tried to rest the todd estate from robert woodcliff who would marry a cousin of john todd named polly todd. she had held that the state, but passed away. woodcliff inherited the todd estate, all the land, all the money. woodcliff also was not so incidentally the leader of a proslavery movement in kentucky. john todd ready for the state senate against that movement, though he was a slaveholder himself was demonized as an abolitionist. in the mill of the campaign in july 1849 he died of cholera. lincoln arrived to pursue the family's case in october. just in time to observe the proslavery movement triumphantly rewrite the state constitution to eliminate the kentucky law prohibiting the slave trade within the state. lincoln lost the case and the todd family as the estate to woodcliff. at the very same moment that the political legacy of henry clay lincoln's early though i did have a and mary's father's legacy were destroyed. if of those events were not sufficiently invigorating, there was another factor profound but concealed and lincoln certainly knew it was. from memoirs: journals and pamph