NYC: Is the secret of Lincoln’s assassination

Examiner ^ | January 14 | Laura Harrison McBride

[nmh]

We need to “bail out” John Wilkes Booth and blame someone else. It would spread the guilt around and relieve Booth of his irresponsibility. We could rewrite history again with ? marks on who was really the guilty one and help abolish capital punishment.

[nmh]

It's a long shot and I fail to see where there is any connection to the 18 missing pages. You might as well say these 18 missing pages could be found in the nearest dump and dig away there.

“The whole tunnel is not yet excavated, however, and therein lies a very provocative possibility. According to the man who rediscovered the tunnel, Bob Diamond, the unexcavated part probably contains not only the original platform, where passengers got on and off the train, but an old locomotive. And near that locomotive MIGHT be hidden the missing pages from the diary of John Wilkes Booth, who killed President Lincoln, according to Diamond. “

I'd like to know where the evidence is that they MIGHT discover the missing pages of his diary down there. An old locomotive would be interesting and the site nostalgic but I fail to see where there is a realistic possibility that the missing pages will be found there.

[nmh]

Notice the weasel words, “if” and “might” based on NO evidence. It’s wishful thinking. Someone wants to casdh in on this. It is a mission for Whorealdo!

[nmh]

Temperature alone will not make the missing pages appear.

This is wishful thinking for publicity. This person gives NO reason to believe those particular pages will be found there. He might as well claim the Ark of the Covenant will be found there too!

[nmh]

What did you think of it?

I suspect it was interesting but beyond that no huge fanfare needed.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I’ve always thought if I was an historian looking for some unexplored ground, I’d look into the life and times of Stanton. For all of the pies that he had his finger in, historians seem to have passed him by. For example, I’m not aware of a major biography, certainly not a major recent biography. And yes, I think there are some secrets to be unearthed there.

[nmh]

#15 Your post is very interesting and informative.

I'm shocked Stanton was a Demoncrat!

LOL!!!

[rabscuttle385]

It was mildly interesting, but somehow I don’t think a mid-19th c. locomotive could survive that long intact, at least, not in the holed-up tunnel.

[Salamander]

Maybe somebody will find The Law Giver’s long form BC down there.

[Salamander]

“Need I say it? Stanton was a Democrat. :’)”

So much for Lincoln’s vaunted ‘filling your cabinet with the opposition’ strategy.

Darn Copperheads.

[kalee]

Dixie interest ping

[NYer]

Recent color photos

Images from Bob Diamond

Images from Bob Diamond




Original drawing of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel as it appeared in 1844.


Original map showing Long Island Railroad as part of New York to Boston Rail System (circa 1844) [Larger map].


Map of the Tunnel [Larger map].


The small steam locomotives could not negotiate steep grades.


Bob Diamond on top of backfilled area in vicinity of tunnel entrance, 1980.


Volunteer crew in completed trench and sheeted area under ConEd duct bank.

[jdub]

I don't understand why no one has suggested that he and David Herold could have used those missing pages to wipe their butts while they were on the lamb.

Or maybe they used them to wipe something else when they got off of the lamb...

[mass55th]

"Or maybe they used them to wipe something else when they got off of the lamb..."

ROFL!! That's a riot!!

[Impy]

Stanton at some point switched to the GOP. I don’t know what party I would have been in then.

What he said about AL though, “Now he belongs to the ages,” and lamented, “There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen.” is fishy!

But I’ve never heard the idea of huge wide conspiracy behind the plots to Kill Linc and the others. Just that it was Booth and his buddies.

Why aren’t there conspiracy theories about McKinley and Garfield!? No one cares about them! :-(

[Impy]

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Darn Democrats. ;’) The Copperheads were Dims against the war; Stanton was a War Democrat.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

There are reputable historians who have believed Stanton was part of the the plot, but those who don’t call them disreputable. One of those “reputable historians” actually stated that he had “no idea” why the soldier gave his account of the password at the bridge. Yeah, that’s tellin’ ‘em.

Stanton didn’t like Lincoln, and when he was feeling charitable, thought Lincoln was in over his head. They’d met in 1857, when Stanton referred to him as a “long-armed creature”. In a 1861 letter, Stanton referred to “the President’s painful imbecility”. Lincoln admired Stanton’s ability as a lawyer, and as a delegator, Lincoln appreciated Stanton’s ability to get things done. Stanton was utterly ruthless, and despite his legal background (or perhaps because of it) rode roughshod over anyone he regarded as an enemy (personal or, as he saw it, of the country).

Stanton was on the ball when he wanted Lincoln to get rid of McClellan in 1862, but way out of line regarding his approach. Stanton replaced Allen Pinkerton with Lafayette Baker (”Death to Traitors” by Jacob Mogelever), and then demoted him when he learned Baker was tapping Stanton’s own telegraph messages. Stanton, after being blamed for letting Lincoln’s security lapse, recalled Baker to D.C., and Baker had identified and rounded up the historical conspirators within days.

It’s possible that Stanton was completely blameless for the assassination, and that all the circumstantial evidence against him (the missing pages; talking others out of accompanying the Lincolns to the theater; the fact that the sole security man Stanton assigned left his post for a drink, and Booth, waiting in the same saloon, left for his mission when the guard arrived; the password at the bridge; making sure no one eventually executed got a jury trial or was able to speak to anyone) are just an amazing set of coincidences.

> When Stanton died in 1869, Robert Todd Lincoln wrote the Secretary of War’s son, Edwin L. Stanton, that “when I recall the kindness of your father to me, when my father was lying dead and I felt utterly desperate, hardly able to realize the truth, I am as little able to keep my eyes from filling with tears as he was then.”

http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Library/newsletter.asp?ID=36&CRLI=116

[One of the “amazing expanding room” images of the very small room where Lincoln died, which is a freebie for those interested, as is the Ford Theater (although I think I read that the Ford was closed for conservation and renovation)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_at_his_death_bed.jpg

[Molly Pitcher]

The Robert Todd Lincoln letter quote is accurate, [and supports my position] and the Ford Theatre is closed for renovation, or was recently.

You may want to read:

1. Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin

2.Blood on the Moon Edward Steers

3.The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies William Hanchett

4.With Malice Toward None Stephen B. Oates

5.The Life and Times of Edwin M. Stanton Benjamin Thomas and Harold M. Hyman

for better info than you seem to have.