Speaker 1: School of Humans. Hello, filth heads. We're going back to
Speaker 1: the same subject as last week, but this time with
Speaker 1: a different couple of fellas. But like I said last week,
Speaker 1: you know, back in the day, it was pretty common
Speaker 1: for men to share beds. But the thing is, some
Speaker 1: men were sharing more than just bed sheets. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of them were sharing bed skeet club, airhorn, being pampiano. Ah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I have a couple of really horrendous jokes
Speaker 1: in here, so we're gonna have fun. You have. Sometimes
Speaker 1: these bedfellows became a headfellows. Last week it was pro
Speaker 1: slavery sexual abuser James H. Hammond and his friend and
Speaker 1: future confederate at Jeffrey Withs. And after last week's episode
Speaker 1: came out, I did keep looking at their letters a
Speaker 1: little bit more, and I just want to say that
Speaker 1: while they were written in a very cheeky way, I
Speaker 1: think we can almost give some bonus points to Weathers
Speaker 1: for almost being a good person. Like he's not a
Speaker 1: good person, but hear me out, because a lot of
Speaker 1: the letters are Withers warning Hammond that if he keeps
Speaker 1: acting up the way he does with quote flaming excess
Speaker 1: of your lustful appetite he might soon be dragged down
Speaker 1: by the quote vengeance of supernal power. So Weathers was
Speaker 1: like kind of almost being a good ally being, like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: maybe you shouldn't try to force yourself onto so many
Speaker 1: people all the time. But unfortunately, we're not going to
Speaker 1: give Withers the ally badge because he mostly seemed concerned
Speaker 1: about what would happen to Hammond as opposed to what
Speaker 1: would happen to all the people who had to deal
Speaker 1: with his flesh and pull elongated protuberance or two Latin
Speaker 1: words indecipherable. But enough about those guys, we already heard
Speaker 1: all about them, because today we're gonna talk about an
Speaker 1: even spicier bedfellow headfellow combo, because some people have speculated
Speaker 1: that another political figure from history might have dabbled in
Speaker 1: some homosexual heavy petting. And that person is none other
Speaker 1: than the tall, depressed Abraham Lincoln, or was he actually
Speaker 1: perhaps Gabraham Lincoln? Cue the theme song wamp blamp wham blamp,
Speaker 1: wham bamp bam bam. This is American filth, and I'm
Speaker 1: Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you a filthy story
Speaker 1: from American history, and this week we got bedfellows headfellows
Speaker 1: part too. They were just roommates. Do do do do
Speaker 1: do do do do do? Okay, okay, I can hear
Speaker 1: some of you from across the pod. I can I
Speaker 1: see I hear what you're saying. Some of you are shouting.
Speaker 1: There's literally no evidence that Abraham Lincoln did homosexual heavy petting.
Speaker 1: I get it. I will acknowledge that many historians have
Speaker 1: said there is absolutely no way that that happened. The
Speaker 1: sort of Lincoln historical establishment is like, no, that's just wild,
Speaker 1: wild conjecture and just you making assumptions about people you
Speaker 1: don't know what's up. For example, this one historian was like,
Speaker 1: some irresponsible authors have suggested that Abraham Lincoln was a homosex.
Speaker 1: There was no evidence for this claim. But the irresponsible
Speaker 1: author that that historian was referring to is probably this
Speaker 1: guy named c. A. Trip. He was a writer and
Speaker 1: a psychologist who studied under Alfred Kinzie, you know, the
Speaker 1: sex psychologist the Kinsey scale, etc. And Trip worked under him,
Speaker 1: and he spent most of the nineteen seventies being like, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't think being gay is a personality disorder. Trip
Speaker 1: himself was a gay man, He's like, I'm fine, there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with me. But he wrote a book that
Speaker 1: came out in two thousand and five called The Intimate
Speaker 1: World of Abraham Lincoln, and that's where he summarized his
Speaker 1: years of research on proving that, yes, in fact, our
Speaker 1: log cabin Depressed six or for President was in fact
Speaker 1: a little bit gay. Yeah. What he's saying is that
Speaker 1: the night John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in the head,
Speaker 1: that wasn't the first time Lincoln had his brains blown out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a terrible oral sex joke. I'm sorry. Am I
Speaker 1: canceled now? I hope? So, I'm tired. I want to
Speaker 1: go live with my mom. Hi, Hi Mom, how are you?
