100 Heroes: Abraham Lincoln
The gay man who became president of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer who was elected as the 16th president of the United States. He was president from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.
Lincoln led the US through the American Civil War. He succeeded in preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, expanding the federal government, and modernising the economy.
Although Lincoln was married and had children, there is a fair bit of speculation about his sexuality.
In his 1926 biography of Lincoln, Carl Sandburg alluded to the relationship between Lincoln and his friend Joshua Speed as having “a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets”. “Streak of lavender” was period-typical slang for an effeminate man, and connoted homosexuality.
A lot has been written in the years that followed debating the exact nature of the relationship between Lincoln and Speed, as well as other insights into Lincoln's sexuality.
For example, Lincoln wrote a poem that described a marriage-like relationship between two men, which included the lines:
For Reuben and Charles have married two girls,
But Billy has married a boy.
The girls he had tried on every side,
But none he could get to agree;
All was in vain, he went home again,
And since that he’s married to Natty.
This poem was included in the first edition of the 1889 biography of Lincoln by his friend and colleague William Herndon. It was expurgated from subsequent editions until 1942, when the editor Paul Angle restored it.
Who was Joshua Speed?
Lincoln met Joshua Speed in Springfield, Illinois, in 1837. At that time, Lincoln was a successful attorney and member of Illinois’ House of Representatives.
They lived together for four years, during which time they occupied the same bed during the night and developed a friendship that would last until their deaths.
According to some sources, William Herndon and a fourth man also slept in the same room as Lincoln and Speed.
Historians have highlighted that it was not unusual at that time for two men to share a bed due to myriad circumstances - without anything sexual being implied. But this was generally for a night or two when nothing else was available. Given that Lincoln was a wealthy man, sharing a bed with another man for four years was clearly something that he wanted to do.
As well as Joshua Speed and William Herndon, other men that Lincoln appears to have had significant relationships with include William Greene, and also Charles Derickson.
Who was Charles Derickson?
Captain Charles Derickson of the 150th Pennsylvania Infantry was Lincoln’s bodyguard and companion between September 1862 and April 1863.
Historians have noted that the closeness between Lincoln and Derickson was observed by others at the time and it was a subject of gossip - with contemporary sources making comment that Derickson slept in Lincoln's bed.
