Ann Rutledge - Historical Criticism of Alleged Lincoln-Rutledge Relationship

Historical Criticism of Alleged Lincoln-Rutledge Relationship

Several historians have claimed that the evidence of a love affair between Lincoln and Rutledge is tenuous at best. In his Lincoln the President, historian James G. Randall wrote a chapter entitled "Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence" which cast doubt on the nature of her and Lincoln's relationship.

Lewis Gannett, writing in the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, claims that "Nearly sixty years after James G. Randall delivered a seeming coup de grâce to the Ann Rutledge legend, the legend may be nearing a second death." However, since William Herndon was not the only witness to the Lincoln-Rutledge relationship, efforts to minimize her role in Lincoln's early life have so far failed. (Ironically, many of those who wish to minimize Rutledge's importance to Lincoln are gay-rights activists who are quick to point to statements alleging the prominent role of Joshua Speed in Lincoln's emotional life, yet the majority of these statements also come from William Herndon.)

Read more about this topic:  Ann Rutledge

Famous quotes containing the words historical, criticism, alleged and/or relationship:

    What are your historical Facts; still more your biographical? Wilt thou know a Man ... by stringing-together beadrolls of what thou namest Facts?
    Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)

    When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.
    Ben Hecht (1893–1964)

    The entire construct of the “medical model” of “mental illness”Mwhat is it but an analogy? Between physical medicine and psychiatry: the mind is said to be subject to disease in the same manner as the body. But whereas in physical medicine there are verifiable physiological proofs—in damaged or affected tissue, bacteria, inflammation, cellular irregularity—in mental illness alleged socially unacceptable behavior is taken as a symptom, even as proof, of pathology.
    Kate Millett (b. 1934)

    There is a relationship between cartooning and people like Miró and Picasso which may not be understood by the cartoonist, but it definitely is related even in the early Disney.
    Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)