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573 “following up the President”: For a sensational account of this episode—the only time in her years in Washington that Mary Lincoln lost control of herself—see Adam Badeau, Grant in Peace: From Appomattox to Mount McGregor (Hartford: S. S. Scranton & Co., 1887), pp. 358–360. For a more balanced account, see Randall, Mary Lincoln, pp. 372–374.
573 “many bloody battles”: David D. Porter’s statement in Segal, Conversations, 382–384. Cf. William T. Sherman, Memoirs (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1875), 2:326–328.
573 “conferences or conventions”: CW, 8:330–331. Though this letter is signed by Stanton, it is in Lincoln’s handwriting.
574 “lawlessness and anarchy”: Alexander K. McClure, Recollections of Half a Century (Salem, Mass.: Salem Press Co., 1902), p. 296.
574 “to their homes”: Sherman’s statement in Isaac N. Arnold, The Life of Abraham Lincoln (Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, & Co., 1885), p. 423n.
574 “to the laws”: David D. Porter’s statement in Segal, Conversations, p. 382.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: I WILL TAKE CARE OF MYSELF
Donald C. Pfanz, The Petersburg Campaign: Abraham Lincoln at City Point (Lynchburg, Va.: H. E. Howard, 1989), gives a full account of Lincoln’s visit to Richmond. William Hanchett, The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983), is an excellent guide to the huge literature on the conspiracy to abduct and murder Lincoln. George S. Bryan, The Great American Myth (New York: Carrick & Evans, 1940), remains the best account of the conspiracy. Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln, by William A. Tidwell, James O. Hall, and David Winfred Gaddy (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988), is an important study that comes close to linking the Confederate government to Booth’s plot. Albert Furtwangler, Assassin on Stage: Brutus, Hamlet, and the Death of Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), is a brilliant reinterpretation of the assassination in terms of the theatrical tradition of tyrannicide. Much useful information is contained in Otto Eisenschiml, Why Was Lincoln Murdered? (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1937), and in Theodore Roscoe, The Web of Conspiracy: The Complete Story of the Men Who Murdered Abraham Lincoln (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1959), but both are marred by attempts to link Stanton to the assassination. For a devastating critique of this discredited interpretation, see William Hanchett, “The Eisenschiml Thesis,” Civil War History 25 (Sept. 1979): 197–217. In Pursuit of...: Continuing Research in the Field of the Lincoln Assassination (Surratt Society, 1990), provides many fascinating details on the plot and the assassins. W. Emerson Reck, A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1987), is a very full and complete account.
Several excellent books deal with topics related to the assassination that are outside the scope of this biography. Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Twenty Days (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), is a fascinating pictorial history mostly concerned with the aftermath of the assassination. Thomas Reed Turner, Beware the People Weeping: Public Opinion and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), is an excellent account by a professional historian. Roy Z. Chamlee, Jr., Lincoln’s Assassination: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1990), deals largely with the fate of the conspirators.
575 feat but failed: Carpenter, Six Months, pp. 288–289.
576 “the rebel army”: E. M. Stanton to AL, Apr. 3, 1865, Lincoln MSS, LC.
576 “care of myself”: CW, 8:385.
576 “to be humble”: David D. Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1885), pp. 294–295.
576 “will hereafter enjoy”: Pfanz, The Petersburg Campaign, pp. 60–61.
576 “Father Abrahams Come”: John Henry Woodward, “A Narrative of the Family and Civil War Experiences and Events of His Life” (typescript, 1919[?], LC), pp. 37–39. Woodward made an ill-conceived and demeaning attempt to recapture African-American dialect; I have substituted standard English.
577 forces occupying Richmond: “Lincoln’s Visit to Richmond, Apr. 4,1865,” Moorsfield Antiquarian 1 (May 1937): 27–29; George T. Dudley, “Lincoln in Richmond,” Washington National Tribune, Oct. 1, 1896.
577 “me any harm”: This account of Lincoln’s stay in Richmond is drawn chiefly from Pfanz, The Petersburg Campaign, pp. 60–69.
