"Overwhelming Evidence" of a Lincoln-Ann Rutledge Romance?: Reexamining Rutledge Family Reminiscences

There has been a persistent tradition that Ann Rutledge was the great love of Abraham Lincoln's life. When she died tragically young, Lincoln, himself only in his mid-twenties, reportedly never fully recovered; hence, his famous melancholy. The tale's theme of doomed high romance, with an undercurrent disparaging of Lincoln's marriage, riveted the public.1 Accounts of Lincoln's life in the decades after his death featured the romance.2 By the late 1920s, however, some scholars began to take a dim view of what they saw as a maudlin distortion.3 James G.

Randall, the preeminent Lincolnist of his time, in 1945 delivered the final blows. With a brilliant and celebrated essay, 'Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence,' he genteelly hacked the legend to death.4 Ann lived on in the popular imagination.5 But from Randall's verdict forward, the legend was banished from the academy.Nevertheless, over the last decade of the twentieth century, Ann Rutledge made a scholarly comeback.6 As the 1990s progressed the romance appeared in increasing numbers of serious articles and books on Lincoln's early life, not as a 'legend,' but as a major event for which there was 'overwhelming evidence.'7 This evidence, however, has been available to scholars for a very long time.8 No new evidence has appeared to augment what was available to Randall and other legend skeptics. Did the skeptics misinterpret the evidence?

The opinion here is, no, they did not.While assisting the late Dr. C. A.

Tripp with research for his study of Lincoln's personality and sexuality,9 I had occasion to examine closely the Rutledge legend. Tripp focused on the question of Lincoln's 'grief' following Ann's death and on the reliability of the memories of Lincoln's New Salem-era friend, Isaac Cogdal, who provided the one seemingly definitive item of testimony affirming a Lincoln-Ann romance.10 The focus here, however, is on a small subset of reminiscences about Lincoln and Ann from New Salem-era people who personally knew both parties: the recorded memories of members of the Rutledge family. Legend revivalists accord great importance to their testimony.

As prominent revivalist Douglas L. Wilson put it: the Rutledges had an 'opportunity to know.' Indeed, both Wilson and John Y. Simon have argued that until Ann died, almost no one outside of the Rutledge family had any inkling of an Ann-Lincoln romance.11 And in fact, there is only one non-Rutledge witness who provided specific anecdotes about a romance.

These came, however, from an individual who was born just two years before Ann died.12 It therefore would seem to be the case that, if reliable eyewitness testimony about a courtship and engagement is to be found, it must necessarily come from members of the Rutledge family.Credit for what is known about what the Rutledges knew goes to Lincoln's longtime law partner, William H. Herndon, a key figure in Lincoln historiography. Following the assassination, Herndon zealously tracked down people with personal knowledge of Lincoln's early life to get statements from them.

He accumulated a huge mass of documents, now mostly housed at the Library of Congress in the Herndon-Weik Collection. The collection is Herndon's permanent claim to fame: his legacy gives biography of the early Lincoln its main foundation.But Herndon has another, rather more controversial, claim to fame, for it was he who launched the Rutledge legend.13 There is no need or space here to describe the histrionic way he did it, except to say that he made waves—big ones—which did not quiet until Randall temporarily killed off the legend in 1945. The important point is that Randall and others were also gunning for Herndon's reputation, and with it, far bigger game: the entire tradition of amateur, reminiscence-based history.

The 'personal,' the 'subjective' became suspect; respectable history required verifiability, which meant public, impersonal, documented facts. It meant academic history. The best of it was very good.

But the treasure trove that was Herndon was consigned to a vault.A barely penetrable vault, at that, for only the most dogged scholars could decipher the fading documents. A microfilm record was made, but it, too, is hard to read. In 1998, however, the publication of Herndon's Informants—a carefully prepared transcription of all the known statements, interviews, and letters about Lincoln that Herndon had gathered—made the collection easily accessible.14 Douglas L.

Wilson, the aforementioned Rutledge-legend revivalist, and Rodney O. Davis edited Herndon's Informants. A work of inestimable value, it has transformed scholarly studies of the pre-presidential Lincoln.

