Nevertheless...Robert Todd Lincoln

 "Nobody wanted me […]. They wanted Abraham Lincoln’s son.”

Robert Todd Lincoln is a controversial figure in United States history. His father is considered by many, myself included, to be the greatest president we have had. His mother was…well, Mary Todd Lincoln, a woman who is often just as controversial a topic to bring up as her firstborn child. The Lincolns were, by many standards at the time, an odd couple. She was someone who valued power, often saying she was going to marry the President and then, by rights, actually doing that. She was loud, extroverted, and bright. He was dark, gangly, introverted, and melancholy. In fact, he had such bad depression that multiple times throughout his life his friends worried he would harm himself. He represents, to many, the self made politician who came from nothing, while Mary came from wealth and aristocrats. But to look at them now, knowing what we know about mental health, it’s easier to see that, in some ways, Robert Todd Lincoln was more like his parents than anyone, including him, probably though. 

We can, today, look at Abraham Lincoln and say he most likely suffered from clinical depression and social anxiety. Mary’s a little more difficult. Many think she suffered from bipolar disorder, but it’s also easy to see ADHD with her impulsive spending and her intense emotions. Mary’s issues were likely exacerbated by the carriage accident she was in during the presidency, where she injured her skull on a rock. The wound became infected, and after this, Robert says she wasn’t the same. In fact, it seems to have triggered more symptoms. Not to mention, the woman buried three of her children and her husband. That’s enough to make anyone lose sanity. 

Robert was described once as being nothing like his father, the historian, who was angry at the time because Robert didn’t agree with his biography of the president, saying he was a Todd and not a Lincoln. That he had no humor or wit, that he was dull and uncharismatic. But contemporaries and friends have described him as likable, funny, kind, and intelligent. You just had to get to know him first.

Born in 1843, in Springfield, Illinois, Robert Todd Lincoln’s early childhood was mostly just him and his mother. His father, Abraham Lincoln, was traveling on the judicial circuit. He was close with Mary, helping with chores and entertaining her, while also, according to multiple sources, running amok in the way all children do. He was smarter than most of his playmates, his father said, adding that he spoke almost like an adult. When the family moved to the White House, Robert attempted to get into Harvard but failed the entrance exam for 15 out of 16 subjects. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that one subject was something that Robert had an intense interest in. His whole life, whatever he set his mind to became his sole focus. He wanted to go to Harvard and so, after studying up on the other subjects, he retook the exam and passed, graduating and heading to Harvard Law. But in that time, he had set his mind on something else: joining the Union Army in the civil war. 

His mother refused. She would not let him join, and until January of 1865, her husband let her have her way. Then, finally relenting to pressure from his son, he had Robert assigned to General Grant’s division. After the war and after his father’s assassination, Robert turned his one track mind back to law and enrolled at the University of Chicago. He received his degree, married, and started a family. 

In 1875, after the death of her other remaining child, Tad, Mary Todd Lincoln began experiencing more severe symptoms from the mental illness she had been hiding since the carriage accident, including hallucinations and delusions. Robert, with what we now know was a good deal of anguish, had his mother committed to a psychiatric sanitarium, though she escaped and blasted her son in the papers and in court where, after a complete reversal by the doctor who had just a few short months earlier said she needed help, she was allowed to live in Springfield with her sister. While the two were estranged for most of the remainder of her life, Mary and Robert were speaking again by the time of her death. 

Robert also has the unfortunate distinction of being present at three presidential assassinations and even being the target of an assassination attempt himself. An article I found while researching this called him the "Harbinger of Doom,” which seems a bit excessive. When Robert Todd Lincoln died in 1926, he had built a family life that he adored. He had been a successful lawyer, worked for the Pullman Railroad Company, and served in presidential cabinets, as well as working overseas in a political appointment. What does all this have to do with history and vaccines?

Well, if we look at Robert Todd Lincoln now, we can see that he would most likely fall on the high functioning end of the spectrum (listen, at the very least this poor guy was going to have depression and anxiety but that’s a topic for another day). He was strong willed, almost to a fault; he had intense interests and when angered or hurt could nurse a grudge for a lifetime. He was considered too serious, dry, dull, lacking in humor, odd, rude, and sullen. But people who knew him well recalled his sense of humor, his intelligence, his stubbornness, and his sense of himself. 

People with autism are often considered rude, sullen, unemotional, lacking a sense of humor, stubborn, etc. But it’s my experience that most of the time, it’s just a matter of getting to know them on a more intimate level. As was the case with Robert. And his father, before he became the President. And his mother… her entire life. To read Robert’s letters is to see the humor for what it is: dry, witty, and unassuming. He pushed himself to get into Harvard and the army, and come hell or high water, he was going to have his way. It could also be said that he was simply stubborn and introverted, which sure... But I learned something else while researching this article that I had no idea previously. RTL had a love of astronomy, and so he built himself an astronomy tower with a telescope. Because when you are going to hyper fixate on something, as he learned with his first Harvard attempt, do it right.

Sources:

Works Cited

“Astronomy Club Uses Lincoln’s Telescope.” Newspapers.com, 19 June 2004, www.newspapers.com/article/bennington-banner-astronomy-club-uses-li/115341283/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2025.

Emerson, Jason. Giant in the Shadows : The Life of Robert T. Lincoln. Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 2012.

“Robert Lincoln Writes about the End of His Mother’s Estrangement.” Friends of the Lincoln Collection, www.friendsofthelincolncollection.org/lincoln-lore/robert-lincoln-writes-about-the-end-of-his-mothers-estrangement/.

“Robert Todd Lincoln on the Memory of His Father Abraham Lincoln | Shapell Manuscript Foundation.” Shapell, 21 Apr. 2023, www.shapell.org/manuscript/robert-todd-lincoln-on-father-abraham-lincolns-memory/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2025.

“The Madness of Mary Lincoln.” AMERICAN HERITAGE, 2025, www.americanheritage.com/madness-mary-lincoln-0. Accessed 16 Sept. 2025.