The Lincoln Assassination

hap-b-day, powell.

Notes on My Recent Abduction by A. Lincoln: A Narrative Account of the John Wilkes Booth Plot to Kidnap President Lincoln

I have to say, the plot summary makes me glad that Lincoln was never abducted--imagine that oaf McClellan in the White House!!  (...although isn't the logic of that a little shaky?  Wouldn't another prominent Republican just have run instead of Lincoln....?)  Anyhow, looks like an incredibly silly book, I'd love to read it. ^^

In the late 1840s a black man named William Freeman broke into the house of a prominent family of Auburn New York and slaughtered the residents in their sleep.  He was imprisoned and tried for murder despite the fact that he was almost certainly insane.  Nobody was willing to defend him in court because the town had been so deeply shocked and wanted vengeance, not justice--so Freeman's case was taken by W. H. Seward who defended him eloquently and valiantly.  Sadly the jurors were all from Auburn, and they were as angered as the rest of the town.  William Freeman was found guilty and died in prison while the case was being appealed.

I first read about the trial in an adorable, horribly biased book called Mr. Seward for the Defense.  It was the first book I ever read about Seward and although it is partly fictionalized with dialogue and Frances boiling chickens in the basement (pretty sure they had servants for stuff like that), it is still one of my favorite books.  I've been hoping ever since that I might be able to find a transcript of the actual trial but I've never seen one even mentioned, anywhere.  But, this morning when I saw Boots post about the 1865 trial transcripts I did another search and...here it is:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycayuga/freeman/index.html

I'm so surprised and pleased, if you're looking for another court drama to read this one is definitely worth your time.

just thought i would announce that the three published trial transcripts are finally almost all available online at the archive.org.

Pitman was up for a while, but they just added Peterson Bros. and the first two volumes of Poore last week.

so we're just short the third volume of Poore, but otherwise, the buffet is open!

enjoy!

: D

p.s. if you're too lazy to look 'em up or don't know how, i can add links (i'm just in the rush this morning).

Happy Seward's Day, everyone!

I almost missed this holiday--good thing the last day of March just happened to be also the last Monday of March, which is when Seward's Day is traditionally celebrated. 

Seward's day is a holiday in Alaska, because as just about everybody knows (since it's all he's commonly remembered for) Mr. William Henry Seward bought Alaska.  Only a little bit of fraud was involved.

I don't think buying Alaska is a good reason to celebrate Mr. Seward (since he did lots of other much more useful interesting things), but I'll take what I can get.  Even though I do not live in Alaska, I am celebrating Seward's Day (or, the last hour of it) because he was a wonderful, interesting man and because I think it's fantastic he has a holiday named for him.  Also, I was totally going to vote for him, but he was robbed of the nomination at the Chicago Convention.  My faith in politics still hasn't recovered.  :(

Happy Birthday John Parker Hale!!!

(I'm writing all of this from memory, so it's mostly hearsay really--if anybody has any documented stuff about Mr. Hale please post it!)

Originally a senator from Maine, but then he moved to New Hampshire? I think?  Wherever he's from, John Parker Hale is pretty awesome--one of the few early abolitionists in the national government, he was threatened with death by Hangman Foote.  His daughter Lucy fell in love with and was engaged to marry John Wilkes Booth, which Hale disapproved of not because of Booth's political/moral opinions, but because he was an actor.  This seems unreasonable to me (shouldn't Hale have disapproved the profession AND the moral divide?) but seems quite possible that Booth could have toned down his political opinions when he was around his prospective father-in-law; on more than one occasion Booth fooled people into thinking he was at least neutral, or even pro-Union.  (The two examples I can think of are Adam Badeau, whom he fooled completely, and didn't he make friends with a Union officer?  I think the story is in "Right or Wrong God Judge Me".)

i promised i would share some of Weichmann's whining to Dr. Porter. I transcribed the most miserable examples, of course. they exchanged letters for a couple of years at the end of looie's life while he was writing his book and helping oldroyd with his. he sent Porter an early draft of the manuscript for comments, but seemed mildly paranoid about being criticized or having the information leaked, though he was confident it would be the best, truest history available, ever. it's hard to tell, but it seems in looie's chapter 16, he implicates j.h. surratt by saying he left the lawrence hotel on the 12th, then returned on the 18th. am i not reading that right? i thought looie said he thought j.h. was out of town during the assassination (memory is going fuzzy here).

anyway ~ enjoy!

You cannot realize what i have been compelled to endure because of my testimony, and especially from the people in the church in which I was raised. It has simply been infamous. I was twenty-three years in the service at the request of Stanton and Holt. Had it not been for the manner in which these men who with Burnett and Bingham stood by me, I would long ago have fallen by the wayside. (August 15, 1900)

like those guys had any choice? if they failed to stand by him, the whole testimony would have unraveled.

I have a photograph which was taken in 1865, it is a very good picture of me as I looked at that time. Stanton told me to my face that I was a very comely young man; maybe when you see the picture you will agree with him, at the same time there are many things I would like to say to you in confidence and to which I cannot give utterance in a letter.

You are familiar with the long persecution which grew out of this case and which lasted so many years. I can assure you I had my share of it.

Have you seen Burnett lately? (December 4, 1900)

this refers to a different picture than the one we always see of looie (taken in '66). anybody ever seen another photo of him? ever? i'm curious!

also, the hint hint hint of "let's get together and talk about this" is so sad. not to mention the mealy Burnett reference.