Speaker 1: I'm good. It sounds like your weekend was fun. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a good time. Uh. So, I just made
Speaker 1: a really horrendous joke on my podcast, mom, and I
Speaker 1: was just wondering if I get canceled, is it okay
Speaker 1: if I come and live with you? Well, as long
Speaker 1: as you don't tell anybody that I live with you? Yes?
Speaker 1: What is I embarrassing for you or embarrassing for me? No?
Speaker 1: I thought it was being funny. I thought you were
Speaker 1: recording me. I am recording you, mom. We're just gonna
Speaker 1: see what works for the podcast. Well, what would work
Speaker 1: for the podcast? I would say, but of course, honey,
Speaker 1: Well you could say that, or you could also say, no,
Speaker 1: don't get canceled, Gabby, don't get canceled. Yeah, that felt
Speaker 1: really authentic. Okay, but if you do, of course you
Speaker 1: can come live with me. Okay, thanks, Mom, You can
Speaker 1: pick any of those. Okay. So the bit didn't really work.
Speaker 1: So I need to get an actor to be my mom.
Speaker 1: But that might be in the next episode. But anyway,
Speaker 1: back to the subject matter at hand. Job. So, before C. A.
Speaker 1: Trip had published that book about Lincoln sexuality in two
Speaker 1: thousand and five, he had actually already written a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff about Lincoln maybe being gay, which really riled
Speaker 1: the feathers of the Lincoln historical establishment, who were like,
Speaker 1: this is poppy cock. Lincoln's cock never popped for the boys.
Speaker 1: But once this argument was brought to the greater public,
Speaker 1: unfortunately Tripp was not there to argue it because he
Speaker 1: died two weeks after finishing this book. Now, what evidence
Speaker 1: do we have that would say that would point to
Speaker 1: that might suggest that Abraham Lincoln was a homosexual. Let's
Speaker 1: take a look at some hot takes in the Gabraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln conspiracy. This first one is just something I thought
Speaker 1: about as a member of the LGBTQ community myself. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you, gay people love to rhyme and then
Speaker 1: think about it. What did Abraham Lincoln do the Emancipation Proclamation? Gay?
Speaker 1: Also great? But gay? But here's to trip's more rigorous evidence.
Speaker 1: And by more rigorous I mean kind of. I think
Speaker 1: if you read his book, you'll see that he's applying
Speaker 1: a lot of psychological ideas to the past. And it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it works like that. I think
Speaker 1: you're just making some assumptions. But let me tell you
Speaker 1: the speculation, the conjecture. It is so much more exciting
Speaker 1: to think about than what most people say about Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln based on facts and letters and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Who cares. Let's look at human behavior and analyze it
Speaker 1: in the past. This is actually one of my favorite
Speaker 1: types of history because it really is a big part
Speaker 1: of history is that people will go back in time
Speaker 1: and be like, who's gay, Let's figure it out. It's
Speaker 1: this type of history I like to call gay or nay.
Speaker 1: So one thing that Trip points to is that when
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln was a much younger man, he had written
Speaker 1: some satirical poetry in a manuscript he called the Chronicles
Speaker 1: of Ruben. That's right, again, he's doing poetry, and again
Speaker 1: that's rhyming, and that's usually gay. But within the Chronicles
Speaker 1: of Ruben, Lincoln actually refers to homosexuality. He wrote, for
Speaker 1: Ruben and Charles have married two girls, but Billy has
Speaker 1: married a boy. The girls he had tried on every side,
Speaker 1: but none he could get to agree. All was in vain.
Speaker 1: He went home again. And since that he's married to Natty.
