Finding Homosexual Threads in Lincoln's Legend

NYT ^ | 12/15/04 | DINITIA SMITH

[ZGuy]

Was Abraham Lincoln a gay American?

The subject of the 16th president's sexuality has been debated among scholars for years. They cite his troubled marriage to Mary Todd and his youthful friendship with Joshua Speed, who shared his bed for four years. Now, in a new book, C. A. Tripp also asserts that Lincoln had a homosexual relationship with the captain of his bodyguards, David V. Derickson, who shared his bed whenever Mary Todd was away.

In "The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln," to be published next month by Free Press, Mr. Tripp, a psychologist, influential gay writer and former sex researcher for Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, tries to resolve the issue of Lincoln's sexuality once and for all. The author, who died in 2003, two weeks after finishing the book, subjected almost every word ever written by and about Lincoln to minute analysis. His conclusion is that America's greatest president, the beacon of the Republican Party, was a gay man.

But his book has not stopped the debate. During the 10 years of his research, Mr. Tripp shared his findings with other scholars. Many, including the Harvard professor emeritus David Herbert Donald, who is considered the definitive biographer of Lincoln, disagreed with him. Last year, in his book "We Are Lincoln Men," Mr. Donald mentioned Mr. Tripp's research and disputed his findings.

Mr. Tripp was the author of "The Homosexual Matrix," a 1975 book that disputed the Freudian notion of homosexuality as a personality disorder. In this new book, he says that early biographers of Lincoln, including Carl Sandburg, sensed Lincoln's homosexuality. In the preface to the original multi-volume edition of his acclaimed 1926 biography, Sandburg wrote: "Month by month in stacks and bundles of fact and legend, I found invisible companionships that surprised me. Perhaps a few of these presences lurk and murmur in this book."

Sandburg also wrote that Lincoln and Joshua Speed had "streaks of lavender, spots soft as May violets." Mr. Tripp said that references to Lincoln's possible homosexuality were cut in the 1954 abridged version of the biography. Mr. Tripp maintains that other writers, including Ida Tarbell and Margaret Leech, also found evidence of Lincoln's homosexuality but shied away from defining it as such or omitted crucial details.

Mr. Tripp cites Lincoln's extreme privacy and accounts by those who knew him well. "He was not very fond of girls, as he seemed to me," his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, told Lincoln's law partner William Herndon. In addition, Lincoln was terrified of marriage to Mary Todd and once broke off their relationship. They eventually had four children.

But in "We Are Lincoln Men" Mr. Donald wrote that no one at the time ever suggested that he and Speed were sexual partners. Herndon, who sometimes slept in the room with them, never mentioned a sexual relationship. In frontier times, Mr. Donald wrote, space was tight and men shared beds. And the correspondence between Lincoln and Speed was not that of lovers, he maintained. Moreover, Lincoln alluded openly to their relationship, saying, "I slept with Joshua for four years. " If they were lovers, Mr. Donald wrote, Lincoln wouldn't have spoken so freely.

Mr. Tripp charts Lincoln's relationships with other men, including Billy Greene, with whom Lincoln supposedly shared a bed in New Salem, Ill. Herndon said Greene told him that Lincoln's thighs "were as perfect as a human being Could be."

Lincoln's fellow lawyer Henry C. Whitney observed once that Lincoln "wooed me to close intimacy and familiarity."

Then there is Lincoln's youthful humorous ballad from 1829, "First Chronicles of Reuben," in which he refers to a man named Biley marrying another man named Natty: "but biley has married a boy/ the girles he had tried on every Side/ but none could he get to agree/ all was in vain he went home again/and sens that he is married to natty."

Mr. Tripp tries to debunk the popular opinion among scholars that Lincoln's lifelong depressions were caused by the death of his first love, Ann Rutledge. He writes that at the time she was supposedly involved with Lincoln, she was engaged to John McNamar and that her name appears nowhere in Lincoln's letters.

Mr. Donald also takes issue with the conclusion that Lincoln had a sexual relationship with Derickson, his bodyguard at his presidential retreat, the Soldiers' Home, outside Washington. Mr. Tripp writes that their closeness stirred comment in Washington, and cites a diary entry from Nov. 16, 1862, by Virginia Woodbury Fox, wife of Gustavus Fox, assistant secretary of the Navy. She recounted a friend's report: " 'There is a Bucktail soldier here devoted to the president, drives with him, and when Mrs. L. is not home, sleeps with him.' What stuff!" But Mr. Donald writes that "What stuff!" meant she was dismissing the rumor.

Mr. Tripp cites a second description of the relationship in an 1895 history of Derickson's regiment, the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Thomas Chamberlain, Derickson's commanding officer: "Captain Derickson, in particular, advanced so far in the president's confidence and esteem that, in Mrs. Lincoln's absence, he frequently spent the night at his cottage, sleeping in the same bed with him and - it is said - making use of his Excellency's night-shirts!" When Derickson was to be transferred, Lincoln pulled strings to keep him. But Mr. Donald wrote that if their relationship was romantic, they would not have separated so casually when Derickson finally left Washington in 1863.

