“10 Hours“

However, Lincoln and Speed remained in contact, writing each other emotional letters.

It was Speed who introduced Lincoln to his future wife, Mary Todd. Speed, too, took a wife, as it was an expectation for men of high social standing to be married and have children.

Speed wrote a letter to Lincoln in February 1842 explaining that he had consummated his marriage to Fanny Henning. About a week later, Lincoln replied:

“I opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepidation. So much that although it turned out better than I expected, I’ve hardly yet at the distance of 10 hours become calm,” Lincoln wrote.

Dr. Charles Strozier, a psychoanalyst, remarked in Lover of Men: “He consummated his marriage, and the first thing he wanted to do was to tell Abraham Lincoln that the sky didn’t fall.”

Strozier adds: “For 10 hours after he reads of Speed’s successful consummation of his marriage, he’s shaking. 10 hours! This is a 33-year-old man.”