Lincoln's Son Spied on His Own Mother. Why?

On May 19, 1875, Leonard Swett, an old friend of Abraham Lincoln, walked into Chicago's Grand Pacific Hotel and told the President's widow she must come to court at once, or be taken by force. Within hours a jury declared Mary Todd Lincoln insane. The man who brought the case was her only surviving son, Robert. This film follows the records behind that day. Robert had paid Pinkerton detectives to follow her. Her court-appointed lawyer, Isaac N. Arnold, called no witnesses. That evening she went from pharmacy to pharmacy asking for laudanum, and the next morning she was taken to Bellevue Place, a private sanitarium in Batavia, Illinois. To understand how a son could do this to his mother, the film goes back to Springfield: a sharp, politically minded Kentucky daughter who married a struggling prairie lawyer in 1842 and buried three of her four sons. In the White House her Confederate half-brothers fed rumors that she was a spy, her spending on the mansion broke a $20,000 budget, and after Willie's death in 1862 mediums held séances under its roof. The stories of her temper come mostly from William Herndon, and the film shows why historians disagree about him. After Ford's Theatre came the "Old Clothes" scandal of 1867, the break with Elizabeth Keckley, Tad's death in 1871 and a spirit photograph from William Mumler. Then the 1875 trial, the letters she smuggled to the lawyer Myra Bradwell, her release, a second jury in June 1876 that restored her rights, and the letter she wrote to Robert days later. The epilogue weighs what drove him, through Neely and McMurtry's The Insanity File, Jason Emerson's The Madness of Mary Lincoln, Jean H. Baker and Catherine Clinton. How this film is made: our host, Margaret Hale, is an AI character, not a real person, and her face, movement and voice are generated, as are the narration voice and the music. Every quotation and claim comes from the published letters, newspapers, memoirs and biographies named in the film, and rumors are presented as claims with their source. The photographs, engravings, letters and court-era documents are genuine archival material from public collections such as the Smithsonian, the National Park Service and the National Archives, many of them reached through Wikimedia Commons. Camera moves, captions and sound design are ours. Do you think Robert protected his mother or silenced her? Tell us in the comments. Subscribe:    / @firstladiesuncovered   Image credits (Wikimedia Commons, used under their licenses): Mary Todd Lincoln House, Lexington Kentucky 3 — FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, CC BY-SA 4.0; Emily Helm- Presidential Pass for a Confederate Lady — TradingCardsNPS, CC BY 2.0; Mary Lincoln Humanitarian — TradingCardsNPS, CC BY 2.0; Ford's Theatre National Historic Site - Where Lincoln was… — Mrphelps, CC BY-SA 4.0; Ford's Theatre National Historic Site - The Stage — Mrphelps, CC BY-SA 4.0; Elizabeth Keckley VWM Statue — Kss5pj, CC BY-SA 4.0; Abraham Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield, IL — Karthik Subbu, CC BY-SA 4.0; Lincoln's Tomb - Oak Ridge Cemetery - Springfield… — Adam63, CC BY-SA 4.0; Grave of Myra Colby Bradwell (1831–1894) at Rosehill… — Nick Number, CC BY 4.0; Exterior Hildene 08 — Miguel Hermoso Cuesta, CC BY-SA 4.0; RTLincolnSarcophagus — Shadle, CC BY-SA 3.0. #MaryToddLincoln #Lincoln