We are late on both Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays with all our visitors, so we're knocking them out this week. We did Lincoln over two days (Sunday and today), because, well, he's Lincoln- there's a lot to cover. But I also have a lot of props to use.
Of course, if you want, as always, you can check out our last go around with Lincoln.
And keep your eyes peeled for some cameos!
A little housekeeping here, I picked Ursula to play Mary Todd Lincoln, but Hayden said we should use Malificent because that's who played her last time. So for part one, we used Urusla, and for part two Malificent.
The Story of Abraham Lincoln
2020 Edition
Two-hundred and eleven ago today, the future 16th president of the United States of America was born in relatively poverty in a single-room log cabin in Kentucky, which makes him the first US President born outside the original 13 colonies.In search of a better life, the family moves to Indiana, but things go from bad to worse when Abe’s mother dies, leaving him and his sister Sarah to be raised by a single father that’s always struggled to get by. Their house is falling apart, with holes in the ceiling straight through to the outside, mattresses made of corn husks, and a door that doesn’t close all the way (unfortunate in those Indiana winters).
Abe’s father eventually heads off to gather a new wife, after hearing a childhood friend of his had also been widowed (with three kids of her own). The new wife, also named Sarah, is actually a not-so-wicked stepmother for Abe. She showed up with all of her belongings, giving Abe and little Sarah actual beds, pillows, and food. She made sure the holes in the ceiling got fixed, and a proper door was put on the home.
More than all those comforts, Sarah brought books with her. And Abe was in love. He had no formal education; in total he spent maybe a year in “blab school”, where you simply recite lessons out loud, no reading necessary! Some of his family members, and neighbors for that matter, thought he was lazy with all his “reading, scribbling, and writing”, but Sarah knew better. Books and learning would open up a different world to Abe. He always credited Sarah, who he called “mother”: “All I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to her.”
Teenager Abraham Lincoln continued his love of books. If he wasn’t going to go to school, he was going to need to self-educate. Books would teach him everything he needed to know. His favorite was Aesop’s Fables, something he would come back to again and again, even when he was president, and even during the Civil War.
But he also took on responsibilities around the house that you’d expect a strong guy like him to take on. Because teenager Lincoln was buff. Like, dude was a champion of his county in wrestling. In 12 years he only lost one match, and he was actually put in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Anyway, Abe helped out his family wherever they needed it. He didn’t love it, but he did it, until he was 21- pretty par for the course for the early 1800s.
But now, Abraham Lincoln can go out on his own, and make a name for himself. He leaves Indiana and goes to Illinois (the Illinois tourism board thanks him), where he has a slew of odd jobs: he’s a carpenter, a postmaster, a blacksmith, a surveyor, and even a bartender (the only president with that claim to fame).
Some jobs will be more helpful for his future than others.
As a riverboat crewman, he works on the Mississippi River, steering boats, learning how to quickly changing course to avoid trees and rocks and various objects, something that will help him when he has to think on his feet later.
He has a 30 day stint with the Illinois militia, and sees one single skirmish in the Black Hawk War. He’s completely unfamiliar with any of the military procedures, leading to plenty of blunders, but it will later help him identify with his generals.
By 24, he’s opened up a grocery with his army buddy called Lincoln & Berry. It’ll be a failed venture in a matter of months, and he’ll spend the next 15 years paying off his debts from it. But, it’ll teach him lessons about going on after failures.
And, it’ll teach him about people, too. At one point, a local ‘gang of ruffians’ came into his store and challenge him to a wrestling match with their leader. Lincoln, not one to back down, accepts. Nobody’s quite sure what happened, but that gang of ruffians would eventually show up to all of Lincoln’s debates, in support.
Of course, he splits rails too- Lincoln is good with an axe, and he wields it to make fence posts out of logs. This too, will come in handy when he’s looking to stand out a the Republican Convention. Lincoln the Rail-Splitter is an everyday guy, just like you!
But, Lincoln has bigger ambitions than making fence posts, sailing down the Mississippi, serving up alcohol or running a store. He wants to be a lawyer- and lucky for him you don’t have to come up with the money to go to law school in the 1800s, instead you just go ahead and teach yourself, and Lincoln’s good at that!
He’ll spend 24 years as a lawyer, working at Stuart & Lincoln, Logan & Lincoln, and finally Lincoln & Herndon, getting his name first! (That’s senior partner status!) No case is too small or too big for Lincoln; he works for farmers arguing over cows all the way up to corporate railroad cases.
Friends will say “honest Abe” only takes the most noble of cases. He’s a man out for justice for all! But that’s not exclusively true. Over those 24 years, Abe would take on his fair share of unjust cases too, defending murderers, con men, and even slaveholders.
Some of those 24 years he spends trying his hand at State Politics, too. Lincoln believes firmly in the Constitution and law. He’s a law and order Whig, after all. He spends 8 years in the Illinois Legislature for the Whig party, going as far to say he’s a “disciple of Henry Clay”. He will stump for William Henry Harrison in 1840.
Lincoln is in his 30s now, and looking for a wife. He goes to a party and a girl catches his eye, so he asks her to dance. The girl is Mary Todd. She is from Kentucky too, but her upbringing was much different than Lincoln’s. Her family had a large plantation, slaves, and money-- a lot of money, and Mary’s father put much of that fortune into giving his kids the finest education money can buy, and not just for his sons- but his daughters too (a radical thought in the early 1800s).
Mary had 12 years of formal schooling and learned everything from music and dance to math and geography. She spoke French fluently, and could debate with the best of them. Her razor-sharp wit intrigued Lincoln. Mary, unlike many woman of her time, was not afraid to express her opinions, or throw herself into any argument.
She was lively, and interesting, and destined for great things, and she knew it. She had an unmatched confidence, but her edginess clashed with her stepmother. So when he had the chance to go make a life for her own, she moved from Kentucky to Illinois.
She taught for awhile, but teaching wasn’t her dream. Mary’s goal in life was to be the wife of a president. So she’d need to find herself a guy who was presidential material. When she looked at Abe, she wasn’t immediately sold. Pros: He’s a lanky lawyer, profoundly smart, honest to a fault, and simply glowing with potential. Cons: He’s sloppy as hell, absent minded, lacks certain social graces, and is certainly no looker.
A notoriously flirtatious Mary had passed up a long line of guys she hasn’t deemed fit for the presidency. She’d already dated this guy Stephen Douglas, but apparently didn’t see him as presidential material. Or maybe Douglas couldn’t put up with her. For everything Mary was, she was also pretty difficult.
She did think Lincoln was the right horse to bet on to get to the White House, though. Their romance was rocky, though, thanks in part to Mary’s jealousy. At one point they were the presidential couple that might never be: Abe is late showing up to pick Mary up for a party, she went alone, and of course flirted with the first guy she saw. Abe showed up to the party later, an argument ensued, and they didn’t speak for a whole year.
Eventually they get back together, and plan on getting married. But, Abe gets cold feet and backs out. A year later, he finally goes through with it.
They eventually have four boys: Robert, Eddie, Willie and Tad. Lincoln is away a lot, an absent but loving dad. Mary, was happy to throw lavish parties and entertain guests.
