Letter to Leonard Swett

In a letter dated September 15, 1866, Mary wrote to Leonard Swett complaining about her limited finances. She describes her condition, “I cannot begin to meet the wants of our little household, even in the simplest way, for the coming winter & shall place this house for rent, very soon.” Almost a decade later, in May of 1875, Leonard Swett was employed by Robert Todd Lincoln to bring Mary to her insanity trial in Chicago. Swett described this mission, " [it] presented more real terrors than anything I have ever undertaken."