I send you a clipping from the Phonographic Magazine of 1893 by Benn Pitman which may be of interest to you, also a letter showing the esteem in which he held me. (December 11, 1900)

because, you know, Benn Pitman is an important man and you should listen to what he says.

oh looie, the humanity!

i'm assuming that those who would be interested have already read the james o. hall article on sarah slater? in case, by some weird accident of oversight you have not read it, let me know. also, apparently there's a theory about her and josephine lovett brown noel possibly being the same person? or something of that ilk?

i know jack about sarah slater, but did she abscond with all the money or what? someone fill me in with some details if you have a chance.

also, i just picked up a signed copy of something or other that Hartranft wrote (who cares, really, what it is ~ i just thought it would be cool to toss into my collection); i got it for a pittance (it's been a week of fabulous deals on trashy old books).

anyway, i just had to share (sooo geeky).

consider the elephant ~

So now that I'm home and I have all my papers & books to refer to, I can make a few posts, as promised, about my other pet interests in history. Here are a few letters written by Chester A. Arthur I transcribed at the Library of Congress. (With pictures!)

Here are some excerpts (I don't have copies of these, just some notes) from some really sweet letters he wrote in his 20s to a friend, John Campbell Allen. Mostly Arthur just talks about the past and wanting to see Allen again. Many of the letters mentions Allen's illness, and eventually the letters just stop. I believe I read somewhere that Allen died of tuberculosis when he was pretty young.

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Here is a letter a 27-year-old Arthur wrote his future wife, Ellen Lewis Herndon. It was her birthday and he was away, in Missouri. It's really, really beautiful.

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And to provide a very tenuous connection to this community, here is an 1885 letter Arthur wrote Edwin Booth:

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So I've still been too lazy/busy with classwork to actually write up anything on Mr. Badeau, but this morning I found out that some of his correspondence with James Harrison Wilson had been published in 1966 as an article in Civil War History.  I still don't know much about "Harry" except that he and Badeau were intimate, that he fought for the Union, and that he was the clever fellow responsible for tracking down and capturing Confederate President Jefferson Davis on (of all dates) 10 May 1865. 

I met Harry through Charles Shattuck's The Hamlet of Edwin Booth, which is a great read if you ignore all of Shattuck's personal opinions.  (Uhh by which I mean, I'm just bitter that he was so mean to Ad.)   At the beginning of the War, in one of his letters to Edwin, Badeau wrote that he had "found 'real and exquisite happiness' in conferring his 'profound and tender and anxious love' upon a young soldier"--James Harrison Wilson, presumably.

My tiny amateur historian brain hasn't yet evolved far enough to deal with military tactics, so I'm sure when I'm all grown up I will appreciate most of the 1966 article quite a bit more.  But on the whole it was very endearing: Wilson consistently begins with "My Dear Ad" and usually signs himself "Your Left Arm,"  gossips a bit about his superior officers, and sends (and asks for) quite a bit of war news--and on 13 May writes a gorgeously interesting letter about (among other things) the capture of Jefferson Davis.

( Click to read about Jeff in a dress! )

( Jeff Davis and Sherman are crazy; Sheridan is a horse )
Jones, James P., ed. "'Your Left Arm': James H. Wilson's Letters to Adam Badeau." Civil War History 12 (September 1966) 230-44.

this is x-posted to my lj, so i apologize for the repetition. also, i meant to write something else (regarding discussion from elsewhere) when i sat this morning, but this is what came out.

: o p

the last couple of weeks, my lincoln assassination collection has attained new heights in obscenity (and my friend utter_scoundrel just sent me the commemorative issue of Civil War Times Illustrated from 1965 covering the assassination ~ oooo fun!). i admit my collection had already grown obscene when i purchased my second copy of Doster's Lincoln and Episodes of the Civil War (because apparently one copy wasn't enough, and, by the way, they are finally reprinting it after i had been looking for a copy the whole of my life, it seems).

now, i had thought until recently that i was showing a great deal of restraint by not purchasing the Petersen Brothers trial transcript ($500), the Gutman book ($290), or any number of assorted temptations on eBay. but then i suddenly got a wild hair about returning some library books that i have had out for over a year now, and so have just been ordering my own copies of a whole lotta other stuff (this, in preparation for finishing that book i said i would write). ( click to see what i have acquired in the last week or so in hardback )

so: anything cherished on your bookshelves? anything you are chomping at the bit to own? i now have more than 20 books, a handful of magazines, and one lonely reel of microfilm (Hartranft's) on the subject, but somehow that doesn't feel like a lot.

Don't you love it when books fall into your lap?  I'm very hazy on who Kean actually was--except that he was terrifying and dashing and horrible in the first chapter of Archers' biography of Junius.  Anyhow, this book (published 2006) looks pretty awesome.

David Anderson first met the Booth family when June, Junius, and Edwin traveled West to perform in California in 1852. I don't know a whole lot about him so I'm just going to lift a description from the excellent Daniel Watermeier:

On 10 October Junius Brutus left San Francisco for the long journey back to Baltimore. Reportedly he urged his eighteen-year-old son to pursue his fledgling career in California and left him in the care of his brother June and David Anderson.' Anderson was twenty years older than Booth. In the 1830s and 1840s he was a member of the Bowery and Park Theatre companies and noted for his portrayals of old man roles such as Sir Peter Teazle or Polonius. He had come to California as early as 1851 and established himself as a reliable stock actor in his line. A widower, his first wife having died in 1840, and apparently childless, he seems to have taken a kindly, protective interest in teenaged Edwin. Booth and Anderson would remain close friends for the next thirty years. Indeed, after he was an established star, Booth regularly employed Anderson for his various companies.*

David Anderson turns up for an entire chapter of Otis Skinner's The Last Tragedian, which is not the most reliable book in the world (but possibly one of the most adorably Edwin-biased!) but is still one of my favorites, because it's about 80 per cent Edwin's correspondence, both to and from his friends. According to Mr. Skinner, "there is a world of tender intimacy" in Edwin's correspondence with "his boon companion.... In no other series of his letters do I find such relaxed freedom of thought and mood, and if ever a man loved his fellow man it was proven in this staunch friendship."

