Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN• 47ledge. McGrady Rutledge often worked with Lincoln in thefields, helped him as a surveyor, ate with him and shared hisbed with him, and probably knew more about Lincoln's love forAnn than any other third person has ever known.On a quiet summer evening this old lady sat in a rockingchairon her porch and told the author: "I have often heardPa say that after Ann's death Mr. Lincoln would walk fivemiles out to Ann's grave and stay there so long that Pa wouldget worried and fear something would happen to him, and goand bring him home. . . . Yes, Pa was with the undertaker whenAnn's grave was opened, and I have often heard him tell thatthe only trace they could find of Ann's body was four pearl buttonsfrom her dress."So the undertaker scooped up the four pearl buttons, andsome dirt and interred them in his new Oakland Cemetery atPetersburg—and then advertised that Ann Rutledge was buriedthere.And now, in the summer months, thousands of pilgrimsmotor there to dream over what purports to be her grave; I haveseen them stand with bowed heads and shed tears above thefour pearl buttons. Over those four buttons there stands abeautiful granite monument bearing this verse from Edgar LeeMasters' "Spoon River Anthology":Out of me unworthy and unknownThe vibrations of deathless music:"With malice toward none, with charity for all."Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions,And the beneficent face of a nationShining with justice and truth.I am Ann Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds,Beloved in lifeof Abraham Lincoln,Wedded to him, not through union,But through separation.Bloom forever, O Republic,From the dust of my bosom!But Ann's sacred dust remains in the old Concord Cemetery.The rapacious undertaker could not carry it away—she andher memories are still there. Where the bob-white calls and thewild rose blows, there is the spot that Abraham Lincoln hallowedwith his tears, there is the spot where he said his heartlay buried, there would Ann Rutledge wish to be.