"Desiring a woman he was not free to approach, bound to a woman he had decided he didn't love--facing all the while the crack-up of his political career--Lincoln now faced a direct challenge to the one asset that mattered to him above all others, his reputation. He fell apart. "Lincoln went Crazy," Speed said,"--had to remove razors from his room--take away all Knives and other such dangerous things--&c--it was terrible-- was during the Special session of the Ills legislature in 1840." "Lincoln," said Ninian Edwards, "went Crazy as a Loon."