That Nation Might Live: One Afternoon with Lincoln’s Stepmother Read online

  “Travellers were how I got the news of Abe. They were well used to bringing things about family and that, and some come across word of Abe along the way. When Tommy come back from town looking all like a cat that swallowed a bird, I know’d then that somewheres along the way he seen someone who come up on Abe. My heart wished for news of a girl who could love him as Abe should be loved, but it seemed the news was mostly about what Abe done. The Good Lord begun his sculpting on Abe with them Clary’s Grove Boys. Jack Armstrong was lead wolf in a mighty awful pack. There was a lawlessness on the clearing at times. Keeping laws was Bush family business back in Kaintuck. My Pa was a captain of the Patrollers, my brothers were Patrollers. William, Samuel, Isaac, Elijah, Junior, and John. Tommy was too, for a while, till he just couldn’t bring himself to catch them slaves so close to freedom no more.”

  After some pause Mrs. Lincoln requests that I, “Keep an eye on Granmarm Lincoln” when she wanders off in the wilderness with her story. I promise to keep her somewhere in the direction of the core of her story, but again allowed for the enjoyment and potential value of her side reminiscences. Mrs. L. remains distressed that she appears an “old fool.” Now it is my turn to console, which comforts her greatly. I remind her she speaks of the Clary’s Grove Boys. She continued:

  “Without a certain law yet, the clearing could become a place for thugs to have their way. There were other gangs in the area, Sand Ridge Boys, Island Grove Boys. Pure deviltry for deviltry’s sake. Would put a stone under a feller’s saddle just to see him get bucked when he jump on. Was for that kind of foolishness and then some. Once built a fire round a man’s wooden leg, another time rolled a portly feller down a hill in a whiskey cask. Guess they were mad it was empty. But the meanest of the bunch was the Clary’s Grove Boys, and the meanest of the meanest was Jack Armstrong.

  “Abe was working at a store with none other than a Mr. Denton Offut, that same Mr. Offut from the second trip to New Orleans. Offut seen in Abe a goose to lay him golden eggs. Got an eye for talent, credit him so. Mostly it seemed because Mr. Offut was what my Pa would call ‘the talking type’ that the trouble begun, saying Abe was strongest this and the toughest that. News reach the Clary’s Grove Boys as though Abe done the bragging on himself. Tommy got a glint in the eye as he hear them boys come to find out for themselves about this gangly braggart. He tussle with Abe plenty, had a pride he dare not speak for his own reasons, but he know’d how the yarn end afore it even begun.

  “Jack Armstrong seen himself at the top of the heap, was looking chin high for the chance to beat on a challenger. Was a square-built feller, word was he was strong as an ox. Abe didn’t want no trouble but after Offut run his mouth nothing was going to satisfy the question other than a fight. Offut hold the fight on ground near his grocery, good for sales to see my boy’s life threatened, I s’pose. All a New Salem turn out, betting jack-knives and tobacco plugs over it, all of them in for Jack Armstrong. They wrestle to a draw mostly, with no one thrown. This Armstrong feller must have been all they said iffin he could fight Abe to a draw! Draw wasn’t what Jack had in mind so he resorted to some foul play, grab Abe with a choke hold not permitted for wrassling. That stirred up Abe and he just as quick seized the bully by the throat and shook him like a little boy. The other members of the gang were ready to jump in and beat Abe senseless. Abe backed himself up against Offut’s store, never feared none, just said in fairness he should fight em all one at a time. Something about Abe stirred a voice in none other than Jack Armstong, for he put a stop to it then. Right kindly, none other that Jack Armstrong, put his arm around Abe and took him in. Abe could find a way into the tiniest heart. Them two were bonded for life.

  “Next come Chief Black Hawk, brung up the Sauk and the Fox tribes up North in Illinois. Believing as Indians do, that land can’t be sold, Black Hawk simply come back and said, ‘We come to plant corn.’

  “That was all them settlers needed to run off to their forts, and sure enough went to war over it. Abe and John D. were off. The time they were gone put some strain on my systems, not for eating generally, though Tommy plagued me so. Think it was Tildy who handed my baby Nancy round then to save me. I tell that babe all about a girl name of Nancy Hanks. We were laughing together all over again, till I undone her crying by tending to her ever changing needs. Fussy lil varmint! Was only so long afore my thoughts turn back to them boys so far away. What if they were crying for their Mama, and me too far away to hear it? Seem like five lifetimes but it wasn’t even a full season afore they showed up at my door again, tired and hungry. Nearly starved was fine - they were upright, and all they needed was some good tending-to. Wished it could be like that every day.