When Lincoln is just 39 years old, he gets elected to the US House of Representatives. He’s not particularly a standout, except for the fact he’s the only Whig in the House from Illinois, but he’s a hard worker. He misses only 13 votes out of 456. There would be no second term for Lincoln, instead he steps down after his two years and heads back to Illinois.
Lincoln was a supporter of the Whig party, and even stumped for Zachary Taylor. Taylor then offered him a job: governor of Oregon territory. But, Lincoln wanted to go home to Illinois, to continue practicing law instead. Of course, we know what happens next: cherries and milk do in Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore kills the Whigs.
The Whig party isn’t the only death Lincoln has to contend with. His son Eddie dies of tuberculosis, and Lincoln is devastated. He had suffered a lot of loss in his life; he lost his mom when he was 7, his sister died during childbirth when he was only 19. Rumor has it his first fiancé died too. But, Eddie really hit him hard, likely adding to clinical depression historians now believe he had.
But what’s a little death of a kid to tuberculosis when you have dreams to attend to. The Whigs have gone, but out of their ashes raises a new party: The Republican Party.
1856 would see the first match up of Democrats vs. Republicans. That’s right, we’ve been playing this old song and dance for 164 years now.
The stage was set for Democrat James Buchanan vs. the first Republican to ever run for president: John C. Fremont (namesake of the one, the only Fremont, Ohio!) We’ll get to this in April, but it’s worth noting, Fremont’s running mate was ALMOST Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln didn’t have presidential dreams, not like Mary, he had his eyes set on the Abraham Lincoln: Senator. Senators give speeches, President’s do not. And Lincoln likes talking, and storytelling and some people think he’s pretty good at it. But when the idea comes up that he could maybe be Vice President, his interest is piqued.
But for now, John C. Fremont has a different running mate, who isn’t important anyway, because spoiler alert: Buchanan wins.
And two years after Buchanan is elected, Abe is running for that Senate seat that’s been his life-long ambition. The candidates for this Senate seat would be a preview of the 1860 election. Mary Todd’s ex-boyfriend, vs. Mary Todd’s hubby: or, more commonly known as Stephen Douglas vs. Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln’s an accomplished public speaker by now, or at least he’s gotten a lot of practice: he’s given nearly 2,000 speeches, but Mary would stump for him as well.
The series of 7 debates would go on to become the most famous debates in American history, listed in the history books as the “Lincoln Douglass Debates”. It’s right about here Lincoln gives his “a house divided cannot stand” speech, in reference to the fact that Abraham Lincoln believed the Union could not survive being half free states and half slave states.
But it was a good effort for a guy who has no family money, no secretarial staff, no full time assistance, and no designated campaign manager. He’s got Mary, though, and that’s not too shabby. This girl knows her politics, she could discuss anything political with the best of them!
After losing to Douglas, someone asks Lincoln how he feels, and Lincoln displays his love of analogies, “I feel like the boys who stubbed his toe. I am too big to cry, and too badly hurt to laugh. Lincoln is down, but he’s not out- and he’ll be back for Stephen Douglas.
The Senate Race in 1858 was good practice. Because, in just two short years, Abe Lincoln is going to emerge as the dark horse candidate for President.
So let’s head to the Chicago Wigwam in 1860. It’s an election year, and the Republicans need to pick their guy. The wigwam is a 2 story structure, the first one ever built just for the convention! It’s going to fit like 10,000 people! And shit is about to go down here.
The obvious frontrunner for Republicans is former New York Governor, and current New York Senator, William Seward.
Pros: He’s well-known with proven executive experience, and great on international affairs. The South might not agree with him, but he’s respected there. In fact, his closest friend in the Senate is Mississippi Senator, Jefferson Davis.
Cons: He’s been around awhile, which means he’s made a lot of enemies, and he’s made a lot of statements that make him sound like, *gasp* and abolitionist. He want to get rid of slavery, a pretty extreme position at the time.
Lincoln is a newcomer, his only national political experience is two measly years in the House of Representatives—TEN years ago! Gus Bilrakis is more qualified to be president of the United States (in case you’re wondering, he’s been our Representative for the past 13 years)
But being unknown isn’t so bad. He has virtually no political baggage, and not many haters. There hasn’t been time to hate him. His obscurity just might be his greatest asset. He’s a self-made man, which should appeal to “plain people in the West”, he never passes up a chance to call himself “humble” or “not fit for the presidency”, which he knew voters would find appealing. Top it all off with the fact that he’s from Illinois, the Republicans need to carry that state for sure.
Lincoln isn’t at the Wigwam in Chicago though. He says he’s “too much a candidate to stay home and not quite enough candidate to go.” His managers go instead, and they have a few tricks up their sleeves. The Honest Abe camp isn’t above a little dishonesty to get their man elected.
First of all, they hire two guys with the loudest voices to cheer whenever Lincoln is mentioned. It’s like the 1860 version of the “voice from the Sewers”
But they’re also going to go ahead and print some extra- ahem, counterfeit- tickets for Lincoln delegates. They went ahead and copied tickets from Seward delegates, and when those Seward delegates left the wigwam and took the streets to demonstrate, the Lincoln guys used their tickets to get into the wigwam in their place. When the Seward guys tried to get back in, the place was full, and they weren’t allowed.
But Lincoln isn’t the only one with dirty tricks, the Republican Party Boss, one Thurlow Weed (real name, I swear!), isn’t sold on Lincoln. He wants Seward. And he’s willing to pay to make it happen. He starts offering $100,000 to Illinois and Indiana delegates to change their votes from Lincoln to Seward.
But they can’t be bought. Delegates are starting to wonder if maybe this tall, skinny former Congressman is a good compromise. Abe is the nice moderate everyone is seeking. He’s more concerned with healing divisions than ending slavery. His view of slavery isn’t as radical as Seward, but it’s stronger than the Democrats.
A rocking and rolling Wigwam does vote Abraham Lincoln the Republican nominee for president with 10,000 people inside, and a 20,000 people outside screaming and chanting in the streets. His Vice President will be Hannibal Hamlin, a Senator from Maine (and William Seward’s buddy).
Lincoln, for his part, was advised not to go to Chicago. Seward fans were so upset they were openly crying. Instead, he was waiting at his local newspaper office for word. When the telegram came in that he would be the nominee, his friends cheered. Lincoln put the paper in his pocket, and calmly got up and announced “There’s a little woman down at our house who would like to hear this. I’ll go down and tell her.” Mary for sure would be thrilled.
We all know James Buchanan doesn’t have a shot in hell winning re-election. Even James Buchanan knows it, and he doesn’t run. So the Democrats are going to need a guy too.
But the Democrats are a mess. They meet for their convention in South Carolina, and nobody can agree on anybody. Northern Democrats are looking for a popular sovereignty platform. They’re the state’s rights guys. They aren’t about to claim they are pro-slavery, in fact, they refuse to put anything pro-slavery in their platform, but they also aren’t about take away your slaves either.
