973.7L63 DEiSiYb Bradley, Preston. Preston Bradley speaking on Otto Eisenschiml f s book, In the shadow of Lincoln's death. LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY PRESTON BRADLEY SPEAKING On Otto EisenschimVs Book In the Shadow of Lincoln's Death Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/prestonbradleyspOObrad ?72.7L£2 / IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH Had Abraham Lincoln lived until today, he would have been one hundred and thirty-two years old, and that would not seem such a long life as measured against the inarch of time or the expect- ation of human existence as some scientists are now viewing that prospect. Yet in these last one hundred and thirty-two years several of the world's greatest history-making events have oc- curred and over one-half of the entire period of our national ex- perience in democratic govern- ment has passed in review. It has been a period which has probably meant more to the progress of the human race and to the advance of civilization than any equal era in recorded history. Now, as we approach the study of Abraham Lincoln through the great book which Mr. Otto Eisen- schiml has presented to this na- tion, w e cannot but be impressed with the fact that for a man who has lived so recently as to be only one hundred and thirty-two if he were still alive today, there is much about him which is mysteri- ous. Though better known and more intimately known than any other American character, Abra- ham Lincoln is still very much of an enigma . Though more has been written and said about Lin- coln than about any other man in all history except Napoleon and 1 Jesus Christ, there is yet much to be discovered and to be re- vealed. In fact students of the life and character of this great hero are constantly finding new approaches to his genius and new interpretations of his power.Just why this is I do not know, unless the explanation is to be found in the completeness of his personali- ty — a personality known for its simplicity, yet so broad, so deep, so unusual that his interpreters have not even now fully grasped its fullness or its significance. And so this character of Abra- ham Lincoln's is still a challenge to the best of our modern students and the keenest of our historians. Biographies of Lincoln have been issued with uncommon reg- ularity since 1865 and sketches of every conceivable nature have been appearing ever since his presidential campaign of 1860, but he is still the livest of all sub- jects for the philosophizing and the inteipreting of the writers of all degrees of experience and au- thenticity. For example, during the year just past, more than for- ty books were written in this country about Abraham Lincoln. This is, of course, in some re- spects a wonderful development and yet it also has its drawbacks due to the fact that the treatment of the subject is often "piece- IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH meal" and fragmentary. As good as it may be in parts, it is unfor- tunate Itlhat biographers cannot always discuss the life of a hero in its entirety. Otherwise the per- spective cannot be what it should be and we miss the vision of grandeur which we otherwise would obtain. And in Lincoln's case it is especially important that thoroughness of biography be considered before new attempts are made to review his life and character. It is not as though a new hero were being considered and new discoveries were being widely heralded from day to day. Lincoln's biographers have been geniuses in themselves and the material available has been worked over for years upon years. Of course, the job is not finished and much more can be said concerning the data which has heretofore been utilized, but the one great remaining oppor- tunity for revelation will be found in the opening of the trunk which Robert Lincoln sealed be- fore his death with the request that it should not be opened for, I think, seventy-five years. Mr. Eisenschiml is of the opinion that this trunk contains some very il- luminating material about Abra- ham Lincoln, for he reminds us that Robert Lincoln hinted at one time that it might reveal some "personal matters", possibly those having to do with the relationship of Lincoln to the woman he mar- ried, namely Mary Todd. And certainly if such material will be made available, there wilt be an enviable opportunity for our bi- ographers to clear up some points which have been debated and dis- cussed for several generations. But until that trunk is opened, the would-be biographers of Lin- coln might do well to consider most carefully how thoroughly the field is covered. Otherwise, as Mr. Eisenschiml so aptly .p oints out, t hey will be mere pla- giarists a nd their work will con- sist of restating what has already been given to the world through the literary research of other and more original authors. It is interesting to observe in this connection that what is prob- ably the greatest private collect- ion of Lincolnia in existence is being accepted tonight by the Illi- nois Historical Society from the estate of our former Governor, Mr. Llenry Horner. During a period of more than thirty years, Henry Horner assembled an as- sortment of some seven thousand items having to do with Abraham Lincoln, and this invaluable li- brary was donated by him before his death to the State of Illinois. Tonight at a great meeting in Springfield this material is being officially transferred to the His- torical Society and the principal speakers on this occasion are our present Governor, D wight Green, and one of Lincoln's most out- standing biographers, Mr. Carl Sandburg. It is an historic event IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH and this gift by Henry Horner to the people of Illinois is one which will be forever cherished. Ordinarily it is assumed that the great biographers of Lincoln have been Americans who have lived in closest contact with him or with the people who personally knew him, but