Andrew Johnson – Greeneville, TN

October 25-26, 2014

The First Reconstruction President

When Lincoln was mortally wounded at the Good Friday performance of Our American Cousin, one of the audience members, Leonard James Farwell wove out of the mayhem, ran four blocks through the cold, misty darkness to the five-story Kirkwood House at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Street, flew into the entrance and hammered on the first-floor door of Andrew Johnson.  In a torrent of words, the former Wisconsin governor informed Johnson what had taken place at Ford’s Theatre. 

Neither man knew that the killing plot included Andrew Johnson himself.  One of John Wilkes Booth’s co-conspirators, 29 year-old George Atzerodt, had rented room 126 directly above the Vice President’s room but had lost his nerve and was at that moment staggering about Washington dead drunk.  He never returned to the hotel.

In the early morning, still unaware of the plot on his own life, Johnson marched across the damp town and waded through the anxious groups of people milling about the front steps of the red brick Peterson House, directly across the street from Ford’s Theatre.  He stared at the unconscious bearded figure, lying diagonally across the bloody bed, and knew what it meant for him.  He returned to the Kirkwood.

Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. the next morning.  Three hours later at the Kirkwood, Johnson was sworn in by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase as the 17th president of the United States.  The Bible was reportedly open to Proverbs 20 and 21:

Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.

For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.

Even though Johnson was a Democrat and a Southerner, the nearly vanquished South waited in dread.

*  *  *

One crisp October weekend, Cathy and I drove nearly 430 miles—more than 300 miles of it on Interstate 81—from our little white house in Kensington, Maryland to Andrew Johnson’s home town of Greeneville, Tennessee, the cerulean blue sky a  backdrop for the autumn yellow and reds.

Nolichucky River

We stayed in Nolichucky Bluffs Bed and Breakfast Cabins about 10 minutes south of town. The property has five cabins as well as a beautiful—except for the hoards of box elder bugs crawling all over it—wedding gazebo soaring above the river. We had reserved the Dogwood Cabin, nestled in the forest and perched high on the bank of the Nolichucky River.   The owner, Pam Sadler, said the Dogwood was her least favorite cabin, but we loved it. A modern two-bedroom, 1 1/2 bath with a living room and fireplace, and most importantly, a cabin-long back porch with several choices of seats, overlooking the surprisingly clear river. So relaxing.

* * *

Andrew Johnson settled in Greeneville in 1827 when he was just 18 years old, sheparding his family across the Appalachian Mountains dragging a two-wheel cart tottering with their belongings.

The city is homage to him.  There is Andrew Johnson High School, Andrew Johnson Bank, and our goal, the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site run by the National Park Service.

Andrew Johnson Visitor Center

We started at the large visitor center in the middle of town.  We sat through the obligatory 13-minute introductory movie.  As usual, Tom took notes and Cathy caught up on her sleep. 

The largest room in the visitor center completely encloses Johnson’s original weathered, wood plank, one-room tailor shop—a unique way to preserve a structure. Having been apprenticed as a tailor in his teens, Johnson ran a tailor shop.  While Johnson fitted the community’s men (he charged $1.50 for vests and pants and $4-$8 for coats), the discussion would often turn to politics.  Johnson was elected as a city alderman at the age of 21.  

And his political career took off.

Johnson quickly ascended the political hierarchy and became Greeneville’s mayor, a state representative, a state senator, a U.S. representative, a governor, a U.S. senator, a vice president, a president, and finally again a senator.  At least to that day, holding all of these posts was unparalleled in presidential history.   

But how in the world did a Southern Democrat become Republican Lincoln’s running mate in 1864? 

Basically selecting Johnson was seen as a way of broadening Lincoln’s base.  Although a Southerner, Johnson was from Eastern Tennessee, which aligned more with the anti-slavery portion of Virginia — which eventually seceded from the Confederacy and formed West Virginia—than the rest of the state.

In addition, Johnson was a staunch anti-Confederate, not so much because he opposed slavery, but because he hated the aristocratic plantation owners of the Antebellum South.  This was probably because of his poor, working-class roots — his father died of pneumonia when he was three and his mother was a laundress. During the war, he pointedly exclaimed, “Damn the negroes, I am fighting those traitorous aristocrats, their masters.” 

