Booth Did NOT Murder Lincoln

Every school child "knows" that John Wilkes Booth murdered President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. Unfortunately American school children have been taught myths, fables, and lies. Though no innocent in the Lincoln murder, Booth was not the trigger puller.

 

To find who actually pulled the trigger which killed the president, follow the link below to our new website.

http://www.americanchronicle.info/home/booth-did-not-murder-lincoln.aspx?ArticleID=53&tabid=514

Copyright 2015 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.

Book Review: The Last Lincolns

Could anyone have predicted in 1865 that a family headed by so towering a giant of history could end in such dissipation and moral turpitude 120 years later? After reading The Last Lincolns by Charles Lachman we are more convinced that the great progenitor was one of kind whose mold was broken at birth.

The Book

The book is highly readable, deftly handling the multiple chronologies which each life represents. We detected only a couple of editorial errors both of which occurred near the end of the book – log was misspelled as “lob” and Warren Beckwith’s ages at the time of an interview and death seem to have been transposed. Otherwise the formatting and organization of the story were well conceived and executed. The book is indexed and footnoted as one would expect from a serious history. It also has the obligatory photos whose oversight would have been a heavy demerit.

The author is actually a professional documentary producer rather than being an establishment academic historian, a background which we believe rendered a more accessible book.

The chief benefit of the book is that it presents a comprehensive historical narrative of the direct Lincoln descendants in one compact volume ideal for the lay reader or more serious researchers wanting an overview of the family before departing on more specialized research.

One prick of a reviewer, James D. Fairbanks, professor of political science at the time of his review at University of Houston-Downtown, complained about nearly everything including the allegation that the book provided little analysis of various subjects on his mind, to which we reply he might wish to write his own book and use his own mind to create his own analysis. And if he is too dimwitted for that exercise, we present our own below.

The Lessons

For obvious reasons – at least to those with a cursory knowledge of the Lincoln family – Mary and Robert loom largest in the story, and perhaps quite fittingly as Robert clearly took after his mother rather than his illustrious father. In fact, one would have trouble pairing father and son since the latter’s temperament and philosophy seem so at variance with the former’s.

But two peas in a pod do not a happy pairing make. Mary and her son were two scorpions trapped in a bottle with Mary earning one fabulous victory while Robert prevailed in the end. Mary said in one of her letters that Robert’s departure for school in the East was a relief for the family because he had a rather perverse  domineering personality with which he took pleasure in taunting his younger brothers. His personality did not blend with the sweeter, more playful dispositions of the rest of the family.

If Mary could be pretentious, Robert could be pretentious, imperious, and condescending. He demanded deference and obedience. He continuously guarded his privacy and secrecy, shunning publicity, and above all bad publicity. His mother’s clothing scandal mortified him and was perhaps the opening salvo in his quest to institutionalize her.

When his mother’s erratic and batty behavior escalated in the aftermath of Tad’s death in 1871, Robert assembled a crack team of lawyers, legal experts, medical doctors, judge, jury, and defense lawyer to guarantee an open and shut case against his mother. ( See Mary Lincoln's Finest Hour )

After reluctantly releasing her to her sister under a storm of adverse publicity, he used deceitful and uncorroborated stories to enlist his Aunt Elizabeth’s help in re-incarcerating her. He even stooped to lying against his mother to prevail in his battle against her. Although he plausibly argued in defense of preserving her inheritance to care for her in old age, his real animus was the embarrassment she caused him as he was scaling the elite heights of plutocratic enrichment among his socially prominent acquaintances.

Mary prevailed in the war of wits against her son and his cabal of conspirators, but the two did not speak for years, with Mary calling her son a “monster of mankind” and signing her last letter to him as Mrs. A. Lincoln.

On paper Robert’s life is illustrious. He opened a thriving law practice, served as Secretary of War, Ambassador to England, President of the Pullman Company, retiring as its Chairman of the Board. He perennially made the short list of possible presidential candidates but shunned such considerations like the plague.

Much of his power and success owed to his name and connections, a fact which he was not afraid to leverage when needed. One of his stalwart supporters was Supreme Court justice David Davis, appointed by his father, who served as a surrogate father after Lincoln’s death. On many occasions, Robert would reach out to him for advice and string pulling.