577 “magnanimity and kindness”: Southern Historical Society Papers, new ser., 4 (Oct. 1917): 68.
578 “preservation of order”: John A. Campbell, Reminiscences and Documents Relating to the Civil War During the Year 1865 (Baltimore: John Murphy & Co., 1887), p. 39.
578 the next morning: Campbell’s accounts of this conference, ibid., pp. 39–42, and in Southern Historical Society Papers, new ser., 4 (Oct. 1917): 68–70; Myers’s account is reprinted in Segal, Conversations, pp. 388–390.
578 confiscated Confederate property: CW, 8:386–387.
579 “the existing government”: Herman Belz, Reconstructing the Union: Theory and Policy During the Civil War (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1969), p. 297.
579 during a transitional period: Sherman understood the President to say “that to avoid anarchy the State governments then in existence, with their civil functionaries, would be recognized by him as the government de facto till Congress would provide others.” William T. Sherman, Memoirs (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1875), 2:327. On the basis of this understanding he made recognition of Governor Zebulon Vance’s Confederate government of North Carolina part of the surrender terms that he offered Joseph E. Johnston on April 18. By this time Lincoln was dead, and Stanton and others in the government at Washington repudiated Sherman’s agreement. Raoul S. Naroll, “Lincoln and the Sherman Peace Fiasco—Another Fable?” Journal of Southern History 20 (Nov. 1954): 459–483, convincingly argues that Sherman exceeded his instructions, yet it seems evident that Lincoln must have discussed, even if he did not endorse, recognition of Confederate state authorities at this City Point meeting.
579 “somewhat farcical”: CW, 7:487.
579 “the Confederate army”: Campbell, Reminiscences, pp. 41–42.
579 “shortest possible time”: Nicolay and Hay, 10:222.
579 “to the General government”: CW, 8:389.
579 “opposition to the government”: CW, 8:388.
580 “thing be pressed”: CW, 8:392.
580 “hear it again”: Adolphe de Chambrun, Impressions of Lincoln and the Civil War: A Foreigner’s Account (New York: Random House, 1952), p. 82.
580 “touch him further”: Macbeth, act 2, scene 2.
580 “the same scene”. Adolphe de Chambrun, “Personal Recollections of Mr. Lincoln,’ Scribner’s Magazine 13 (1893): 35.
581 left the room: Frederick W. Seward, Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman and Diplomat, 1830–1915 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916), p. 253.
581 “all, all jubilant”: Welles, Diary, 2:278.
581 “forth into singing”: Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 216.
581 “we fairly captured it”: CW, 8:393.
582 for “another”: Wayne C. Temple and Justin G. Turner, “Lincoln’s ‘Castine’: Noah Brooks,’ LH 73 (Fall 1971): 173; Noah Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time (New York: Century Co., 1895), pp. 252–255.
582 “gladness of heart”: Unless otherwise identified, all quotations in the following paragraphs are from CW, 8:399–405.
582 “against all opposition”: Chambrun, Impressions of Lincoln, p. 93.
583 as if herding sheep: Gideon Welles, “Lincoln and Johnson,” Galaxy 13 (Apr. 1872): 526.
583 “‘unbeknown’ to him”: Sherman, Memoirs, 2:326–327.
583 and economic equality: Historians who argue that Lincoln favored universal suffrage often cite a letter that he purportedly wrote to James S. Wadsworth in January 1864, announcing that he supported both universal amnesty and universal suffrage and pledging that reconstruction “must rest
upon the principle of civil and political equality of both races.” CW, 7:101–102. Ludwell H. Johnston, “Lincoln and Equal Rights: The Authenticity of the Wadsworth Letter,” Journal of Southern History 32 (Feb. 1966): 83–87, convincingly demonstrates that this letter is spurious. Harold M. Hyman, “Lincoln and Equal Rights for Negroes: The Irrelevancy of the ‘Wadsworth Letter,’ ” Civil War History 12 (Sept. 1966): 258–266, argues that, regardless of the authenticity of the Wadsworth letter, Lincoln was moving in the direction of equal rights. Ludwell H. Johnson, “Lincoln and Equal Rights: A Reply,” Civil War History 13 (Mar. 1967): 66–73, responds that Hyman’s argument is “sheer conjecture.”
