Abraham Lincoln's Therapeutic Trip to Kentucky
An Eye-Opening Period in the Life of a Future President
In 1841, Abraham Lincoln and fiancee Mary Todd, who had a stormy relationship, called off their engagement. Severely depressed, Lincoln decided to take a trip to Kentucky. During his stay there, the future president would receive a political and moral education that would shape the rest of his life and career.
The Apparent End of a Stormy Relationship and the Aftermath of a Break Up
After he broke up with Mary Todd, Abraham Lincoln confided in his close friend and fellow Kentuckian, Joshua Speed. Lincoln and Speed had known each other since Lincoln had lived above the Springfield, Illinois, store of which Speed was the shopkeeper. Speed was extremely concerned about Lincoln's mental state and feared that the upstart lawyer might even attempt suicide. Accordingly, Speed removed all knives, razors, and other potentially dangerous objects from Lincoln's room. When Speed's wealthy, slave-owning father died in 1841, Speed, who was intending to marry his own fiancee, returned to his family's Farmington, Kentucky, plantation and invited his friend to join him. In August of that year, Lincoln, still not fully recovered from the demise of his relationship with Ms. Todd, accepted this invitation. He stayed on the Speed plantation in order to heal and rest for six weeks.
The Political and Moral Education of a Future President
These would prove to be six very educational weeks. First, although the Speeds were slaveowners, they were also moderate abolitionists and had unsuccessfully tried to persuade their black farmhands to return to Africa. Secondly, Lincoln's observation of his friend's moral dilemma led him to conclude that slavery was a curse on humanity. This moral revelation ultimately influenced Lincoln's political ideology. On the return trip to Illinois, Lincoln and Speed sailed the Ohio River in a boat that was carrying slaves in shackles. Years later, Lincoln would recall,"That sight was a continual torment to me."
A Period of Healing and Reflection
Lincoln's therapeutic sojourn to Kentucky allowed him to regain his emotional stability. A decade after this trip, Speed asked Lincoln what stopped him from committing suicide. Lincoln replied that he could not bear to leave the world without first having done something to be remembered for. "I have an irrepressible desire to live," Lincoln said, "until I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it." Lincoln most definitely achieved this goal. He also achieved another goal: He and Mary reunited and were wed in the Springfield home of Mary's sister on November 4, 1842.
Source:
Various Authors. "Illinois Lawyer-- Marriage: 1842," excerpted from Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated History of His Life and Times, p. 49. New York: TIME Books, Time Inc., 2009.
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