Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843 - July 26, 1926) was an American politician, lawyer, and businessman. Lincoln was the first son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. He was born in Springfield, Illinois and graduated from Harvard College before serving on staff Ulysses S. Grant as captain of the Union Army in the closing days of the American Civil War. After the war Lincoln married Mary Eunice Harlan, and they had three children together. After completing law school in Chicago, he built successful law practice, and became rich representing corporate clients.
Active in Republican politics, and the real symbol of his father's legacy, Robert Lincoln is often spoken of as a possible candidate for office, including the presidency, but has never taken steps to campaign. One of his chosen offices was the supervisor of the city of South Chicago, which he held from 1876 to 1877; the city then became part of the city of Chicago. Lincoln accepted the appointment as secretary of war in the administration of James A. Garfield, continuing under Chester A. Arthur, and as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (with a role later awarded "minister") in the administration of Benjamin Harrison.
Lincoln served as general counsel of the Pullman Palace Car Company, and after founder George Pullman died in 1897, Lincoln became president of the company. After retiring from this position in 1911, Lincoln served as chairman of the board until 1922. In the later years of Lincoln he lived in homes in Washington, D.C. and Manchester, Vermont; Manchester's home, Hildene, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. In 1922, he participated in a dedication ceremony for the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln died in Hildene on July 26, 1926, six days before his 83rd birthday, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Video Robert Todd Lincoln
Family and early life
Robert Todd Lincoln was born in Springfield, Illinois, on August 1, 1843, to Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. He has three younger brothers, Edward Baker Lincoln, William Wallace Lincoln, and Thomas "Tad" Lincoln. By the time Lincoln was born, his father had become a member of the famous Whig political party and had previously served as a member of the state legislature for four terms. Robert Lincoln is named after his maternal grandfather.
By the time his father became president of the United States, Lincoln was the only one of three presidential children to be his own. He took the entrance exam of Harvard College in 1859, but failed fifteen out of sixteen subjects. He then enrolled at Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare further for college, and graduated in 1860. Admitted to Harvard College, he graduated in 1864, and became a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter). Morris stated after receiving recognition to Harvard, Robert Lincoln emerged from college as an "unsympathetic curse."
After graduating from Harvard, Lincoln enrolled in Harvard Law School. When he initially expressed interest in law school for his father, President Lincoln referred to his own fun but unofficial legal training by stating "If you do, you must learn more than I ever did, but you will never have so good time." Robert Lincoln studied at Harvard Law School from September 1864 to January 1865, and went on to join the Union Armed Forces. In 1893, Harvard gave Lincoln the honorary title of LL.D.
Many embarrassed the president, Mary Todd Lincoln preventing Robert Lincoln from joining the Armed Forces until some time before the end of the war. "We lost a son, and lost as much as I can withstand, without being called to make any other sacrifices," Mary Todd Lincoln insisted on President Lincoln. President Lincoln argued "our son is not more valuable to us than the son of another is their mother." However, Mary Todd Lincoln insisted by stating that she could not "bear Robert in danger." In January 1865, the First Lady gave up and President Lincoln wrote Ulysses S. Grant, asking if Robert could be placed on his staff.
On February 11, 1865, he was assigned as an aide assistant with the rank of captain and served in the final weeks of the American Civil War as part of the direct staff of General Ulysses S. Grant, a position that sharply reduced the chances that he would engage in actual combat. He was present at Appomattox when Lee surrendered. He resigned from his post on June 12, 1865, and returned to civilian life.
Lincoln had a great relationship with his father, partly because during his formation, Abraham Lincoln spent months on the judicial circuit. Their relationship is similar to that of Abraham Lincoln with his own father. Lincoln remembers, "During my childhood and adolescence, he was almost always away from home, attending courts or making political speeches." Robert then says his most vivid image of his father is packing a saddlebags to prepare for his journey through Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was proud of Robert and considered him brilliant, but also something of a competitor. An acquaintance purportedly said, "he suspects Bob will not do better than he does." Both did not have a strong bond with Lincoln with his other sons, Willie and Tad, but Robert greatly admired his father and cried openly on his deathbed.
On the eve of his father's death, Robert declined an invitation to accompany his parents to the Ford Theater, citing exhaustion after spending most of his time recently on a covered train on the battlefield.
