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246 • LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNEstranged now from her sisters and kindred, she finally brokeeven with Robert, defying and maligning him so bitterly thatcertain passages of her letters had to be deleted before publication.When Mrs. <strong>Lincoln</strong> was forty-nine years old,she wrote <strong>the</strong>Negro dressmaker: "I feel as if I had not a friend in <strong>the</strong> worldsave yourself."No o<strong>the</strong>r man in United States history has been so respectedand loved as Abraham <strong>Lincoln</strong>; and possibly no o<strong>the</strong>r womanin United States history has been so fiercely denounced as hiswife.Less than a month after Mrs. <strong>Lincoln</strong> had tried to sell herold clo<strong>the</strong>s, <strong>Lincoln</strong>'s estate was settled. It amounted to $110,-295, and was divided equally among Mrs. <strong>Lincoln</strong> and her twosons, each receiving $36,765.Mrs. <strong>Lincoln</strong> now took Tad abroad and lived in solitude,reading French novels and avoiding all Americans.Soon she was pleading poverty again. She petitioned <strong>the</strong>United States Senate to grant her a yearly pension of five thousanddollars. The bill was greeted in <strong>the</strong> Senate with hisses from<strong>the</strong> gallery and words of abuse from <strong>the</strong> floor."It is a sneaking fraud!" cried Senator Howell of Iowa."Mrs. <strong>Lincoln</strong> was not true to her husband!" shouted SenatorYates of Illinois. "She sympathized with <strong>the</strong> rebellion. Sheis not worthy of our charity."After months of delay and torrents of condemnation she wasfinallygiven three thousand a year.In <strong>the</strong> summer of 1871 Tad died of typhoid fever, passingaway in violent agony. Robert, her only remaining son, wasmarried.Alone, friendless, and in despair, Mary <strong>Lincoln</strong> became <strong>the</strong>prey of obsessions. One day in Jacksonville, Florida, she boughta cup of coffee and <strong>the</strong>n refused to drink it, swearing it waspoisoned.Boarding a train for Chicago, she wired <strong>the</strong> family physician,imploring him to save Robert's life. But Robert was not ill. Hemet her at <strong>the</strong> station and spent a week with her at <strong>the</strong> GrandPacific Hotel, hoping to quiet her.Often in <strong>the</strong> middle of <strong>the</strong> night she would rush to his room,declaring that fiends were attempting to murder her, that Indians"were pulling wires out of her brain," that "doctors weretaking steel springs out of her head."
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