  “After they eat their fill of Johhny cake and bacon fast as I could cook it, they begun to fire them yarns. There was no overlooking Abe Lincoln. That become clear as spring water when them boys elected him Captain of their warring unit. Abe spoke on the honor many a time. He seen for the first time that people were purty drawn to him. He pine on and on funning his many bloody struggles in battle - with mosquitoes. They didn’t see much fighting, nor food neither. A poor old Injin took refuge in the camp and the men wanted to hang him. Abe stood up mad as a cornered bull and said them boys were gonna have to kill him first. My boy had no stomach for it. The Good Lord find tough rock on his chisel!

  “Number of days between visits was always too long for my heart. When Abe’d come back to see us we’d hug and kiss him and try to get him to promise that he’d never go again no more. But we know’d it was no use. I think some of us know’d Abe was meant for somewhere’s special.

  “I made sure to set aside some meat in case Abe show up. I knew he was gonna need feeding. Someone would hear something from someone about Abe and pass it along to us. Sometimes reports would disagree and we’d spend our days puzzling over it, Tommy and me. Then come the news that Abe was gonna stand for election to be a state lawmaker of Illinois. Tommy seemed a little relieved almost when word come Abe was defeated, crowing on about how he reached too far. Made no matter to me, Abe said once that politics is short and sweet, like an old woman’s dance. I didn’t concern myself nohow. I was still waiting on news of a young woman. Abe seemed bent on doing and the world seem bent on him doing it.

  “Just as it was when I was a daughter of Christopher and Hanna Bush back in Liztown, Abe found his way to the clearing. Spied a village alongside the Sangamon River while he was on his New Orleans visit. Place called New Salem. All Abe’s yarns bout being a wheelwright, cooper, tinner, weaver and blacksmith, they remind remind me of them days in Liztown. Turns out the blacksmith had a lot of books, so Abe spent most a his time there, making the most of the idle hours when farmers were busy with their crops. Found some books in a barrel, would you believe. ‘Colonel, would you fetch them books for Granmarm Lincoln? I figure Billy may find them interesting.’ (Writer: Book is A complete set of Blackstone’s Commentaries.) Abe purchase a log-built store. Was partners with a Mr. Berry, as I recall. Sell anything from coffee to kerosene. Tildy seem prone to whisper they sold whiskey too. No mind, the store winked out and my boy owed more money than my poor mind could figure. Abe try to make joke of it, calling it the National Debt, but there wasn’t a speck of humor in it for his Mama.”

  Mrs. L. excuses herself, upset as though the debt crisis was present. Colonel Chapman and Tildy raise her from beneath her shoulders. She spoke of her “blood reaching her toes,” steadied herself, stabilized by Col. Chapman’s forearm. Tildy hovers along her mother’s left side while Col. Chapman guides Mrs. Lincoln to her bedside. She lays prone after Tildy wedged coverlets beneath her mother’s lower left back and neck. Propped up on pillows to 35 degrees to support her body, now fully outpaced by her mind, Mrs. Lincoln rests. Writer too breaks while Tildy removed her mother’s white linen bonnet, freeing the flowing gray hair tossed upside down, curls flowing freely atop her gown collar turned down. Throughout my introductions along this journey, Mrs. Lincoln was commonly described by acquaintances a
s ‘straight as an Indian.’ This long and wiry frame produced much over many years. A great beauty still. Laying prone, hair freed, was true and genuine comfort and material aid to Mrs. L. She continued:

  “John D. married a woman by name of Mary Barker round the harvest of 1834, as I recall it. Somewheres round then I reckon. Mary was as a woman should be on her wedding day. I saw much in her, making the same mistake I made with the groom’s dearly deceased Pa. My boy was a charmer, and handsome as his Pa. Poor little Mary Barker had stars in her head where her eyes should be. Betsy and Tildy were there with Denny and Squire, and their restless gang a grandchildren. My Sister Hannah was there with her family of Bush children. Tommy was right jolly, he thunk the world of my Johnny. They were like blood kin same way me and Abe were. Abe wasn’t there for Johnny’s day, but I know’d he would have been at Johnny’s side if word had reached him in time. Them two had many an hour together in fields and wilderness, in the loft with their whispering, been to New Orleans and back together. If Abe had known, he’d a been there.

