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Tag: mary todd lincoln
Blumenthal’s New Book Reads A President Well — And Gives A Fair Shake To His Wife

Blumenthal’s New Book Reads A President Well — And Gives A Fair Shake To His Wife

WASHINGTON — It’s high Lincoln season, bittersweet as it can be in remembrance of the slain Civil War president. Into the spring mix, noted author and journalist Sidney Blumenthal brings a breathtaking new view of Abraham Lincoln in his forthcoming book, “A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln.” (Yes, that Sidney Blumenthal of email fame and furor, a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton and earlier, to President Bill Clinton.)

This timely work also comes forth as the nation watches the Republican Party in wonder, perhaps coming apart as it slouches toward Cleveland, where its 2016 convention will be held. It will not be pretty, the presidential nomination tug of war between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Lincoln’s first party, the Whigs, self-destructed over slavery’s expansion. The Republican Party invented itself and rose in its wake, in Wisconsin. What do you know. In this volume, Blumenthal covers the first 40 years of Lincoln’s life, including his two years in Congress — as a Whig. Lincoln later joined the newly formed Republican Party in the 1850s and became its standard-bearer, winning in 1860 and 1864. He lived to be 56.

Antebellum America — say, the 1830s to the 1850s — was not a pretty prospect either, darkened by mob violence on the streets as a counterpoint to stemwinders in the Senate — all over slavery.

Blumenthal deftly enlivens the antebellum scene’s characters better than any other author, seeming to make the statues speak: those of Kentucky’s famed orator Henry Clay; South Carolina’s zealot John Calhoun; and “The Little Giant” Stephen Douglas, Lincoln’s diabolical rival who courted the same Southern belle in Springfield, Illinois. The young lady was Mary Todd.

“Old Man Eloquent” John Quincy Adams was the ex-president who found his political lifework, as a ferocious foe of slavery, in the House. Lincoln had looked up to the Southern gentleman Clay, as a “beau ideal,” until he was invited to his grand home and felt “he betrayed a consciousness of superiority that none could mistake,” as a friend put it.

“Cast-iron” Calhoun, as an English visitor put it, is painted as the Senate zealot who presaged the Civil War, developing the doctrine of states rights to justify secession. Looking back, President Andrew Jackson said his only regret was not having Calhoun hanged.

Jackson owned slaves, of course: The “Slave Power” was real.

Lincoln took slavery personally, Blumenthal explains, drawing on a simple line in a political speech in the record all along: “I used to be a slave.” For the author, that disarming line contains multitudes and breaks news in history. Lincoln’s father Thomas hired out his strong son for hard labor — for wages which the dirt-poor farmer father kept before Lincoln turned 21. The young Lincoln hated it.

As a slave, Frederick Douglass did the same thing in Baltimore, where he worked on the waterfront as a caulker. Every week, he turned his wages over to his master. On the prairie, Lincoln’s keen sense of justice awakened. The future Great Emancipator got an ugly look at the American “peculiar institution.” Knowing their lot was worse, still he identified with the plight of slaves.

This is a central insight, even epiphany; nothing politicizes like direct personal experience. In this first of three volumes, Blumenthal reaches deep into why Lincoln hated the “peculiar institution” of slavery — well before he dreamed of emancipation. For his intellectual self-education, he read the English political thinker, Thomas Paine.

More books have been written about Lincoln than just about anybody, and I know that tower well. Besides, Lincoln and I walk and talk all the time under the cherry blossoms. Surely, he’d be glad Blumenthal gave his adored wife Mary her due. Savvy, refined, sassy and smart, from a politically prominent family — Mary was the catch, the engine that drove them to the presidency. Blumenthal is one of too few Lincoln authors to grasp that.

We are on the cusp of the cruel day Lincoln died: April 15, 1865. A shot in the dark at Ford’s Theatre staged a scene from his favorite play, “Macbeth,” the murder of the good king. Lincoln knew the tragedy by heart, as if he could foretell his fate.

Last April, I was at Ford’s for a misty night of speeches, songs, poems and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Today, I’m happy to have a fresh look anew at the man — in life, in his younger days.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit Creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2016 CREATORS.COM

Photo: Abraham Lincoln. Wikimedia Commons. 

