HE BELONGS TO THE ANGELS NOW

ABRAHAM LINCOLN DIED 150 YEARS AGO 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) At 7:22 a.m. 150 years ago, April 15, 1865, the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, died in a small bedroom at the Petersen Rooming House on 10th Street here in the Nation's Capital.

The President, who had served the United States during the length of the Civil War, lost his life as the result of a pistol shot to the back of the head as he sat in his box with his wife, Mary, at Ford's Theater the previous night.

Attending physician Dr. Charles Leale determined that Mr. Lincoln would not survive a trip back to the Executive Mansion and so ordered that he be taken to the nearest bed.  The Petersen Rooming House, now called "The House Where Lincoln Died," is located across the street from the theater.

Dr. Leale held Mr. Lincoln's hand.  The young physician later said that he did so hoping the President "in his blindness" might know "he...had a friend."

Navy Secretary Gideon Welles described the passing of the President...

"A little before seven I went into the room where the dying President was rapidly drawing near the closing moments.  The death struggle had begun. The respiration of the President became suspended at intervals and at last entirely ceased at twenty-two minutes past seven."

Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton said...

"He belongs to the angels now."*

President Lincoln at his Deathbed

Harper's Weekly

May 6, 1865

www.en.wikipedia.com/

*Both the President's secretary, John Hay, and Dr. Charles S. Taft recalled Stanton's words differently.  Hay would later write the words as..."Now he belongs to the ages,"while Dr. Taft's version reads..."He now belongs to the ages."

"He belongs to the angels now," although less well known, is the actual transcription written in shorthand by Corporal John Tanner. Corporal  Tanner, who lived next door to the Petersen House, had lost both legs in the Second Battle of Bull Run but he still could manage to walk on "peg legs."  

When Secretary Stanton asked one of his generals to go outside and find someone who could take shorthand, Tanner "hobbled down to take dictation."
The Corporal's task was to take down, in shorthand, everything that was said in the room where Lincoln was dying.  This is what he wrote in the moments after Lincoln died...

"The Rev. Dr. Gurley...began 'Our Father and our God' (in a) prayer that was only interrupted by the sobs of Stanton as he buried his face in the bedclothes...Mr. Stanton raised his head, the tears streaming down his face. A more agonized expression I never saw on a human countenance as he sobbed out the words: 'He belongs to the angels now.'"

SOURCES

"Angels and Ages," by Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker Magazine, May 28, 2007, www.newyorker.com/

"Eyewitness Account of Dr. Robert King Stone, President Lincoln's Family Physician," by Stacey Bredhoff, Social Education Academic Journal, March 2007, www.questia.com/

"Now He Belongs To The Ages," American Treasures of the Library of Congress," www.loc.gov/

"The Assassination: Death of the President," by Champ Clark, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA, 1987.

"The Death of President Lincoln, 1865," www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

The House Where Lincoln Died

10th Street, Washington, D.C.

Photo by John White (2007)

MISCHIEF IN THE HOUSE

CONGRESS CIRCUMVENTS CONSTITUTION TO IMPEACH ANDREW JOHNSON

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 147 years ago today, February 24, 1868, the United States House of Representatives voted in favor of eleven articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee.

Representative John Covode* of Pennsylvania presented the resolution for impeachment which passed, strictly along party lines, by a vote of 126 to 47.

According to Time-Life, however, the resolution called for appointment of a committee to 'report articles of impeachment,' which...

"ignored the constitutional impeachment procedure..." that requires a preliminary investigation to be followed by, "the drawing up of formal charges (if warranted)."

Nine of the eleven charges related to the President's violation of the Tenure of Office Act by the removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton who, like many Republican members of Congress, opposed Andrew Johnson's reconstruction policies which they considered to be too lenient.

Andrew Johnson, the first President of the United States to be impeached or charged with "high crimes and misdemeanors," had first suspended the War Secretary in August 1867 at a time when the Congress was recessed.    General Ulysses S. Grant was the temporary replacement.

The Senate restored Stanton after the Christmas break but the President then removed Stanton "outright," replacing him with General Lorenzo Thomas.

The Senate impeachment trial, held from March 13 to March 26, 1868, ended with Johnson's acquittal.  He completed his term which began on the death of President Abraham Lincoln.

Honorable John Covode

Member of Congress (R-PA)

Photo by Matthew Brady &

Levin Corbin Handy

Library of Congress Image

*John Covode (1808-1871) was born in West Fairfield, PA.  He was the first president of Westmoreland Coal Company and served in the US Congress from 1855 to 1863 and 1867 to 1869.  He strongly supported the Freedman's Bureau, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Congressional Reconstruction.

SOURCE

"The Nation Reunited:  War's Aftermath, The Civil War Series, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia, 1987. 

Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson

by Theodore R. Davis
Harper's Weekly, April 11 1868
Library of Congress Image

NOTES ON LINCOLN DEATH PHOTO

NOTES ON LINCOLN DEATH PHOTO DONATED TO PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

Chicago, Illinois (JFK+50) Last week Professor Emeritus Ronald Rietveld* gave the three pages of notes he wrote about a photograph of the body of Abraham Lincoln which he had discovered when he was 14 years old to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield.

No known photographs of the body of the assassinated 16th President of the United States were known to exist.  Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton had prohibited the taking of pictures of Lincoln's corpse.

It was known, however, that when the body was lying in state in New York City on April 24, 1865, a photographer was granted permission by General E.D. Townsend** to make a picture of the corpse. When he learned about the violation of his orders, Secretary Stanton had the photographic plate destroyed and it was assumed any and all prints from the plate were also destroyed.