Moreover, it is the most prominent monument to a sea change in how Lincoln history is done: the rehabilitation of reminiscence-based evidence.15An advocate of oral history, or history based on reminiscence, Wilson found in the Ann Rutledge controversy a way to make the case that personal memories, even of events very distant in time, offer perspectives that historians must take seriously. Wilson charged that Randall, with 'Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence,' wrongly disparaged what Herndon's informants remembered about Lincoln and Ann. 'James G. Randall's most pervasive contention,' Wilson wrote, 'is that the testimony of Herndon's informants is dubious because it is subject to the notorious fallibility of human memory.'16 Wilson then cited comments from one 'Aunt' Louisa Clary, who as a child had lived in New Salem.

Much later in life Louisa impressed a Lincoln researcher, Thomas P. Reep, with her seemingly near-photographic memory of the layout of the village, which by then had nearly vanished due to economic failure, abandonment, and the ravages of nature. Reep asked Louisa, 'How in the world is it you can remember these things and locate these places so closely...?' Louisa replied, in part: 'In all these years my mind has kept the picture fresh by frequently having it recalled to me.' She was referring to reminiscences she had heard from family and friends about the olden days in New Salem.

Wilson noted: 'For many of Herndon's informants, and for much of their testimony about Lincoln as a young man, keeping the picture fresh by frequently having it recalled to them would seem a more apt characterization than Randall's 'dim and misty with the years.''17Randall had characterized the Rutledge family's memories of Lincoln-Ann as 'dim and misty with the years.'18 He was not talking about the Lincoln-Ann memories of ex-New Salemites in general, although his argument makes it plain that 'dim and misty' applies to a big chunk of that testimony as well. But it should be emphasized that Randall was referring specifically to Rutledge testimony, a fact that Wilson noted elsewhere.19 Thus Wilson suggested—unmistakably—that the Rutledges 'kept the picture fresh' when it came to Lincoln and Ann. Wilson also argued that this picture suggests very strongly that Lincoln and Ann not only were in love, but were actually engaged to be married.20It must be acknowledged that Wilson's comments about the retention of memory—via repeated reminiscence among family and friends over the years—point to something quite important.

It gets to the heart of why Herndon's inquiries are so valuable. Strewn throughout Herndon's Informants are numerous vivid vignettes of life in New Salem and Springfield that, were it not for an oral tradition of conserving memories, would not have survived, greatly impoverishing our knowledge of the early Lincoln. And in fact, one of the real gems of Lincoln testimony came from Robert B.

Rutledge, Ann's younger brother. There can be little doubt that a main reason Robert could summon up this testimony is that he had frequently heard and told stories about Lincoln.Robert B. Rutledge served as the Rutledge family spokesman to Herndon on matters Lincoln.

He consulted his mother, Mary, and his older brother, John M., before writing Herndon to report the family's testimony.21 The consultation apparently yielded indirect testimony from another brother, David, who had died in 1842.22 In a follow-up letter Robert relayed to Herndon information he received from J. McGrady Rutledge (Ann's first cousin).23 Herndon also exchanged letters with John M.,24 and interviewed Jasper Rutledge (Ann's first cousin).25 A Herndon investigator, G. U.

Miles, interviewed Mrs. William Rutledge (Ann's aunt by marriage and, due to an intermarriage, Ann's first cousin as well).26 Very late in the game, in 1887, Herndon interviewed J. McGrady Rutledge.27None of the Rutledges—not one—offered a specific memory of Lincoln courting Ann.

They all affirmed that a courtship took place, and with the exception of Mrs. William Rutledge, they all directly or indirectly affirmed that Lincoln and Ann were, in fact, engaged to be married.28 But none offered eyewitness images of them holding hands, exchanging tender glances, strolling through glades, or otherwise in any way behaving like a couple in love. Thus from the outset one must wonder how the Rutledge family 'kept the picture fresh.' There is no picture.

The screen is blank!Moreover, only three Rutledges claimed, or were said to have claimed, that they had personal knowledge of a romance. Jasper was born after Ann died, so in his case personal knowledge was not possible. But had a romance occurred, all of the others would presumably have had an 'opportunity to know,' to use Wilson's term, and therefore be able to claim to know.

But the claims that were made, such as they are, came only from David Rutledge (long since dead when Herndon was collecting testimonies), J. McGrady Rutledge, and Mrs. William Rutledge.Wilson has asserted that Robert Rutledge learned about the romance and the engagement from Ann herself.29 If true, this would mean that Robert had personal knowledge of the romance.

