The best analysis of the conspiracy trials is Turner, Beware the People Weeping, 138-52. See also Turner, “What Type of Trial?” Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 4:29-50. The Surratt quotation is from Weichmann, True History, 431; the quotation “it was ‘a name in history’” from Luthin, Real Lincoln, 612; the Lamon quotation is from his Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865 (Chicago, 1895), 262, 272. See also James W. Clarke, American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics (Princeton, N.J., 1982).
3: STANTON
For the various theories, consult Hanchett, The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies.
On the lecture circuit and in the classroom, I am repeatedly asked about Stanton’s connection with the assassination. “Did he engineer it?” “Was he involved?” The Stanton thesis began with Otto Eisenschiml, Why Was Lincoln Murdered? (Boston, 1937) and In the Shadow of Lincoln’s Death (New York, 1940). See the excellent critiques in William Hanchett, “The Eisenschiml Thesis,” Civil War History, 25 (Sept., 1979): 197-217, and Turner, Beware the People Weeping, 6-9. The Sunn Classic motion picture came out in 1977, as did its paperback, The Lincoln Conspiracy, written by David Balsiger, Sunn’s “Director of Research Development,” and Charles E. Sellier, Jr., “Senior Vice President of Production.” For scholarly exposés of this atrocious work, see William C. Davis, “Behind the Lines: Caveat Emptor” and “Behind the Lines: ‘The Lincoln Conspiracy’—Hoax?,” Civil War Times Illustrated (Aug. and Sept., 1977), 33-37, 47-49; and Turner, Beware the People Weeping, 13-16.
My profile of Stanton draws from the following sources: the quotations “Stanton, you have been,” “stern face,” and “My chief” from Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, 354, 41, 378; the quotation “the outer crust” and “Folks come up here” from Bryan, Great American Myth, 129, 130; the quotation “Did Stanton call me a fool?” from Thomas, “Lincoln’s Humor,” Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 3:40; Stanton’s letters to Lincoln in Lincoln, CW, 8:373-74, 375, 384-85; the quotation “he would have you court-martialed” from Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, 394-95; the quotation “warnings that appeared” from John G. Nicolay and John Hay, “Abraham Lincoln: A History of the Fourteenth of April,” Century Magazine, 39 (1890): 431; Weichmann’s warning and the quotations “undimmed praise,” “through all that night,” “I knew it was only” from Turner, Beware the People Weeping, 69-72, 55, 56, 63; the quotation “I recall the kindness” from Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, 638. Turner’s chapter on Stanton in Beware the People Weeping is an excellent scholarly exoneration. See also Mark Neely, Jr., “Vindication,” Lincoln Lore (May, 1982).
4: WITHOUT HIM
My profile of Mary is based on the works of Randall and the Turners, cited in the text. See also David Donald, “Herndon and Mrs. Lincoln,” in Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered, 37-56; Mary Elizabeth Massey, “Mary Todd Lincoln,” American History Illustrated (May, 1975), 4-9, 44-48; and Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the Scenes (reprint ed., New York, 1968), along with my appraisal of it in Our Fiery Trial, 139.
The quotation “We must both” is from Turners, Mary Todd Lincoln, 218; the quotation “felt so unwilling” from Milton H. Shutes, Lincoln and the Doctors: A Medical Study of the Life of Abraham Lincoln (New York, 1933), 132-34; the quotation “Oh, my God” from Howard H. Peckham, “James Turner’s Account of Lincoln’s Death,” Abraham Lincoln Quarterly (Dec., 1942), 176-83; the quotations “Day by day,” “had nothing,” “grateful nation,” “This is the return,” “dirty dog,” “not worth, living for,” “she wolf,” “I pray for death,” “the colored historian,” “womanly nature” from Turners, Mary Todd Lincoln, 257, 238, 304, 413-14, 416, 440, 472, 474; the quotation “small cheerless” from Randall, Mary Lincoln, 417; the quotation “murmuring word” and Mary’s description of Tad from Turners, Mary Todd Lincoln, 573, 250-51, 523, 590; the quotations “I feel that there is no life” and “O Robert” from Randall, Mary Lincoln, 425, 431; and Mary’s letter to Robert in Turners, Mary Todd Lincoln, 615-16.
SEARCHABLE TERMS
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Manassas Junction, Va.:
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see also Bull Run
Mary Lincoln, Biography of a Marriage (Randall)
Mary Todd Lincoln, Her Life and Letters (Turner and Turner)
Masters, Edgar Lee
Meade, George Gordon
Meriwether, Elizabeth Avery
Meserve, Dorothy
Mexican War
Mexico, Republic of
Abraham Lincoln Page 23
