Posted on 04/14/2023 7:47:56 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1865, Abraham Lincoln had a date for Ford’s Theater — and with John Wilkes Booth’s single-shot Derringer pistol.
But Honest Abe had one last order of business to attend to before his carriage called him away to destiny: the pardon of a convicted Confederate spy due to be shot in St. Louis two days hence. Lincoln’s handwritten clemency for George Vaughn was the last official act of his presidency.
Lincoln in Story (“The Life of the Martyr-President told in Authenticated Anecdotes,” a light 1901 volume for popular consumption) relates...
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Wow.
My sarcastic side has this picture of Abe holding the papers and telling his aide, “I’m going to pardon this man if it’s the last thing I do!”
My serious side is once again awed at this flawed man, just as we all are flawed persons, knowing when to be as hard as flint and when to be as soft as silk. His was the most untimely death our nation has ever experienced, and we have suffered for it ever since.
3/4ths of a million people would have been saved had he died much earlier.
We would still have a government more like what the founders created instead of being so authoritarian as it is now.
Apparently Mary Lincoln was obnoxious and the other wives of important men could not stand her. General Grant was originally scheduled to attend the same theater at the same time with his wife, but because his wife couldn't stand Mary Lincoln, they both didn't go.
Had Grant gone, he would have been accompanied by his own retinue of body guards, or he himself could have stopped Boothe.
Had Mary Lincoln been well liked, things may have turned out very differently.
Significant events in history often hang on seemingly minor previous occurrences.
I had not heard that.
That is so interesting. Thanks.
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