Details
LINCOLN, Mary Todd. Autograph letter signed to Mrs. James W. (Rhoda) White, Chicago, 14 December, no year [1865 to 1871]. 8 pages, black-bordered mourning stationery with her monogram on first and fifth pages, 280 x 133 mm., short edge tears, minor separations at folds.
MARY LINCOLN WRITES OF DREAMS AS PORTENTS AND CONFESSES THAT "MY DAYS ARE PASSED IN SADNESS"
An unusually long and emotional letter on the loss of one child and her husband: "...My own griefs, deep & fearful as they have been, have taught me, that 'this is not our rest,' and that the author of our heavy afflictions can alone give us peace. Yet without my idolized husband, I cannot hope for a freedom from suffering, until we are reunited. I have two very noble boys and they are indeed all the comfort I have left me...There are days when I know that my darling husband & my precious Willie are near me - without this belief I would not care to live a day...My days are passed in sadness, when I sometimes fear that even our gracious Father has forsaken me..."
"The dream related in your letter is certainly very remarkable. It came from the hand of God & was sent as a warning to you of the terrible bereavement so soon to fall upon you. When we cross the portals through which our loved ones have entered we will then know why such crushing sorrow & trials were permitted to us here...The return of the approaching Holidays, with my desolation upon me, so fresh and painful, makes my heart sink within me...Judge [David] Davis has a large box of papers [of the President]...I hope you will write often to me...Pray for me...." Letters of this length from Mary Todd, with this depth of emotion, are uncommon.
Apparently unpublished, not in J.G. Turner and L.L. Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters.
MARY LINCOLN WRITES OF DREAMS AS PORTENTS AND CONFESSES THAT "MY DAYS ARE PASSED IN SADNESS"
An unusually long and emotional letter on the loss of one child and her husband: "...My own griefs, deep & fearful as they have been, have taught me, that 'this is not our rest,' and that the author of our heavy afflictions can alone give us peace. Yet without my idolized husband, I cannot hope for a freedom from suffering, until we are reunited. I have two very noble boys and they are indeed all the comfort I have left me...There are days when I know that my darling husband & my precious Willie are near me - without this belief I would not care to live a day...My days are passed in sadness, when I sometimes fear that even our gracious Father has forsaken me..."
"The dream related in your letter is certainly very remarkable. It came from the hand of God & was sent as a warning to you of the terrible bereavement so soon to fall upon you. When we cross the portals through which our loved ones have entered we will then know why such crushing sorrow & trials were permitted to us here...The return of the approaching Holidays, with my desolation upon me, so fresh and painful, makes my heart sink within me...Judge [David] Davis has a large box of papers [of the President]...I hope you will write often to me...Pray for me...." Letters of this length from Mary Todd, with this depth of emotion, are uncommon.
Apparently unpublished, not in J.G. Turner and L.L. Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters.