|
|
| Flowers left for
Ann Rutledge
| |  Ann Rutledge: Madam, you will be known as the nation's 16th President Abraham Lincoln's first love. Many of the facts of her life are lost to history, but some historians believe that she was the first love of Abraham Lincoln. The exact nature of the Lincoln-Rutledge relationship has been fiercely debated by historians and non-historians for over a century. It is fairly well established the two were at least friends, An anonymous poem about suicide published locally exactly three years after her death is widely attributed to Lincoln. Many years later, after Lincoln's first election as President, Isaac Cogdal, Lincoln's old friend, ventured to ask whether it was true that Lincoln had fallen in love with Ann. "It is true- true indeed I did," Lincoln replied. "I loved the woman dearly and soundly: she was a handsome girl- would have made a good loving wife...I did honestly and truly love the girl and think often-often of her now. After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, his friend and law partner William Herndon first revealed the story of the supposed romance between Rutledge and Lincoln, much to Mary Todd Lincoln's anger and dismay. However, Herndon despised Mary Todd Lincoln and may have fabricated or enhanced the story of a romance between Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln to serve as a "thorn in the side" of Mary Todd Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln's surviving son Robert Todd Lincoln was also upset by Herndon's claim. Most of Herndon's sources came from interviews with Lincoln's early friends in New Salem and Ann's relatives. The story was later repeated by Herndon in several lectures and books. The Lincoln-Rutledge relationship plays an important part in the growth of Lincoln in Seth Grahame-Smith's novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. In it, MacNamar is a vampire. When he learns that Rutledge has fallen in love with Lincoln, he returns to New Salem and kills her by infecting her. The symptoms of her infection resemble those of typhoid fever. Happy 200th birthday!
-
MFPS
Added: Jan. 7, 2013 |
Accuracy and Copyright Disclaimer
|