But that’s just not going to cut it for the Southern Democrats. They want federal protection of slavery. They warn of the threat a Republican presidency would pose to the South and their slave holding ways. They aren’t going to apologize for slavery, in fact they want it declared a right, and they’re ready to advocate for its extension.
The Democrats try and gather themselves and meet back up in Baltimore a couple of months later. But things don’t go much better. Eight Southern States walk out, basically telling the northern Democrats: you go your way, we’ll go ours.
The Southern Democrats go ahead and nominate their own guy: James Buchanan’s very own Vice President: John C. Breckinridge. Breckinridge has the support of Buchanan, obviously, but also some other former presidents: John Tyler and Franklin Pierce. Also worth noting, he’s Mary Todd Lincoln’s cousin, so that’s going to be an awkward family reunion!
That’s not the only connection Mary Todd has to the Democratic presidential candidates in 1860, in fact her former ex-boyfriend is going to get picked by the Northern Democrats. Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas is still the popular sovereignty guy he’s always been, and the Northern Democrats think he’s a good candidate.
Historians debate to this day if Stephen Douglas was for or against slavery, personally. For much of his career, he hid the fact that he was married to a lady from North Carolina who owned a large, slavery-driven cotton plantation.
He issued his “Freeport Doctrine” where he basically said he didn’t care if slavery was voted up or down, he just wanted to make sure the people could decide.” His famous political cry was simply “Let the people rule!”
But for what’s it worth, he did say the Declaration of Independence did not apply to non-whites: “this government was made by our fathers on a white basis… made by white men, for the benefit of white men.. and their prosperity forever.” Truer words have never been spoken, Douglas. He also warned audiences that a Republican win would assure succession, and he wasn’t wrong.
Anyway, we now we have our candidates, and while there would be a rematch in the north of Lincoln and Douglas, there would be no more debates. If there had been Lincoln, now well versed in public speaking, probably would have won. His argument was that popular sovereignty meant “if one man chooses to make a slave of another man, neither the other man or anybody else has the right to object.”
But Lincoln’s stance on slavery was not what we might think it to be today. He wasn’t firmly against it. He didn’t set out as an abolitionist. He wrestled with race relations his whole life. At times, he made clearly racist statements. He opposed the extension of slavery, and denounced the raid on Harper’s Ferry.
We’ll get to Harper’s Ferry in April, but for now, brief overview: John Brown was an abolitionist who believed slavery should be ended at any cost- even violence. So he planned a raid to get into a federal arsenal of weapons hoping to arm slaves.
There were 23 million people in the United States at the time of the 1860 election, 4 million of which are slaves. That’s about 17%, so it’s understandable why it’s the big issue. But while most everyone was talking slavery; Lincoln had a few other points to be made.
Economically, he hoped to build a transcontinental railroad, make a protective tariff, and give free land to settlers with the Homestead Act. He was appealing to New England Businessmen as well as Farmers in the West.
But he wasn’t appealing to the Radical Republicans, who wanted to bring slavery to an end at any cost. What remains of the Whigs, are at it again, this time they’ve gone off to form the Constitutional Union Party.
They’re not Lincoln fans, and they are going to nominate their own guy to uphold their single issue: preservation of the Union. They nominate former Speaker of the House John Bell, a former Whig from Tennessee. John Bell isn’t so much going to actively run for president, but he’ll sit back and see how it all plays out. His supporters will be enthusiastic though, they ring bells of all shapes and sizes at their rallies.
So to recap, we’ve got a north and south ballot here. John Bell is going to be on the ballot for southern Republicans- er rather the Constitutional Union Party, and he’ll be facing Southern Democrat and current Vice President John Breckenridge.
On the north, we’ll see a Republican Abraham Lincoln against his old buddy and advisory Democrat Stephen Douglas.
Neither guy is particularly a looker- and both camps jump on it. Republicans describe Douglas as “about 5 foot nothing in height and about the same in diameter the other way. He has a red face, short legs, and a large belly.”
While newspapers call Lincoln “a horrid looking wretch, a cross between a nutmeg dealer, the horse swapper, and the night dealer.” Don’t you just love 1800 insults? Another paper said “Lincoln is the leanest, lankiest, most ungainly mess of legs and arms and hatchet face ever strung on a single frame”. Ouch.
Lincoln didn’t pretend he had good looks. Douglas once accused him of being two faced, and Lincoln quipped back “if I have two faces, why would I wear this one?’
Moderate Democrat Douglas stumped mightily, he’s ready for a nationwide tour to state his case why he should be the next president of the United States! He’s the first guy to go stumping nation wide. But as he trailed from state to state by train he took some heat for it. His whistle stop tour wasn’t common, and it was seen as “unseemly” (ie- totes inapprops!) So Douglass was like “oh this old trip? Why I’m just on my way to my moms house!”
His moms house… that it took him months to get to. Republicans issue pamphlets for the “Lost Boy”. He left DC in June, and he’s been spotted in Philly, NYC, Connecticut and even a clam bake in Rhode Island. He answers to “Little Giant” and speaks very loud. If you see him, let his mom know, she’s worried he hasn’t shown back up yet.
The Democrats, with their split party, are at a disadvantage to begin with. But they give it the old college try. Douglas brings up Lincoln’s shopkeeper past, after all they, *gasp* sold liquor! Douglas claims Lincoln was a “flourishing grocery-keeper in the town of New Salem, who could down more liquor than all the boys in the town together.” There was a story Lincoln once bet he “could lift a barrel of whiskey from the floor and hold it while he took a drink from the bughole.” Of course, if it did happen, I’m sure Lincoln performed the stunt with super human strength.
They accuse Lincoln of participating in duels, say “we need a statesman, not a rail splitter as president.” They bring up his record from his measly two years in the Houses, saying he failed to vote for provisions for the troops during the Mexican War, and he *gasp* slandered Thomas Jefferson by saying he not only had children with his slave Sally Hemmings, but he sold those kids into slavery.
Lincoln denies all this privately. Publicly, he’s not getting into a debate. Instead, he’s sitting at home in Springfield. He doesn’t want to say anything or write anything for fear of his words being twisted by his opponents. Instead, politicians, friends, and even newspapers all meet at Lincoln’s house.
Despite their guy not being out there on the trail, Republicans win this election for being the most enthusiastic. The have torchlight parades and rallies. The GOP faithful call themselves the “wide awakes” and they’re all rail splitters who are gathering up votes for their man, Lincoln. They encourage everyone to vote against the corruption and wastefulness of James Buchanan and the Democrats, and tell everyone to “vote themselves a farm!”
Lincoln also knows, maybe thanks to William Henry Harrison, it never hurts to be a home-grown guy (Lincoln however was ACTUALLY born in a Log Cabin), So every chance Lincoln gets he talks about his “humble beginnings”. He uses his home-spun antidotes to make his points. He’s a master storyteller after all.
Plus, his folksy exterior helps conceal a brilliant political mind, which is really his most valuable asset in all of this. Lincoln’s not getting roped into anything, he’s letting the campaign run it’s course almost without him.
