Charles Lachman - The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family

The Last Lincolns

___________________

The Rise and Fall
of a Great American Family

B Y
Charles Lachman

UNION SQUARE PRESS
An imprint of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
New York / London
www.sterlingpublishing.com

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lachman, Charles.

The last Lincolns : the rise and fall of a great American family / Charles Lachman.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4027-5890-4

1. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Family. 2. Lincoln family. 3. Family--United States--Case studies. I. Title.

E457.25.L33 2008

973.7092'2--dc22

2008039074

3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016
2008 by Charles Lachman
Distributed in Canada by Sterling Publishing
c/o Canadian Manda Group, 165 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6K 3H6
Distributed in the United Kingdom by GMC Distribution Services
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Distributed in Australia by Capricorn Link (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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Manufactured in the United States of America
All rights reserved

Sterling ISBN 978-1-4027-5890-4

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To my wife,
NANCY GLASS
and our children,
MAX, PAMELA, AND SLOANE.
And to my parents.

THE MAIDS AND housekeepers at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago trod warily in her presence, for Mary Todd Lincoln, the most detested First Lady in American history, was notorious for her short fuse and shrewish ways. But to the surprise of the hotel staff, the stout little woman in black mourning clothes seemed pleasant and undemanding, respectful and cordial to everyone. Mary Lincoln did not merely live in seclusion after the assassination of her husbandshe lived utterly alone. And this was true of her three weeks at the Grand Pacific. She ate her meals in her six-dollar-fifty-cent-a-night room on the third floor. Her son, Robert Lincoln, was her only visitor.

One afternoon in early April 1875, the manager of the Grand Pacific, Samuel Turner, was in his office when Mrs. Lincoln came in to see him. A shawl was draped over her head and she was urgent in her insistence on speaking to Turner about some noise she had been hearing on her floor. It was a strange complaint, and Turner agreed to investigate it with Mrs. Lincoln. They went up to her room. Turner listened, but he heard nothing abnormal. Everything seemed fine.

Turner left Mrs. Lincoln and returned to his office. Several minutes later, there was a commotion in the lobby. Turner went out to investigate, and he saw that it was Mrs. Lincoln again. This time she was making a fuss about a man lurking in the hallway that she claimed was intent on molesting her. Skeptical of her story, Turner accompanied her back to the third floor, looked around, and saw no suspicious characters. Mrs. Lincoln became greatly excited, even inconsolable. She could not be quieted. She was afraid of being left alone that evening and demanded that she share a room with another hotel guest. Despite her usual preference for seclusion, Mary now seemed desperate for companionshipeven that of a stranger.

Over the next few weeks, Mrs. Lincolns odd behavior became even more erratic. She was awake most nights. Hotel employees could hear her pacing across her small room. She told a housekeeper, Maggie Gavin, that she could hear voices in the walls. Mrs. Lincoln called Maggie over to the window and pointed to a plume of smoke billowing from a chimney. The city was burning down, Mrs. Lincoln cried out. It was another Great Chicago Fire! One day Mrs. Lincoln summoned a waiter, John Fitzhenry, to her room. She opened the door for him, and the young man was distressed to find her casually dressed in a nightgown and in a state of wild agitation. I am afraid! I am afraid, she bellowed.

If anyone had taken notice of the calendar, perhaps they would have understood what was triggering Mary Lincolns peculiar behavior. A tragic anniversary was approaching. Ten years earlier, on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth had fired a bullet into the back of her husbands head.

Of all her suitors in Springfield, Illinois, so many years ago, the luminous southern belle Mary Todd had chosen the most unlikely to be her husband. Now Mary Todd Lincoln begged for death to take her. How I am to pass through life, without him who loved us so dearly, she wrote a friend.I long to lay my aching head and sorrowing heart by the side of this dearly loved one. When the summons comes for my departure I will gladly welcome it.

It was early afternoon when Mrs. Lincoln heard the knock. Hotel manager Samuel Turner was at her door. Mary let him in and saw another gentleman standing there. He was Leonard Swett, a prominent Chicago lawyer. It was said of Swett: Of all living men, Leonard Swett was the one most trusted by Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln welcomed Swett into her room. And then he got right to it.

I have got some bad news for you, he told her. Mrs. Lincoln, your friends have with great unanimity come to the conclusion that the troubles you have been called to pass through have been too much and produced mental disease.

Mary absorbed the words, and then she asked whether Swett was insinuating that she was crazy.

Yes, Swett answered. I regret to say that is what your friends all think.

Mrs. Lincoln responded formally, I am much obliged to you, but I am abundantly able to take care of myself and I dont need any aid from any such friends.

Swett kept his voice low and steady. In his pocket, he informed Mary Lincoln, was a warrant for her arrest. Two uniformed police officers were waiting in a carriage outside the hotel. If she did not accompany him voluntarily, right now, he would order them to handcuff and seize her by force.

Where is my son, Robert? I want him to come here. Robert Lincoln was a Chicago lawyer. Mary Lincoln thought that Robert would put an end to this outrage.

Swett looked at Mrs. Lincoln, and it was then that he delivered the news that broke her heart. Robert Lincoln was in a Chicago courtroom, at this very moment, awaiting her arrival.

It was Robert who had sworn out the warrant for his mothers arrest.

APRIL 14, 1865 , dawned brisk and misty when Captain Robert Todd Lincoln awoke in his White House bedroom. His father, President Abraham Lincoln, was already up. On the streets of Washington, even at this early hour, people were hurriedly heading to government offices to start the workday. As this was Good Friday, the church pews were already filling up. Over at the Willard Hotel at Fourteenth and E, General Ulysses S. Grant was getting up, too. Six days earlier, General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox. Now General Grant was in the nations capital to brief the president and take care of War Department business. Captain Lincoln, who served on Grants staff, had returned with him after a difficult journey from the front lines in Virginia.