  “News come round that Abe was a postmaster in New Salem. Meant he could read all the newspapers in his shirt sleeves with his feet up on the counter. Traveler come by and told Tildy that Abe would stick letters in his hat to deliver them. Would read the letter for folks when necessary, write a reply for them sometimes. See what Nancy Hanks done all them years ago by teaching her boy? Round then Abe also got to surveying land, anything to earn money without a heavy instrument of force. Abe was fond to say, ‘My father taught me to work, but he did not teach me to like it.’

  “Day come when I thought I’d surely die as Abe Lincoln stood afore my door wearing a new suit made of butternut jeans, woolen socks, and buckskin jacket. Seem Abe was meeting new folks all the time and sure enough, next time around my boy was elected state lawmaker. I was right proud and figured now why there was no talk of a girl, Abe ain’t met her yet was all. He was loping along for bigger places.

  “Abe told me he become a lawyer. He said it only after we were grinning a plenty about a yarn he spun about a minister and lawyer. Abe done it better, but it went somewheres like this a way:

  ‘A minister and a lawyer were riding along the countryside. Says the minister to the lawyer, ‘Sir, do you ever make mistakes in pleading?’

  ‘I do’, says the lawyer.

  ‘And what do you do with mistakes?’ asks the minister.

  ‘Why sir,’ says the lawyer. ‘If large mistakes come, I mend them. If small ones, I let them go.’ The lawyer then returned the inquiry for the minister. ‘And pray sir, do you ever make mistakes in your preaching?’

  ‘Yes sir I have,’ replies the preacher. Of course, the lawyer has his real question all lined up now. ‘And what,’ he asks, ‘do you do with your mistakes?’

  The preacher replied, ‘Same as you. Not long since, I meant to say that the devil was the father of all liars, but I made a mistake and said the father of lawyers. Figured the mistake was so small, I let it go.’

  Mrs. Lincoln is amused, more so after I reminded her the Writer is also a lawyer. Reminded her again that her son and myself are partners in law. This pleases her more. She enjoys a respite, generally entertained by my stories of our law office. I cannot relate an anecdote that does not fail to amuse Mrs. L. I speak of Abe’s vast void of clerical ability—she laughs; I relate how our office was so filthy that herbal life sprouted from floor cracks—she laughs; that her grandsons were always welcome with Abe when not in school, and could act as monkeys in his presence—she laughs until I am excused for her relief.

  When I return to her bedside Mrs. Lincoln begs my pardon that she lay fully prone. I insist on her comfort. She continued:

  “Turns out Abe was waiting on a certain young woman from Lexington, in Kaintuck, to drop her bags at the train station in Springfield. She come to live with her sister. Sister’s name escapes me, but as Abe tell it, Mary Todd’s sister and the sister’s husband were the right fine center of it all, for anyone that was right and fine in Springfield. Abe said he wanted to dance with Mary in the worst way. He tell me about them fancy gowns, best as a man can. I reckon it like I was back in Liztown, afore I settled on a certain Daniel Johnston. I’d a worn them gowns iffin I hadn’t settled for a certain Daniel Johnston.

  “Abe was nearly thirty, I s’pose, round about the time he first seen Mary Todd. She was almost a spinster at twenty-two years. Abe said she had her light chestnut hair and posh, smooth skin. As Abe tells it, seems most enchanting for my boy were her eyes. Said they were as blue as the sky round sunrise, nary a cloud. Her eyes pierce him like that. All the voting and speeches were right fine, but this was news his Mama was a waiting for. I was plumb tickled when Abe told me she’s fond of poetry and could speak French like she was born there. I knew then she was the one he was waiting for. Abe and I grinned over it when he told me the reason Mary Todd showed her face in Springfield, Illinois, back then. Was because she couldn’t get on with her stepmother. I teased him some how hard us stepmamas is to get on with.”

