Friday, January 3, 2014

Mary Todd Lincoln to Mrs. John C. Sprigg, May 29, 1862

May 29th
Executive Mansion.

My Dear Mrs Sprigg:


Your very welcome letter was received two weeks since, and my sadness & ill health have alone prevented my replying to it. We have met with so overwhelming an affliction in the death of our beloved Willie a being too precious for earth, that I am so completely unnerved, that I can scarcely command myself to write – What would give to see you & talk to you in our crushing bereavement, if any one's presence could afford comfort – it would be yours. You were always a good friend & dearly have I loved you. All that human skill could do was done for our sainted boy, I fully believe the severe illness, he passed through, now, almost two years since, was but a warning to us that one so pure, was not to remain long here and at the same time, he was lent us a little longer – to try us & wean us from our world, whose chains were fastening around us & when the blow came it found us unprepared to meet it. Our home is very beautiful, the grounds around us are enchanting the world still smiles & pays homage, yet the charm is dispelled – everything appears a mockery, the idolized one is not with us, he has fulfilled his mission and we are left desolate. When I think over his short but happy childhood, how much comfort he always was to me, and how fearfully I always found my hopes concentrating on so good a boy as he was – when I can bring myself to realize that he has indeed passed away my question to myself is 'can life be endured?' Dear little Taddie who was so devoted to his darling Brother, although is deeply afflicted as ourselves, bears up and teaches us a lesson, in enduring the stroke, to which we must submit. Robert will be home from Cambridge in about six weeks and will spend his vacation with us. He has grown & improved more than any one you ever saw. Well we ever meet & talk together as we have done. Time how many sad changes it brings. The 1st of July we go out to the 'Soldier's Home', a very charming place 2 ½ miles from the city, several hundred feet above our present situation, to pass the summer. I dread that it will be a greater resort than here if possible, when we are in sorrow quiet is very necessary to us. Mr. Dubois, I suppose has reached home, ere this. I see by the papers that Mr. Burch is married - We have some pieces of furniture still remaining at his house, may I ask a favor of you. It is this. If Mr. Black can have room for them, can they be moved to any place above his store, where he may have room for them. The sofa, at Mr. Burch's, was new. A few months before we left. May I also ask you to speak to Mr. Black, and see if the 8 boxes we left with him are all there. I fear we have been troublesome friends. I send you a list of the articles sent me by Mr. B. If you feel the least delicacy about this - I will not wish you to do it. Whenever you have leisure, I hope you will write me. With love to you all, I remain ever your attached friend


Mary Lincoln.

SOURCES: Published in The New York Times, January 16, 1882, p. 2; The letter was offered for sale at Heritage Auctions, accessed January 3, 2014; Library of Congress, Voices of the Civil War: Our Crushing Berievement, accessed January 3, 2014; Library of Congress Blog: A Grief Like No Other, accessed January 3, 2014;

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