Johnson was also a strict Constitutionalist and was vehemently opposed to the South leaving the union.  In a Dec. 18, 1860, speech in the well of the Senate, Senator Johnson had proclaimed, “Though I fought against Lincoln, I love my country.  I love the Constitution.  Let us therefore rally around the altar of our Constitution and I swear that it and the Union shall be saved as ‘Old Hickory’ Jackson did in 1832.  Senators, my blood, my existence, I would give to save this Union.”  Johnson remained in the Senate even after Tennessee seceded on June 18, 1861.

He was the only Southern senator to do so.

When the middle of Tennessee was subjugated by the Union early in the war, Johnson once again appeared in Nashville as a governor, only this time as Lincoln’s appointed military governor with the rank of brigadier general.  Johnson endured three years in Nashville surrounded by Tennesseans who abhorred him.  (In retaliation for Johnson’s treachery to the South, Confederate troops, which still occupied Eastern Tennessee, evicted his family from their Greeneville home and vandalized it.

So, for the 1864 election, Lincoln selected Andrew Johnson as his running mate and ousted the incumbent vice president, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine.

Just prior to Lincoln’s inauguration on the morning of March 4, 1865, Johnson was recovering from typhoid fever — and possibly still suffering from diarrhea.  Desperate for a short-term solution, he imbibed the remedy of the day:  three stout swigs of whiskey. Between the typhoid, three shots of whiskey, a humid Senate chamber, and his formal attire (that likely included bulky undergarments, a high-collar shirt and cravat, a vest, and a waistcoat), he was basically a hot, miserable, incoherent mess as he rose shakily to take his oath of office.  Against all protocol, he launched into a slurred, rambling 17-minute speech that seemed to never end.  Michigan Sen. Zachariah Chandler wrote, "I was never so mortified in my life, had I been able to find a hole I would have dropped through it out of sight."  But later Lincoln defended Johnson, “He made a bad slip the other day but you need not be scared; Andy ain’t no drunkard.”

Forty-two days later Andrew Johnson was president. 

* * *

The Johnson Home

We toured the brick house that was Johnson’s home from 1851 to his death in 1875, two stories with a sunny, roomy wrap-around porch on both floors —located just several blocks from the visitor center in downtown Greeneville.  We were shown around by a guide, Daniel Luther, who thankfully focused on Johnson, the man, and not on the house and furnishings.  He also didn't try to sugarcoat the presidency. Daniel said repeatedly that Johnson was one of the worst presidents in history and had a disastrous term.

Johnson was close to his wife, Eliza, and his kids — he invited all his kids and grandchildren to live in the White House. Having the grandkids with him "went a long way toward making the experience tolerable,” Daniel told us.  Eliza suffered from tuberculosis for years — 15 years before going to White House. His daughter Martha served as the official hostess of the White House. Eliza, who was also intensely private, received visitors at the White House only twice.

When the Johnsons returned from the White House, the house had been looted, vandalized, and doors and windows had been knocked out by Southern troops occupying the house. Graffiti was written on plaster throughout the house. So Eliza wallpapered over the graffiti so it couldn't be seen.  Her actions preserved the graffiti. Now, we could see some that were exposed during the restoration of Eliza's room. Gems such as "Andrew Johnson the old traitor" and an 1868 date. 

Haunted Sick Room with Bottle of Laudanum

The house also has a “haunted” sick room upstairs. One of Johnson’s sons, Robert, died in this room when he was 33. Like his mother, he was afflicted with TB that he tried to treat with laudanum, a potentially deadly combination of alcohol and opium — 65% alcohol, 35% opium.  The closet doors open and shut by themselves. And the alarm system always starts ringing the week of April 22, when he died.

The Johnsons enslaved eight people.  When Johnson bought Dolly, 18, in 1842, she asked him to buy her brother, Sam.  (Dolly knew that in East Tennessee, owners tended to use the enslaved for domestic help instead of much more arduous agricultural labor.)  So Johnson returned the next day and purchased him. 

In1863, Johnson freed those he had enslaved. He told them to go to other homes to seek work and negotiate wages. Then he told them to come back and he would pay them more. 

Daniel told us that Ernie Pyle, the famed war reporter, once interviewed the last descendant of Johnson's enslaved who said, "We were well off then. But every man wants to be free."

Daniel shared that during one of Johnson’s three campaigns for Senate after the presidency, he said in an interview:  "I look forward to a time in our country hopefully not in the too distant future where distinctions won't be made by the color of a man's skin."

