Mary lincoln expenditures

[archieclement]

I had a show on in the background and it stated the reason for Mary being comitted was her son feared she was squandering the estate on spiritualists.

I had always heard she was extravagant careless spender, but not sure I'd ever heard that in regard to spiritualists....which i did know she used though.

Has anyone seen anything suggesting how much she was spending on spiritualism?

 

[huskerblitz]

How much? Not sure I've seen amounts listed, but I think it was fairly well known she spent quite a bit to 'commune' with her deceased family.

 

[Sheltowee]

After a quick review of the subject, seems that the best answer might be found in the insanity trial testimonies. Not sure if those are readily available?

From what I gather, her spending- overall- was a primary concern. Not just what she blew on spiritualists.

Below is lifted from an American Heritage article. Although Robert was concerned about her extravagant spending, it doesn't sound as though he feared her squandering the estate (at least at the time of this writing). Found no specified worries regarding spiritualist expenses- but maybe others have?


Although he spoke of the assassination, Robert Lincoln—and others—always believed the root of Mary's mania was money: her indefatigable need to spend it and her paranoid conviction that she had none. "The simple truth, which I cannot tell anyone not personally interested, is that my mother is on one subject not mentally responsible," Robert wrote to his future wife, Mary Harlan, in 1867. "You could hardly believe it possible, but my mother protests to me that she is in actual want and nothing I can do or say will convince her to the contrary." In fact, Abraham Lincoln's estate was more than $83,000 upon his death, one-third of which was Mary's. Moreover, she received $22,000 in late 1865 as the remainder of her husband's presidential salary, and Congress voted her a $3000 annual pension in 1870.

Just some side info- her pension in 1870 was equivalent to almost $74,000 today. I believe I read that the pension was increased to $5000 later on.

The Madness of Mary Lincoln

Her son had her committed. She said it was so he could get his hands on her money. Now, 130 years after this bitter and controversial drama, a trove of letters—long believed destroyed—sheds new light on it.

www.americanheritage.com

 

[SWS]

John B. Jones reports out of Richmond in June 1863: "By the Northern papers we see the President of the United States, his wife, and his cabinet are amusing themselves at the White House with Spiritualism."

 

[DBF]

Mary was not the first "First Lady" to visit to realm of the dead. Jane Pierce lost her young son as the family was headed to Washington to serve as the "First Family". She was so depressed, she held seances in the White House. This is one thread I did on Mary Lincoln.

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/a-...-most-famous-client-mary-todd-lincoln.205565/

Mary's problem wasn't how much she spent on Spiritualism, it was how much she spent in general.

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/a-tuesday-tea-goes-shopping-with-mary-todd-lincoln.204742/

By the way there have been several First Ladies that have explored the occult including: Edith Wilson, Grace Coolidge, Florence Harding, Lady Bird Johnson, Jackie Kennedy and Nancy Reagan. Some of these women were more notable than others, with many on the list from believing they saw the ghost of Abraham Lincoln to reading their astrological charts.

 

[archieclement]

It is curious if one had some fear of being in debt or destitute......they also would be an extravagant spender......some form of guilt over the spending?

 

[Mint Julep]

It's always a wonderment how we can assume Lincoln could control the country but not his wife.

 

[JerryD]

It's always a wonderment how we can assume Lincoln could control the country but not his wife.

I can only assume you are not married....

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

According to the source below, following her husband's assassination, Mary used all her resources to pay off her many debts accrued while she was in the White House. Her attempts during her husband's first term to show a generally hostile Washington Society that she was not the uncultured country bumpkin they supposed her to be were focused on presenting herself, by her clothing and decor, as refined and elegant. The money she spent did not win her any acceptance however, but only gave her enemies more to criticize.

"I told you what my eldest son and I have always kept to ourselves, that as soon as our senses could be regained I had every Washington and every other indebtedness sent to me and out of every dollar I could command I paid to the utmost farthing. In some cases known to the Administration, but in very few, it was all done by ourselves, my son and myself, out of our money, so it should be said President Lincoln was not in debt. This is one of the causes why I am so straitened now, for living as we were compelled to, my husband not being a rich man, and we had to pay enormous prices for everything those war times."