Speaker 1: Look at that Billy and Natty. I send them my
Speaker 1: best nuptial regards. And the reason Trip included this in
Speaker 1: his book was that he was like, hey, this proves
Speaker 1: that even when Lincoln was younger, he had an awareness
Speaker 1: that homosexual people existed. But also Trips like, how did
Speaker 1: he know that they existed? Like why would that occur
Speaker 1: to him? Maybe it's because he himself was having some
Speaker 1: gay thoughts and he liked the idea of two men
Speaker 1: getting married. Also Trip points to this quote from Lincoln's stepmom,
Speaker 1: who said, at some point that when he was younger,
Speaker 1: Lincoln was not very fond of girls, and then when
Speaker 1: he got older, Lincoln had a pretty hard time talking
Speaker 1: to women. He wasn't a good flirt. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: we could also just read the poem as he just
Speaker 1: really loves hanging out with the boys because he doesn't
Speaker 1: know what to do with the goals. But Trip's like, no,
Speaker 1: he's gay. Some other historians have also kind of echoed
Speaker 1: this idea, where they've said things like, oh what, Lincoln
Speaker 1: in general seemed pretty ambivalent about marrying Mary Todd, like
Speaker 1: their courtship was really painful, and like it was a
Speaker 1: real will they won't they situation. Lincoln actually called off
Speaker 1: the engagement and then had this huge mental breakdown, and
Speaker 1: you know, we don't know exactly why he did that,
Speaker 1: but you know, Trip, he's coming back in being like, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe the reason he called it off is because he's gay.
Speaker 1: And Trip's also like, yeah, Lincoln was depressed all the time,
Speaker 1: he had all these bounts of depression. Maybe the reason
Speaker 1: he was so depressed was because he was gay. And
Speaker 1: let's just say, the eighteen forties not the best time
Speaker 1: to be gay. So yeah, throughout his book, Trip sort
Speaker 1: of points to these random little moments where he's like, hmm,
Speaker 1: that's suspicious. That's suspicious. But the main evidence that he
Speaker 1: relied on for this book was that Lincoln had very
Speaker 1: close friendships with men, and Trip says, hmm, they might
Speaker 1: have been a little too close. Because here's the tea.
Speaker 1: I've said it many times already. But back in the day,
Speaker 1: men were sharing beds, so that was normal. But what
Speaker 1: was abnormal was sharing a bed with a man for
Speaker 1: an extended period of time. And Lincoln, well, he shared
Speaker 1: a bed with his best friend, Joshua Speed. Not for
Speaker 1: a night, not for a week, but for four years.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after these soothing advertisements. When Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln was twenty eight and eighteen thirty seven, he moved
Speaker 1: to Springfield, Illinois, and that's where he met twenty three
Speaker 1: year old Joshua Speed. The reason Lincoln moved there was
Speaker 1: to pursue his studies in a career as a lawyer.
Speaker 1: He had recently failed as a store owner and was
Speaker 1: in a bunch of debt. You know, he grew up
Speaker 1: poor in that log cabin and hardly had a penny
Speaker 1: to his name. I mean, he didn't know it at
Speaker 1: the time, but soon every single penny would just have
Speaker 1: his name on it. I mean, at least his face,
Speaker 1: I guess. So anyway, Lincoln got on a borrowed horse
Speaker 1: headed to Springfield, ready to try to make something of himself.
Speaker 1: Joshua Speed, on the other hand, came from a rich
Speaker 1: family in Kentucky and was a bona fide gentleman, and
Speaker 1: at that time, Speed was also trying to make something
Speaker 1: of himself. He was the owner of a general store
Speaker 1: in Springfield, and Lincoln walked in one day looking for betting.