* * *

We were not at Nolichucky Bluffs there long enough to truly enjoy our stay. By the time we got to our room it was already 5 p.m. And we left at 11 the next morning. We would have loved to have stayed longer. Cathy wanted to call work and tell them she was taking Monday off, so we could enjoy our cabin and porch and woods.  But she didn’t.

We did take a short hike among the cabins, and to the Grist Mill (which serves as one of the cabins, though there is an outhouse for the bathroom). It’s hilly and nestled in the woods.

Good Food at the Gathering Place

For dinner, we went to the Gathering Place, at the suggestion of Pam. Trying to navigate where to go was a little dicey since it was pitch black and we had no idea where we were going. But once we found it, on the end of a strip mall, we found a very homey little place, packed with locals. It was low-key and cute. Diners sat wherever they wanted, and the locals moved among the ten tables to chat and catch up. The nightly special was meatloaf smeared with catsup, and two sides, which Tom found quite tasty. And Cathy had a burger, with salad and iced tea. And cornbread — yum! Total bill: $17.50. Amazing.

Scarecrows on Main

Earlier in the day, when we had driven through downtown (several times) we kept noticing scarecrows in front of houses and businesses alike. Some of them doing odd things — one was looking inside a large trash bin, for example.  So we asked our waitress why everybody had scarecrows in front. It seemed like it was everybody’s choice of Halloween decoration. She explained that the businesses were having a competition called “Scarecrows on Main.” That explains it.

The Tasty Breakfast Buffet

For breakfast the next morning, all the guests met in Grandma’s Cupboard, which serves as the hotel’s office and gathering place. And it’s where Pam had cooked a buffet breakfast of French toast, fruit, homemade applesauce, homemade bran muffins (which she said she made for Cathy, since Pam had seen her running in the morning — and were tasty), cereals, and potatoes. We sat a group table and met some of the other visitors, including a couple renting out an upstairs apartment for six months while the husband worked on a job for his company and the wife worked on her novel. The room has a collection of dolls on a high shelf lining the walls, overseeing the guests while we ate. And a train circled the room on a suspended track above. The kids who were there loved it — as did the adults.

* * *

Andrew Johnson had a short honeymoon when he took office in April 1865 since Congress was out of session until Dec. 11, 1865. On May 10, Johnson declared the hostilities to be over.  The South, expecting Johnson to impose harsh terms, was surprised with his leniency.  He offered a full amnesty to all states that “pledged loyalty to the Union and support for emancipation” (Foner, 1990).  The amnesty restored all property — with the exception of the formerly enslaved people.  However, there were certain classes of Southerners who were required to travel to Washington and personally request a pardon and make their declaration of allegiance to President Johnson.  These included major ex-Confederate figures as well as owners of property worth more than $20,000—again Johnson’s wrath on the aristocrats. Even Robert E. Lee schlepped to Washington and served as an example for other Confederates.  (Only ex-Confederate president Jefferson Davis was ineligible for pardon and was a prisoner at Fort Monroe, Va.)

And those who could vote prior to the war (with the exception of yet to be pardoned ex-Confederates) could again vote. 

Why were his terms so lenient?  Johnson was a strict Constitutionalist. In his view, the Southern states had never actually left the United States because the Constitution made no provision for it.  So they needed to be restored to the Union ASAP.

For the newly freed, Johnson had nothing to offer.  Blacks wanted to be able to vote but Johnson made no mention of it, principally because the Constitution made no provision for it.  To make matters worse, Johnson ordered the freedmen to return any lands that had been given to them by General Sherman in January 1865 in parts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, because Johnson believed it unconstitutional to take land away from the original Southern owners.

Witnessing Johnson’s leniency, Southern states began to establish so-called “Black Codes.”  For example, in Mississippi “vagrancy” was not permitted and all blacks had to demonstrate proof of employment.  All work was contracted and the blacks had to fulfill the full terms of their contracts or be arrested.  In South Carolina all blacks had to pay an annual tax for any occupation except for farmer or servant.  In Florida, non-white “vagrants” could be sentenced to one year of labor and their children could be indentured as apprentices at no pay.  The Black Codes were intended to force blacks to continue working at menial jobs.