But if Ann ever even once uttered the name 'Abe' (or 'Abraham' or 'Lincoln') to brother Robert, no trace of it is to be found in Herndon's Informants, or anywhere else. Robert—the family spokesman—not only offered zero personal memories of lovebird action between Lincoln and Ann, he also did not report having had any conversation with Ann about it.30 It is, then, hard to know on what basis Wilson made his assertion.David's claim was reported secondhand by his brother Robert. After Robert consulted his mother and brother John, he wrote Herndon a long letter on or about November 1, 1866.31 It is here that he provided marvelously bright pictures of New Salem and Lincoln's place in it: evocations of Lincoln laboring free of charge, addressing public audiences, telling jokes, performing acts of kindness, running for office, demonstrating strength, conducting himself honorably while acting as a second for a friend in a duel, wrestling, and other activities.

Robert, who was twelve to sixteen years of age at the time, indicates that he personally witnessed at least some of these familiar Lincoln pastimes. He closed his letter with this: 'I have seen him frequently take a barrel of whiskey by the chimes and lift it up to his face as if to drink out of the bung-hole. This feat he could accomplish with the greatest ease.

I never saw him taste or drink a drop of any kind of spiritous liquors[.]'32 It is clear that Lincoln made quite a memorable impression on young Robert Rutledge.Fairly deep into the letter, Robert turned to the subject of Ann. He began with an account of Ann's engagement to marry one John McNamar, a colorful sub-drama of Ann's alleged relationship with Lincoln. McNamar was a prosperous New Salem merchant—and a friend of Lincoln's—who had courted Ann, secured an engagement, then went back East to tend to family matters.

For a time he wrote Ann letters, then stopped. To all appearances he had left her in the lurch. Enter the opportunistic Lincoln.

According to Robert: In the mean time Mr Lincoln paid his addresses to Ann, continued his visits and attentions regularly and those resulted in an engagement to marry, conditional to an honorable release from the contract with McNamar. There is no kind of doubt as to the existence of this engagement[.] David Rutledge urged Ann to consummate it, but she refused until such time as she could see McNamar—inform him of the change in her feelings, and seek an honorable release.Mr Lincoln lived in the village, McNamar did not return and in August 1835 Ann sickened and died. The effect upon Mr Lincoln's mind was terrible; he became plunged in despair, and many of his friends feared that reason would desert her throne.

His extraordinary emotions were regarded as strong evidence of the existence of the tenderest relations between himself and the deceased.33This is the totality of what Robert had to say to Herndon about Lincoln and Ann in this long and otherwise detail-packed letter. Note that the only cited witness is the dead David. There are no specific romance memories from Ann's mother, none from brother John, and as noted, none from Robert.

Indeed, no specific memories from any living Rutledge. Yet, if Lincoln had courted Ann during regular visits to the Rutledge home and eventually won her over, and if this had been a courtship conducted in the shadow of Ann's missing fiancé, who, of all the living family members in 1866, would presumably have been most able to supply facts about this domestic drama? Ann's mother, of course.34 An elder brother might also be supposed to have known something, not to mention Robert, who at the time of Ann's death was a teenager.

But instead of citing the living, Robert cited a brother who had died twenty-four years before Robert wrote to Herndon. Randall's phrase 'dim and misty' comes sharply to mind.Note also that the only element of Robert's romance account with any zing to it is the description of Lincoln's reaction to Ann's death: His 'extraordinary emotions were regarded as strong evidence of the existence of the tenderest relations between himself and the deceased.'35The record shows that Rutledge family recollections of Lincoln and Ann did not include personal knowledge of notable Lincoln grief. Nancy Rutledge Prewitt, Ann's younger sister, told a newspaper correspondent in 1899: 'It has been said that Mr.

Lincoln was insane for a year after Annie's death, with grief. I do not remember as to that.... I have read that they did not dare to allow him to have a razor or knife at that time, but I never heard any of our family say so, and they were intimate friends with him as long as he was there.

There are so many things in the papers that are not true.'36Indeed, in correspondence with Herndon shortly after the letter discussed above, Robert Rutledge twice specifically disavowed having witnessed Lincoln grieve. The first disavowal: '[Do you] get the condition of Mr Lincoln's mental Suffering and Condition [after Ann's death] truthfully? I cannot answer this question from personal knowledge, but from what I have learned from others at the time, you are substantially correct.'37 The second disavowal: 'I cannot say whether Mr Lincoln was radically a changed man, after the event [Ann's death], of which you speak or not, as I saw little of him after the time.'38 In other words, Robert learned of Lincoln's grief from hearsay.