that is not entirely the case. For it just happens that an Englishman, Lord Charns- wood, has produced one of the finest, truest and most impressive biographies of Lincoln in exist- ence today. It is not the most de- tailed, but for interpretation of the character and soul of this most completely democratic per- sonality of all time, it is certainly unsurpassed arid probably un- equaled. It reveals a perspective of Lincoln, which perhaps only an "outsider" could give, just as the best commentary on our form of government which has ever appeared was written by another Englishman, Lord Brice, the au- thor of that masterpiece with which you all are no doubt fa- miliar, The American Common- wealth. As I have previously indicated there are numerous biographies of Abraham Lincoln and none of us can hope to own them all, so for a close-up picture of Lincoln, I would especially recommend the work of three authors, namely Cliarnwood, Carl Sandburg ancT Otto Lisenschiml. T he mammoth work of Carl Sandburg: Abra- ham Lincoln — The Prairie Y eaXs and Abraham Lincoln — The War Years I reviewed last Spring and this review is still available in printed form in the number one issue of this same magazine, Preston Bradley Speaking. And this present volume by Otto Eis- enschiml is of particular impor- tance b ecause it does not deal so much with Lincoln himself as with his background in Washing- ten and the strange circumstances connected with his death. Those of you who are inter- ested in the mystery of things — in the "unknown" — and in the unraveling of a problem will be delighted with this book of Otto .Eisenschimrs called. In the Sha- dow of Lincoln s Death. I have studied it carefully and with a strange mixture of emotions. It reminds me, for one thing, of the impressions I always have when I go to Washington of being in a city which is filled with rumors. It is reeking with gossip — I mean of course, interesting and rela- tively important gossip — as well as the other kind. In this respect it seems to me that Washington is different from any other city in the world. It has a psychic at- mosphere. While there, you are constantly aware of the going on of multitudinous undercover de- velopments which you cannot fully recognize but which you nevertheless sense are apt to come out into the open at any moment. It is a mixture of politics, propa- ganda and promotion, such as the IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH common people of no other coun- try in the world have a chance to observe or to feel. I shall never forget the days I spent in Washington during the administration of Warren Hord- ing. My, what stories and what rumors ! It was during the period of the Teapot Dome scandal, in which the Secretary of the Inter- ior was involved. Such whisper- ings and such accusations ! I was glad to get away from it all. The atmosphere of all this was terri- ble and then, too, even the lesser intrigues irritated me. Supposed- ly 'big" people were getting mixed up in the petty, childish and ridiculous squabbles. The social system was an aggravation. Talk about London and Paris? Why, there isn't a city in the world where social procedure and decorum are more carefully em- phasized. If you are at the dinner table where there is the wife of a Congressman, it is one thing, but if the wife of a Senator is present that is entirely different. At all such gatherings you must be in your proper place. Why, for a democratic city and the capitol of the most democratic nation on earth, it is the quintes- sence of paradoxism. Lincoln had all that to contend with. Probably no other presi- dent was hated so much. We are inclined to think of him only as little less than a God ; we can see only perfection in all things per- taining to him — a vision alto- gether beautiful. Yet if we only knew the life he had to live, the intrigue which surrounded him, the hatred of men whom he trusted — of whom we would speak as "double-crossers" — our concept of his situation would be jolted. Hardly one member of his cabinet was honest with him. Nothing but trickery, evasion and lying, such as no other man in this country ever endured! He was called vile names ; vile stories about him were circulated. More lies were told about Lincoln than about any man who ever lived in Washington. On going into an analysis of the situation as a whole, as Mr. Eisenschiml has done, he has per- formed, a valuable service. Of course, ^Otto Eisenschiml is a scholar ; and he has demonstrated some fine traits of scholarship by refusing to accept slander for fact. So, at great expense of re- search and time, he has built the whole background of that Wash- ington experience with Lincoln and has shown how all this intri- gue finally ended in his murder, in the subsequent trial and then explains the reasons for these happenings. I suppose the plot could not have been completely kept from Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln worked, on many occasions, with those who were his bitter enem- ies. Whether she was deceived by them and thought she was doing the right thing, we do not know'. IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH But we do know that what at times she considered protection for him was in fact a step toward his destruction. Her activities make one think twice about her relationship to some of those sit- uations. Evidently this had much to do with Lincoln's loneliness, for people who are under attack and see a conspiracy being woven against them, are always lonely. And Lincoln was very intuitive, as all purists are. His mind and spirit were not contaminated by things that control lesser people. He w T as able to see above and through a situation without being hindered by the minor aspects. That is why it was never necess- ary to enter into detailed explan- ations with him. One never has to do that with people of his type. Lincoln was predominantly intu- itive. His greatness was that of the universal ; he had intuitive responsiveness in everything. Lie could understand an issue while most people were still trying to find an approach to the problem. He could envisage something which was about to happen. All great prophets are intuitive. And he had depth of understanding: "God must have loved the com- mon people because he made so many of them." He was a purist. He was away from, and above, earthbound limitations. All gen- ius has that quality. 