On April 25, 1865, Robert Lincoln wrote President Andrew Johnson requested that he and his family be allowed to stay for two and a half weeks because his mother had told him that "he may not be ready to leave here". Lincoln also admitted that he was aware of the "extraordinary discomfort" that has since become president of the United States just moments before. After the assassination of his father, in April 1865 Robert moved with his mother and his brother Tad to Chicago, where Robert completed his law studies at the Old University of Chicago law school (now Northwestern Pritzker University Law School). He was received at the bar on February 25, 1867. On January 1, 1866, Lincoln moved from the apartment he lived with his mother and brother. He rented his own room in downtown Chicago to "start living with some degree of comfort" that he did not know when living with his family. Lincoln was licensed as a lawyer in Chicago on February 22, 1867. He was certified to practice law four days later on February 26, 1867.
On September 24, 1868, Lincoln married former Mary Eunice Harlan (25 September 1846 - 31 March 1937), daughter of Senator James Harlan and Ann Eliza Peck of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. They have two daughters and one son.
- Mary "Mamie" Lincoln (October 15, 1869 - November 21, 1938)
- Abraham Lincoln II (nicknamed "Jack") (August 14, 1873 - March 5, 1890)
- Jessie Harlan Lincoln (November 6, 1875 - January 4, 1948)
In an era before the air conditioning, Robert, Mary, and the children often left the hot city life for a cooler climate than Mt. Comfortable. During the 1880s the family will be "summer" at Harlan's home. The Harlan-Lincoln house, built in 1876, still stands today. Donated by Mary Harlan Lincoln to Iowa Wesleyan College in 1907, it now serves as a museum containing a collection of artifacts from the Lincoln family and from the Abraham Lincoln presidency.
Relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln
In 1871, the tragedy struck the family again when Lincoln's only alive brother, Tad, died at the age of 18, leaving his mother devastated by grief. Lincoln, already concerned about what he thought was his mother's "thrifty-spending" way and eccentric behavior, and feared that he was a danger to himself, arranged for him to commit himself to a mental hospital in Batavia, Illinois in 1875. With his mother in hospital, he was left in control of his finances. On May 20, 1875, he arrived at Bellevue Place, an upscale private sanatorium in the Fox River Valley.
Three months after being installed at Bellevue Place, Mary Lincoln engineered his escape. He smuggled letters to his lawyer, James B. Bradwell, and his wife, Myra Bradwell, who was not only his friend but also a feminist lawyer and spiritualist. He also wrote to the editor of the Chicago Times, known for his sensational journalism. Soon, the public embarrassment Robert expected to avoid loomed, and his character and motives were questioned. The director of Bellevue, who at Mary's court hearing had convinced the jury that he would benefit from the care at his facility, is now in the face of potentially damaging publicity that he is well enough to go to Springfield to live with his sister as he pleases. The process of commitment and the following events caused a deep estrangement between Lincoln and his mother, and they never fully reconciled.
Maps Robert Todd Lincoln
Politics
Secretary of War (1881-1885)
From 1876 to 1877 Lincoln served as City Controller in South Chicago, a city that was later absorbed into the city of Chicago. In 1877 he rejected the offer of President Rutherford B. Hayes to appoint him as Assistant Secretary of State, but later accepted the appointment as Secretary of President James Garfield, serving from 1881 to 1885 under President Garfield and Chester A. Arthur.
During his office tenure, the Cincinnati riots of 1884 broke out over a case in which a jury gave a murder verdict rather than a murder in a case allegedly rigged. Forty-five people were killed during three days of unrest before US troops sent by Lincoln rebuilt tranquility.
Following his services as Secretary of War, Lincoln assisted Oscar Dudley in establishing Illinois Industrial Training School for Children at Norwood Park in 1887, after Dudley (Humane Society employee) "found more homeless, abandoned and neglected children than dogs on the street -the city. "The school was moved to Glenwood, Illinois in 1890 and was recently renamed Glenwood Academy; first enrolled girls in 2001.
Next life
Lincoln was general counsel of the Pullman Palace Car Company under George Pullman, and was elected president after Pullman's death in 1897. According to Almont Lindsey's 1942 book The Lincoln Pullman Strike, Lincoln arranged for Pullman to be silent- was freed from a summons issued to Pullman to testify in the 1895 trials of the leaders of the American Railway Union for conspiracy during the Pullman strike of 1894. Pullman hid from a deputy marshal sent to his office by a subpoena and then appeared with Lincoln to meet privately with Judge Grosscup after the jury was dismissed. In 1911, Lincoln became chairman of the board, a position he held until 1922.