Once Congress returned to session in December 1865, the fun was over.  The so-called “Radical Republicans” quickly fashioned bills to improve the living conditions of the freedmen.  First was the Freedman’s Bureau Bill of 1866 that provided food, farm tools, medical services, and schools for displaced blacks.  But Johnson vetoed the bill, saying that it was too costly and ought to be a state responsibility.  Johnson also thought it unfair that 11 Southern states not yet readmitted to the Union had no say in the matter. His veto was sustained.  Congress then passed a modified bill that Johnson also vetoed, but that veto was overturned.

The next bill up was the Civil Rights Act of 1866.  The bill’s purpose was to protect freedmen’s civil rights.  As expected, Johnson opposed the bill.  He said it gave too much power to the Federal government at the expense of the states. “The distinction of race and color is by the bill made to operate in favor for the colored and against the white race,” he stated.  However, Congress overrode that veto.

Next proposed was the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which stipulated that to be readmitted and recognized, states had to allow all men to vote.  (Remember that women had not yet won the right to vote.)  In addition, a new state constitution had to be written with the same provisions. Further, each state had to ratify the 14^th Amendment, which guarantees equality and stipulates that states must reduce their congressional representation in proportion to males denied the vote. In addition, former members of Congress who had left to join the Confederacy could not hold office. States would be placed under federal military rule until they had made those provisions.  Unsurprisingly, Johnson vetoed the bill because he felt that this was a state responsibility and it was unconstitutional for the federal government to get involved.  (Johnson is starting to sound a whole lot like Franklin Pierce, masking contemptible behavior behind the veil of the Constitution.)  This veto was also overturned.

Under its new authority, Congress divided the former Confederacy into five military districts, each presided over by a general.  All black males were allowed to vote.  And they all voted Republican.  And blacks won offices.  Republican governments came to power in the formerly Democratic Southern states.

But the Radical Republicans were not finished.  They were determined to advance their agenda even further, preferably without Johnson in the way.  They passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, which forbade the President from removing from office anyone that Congress had confirmed, without its prior approval. Johnson, of course, vetoed the act, but his veto was overridden.  When Johnson brazenly fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton for his cozy alignment with the Radicals, the fight was on.  The House voted 126-47 to impeach Johnson on 11 counts for violations of the Tenure of Office Act and other violations.   Most of the charges were weak and included such issues as uttering “loud threats and bitter menaces” against Congress.   

The tickets to the six-week impeachment trial were hot.  It was a social event and tickets were being scalped.  Johnson, however, was barred from attending his trial. 

On May 16, 1868, seven Republicans joined 12 Democrats and acquitted Johnson of the first of the impeachment charges. By one vote.  A 10-day recess was immediately called but the cause was lost. (This was a brave act for the seven Republicans — all seven lost their Senate seats during the next election and most were threatened with harm.  They believed that the Tenure of Office Act was itself unconstitutional.  And they were right;  it was repealed in 1887. There would be no more impeachment trials for more than 130 years.)   

* * *

Andrew and Eliza Johnson Burial site

The Republicans did not renominate Johnson in 1868, choosing instead Horatio Seymour of New York. Johnson and his family returned to Greeneville.  Johnson did have one more success in politics.  In 1875 he was elected to the U.S. Senate but suffered a fatal stroke that year while visiting one of daughters in Tennessee.  Johnson was buried with his head placed atop a copy of his beloved Constitution, his body wrapped in an American flag.  His family tomb overlooks the city — and the golden Appalachian Mountains beyond.

 

* * *

Directions

The Andrew Johnson National Historic Site is located in Greeneville, Tenn.  From 1-81north take exit 23 to US 11E north.  From I-81 south, take exit 36 to TN Rt. 172 south, then US 321 south.  Greeneville is also home to the Nathanael Greene Museum, for whom the city is named. 

References

Andrew Johnson’s Drunk VP Inaugural Address, March 4th, 1865.  Lock, Stock and History.  From  http://www.peashooter85.com/post/37957538382/andrew-johnsons-drunk-vp-inaugural-address-march

Ash, S.V.  2009.  Civil War Occupation.  Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.  December 25, 2009.  From http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1013

Bibles Used in Inaugural Ceremonies.  2013.  From http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/swearing-in/bibles

Chronology.  University of Missouri-Kansas City.  From  http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/impeach/Chronology.html

Foner, E.  1990.  A Short History of Reconstruction:  1863-1877.  Harper & Row.  New York, New York.