In August 1882, David Anderson was the recipient of one of my very favorite of Edwin's letters, composed as a "poem" during Edwin's successful tour of Germany:



Switching away from David Anderson for a moment, this afternoon I finally read John C. Brennan's John Wilkes Booth's Enigmatic Brother, Joseph, and it was...everything I'd ever hoped for.  But the most surprising bit (not that we weren't all secretly expecting it) was another excerpt from the same June letter everyone always quotes (about Joe being insane): "I am sorry that you [Edwin] & Asia are not on more loving terms--but I feel Asia has a little of the family taint--which I hope time may cure..."***  Poor June, everyone in his family is crazy...

*Daniel Watermeier, "Edwin Booth Goes West: 1852-1856," Theater History Studies Volume 25. (1 January 2005): 77-108.
**Otis Skinner, The Last Tragedian (New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1939), 55-56.
***John C. Brennan, "John Wilkes Booth's Enigmatic Brother Joseph," Maryland Historical Magazine Volume 78. No. 1 (Spring 1983): 25.

CDV of Booth's boot on sale now!

c'mon, you know you want it.



and if not, how about Lincoln Assassination Collector's Cards?

so silly.

: D

I was going to write a post about Davy Anderson (I'll get to it later), but I got distracted after I found Edwin Booth's myspace page.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=125599608

I have to say, the best part of all was this comment:

Dec 24 2007 1:38 AM

My Dear Mr. Booth,
I write you, Prince of Players, to wish you the Brightest of Yule time blessings, and, to ask if perhaps, you would pass along my fondest wishes for good health to your father--and tell him that if I survive the year, I should very much like to share another night of boozing and roystering by his side??

Sir, I am your most humble servant, and do wish you the most fiery of all Yule Logs that ever burned bright...
Your Friend,
EDGAR ALLAN POE

So! Yesterday I went to see June’s diary. I’m still kind of amazed my school has this and they actually let me touch it and everything. (With white gloves, of course.) It was really neat after all the reading I’ve been doing lately, and after seeing so many assassination-related items under glass. And it was very cool to see the names of all these people I’ve read about written there in his diary, and, yeah. It’s June’s diary! Excitement.

I actually ended up typing out the whole thing. If anyone wants the file, I’d be happy to send it to you if you give me your email address. It’s about nine pages long. Perhaps you can help me figure out some of these things I’m not sure about.

So here are some excerpts and interesting things learned from June’s diary:
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So, this is an exciting development. Thanks to a footnote I randomly saw in American Brutus (I really love this book), I found out that June Booth's 1865 diary is at my school's library! I'm going over there right after class tomorrow to check it out. If anyone has anything in particular they want me to look for, I'd be happy to. Otherwise I will just browse and take random notes.

The only other thing related to the Booths are these items:

"The Philadelphia Inquirer," April 17, 1865 Boston Museum Theatre Broadside for Booth performance.
Reward poster issued by War Dept. for his capture with photos of Booth and other conspirators, Surratt and Harold, mounted at top, April 20, 1865.
Two engravings.

There is also this, "The Abraham Lincoln Collection," but it looks like the name is a lot grander than what's there. Nevertheless I shall investigate. (Hahaha, they have another cast of Lincoln's hands! I should keep a tally.)

This is all here, by the way, if you want to see them firsthand.

Joseph Adrian Booth, the youngest of the Booth children, died Feb. 26th in 1902*. He was born on the 8th of the same month (inst!), 1840. In his 40's he became a ear, throat, and nose specialist. He attended school with John.

this and a good deal more tomfoolery can be found at: Lincoln Hates Werewolves. which just goes to prove that no one can be too crazy and/or obsessed about the man in the funny hat.

: D

I was reading this* excellent article on JSTOR about John Wilkes Booth's "mummy", a story you're probably heard somewhere along the way.  My short and thus probably slightly incorrect version is that in 1872 a man in Texas named John St. Helens, thinking he was close to death, confessed among other things to his lawyer that he was, in fact John Wilkes Booth (also that Johnson had told him to kill Lincoln).  His lawyer, sketchiness incarnate in the form of Finias L. Bates, tried to turn his client in to the government for the already-long-distributed reward money.  Nedlesss to say, the government was less than impressed.  After working as a bartender for a while (the creepy but enderaing kind that constantly brags about having killed the president), St. Helens vanishes...for now!

In 1903 a painter named David E. George drinks arsenic in Enid, Oklahoma, after claiming his true identity is that of John WIlkes Booth.  Finias L. Bates hears about this and, convinved it is John St. Helens yet again,  travels to Enid.  He finds that the undertaker, beliving the story, has preserved the body and is waiting for the governemnt, or Booth's family, to come and collect it.  After nothing of the sort happens, Finias offers to bury the body for him...but does he?