While Secretary of War, in 1881 Congress had authorized 25,000 dollars for an exploration to the Arctic. Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, slated for the mission, was disturbed that the monies were not forthcoming, whereupon he visited Robert to seek release of funds. The lieutenant was mildly impudent in his demands that the Secretary of War release funds which Congress had expressly allocated for the expedition, a brazen act of insubordination in Robert’s eyes which would carry very dire consequences. Robert had opposed the mission because he did not deem it germane to national defense or fighting Indians and dug in his heels against the exploration.

He finally relented and sent the team on its way. A resupply boat was sent in the following year but was impeded by ice from reaching its destitnation while a follow up ship was sunk. Perhaps the example George Bush relied upon for his handling of Hurricane Katrina and its victims, Lincoln initially refused to send another search and rescue party declaring that Greely's party were probably all dead. When shamed into relenting, he sent a naval crew to seek for survivors of which there were 7 of the original 25 who were themselves within 3-4 days of dying. The Lieutenant later declared that the men who died did so because of Robert’s cold indifference, recalling remarks his mother had made about him in his youth.

This same contempt for suffering would rear its ugly head years later during the Pullman strikes where Lincoln assumed general counsel to aid the embattled owner, George Pullman, whose utter disdain for his workers was frightful. Lincoln managed to suppress a subpoena for Pullman to appear before Congress, using yet again his powerful connections in high places.

Robert married the daughter Mary of Iowa Senator James Harlan. Mary Harlan’s life provides even sketchier information than Robert’s as she shared with him an aversion for publicity. Lachman speculates that she may have suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome. She was frequently absent from public functions, absences for which the press dutifully excused.

In one salacious tidbit, Lachman reports a passing opaque reference which Mary Todd makes to Mary Harlan's drinking, something one would not expect from the religious Methodist tee totaling family. Unfortunately the allegation cannot be confirmed due to the foregoing noted scarcity of information. This exposure may have been the source of the enduring implaccability the Marys shared toward each other.

However, one story which can be confirmed is her hatred for Mary Todd. Her mother-in-law was an intrusive, overbearing, and difficult interference in the lives of son and daughter-in-law which Robert confessed in court as being a strain on their marriage. Indeed the couple was frequently apart for both familial and official reasons, but would often be activated by Mary Todd’s presence.

But this meddlesome interference and bitter hatred is ironic given Mary Harlan’s active role in demolishing the marriage of her youngest daughter Jesse to Warren Beckwith who, though from a respectable family, was anything but himself in the eyes of Jesse’s parents.

The two had eloped, suffered a troubled marriage due in large measure to the Lincoln’s opprobrium of it, and finally killed it when Mary Harlan took her daughter and children to Europe over Warren’s strong objections. He filed for divorce and never heard from them again. However, Jesse did not stop providing grist for the gossip mills, with adultery and financial dissipation a part of her free spirited personality.

Robert’s family was not immune to heartache, suffering the Lincoln curse of death in 1890 when his only son Abraham II “Jack” died from poisoning exacerbated by incompetent medical treatment while at Versailles. Of all the third and later generations, he seemed to posess in most abundance his grandfather's character and promise of success in his own right, just as had accrued to his father. Robert was crushed by the loss of his future law partner.

Later Lincolns exhibited the same dissipation as Jesse, with her son providing the closing act of the family in a rather publicized paternity suit against her son Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith starting in 1967. He had married a young West German student whom he discovered was pregnant. Because he underwent a prostatectomy in 1962, it was unlikely that he could sire a child.

Court depositions reveal that Beckwith was fond of watching other people in sexual acts which he hosted at his house. In addition, Beckwith hired a chauffeur with whom it is believed she conceived the child. Unfortunately, his wife refused court ordered blood tests, leaving questions of paternity unanswered with definitiveness.

One trait which runs common throughout the narrative is the Lincoln’s indifference if not hostility for their heritage. Much of the blame must be given to Robert who was ashamed of his parents in many ways. When a monument was erected at the Hodgenville, KY site where his father was born, Robert refused the visit the log cabin because of the poverty and indignity of the place.

