Nd is bob willard i have been president of the Abraham Lincoln institute in the past. This is the 17th symposium of my Abraham Lincoln institute wife and i are now ensconced in southern california. In the past couple of weeks the eyes of the nation were focused on the reagan president ial library. As america said goodbye to nancy reagan to you interests james baker and ron reagan junior both claim to that without mrs. Reagan there wouldve been no president reagan. Im not a real fan of iunterfactual history conduct have expressed that same view regarding mary lincoln. Is underscore this morning by sidney blumenthal. I have attended lots of events like this. Ive heard many presentations on mrs. Lincoln from friends and foes of this controversial first lady. Love her or hate her. There is little doubt in my mind that they love each other deeply and supported each other for better or worse in sickness and in health. Her support was an indispensable elements of his ambition. Our next speaker knows more about this just about anybody. Of this bookthor on mary lincoln. It traces the complex and often tragic life of mary lincoln. I encourage you to read the book. Her guest blog on christian mcwhorters blog about the civil dr. Mcdermotts expertise the americaneyond legal system in the 19 century. Her phd dissertation on juries in the antebellum midwest formed the basis of her 2012 book published by Ohio University press, the jury in lincolns america. Our colleague and friend rights mcdermotts careful study, based on extensive primary source research, sheds fresh light on the legal history the 19th century america. It should come as no surprise that she is comfortable with primary material. Since the early 1990s, starting as an intern and working her way to her current position as assistant director and associate editor, she has been an integral part of the papers of Abraham Lincoln project in illinois. His ambitious effort aims to identify, index, and make available digitally all the works created by lincoln, as well as the material received by him. I first became aware of her contributions when she was on the advisory board, dealing with successful first phase of the project, lincolns legal career. The papers project was caught in the middle of a political budget dispute in the state of illinois. I draw your attention to the editorial in the New York Times last sunday on march 13, and if you were so moved, i so urge you to exercise your right to petition the government for redress of grievances. At this time, and without Public Service announcement behind me, it is my pledge my privilege to invite stacey to the stage, nine by two to give her a warm welcome. And i invite you to give for a warm welcome. [applause] ms. Mcdermott it is such a pleasure to be here today. I was so nervous giving a talk at this hallowed building, and then i saw this, they did that, im from the midwest, thats perfect. I feel right at home with this scenery. It called minors right away. Perhaps many of you dislike mary lincoln. Perhaps many of you believe that she is really not so bad, but she just suffers by comparison to her mythical godlike husband. Perhaps theyre even some of you who actually like mary lincoln, as i do. But i am absolutely certain that everyone assembled here today is aware of the fact that mary lincoln is not a popular historical figure. And mary lincolns legacy in this regard is going to be at the forefront of my presentation today. But i am not here to defend mary lincoln. Im not here to deny that she made mistakes, she sometimes acted badly, and she failed to be a perfect wife, a perfect mother, and a perfect first lady. Rather, my goal here today is to offer some reflection of my personal journey with mary lincoln, in writing my biography of her extraordinary life. To share my perceptions of how some of mary lincolns contemporaries, and some modern historians, have unfairly judged her. And to provide some illuminating Historical Context for her fascinating life. Hopefully, at the end of my presentation, youll understand a little bit of what a nice girl like me is doing in this sordid mary lincoln business. And you will maybe understand mary lincoln a little better, too. Most important like him i hope that you will see mary lincolns humanity. When i first began working at the lincoln papers, i was taken aback, frankly, by the veteran that many lincoln scholars spewed at mary lincoln. As a new scholar at the time, was reading every i can get my hands on, trying to get up to speed. The mary haters were really just impossible to escape. They dominated the lincoln story of the 19th century, the lincoln historiography of the 20th century, and the symposia and historical conferences that i was attending in the 21st century. Constantly, they presented on the one hand, the kind and honest and good mr. Lincoln, and on the other hand, his hateful, deceitful, hellcat of a wife. This is a delicious dichotomy, i admit it. But it really doesnt do us much help in understanding Abraham Lincoln, his marriage, or his wife. They certainly dont help us understand mary. At the time, it appeared to me that jean baker, a phenomenal historian and really quite adept biographer, sheep and a lively biography and a very balanced portrayal of mary lincoln in 1987. At that time, when i was studying lincoln and trying to understand all of this, she seemed to me to be the only one who was interpreting married with any historical nuance at all. Jean bakers mary lincoln was, to my mind, a real person with good qualities and bad qualities. Now, i had read all the biographies i could get my hands on on Abraham Lincoln. And i had read many of the biographies that had been written about mary. It seemed free clear to me that figures per trail of Abraham Lincoln having chosen mary, she was the mother of his four boys, and she was the first lady who was by his side. Yet biographers didnt seem interested in any of the new wants. I will admit, i had just finished a masters degree under the two village of a feminist womens historian. I probably had my own feminist backup. But it seems pretty clear to me that there was a maledominated cadre that generally disliked mary, will cast her in