I think not!  He keeps it.  The creep.  Hence the traveling Booth mummy of assassination fame, which went on many thrilling sideshow adventures, and is currently proabably locked away in someone's closet.  Wtf Finias.

BUT rumors that Booth had survived -- or never been in -- the burning barn were varied and numerous, and not all of them ended in a touring corpse (I once read that at one point in time there were as many as 3 supposed "booth mummies" travelling the country!).  As one website re-tells it:

In April, 1898, American newspapers had carried reports that John Wilkes Booth had been seen in Brazil. This report stimulated Booth history or myth all over the country. Walter Hubbell, an actor, carried the news to Dr. Joseph Booth, a brother of John Wilkes Booth; according to Hubbell, Joseph exclaimed, "South America! Why, the last we heard of him he was in Oklahoma."

Joe, as you may know, is rarely heard from -- this piece of hilarity is quite a treasure.  But where is its original source?  Who is Walter Hubbell?

Walter Hubbell (1851-1932) was an actor, apparently a friend of Edwin's as well, and a writer.  He authored The Curse of Marriage, The Haunted House, The Great Amherst Mystery (book here), Midnight Madness or Passionate Poems in Vigorous Verse, Marcus Brutus & other verses, and History of the Hubbell family.  He is known especially for his writing on the haunting of Esther Cox; you can read a brief account of the unnatural happenings in The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, by Andrew Lang (!).  A Dictionary of American Authors (1904) lists him as residing in New York City.

The University of Rochester notes, in their handbook:

 

All of this was simply to share an amusing anecdote, found in the "City and Suburban News" section of the New York Times for December 14th, 1887:

As to Edward Serviss, I was unable to dig up anything on him in my cursory attempts, but if you ever come across either of them, let me know.  All I wanted was to find out where Walter Hubbell wrote that account of the reaction of Joseph Booth, but so far I haven't.  Aside from the first hand description of his clever quip, the idea of any additional interactions with Joseph Booth recorded is very tempting.

*Facts and Folklore in the Story of John Wilkes Booth by the late Thomas E. Cheney
Western Folklore, Vol. 22, No. 3. (Jul., 1963), pp. 171-177.

Ahaha I googled Gleason's name (he's the man in the War Department that Mr. Weichmann allegedly confided to about John's suspicious actions), and he showed up in... the 1873 November edition of The Freemason's Monthly Magazine!

( If I'd known Masons were this cute I never would have joined the Anti-Mason Party! )

In the "Chit-chat" section, readers are informed that "Meridian Lodge, Natick, last month elected Bro. W. H. Wright, Master; E. W. Cozzens, Sen. Warden; D. H. L. Gleason, Jr. Warden; C. W. Gleason, Secretary."

(Also, if we felt like it, we could visit the house he built on 71 West Central Street, Natick, Massachusetts. I found him on an online walking tour!)

So Bungo sent me this tragic article about the mismanagement of the Players, and on that note I decided to upload the photos I took when we were briefly in NY.  Obviously the first thing we thought to do was to go to Gramercy Park and goggle at beautiful Edwin, after which we sought out the Player's across the street -- embaressing how long it took us to find it, going in a circle, but hey was it worth our confusion.  After hearty admirations all around about the fine quality of the facade fo the building, I strode into the lobby, much to Bungo's initial horror.  I conversed amiably with the confused and skeptical but kindly black male secretary (that's the right word?) behind the desk, insisting on observing the paintings and photos lining the stairway leading up, and the lobby walls.  Yes, Bungo said, that's Forrest up there -- so much less frightening than usual! -- and oh look, I've never seen this one, and here's dear Lawrence Barrett.  And after stretching our bold and uninvited visit to its limits, we proudly ducked out, and resolved to return Offically as Researchers.  Or uhm make friends with somebody in the club.  Are you somebody in the club?  We are not sketchy.

Wanted:  Two young females seek member of the Player's Club for friendship.  <--- not sketchy?  right?

ANYWAY ehehehe HERE ARE MY PICTURES!  Yay.  Like you couldnt find better ones elsewhere on the internet.
And welcome to our new member!  Hurrah.  : )

Hello everyone :) I've been looking through the community's archives for the past couple of days and I finally decided to join. Actually, the thing that convinced me to join was this post where in the comments faynudibranch wrote, "i just keep thinking...are there other people our age, puzzling out these same emotions...so they love weichmann? do they love john? do they love stanton?" I have wondered the same thing (though about different people) many times, so I knew I had to join :)

So, a brief introduction:

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I'm sure I'll have a million questions but for now, two things off the top of my head:

1. Once when I was walking around Beacon Hill (in Boston, where I go to school) I passed by a tour group stopped at a house on (I think) Chestnut Street. The tour guide was saying that Edwin Booth was in Boston performing in a play when Lincoln was shot, living in that house, and he had to be spirited out of the city so enraged citizens wouldn't attack him. I haven't investigated this that thoroughly, but I haven't come across any references to it yet, so can anyone tell me if this is so? The tour guide gave more details but I can't remember them. I wish there were footnotes attached to what he said..

2. Adam Badeau? Can someone explain about him? I just keep coming across references to him in this community and I am curious.

And I'm really sorry if I've just rambled for way too long and cluttered up your community!

So, my favorite new person from Lincoln's Right Hand was definitely Hangman Foote, so called because he had once threatened to hang the abolitionist senator John P. Hale* in one of his Senate speeches. Soon after Mr. Seward's arrival to the Senate, in the late 1850's, Hangman Foote insulted him, too--but instead of getting angry, Mr. Seward asked him out for oysters and they became friends.