Speaker 1: He was like, how much are the furnishings for a
Speaker 1: single bed? And Speed looked up the price of the mattress,
Speaker 1: the blankets, the sheets. He was like, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: about seventeen dollars, and oh boy, was Lincoln unable to
Speaker 1: pay that bed. Wrote about this encounter many times, and
Speaker 1: here's what he said. Lincoln said that that was pretty
Speaker 1: cheap enough, but small as the sum was, he was
Speaker 1: unable to pay it. But if I would credit him
Speaker 1: till Christmas and his experiment as a lawyer was a success,
Speaker 1: he would pay then, saying in the saddest tone, if
Speaker 1: I fail in this, I do not know that I
Speaker 1: can ever pay you. I looked up, and I think
Speaker 1: now that I had never seen a sadder face. I
Speaker 1: said to him, you seem to be so pained at
Speaker 1: contracting so small a debt. I think I can suggest
Speaker 1: a plan by which you can avoid the debt and
Speaker 1: at the same time attain your end. I have a
Speaker 1: large room with a double bed upstairs, which you are
Speaker 1: very welcome to share with me. Where is your room,
Speaker 1: said he? Upstairs, said, I point to a pair of
Speaker 1: winding stairs which led from the store to my room.
Speaker 1: Lincoln took his saddle bags in his arm, went upstairs
Speaker 1: and set them down on the floor, and came down
Speaker 1: with the most changed countenance, beaming with pleasure. He exclaimed, Well, Speed,
Speaker 1: I am moved. Doesn't this sound like the beginning of
Speaker 1: a porno? Poor young, ambitious man wants to be lawyer
Speaker 1: but can't afford a room, so sexy rich store clerk
Speaker 1: suggest his own bed. Yeah, it's not the most fluid
Speaker 1: of titles, but don't worry. In the porno there will
Speaker 1: be a lot of fluid. So yeah, Speed often told
Speaker 1: this version of the story of how the two met,
Speaker 1: but trip Our Gaitar historian psychologist. He's like, when I
Speaker 1: read this, I don't think it actually happened like that,
Speaker 1: because apparently Speed was already aware of Abraham Lincoln because
Speaker 1: he had seen him the previous summer in eighteen thirty six,
Speaker 1: when Lincoln had given a speech and had basically roasted
Speaker 1: one of his opponents very well, you know, So that's
Speaker 1: sus Like, why didn't Speed mentioned to Abraham Lincoln that
Speaker 1: he had seen him before. Trip's like, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: probably because he desired Lincoln and thought he would be
Speaker 1: a great bedfellow, so he was like, yes, Lincoln, come
Speaker 1: into my bad that's fine. And as for the whole
Speaker 1: story of Lincoln going up to the room by himself
Speaker 1: and putting his saddle bags down, Trip was like, no
Speaker 1: one would do that. Speed would have shown him the room,
Speaker 1: and then they would have looked at the bed, and
Speaker 1: then they might have looked at each other and been like, hmmm,
Speaker 1: I guess we can sleep in this bud together, with
Speaker 1: like a sexual implication. Trip also said that Speed's invitation
Speaker 1: for Lincoln to stay it didn't have any of the
Speaker 1: usual qualifiers that you would have like, oh, yeah, you
Speaker 1: could stay for a few days or until you get settled. Instead,
Speaker 1: it was just immediately like, yeah, come live with me
Speaker 1: and sleep in my bed. My dude, Trip was like,
Speaker 1: who the heck would just invite a random guy to
Speaker 1: sleep in their bed for an unlimited amount of time
Speaker 1: unless they were trying to bone And then Trip also
Speaker 1: makes this other point, and he's like, well, honestly, that
Speaker 1: bed they slept in was pretty small, and Abraham Winkin
Speaker 1: was pretty big, so skin to skin contact would have
Speaker 1: been inevitable. And you know, once you touch skin, you
Speaker 1: might as well touch other skins for skins. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Maybe they were circumcised. I don't know. Someone
Speaker 1: probably does know if you do, pervert. And again I
Speaker 1: will say that the Abraham Lincoln historical establishment, they're like, no,
Speaker 1: they weren't boning. They were just boys in the bed.