If there had been romance, would not Lincoln have shared his grief with the family of the dead beloved?A question in a detail-packed letter the of which were and by Rutledge family the family spokesman did not a specific memory of even one living family about a love but did events that no one in the family to have and characterized those events as evidence of the tenderest between Lincoln and Ann, what this say about the Rutledges as of a To put it did Robert account of an intimate family on memories of people outside of the family for instead of on the memories of living As was the case with many other in the Ann Rutledge it that Robert most evidence for a romance on a from Lincoln's he himself did not witness grief. to that the Rutledges did not, in fact, witness a J. McGrady Rutledge, the second of the three Rutledges who to have personal knowledge of a romance. In a letter November 1866, shortly after the letter just Robert Herndon that he had received a letter from J. cousin about her age who was in her Robert then told once in from a on that made far a that one had her engagement with Ann to that as as studies were she and Lincoln would be from a by Mrs.

William Rutledge, to be this is the first personal that Herndon from a living Rutledge about Lincoln and Ann. also the except for a Herndon with McGrady many years in Herndon asked know any the and of Abraham Lincoln and Ann If so fully the This is in I had an to and I do the facts. Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge were engaged to be He came down and was with her during her last and Lincoln was at Springfield Ann Rutledge to a year for their after their until Abraham Lincoln was to the and Ann Rutledge died the of the facts here is on one Lincoln to Springfield to his in law until after Ann died. But the most about this testimony is, once the of to the and final Rutledge who personal knowledge of a romance.

In G. U. Miles, Herndon's and investigator, interviewed three of New Mrs.

Mrs. William Rutledge, and Mrs. Mrs. told that Lincoln was a of Ann for two or three years before she died, and that Lincoln took her death so much so that some he would then turned to Mrs.

William Rutledge who in and did in the at the time of courtship and who is an to Ann Rutledge with the all the of the courtship all the She that Ann if She had lived would have or rather She Ann him a little the best had in for two years at the time of her death they by have or rather She Ann him a little the is not an of an romance. No mention of an engagement, that Mrs. also her comments on had a by the name of John who She as much of as She did of Lincoln to of the things about Herndon's Informants is that it a of with that include between the Mrs. William Rutledge, however, not in the In the Wilson and Davis her as and describe her as It is that Mrs.

William Rutledge was the of the brother of Ann's James Rutledge. But evidence shows that, in fact, she actually was Rutledge, not By of the fact that her mother and Ann's mother were was Robert cousin as as aunt by of this except that it the question of why Robert apparently did not include in his family for she had known Ann very the of Ann's is Rutledge was also the mother of J. McGrady This fact is in Herndon's be recalled that and J.

McGrady were the only living Rutledges who told Herndon that they had personal knowledge of Ann's relationship with Lincoln. this had very things to say about that J. McGrady with that Ann and Lincoln were engaged to be that Ann, had she would have McNamar. This in a is the of what Herndon from the two living Rutledges who actually J.

McGrady and his mother or even about which one of them had the of Lincoln and This almost never be But one is very clear J. McGrady and Rutledge did not picture fresh by frequently having it recalled them. did their The only the Rutledge family Herndon about Lincoln and J. and be characterized as to the what Herndon has down to in Herndon's Informants, it is very hard to that the Rutledge to Herndon's Rutledge which made the legend a famous late into the to other the of Lincoln's love for addresses only a of the case made by legend revivalists for Lincoln-Ann romance and Wilson, John and others also the testimony of many non-Rutledge New Salem who knew both or had heard about them. To fully that testimony would an twice the of this it to say that, the non-Rutledge testimony up little than the Rutledge testimony.

David after that Herndon's Informants made it more easily and to examine all the testimony that Herndon on the in his new Lincoln at it is for its of the Rutledge family were that there had been a engagement between Lincoln and their Mrs. who have been Lincoln's in New to know about a love she to Lincoln's grief at Ann's is in the he to why he no the legend. But it clear that he is from a major years after James G. Randall delivered a to the Ann Rutledge the legend be a second