I was expecting him to look awesomely crazy, but he actually just looks like a sweet old man. I guess we already knew from Mr. Stanton that appearances can be deceiving...



According to the Picture History biography, Mr. Foote hated secessionists as much as he hated abolitionists--he was "especially critical of Jefferson Davis and once engaged in a fist fight with him."



*John Parker Hale was the father of Lucy Hale, John Booth's fiancee. I don't know much about him but he seems pretty cool.

Choice quote of the day:

"Lafayette Baker was among those questioned in the impeachment hearings. Baker was still miffed at having to plead, just like everyone else, for a share in the reward for Booth's capture. He wasted no time bolstering his claim with the publication of History of the United States Secret Service. This imaginative memoir gave a bloated and often fictional account of Baker's wartime service. In it, he claimed that he had been the first to issue a reward offer, the first to distribute Booth's photograph, and the first to organize a systematic search for the fugatives. He said that Mary Surratt had confessed her guilt to him personally, and he claimed his detectives had found Booth precisely where he had told them to look.

Reviewers were not fooled, and most agreed with the critic who wrote, "We presume that Baker told more falsehoods in the interest of the governement than any man living, and he proposes to make double profit out of them by recounting his success, like other heroes..."

Baker's book had described the midnight burial of Booth as a topsecret affair that only he and a few men from the prison staff knew anything about. But when questioned in the impeachment hearings, he was forced to admit that he wasn't actually present when the burial took place, and he didn't even know where it had occured. And though the detective vouched for the overall acuracy of his book, he admitted it was ghostwritten, and he had not actually read it. The admission must have embarressed his many patrons in Congress, and one member was moved to remark, "It is doubtful whether he [Baker] has in any one thing told the truth, even by accident." Nevertheless, the memoirs of Lafayette Baker are repeated as truth, to this day."

--Michael Kauffman, American Brutus, pages 380-381
(typos are my own)

---------

I've been spending my time pouring over the LAS (NARA M599), and although I'm mired in Weichmann I thought I'd note that if anyone has come across some footnotes to it they were never able to follow I'd be glad to print them out & scan/email them to you.  It wouldn't be a bother at all.

"Our American Cousin" Opera on the Lincoln Assassination

I haven't listened to the samples yet, but I thought I'd post it:
short description - http://onthesamepage.berkeley.edu/archive/2007-wills/concert.php
actual page - http://www.ouramericancousin.com/site/
longer description - http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/08/22_opera.shtml

also -- I really enjoyed the recent History Chanel documentary, which I finally watched. It was kinda awkward that they said the 'conspirators' imprisoned at Dry Tortugas were released after 6 years in 1871 rather than after 4 years in 1869, but Kauffman was awesome as usual. Not really sure why they interviewed that guy from the government...

"We dropped by Washington historian James L. Swanson's Capitol Hill home Saturday evening for an informal gathering in celebration of the National Book Festival, which was kicked off this year by President and Mrs. Bush.

Indeed, Mr. Bush made the point of telling Mr. Swanson how much he enjoyed reading his recent best-selling book, "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer." The president isn't alone.

On hand for Mr. Swanson's gathering was a representative from Scholastic Books, who told Inside the Beltway that the world's largest publisher and distributor of books for young readers would be condensing Manhunt — the biggest page-turner ever written surrounding the escape, search and capture of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth — into a children's story."

--The Internet. (http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/JohnMcCaslin/2007/10/01/licking_history)

I AM GOING TO BE SICK.

"Just returning from Hollywood is James L. Swanson, Washington author of "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer," who tells Inside the Beltway an HBO movie is in the works based on his best-selling book.
"It will be a mini-series, probably a minimum of two nights, and two hours a night," says Mr. Swanson, who adds he can't wait now to learn who will play the role of Abraham Lincoln's assassin.
"I'm dying to know who will be cast as John Wilkes Booth," says the author, who previously favored actor Johnny Depp, given the pair's haunting resemblance - "same intensity and look: pale skin, dark hair, dark eyes."
Other possible actors he mentions for the part are Orlando Bloom and Edward Norton. "There is a small group who could play the role," he says.
Meanwhile, Mr. Swanson says he was "thrilled" to be awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award for "Manhunt," presented in New York on April 26.
"Coincidentally," says the author who happened to be born on Lincoln's birthday, "it was presented on the anniversary of the death of John Wilkes Booth.""

-- More Internet (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnMcCaslin/2007/06/21/bank_hunt_the_chase_for_campaign_cash)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Sorry that wasn't more cheering. There's a History Channel special on the L A on the 3rd if you're around.

Hmmmm. I've been trying to find scholarly articles on Alexander Gardner, to NO AVAIL. I thought he was famous. This should be easy. (Wasn't he?? Maybe I should try Brady instead...) Anyhow, just came across an article in "American Heritage" (it's on ProQuest somewhere) by somebody called Gail Buckland, who was making a list of the "ten most indispensable photographs"--top of her (his?) list is

Lewis Payne, by Alexander Gardner (1865). Here is one of the first celebrity portraits. Payne was a criminal; he had attempted to assassinate President Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward. He was hanged for his role in the plot. There were 10 conspirators; Alexander Gardner photographed 8 of them, but Lewis Payne was the only one who knew how to play to the camera and use his good looks to seduce his contemporaries and every succeeding generation. The portrait of Payne is indispensable in reminding us that the camera can make celebrities out of both the worthy and the unworthy. The image is not the reality.