The South is seething. They do not want Lincoln to be president. Jefferson Davis is worried all these candidates are going to split the vote and hand the win to Lincoln. He tries to get Bell, Breckinridge and Douglas to withdraw and offer’s up a compromise candidate. Bell and Breckinridge is on board, but Stephen Douglas refuses.
The Atlanta paper says “The South will never permit Lincoln to be president, this is a settled and sealed fact.” It then went on to say “Let the consequence be what it may, whether the Potomac is crimsoned in human gore, and Pennsylvania Avenue is paved 10 fathoms deep with mangled bodies. The south will never submit to such humiliation and degradation as the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.”
So, it’s no surprise that when Lincoln wins the election, the south quickly succeeded from the Union. The final electoral count would be Lincoln: 180, Breckinridge: 72, Bell: 39, Douglas 12. No matter how you slice it, Lincoln won the electoral college. He didn’t win a single state in the south (to be fair, he wasn’t even on the ballot), but he carried 18 free states.
Lincoln would only garner 40% of the popular vote though. His three opponents together would get almost a million more votes.
So let’s do a quick look-see and check out what becomes of all these guys.
John Bell was never really actively campaigning for the presidency. His chance of winning was mainly dependent on nobody getting the required 152 electoral votes. He hoped to send it to the house, and become president as a compromise candidate. After the election, he retired from public life, but his son’s supported the Confederacy.
John Breckinridge might have lost the presidency, but he was elected to the Senate to represent Kentucky. That would be short-lived though. He was expelled from the Senate (and deemed a traitor) when he joined the Confederate army. He later became Jefferson Davis’s Secretary of War. He fled to Europe when the Confederacy collapsed, but came back when Andrew Johnson gave everyone amnesty.
Douglas, for his part, hears Lincoln carried Pennsylvania and says “Mr. Lincoln is the next president. We must try to save the Union. I will go South”, and he boarded a train, headed south and gave speeches on balconies and car platforms, wherever he could get people to listen to him, that we must accept the results of the election peacefully and uphold the Union.
Douglas supports Lincoln whole-heartedly after the election. He shows up to Lincoln’s inauguration, and when Lincoln doesn’t know where to put his hat down when he’s about to take the oath of office, Douglas steps forward to hold on to it for him, saying “If I can’t be president, I can at least hold his hat”.
He speaks highly of the new president: “I've known Mr. Lincoln a longer time than the country has. He'll come out all right, and we will all stand by him.” Douglas wouldn’t get to stand by him for long. He was dead by May 1861. Typhoid Fever, you know?
And remember William Seward? Well, he’s also on board with Lincoln. He swallowed his pride, and becomes Lincoln’s biggest supporter and also, Lincoln’s Secretary of State. The two aren’t without their disagreements, but Seward writes to his wife saying “The President is the best of us.”
Lincoln of course, gets inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States. In his inaugural address, he made it clear he still wanted to keep the union together. It was here he uttered the famous words: we must not be enimies. He even included a commitment to enforce the Fugitive Slave laws.
But at that point, it really wasn’t much use. The United States isn’t so united. Before Lincoln even gets to his inauguration, 7 states have left the Union: South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In fact, the south already has their own president: Jefferson Davis.
Davis even had war experience; he was Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce, after all. Lincoln sees the succession as an act of treason.
The day after he’s sworn in, Abe Lincoln walks into the oval office and is given a memo from commander at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, saying he could not hold the fort for the Union without reinforcements. (I was really proud of my lego Fort Sumter, by the way).
Lincoln took the oath of office under immense pressure and stress. The only war time president at this point was James Madison, who dealt with the War of 1812. And that War would be nothing compare to the bloody struggle the Civil War would end up to be.
No other president has been given such a heavy burden right out of the gate. Lincoln, whose only government experience on the federal level was two years in the House of Representatives, was going to have to train on the job. And the results would be mixed.
Days later a letter from General Winfield Scott, who is in charge of the army, informs Lincoln it’s probably best to evacuate Fort Sumter all together. Lincoln stalls for time, the Confederates attack Fort Sumter, and we are off to the races in the Civil War.
Lincoln had to make decisions fast. He leaned on his experience guiding those steamboats- he had to be prepared to change course at any moment. But, once he made a decision, that was it- there was no turning back. That was his presidential style.
He called for 75,000 troops from state militias to create an army, transferred a huge sum of money into the account for war expenses, and suspended Civil Rights (like writ of habeaus Corpus- the thing that prevents every citizen from randomly being searched by the government.) And he does it all without consulting Congress, which side-note: is required in the Constitution.
He wasn’t just making decisions fast, he was also playing fast and loose with the Constitution. He’s blocking Southern Ports from getting goods in or out. There will be no cotton out, or weapons in. But, a blockade like that is only accepted by the international community only during times of war, and only against foreign powers. This doesn’t meet those standards.
There are outcries from the legislative and judicial branches of government that Lincoln is abusing his power. But Lincoln is over there like ‘I can’t worry about the Constitution, and “correct procedures”, the nation is at stake! What’s the point of protecting a Constitution if there’s no Union?’’
Lincoln is neck deep in the Civil War, and he’s getting advice from the guys in his cabinet. But Mary is none too pleased with this, because he doesn’t need her political advice anymore. Mary, ever the confident, edgy, if not argumentative woman, develops quite the hostile relationship with the cabinet. They loathe and fear her at the same time, and she calls them all disloyal, saying they’re out for their own self-interests.
Even the servants aren’t fans of Mary. They call her a “hell cat” and avoid her at all costs. Mary does have one friend in the White House, though: her dressmaker, a former slave, Elizabeth Keckley. Mary had always wanted to be first lady and now that she was there, she wanted to dress the part. She shopped for fine fabric in New York, and hired Elizabeth as her full-time dressmaker. Lincoln, for his part had been sent so many clothes as a congratulations when he won the election, he told Mary “Well, if nothing else comes from this, at least we are going to have new clothes!”
People soured on Mary quickly when the press reported her spending. Plus, there were whispers Mary was a traitor. Despite her exceptional education, she was seen as an ignorant frontier girl from Kentucky who had ties to the Confederacy. She didn’t help matters when she invited her half-sister—who’s husband happened to be a Confederate General- to the White House, and then when he died in battle she draped the White House in black- talk about poor optics.
Mary just couldn’t win. Her southern roots made northerners think she was a spy, and southerners saw her as a union sympathizer.
She hosted the suffering to the White House. And she didn’t just invite white suffering people: black people were welcome too. She was the first First Lady to invite black people to the white house. (Some of her famous guests included Fredrick Douglass, a former slave and leader in the abolitionist movement).
She also spent time reading, feeding and gifting the injured soldiers, often bringing her son Tad along with her. Mary and Abe’s oldest, Robert, was the only Lincoln kid off and on his own by the time Abe was elected. Willie and Tad ran wild in the white house. Lincoln might have been disciplined, but his kids were not. They were known to be “hellions”, impulsive and unrestrained.
There are stories where Tad charge visitors in the White House to see his dad, and interrupting presidential meetings. The Lincoln kids were spoiled, especially by Abe who doted on them. Tad was called the “tyrant of the White House”, for how he had Abe wrapped around his finger.