583 American social fabric: Benjamin F. Butler’s reminiscence that Lincoln as late as 1865 continued to favor colonization of Negroes, especially those who had fought in the Union army, has been discredited. See Mark E. Neely, Jr., “Abraham Lincoln and Black Colonization: Benjamin Butlers Spurious Testimony,” Civil War History 25 (Mar. 1979): 77–83.
583 blacks and whites: Lincoln’s limited concern for the rights of African-Americans led Lerone Bennett, Jr., to label him a racist. “Was Abe Lincoln a White Supremacist?” Ebony 23 (Feb. 1968): 35–42. For more balanced discussions, see George M. Fredrickson, “A Man but Not a Brother: Abraham Lincoln and Racial Equality,” Journal of Southern History 41 (Feb. 1975): 39–58, and Don E. Fehrenbacher, “Only His Stepchildren,” in Lincoln in Text and Context (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1987), pp. 95–112.
584 to other states: Michael Les Benedict, A Compromise of Principle: Congressional Republicans and Reconstruction, 1863–1869 (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1974), pp. 98–99, first suggested this conclusion to me.
584 “strive to prevent”: Welles, Diary, 2:279–280.
584 “through the swamp”: Paul M. Angle, ed., “The Recollections of William Pitt Kellogg,” ALQ 3 (Sept. 1945): 333.
584 so used again: Donald, Sumner, p. 215.
584 “rights of citizenship”: New York Times, Apr. 11, 1865.
584 “regard to complexion”: S. P. Chase to AL, Apr. 11, 1865, Lincoln MSS, LC.
585 John Wilkes Booth: Francis Wilson, John Wilkes Booth: Fact and Fiction of Lincoln’s Assassination (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1929), is still the best biography. There are insightful portraits of Booth in Robert J. Donovan, The Assassins (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955), chaps. 9–10, and in Franklin L. Ford, Political Murder: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985), chap. 15. Stanley Kimmel, The Mad Booths of Maryland (rev. ed.; New York: Dover Publications, 1969), offers much biographical information on John Wilkes Booth and his family, though it exaggerates the theme of madness. Eleanor Ruggles, Prince of Players: Edwin Booth (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1953), is the standard biography of John Wilkes Booth’s older brother.
585 “touch of mystery”: Donovan, The Assassins, p. 231.
586 and his joyousness: W. J. Ferguson, I Saw Booth Shoot Lincoln (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1930), p. 13.
586 “for the black man”: Wilson, John Wilkes Booth, p. 51.
586 “wait no longer”: Untitled Booth manuscript, Dec. 1860, in Robert Giroux, “The J.W.B. Manuscript, Or, The Mind of the Man Who Shot Lincoln” (unpublished paper, 1992).
586 “are for the South”: Furtwangler, Assassin on Stage, p. 62.
586 “and bought armies”: Ibid., p. 66.
586 “for kingly succession”: Ibid., p. 67.
586 Confederate secret service: Tidwell, Hall, and Gaddy’s Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln convincingly demonstrates that Booth was in touch with Confederate agents, both in the United States and Canada, and that his plan to kidnap Lincoln was strikingly similar to other schemes that the Confederate secret service had under consideration. It does not prove—and, indeed, it does not attempt to prove—that Booth was a Confederate agent or that his plots to kidnap, and later to kill, Lincoln were authorized by the Confederacy.
587 team in Washington: For sketches of all the members of the plot, see Theodore Roscoe, The Web of Conspiracy: The Complete Story of the Men Who Murdered Abraham Lincoln (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1959), chap. 3.
588 “at present”: Wilson, John Wilkes Booth, pp. 50–54; Tidwell, Come Retribution, p. 405.