Despite Mr. Donald's criticism, Mr. Tripp has won support from other scholars. Jean H. Baker, a former student of Mr. Donald's and the author of "Mary Todd Lincoln: a Biography" (W. W Norton, 1987), wrote the introduction to the book. She said that Lincoln's homosexuality would explain his tempestuous relationship with Mary Todd, and "some of her agonies and anxieties over their relationship."

"Some of the tempers emerged because Lincoln was so detached," Ms. Baker said in a telephone interview. "But I previously thought he was detached because he was thinking great things about his court cases, his debates with Douglas. Now I see there is another explanation."

"The length of time when these men continued to sleep in the same bed and didn't have to was sort of an impropriety," Ms. Baker said.

The question of Lincoln's sexuality is complicated by the fact that the word homosexual did not find its way into print in English until 1892 and that "gayness" is very much a modern concept.

Ms. Baker said the focus of 19th-century moral opprobrium was masturbation, not homosexuality. "Masturbation was considered more dangerous," she said. "For homosexuals, there was a cloud over them, but it seldom rained." People, she noted, "were accustomed to these friendships between men."

In researching Lincoln, Mr. Tripp created a vast database of cross-indexed material, now available at the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Ill. He began the book working with the writer Philip Nobile, but they fell out. Mr. Nobile has charged that Mr. Tripp plagiarized material written by him and fabricated evidence of Lincoln's homosexuality.

"Tripp's book is a fraud," Mr. Nobile said in an interview. He declined to say what was fraudulent, however, because he said he was writing his own article about it.

After Mr. Nobile made his charges, Free Press delayed publication. "We made some slight changes," said Adam Rothberg, a spokesman for the publishing house, "and we are satisfied that we are publishing a book that reflects Mr. Tripp's ideas and is supported by his research and belief." The manuscript was edited by Mr. Tripp's friend Lewis Gannett.

Larry Kramer, the author and AIDS activist, said that Mr. Tripp's book "will change history."

"It's a revolutionary book because the most important president in the history of the United States was gay," he said. "Now maybe they'll leave us alone, all those people in the party he founded."

Michael B. Chesson, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and another former student of Mr. Donald's, wrote an afterword to Mr. Tripp's book supporting his thesis. The book is "enormously important to understanding the whole person," he said in an interview. He likened the criticism to early objections to Fawn Brodie's 1974 biography of Thomas Jefferson in which she claimed that Jefferson had children with his slave Sally Hemings; later genetic studies suggested that they had at least one child together.

Finding the truth is a sacred principal for historians, Mr. Chesson said, adding, "It's incumbent on us as scholars to present to readers material if historians have ignored it or swept it under the rug because they don't agree with it."

Still, if Lincoln was gay, how did it affect his presidency? Ms. Baker said that his outsider status would explain his independence and his ability to take anti-Establishment positions like the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. As a homosexual, she said, "he would be on the margins of tradition."

"He is willing to be independent, to do what is right," she said. "It is invested in his soul, in his psyche and in his behavior."

[danmar]

...nice twist Chief!

[citizencon]

Mr. Tripp...influential gay writer.

Hmmmm. Could he be just wishful thinking?

[California Patriot]

Absurd story based on very thin evidence. Typical NYT standards.

[Alouette]

cites a diary entry from Nov. 16, 1862, by Virginia Woodbury Fox, wife of Gustavus Fox, assistant secretary of the Navy.

What did Mrs. Fox know and when did she know it?

[AZ_Cowboy]

You know, the real hell of this article is that I was having a discussion about historical revisionism just this weekend, and honest to God, I concluded with, "The next thing you know, they'll make Abraham Lincoln gay or make Thomas Edison into a bisexual."

That came up after the recent attempts were made to make Alexander the Great out to be bi. This weekend, the History Channel ran a hit-piece on Benjamin Franklin, essentially asserting that he was the Hugh Hefner of the 1780s.

Some dude just wrote a proper, politically-incorrect History book, I understand. I don't have the name in front of me, but I caught the tail-end of a discussion on the radio today.

[COEXERJ145]

First of all don't call me kid. I consider that to be a derogatory term. Second of all, I was attempting to discuss the thread's topic using what he posted as an example of what academia tries to do these days.

[Muleteam1]

NYT - New York Tripe. One has only to consider the source.

[AZ_Cowboy]

Aha!

I got so worked up over the prophetical nautre of my statement, that I forgot to point out that the labeling of any prominent individual that ever contests democrat orthodoxy a gay is nothing new by the left.

Ann Coulter noted the treatment of J. Edgar Hoover in "Treason', as a matter of a fact. She also noted that they very rarely do it to living people, however. It was one of her catchier quotes, although it's a bit racy to employ here I think.

Typical leftists. Thay can't really argue intellectually anymore, so they resort to basal labeling or to attacking dead people. Dead people can't defend themselves.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Including my own sister...."

Awe, Man! What IS it these days? Is it 'Standard Family Issue' to have someone who is gay in our families? My sister is a Feminazi Lesbian. Walk a mile in MY shoes Sistah, LOL!

