MARY TODD LINCOLN. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, 14 NOVEMBER [1871], TO MRS. JAMES W. (RHODA) WHITE

5 pages (7 x 4 1/2 in.; 177 x 113 mm) on a bifolium of monogramed black-bordered mourning stationery (last page neatly cross-written over the first), St. Charles, 14 November [1871], to Mrs. James W. (Rhoda) White, with an autograph postscript signed ("Please address me care of my son, 16 Congress St., Chicago, ML.'') neatly cross-written over second page; one fold separation and one very short marginal tear neatly mended.

Not in Turner and Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters, and apparently unpublished.

5 pages (7 x 4 1/2 in.; 177 x 113 mm) on a bifolium of black-bordered mourning stationery (last page neatly cross-written over the first), St. Charles, 14 November [1871], to Mrs. James W. (Rhoda) White, with an autograph postscript signed ("Please address me care of my son, 16 Congress St., Chicago, ML.'') neatly cross-written over second page; one fold separation and one very short marginal tear neatly mended.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A poignant letter to one of Mrs. Lincoln's principal confidants during her desperately despondent widowhood: "The truth [is] I am so wretched in my mind, so utterly cast down by my fearful bereavement, I have not the energy left to do any thing." Turner and Turner's Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters, notes that "Letters written by Mary Lincoln between 1871 and 1876 are today the rarest of items. Many of them have been lost, others were perhaps deliberately destroyed, but relatively few existed to begin with. In the years following Tad's death, Mrs. Lincoln all but disappeared from sight. Her son's illness and the shock of his death had taxed her physically almost beyond endurance; mentally, she was in a state of deep despondency. She was interested in very little and scarcely stayed in one place long enough to maintain a correspondence with anyone. Yet the few surviving documents from these years are of considerable interest, for most of them touch on matters that concerned her deeply" (p. 595).  Certainly that is the case with the present letter. Mrs. Lincoln's grief here is not focused, as so often, on her martyred husband, but on her youngest son, Tad, who had died less than three months earlier, shortly after his eighteenth birthday. "Many thanks for your kind attention, regarding the Steamer. I feel that there is no end, to the trouble I give you, dear, dear friend. In consideration of the bad feeling in the South towards the North & the eve of a presidential election pending, with the name of Lincoln, I scarcely think it would be safe to venture. So for the present, I decline the trip. The truth I am so wretched in my mind, so utterly cast down by my fearful bereavement, I have not the energy left to do any thing. My friends have thought, change of scene might benefit, but it will only be the final & great change, that restores me to my idolised ones, that will ever cause me to be my self again. 

"Just as I had in a measure returned to my natural cheerfulness with a worshipped son by my side, who could not bear me out of his sight when I was feeling that once more, I had something to live for, who was my pride, my fond delight, to have this precious one, snatched from my hands. I sometimes think that the glories of the Hereafter will scarcely compensate, for the sorrows of this life—yet I soften when I think of the blessed reunion." 

Mrs. White was herself a widow who had lost several children. She offered Mary Lincoln critical support, both financial and spiritual.