The kids got whatever pets they wanted: ponies, a grey and white cat named bob, and a turkey Abe supposedly pardoned from being eaten for Thanksgiving dinner, setting of a tradition of presidential turkey pardonings, despite no actual historical records existing of such an event. (The turkey was named Jack.)
They had to leave behind a dog named Fido when they left Illinois. Fido was scared of loud noises, and they didn’t think he’d survive the trip on a train.
But that’s ok, they had two goats, Nanko and Nanny, that they treated like dogs. They roamed free in the White House and would barge in on White House receptions. Tad’s goat was always chewing on the furniture and floor boards of the white house.
Basically, the Lincoln family in the White House was chaos. Tourists and passerby-ers would stop by the White House at all hours, thanks to Abe’s very generous open door policy. All the money Mary spent redecorating was a waste too, because all those visitors were pickpocketing souvenirs. Eventually the mansion was in shambles. Pieces of carpets, upholstery, drapes, wallpaper, even fixtures in bathrooms were swiped.
But all that fun comes to a screeching halt in 1862, the Lincoln’s 11 year old son, Willie died of Typhoid Fever. Abe and Mary were distraught. Mary didn’t even get out of bed for three weeks, and missed Willie’s funeral. Willie was opening Mary’s favorite son, and she just became more insufferable after his death. She was increasingly odd and unpredictable. She still had Tad, who was 8 years old when his brother died, and Robert, her oldest son, who was nearly 20 by now.
Mary lost her will to host parties, or redecorate the White House after Willie died. The press becomes increasingly hostile. Her ranting becomes more frequent; her erratic behavior and hysteria is obvious to everyone. She’s spiraling. She turns to seances in the hopes of talking to Willie from the beyond.
While Mary’s temper has always been legendary, Abe’s capacity for enduring her outburst is equally legendary. But his patience after Willie’s death is wearing a bit thin.
Abe wrestled with “melancholy” is whole life. Today, he’d probably be classified as clinically depressed. He was rumored to take “blue mass”, which contained a bunch of mercury and is probably the reason he had chattering teeth, shaky hands, and occasional outbursts. He used storytelling and the power of laughter to cope: “I laugh because I must not cry”, he says.
But Lincoln also uses his sense of humor to his advantage. He says his humor “saves me much friction and distress”. He’s a funny guy, some say our first funny president. He loves being sarcastic and sharing puns. In fact, by 1863 there would be a book of “Old Abe’s Jokes” circulating.
Lincoln’s puns might have been loved by everyone. But Lincoln was not. He’s not the national treasure we know Lincoln as today. In fact, he has abysmal popularity ratings. He’s called a “rube”, a “clown”, and an “ugly baboon” (a whole slew of newspapers talked about how ugly he was). The New York Herald calls him a “fourth rate lecturer who cannot speak good grammar”.
Northerners are beginning to think he’s a reckless tyrant, a comedic baboon, a late-comer to emancipation. Southerners dislike his opposition to slavery, and his answering with unrestricted force.
He has no fans in the abolitionists, the states righters, the strict constitutionalists, or the radical conservatives. Throw in the people who didn’t like his jokes, his storytelling, or his looks and you’ve got most of America- or what’s left of it.
Of course, arm-chair strategists aren’t fans either. Initially, the Union is getting their butts kicked. Lincoln isn’t a general, or even a solider for that matter. He doesn’t know about war, but he knows how to teach himself about war. He sent his assistants off to the Library of Congress to bring him back books on warfare, and every morning he walks over to the war department to read and send telegrams to his generals. It was the email of his time!
Back in DC, Lincoln is doing everything he can to help the war effort. Ever the tinker-er (Lincoln is the only president to hold a patent- for a steamboat lift), he’s always on the look out for new inventions for the Union Army. He personally reviewed the test of various inventions meant to help the war effort: a primitive machine gun, a method for predicting the weather, and armor (that turned out to be too bulky to use).
By now we’re nearing the end 1862, he’s coming up on the halfway point in his presidency, and the battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in all of American military history, had come and gone. Robert E. Lee marched his army up to Virginia, hoping to invade the north. The battle’s outcome would be vital to shaping America’s future, because the Union was the tactical winner. But it was a rough one for both armies.
Lincoln needed the victory though. He had a play in his back pocket, but he was waiting for a union victory so he didn’t look desperate. On January 1, 1893, Lincoln would issue the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the south.
It’s a tactical maneuver more than a moral one. Freed slaves will threaten the workforce in the South, and a lot of those free slaves are willing to come to the north and join the army to help the Union in battle. It’s just a bonus that it fuels the northerners cause of morality. And this is how Lincoln, who came into the presidency only hoping to contain slavery to its current locations, became known as the Great Emancipator.
Lincoln knew the Emancipation Proclamation was history making. The day he signed it, he had spent the whole morning shaking hands, and his hands were blistered and shaky. He was worried his signature would be sloppy, on the document that he would later call the central act of his administration, and the ‘great event of the 19th century.” He told William Seward “if my name goes down in history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it”. Worth noting: Mary was twice as passionate about the Emancipation Proclamation as Abe.
Lincoln’s view of slavery has seemed to evolve over time. Gone were the days where he simply felt slavery was incompatible with democracy, he was now a full on abolitionist, saying things like “if slavery is not wrong- is nothing wrong?’ His Civil War goal was now firm: Restore the Union without slavery. He refused to consider peace terms on any other basis.
The Emancipation Proclamation fans the flames, though, and just enrages the south even more. Lincoln has come to the conclusion that the Union has more guys, but the Confederates have better Generals. So Lincoln goes through a slew of generals trying to find the right one. Enter: Ulysses Simpson Grant. Grant might not be a star right out of the gate, but he’ll get there.
By July, Lee wasn’t finished with the north, and the Battle of Gettysburg would ensue. This one would go on for three days, and go down in history for being the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. While both armies would have a large amount of casualties, the Union would come out the winner here, and it would forever be called the turning point in the Civil War.
And of course, four and a half months later, Lincoln would give his famous Gettysburg Address, where he dedicated the Gettysburg cemetery. The speech, though, wasn’t supposed to be famous at all. One of the most remembered, famous speeches in American history contains the words: “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here”.
It wasn’t even well received. Lincoln was sick that day. He had a fever and was dizzy, and looked as white as a ghost, when he finished with his nearly 3 minute speech the crowd wasn’t even sure he was done, and was so unimpressed they gave him a slow clap.
Newspapers would give his address a scathing review. The Chicago Sun Times wrote: “The cheeks of every American must tingle with shame as he reads such silly, and flat utterances.” The Harrisburg Patriot & Union wrote: “We pass over the silly remarks of the president”.
The importance of the Gettysburg Address, and even the win at Gettysburg wouldn’t be immediately obvious. This is one of those “hindsight is 20/20” moments. In fact, even with Union victories in 1863, the war as a whole seemed like it was in the Confederacy’s favor.
Lincoln is hoping that Americans find “it best not to swap horses midstream”, but his re-election isn’t quite sure the safe bet, in fact, if anything, he’s almost got no chance.