He called his opulent mansion at Hildene his ancestral home in an effort to dissociate from his and his parents’ true beginnings. After his mother’s death, he did all he could to erase her memory from his life and that of his children.

The later Lincolns, especially the Beckwith children, displayed disdain for their great heritage. “Peggy” Beckwith stated that it was just Abraham’s luck to be related to her. When sought by reporters to provide insights into her famous ancestor, she either hid or made irreverent remarks wholly oblivious to historical fact. Both of them treated family heirlooms with contempt, allowing them to either be destroyed by time and the elements or discarding them wholesale.

Just as with the collapse of any Roman or American dynasty, the Lincoln family petered out with a whimper. As we related in our consideration of the insanity affair, we know that a massive biography is due in March which will rehabilitate Robert. Perhaps we shall revise our opinion of him, but for now, we do not think he is salvageable except to those who like bankster types.

Lachman tells a fine tale with considerable research to back up his findings. We will draw upon this resource in the future for more of The American Chronice.

Reference

The Last Lincolns, Charles Lachman

Copyright 2010-12 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.

Mary Lincoln's Finest Hour

History and public opinion have given Mary Lincoln the backs of their hands for her sometimes batty and bizarre behavior, but Mary possessed the keen mind to match the many treacherous opponents she faced. One of her finest hours was her escape from the mental institution in which her “monster of a man” son placed her.

Mary could be her own worst enemy. Her bumptious and abrasive personality made her many enemies who were only too happy to assist in her undoing. Her most erratic and bizarre behaviors occurred after the death of her son Tad in 1871.

The Evidence of Insanity

The many allegations and facts against Mary made her an easy target. She spent substantial sums to make contact with her dead husband through the agency of spiritualist mediums. She told the Grand Pacific Hotel manager, Samuel Turner, at which she was staying, that men were trying to molest her. She was afraid to sleep alone. She had premonitions of her death and that of her son. For example, during her stay in Florida she sent frantic telegraphs to her son warning of his impending death. Return telegrams from him did not assure her.

She related that her coffee had been laced with poison but ordered a second cup in order to vomit out the toxic beverage. She also spoke to Robert of a “wandering Jew” in the hotel who was trying to return her stolen purse. Finally, Mary accused Robert of attempting to murder her.

The final straw was probably the financial indiscretions of his mother who was reportedly walking around with 1000 dollars in cash and 56,000 dollars in bonds. With her legendary shopping feats still looming large, Robert was afraid that she would squander her inheritance and be left destitute. As evidence, he pointed to the many costly but unopened items she stored in her closet, many of which had no practical use.

These were the allegations, some of which have no witness aside from Rober whom, we shall see, was a deceitful liar, while others, such as the poisoned coffee, have multiple attestations. It was thus reasonably easy to craft a prima facie case of insanity, which Robert pursued with dispatch.

The Plot To Incarcerate

Fearing the unwanted attention that his mother’s erratic behavior brought, and still reeling from the clothing scandal of a few years earlier, Robert decided to put a permanent end to his mother’s freedom by forming a posse with his well connected legal contacts to have his mother institutionalized.

He hired Pinkerton guards, who also followed her on her return trip from Florida, to spy on her at the hotel to document her behavior and track witnesses for a trial.

Robert hired the prestigious legal firm of Ayer & Kales to handle his lawsuit against his mother, whose case was lead by Leonard Swett who was a leading legal expert on insanity law and also a friend of the family. This heavyweight cabal consisted of unimpeachable characters including Supreme Court justice David Davis, the executor of Abraham Lincoln’s estate. They all agreed to proceed with the lawsuit and planned how the evidence, jury, prosecution, judge, and defense would be selected for a fait accompli.

They dispatched Dr. Willis Danforth, Mary’s gynecologist, to visit her in her room to make a judgment of insanity, which she helped along with the coffee story noted above. Otherwise, Mary displayed fine social and conversational graces for the occasion.

Once he reported back to the legal cabal, Robert made the decision to file formal papers requesting the incarceration of his mother and the conservatorship of her estate. All six men of the team agreed that she was insane based solely upon the testimony of her gynecologist.