Mary struggled to pay her debts and maintain her appearances.

There was a long delay in the settlement of Mr. Lincoln's estate and by 1867 the $22,000 allotted her by Congress for the President's unfinished term had grown alarmingly less. The bills for unsettled accounts that she had asked the merchants to send her had come all too promptly and she was overwhelmed at their magnitude; mortified and terror stricken, too, at her inability to settle her indebtedness, she was dazed and did not know where to turn for help. For at this time Mary was a singularly lonely woman…..
Honesty was ingrained in Mary's code of life, and these merchants must not suffer loss through her folly. She must sell everything! It would be humiliating.

So Mary began to sell her clothing, the only thing she felt she still owned outright. This mortified her son Robert and the rest of her family.

Following the third death of one of her sons, Tad, in 1871, her remaining companion in her travels and a source of emotional support, Mary completely broke down and began carrying large sums of money on her person wherever she went. Robert worried that she invited disaster by risking the loss of her money. He sadly concluded to intervene and have her committed to a sanitarium for rest in 1875.

Following her release, she isolated herself as much as possible from the ridicule she had come to expect-

At the end of eleven months Mary Lincoln was declared sane. Her sister Elizabeth (Mrs. Edwards) went to the sanitarium at Batavia and, accompanied by her sister and a trained nurse, Mary went back to Springfield. She was depressed and unhappy. "I cannot endure to meet my former friends, Lizzie," she said bitterly; "they will never cease to regard me as a lunatic, I feel it in their soothing manner. If I should say the moon is made of green cheese they would heartily and smilingly agree with me. I love you, but I cannot stay. I would be much less unhappy in the midst of strangers."

Source: page 264-298

Mary, Wife of lincoln : Katherine Helm : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

archive.org

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Spiritualism may conjure up many skeptical thoughts for us today, but this was a real movement that millions of people wholeheartedly believed and participated in. Spiritualism has been considered a religion, a fad, a hoax but whatever our thoughts it was a national phenomenon during the mid-1800s.

Source: https://www.historyisnowmagazine.co...-rise-of-spiritualism-in-19th-century-america

With hundreds of thousands of dead as a result of the Civil War, it is maybe not surprising that so many people turned to spiritualism as a source of comfort and a coping mechanism in the mid 1800s.

 

[bankerpapaw]

I had a show on in the background and it stated the reason for Mary being comitted was her son feared she was squandering the estate on spiritualists.

I had always heard she was extravagant careless spender, but not sure I'd ever heard that in regard to spiritualists....which i did know she used though.

Has anyone seen anything suggesting how much she was spending on spiritualism?

She was known as a "Big Spender" even before Lincoln died.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Here is another bit of info I gained from the source in post #9. I didn't realize that Mary was an accomplished seamstress and actually made her own clothes and those of her children when she and Lincoln lived in Springfield-

As Mr. Lincoln's law practice increased and his finances improved, he and Mary added to this house a second story. ….although she loved to make herself pretty and dainty for her husband, she did not burden him by incurring heavy debts. With discriminating taste she bought the materials, always of the best, and made her own dresses. Yet in spite of this small outlay, she gained the reputation of being extravagant. Many of her feminine critics on double the expense, did not dress half so well.
Page 98

 

[lupaglupa]

It never ceases to amaze me how much shade people throw at the first ladies. We certainly see it today and I'm guessing Martha Washington got it too. Politics gets mixed with pettiness and people become the worst version of themselves.

 

[huskerblitz]

It never ceases to amaze me how much shade people throw at the first ladies. We certainly see it today and I'm guessing Martha Washington got it too. Politics gets mixed with pettiness and people become the worst version of themselves.

Don't forget about Rachel Jackson. And she never lived long enough to be First Lady.

 

[milhistbuff1]

Comments about ladies in Treasury worth noting re: Mrs. L. in light of below

Mrs. L recommendation letter to Tr. Dept for prospective employee.