There’s a war going on, and some say maybe we should go ahead and postpone the elections. In fact, holding an election during a war was unprecedented, no nation have ever held a general election during a war. But Lincoln wanted the Union to press on: “But we cannot have free government without elections.” After all, without free elections what country do you have anyway? According to Lincoln, not one worth saving, because they’d be “conquered and ruined already”.
At the June Convention in Baltimore, Lincoln is nominated once again, but Republicans aren’t so sure he can win. Hoarce Greenly, founder of the New York Tribune (a top magazine of its day), wrote “Mr. Lincoln has already been beaten.” Party Leader Thurlow Weed said “I told Mr. Lincoln his election was an improbability.”
And Thurlow Weed still wasn’t sure Lincoln was the right candidate for the Republicans. Weed was not generally a Lincoln fan, but Lincoln agreed to oust some New York Port and Customs House appointees and replace them with handpicked Weed guys, in return of the support from Thurlow Weed.
Thurlow Weed was not the only guy sold on Lincoln. In fact if there was a consensus feeling about Lincoln at the time, it’d be: “All blame Lincoln, all, in all parties”, and “The most striking thing is the absence of personal loyalty to the president. It does not exist. He has no admirers, no enthusiastic supporters, none to bet in his election.”
At one point there was a thought that maybe the Republicans should ditch Lincoln and run Ulysses Simpson Grant instead. But Grant flat out refused, pounding his fist and saying “they can’t do it!”
The Democrats are going to meet in Chicago in August, and they are going to go with a war hero, so they pick General George McClellan.
McClellan accepts the nomination, but he’s going to be a middle of the road candidate. The Copperheads are a subgroup of Democrats that believe in a “peace at any cost” platform, but McClellan is unwilling to go that far. He also won’t call the war a failure, but still criticized the Republicans for making Emancipation one of their goals.
To recap: McClellan was Commander in Chief of the Army of Potomac, during the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln appointed him after General Winfield Scott, who had a habit of napping during major battles, was relieved of his duties. (Fun fact: Winfield Scott had run for president in 1852, but spoiler alert: loses to Franklin Pierce)
He also developed a reputation for moving at a snails pace. He moved so slow, Lincoln sent a snarky telegram: “If you don’t want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for awhile.” In fact, McClellan was fired specifically for “having the slows”.
But McClellan had an image of being a young, handsome heroic Civil War General, and that’s not nothing. Little Mac as he was called, had the pedigree to be president, he went to West Point and served bravely in the Mexican-American War. He was only 34 when he was put in charge of the Army of the Potomac, making him the youngest of all the Union Generals.
But Little Mac’s personality was at odds with his image. He despised Lincoln was a passion, and was often insubordinate. He was a plodding general, and a divisive presence in the army.
Plus he said stuff like “I almost think that were I to win some small successes now, I could become Dictator”, leading everyone to stop calling him Little Mac and start calling him “Little Napoleon”
He was a big time bragger about his accomplishments. When he was appointed general he wrote to his wife “I find myself in a new and strange position here- by some strange magic I seem to have become the power of the land”, and he insisted he would get all the votes of the Army of the Potomac (Spoiler alert, he wouldn’t- instead they would vote for Lincoln in a margin of 4 to 1.)
Republicans liked to note that General McClellan was not the mastermind he liked to say he was. They made fun of him for how far “to the rear” he kept during combat. Lincoln, called the Army of the Potomac “Macs Bodyguard,” and said during a retreat, “Little Mac, for the first time in his life was found in the front.”
The 1864 Election was a noisy, mean, and abusive one. McClellan started out with a bang, saying “This president is nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. He is the original gorilla. What a specimen at the head of our affairs now!)
While the GOP harped on McClellan’s cowardice, defeatism, lack of patriotism, and disloyalty (some even called his acts treason!), the Democrats focused on Lincoln’s incompetence, ignorance, and even corruption of the Lincoln Administration.
As the Civil War had heated up, and casualties mounted, opposition to Lincoln was inevitable, and the Democrats were hoping the war wariness would get them votes.
But they also aren’t above throwing out a smear campaign full of baseless lies. Hey, it worked for William Henry Harrison! They claim Lincoln toured a battlefield, and instead of being solemn and respectful, he was laughing and joking. Plus, have you heard, Lincoln has an illegitimate daughter! He’s getting his pay in gold, while paying soldiers in “greenbacks”. Why his election is a “very sorry joke!”
New York World Newspaper says “Honest Abe has few honest men to defend his honesty” (a dig on corruption in his administration).
And, even four years after the first election, Democrats still aren’t above making fun of Lincoln’s looks: his “Anatomy is composed mostly of bones”, and they even levy a strange accusation against him: this guy can’t be president--- he only changes his socks once every ten days!
The laundry list of terms Mac and his friends use for Abe are as unflattering as they come: Filthy Storyteller, Liar, Thief, Buffoon, Monster, Old Scoundrel, Perjurer, Robber, Swindler, Tyrant, Butcher.
Lincoln won’t retaliate, though. He tells everyone to “let it alone” reasoning “If I have not established character enough to give the lie to this charge, I can only say I am mistaken in my own estimate of myself”, meaning it’s his fault for his actions if anyone buys that garbage.
But that’s not to say Lincoln himself isn’t nervous about the election. The Republicans rename themselves as the “Unity Party” and present a unity ticket. Hannibal Hamlin is out, Andrew Johnson is in.
Andrew Johnson is a Democratic Senator from Tennessee. Lincoln is hoping he’ll be a ticket balancer helping him win votes in boarder states.
But even with the Unity ticket (that, spoiler alert: America has not seen since this very election), Lincoln is still looking like he’s going to lose.
In July 1864, Confederate forces come within a mere five miles of the White House when General Jubal Early raids DC! Lincoln watched the battle, even though he was told repeatedly to take shelter. It was an act of bravery for Lincoln, but played terribly in the press. Look how close the Confederates just got to the White House!
By late August, Lincoln has every member in his cabinet signed a note he had written. He didn’t show them what it said when they signed it (but showed them after the election.) Their signatures indicated they would cooperate with the new president, whoever it was.
Then by September the tide of the war was changing. If the election was sooner, Abe Lincoln almost assuredly would not have won a second term. But just when Lincoln had resigned himself to the election defeat, the tide of the war began to turn, and with it, Lincoln’s popularity.
Admiral Farragut (of the metro stop fame!) captured Mobil Bay with his famous quote: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”.
Then Sherman’s March to Hotlanta, and you know, the Sea was a total “scorched earth” success for the Union. Major General Sherman was not afraid to go deep into enemy territory. He moved from Atlanta to Savannah burning down everything along the way, which cut off supply lines for the Confederates.
And then of course there Ulysses Simpson Grant being a badass.
So all around, things are looking better for Lincoln. But he did still have some competition- and not just from McClellan. The Radical Republicans had splintered off of the Republican party, calling themselves the “Radical Democracy”.
The Radical Democracy are not Lincoln fans. They didn’t like Lincoln’s handling of the war. They called Lincoln a dictator (and then threw in that he wasn’t even a very good dictator: “How vain to have the power of a God and not use it Godlike!”)