'And if I be lifted up, I will draw all men un- to me,*' said Jesus, who certainly had it, and so did Lincoln and Shakespeare. Only eight or ten true men of genius in probably forty or sixty centuries of time during which we have been on our journey toward the stars. Nature is lavish ; she seemingly wastes eight million potential geniuses in order to create one. It is not surprising that in the seventy-five or eighty hundred years that we have climbing out of this awful agony of creation, there is nothing finished as yet. Everything is always in process. That is why through the ages only a few of these outsanding geniuses have been created, but they serve as prophesies of what nature may some day do on a larger scale. Geniuses are always lonely, for their intuition consists of experi- ences so completely submerged that the reality of those experi- ences no longer exists, while the result does. When you act intui- tively, you are acting against pre- vious but forgotten experiences in the life of the race. These things connected with the life and personality of a genius are usual- ly not taken into consideration; therefore geniuses are always at the mercy of men and women who are unworthy to tie their shoes. Lincoln found compensation for that loneliness in his struggle for human liberty, for freedom, and in the purity of his own child. The only object which command- ed the full fruition of the Lin- IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH coin spirit, was little Tad — the only outlet for his sympathetic soul and for the effulgence of his personality. One of the most touching pictures of Lincoln is that of his lonely figure at night, when all the turmoil was over, leaning over his sleeping boy Tad. Many plans and plots were made to kidnap Lincoln. The original plan was not to murder him. It was the effort of a de- feated people, who hoped that by capturing him, they could de- stroy his influence. Mr. Eisen- schiml brings out the fact that they were not supposed to miure him. But the strange, infantile minds of a people who had been frustrated — and frustrated people are always sadists — can experi- ence inner happiness, or joy, or satisfaction only when those whom they think are in their way, are made to suffer. Lincoln was the symbol — the barrier in the way of a frustrated South. Had he sensed the need for personal protection, he would have had more guards, when warned to do so. He was constantly exposed to fanatics and lunatics, but he had that inner consciousness of fortification always associated with this type of person. He felt that he was in the hands of God and nothing could harm him, and he shunned all these suggestions, about protection. Even when plots were revealed to him, he felt that he was obtaining that -basic pro- tection. Finally, when real tragedy did come — not premeditated at all ex- pect by one man — there were many things about the attack which have never been explained. For example, there is a grave doubt whether John Wilkes Booth was ever captured. The U. S. Bureau of Justice de- stroyed every bit of evidence connected with Booth. It is one of the most mystifying events in human history. And it is beyond belief that this should be so in connection with the murder of a President of the United States. Oddly enough, you know in Enid, Oklahoma, a mummy was hauled around the country and it was supposedly the body of John Wilkes Booth. There were claims of course, of the burning of Booth's body, but whether he was actually burned, or there was an escape or substitution, is still problematical. Much of this whole affair is still hanging in the clouds. Why did General Grant , who was to have been a member of the Lincoln party that night at the Ford Theater, at the last mo- ment change his plans for attend- ing, and leave Washington? What about Stanton's story? He claimed he was not informed of Lincoln's assassination because his door-bell did not ring. It was afterwards definitely established that the man who brought the news did ring the door-bell. What a plot it was! The authorities IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH later indicted a Mrs. Surat, a- long with a number of other con- spirators, but there is grave doubt as to her guilt. The atti- tude of the War Department was indeed strange. Mrs. Surat was a Roman Catholic — a convert to the Roman Church. And after her conviction, she asked for a priest, to be given absolution and to make her final confession. This was granted only on one condition, which was that this priest would refrain from ever mentioning anything about her innocence. S he begged for a last word when led to her execution, and all she wanted to say was : "I am innocent. " The evidence seems to raise a real doubt as to whether she had any actual re- lationship to the conspiracy, but her own son was involved in the plot. If vou want to read a great detective story, read this hopk> I began reading it one evening in bed and read on until dawn. Now, what about John Wilkes Booth? For myself, I have come to the conclusion that Booth was suffering from a most frightful malady — paranoia — which was attributed to a father-mother complex. While he was devoted to the cause of the South, the as- sassination of Lincoln was not deliberately planned as such, but something snapped at the time in the brain of John Wilkes Booth. There is a serious question as to whether he meant to murder Lin- coln. Booth came of a rather prominent and creative family, but John was on the border-line between brilliancy and insanity, where