The only poem that Mary Lincoln ever admitted writing (though probably not the only one she did write, considering her love of poesy) was published in the Springfield, Illinois, Sangamo Journal in 1842, part of a piece of political satire that nearly caused her future husband to fight a duel.
In August and September 1842, a series of four satirical letters by "Rebecca," an uneducated but shrewd backwoods woman from "Lost Townships," appeared in the Journal ridiculing Democrat State Auditor James Shields for his political maneuvers concerning bank and tax issues. Whig State Assemblyman Abraham Lincoln, age thirty-three, wrote at least one of the "Rebecca" letters-the second one-published on September 2, 1842.[1] After he showed his letter to his paramour Mary Todd, age twenty-four, and her friend Julia Jayne, the girls contributed their own piece to the series, the fourth letter, which was published on September 8. While the previous "Rebecca" letters had ridiculed Shields's politics, the Todd/Jane letter debauched him personally. Their contribution, among other things, ridiculed him for being offended at the previous letters and for seeking "satisfaction" from the anonymous author. The final installment of the "Rebecca" correspondence in the Sangamo Journal was a poem published on September 16, 1842, and signed "Cathleen." It celebrated the "marriage" between Shields and the rough-hewn Rebecca who was "not over sixty, and am just four feet three in my bare feet, and not much more round in girth"; and lamented all the hearts left broken by the nuptial of the vain and pompous Shields.[2]
Shields was so incensed by the final two "Lost Townships" items that he accosted the newspaper editor and demanded to know the identity of the author. Lincoln chivalrously took responsibility. Shields immediately insisted a public retraction, and when Lincoln refused, Shields challenged him to a duel. Lincoln accepted and, as the challenged party, chose the weapons-broadswords. He later said he did not want to hurt his opponent, but if forced to would have split him from head to toe. Lincoln probably would have achieved this easily given his great advantage of reach, Shields being seven inches shorter in stature. Because dueling was outlawed in Illinois, the men and their seconds traveled to a spot in Missouri across the Mississippi River from Alton, Illinois. At the last minute, friends of both men convinced each to retract their offensive statements, shake hands, and return to Springfield.[3]
The famous Shields duel incident humiliated Lincoln, and he and Mary agreed never to discuss it. In February 1865, an army officer heard the tale and asked President Lincoln if the story of the duel, "all for the sake of the lady by your side," was true. Lincoln, flushed by embarrassment replied, "I do not deny it, but if you desire my friendship, you will never mention it again."[4]
In December 1865, Mary wrote about the duel in three separate pieces of correspondence in six days, and in each letter she claimed authorship of the "Cathleen" poem. She explained to one friend, "Gen. Shields, a kindhearted, impulsive Irishman, was always creating a sensation and mirth, by his drolleries. On one occasion, he amused me exceedingly, so much so, that I committed his follies, to rhyme, and very silly verses they were, only, they were said to abound in sarcasm causing them to be very offensive to the Genl. A gentleman friend, carried them off and persevered in not returning them, when one day, I saw them, strangely enough, in the daily paper."[5]
Ye jews-harps awake! The-'s won-
Rebecca the widow has gained Erin's son;
The pride of the north from the Emerald isle
Has been woo'd and won by a woman's sweet smile.
The combat's relinquished, old loves all forgot:
To the widow he's bound, Oh! bright be his lot!
In the smiles of the conquest so lately achieved.
Joyful be his bride, "widow's modesty" relieved,
The footsteps of time tread lightly on flowers-
May the cares of this world ne'er darken their hours.
But the pleasures of life are fickle and coy
As the smiles of a maiden sent off to destroy.
Happy groom! in sadness far distant from thee
The Fair girls dream only of past times of glee
Enjoyed in thy presence; whilst the soft blarnied store
Will be fondly remembered as relics of yore,
And hands that in rapture you oft would have prest,
In prayer will be clasp'd that your lot may be blest.
Cathleen
Notes
[1] Abraham Lincoln, "The Rebecca Letter," Aug. 27, 1842, Roy P. Basler, ed., Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 1:291-97. For an examination of the letters and the subsequent events, see Roy P. Basler, "The Authorship of the 'Rebecca' Letters," Abraham Lincoln Quarterly 2, no. 2 (June 1942): 80-90.
[2] Untitled poem, Sangamo Journal, Sept. 16, 1842.
[3] For the series of correspondence concerning the duel, see Abraham Lincoln to James Shields, Sept. 17, 1842, and "Memorandum of Duel Instructions to Elias H. Merryman," Sept. 19, 1842, and "Statements Concerning the Whiteside-Merryman Affair," Oct. 4, 1842, Basler, Collected Works, 1:299-302.
[4] Mary Lincoln to Francis B. Carpenter, Dec. 8, 1865, Turner and Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, 298-99.
[5] Emphasis in original. Mary Lincoln to Mary Jane Welles, Chicago, Dec. 6, 1865, ibid., 295-96. See also Mary Lincoln to Josiah G. Holland, Chicago, Dec. 4, 1865, ibid., 292-93.