It makes me happy that this person knows the photograph and likes it well enough to pick out of all the other nineteenth century portraits ever--but, incredibly sad that she has such a way of viewing it. Powell's portrait--is proof he is human. How can she presume to say, that the expression of his eyes, is only fake, only "playing to the camera?" I think of that picture in such a sacred way, and she sees only a criminal being manipulative. I think he was past manipulation, by then, I don't think he had any intention of "seducing every succeeding generation," I can't understand how somebody could see such a picture, so callously.

APPENDIX III

CONFEDERATE COMPLICITY

    The controversy about Confederate complicity in the murder of President Lincoln has a history too vast to be entered into in less than a bulky volume.  At the time of the assassination it is probable that a majority of intensely loyal Northerners believed the Southern leaders guilty.  To-day only an inconsiderable remnant of hotheads believes anything of the sort.  The attitude of the historian writing to-day is well expressed by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, head of the department of history at Harvard.  Answering a query of the present writer as to what comtemporary historical scholarship thinks of the "evidence" that Davis and his associates plotted or knew of the murder of Lincoln, Professor Hart wrote: "There is not a scintilla of reliable evidence proving Confederate complicity in Lincoln's murder."

--Clara M. Laughlin, The Death of Lincoln, 1909, Author of Felicity, When Joy Begins, Divided, Miladi, The Evolution of a Girl's Ideal, Stories of Authors' Loves, The Lady in Gray

"I have very little to say of Louis J. Weichman. But I do pronounce him a base-born perjurer; a murderer of the meanest hue! Give me a man who can strike his victim dead, but save me from a man who, through perjury, will cause the death of an innocent person. Double murderer!!!! Hell possesses no worse fiend than a character of that kind. Away with such a character. I leave him in the pit of infamy, which he has dug for himself, a prey to the lights of his guilty conscience."
-- John Surratt, lecturre tour, 1870 (yes, that early)

Aww, poor Louis.

Anderson Business School
       first in Madison County.
Shorthand, Book=Keeping, Languages.
L, J. WEICHMANN, Principal.

ANDRSON, IND., Dec.,17, 1900

    Col. O. H. Oldroyd,
        Washington,
                    D.C.
    Dear Sir:-  I am very glad to have your letter and I now enclose you one dollar,
($1.00), for which I will kindly ask you to send me one copy of "Words
of Lincoln".
    The Picture that you sent me of the Peterson house recalls a flood of
memories.  My father carried on business in Washington for ten years from
1843 to 1853 and was located on the north side of Seventh street between
C and D.  In 1853 he removed to Philadelphia.  I knew the Petersons well
both Mr. and Mrs. Peterson and their son, William.  Do they still own the
house in which you are?  I have been under the impression that the gover^n^ment
had purchased it.
    I spent an evening with Mrs. Peterson in 1864 and was seated at the
left-hand window in the second story.
    I wish to say to you that I have completed a history of all the cir-
cumstances connected with the sad death of Mr. Lincoln. I think this will
be the fullest version of that sad event ever given to the public.  I am
now looking for a publisher and this is pretty hard matter to get.
    I am indeed very anxious to meet you for I have no doubt that you have
many manuscripts and newspaper reports f^r^elative to the conspirators which
will be of intense interest to me. 

[2]

    Whenever I think of all these things my mind is filled with agony
and horror.  I knew John Surratt very well; he was a school-mate of mine for
three years and a half at college in Maryland and I cannot recall any-one
during that period who bore so good a charcter and was so good a boy as he.
    His connection with Booth and the conspiracy will always be a matter
of mi^y^stery to me; I cannot understand it and my only theory is that
he went into it to make money.
    I shall be glad to hear from you again.  Very respectfully yours,
[signed]                  L. J. Weichmann

I copied this down from a binder scrapbook at the Surratt Society conference last year.  It's to Osborn Oldroyd, the famed Lincoln collector.

"We have unbelievable assets we are not maximizing," says Paul R. Tetreault, the theater's producing director. "For almost 40 years now, Ford's Theatre has been about those two days."

Ford's Upgrade Puts Lincoln At Center Stage

Sounds took much like Swanson's bitching that Ford's Theatre is a shrine to JWB (and my mental image of him, shaking his fist up at those F Street lampost flags bearing his Greatest Enemy's face.  As described in his book.)  Sounds...large...and (blasphemy!) Lincoln-worship.  Not that I don't love Lincoln to death (haha), just that, well, more temples is not exactly what the poor man needs.  If I'm not crazy, Joan Chaconas (did I spell that right?) said something in her lecture about Ford's not being particularly assassination-related until she and some other people got involved...I'll look it up.

Michael W. Kauffman, Assassination Detective

This interview is AWESOME.  As always Kauffmann is everything I have ever wanted to be.  And Microfilm used to cost $3!  What the hell?  *Sob!* No wonder I don't own any what with the prices nowadays (sweet memories of bungo and I sitting there calculating exactly how much the LAS would cost, and her saying, "well, if we bought a reel a year...")...I can't believe it used to be this affordable.  Also, what I had fervently believed and nonetheless thought may be a Kauffman Myth that he had joined the FBI as a teenager so he could be close enough to Maryland to study the Lincoln Assassination may actually be true!  As this revealing interview...reveals.  And before I get all fan-girly I'm going to stop commenting on this one.
Kauffman does think that Weichmann is innocent.  Ouhhh, it hurts -- I can barely bring myself to argue against him, because he's so...right on everything, and he knows so much.  But I'm sure he'd want me to find whatever I do for myself so...so it goes.  Also, his argument for Weichmann's innocence despite all the evidence against him is excellent.

