, to sit for a photograph—although, I should like to oblige you, very much. There is an excellent painted likeness of me, at Brady’s in N.Y. taken in 1861—have you, ever seen it? I am sure you will like it & I believe, it was taken, in a black velvet. I enclose you one of my precious, sainted Willie. You have doubtless heard, how very handsome a boy, he was considered—with a pure, gentle nature, always unearthly & in intellect far, far beyond his years—When I reflect, as I am always doing, upon the overwhelming loss, of that, most idolized boy, and the crushing blow, that deprived me, of my all in all, in this life, I wonder that I retain my reason & live. There are hours of each day, that my mind, cannot be brought to realize, that He, who is considered, so great and good, a God, has thus seen fit to afflict us! How difficult it is to be reconciled to such a bereavement, how much sooner, each one, of our stricken family, if the choice had been left to us, would have preferred “passing away,” ourselves.

It strikes me strangely, how such a rumor, should be circulated—that Robert is in Europe. The thought of leaving home, I am sure, has never once, entered his mind. He is diligently applying himself, to his law studies—a most devoted Son & brother. Every thing is so fabulously high here, that his third of the estate, an income of $1800 apiece—with taxes deducted—It requires the most rigid economy, with Robert & the rest of us to clothe ourselves, plainly & weekly settle our board-bills. Is not this, a sad change for us! As a matter of course living, every where, now in the U.S. is high—Yet I cannot express to you, how painful to me, it is, to have no quiet home, where I can freely indulge my sorrows—this, is yet another of the crosses, appointed unto me. With my beloved husband, I should have had, a heart, for any fate, if “need be.” Dear little Taddie! was named, for my husband’s father, Thomas Lincoln—no T—for a middle name—was nicknamed, Taddie, by his loving Father. Taddie—is learning to be as diligent in his studies, as he used to be at play in the W. H. he appears to be rapidly making up, for the great amount of time, he lost in W— As you are aware, he was always a marked character. Two or three weeks since, a lady in an adjoining room, gave him, a copy of Mr Raymond’s life of the President, for me to read & return to her. After reading it, I remarked to Robert, in Taddie’s presence, that it was the most correct history, of his Father, that has been written—Taddie immediately spoke up & said, “Mother, I am going to save, all the little money, you give me and get one of them.” R. told him, he need not, as he would buy, a copy. I press the poor little fellow closer, if possible, to my heart, in memory of the sainted Father, who loved him, so very dearly, as well as the rest of us—How I wish you could have seen my dear husband, the last three weeks of his life! Having a realizing sense, that the unnatural rebellion, was near its close, & 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 & reminded me, of his original nature, what I had always remembered of him, in our own home—free from care, surrounded by those he loved so well & by whom, he was so idolized. The Friday, I never saw him so supremely cheerful—his manner was even playful. At three o’clock, in the afternoon, he drove out with me in the open carriage, in starting, I asked him, if any one, should accompany us, he immediately replied—“No—I prefer to ride by ourselves to day.” During the drive he was so gay, that I said to him, laughingly, “Dear Husband, you almost startle me by your great cheerfulness,” he replied, “and well I may feel so, Mary, I consider this day, the war, has come to a close—and then added, “We must both, be more cheerful in the future—between the war & 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 evening, his mind, was fixed upon having some relaxation & bent on the theater. Yet I firmly believe, that if he had remained, at the W. H. on that night of darkness, when the fiends prevailed, he would have been horribly cut to pieces—Those fiends, had too long contemplated, this inhuman murder, to have allowed, him, to escape. Robert informs me, that the best likeness of himself, is at Goldin’s, in Washington, taken last spring. We have none, unframed. The attitude in the one, you sent me, of myself, is very good, my hands are always made in them, very large and I look too stern. The drapery of the dress, was not sufficiently flowing—and my hair, should not be so low down, on the forehead & so much dressed. I am sending you a long & most hastily written letter, which I pray you excuse. My sons desire to be remembered to you. Whilst I remain

Very Sincerely
Mary Lincoln

Original letter is in Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. Reprinted in Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters (1972)..