Greg.  2012.  Was Andrew Johnson Drunk During Lincoln’s Inauguration?  February 16, 2012.  From 

http://historypop.com/american-presidents/andrew-johnson-drunk-lincolns-second-inaugural/

Ken, H.  2012.  Notes on Men’s Clothing of the 1860’s.  July 31, 2012.  From 

http://passionforthepast.blogspot.com/2012/07/ive-received-several-e-mails-asking-me.html

Kennedy, J.F., 1955.  Profiles in Courage.  Harper & Row, New York, New York.

Means, H.  2006.  The Avenger Takes his Place:  Andrew Johnson and the 45 Days that Changed the Nation.  Harcourt, Inc.  New York, New York.

Moore, K.  2007.  The American President.  Fall River Press.  New York, New York.

Morse, J.T. (editor).  1911. The Diary of Gideon Welles.

Norton, R.J.  Abraham Lincoln's Last Day.  From http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln45.html

Perry, M.B.  2010.  No Pensions for Ex-Slaves.  How Federal Agencies Suppressed the Movement To Aid Freedpeople.   Summer 2010, Vol. 42, No. 2.

From:  http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/summer/slave-pension.html

The Death of President Lincoln, 1865. 1999.  EyeWitness to History. From www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/loncoln.htm (1999, revised, 2009).

Abraham Lincoln - Ford’s Theater, Washington, DC; Lincoln’s Cottage, Washington, DC;  Beauvoir, Biloxi, MS

April 13, May 24, July 9, 2014

Presidential Box at Ford's Theater

On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln scooted forward on his plush chair in the Presidential box of Washington, D.C.’s, Ford’s Theatre to catch the punch line of a popular play, “Our American Cousin.” The comedy is about a Vermont bumbler who inherits a bunch of money from relatives in Britain and travels there to visit.  After enduring a play’s worth of insults, the Vermonter retorts to one of his abusers:  "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap."   (This was supposedly a very funny line.)  Lincoln, however, barely apprehended the punch line, for as the audience roared with laughter, a bullet burst into the back of his left ear, gravely wounding him.  

Cathy and I toured Ford’s Theatre one day shy of 149 years later to begin at the end of the life of one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.   Since it was cherry blossom season, we had to contend with armies of tourists.  But the staff of the theater admitted people according to tickets with assigned times, so it was easy.  Once our allotted time arrived, our group piled into the theater — both the balcony and orchestra sections were available.  And then, out onto the stage ambled, not an actor, but a National Park Service ranger who discussed the last days of Lincoln’s life.  

The Playbill

What cost Lincoln his life is shoddy security.  First, the Ford's Theatre’s owner, John Ford, tells the newspapers that Lincoln and General Ulysses Grant are coming to the play.  When he flies back to the theater, Ford exhorts his employees to decorate the Presidential box--primarily for Grant, because he is a war hero.  John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor, is unfortunately, at the theater and overhears the news.

Booth is from a famous family of well-respected actors. All of the Booths are pro-Union…except for John Wilkes who once said "slavery is the white man's gift from God."  And Booth has the malicious intent to strike a blow for the defeated South.

Booth nimbly devises a plan to assassinate, not only Lincoln, but members of his Cabinet as well.  He shares the plan with his confederates, George Atzerodt, Lewis Powell and David Herold.  This is the same bunch who tried to kidnap Lincoln earlier that year during his commute between the White House and his summer residence at the Soldiers’ Home three miles away.  But the plot was frustrated when Lincoln didn't show up.  George Atzerodt is supposed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson while Lewis Powell and David Herold are assigned to slay Secretary of State William H. Seward.

The security at the theater is spotty.  Soldiers are stationed outside, and everybody has to exhibit passes to get in. There is no reason to think anybody inside would do the President harm.  The play starts at 8 p.m., but Lincoln arrives at 8:30 — without Grant, who is heading to New Jersey to see his daughter for Easter. Instead, Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancé, Clara Harris, accompany the President and his wife, Mary. 

A Most Heinous Act

When Lincoln’s entourage appears, the director interrupts the play for “Hail to the Chief.”  The play resumes at 8:45.  Around 9:15, Booth oozes in the back, goes into the wings under the stage, withdraws to have a drink next door, and slips back.  (All of this is well documented—1,700 people were in attendance that evening and there are about100 eyewitness accounts.) 