Junius Brutus Booth Society, Inc.

YAAAAAY!  (But they can't accept memberships yet.)  SO COOL.

blah blah blah Bungo sorry I know I already said all of this and you said half of it first anyhow.  Not my fault we're the same person.  Thanks to Steve for two of these links.

My October Surratt Courier just came in, advertising a new book by Edward Steers Jr:




http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Legends-Confabulations-Associated-President/dp/0813124662/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-9135293-7206014?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192732269&sr=8-1


Hahaha the cover is so happy. And the following enthusiastic review definitely describes what I would expect from the man who wrote "His name is Still Mudd":
"Steer's delightful romp through the myths, whacking them down one by one, is funny and instructive all at the same moment."
--Allen C. Guelzo

(...is now the time to admit that, although this man has written what, five books (?) I have yet to do more than skim any of them...?)

Ran across an excellent article this morning about the Seward family:

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=1018#41

I felt the author was a little too harsh on both Frances and Henry; and to a lesser extent on their children as well. I don't know, I'm not entirely comfortable with anybody who is willing to call Frances "neurotic." But--I know it's a difference in methods rather than any real disrespect, and she clearly has footnotes and cares about them. So, definitely worth reading. Especially for the bits on Gus, whom I'd been wondering about (Goodwin barely mentions him, whereas Fred and Fanny are fairly strong secondary characters).

I finished "J. Wilkes Booth: the Assassinator!" this morning. It was more riveting (uhm and funnier) at the beginning when he was making everything up (apparently Booth was responsible for failed assassination plot in 1861, AND for the riots in Baltimore; also apparently Ella Turner was the one who thought up the "abduction plot" because she was female and therefore didn't like killing people). But even after it was pretty interesting-the author incorporated both the "to whom it may concern" letter (thanks to Sleeper that was published almost immediately) and Booth's letter to his mother; and he deliberately never told us the name of Seward's dastardly assailant, presumably because he didn't know it himself--finally when the "desperado" was arrested, he claimed to be called Lewis Paine and naturally it turned out later he was from Kentucky. (That's where the Payne clan was from, right?) Haha and there was a sentence where he compared Booth to Cain when he was fleeing, even though of course he couldn't have read the "curse of Cain upon me" sentence from John's diary...

I think when I'm done with "Lincoln's Avengers" I'm going to read "Lincoln's Right Hand," the most recent biography of Seward. And then I'm going to stop playing around reading fun books and read the Petersen and Poore versions of the Trial, now that I have access to them. I will learn so much it will be fantastic.

"Brother Booth," said the president of the meeting, "we welcome you to our circle. From this time forth you will be known to us as Sir Hector of the Golden Sock and Buskin..."

...my school library has "J. Wilkes Booth: The Assassinator," originally published in 1865, probably the very first (self-proclaimed) fiction ever written about the assassination. It is fantastic beyond my wildest dreams. By which I mean, absolutely and exquisitely invented. I'm only a few pages in--the suspense is incredible, especially since I honestly don't know what's going to happen! So far we've had... a lot of 19th-centuryish melodramatic description, a room with eighteen identical doors, and a Secret Order.

Also still reading Leonard's book. I'm still a little frustrated with the style--somehow none of her characters are really coming alive for me. Hanchett's brief portrayal of Holt was...fascinating and terrifying, left me enthralled and repulsed simultaneously--but Leonard spends too much time explaining him, and not enough time...quoting him? Demonstrating his character in more immediate, less analyitical ways? I'm not entirely sure what she's missing. Even so she still has moments that are wonderful--like this sentence: As Judge Advocate General Holt confronted the vexing problems of the present[that is, fabricating a convincing case against Jefferson Davis], one imagines his recalling nostalgically the cathartic execution of July 7. (p 150) He's such a fantastic villian. He's so...stunningly, charismatically, entrancingly horrible. I'm still so impressed...

On page 86 of Lincoln's Avengers, Elizabeth Leonard introduces a new character, whom she describes as "a good-looking, persuasive, apparently upstanding young man." Is it John Booth? John Surratt? Gus Howell, perhaps? None of these: she is describing our very own Louis Weichmann! Oh, Louis, you are rising in the world! When first I met you, you were nothing more than a "timid slug!"

But you know, that really was the last straw for me, with this book. I realize now that, however much I want it to be something more, it's not...well, it's not particularly well-written, or well-organized, or thrilling, or anything. It's very cute, sometimes. Of course I'm still going to finish reading it before I judge completely. I'm glad to get to know some of the gov't. players a little better than I would have--I know it's healthy for me to read pro-gov't. stuff, to keep perspective &c, but...it's just not very impressive. She needs to come up with a better description for Lewis Powell than "vicious."

Thinking back, maybe my revelation should have come when she thought Arnold was Catholic. (Uhh, he wasn't, was he? I thought only Asia thought that.) Or perhaps in the prologue, when she confessed undying love for Joseph Holt...

"Dwight G. Anderson argues that the dead President Lincoln saw in his dream in April 1865 was George Washington, and that Lincoln was his "ghostly assassin" (p. 254)."

Also, "Confederate Agent: A Discovery in History" by James David Horan turned up on googlebooks when I typed in "kentucky widow"--but it's one of the books that only gives you "snippets", I guess to keep people like me from abusing the preview privilege. The sentence it gave me was: "The young woman was the Kentucky widow who had safely made the journey from Richmond. The package she handed to the counsel for the Confederates contained ..."

