Posted on 04/06/2003 5:26:16 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
Edited on 07/20/2004 11:48:37 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Richmond welcomed Abraham Lincoln back with patriotic music, enthusiastic applause and boos yesterday, 138 years after he entered the smoldering capital of the Confederacy.
Smiling children and dignitaries slowly lifted a forest green cloth, unveiling a life-size bronze statue of Lincoln and his son, Tad, at a spot near the James River.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
No, of course not.
I could have quoted E.A. Pollard's (Southern History of the War) version of the events surrounding the Baltimore Plot. But Pollard was the editor of a Richmond newspaper during the war and is clearly a Southern partisan, so I would view his credibility as greatest where he might say something complimentary about Lincoln or something derogatory about Jefferson Davis. (sort of what lawyers call admission against interests)
Sadly it turns out that Pollard's description would appear to be the most accurate one contained in any of the general histories of the war that I have. I base this upon my pulling together bits and pieces from other histories but more specifically from reading the NY Times reports (The Times supported Lincoln and their reporter is one the few who knew that Lincoln would leave the train.) and the reports of Lincoln's own security man, Allan Pinkerton, who "uncovered" the plot. (These are reproduced in Lincoln and the Baltimore Plot by Norma Cuthbert published by the Huntington Library in 1949.) This last I obtained because I saw it referred to in the footnotes of two other books I have consulted - the Turners' MTL bio I referred to earlier on this thread and McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. I have these things here as I type: reports of two pro-Lincoln persons who were there. I wonder what sort of libraries the folks who call me names have.
And BTW an academic of some reputation, whom I am sure would not want to be quoted, has told me that he doesn't believe it is yet possible for someone in his position to write a truly honest history of the war. Political Correctness in academia isn't just a left vs. right thing.
ML/NJ
The mind of Allan Pinkerton?
ML/NJ
Leaving them to rough it in Philadelphia surrounded by friends and supporters. How cruel of him.
I'd be curious to know how many Abraham Lincoln biographies you can find that list the Baltimore Plot, as it is known, in their indices.
It's in David Herbert Donald's "Lincoln" on page 277. It was more than a Pinkerton plot, too. William Seward and Winfield Scott both warned him of threats to his life in Baltimore. Lincoln's papers indicate that he got a bunch of letters prior to the inauguration detailing threats to his life - mostly from people who hadn't a clue if they were real or not. Personally I doubt that there was any organized plot against his life but given the times he played it safe.
No doubt in order to display their best side to the Yankees.
Of course. But regardless, why would a leader of a military force on the brink of war allow the enemy in his rear?
That would be because the North did not get RAPED by Lincoln / Sherman.
I don't think anyone was worried about people in Philadelphia. What are you talking about? The problem was supposed to be in Baltimore. It's nice for you to decide here now whether he was doing his wife a favor. The Times report (2/26/61, p.8 ) says:
Mrs. Lincoln did not seem in the best of spirits, partially because she did not wholly approve of the course taken, of which, indeed, she was not entirely cognisant, and partially because she felt anxiety concerning the fate of her husband.This bit about the fate of her husband, I would view as spin. Remember the Times was very pro-Lincoln. It seems a bit absurd to me that she would be worried about her husband who was being removed from the threatened train and continuing on in disguise, rather than herself and her son who continued on the train. What I do get from this report is that she was not pleased.
It's in David Herbert Donald's "Lincoln" on page 277. It was more than a Pinkerton plot, too.
I'm curious. Is Baltimore Plot indexed in the Donald book? And how is it reported? Does it say that there was a fear that the train he was riding on would be attacked and that therefore he left the train, sort of the way McPherson does in Battle Cry of Freedom leaving out the part about abandoning his family to the threat he perceived?
It may have been more than a "Pinkerton plot," but the bottom line is that there was no attack along the lines that had been predicted.
ML/NJ
Are putting forth Davis as a paragon of virtue?
Is he your standard for how Lincoln should be judged?
ML/NJ
Or maybe because we're more adult about it?
Hardly that.
I'm not sure. I thought I was responding to your claims that Lincoln abandoned his family. It makes it sound as if you believe he was placing them at risk.
Is Baltimore Plot indexed in the Donald book?
Yes it is but under the entries for Lincoln. According to Donald the threat was presented to Lincoln while he was in Philadelphia. According to Pinkerton, conspirators from Baltimore were supposed to be in Philadelphia to kill him as he changed trains. Pinkerton recommended that Lincoln travel directly to Washington on the night train. Lincoln refused to alter his plans and remained in Philadelphia tomake an address at Independence Hall on February 22nd. He left his family in the care of friends and supporters, travelled to Harrisburg to address the Pennsylvania legislature, and then went to D.C. through Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Donald reports the events but doesn't comment on whether or not the threat was real. He points out that Lincoln himself came to doubt that any threat had existed and that he regretted the way he agreed to travel.
otherwise, LOL!
HK just MAY do that;the statue would make a really great "fish home" at the bottom of the Chesapeake!
FRee dixie,sw
The state of Mississippi put that statue there by their own choice under a right of sending two statues of choice that was afforded to all 50 states. That is not so with the Richmond statue, which was placed there by the decision of the national park service of the federal government in collusion with a yankee profiteer.
As always, leave it to Non-Seq to respond to facts with tu quoque rationalization and excuse-making. You are almost as predictable as Wlat.
So in other words, you are suggesting that southerners should be thanking Lincoln for "not doing" exactly what he did by way of a little event known as the civil war.
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