Booth skulks along the balcony to the to the yellow door where the presidential valet is sitting. Booth gives him his card and says he wants to pay respects to the President. Since the Lincolns are fans of the Booth family, the valet admits him.  (Another security breach.)  Booth waits in the hallway for the climax.  Then he enters the box and barricades the door.  As the climatic line approaches, Booth creeps toward Lincoln with a Derringer steady in his hand.  He positions the gun four inches from the left side of Lincoln's head. As the punch line hangs in the air, he pulls the trigger.  But everybody is laughing, so few in the audience notice.  Major Rathbone grabs Booth; Booth pulls out a knife and hacks him.  Booth then flings himself onto the stage, landing badly, and fracturing a small bone in his leg.  He displays his knife on stage and screams "Sic Semper Tyrannous":  "Thus always to tyrants."  Allegedly, Brutus said this when he killed Julius Caesar.  Booth scuttles out the door, vaults onto his horse and is gone.

Lincoln, unconscious, is cascading blood.  Major Rathbone is in shock, Mary Todd Lincoln and Clare are trying to help Lincoln, but the whole theater is in pandemonium.  The first doctor on the scene is a 23-year-old who graduated six months earlier and had been a military field doctor. He and Dr. Charles Taft, who arrives later, realize Lincoln won't live, so they order him carried across the street to the Petersen Boarding House. It takes 45 minutes to transport him.

(Modern medicine might have saved his life, but he wouldn't have been able to talk and his brain functions might have been limited. He could not have served out his presidency, the guide said.)

At about the same time across town, Lewis Powell is slashing Seward with a knife, severely wounding him.  But George Atzerodt loses his nerve and gets drunk instead of attacking Vice President Johnson. 

The city is obviously in chaos with nobody sure what is really happening.  

The aftermath is that President Abraham Lincoln never regains consciousness and dies the next morning propped up in a bloody bed too small for his long frame.  John Wilkes Booth is hunted for 12 days and is finally cornered in a Virginia barn.  He is shot in the neck and dies 12 hours later.  His co-conspirators are all hanged together on a sweltering July day, even George Atzerodt who spent the night of violence in an ineffectual drunken stupor.  Major Rathbone recovers from his wounds but never forgives himself for not protecting the president.  He does marry Clara Harris, but in 1883 he fatally shoots and stabs her and is sentenced to an insane asylum.  John Ford is threatened and elects not to reopen the theater.  He sells it to the government. In 1968, the theater is established by LBJ as a living memorial to Lincoln. 

The Murder Weapon

Following the talk, the ranger kindly admitted us to the museum located in the basement even though we did not bear the proper tickets.  (He shared that even after 12 years of volunteer work, he has never entered the presidential box, but he has lingered in the hallway leading up to it.)  The museum displays relics of the time:  the actual Derringer that Booth held, the knife that Booth wielded to slash Major Rathbone, the door of the box as well as the chunk of wood that Booth used to barricade the door, and Major Rathbone’s gloves. 

As we concluded our tour of the museum Cathy discovered a little theater. “Dark and the seats have a back.  Does it get any better than this?” she said as she flopped on a bench and fell asleep.

Lincoln’s Presidency

When Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election on November 6, 1860, the South knew that its “Peculiar Institution” was finally ending.  In an attempt to hold the nation together, he told the slave-holding states that he would not terminate slavery but he also would not support its expansion.

Nevertheless, the Southern states began to secede.  On December 20, 1860, South Carolina declared that “the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the ‘United States of America,’ is hereby dissolved.”  Six other Southern states followed: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.  They promptly formed their own government and called it the Confederate States of America.  The capital was established in Montgomery, Alabama;  it was later moved to Richmond once Virginia joined the Confederacy.

On March 4, 1861, Lincoln was sworn in. On April 22, South Carolina shelled Ft. Sumter, igniting the first military action of what was to become the Civil War.  On July 21, 1861, the first great land battle was fought, not 30 miles from the White House in Manassas, Virginia.  The war would stretch four years and cost more than 600,000 lives.

But throughout the bloody years of fighting, Lincoln knew that abolishing slavery needed to happen at a measured pace.  In a 1862 letter to New York Times editor, Horace Greeley, he wrote "What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union" (Wilson, 2013).  So when he began to form the Emancipation Proclamation, it was to support the Union cause.  The Proclamation announced the freedom of “all persons held as slaves” only in those states that were in rebellion.   He spared slave-holding states that remained loyal to the Union (i.e.. Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri) or that had already surrendered.  Maryland was especially important because it surrounded Washington on three sides.  Secretary of State Seward counseled Lincoln to delay the Emancipation Proclamation until after a Union victory or public images purposes. So when the North seemingly prevailed in the battle of Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln knew he could make his announcement.

