Mary and Joshua
Lincoln must make a choice. Either marry Mary Todd or continue his ambiguously portrayed, but very romanticized relationship with Joshua. He can't have both, so a hard choice must absolutely be made. His own house cannot stand if divided between love and ambition. Thus, Mary and Joshua become symbolic reflections of the divide tearing America apart. Lincoln makes the harder choice to keep the union together and abolish slavery. Likewise, he makes what is portrayed in the story as the harder choice to wed Mary Todd in order to pursue his political ambitions.
Mud
Springfield, Illinois is an exceptionally muddy place as portrayed in the book. Multiple references are made to its thickness, its stickiness, and omnipresence. The literal mud comes to symbolize the mud that Joshua knows will inevitably be flung so hard at Lincoln as to quash his political ambitions if he fails to marry and continues to pursue his especially close friendship with Joshua. It can also be seen as a symbolic foreshadowing of the muddied future that will be his marriage to Mary Todd.
Rose Water
Mary Todd dabs her secret love notes sent to Lincoln in rose water. Joshua's jealousy of Mary is signified by the smell of rose water on Lincoln, who only makes things worse by lying about the source. Females are historically associated with water symbols and the rose water comes to symbolize not just the romance with Mary, but the intrusion of femininity into the relationship of Lincoln and Joshua.
Dry Goods
Joshua Speed owns a dry goods store over which he and Lincoln live together to the point of sharing a bed. If women are historically associated with water, the logical opposite would be dry goods. There is also the subtextual symbolism intimating that sexual relations between two men would be "dry" goods in opposition to heterosexual intercourse.
Dual Narratives
The book presents a portrait of Lincoln through dual narratives: those of Mary Todd and Joshua Speed. The result is that often the reader is treated to the very scene twice; once from Mary's point of view and once from Joshua's. This narrative device effectively symbolizes the complex duality of Lincoln's biographical history. The legend of Lincoln was firmly established for generations through the mythic portrait of him painted by Carl Sandburg and others. Recent generations have been treated to more authentic portrayals unafraid to confront his flaws and contradictions. The dual narrative approach subtly symbolizes the complex duality of the 16th President who kept American democracy together by ironically violating some of its constitutional foundations.