I checked my school library for it and we have it! So in a week we'll know if it's useful or just the same brief usual information. Also by the same author is "Desperate men; revelations from the sealed Pinkerton files," which sounds super exciting... (Weird, and there's a book called "Desperate Women--" could it be a sequel? And a biography of Matthew Brady.)

EDIT: Also, I just discovered that my library also has Junius' play, "Ugolino," as both a book and microform; as well as the 1817 "Memoirs of Junius Brutus Booth"; as well as Fred Seward's memoir of his father. I can't...I can't deal with how excited this makes me. I seriously cannot.

Hahaha that's my favorite out-of-context Stanton quote from this book (still Team of Rivals). I mean, he said it in a fairly innocent situation, but--not kidding--it's the only remotely sketchy thing Goodwin has made him say.

So far she is still blithely ignoring the fact that...some of the gov't's decisions are kinda shady. Like in this scene, which she describes with a completely straight face: Basically, Lincoln says to Seward, "You know, it might be a good idea to secretly buy up some of these failing Southern newspapers. That way, we can feed the Southern people pro-Union propaganda, and they'll never suspect a thing! But maybe that would be wrong--what do you think?" And Seward says, "Nah, don't worry, that's a great idea! In fact, it seems to me very judicious and wise!"* And for Goodwin, the moral of the story is that Seward's loyalty and affection for Lincoln have increased with the years. Seriously, where is her head?

But, all my copperheadish doubts aside, I am still loving this book. I love the adorable notes Stanton sends to Chase ("If you love me as I love you no knife can cut our love in two"--page 563), I love the melodramatic politics, I love Frances Seward and Tad's pet turkey and Fanny's diary entries, and every word that comes out of Stanton's mouth, and Seward's parties and Lincoln waking Hay up in the middle of the night to read him funny stories. I love them so much.

My only (other) gripe with her is that she doesn't have a bibliography, which makes her (omg 80+ pages of) notes a little confusing to follow. For instance, when she quotes stuff to EMS, "Mary Lamson, Wife of Edwin M. Stanton", I think she means the 100-page letter Stanton wrote to his son about his first wife, but...that can't have been published, can it? But she doesn't tell me where it is. It's frustrating, but her notes are so detailed and numerous I have to forgive her.


*(the bold is what he ACTUALLY SAID, page 669)

I've been reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" and I'm really enjoying it, especially the parts about Messrs. Chase and Seward--but the author seems to have made a glaring error. I had thought that the Federal Government ordered the arrest of several members of the Maryland Legislature, out of fear that they would vote to secede from the Union--I think this is what Lafayette Baker says in his memoirs (Kara, you're the one who read them, is this correct?) and also--unless I dreamed it--what the little sign said on the wall of the Civil War Museum I visited in Baltimore just this past Sunday.

But in Goodwin's beautiful, detailed narrative, the closest she comes to addressing the Maryland problem is in one paragraph, where she says,

( Read more )

One person I do definitely trust her on is Mr. Seward--because she makes it clear from her narrative that he is not her favorite. (Lincoln is her favorite--go figure.) She makes no effort to portray him in a positive light, and even draws a number of unflattering conclusions about him and his opinions &c--but every word she writes makes me love him--and his wife, and his children--all the more dearly. He was a wonderful, upright man with noble morals, his wife was beautiful and idealistic and got angry with him when he conceded too much of his morals to politics. He dressed up in yellow pantaloons to give speeches. I love them both so much. I can't describe or explain how much or why I love them. I can't stand that every time Frances writes to him about retirement, every time he says, "soon I will come home and we will read novels together" I am almost happy for them before I remember that Powell is going to break into his house and Frances is going to die from the shock and his daughter is going to die and his son Fred is going to almost die and he is going to almost die and his friend Lincoln is going to die and... then what good are novels? I love him so much and I feel so guilty. I feel like it's a betrayal of him, to already love Powell, to have loved and forgiven Powell before I even knew who Seward was. It is a betrayal. No matter how I rationalize it. I'm so sorry, Mr. Seward, I love you, it's not my fault your life was ruined and half your family died and I'm so sorry.

Another thing I've noticed, in Goodwin's book--the Southern papers always tell outright lies about Lincoln's cabinet. They distort political speeches, fabricate speeches sometimes entirely, portray Lincoln and Seward especially as monsters. If I lived in the South, if I trusted the local newspaper (and why wouldn't you?) if I trusted the newspapers from the towns and cities surrounding me--I would be certain that all the Northern politicians were the blackest, child-devouring spawn of Satan. I always have considered 19th-century reporting hilarious for its melodramatic inaccuracies--but recently, I am coming to realize (stupid not to have thought it long before) how much damage it caused. What good does it do poor Seward to make conciliatory speeches, massacre his own reputation in the eyes of the Radical Republicans (not to mention his wife), if the Southern newspapers are going to just lie about what he said anyhow?

Well, today is July 7. Three things happened today, but I can only remember two of them:

1860: Edwin Booth and Molly Devlin are happily married, after an drawn-out, angsty courtship. Wedding guests include John Booth and Adam Badeau, plus a handful of Molly's relations. Three years later, in Feb 1863, Molly will die of consumption, leaving Edwin with one child, Edwina.

1865: Four of the alleged Lincoln Conspirators are hanged--Louis Powell, Mary Surratt, George Atzerodt, and Davy Harold.

So, a happy day and a very sad day--and, years later, a doubly sad anniversary for poor Edwin.