Eighty-seven years later, however, Ronald Rietveld stumbled upon a single print of Lincoln's corpse.  He recognized Mr. Lincoln's coffin from an illustration published in Harper's Weekly.

Lincoln's Coffin

White House East Room

Harper's Weekly

Described as a "teenager fascinated with Lincoln," Rietveld was invited by the Illinois State historian to visit Springfield and was given the opportunity to "look through the papers" of the President's secretaries John Nicolay and John Hay.

In his article on this topic, Don Babwin of the Assoicated Press writes...

"Rietveld came upon an envelope sent to Nicolay in 1887 by Stanton's son, who explained that he'd found some of his father's papers and thought Nicolay might want them."

In the envelope, Ronald Rietveld found the "faded brown photograph" showing Lincoln in repose in his coffin in New York City flanked by two military honor guards.

After a short investigation was conducted, Rietveld was informed on September 14, 1952 that the photograph was authentic.  


The question remains as to why Stanton did not destroy this one remaining print.  James Cornelius, Curator of the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum believes the War Secretary just couldn't bring himself to destroy "the last print."  And so it remained hidden for so many years.

SOURCES

"Historian donates notes on famous Lincoln photo," by Don Babwin, Associated Press, Knoxville News-Sentinel, October 12, 2014.

"Lincoln museum to get account of famous coffin," by Barbara Brotman, October 6, 2014, www.chicagotribune.com

"The Magnificent Find, Discovering the Lincoln Death Photograph," www.abrahamlincolnonline.org

*Ronald Rietveld is Emeritus Professor of History at California State University Fullerton.  He was born in Des Moines, Iowa and was living there at the age of 14.

RR also is noted as the man who met Fleetwood Lindley whose father was a member of the Lincoln Honor Guard and who had the opportunity to look upon the remains of President Lincoln in 1901 when they were about to be buried in a permanent grave in Springfield.  Mr. Lindley also assisted with the ropes as the coffin was lowered 10 feet below ground level.

**General E.D. Townsend was in charge of Lincoln's funeral train.

JFK+50 NOTE

We had the honor of attending a speech given by Ronald Rietvald many years ago at a Lincoln Symposium held at Lincoln Memorial University here in East Tennessee.

I talked to Mr. Rietvald after the speech.  I told him I would include his story in my lessons on Lincoln's death and asked if there was anything in particular he would like me to tell my students about his contribution.

Mr. Rietvald said that he would like them to understand that by his own example any one of them could one day make a similar contribution to history.

LINCOLN SHOT ON GOOD FRIDAY 148 YEARS AGO

APRIL 14, 2013

LINCOLN SHOT ON GOOD FRIDAY 148 YEARS AGO

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) At 10:15 this evening 148 years ago, Good Friday, April 14, 1865, a single pistol shot was fired at President Abraham Lincoln as he was sitting in a box above the stage at Ford's Theater on 10th Street here in the Nation's Capital. 

The shot was fired by accomplished actor and Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth who, after shooting the President, cut Major Henry Rathbone with a knife, leaped to the stage below and made good his escape out the back of the theater.

Eyewitness Edwin Bates described it in a letter to his parents dated April 15, 1865...

"(I) was seated in the orchestra chairs next to the stage and nearly underneath the box occupied by Mr. Lincoln and friends, I first heard the report of a pistol and immediately after a man jumped from Mr. Lincoln's box a distance of 10 or 15 feet upon the stage...not 10 feet from me.  

He fell partly upon his side but instantly rose & with a long dagger in hand rushed rapidly across the stage & disappeared before any(one)...could realise what had occurred."

A doctor attending Mr. Lincoln,  Dr. Charles A. Leale, determined Lincoln's wound, caused by a round ball which passed through the back of the skull into the brain, to be "mortal."

   

                       Ford's Theater
            Photo by John White (2007)

Not wanting to worsen Lincoln's condition any more than necessary, Dr. Leale ordered Lincoln be moved to the nearest bed which was in the Petersen Boardinghouse opposite the theater.

The President was laid diagonally across the single bed in the room because it was too short for his 6'4" frame.  Dr. Leale was assisted by Dr. Charles Sabin Taft and Albert F. King.  

All three physicians had been in the theater at the time of the shooting.

A hostile crowd gathered outside and some called for the Ford's Theater to be torched.

             "House Where Lincoln Died"
               Photo by John White (2007)

While the death watch ensued, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton directed the pursuit of the assassin and any accomplices.  The War Department offered a $100,000 reward for their capture.

Another incident occurred at almost the same time of Lincoln's shooting, Secretary of State William Seward was slashed with a knife as he lay at home in his sick bed by Lewis Paine, one of Booth's accomplices.  

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, who had led a divided nation successfully through a horrific civil war, died at 7:22 on the morning of April 15, 1865.

Sources

"Bloody Crimes:  The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant For Lincoln's Corpse," by James Swanson.

"We Saw Lincoln Shot, One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts," by Timothy S. Good.

April 14, 2013

JFK SPENT HIS LAST EASTER AT PALM BEACH 50 YEARS AGO 

Palm Beach, Florida (JFK+50) President John F. and Mrs. Kennedy, along with their children Caroline & John, Jr. joined family friends, Paul and Anita Fay and their children in Palm Beach for Easter Sunday 50 years ago today, April 14, 1963.

After attending a private mass conducted at the home of the President's father, the group went for a cruise on Lake Worth aboard the Honey Fitz.

     First Family Following Easter Service