an unflattering way. I was an editor of lincolns papers, and i have mostly preferred my view of the lincoln story from atop the voluminous pile of documentary evidence, not rolling around in the mucky areas of historical interpretation, at least where abraham and mary lincoln were concerned. Yet, in hindsight, i started to notice that i probably was a mary lincoln biographer was probably turning within me for a while. Sweeping biography of a really adjusting person. In a very short little volume. Of course, choosing documents for the end of the volume, i was terribly excited about that. Once i signed the contract, my nerves were still there. I worked really hard to think about a fresh way of approaching this project that made sense in a brief biography, it also would be an approach that would allow me to explore the really rich Historical Context of mary lincolns life. And i desired to have an approach that might be useful to future biographers of her famous husband, Abraham Lincoln. I sat down and really comfortable places in my house, drink some wine, then i read very slowly every single word of the more than 600 letters that are in that volume, at about 200 or so more that have been discovered since that volume was published in 1972. Much of that time, read those letters out loud to my dog. Who didnt seem to mind. I took no notes, which is something i have never done before as a scholar. I concentrated hard on marys voice, i really try to get inside her head. Even though couple of my friends warned me about the dangers of getting inside a crazy ladys head. But im kind of a crazy lady to, just ask my husband. I jumped right in there, and i didnt think it was really all that crazy inside of mary lincolns head, after all. I spent about three months just reading those letters. All the while i was thinking about how personal and historical experiences were shaping marys life. About how mary viewed those experiences, and about how mary understood her familial, social, and public relationships. And about how mary was to finding defining the world around her. The more i read, the more realized not only did the mary haters understand mary, but i have not understood her either. Where they had dismissed her as crazy and meanspirited and defined her as a detriment to lincolns public persona or to his personal happiness, i had assumed a feminist posturing defending her that also failed to adequately capture who she was as a person, what her life was like. Reading marys letters not only opened up a real life to me, but it also opened up my eyes to my own historical biases. The letters of mary lincolns widowhood, a portion of her life that i think is maybe the most understood, ended up being the most poignant for me. In my rediscovery of this woman i thought i had known. This is the point in her chronology, finally, where i began to accept her for all of her complexities, and for all of her faults. When i hit the letters the mary wrote between 1868 in 1871, during her time in europe with her son, thad, i very clearly saw an intelligent, sensitive woman with a whole lot of what we would today call baggage. And she was navigating fairly well through life that was both a blessing and a curse. I saw a woman who had a great deal of strength, but it was very fragile at the same time. I wanted to tell human stories about this very real person, from her perspective, with as much as her heart, her intellect, her soul as i could possibly glean from the world from the words she had written. By the time i sent to writing, it became a personal imperative to me to allow mary lincoln to tell as much of her story as was possible. That was my approach. Two long had historians appropriated and misappropriated her life, and her history to their own end. Or to tell the story of her husband life. My approach to this biography was to rely very heavily on marys own words and reflections, correcting errors in filling in gaps in providing Historical Context where the historian me in me deems necessary. In the end, i think i met the demands of my editors by writing a readable, accessible, very short biography of mary with a few fresh perspectives on her life. I also think ive written a biography that illustrates really quite well the richly human qualities of historical experience through the eyes of a woman who, like all of us, was flawed. Mary lincoln was the wife of Abraham Lincoln. Mary lincoln was also a daughter, a student, a sister, a mother, a friend, and ultimately, widow. She was a 19th century woman, doing the best she could. Sometimes, her efforts exceeded even her own expectations. Sometimes, they were just good enough. Other times, they were devastatingly insufficient. Her story real is a human story. I hope my biography adequately captures mary lincolns humanity. Mostly, though, in the end, i just hope that i have written a life that mary lincoln herself might recognize. Now, what i would like to do is to share 10 facts top 10 list 10 facts, 10 mary lincoln facts, that i would like all of you to take out of the room today. Fact number one. There was no such person named Mary Todd Lincoln. Until her sister and was born, she was marianne, and after that, she was just plain mary. When she arrived in illinois, she was miss todd, mary todd, or molly, and that name it. When she married Abraham Lincoln on november 4, 1842, she became mary lincoln. She called her mary lincoln, mrs. Lincoln, mrs. Abraham lincoln. She was mary lincoln until she died. I suppose that feminist historians started this Mary Todd Lincoln thing in an effort, i guess, to rescue her from domestic of security or something. But it is historically inaccurate, and it drives me bananas. Every time i hear it. So please, just call her mary lincoln, or mrs. Lincoln. Fact number two, the lincoln marriage was a companionable one. Very todd and Abraham Lincoln recorded in the parlor of marys sisters house in springfield, in the context of an emerging new ideal in 19 century marriage companionship. Mary and abraham were looking to a spouse that was Share Interests with them and have similar perspectives as they did. They liked children, and they loved partisan politics. And they had a very large circle of