1) Lots of people shared beds with same sex just sleeping (as in zzz) partners as a matter of course in the 19th century. They didn't have our notions about privacy in bed. As a lawyer, Lincoln used to share a bed at inns with attorney, and (subsequent) Illinois circuit judge David Davis, whom Lincoln later appointed to the U.S. S.Ct., when they were literally "riding the circuit" -- going aroung to courts at different places in central Illinois. Talk about the judge getting into bed with counsel! And others too -- they'd pack as many into a bed as possible.
2) From what I know about Mary Todd Lincoln, who was more than a little mad, you don't need a homosexual relationship on Lincoln's part to explain a troubled relationship with her.
3) From what we know about depression today, it doesn't need a big exogenous cause. Not that Lincoln didn't have enough exogenous causes: just practicing law is generally enough to make you depressed. L also lost a lot of political campaigns, was deeply involved in public affairs at a not-very cheey time in our country's history, and ended up with a war on his hands as soon as he was Prez -- one that didn't go well for a long time. Plus he lost his son during thw war. And he had a difficult marriage. Or a marriage to a difficult person, anyway.
http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/ihy990240.html (A link with info about and a picture of Davis)
--- Eubulides <paraconsistent at comcast.net> wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/16/books/16linc.html
> December 16, 2004
> Finding Homosexual Threads in Lincoln's Legend
> By DINITIA SMITH
>
> 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.
>
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