They also complained that he shouldn’t even serve a second term, no matter who he was, because nobody since Andrew Jackson had served two terms, and why should Lincoln be any different?
These are the guys who really wanted Grant to run. But, if they couldn’t have Grant, they’d find another General: General John C. Fremont, of Fremont, Ohio fame. (John C Fremont had never actually ever been to Fremont, but for some reason the residents of ‘Lower Sandusky’ were so excited about John C Fremont acquiring California for the US in 1849, they named their town after him).
General Fremont will have a platform of 1 term limits, and Congressional participation in wartime, as well as the decision making in reconstruction.
Lincoln is smart enough to know that third party candidates can often play spoiler in close elections, so a Senator from Michigan helps broker a deal. Lincoln will fire the controversial postmaster general, Montgomery Blair (name cool, but not important), and Fremont will drop out- he just hates Montgomery Blair that much. There’s no record of the deal, but we do know John C Fremont dropped out of the race on September 22, and Blair was toast the very next day.
So now all Lincoln needs to do is get out the vote, and he’s got a plan for that too. He sends a steamer down the Mississippi to collect ballots of gunboat sailors and furloughed federal employees. He’s got to make sure those count!
In the end, Lincoln is a big winner: 212 to 12. The popular vote is less decisive, Lincoln gets about 55%, but that’s enough for Lincoln to serve a second term.
A mean election, though, turns shockingly calm. Little Mac says “for my country’s sake, I deplore the result. But, I accept it.” Grant sends Lincoln a telegram that’s like “Hey no riots! That’s a Victory!” and Abe, for his part, praises voters for proving government can sustain a national election in the midst of a Civil War.
Mary has mixed feelings about the win. Turns out, unbeknownst to Abe, she had racked up a ton of debt from all her clothing purchases. If he had lost the election, she’d be forced to tell him. But four more years bought her some time to figure out how to pay them off.
But after his election, Mary was having premonitions of Abe’s death. It was an acute feeling of doom she couldn’t shake. She was even more upset when her oldest son, Robert finally enlisted in the Union Army, despite Mary trying for years to stop him. She thought she had lost enough, and was worried about losing another son. Lincoln countered that their son wasn’t any different than all the other son’s that had to go to war.
For the Union, though, things were looking up with Lincoln’s re-election. And now that a victory was clear, Lincoln had to turn his attention to what to do with the south once they lost. Some wanted him to be ruthless, to go for retribution- basically, to make them pay (those “some people” even included Mary Todd Lincoln).
But that just wasn’t Abe, instead he was ready to offer them forgiveness and welcome them back. It would be a battle all the way, though. The Confederacy wouldn’t easily cooperate, and there were plenty of people in his cabinet that wanted to see Lincoln come down hard on his enemies.
On April 9, 1865, General Lee and General Grant would meet at Appomattox. Lee surrenders, effectively ending the Civil War. (We’ll see you in April, General Grant!) Scattered resistance would continue for weeks, but the war is over.
The next day the White House releases the official news of Lee’s surrender. A crowd of 3,000 people come to the White House hoping to hold a victory party. Abe gives some remarks, and has a band play “Dixie” and “Yankee Doodle”, but for everyone coming to celebrate a win, they’d leave a bit disappointed. Abe doesn’t gloat, he doesn’t pump his fist in the air, and declare “we got ‘em!”, instead he wants to “let em up easy!”
His remarks were all about Reconstruction and forgiveness. He wants to reintegrate the states, and not charge the Confederate leaders with treason, so the country could heal, forgive, and rebuild. But those people who came out hoping to enjoy a victory party, leave disappointed in the rain. Whomp-whomp.
Five days after Lee surrenders to Grant, Lincoln spends his morning at the White House pardoning a soldiers who was set to be shot for desertion, approved a discharge of a rebel prisoner, and met with a former slave and wife of an army veteran who hadn’t yet gotten their pay. Lincoln would make sure they did.
He has a big dinner of mock turtle soup, roast Virginia fowl with chestnut stuffing, baked yams, and cauliflower with cheese. Then he heads off to the theater. Abe usually loves the theater, it’s his guilty pleasure, and escape from the world. But tonight, he’s not particularly feeling it. In fact, he tells Mary he doesn’t want to go. He’s already seen “Our American Cousin”, and it’s just ok.
But his presence there has been advertised, and Mary says they have to go. Lincoln says he cannot disappoint the people, so he “must go”. He leaves the White House, leaving a couple of things of note on his presidential desk. First, a bill that called for the creation of a “Secret Service” (though it was to prevent counterfeiting at the time), and an envelope labeled “Assassinations”. Lincoln got so many death threats, he considered them a novelty. He’s pretty casual about all the attempts on his life, because there had been a series of attempts: loosened carriage seats, and a bullet that went through his hat, missing his head.
As Lincoln leaves the White House, he tells the security guard “Goodbye Crooks”, which was unusual. He usually said goodnight, and he heads off to the theater.
Of course, we know what happened next. It’s long been documented, written about, it’s one of the most well known events in American History: John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate spy from Maryland, shoots Abe Lincoln in the back of the head.
It’s part of a larger plot. John Wilkes Booth has an elaborate plan: He’s going to shoot Lincoln and stab Ulysses Simpson Grant. His associates are going to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward.
But, Grant never made it to the theater, his wife Julia wasn’t so much a fan of Mary Todd Lincoln, so they cancelled last minute. Instead, the Lincoln’s invited 28 year old Army officer Major Henry R. Rathbone, and his finance Clara Harris. Rathborn would suffer stab wounds on the worst double date in history, but physically he would recover (Mentally, not so much: He blamed himself for not being able to stop the attack, went insane and later murdered his entire family, fail to commit suicide, and spend the rest of his life in an insane asylum.
The guy who was supposed to kill Andrew Johnson chickened out. And Andrew Johnson would go on to be sworn is as the 17th president.
Seward was attacked at his home, but survived the stabbing, in part thanks to a carriage accident he had before the attack, which resulted in him having to wear a neck brace. The metal brace saved his life. Seward remains Secretary of State under Andrew Johnson. He has to go on to purchase Seward’s Folly after all!
Lincoln’s assassination, though, was a success for John Wilke’s Booth, but it wouldn’t have the desired outcome. Booth hoped the death of Lincoln would throw the country back into a Civil War. John Wilkes Booth would spend the next 12 days on the run before he is killed while being captured.
Lincoln is taken across the street to the Peterson’s house, where he dies from his injuries the next morning. At 7:22 am on April 15, 1865, Abraham Lincoln draws his last breath, and Secretary of War Edward Stanton utters “Now he belongs to the ages”, a phrase that will forever be used to describe President Abraham Lincoln.
Stanton is a perfect example of how the view of Lincoln changed over time. Stanton had once called Lincoln “that baboon in the White House”. (Lincoln of course, laughed it off- “That is no insult, it is an expression of opinion. And what troubles me most is Stanton said it, and Stanton is usually right.”) Stanton had come to love the president over time, and the second he was shot, Stanton rushed to his bedside to say goodbye before planning a grand send off for his former boss.