The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863.

The South accused Lincoln of employing the Proclamation to incite the enslaved. In fact, Lincoln did want the enslaved to come north and fight, or at least stop working — that would take resources away from the South.  Many did come north, and the U.S. Colored Troops were established for the first time. They could fight for their cause and they were thrilled.

But Lincoln knew that when the war ended, the Emancipation Proclamation might not hold. (This was because, once the war ended, the states would no longer be in rebellion.)  He needed something stronger.  He needed the Constitution to actually abolish slavery and establish that people were not property.  So he pushed for the passage of a new amendment to the Constitution.  He began to work on  it in the summer of 1862 at the Returned Soldiers’ Home in Northwest D.C.  It would become the 13^th Amendment. 

Lincoln’s Cottage

Lincoln's Cottage

On Memorial Day weekend we visited the site where Lincoln developed both the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13^th Amendment;  the location is now known as Lincoln’s Cottage and is at the campus of the Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH).  When we arrived, we learned that you need to purchase tickets ahead of time, something we had overlooked.  The final two tours at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. tours were overbooked — Memorial Day may have had something to do with that.  But somehow they managed to squeeze us into the 2 p.m. tour led by Kelsey.  (We believe our notebooks made us appear to be serious presidential scholars, so they made an effort to squash us in.)

Kelsey launched the tour by revealing that there is not much furniture in the cottage.  “It is a museum of ideas not things,” she explained.  Cathy’s response was,  “No teacups, woohoo!”  (Too many of our visits have been about furniture and tableware and iron pots rather than the presidents.)  The Gothic Revival house does have some period furniture, but the focus is on Lincoln’s influences and the way he thought. The house is as close to the Lincoln era as possible, but it's mostly empty.

A Towering Man

George Washington Riggs, founder of Riggs Bank, constructed the cottage, but sold the property to the government after his daughter died.  Side note: The original marble-columned Riggs Bank (now a PNC Bank) is on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the Treasury Department and can be found on the back of the $10 bill.

Presidents were invited to the Soldiers Home as a way to curry favor (read: funding) for the Soldiers’ Home from them. 

Lincoln's Briefcase

During the summers of his presidency, Lincoln commuted to the cottage every day.  The home is on an elevation and is six degrees cooler than the city.  It is about three miles from the White House and three miles from the Capitol.  His commute was 30-35 minutes with a cavalry escort that he sometimes ditched.  (This was not a good idea: Washington was full of Southern sympathizers.  He was shot at once and a bullet rent a hole through his hat.  And of course, John Wilkes Booth and his band were intent on kidnapping Lincoln during his commute.) 

Within sight of the Cottage is the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery,

which was established after the First Battle of Bull Run in 1862.  As the carnage increased, the bodies of 30-40 young Union soldiers were being buried every day.  (According to eminent Civil War historian Shelby Foote, the slaughter was so vast because the military tactics did not keep up with the deadly technology.)  Lincoln witnessed many of the burials from the front of the Cottage perhaps 300 yards distant.  He was witnessing the embodiment of his war policies and it weighed heavily on him, according to another tour guide, Jimmie Cooper.  Sometimes when he couldn’t sleep, Lincoln would repair to the cemetery and pace the graves.  Once he saw a woman visiting a grave in the middle of the night and he recited a short poem to her.  (Side note: Lincoln composed poetry and there is a book of his collected poems in the giftshop.)

During our tour, Kelsey related an anecdote that was revealing of Lincoln’s character.  In August 1862, the first summer at the cottage, Charles Scott, a colonel in the Union army, showed up to see Lincoln.  He and his family had been on a ship that collided with another ship.  His wife drowned. He wanted to take her body back home to New Hampshire, but it had already been removed to Virginia. Kelsey said it was "almost impossible to get her body back from the South" during the war.  Scott asked Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to help but was refused. So Scott hunted down Lincoln at the cottage and gained an audience.  Lincoln was displeased with the intrusion and asked, “Why do you come here?”  He told Scott that death was pervasive in this time of war and that Scott should have gone to the War Department for help. When Scott told Lincoln that Stanton had refused to assist, Lincoln told him that Stanton knew what he was doing.