A serious amateur astronomer, Lincoln built an observatory at his home in Manchester, Vermont, and equipped with a refracting telescope made in 1909 by Warner & amp; Swasey with a six-inch objective lens by John A. Brashear Co., Ltd. telescope and Lincoln observatory still exist; it has been restored and used by local astronomical clubs. Robert Lincoln made his last public appearance at a dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C. to memorial his father on May 30, 1922.
Lincoln was also a dedicated golfer, and served as president of the Ekwanok Country Club in Manchester.
Attendance to killing
Robert Lincoln was accidentally present or near when three presidential murders took place.
- Lincoln was not present in his father's murder. He was in the White House, and rushed to be with his parents. The President was transferred to Petersen House after the shooting, in which Robert attended his father's deathbed.
- At the invitation of President James A. Garfield, Lincoln was at Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C., where the president was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881, and was an eyewitness to the event. Lincoln served as Garfield War Secretary at the time.
- At the invitation of President William McKinley, Lincoln was at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, where the president was shot by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901, even though he was not an eyewitness to the event.
Lincoln himself acknowledged these coincidences. He was said to have rejected a later presidential invitation with a comment, "No, I will not go, and they should not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential function when I am present."
Robert Lincoln and Edwin Booth
Robert Lincoln was once rescued from the possibility of a serious injury or death by Edwin Booth, whose brother, John Wilkes Booth, was Robert's murderer. The incident occurred on a railway platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. The exact date of the incident is uncertain, but it is believed to have occurred in late 1863 or early 1864, before the assassination of John Wilkes Booth against President Lincoln (April 14, 1865).
Robert Lincoln remembers the occurrence in the 1909 letter to Richard Watson Gilder, editor of The Century Magazine :
The incident occurred when a group of midnight passengers bought their car bed from a conductor standing on the platform platform at the entrance of the car. The platform is about the floor height of the car, and of course there is a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There were some crowds, and I happened to be pressured by him against the car body while waiting for my turn. In this situation, the train began to move, and with my movement twisted from my legs, and somewhat fell, with my foot down, into the open space, and personally helpless, when my coat collar was ambushed and I quickly pulled out to a secure platform on the platform. After turning to thank my rescuer, I see it is Edwin Booth, whose face is certainly famous for me, and I thank him, and by doing so, call him by name.
Months later, while serving as an officer on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant, Robert Lincoln recalled the incident to his fellow officer, Colonel Adam Badeau, who happened to be a friend of Edwin Booth. Badeau sent a letter to Booth, praising the actor for his heroism. Before receiving the letter, Booth did not realize that the man whose life he kept on the train platform was the president's son. The incident is said to have entertained Edwin Booth after the killing of his brother against the president. President Ulysses Grant also sent Booth a thank-you letter for his actions.
Republican politics
From 1884 to 1912, Lincoln's name was mentioned in varying degrees of seriousness as a candidate for a Republican presidential or vice-presidential candidate. At every turn, he firmly denied an interest in running and declared that he would not accept any position if nominated.
Death and inheritance
Robert Todd Lincoln died in his sleep at Hildene, his home in Vermont, on July 26, 1926. He was 82 years old. The cause of death was given by his doctor as "cerebral hemorrhage caused by arteriosclerosis".
He was then buried at Arlington National Cemetery in a sarcophagus designed by sculptor James Earle Fraser. He is buried with his wife, Mary and their son Jack, who died in London, England, for blood poisoning at the age of 16.
Lincoln is the last surviving member of Garfield and Arthur Cabinets.
From the children of Robert, Jessie Harlan Lincoln Beckwith (1875-1948) had two children, Mary Lincoln Beckwith ("Peggy" 1898-1975) and Robert ("Bud") Todd Lincoln Beckwith (1904-1985), both had no children their own children. Another Robert's daughter, Mary Todd Lincoln ("Mamie") (1869-1938) married Charles Bradley Isham in 1891. They had one son, Lincoln Isham (1892-1971). Lincoln Isham married Leahalma Correa in 1919, but died without a child.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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