Robert filed papers in court on May 19, 1875 which immediately resulted in a trial scheduled for that very afternoon. A police officer went to Mary's room to haul her to court where a waiting court greeted her. The jury was selected from prominent men, whose integrity was not reproachable, of whom one was a doctor as required by Illinois law. Swett, who was organizing the show trial, had selected the defense attorney, Isaac Arnold, who tried to resign but returned to his post when ordered to do so by Swett.

The trial commenced immediately with the prosecutor calling Mary’s gynecologist, Dr. Danforth, and 16 other witnesses, including her son. The hand selected defense attorney followed with nominal cross examination and presented little or no closing arguments. Within minutes after their release to deliberation, the jurors returned a verdict of guilty which meant that Mary would be immediately taken to a women’s sanitarium, Bellevue Place, in Batavia, about 40 miles outside Chicago. Its owner was Dr Patterson who was quite enlightened for the times regarding insanity treatment but had assured Robert that she would never be judged sane.

Round one went to Robert, but Mary accepted her defeat with resignation. While at the sanitarium, she was given considerable latitude to do and come and go as she pleased provide that she was under proper supervision. She would even dine with the resident doctor’s family from time to time. However, Robert refused to allow her to have guests or to correspond with friends. While Mary at first displayed model behavior, she soon sunk into a depressed funk lasting about 6 weeks during which she was rather disagreeable, trying the staff’s patience as only she knew how.

The Great Escape

Mary’s luck began to change when a newspaper reporter, Martha Rayne, from the Chicago Post & Mail, hearing of Mary’s incarceration, visited the asylum unannounced. She requested an interview with Mrs. Lincoln in order to assess for herself her mental state and the progress she was making towards recovery.

The reporter discovered that Mrs. Lincoln, far from being insane, was quite in control of her senses and a very agreeable conversationalist. Mary coyly greeted the Bradwells, which would initiate a cascade of events leading to her release. The reporter returned to write an article whose publication infuriated Robert and caused considerable alarm to Dr Patterson. One of the readers of the article was Myra Bradwell, a would-be female lawyer who, due to denial of a license to practice law, published the Chicago Legal News, a well respected and read journal covering important legal cases. Her husband, James, was a lawyer with whom she often collaborated on various projects.

Mrs. Bradwell was an old friend, through her husband, who had known each other from at least Lincoln’s presidency. When she saw Mary's reference to her in the paper, she sensed that Mary needed her help. She dropped in unannounced at the asylum where Dr. Patterson, though initially cordial, curtly sent the prying publisher away. Not to be deterred, she returned with her husband who the doctor reluctantly granted access to Mrs. Lincoln. After a long visit they hatched a plan to free her.

In the meantime General Farnsworth, a Civil War hero and Congressman, visited Mrs. Lincoln. He became aware of Mary’s plight through a letter she had surreptitiously sent to him against Robert’s orders and right under the nose of Dr. Peterson and his very nosy staff. Although he was now under strict demands from Robert to forbid Mary from receiving any visitors, Patterson felt that denying Farnsworth would entail more publicity than his denial would be worth. So up he went to her second floor room.

After their pleasant visit, Farnsworth informed the doctor that Mary would like her freedom, which Patterson promptly but diplomatically denied.

Mrs. Bradwell visited Mary’s sister to arrange for her to take custody of her sister. She then visited Robert to inquire under what terms he would release his mother. He informed her that if Elizabeth Edwards, Mary’s sister, would receive his mother, and a doctor certified her as cured, then he would grudgingly grant her custodial freedom. Patterson had previously assured the legal cabal that insanity is rarely, if ever, curable.

Myra returned on a Saturday with her husband James to Bellevue Place where a petulant Patterson had no choice but to grant them a visit with Mary. The Bradwells departed for a short time after their visit with her in order to bring back Mr. Franc Wilkie of the Chicago Times, one of the city’s top reporters.

His visit resulted in a very favorable article in the paper which caused a furor among Robert and the doctor. With headlines blaring that the fallen President’s wife was declared sane by Patterson and a story making it impossible to construe insanity, the tide had turned sharply against Robert's band.