588 if he wished: Benn Pitman, The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators (facsimile ed.; New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1954), pp. 44–45.
588 to the tyrant: Furtwangler, Assassin on Stage, argues that the theatrical tradition of tyrannicide helped shape Booth’s actions.
588 “will ever make”: William Hanchett, The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983), p. 37.
589 activities largely irrelevant: For a defense of Campbell, see Henry G. Connor, John Archibald Campbell: Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1853–1861 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1920), chap. 7.
589 “the reconstructed states”: R. F. Fuller to Sumner, Apr. 13,1865, Sumner MSS, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
589 “Alas!” he grieved: Donald, Sumner, p. 215.
590 “not sustain him”: Frank Abial Flower, Edwin McMasters Stanton: The Autocrat of Rebellion, Emancipation, and Reconstruction (New York: Western W. Wilson, 1905), pp. 271–272.
590 “governments as legal”: Welles, “Lincoln and Johnson,” Galaxy 13 (Apr. 1872): 524.
590 “government of Virginia”: Charles H. Ambler, Francis H. Pierpont: Union War Governor of Virginia and Father of West Virginia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1937), p. 256.
590 “if he had”: Welles, Diary, 2:280.
590 of his orders: One authority asserts flatly: “Thus Lincoln broke faith with the Virginians.” William M. Robinson, Jr., Justice in Grey: A History of the Judicial System of the Confederate States of America (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1941), p. 593. For a more balanced view, which faults Lincoln for not initially making his intentions clear, see Randall, Lincoln the President, 4:355–359.
590 “to their homes”: CW, 8:406–407.
590 in better spirits: Chase, Diary, p. 268.
591 “ever seen him”: Moorfield Storey, “Dickens, Stanton, Sumner, and Storey,” Atlantic Monthly 145 (Apr. 1930): 464.
591 “of the inhabitants”: Seward, Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman, pp. 256–257.
591 “before the war”: CW, 8:410.
591 “for early reconstruction”: Chase, Diary, p. 268.
591 “do it badly”: Seward, Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman, p. 256.
591 bear further study: Welles, “Lincoln and Johnson,” p. 526.
591 “any future Cabinet”: Ibid., pp. 526–527.
592 “could not participate”: Ibid., p. 526.
592 “an indefinite shore”: Welles added the last four words of this sentence to his diary later. Welles, Diary, 2:282.
592 “most of yours”: Ibid., p. 283.
593 signed more papers: For a careful, detailed chronicle of the President’s activities, see Reck, A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours.
593 “correspondingly exhilarating”: Katherine Helm, The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928), p. 253.
593 “been very miserable”: Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, pp. 283–285; WHH, interview with Man’ Lincoln, Sept. 5, 1866, HWC.
593 “in the morning”: Isaac N. Arnold, The Life of Abraham Lincoln (Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co., 1885), p. 431.
594 “can toward it”: Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold M. Hyman, Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln’s Secretary of War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962), p. 395; Bryan, Great American Myth, p. 137.
594 “great an exposure”: Storey, “Dickens, Stanton, Sumner, and Storey,” p. 464.
594 “you with us”: David Homer Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office (New York: Century Co., 1907), pp. 366–367.
595 $2.50 each: C. H. Martin, “Reminiscences
of a Columbia Boy of the Assassination of President Lincoln,” Papers Read Before the Lancaster County Historical Society 31 (June 3, 1927): 72.
595 “never-to-be-forgotten smiles”: E. R. Shaw, “The Assassination of Lincoln,” McClure’s Magazine 32 (Dec. 1908): 181–184.
595 above the stage: For Alfred Waud’s contemporary sketch and precise measurements, see Robert H. Fowler, The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Conshohocken, Pa.: Eastern Acorn Press, 1984), p. 15.
595 “order of the President!”: Furtwangler, Assassin on Stage, p. 104.
595 “witnessing his enjoyment”: Bryan, Great American Myth, p. 176.