Savvy White House Wives and Tales They Could Tell

Savvy White House Wives and Tales They Could Tell

First lady Nancy Reagan will be laid to rest Friday in California, leading to a hard look at White House walls, with tales they tell. For we don’t know the better half of it.

Ronald Reagan was uxorious, but not alone in being excessively fond of his wife. By my count, seven presidents adored their wives and made a show of it. If you add Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, grief-stricken widowers, a trend becomes visible.

Among these pairs are inseparable Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, ardent Woodrow and Edith Wilson, shrewd Dolley and James Madison, rugged George W. and sweet-as-pie Laura Bush, and John and Abigail Adams, avid pen pals.

Not on my list: the Eisenhowers with Mamie in her pink bedroom while Ike played golf. The Obamas, not so much. The Nixons? Never.

Those who knew the California couple well say the genial actor’s rise never would have happened without Mrs. Reagan’s vigilant counsel. They were each other’s everything. Yet Mrs. Reagan, like other first ladies, gets classified by a crusade or a female characteristic — a fashion maven with a “gaze.” Her husband gets lionized by history; she gets clawed.

Many first ladies go to their graves with a bad rap. A lover of elegance, Mary Lincoln suffered the same as Mrs. Reagan — only worse — because she was also classified as crazy. Her husband’s law partner in Springfield, Illinois, started the smear, just as President Reagan’s aides resented Nancy’s vicarious power.

President Abraham Lincoln was made of rough prairie stuff at 30. Springfield belle Mary Todd, sassy yet refined, was schooled in politics from her family. She knew French and poetry. Mary was the catch in their match. The striving Lincoln was smitten. At the White House years later, Lincoln told someone he had never fallen out of love. The Lincolns were close, whatever “Lincolnistas” say.

Mary’s hardheaded advice helped “Mr. Lincoln” ascend in Springfield circles. As first lady, her sparkling parties showed the nation still open for business as the Civil War raged.

Lucky for Lincoln, Mary didn’t marry a rival suitor — Stephen Douglas, the great debater who defeated Lincoln in a Senate race. If she had, Douglas might have become president. And I mean that Lincoln would not have reached the ultimate prize without his wife.

President Carter conducted Cabinet and Oval meetings with Rosalynn in the room. He openly relied on her as a player, long before the Clintons came to town. Perhaps as a loner with few close friends — like Reagan — Carter invested in making his marriage a full partnership. Theirs was extraordinary.

Woodrow Wilson’s first wife Ellen died during his presidency. Not long after, he laid eyes on Edith, a glamorous widow who played golf. His love letters were as eloquent and passionate as his speeches saying the world must be made safe for democracy. Their wedding was in 1915, before America entered World War I. She stepped in when he had a stroke.

Dolley Madison was a political rock star compared to the shy, short, older James. She compensated by making the band play “Hail to the Chief” for him. She gave Wednesday night soirees. She linked his name with Thomas Jefferson. Best of all, she embellished her story of “saving” a George Washington portrait during the British burning of Washington in 1814 — President Madison’s spectacular humiliation.

President Bush, the 43rd, also faced a burning attack near the White House. Serene Laura Bush radiated strength. In a Southern lady mold, she veered far from policy, but founded the National Book Festival.

The Adamses poured out every particle on paper while John governed and Abigail minded the farm. They were first to live in the White House. Her influence waned when she wrote, “Remember the ladies,” in founding the new nation. John rebuffed her.

The Reagans had eyes — and ears — for each other. When I interviewed their daughter Patti Davis recently, she said simply: “My mother was the apple of my father’s eye.”

First ladies get lost in a maze of grace, gardens or fashion. More to the point is their political savvy in campaigning and helping their husbands shape their legacies. The Clintons and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were superb doubles players in public, if not in private.

Fancy how many presidents have unusually close marriages — indispensable to their success.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit Creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2016 CREATORS.COM

Photo: Former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan, who spearheaded the ‘Just Say No’ anti-drug campaign during her husband’s administration, testifies before a House Government Reform subcommittee in Washington in this March 9, 1995 file photo. REUTERS/Stringer/Files