Patterson had indeed sent a note to Robert certifying her sanity but he persuaded the doctor to retract it. The doctor realized that the costs of handling a high profile patient like Mrs Lincoln were not helping him manage costs at his struggling enterprise and ruefully wished to be rid of the whole affair.

Robert planned a counter attack but inexplicably relented to free his mother to the care of Elizabeth. So after about 11 weeks’ incarceration, Mrs. Lincoln headed for Springfield. But the saga was not over.

Sanity Found

Under the terms of the agreement struck between Elizabeth, Mrs. Bradwell, Dr. Patterson, and Robert, Mary’s release was contingent upon her maintaining sane behavior. Elizabeth wrote her nephew that Mary had fulfilled the terms and that she wanted full custody of her property. He would have none of it. 

Robert had only granted freedom; he retained conservatorship over her money which Mary desperately demanded. She soon hired an attorney, a former governor of Illinois, to have the courts return her legal sanity and custody of her money. Robert planned a counter attack to have her returned to Bellevue Place.

However, before the plot could succeed – which included a deceitful and mendacious campaign by Robert against his aunt’s judgment of her sister, Elizabeth’s husband Ninia, a prominent citizen in his own right, prevailed upon justice Davis to call off the attacks. Davis realized that he was getting deeper into a tar pit and consequently asked Robert to relent on the understanding that Robert would grant his mother full release from custody and relinquish the conservatorship of his mother’s property. There apparently was no discussion about granting Mary full recovery from her legal insanity. When Robert realized the full verdict of the trial he was furious with Ninia but it was too late.

When the trial occurred, Ninia provided the only testimony to her sanity and all parties had agreed to return Mary her property. She placed it in the custody of James Bunn who managed her financial affairs with an estate estimated to be 81,000 dollars - a very cushy sum in those days.

Thus Mary, with a little help from her friends, had outmaneuvered a highly sophisticated legal team, medical doctors, their deceits, and malice in institutionalizing her. The battle scars never healed, with Mary leaving the country a second time on a self imposed exile in France.

Denouement

Some writers have argued that the Bradwells were not true friends and that they had merely used Mary to further their own personal interests. Even if true, it was of little consequence to Mary because in the end she was a free woman.

In my own assessment of Mary, I find that she suffered some bizarre and scary behavior which might lead one to conclude her insane, but in the end the evidence is not persuasive. There are numerous explanations, which should have been pursued by a competent defense attorney, for her behavior not the least of which were her many bereavements and loss of position following her husband’s murder. In addition, her doctors had prescribed chloral hydrate to which Mary became addicted. This drug was widely prescribed throughout the 19th C. but it is not harmless with prolonged usage having psychological counter-indications. Tad, who had been her lone companion on her first trip to Europe, died upon return to Chicago in 1871 – another hard blow to a woman of many sorrows.

So Mary suffered severe post traumatic stress syndrome exacerbated by a bad drug. Under most circumstances she deported quite well and could be most charming when so moved. If she was paranoid, she had good reason. Her son constantly berated her and hired spies to monitor her every move once she returned from Florida.

We are also aware that James Emerson is releasing his magnum opus on Robert Lincoln this March which may shed some new light on this affair. The book has been advertised as his rehabilitation by showing him as a kinder and gentler person than is commonly understood. I doubt that such a project is possible without resort to the deceits and lies he used against his mother. We shall report more when the book is available.

Regarding Robert's motives, we are decidely partisan to Mary. His ostensible reason for intervening was concern for her money. She was a burden to his marriage and truly tried his patience. But the main motive, we believe, is that he was more concerned about his reputation and rise in plutocratic America, than he was of his mother. He was embarrassed by her to no end. Such was true of his regard for his family. He referred to his magnificent mansion Hildene as his "ancestral home" which was utter rubbish and a reflection of his disdain for his parents' beginnings.

On the other hand, we do not believe that he was after her money. He had received a portion of the estate, was a successful attorney, and did not take any of hers, although he was not shy about buying her first class accomodations when she travelled because he took the expense from Mary's account.

Mary is an acquired taste of which I shall have second helpings in this blog. She was a plucky woman and in the end is a sympathetic character with wit and wiles – and innumerable faults - to make for interesting reading.

Reference
The Last Lincolns, Charles Lachman
Copyright 2010-12 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.