Overnight, Lincoln had a change of heart and found Scott in D.C.  Lincoln directed Stanton to arrange for the recovery of her body and apologized to Scott, saying there was “no excuse for my conduct.”  He also asked Scott not to "tell your children about my conduct last night."

After the tour, we strolled to the nearby National Cemetery across the street from the Soldiers’ Home campus.  At the cemetery are planted neat rows of small white grave markers, 14,000 in all, reminiscent of those at Arlington National Cemetery.  It was at this cemetery, established before Arlington, that Major General John A. Logan — who is also buried there — declared the first Declaration Day on May 30, 1868, to be held every year at that time.  This became known as Memorial Day.

A Detour into the Dark Heart of the Confederacy

In July 2014, Tom journeyed to the retirement home of Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederate States of America. The white mansion with fading green shutters, known as Beauvoir, is in Biloxi, Mississippi. An expansive porch with rocking chairs looks out on the Gulf of Mexico. 

Our tour guide held forth on Davis’ time at the house, his family, the furnishings (yes, even the tea cups!), the use of the house as a retirement home for 2,000 Confederate veterans and their widows — 800 of them are buried in a cemetery on the property.  But not a peep about Davis’ role in the Civil War. 

Beauvoir

Prior to the Civil War, Davis was a congressman and a two-term U.S. senator who also served as the Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce. On Jan. 12, 1861, Sen. Jefferson Davis rose in the Senate chamber and announced that he was resigning. During his speech he laid bare the case for the South, reminding the Senate that the framers of the Constitution had never intended the enslaved to be free:  “…for there (in the Constitution) we find provision made for that very class of persons as property; they were not put upon the equality of footing with white men -- not even upon that of paupers and convicts; but, so far as representation was concerned, were discriminated against as a lower caste, only to be represented in the numerical proportion of three-fifths. So stands the compact which binds us together.”

I asked the guide if African Americans ever visited the home (which is owned and operated by the Sons of the Confederacy) and was told that yes and, by the way, there were black Confederate soldiers who had lived at the retirement home.  I did a double take. “Black Confederate soldiers?”  After the tour, I visited the library in the visitor’s center and asked the librarian about that statement.  She assured me that was indeed true and handed me two books on the subject.  

The story is this.  As the war dragged on, the Confederacy was running short of soldiers.  By 1864, some in the Confederacy were seriously advocating the use of their enslaved population.  Gallagher (1997) reprints a Harper’s Weekly cartoon from December10, 1864 showing a Southerner trying to convince a confused enslaved person to take a rifle.  The caption reads:  “Here! You mean, inferior, degraded Chattel, jest kitch holt of one of them ‘ere muskits, and conquer my freedom for me!”  In March 1865, a desperate Confederate Congress approved the use of the enslaved as troops, but only a few thousand were mustered (www.history.com).  The South surrendered the next month. 

And Back to the Bright Light of the Union

In November 1863—a year and a half before his death—Lincoln made a short trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to participate in the dedication of a national cemetery at the site of that July’s Battle of Gettysburg.  Lincoln wasn’t the main speaker but he had prepared a few words.  They went like this:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

 How to Get There

Ford’s Theater

Ford’s Theater is located in downtown Washington D.C. easily accessible by Metro. 

Tours of the theater are free but you must pick up tickets admitting you at certain times.

Tickets are required for the museum as well.  More information can be found at

http://www.fordstheatre.org/

Lincoln’s Cottage

The visitors center is free but tickets are required to tour the cottage.   We strongly recommend a tour of the cottage and strongly recommend that you buy advance tickets ($15 adult, $5 children).  Don’t be caught short like us! More information is at http://lincolncottage.org/

Jefferson Davis Home

Beavoir is located on the Gulf of Mexico, 2244 Beach Blvd.  Tickets are $12.50 for adults and $7.50 for children.  More information is at http://www.beauvoir.org/

References

Burns, K.  1990.  The Civil War, a film by Ken Burns.  Public Broadcasting System.

Gallagher, G.W.  1997.  The Confederate War.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

Keneally, T.  2003.  Abraham Lincoln.  Serpentine Publishing Co, Middlesex, England.

Wilson, R.  2013.  Lincoln at Petersburg.  American History.  October 2013.  pp.  32-37.  Vol 48, No. 4.

history.com/this-day-in-history/confederacy-approves-black-soldiers

sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/davisexit.html 

ushistory.org/us/32e.asp