Speaker 1: They were just good friends. But there's this other historian,
Speaker 1: Thomas A. Foster, and he does a lot of work
Speaker 1: on the history of sexuality in America. What he says
Speaker 1: about Speed and Lincoln sharing a bed and becoming close friends,
Speaker 1: he said, without a doubt, given the cultural acceptance of
Speaker 1: close bonds between members of the same sex, individuals had
Speaker 1: the opportunity for private physical intimacy because their public bond
Speaker 1: would not have raised much concern. That's right, he's saying
Speaker 1: if they wanted to fuck, they could. And Speed himself
Speaker 1: said at one point about their friendship that no men
Speaker 1: were ever so intimate. Does he just mean BFFs for
Speaker 1: life or does he mean I've been intimate because I've
Speaker 1: been up in those guts. So after they became bedfellows
Speaker 1: and became friends and maybe headfellows as well. Speed was
Speaker 1: the one who helped Lincoln get involved with socializing and
Speaker 1: society and stuff like that. They ran a discussion group
Speaker 1: called the Young Men's Lyceum. This was in the back
Speaker 1: of the store, and they gathered a bunch of other
Speaker 1: men and they would talk about ideas and stuff. And
Speaker 1: then Speed also taught Lincoln how to flirt with women,
Speaker 1: because Speed he was very good at flirting. In fact,
Speaker 1: later on Mary Todd Lincoln called Speed one of the
Speaker 1: birds of passage. She said of him he had an
Speaker 1: ever changing heart, basically calling him a little slut. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Mary Todd was one of those ladies whose Speed helped
Speaker 1: Lincoln flirt with, and her and Lincoln's relationship was very
Speaker 1: frustrating for her, Lincoln was sending a bunch of mixed messages.
Speaker 1: It was rocky. But anyway, after all this socializing, Lincoln
Speaker 1: and Speed were still sharing a bed, and remember they
Speaker 1: shared a bed for four years. But when their bedfellowing
Speaker 1: came to an end, that's when Lincoln started unraveling. Speed
Speaker 1: moved back to Kentucky in early eighteen forty one, and
Speaker 1: then Lincoln called off his engagement with Mary Todd. Are
Speaker 1: these two things related, I don't know. What we know
Speaker 1: is that Lincoln was very distraught, so Speed invited him
Speaker 1: to come stay with his family in Kentucky. Meanwhile, while
Speaker 1: Speed had been in Kentucky already, he had started courting
Speaker 1: this woman named Fanny Henning, and he was like, Hey, Lincoln,
Speaker 1: I need you to meet this lady so that you
Speaker 1: can see if it would be a good idea to
Speaker 1: like court her and then like maybe marry her. It
Speaker 1: seems that Lincoln was like, yeah, she's a good person.
Speaker 1: I guess because Speed and got engaged, and apparently Lincoln
Speaker 1: had a great time in Kentucky and it helped him
Speaker 1: get back on his feed after all of his mental
Speaker 1: health problems. Then, at the end of Lincoln's stay, he
Speaker 1: and Speed didn't part. What happened is that Speed apparently
Speaker 1: had like the flu or something, but he was still
Speaker 1: determined to go on this boat trip with Lincoln. You know,
Speaker 1: just two dudes out there fishing. Nothing gay has ever
Speaker 1: happened in that situation. And then after they did that trip,
Speaker 1: then Speed went back to Springfield with Lincoln and they
Speaker 1: rented a room together, and then Speed just stayed there
Speaker 1: for months, even though his betrothed was in Kentucky. Speed
Speaker 1: left Springfield for the second time in January eighteen forty
Speaker 1: two because he had to go and get married. Now,
Speaker 1: some historians are like, well, maybe Speed went to go
Speaker 1: hang out with Lincoln because he was really anxious about
Speaker 1: getting married. You know, he was nervous. He needed a
Speaker 1: friend end. But still it's suspicious staying in the same
Speaker 1: room together for months right before Speed was getting married.
