Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN•65Herndon ought to have known if anybody did, and he said:To me it has always seemed plain that Mr. Lincoln marriedMary Todd to save his honor, and in doing that hesacrificed his domestic peace. He had searched himselfsubjectively, introspectively, thoroughly: he knew he didnot love her, but he had promised to marry her. The hideousthought came up like a nightmare. ... At last he stoodface to face with the great conflict between honor and domesticpeace. He chose the former, and with it years ofself-torture, sacrificial pangs, and the loss forever of ahappy home.Before he was willing to proceed, he wrote Speed, who hadgone back to Kentucky, asking him if he had found happinessin his marriage."Please answer quickly," Lincoln urged, "as I am impatientto know."Speed replied that he was far happier than he had ever expectedto be.So the next afternoon, Friday, November 4, 1842, Lincoln,reluctantly and with an aching heart, asked Mary Todd to behis wife.She wanted to have the ceremony performed that very night.He hesitated, surprised, and a little frightened at the celeritywith which events were moving. Knowing she was superstitious,he pointed out that the day was Friday. But, remembering whathad happened before, she feared nothing now so much as delay.She was unwilling to wait even twenty-four hours. Besides, itwas her birthday, her twenty-fourth birthday, so they hurriedto Chatterton's jewelry store, bought a wedding-ring, and hadthese words engraved inside it: "Love is eternal."Late that afternoon Lincoln asked James Matheny to be hisbest man, saying, "Jim, I shall have to marry that girl."While Lincoln was putting on his best clothes that eveningat Butler's house, and blacking his boots, Butler's little boyrushed in and asked him where he was going.Lincoln replied: "To hell, I suppose."In despair, Mary Todd had given away the trousseau thatshe had had made for the first wedding date, so that now shehad to be married in a simple white muslin dress.All arrangements were carried through with nervous haste.