Lincoln. Gay? If he was so bizzy with his boyfriends, when did he have time to write all of those great speeches? I recite "The Gettysburg Address" while I run. It takes me, and the speech 2.2 miles and we can still do it in 20 minutes.

Grrr! I hate this friggin' Gay Agenda. No, LOATHE is a better word, one I usually reserve only for The Klintoons!

(I hear The HildaBeast is gay; why don't they recruit her? She'd be a great asset to their agenda.)

[texasmountainman]

To the Slimes, a bunch of BS like this non-story gets printed, but real stories like the Oil-For-Food scandal and the racist takeover of farms in Zimbabwe don't see the light of day.

[GloriaJane]

The NYT's is beginning to read like the National Enquirer. Except, I think the National Enquirer has more truth in it.

[Heyworth]

Oh, just wait a while. FR's resident brigade of Lincoln bashers will be along shortly to endorse every word of this theory. They'll also tell you that Lincoln had syphilis, was the most vile racist in American history, despised the Constitution, inspired Hitler, sought to exterminate the Indians and ate southern babies for his Sunday dinner.

[Revererdrv]

Maybe Gays want to prove other people are gay to force people to believe being gay is normal behavior. If they keep it up, sooner or later the majority of people will think it is o.k. It is already normal behavior in Hollywood and other parts of the country such as San Francisco.

[netmilsmom]

>>My sister is a Feminazi Lesbian. <<

I've got you beat!
My sister is an ex-Cleveland Teacher/flaming lib/lesbian (after two marriages and four children) with Munchausen Syndrome!

Thank GOD she lives on the East side of Cleveland and I live in Detroit.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You win! And Thank You, God! I don't mind losing on this point, LOL!

Grrrr! Children involved! At least my sister has been kind enough to NOT reproduce...yet!

[exnavychick]

Good golly, I hope you're wrong about that...what kind of crap is that? Unless it's THOROUGHLY documented by SEVERAL, INDEPENDENT sources, I'll stick to what I learned in American History.

Geesh...that really freaks me out. Besides, to my mind, Lincoln couldn't have been that racist if he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, politics nonwithstanding.

[danmar]

...whatever floats your boat, paisano!

[exnavychick]

Yeah, and that is scary. Riddle me this...if it's normal and natural behavior, then why are there so many risks associated with it? (And other promiscious behavior, for that matter?)

That's an easy argument to chop apart, I know, but that kind of thinking just steams me up.

[Twinkie]

These people accuse, attack, surmise, imagine and pick apart historical figures with total irresponsibility when the person is safely DEAD and can't defend themselves. Back in those days, it was not unusual for people, living in very cramped quarters and with limited beds and bedding to share beds. Visiting female visitors might sleep three to a bed or four "cross-twixt" of the bed. Visiting male friends and relatives might sleep two and three to a bed, or on a the same pallet on the floor. Dolly Parton slept with her little sisters, several of them to one bed, because of scarce furnishings. She remarked in one of her books that she actually missed waking up lying on "warm pee" from one of her littler sisters when she came to Nashville to live by herself.

Katherine Hepburn was once told (after she was grown) about "homosexuality" and she asked what it was. Her Hollywood friends told her in detail. She refused to believe it, stating, "That is not a physical possibility; there's nothing worthwhile in that!"

People in Lincoln's time were too busy trying to just survive, to cut and chop enough wood in the winter to stay reasonably warm, to raise enough food in the spring and summer to not starve, plowing with mules from sun-up to sundown, foraging for wild foods and berries, feeding the horses and mules, milking, slopping the hogs, building the fire every winter morning (not an easy task), harvesting the garden, weeding, planting, chopping and picking cotton for clothing, delivering corn to the grist mill after you plant, hoe, harvest, shuck and remove the grains from the cobs, gathering the cobs to a barrel because that's your Charmin, killing your chicken cause that's your KFC, scalding, plucking and cutting up first, of course, killing your hogs come the coldest days of October and all the butchering and rendering that goes with that, making lye for Momma to make the soap to do your laundry with cause that's your Ivory and L'Oreal shampoo of the day, running errands for your Momma and Daddy, gathering eggs, cutting slabs of ham from the hog shanks hanging in the smokehouse, repairing your shoes if you have any, bathing yourself in a pan with a rag and lye soap, bringing in water from the spring or the well, fishing, hunting, cleaning the old shotgun you hunt with because it's precious, cleaning the squirrel you shot today because your stomach is growling and that's your McDonald's Happy Meal. . . and on, and on .
and finding time at the end of the day to study by a coal oil lamp in a drafty one-room cabin, eyes burning from the oil and feet freezing from the wind whistling through the lonesome pines outside . . .

Abraham Lincoln didn't have time to pursue a whole lot of foolishness, and I'm not a raving fan of Lincoln, seeing the Southern side of the argument in a somewhat biased angle. Lincoln also loved his wife and enjoyed women. He
was not a person obsessed with sex judging from what one can
logically imagine from what we know about just the demands of his life in general.

[Chode]

Abe Lincoln... the original Log Cabin Republican???