Speaker 1: Sas sas usparund Pound now. Speed and Lincoln they sent
Speaker 1: a lot of letters back and forth. So of course
Speaker 1: people have perused those letters, and some of them are
Speaker 1: quite interesting for this topic we are speaking about, because
Speaker 1: when you look at the tone of how Lincoln writes,
Speaker 1: it's filled with like yearning and insecurity, and it just
Speaker 1: feels very emotional, very sensual in a way. For example,
Speaker 1: there's one letter dated February thirteenth, eighteen forty two, and
Speaker 1: Lincoln wrote this to Speed just a few days after
Speaker 1: Speed had gotten married to Fanny Hinning, and in that
Speaker 1: letter he says, quote, you know, my desire to befriend
Speaker 1: you is everlasting, that I will never cease while I
Speaker 1: know how to do anything I do. Finally hope that
Speaker 1: you will never again need any comfort from abroad. Comfort
Speaker 1: from abroad, you say, what kind of comfort? But it
Speaker 1: does seem that Speed and Lincoln had discussed at some
Speaker 1: point that they were both nervous about having sex with women.
Speaker 1: They're like, we don't know how to do it. I'm
Speaker 1: nervous that it's not going to work. What do you do?
Speaker 1: So even if they aren't gay, they might have spent
Speaker 1: those many months together at the end of eighteen forty
Speaker 1: one just trying to figure out how to bang a woman,
Speaker 1: which that in fact is not very gay, That is
Speaker 1: not very gay of them at all. At the end
Speaker 1: of the letter, Abraham Lincoln says something that's pretty sus
Speaker 1: I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny.
Speaker 1: But perhaps you will not wish her to know you
Speaker 1: have received this, lest she should desire to see it.
Speaker 1: Write me whenever you have leisure yours forever A Lincoln ps.
Speaker 1: I have been quite a man since you left. Okay,
Speaker 1: because this is suspicious, because he's like, hey, maybe don't
Speaker 1: let Fanny read this letter, and so like, why would
Speaker 1: it be bad for Fanny to read this letter? What
Speaker 1: is it? Is the comfort talking about boning? Did she
Speaker 1: have suspicions about them having a relationship that was more
Speaker 1: than just BFFs? Or you know, you can do the
Speaker 1: other route too, being like maybe he doesn't want his
Speaker 1: wife to know that he's nervous about having sex with
Speaker 1: her or has any sort of anxiety about their relationship. Fine,
Speaker 1: you could read it that way, but that's less fun.
Speaker 1: In another letter that Lincoln wrote a few days later,
Speaker 1: and this letter again, it seems that Speed is nervous
Speaker 1: about consummating his marriage with Fanny. But then there's this
Speaker 1: odd passage in this letter. Lincoln says, you say that
Speaker 1: something indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will
Speaker 1: not say that three months from now. I will venture
Speaker 1: when your nerves once get steady. Now, the whole trouble
Speaker 1: will be over forever. Nor should you become impatient at
Speaker 1: there being even very slow and becoming steady again. You
Speaker 1: say you much fear that that elysium of which you
Speaker 1: have dreamed so much is never to be realized. Well,
Speaker 1: if it shall not, I dare swear it will not
Speaker 1: be the fault of her, who is now your wife.
Speaker 1: I now have no doubt it is the peculiar misfortune
Speaker 1: of both you and me to dream dreams of elysium
Speaker 1: far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. So what
Speaker 1: is this elysium? Is it just like butt sex Island?
Speaker 1: And then again, I guess you know you could say
Speaker 1: this again because Lincoln maybe didn't want Fanny to see
Speaker 1: them talking about being nervous about having sex. So again
Speaker 1: Lincoln's like, I write another letter inclosing this, which you
Speaker 1: can show her if she desires it. I do this
Speaker 1: because she would think strangely, perhaps should you tell her
Speaker 1: that you receive no letters from me, or telling her
Speaker 1: you do should refuse to let her see them. I
Speaker 1: close this, entertaining the confident hope that every successive letter
Speaker 1: I shall have from you, which I hear pray may
Speaker 1: not be few nor far between, may show you possessing
Speaker 1: a more steady hand and cheerful heart than the last
Speaker 1: preceding it, As ever your friend Lincoln. Then it seems
Speaker 1: that Joshua Speed wrote Abraham Lincoln a letter that was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: me and Fanny, we finally boned. And this letter that
Speaker 1: Lincoln writes is the most yearning, sad letter I have seen.