political friends in common. A significant romantic backdrop for the couple, and other couples in springville as well. And they were likely in love and talking about marriage by december of 1840. Unlike their parents, mary and abraham saw marriage as something beyond an economic union. They aspire to find love and friendship as well. Marital expectations were greatly heightened for the generation of americans. This is a very important context in which they suffered their famous lovers break up in january 1841. It was also their shared interest, their enthusiasm for politics that reunited the couple in the summer of 1842. Like most marriages, the lincoln marriage had its ups and downs. But throughout their more than 22 years together, they enjoyed each others company, it is absolutely clear. They shared a great love of their boys, and they continue to bond over literature, poetry, the theater, and politics. There can be no doubt here that Abraham Lincoln chose mary lincoln because he loved her and enjoyed her company. He chose her because he believed she was an appropriate fact number three. Lincoln did not travel the circuit as a lawyer to get away from mary. [laughter] lincoln started writing the circuit as soon as he began his law career in 1937. He was traveling the circuit when he married in november of 1842. At that time, it was common for lawyers and judges to travel legal circuits. Lincoln was not the only lawyer, nor was he the only professional in this era who lived an itinerant professional lifestyle. During this era, docrs, teachers, businessmen and others covered large geographic areas and spend time away from their homes and families. He was not strange that lincoln continued to travel the circuit after his marriage. Mary understood the reality, her own father had traveled a great deal for politics and for business. Fact number four. Marys interest in politics was extreme, but it was rooted in the context of 19 century gender roles. Marys kentucky family remembered her as a fiery little whig is a very younger, and she earned a reputation for not only understanding politics of the day, but for being willing to share her opinions about her hero, senator clay, who apparently she said she would one day marry. Like no other time in american history, women were becoming interested and involved in politics in the 1840s. They attended barbecues and rallies and speeches, and they read and depend and penned cap in literature. They were constrained to, because they had no vote or political power, and mary was ok with it. While there was a social role for her another women to play, in the end, mary believed it was really a sphere for males. It is no accident, however, that mary only considered political men, and certainly, she encouraged and often times really encouraged the political ambitions of her husband, who was, she saw very early on, a rising star in illinois. But mostly, mary lincoln viewed her role as the wife of a politician, albeit, a very smart and opinionated one, and she directed her ambitions towards her husband, and within the context of her own marriage. She was never, for example, interested in engaging in the womens Rights Movement of the late 1840s. Fact number five, mary lincolns education was extraordinary. Extraordinary. At a time when most women never attended school, and all, and actually lucretia clay, henry clays wife, was allegedly illiterate, women who did go to school maybe went 2, 3, 45 years. That was it. Mary lincoln spent 10 years in a forward thinking academies in lexington, kentucky. A particularly vibrant and interesting educational environment. She studied math and history and science and religion, and of course, french. These educational experiences were very important as part of who mary was, and how she lived her life great they emboldened her confidence in her spirit, and they made her really very unique. When ms. Mary todd arrived in springfield in 1839, she was the most educated and likely the most sophisticated, and probably the most intelligent lady in the entire town. Fact number six. Mary lincoln suffered, and her suffering was very real. But a time she was in her mid to late 20s, mary was suffering with regular headaches or migraines, probably migraines. And they plagued her throughout her entire life. She was also, by nature, and emotional woman. Personally, i dont give a lot of credence to this history, but i do think its very likely that if mary lived today, she wouldve probably been treated with medications for a Mental Health issue of some sort, and she likely would have suffered far less than it appears she did. She rarely let for physical health keep her from attending to the children, running a household, which were mostly did herself in springfield, or being involved with charitable works like her sewing circles in springfield. In her later years, mary lincoln suffered from diabetes. She had serious back problems, and she was, in the end, readily losing her eyesight. As she aged in her body began to feel hurt, keeping the sorrow from swallowing her up was a very difficult struggle for her. Mary buried one child in springfield, lost the second one in the white house, and watch the civil war claim family members, close friends, and ultimately, her own husband. Some historians have criticized mary for her protracted grief following the death of her son and the assassination of her husband, arguing that everyone suffered during the war. The civil war was, indeed, it will render this, horrendous tragedy. A human tragedy. And yes, a lot of women, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of women lost sons and husbands. She called him her troublesome little sunshine, and his companionship in her early widowhood has been critical to her survival. She loved and adored this child. And im of the opinion that losing thad was very likely her hardest sorrow of all. When she wrote out instructions for her funeral, she requested to be buried with mr. Lincoln on one side, and thad on the other. Number seven, mary lincoln was a modern, kind of hip mama. Many of you might be aware, ensure you were aware, mr. Lincolns indulgent parenting style, as many lincoln biographies discuss th