  Writer’s Note: I speak truthfully of Mary Todd. She was indeed dashing, handsome cultured, graceful and dignified. I dare not sully precious time speaking of Mrs. L’s daughter-in-law who was also a truly sarcastic, haughty, and caustic aristocrat. In spite of it, because of it, she became the belle of the town, leading the young men on a merry dance. Not the least of whom was Stephen Douglas. I delight Mrs. L. with Mary Todd’s decline of Douglas’ jestful proposal of marriage to her. Of herself, she stated, ‘Mary Todd wished to marry a President, and so chooses Mr. Abraham Lincoln.’ This pleases Mrs. Lincoln vastly. The ever piercing wit and tongue, forked tongue, of Mary Todd. The Todd family was friends and neighbors of Henry Clay in Lexington. The significance was not lost on Mrs. Lincoln. She continued:

  “Word come around Christmas, Abe and Mary were engaged. No bliss in it, Abe show up at my door one day reduced and emaciated, could barely speak above a whisper. Took to his bed for a week. Lord a-Mighty, my boy was under a dark cloud for a time. I feed him as much as he could stomach. Spoke to the chillern that were fond of Uncle Abe, saying he was sick and need his Mama’s time for now. They were respecting a course. I set by him days gone by, feeling nearly as low down.

  “My boy was a felled tree in the woods. I’d speak to Abe when he was recepting of it, but I mostly just held his hand while he rested his mind. We begun to speak on it. Trying, as any Mama might, I explain what mostly can’t be explained. Abe prefer the mind. He got through it. Him and Mary got through it. The day come when Abe was purt proud to show me his wedding ring carved, ‘Love is eternal.’

  “No more than an elephant would a skeeter, Abe never noticed Mary’s pestering. He’d just take hold of her hand, or pat her on the shoulder, and she’d quiet down. You bet, Mary was a good woman or Abe never would a loved her like he done. She didn’t have nothing personal against us kinfolks, but I reckon she figured we wouldn’t help Abe’s chances none.

  “Mary was smart and high feeling about Abe. When they were fust married she’d toss her head way up in the air like a blood colt, and tell us what a big man Abe was going to be. I know’d afore she did, course I didn’t say as much. The chillern enjoyed laughing over Mary’s pride in him, for when a feller’s as honest as Abe was, they said it generally stands in the way of his gittin on in the world. He purt nigh always got the worst of a trade. And then he didn’t look for greatness. He looked just like the rest of us, only some homelier. Kind of common and neighborly, not a bit stuck-up. You just naturally liked to set and visit with Abe.

  “Things keep on, one year to the next. Run myself up to twenty-three granbabies crawling, yippin and running in and out my door. Soon enough them babies was borning—arms full a more babies still.

  “Abe come for a visit on his way to Washington City to be in the U.S. Congress. Come time for Tommy to fess up that all his foolishness saying Abe was reaching too far. Stubborn man Tommy. He mostly grumble and grouse his way to expressing pride in his boy. Natur
al as he was prone, Abe took it. They part uneasy.

  “I’d go to market round the square in Charleston. Seen folks, strangers to me, come to find out I was Abe’s mama. He wasn’t popular them days, Abe wasn’t what he is today and then a few. Bolder ones try to make their business with me. I send them grinning off their own way when I tell them how politics is like an old woman’s dance, short and sweet. That’s what Abe reckon I do.

  He spent most his time in Washington City arguing about warring with Mexico. He wasn’t for it, seemed like a fib to him why we were there, and he wasn’t for that. Saying too that taking on new lands was poison. Seen ahead, as Abe done, to a time when them territories would want to become states in the Union, and the question was up for fighting every time if they were coming in Free or Slave. Folks forgot what we been through with Missouri a ways back. Abe seen it, but couldn’t do nothing ‘cept to face the voters like he was against the soldiers. Naturally he didn’t get back to Washington City. Abe was done-for, while his tavern mate Stephen Douglas was the feathered rooster of the barnyard, crowing he was to be President. Little Doug we called him, half as tall as Abe but his head was twice the size of Abe’s. Most repugnantly handsome features, them two! They cut quite a pair.

  “Abe was done for alright, that’s what folks said back then. He stood for right iffin he must lose for it. The Good Lord set his mallet down.”

  Tell Father

  to remember to call upon, and confide in,

  our great, and good, and merciful Maker;

  who will not turn away from him in any extremity.