Speaker 1: He says, Dear Speed, your letter announcing that Miss Fanny
Speaker 1: and you are no more twain but one flesh reached
Speaker 1: me this morning. I have no way of telling you
Speaker 1: how much happiness I wish you both, though I believe
Speaker 1: you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of
Speaker 1: both of you. Now you will be so exclusively concerned
Speaker 1: for one another that I shall be forgotten entirely. My
Speaker 1: acquaintance with Miss Fanny was too short for me to
Speaker 1: reasonably hope to long be remembered by her, and still
Speaker 1: I am sure I shall not forget her soon. I
Speaker 1: regret to learn that you have resolved to not return
Speaker 1: to Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without you. How
Speaker 1: miserably things seem to be arranged in this world if
Speaker 1: we had no friends, we have no pleasure, and if
Speaker 1: we have them, we are sure to lose them and
Speaker 1: be doubly pained by the loss. I did hope she
Speaker 1: and you would make your home here, but I own
Speaker 1: I have no right to insist you owe obligations to
Speaker 1: her ten thousand times more sacred than any you can
Speaker 1: owe to others, and in that light, let them be
Speaker 1: respected and observed. It is natural that she should desire
Speaker 1: to remain with her relatives and friends. As to friends, however,
Speaker 1: she could not need them anywhere. She would have them
Speaker 1: in abundance here. Write me often and believe me yours forever.
Speaker 1: Lincoln oof so hard to read. It's so sad. Don't
Speaker 1: forget me now that you're getting pussy. Lincoln and Speed
Speaker 1: remain friends for the rest of their lives. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess the rest of Abraham Lincoln's life, because we
Speaker 1: all know what happened to him. Speed, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: he became a politician in Kentucky, part of the Kentucky
Speaker 1: State Representatives. After Lincoln was assassinated, Speed organized the memorial
Speaker 1: service for him. Then he also collected money to erect
Speaker 1: a monument in Springfield to honor him, and then Speed
Speaker 1: he died in eighteen eighty two. So gay ornay, what
Speaker 1: do we think? Guys, what are we thinking? Because yeah, C. A.
Speaker 1: Trip wrote that book. But the thing is that there
Speaker 1: is this other guy who was a gay activist who
Speaker 1: said for years that he had uncovered some secret diaries
Speaker 1: that had belonged to Joshua Speed that had been found
Speaker 1: under the floorboards of Speed's old store, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: in these diaries it proves that they had a gay relationship.
Speaker 1: But the thing is this guy he never published them,
Speaker 1: and then he died and people were like, where are
Speaker 1: the freaking diaries? I think maybe this was just a hoax.
Speaker 1: So gay or nay, I personally am a bisexual supremacist
Speaker 1: and believe that everyone is out actually bisexual. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you could use the historical facts to be like, look,
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln was straight, or you can rearrange them somehow
Speaker 1: and do what C. A. Trip did and just say
Speaker 1: he's gay. Either way, it doesn't matter because actually he
Speaker 1: was bisexual like us all. As always, American filth teaches
Speaker 1: us a lesson, and I think the lesson for today
Speaker 1: is that if you're a man and you don't want
Speaker 1: people to think you're gay, don't sleep in the same
Speaker 1: bed as another man for four years, fair hue the credits.
Speaker 1: American Filth is a production of School of Humans and
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcast. This episode was written, hosted, sound designed, mixed,
Speaker 1: mastered by Me Gabby Watts. Our senior producer is Amelia Brock.
Speaker 1: Our executive producers A Virginia Prescott, Elsie Crowley and Brandon
Speaker 1: Barr And Let's not forget about the amazing theme song
Speaker 1: written by me and Jesse Niswanger. You can follow along
Speaker 1: with the pod on Instagram at American Filth Pod. Also
Speaker 1: please like, subscribe, review, hit some buttons, get that algorithm working.
Speaker 1: I'll talk at you next time. We got some more headfellows, bedfellows.
Speaker 1: We will continue our historical outing School of Humans.