Scott Alexander - Slate Star Codex 2013-2020

It is quite uncontroversial among historians that Lincoln attempted to summon the dead. The only remaining question is to what degree he succeeded, and to what extent it influenced history.

The mid-1800s were the heyday of Spiritualism, a quasi-religious movement centered around seances summoning the spirits of the dead, who usually manifested through rapping noises or through taking control of the mediums speech. At the time it was a big deal, drawing in even normally skeptical souls: Wikipedia mentions Alfred Russel Wallace, who co-discovered evolution with Darwin, as a confirmed believer.

And then there was Lincoln. CSICOP is the closest thing to an official voice of skepticism in the United States; their past membership includes such luminaries as Carl Sagan and James Randi. Of Lincolns spiritualism, they say:

His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, attended sances, one even held in the White Houses Red Parlor. Lincoln stumbled upon the session, watching with curiosity. On another occasion, he accompanied Mary to a sance at a private home. The president, however, was a skeptic, and one biographer has suggested that his limited involvement in spiritualism was due to a desire to protect his gullible wife

What was this seance in a private home that even CSICOP agrees Lincoln attended? No other than the Laurie family mentioned in Fayette Halls book! In fact, we have a letter from Jack Laurie, dated 1885, stating that I have very often seen Mr. Lincoln at my fathers house engaged in attending circles for spiritual phenomena, and generally Mrs. Lincoln was with him.

So Lincoln very likely attended a seance at the Laurie house. What exactly happened during this event?

Here we begin to get into more controversial territory. For this I turn to the work of former Illinois state historian Jay Monaghan, particularly his 1941 article in Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Was Abraham Lincoln Really A Spiritualist?

Monaghan has eleven sources that purport to describe Lincolns necromancy, but he only accepts three of these as conveying credible information about the Laurie seance. One of these is Nettie Colburn Maynard, a different medium who had been attending this seance as a guest rather than as the active participant. A second is Colonel S.P. Kase, who later went to the newspapers with his story. The third is our old friend Dr. Fayette Hall, author of The Copperhead, or, The Secret Political History of our Civil War Unveiled, Showing The Falsity Of New England. Partizan History, How Abraham Lincoln Came To Be President, The Secret Working And Conspiring Of Those In Power. Motive And Purpose Of Prolonging The War For Four Years. To Be Delivered And Published In A Series Of Four Illustrated Lectures.

Why was Hall considered a remotely credible source? Because he had, in fact, spent a lot of the 1860s interviewing mediums and other members of DCs spiritualist community, and in fact had even talked with President Lincoln about the latters spiritual experiences (a talk Monaghan describes as a personal interview which Dr. Hall did not enjoy.)

These three sources broadly agree on what happened at the Lauries seance, but it is Ms. Maynard who gives the most detailed account and whom I will quote here. This passage is long, but worth it:

It was at this seance that Mrs. Belle Miller gave an example of her power as a moving medium, and highly amused and interested us by causing the piano to waltz around the room, as was facetiously remarked in several recent newspaper articles. The true statement is as follows: Mrs. Miller played upon the piano (a three-corner grand), and under her influence it rose and fell, keeping time to her touch in a perfectly regular manner. Mr. Laurie suggested that, as an added test of the invisible power that moved the piano, Mrs. Miller (his daughter) should place her hand on the instrument, standing at arms length from it, to show that she was in no wise connected with its movement other than as agent. Mr. Lincoln then placed his hand underneath the piano, at the end nearest Mrs. Miller, who placed her left hand upon his to demonstrate that neither strength nor pressure was used. In this position the piano rose and fell a number of times at her bidding. At Mr. Lauries desire the President changed his position to another side, meeting with the same result.