Lincoln alive had many detractors, but Lincoln dead has almost exclusively admirers. He’s moved from being vilified to being enshrined into sainthood in lightning speed.
It’s not to say everyone was mourning his death. Some Radical Republicans weren’t so sad to see him go. After all, he was a dictator who ended up being awfully lenient on those Confederates. After a meeting of Radical Republicans hours after the shooting, Indiana Congressman George Julian recorded in his diary that the “universal feeling among radical men here is that his death is a godsend.” Michigan Senator Zachariah Chandler wrote to his wife that God had permitted Lincoln to live only “as long as he was useful and then substituted a better man (Johnson) to finish the work.”
He might have been the first assassinated president, but thanks to William Henry Harrison, at least we know how to send off a current president who dies in office.
In fact, relics from Lincoln’s funeral would become highly sought – after items. The Peterson house would be ransacked by souvenir hunters. The guy who owns it, Peterson, isn’t above cashing in on the fact that the president died at his house, either. He starts charging admission to see the bloody deathbed. Poor tenant William Clark, still has to sleep on the thing each night though. In case you’re wondering, Peterson would spend all that money on drugs, and die on the lawn of the Smithsonian of an opium overdose.
Lincoln’s assassination set off a tragic future for a lot of people. Among them: Mary Todd Lincoln.
Mary’s irrational behavior is made even worse by Abe’s death. She leaned on her 12 year old son, Tad for support as if he were an adult, and secluded herself in her bedroom of the White House, not coming out for days (while vandals also waltzed in to take Lincoln souvenirs including tablecloths and silverware).
Andrew Johnson didn’t know if or when she’d ever leave the White House so he could move in. It took Mary over a month to leave, partly out of mourning and partly out of spite. President Johnson didn’t take any time out of his day to offer his condolences to Mary, and Mary believed that the Vice President just might have had a hand in the whole assassination plot. While it’s understandable a wife who witnessed her husband being shot in close range would be having a tough time, there would be no grief counseling for Mary. That’s just not how things worked back then. Instead, her reactions were seen as “improper”.
She didn’t make it to her husband’s funeral. Instead, Lincoln’s funeral train left without her. It would spend 14 days, stopping in cities draped in black making it’s way from Washington D.C. to Springfield Illinois, where the 16th president would be laid to rest (and then moved a few times thanks to grave robbers trying to steal his body).
Mary eventually moves to DC and heads to Chicago with Tad. She spends her time writing angry letters to newspapers, and lobbying politicians to defend her in the court of public opinion. She’s also selling off all of Abe’s stuff to settle those debts. The only thing the Lincoln family makes sure to keep: Abe’s presidential papers. They even ensured they’d be kept under lock and key until the 1940s.
Mary goes to Europe to try and live anonymously before returning to the United States. But, then in 1871, just 6 years after she lost her husband, 18 year old Tad dies. And Mary spirals even further.
All she has now is her oldest son, Robert, and he’s grown annoyed with his mother. After Abe’s death, their relationship deteriorated. He felt she was becoming more unpredictable, and difficult and becoming weirder and weirder.
Mary tries to make amends by throwing money at the problem, despite the fact she’s broke. She showers Robert and his family with gifts, and even sold her Chicago pad to him at a bargain price.
But after Tad died, she became more paranoid, sickly, and delusional. While today, experts think she suffered from bi-polar disorder, in the late 1800’s she was just considered crazy pants. After she runs naked into a hotel elevator one night and even attempts suicide by poison, Robert has her committed to an insane asylum.
After a year, Mary is released, and comes after Robert with a vengeance, she gets all her gifts and money back from him- and even her Chicago home. They will never make up.
Mary suffers from migraines, back pain, and diabetes which is now causing her to go blind. She died of a stroke in 1882, when she was 63.
Robert Todd Lincoln was the last Lincoln standing. He went into politics, serving as Secretary of War under James Garfield. In fact, Robert was even with James Garfield when he was shot, and then later, at the same expo as McKinley when he was shot. Robert, noticing the coincidences, stopped accepting any presidential invites after that. Robert got married and had one son and two daughters, but no Lincoln direct descendants remain today.
Robert would live to see the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922. He died four years later at the age of 82.
The Lincoln memorial would be just one of the many ways the United States would memorialize the 16th president. The state capital of Nebraska would be named for him (just four capital cities in the US are named for presidents- Lincoln, NE; Madison, WI; Jefferson City, MO.; and Washington D.C)
And while it never materialized, there was always talk of naming a state after him. We could have had Lincoln instead of Wyoming, North Dakota, or Idaho!
He joined George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore, and he’s one of the president mascots for the Washington Nationals. And of course in 1914, he was put on the $5 bill.
Statues of the president were erected all over the country, a practice that would go on for over a century. But there is only one statue of Lincoln in a former Confederate State (though it wasn’t put there until 2002), and that honor goes to Virginia.
Richmond Virginia might have been part of the Confederacy during Lincoln’s time, but today it’s happy to cash in on it’s ties to Lincoln. He showed up there just five days before Lee surrendered to Grant, rode through the city (despite everyone warning him it wasn’t safe), and sat himself down in Jefferson Davis’s chair. Most of Steven Spielberg’s movie “Lincoln” was filed in Richmond, and you can even visit “Lincoln: the movie trail”
Lincoln holds up the test of time. He will forever be remembered and enshrined, he’s probably the most memorialized president. He’s the guy that ended slavery and brought the Union back together. He’s the definition of a national treasure.
The Director of Ford’s theater, says some 15,000 books have been written about him, with more coming out all the time. He’s the most written about person besides Jesus.
Lincoln had all the qualities you need in a president. He is the master of unexpected problems. He’s hands-on and decisive. He has superb people skills, and even if he seemed to bend the rules of the Constitution a bit, he did have a deep reverence for the law. He was a good listener, compassionate, and tolerant. He had eloquence, humility, and Lincoln had the best sense of humor. He was always the center of attention in a group, and people couldn’t help but hang on his story telling, when his face would light up and his eyes would sparkle. He had jokes, and anecdotes for every occasion.
He might have gotten some of the small things wrong, but he got the big things right, and despite falling in the middle of all those jumbled presidents between Thomas Jefferson and FDR, Lincoln is the standout.
First of all, it's no surprise, Hayden put Lincoln as close to National Treasure as he could.
We aded Lincoln to our presidential tally of guys who died in office.
Then we read our scathing review.
And Rose colored glasses.
It's no surprise Hayden chose to go with Rose Colored glasses, and we pinned up our props.
We went through the elections, he put 1860 as a 6 on the Sleaze-O-Meter, and 1864 as a 4.
And Mary Todd Lincoln made it on to his First Lady Dream team for her brains, replacing Abigail Fillmore.
If you're looking for a Lincoln meal, I have you covered.
We adapted what some historians have said his last meal was to things we had on hand.
And I'll leave you with Hayden's Lincoln drawing. He does an awesome job on these.
Next Up: We had two days without visitors, and we made the most of them!
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