Mary Lincoln's Money (1870)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s July 14h. This day in 1870, Congress authorized a yearly pension of $3000 for Mary Todd Lincoln.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why it took years for the pension to be rewarded, and the many competing narratives about Mary Lincoln and money.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:10.0	This day, July 15th, 1870, Congress votes to approve an annual $3,000 pension for Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln.
0:21.0	This was, of course, about five years after Lincoln had been assassinated and
0:24.9	Mary Todd Lincoln had spent a fair amount of that time lobbying for a
0:29.7	widow's pension. Her rationale was that her husband had effectively served his country
0:34.6	during wartime and paid the ultimate price with his life. And so in much the same way that any soldier
0:40.1	or officer's widow gets a pension, she deserved one as well there is a lot more to
0:46.2	this story beyond just a fight for a pension it is also I think a chance to talk
0:50.7	about Mary Lincoln's troubled life,
0:53.5	the way that she was portrayed in the public imagination,
0:56.3	her troubles with money for sure.
0:58.4	So here to do that, as always, are Nicole Hammer of Columbia
1:01.8	and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:03.6	Hello there.
1:04.3	Hey Jody, hey there.
1:06.7	So Kelly, maybe let's back up a few years
1:09.8	from this pension fight just to lay out a little bit of context and there's a lot we can say
1:16.2	about Mary Todd Lincoln.
1:17.2	I suppose we should start with money because I do think that a lot of the scandals and gined up and real around Mary Toddling
1:26.0	do seem to involve her spending habits.
1:30.1	Yeah, yeah, she had extravagant taste.
	...

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