the influence of this dread- ed disease worked upon him so that he felt he must kill the one who frustrated his own dreams. But Lincoln — the intuitive, sen- sitive Lincoln — knew more of what was going on than anyone imagined. I have the good fortune to know personally Major Rath- bone, congressman at large, in the State of Illinois, whose father and mother sat in the theater box with Lincoln at Washington. And Major Rathbone, himself, never was able in his own mind — al- though he was a master student of Lincoln — to decide whether his own father told the entire story of that assassination. On three different occasions — twice in 1865 and then again in 1867 — he was letter-perfect in his recital of that historic event but some- thing which had happened that night before Booth fired the fatal shot, was never mentioned. We may discover some day what that was. At present one guess is a good as another. My own inner surmise is that Booth and Lincoln had a few moments, if not more, of conversation before the shot was fired, and that what- ever was said and done has never been told. But this much, we do know : that whatever did happen, did not surprise the President. Before leaving for the theater 8 IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH that night, Lincoln went into one of the rooms of the White House where there was a flag, and pick- ing up the flag he buried his face in it, saying, "Old flag, the battle is over. Lee has surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. There isn't a stripe missing nor a star gone. And old flag, it has been worth it all. I am ready now for the thing which is before me." He then went to Ford's Theat- er, and one can again assume that Lincoln had heard of the same plot which kept Stanton and Grant away from that evening performance. But Lincoln went, and I believe that deep down in his heart — even in the flush of victory and feeling that his work had been accomplished — he wel- comed death and walked into the presence of death with a heart for any fate. For it has also been established that on two occasions he contemplated suicide. Then, too, a few days before his assas- sination, he had talked of seeing himself in his own casket. He told of his dream in which he saw himself lying in state at the Wlilite Hoijse. He had walked from his bedroom in his sleep; had stood at the side of his own bier and gazed at his own lifeless body. This was spiritually possi- ble for such a genius ; and Lin- coln was not afraid. At the theat- er that night, he took the big arm chair, which you can now see in Mr. Ford's Fort Dearborn Vil- lage, and pulled it out and back from the door of the box so he could command a better view of the theater stage. Then he sat down to await his death. I would give, and so would the world, a great deal to know a- bout that momentary flash be- tween Booth and Lincoln. Do you remember the play? Well, if Booth had missed, just think — you who love history and who adore Lincoln — what might have happened! Perhaps, after all, it does not matter much how one dies, if one has completed his life's task. And one so near, so close, in his spiritual sublimation of life — so refined in his spiritual perception — so tired of hate and greed ^nd politics and ambitious low-minded people all about him, naturally longed for the peace that he dreamed was possible on- ly in the peace of death. Lincoln dead ? No ! Abraham Lincoln is more alive tonight than he has ever been. That brooding spirit of Lincoln is tonight roam- ing over the eternal. His heart is breaking. His eyes are filled with tears. He is trying to break through, and make himself artic- ulate again to the conscience of man. He loves its ideals, its dreams, its hopes. He dreamed af a time when government would be something of, and by, and for the people. When righteousness would be more powerful than might ! When man would be man, and humanity would be humani- ty! He knew a nation could not IN THE SHADOW OF LINCOLN'S DEATH exist half slave and half free. Lincoln dead? Some day, the Lincoln spirit will break through in another heart. There may be another Lincoln in the making. Democracy will rise again. One hundred and two years ago today, Nancy Hanks was almost bleed- ing to death on a mattress filled with corn husks, and Lincoln was just beginning to gurgle. Tonight that spirit of Lincoln is coming again from the womb of angels, and he is saying to lovers of lib- erty and freedom that RIGHT MAKES MIGHT! "With malice toward none and with charity for all," let us prize that high-mark in Christian statesmanship! I like to envisage what would happen to the nations of the world if all of us who love freedom, would love it as Lin- coln did. Would there be any doubt about the outcome, then, in our conflict with totalitarianism? Call the roll — Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Lincoln — ! It is almost sacrilege to say his name in the same breath. And when these names, which should be uttered only with contempt, are remem- bered only for the hearts they have broken and the endless flow of tears they have caused, that of Abraham Lincoln will be the shining light to which men in slavery, bondage and fear will turn, down through the ages, un- til humanity finds its way back again to greatness, to dignity and to peace. And the saddened, brooding face of Lincoln will be the star which leads them through the struggle into the peace and joy of a promised land! CONTENTS OF ISSUE NUMBER 9 OF PRESTON BRADLEY SPEAKING WHERE'S THE MONEY COMING FROM ? 1 ROOSEVELT AND WAR 15 THE FORGOTTEN DAY 25 POWER: USE AND MISUSE 31 Bernard De Voto's "MARK TWAIN IN ERUPTION" 38 IF LINCOLN WERE HERE 44 Make These Booklets a Part of Your Permanent Home Library w> Published Monthly at Glen Ellyn, Illinois by THE LIBERAL PRESS 25 cts. a copy $3.00 a Year Two Years $5.00 Two Subscriptions $5.00 Copyright 1940, by Preston Bradley UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 0112 002244512