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Speaker 1: In a couple of weeks, it'll be the one hundred

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Speaker 1: and sixtieth anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln. Now

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Speaker 1: you may have guessed by now what a freak I

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Speaker 1: am for Lincoln, and I know I am not alone.

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Speaker 1: But during the Civil War, as we belatedly realized, he

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Speaker 1: had a lot of enemies who just hated what he

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Speaker 1: believed in. He not only knew this intensely, but he

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Speaker 1: impacted both his waking and unconscious thoughts on Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Lincoln dreamed of his own assassination in the months, weeks

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Speaker 1: and days before John Wilkes Booth pulled the trigger. That's

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Speaker 1: next on the back story. The backstory is back. Abraham

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Speaker 1: Lincoln was the first US president to be assassinated, So

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Speaker 1: it wasn't if the guy in that office, or the

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Speaker 1: public for that matter, had any sense this this could

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Speaker 1: be a thing, but it was the Civil War, passions

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Speaker 1: ran high, even among family members that disagreed with each

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Speaker 1: other about what was the right path. Lincoln, in fact,

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Speaker 1: was married to Mary Todd, whose family, for the most part,

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Speaker 1: had Southern sensibilities. Her father, Robert Todd, was a wealthy

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Speaker 1: slave owner in Kentucky. He and Her mother had seven children,

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Speaker 1: of which Mary was the fourth. Her mother died when

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Speaker 1: she was six years old, and her father remarried. He

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Speaker 1: and Mary's stepmother had nine more children. It was a

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Speaker 1: full house, but it definitely was not always a loving

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Speaker 1: one for Mary. At twenty, she left home to live

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Speaker 1: with her sister in Springfield, Illinois, and from there on out,

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Speaker 1: right through Mary's marriage to Abe Lincoln in eighteen forty

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Speaker 1: two and right till his assassination in eighteen sixty five,

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Speaker 1: there was a cultural and political division in the Todd family.

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Speaker 1: At least five of Mary's sisters and half sisters and

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Speaker 1: three of her brothers were sympathetic to the Confederate cause.

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Speaker 1: Two of her sisters were married to Confederate generals and

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Speaker 1: others to Confederate soldiers. So that was the state of

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Speaker 1: the nation in the eighteen fifties and early eighteen sixties,

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Speaker 1: and it continued right on through the war. When you

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Speaker 1: have that much passion that conflicts with people you love,

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Speaker 1: it ignites more than just ideological disagreements. Throughout his presidency,

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Speaker 1: Abe and Mary Lincoln were aware that the stance he'd

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Speaker 1: taken against slavery and the power of states' rights and

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Speaker 1: her support of his stance made him a target among

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Speaker 1: people who were vehemently opposed to abolition. So how do

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Speaker 1: you live with the knowledge that there are people out

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Speaker 1: there who will do anything to stop you? Problem is,

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Speaker 1: there was no secret service to look after Lincoln's safety,

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Speaker 1: and he was very disinterested in being followed by private

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Speaker 1: security people. Interesting sidebar here, the Secret Service wasn't actually

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Speaker 1: officially created until Lincoln signed it into law on April fourteenth,

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five, just hours before he was shot at

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Speaker 1: Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. He had definitely faced

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Speaker 1: threats after he was elected, even before he took office.

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Speaker 1: He literally had to sneak into Washington, d C. Before

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Speaker 1: his inauguration due to the threats, and in eighteen sixty

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Speaker 1: four he narrowly missed taking a bullet while riding his

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Speaker 1: horse out to the summer White House at the Old

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Speaker 1: Soldier's Home. He left d C late in the evening,

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Speaker 1: riding alone that night, and by the time he got home,

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Speaker 1: who was discovered he had a bullet hole in his stove.

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Speaker 1: Pip hat he didn't want to talk about it much.

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Speaker 1: So as the war had ramped up, emotions had gotten

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Speaker 1: even more intense. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost

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Speaker 1: on both sides, and the battles just kept raging. Those

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Speaker 1: that believed Lincoln was the only thing standing between their

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Speaker 1: right to own slaves, other human beings, and abolition were infuriated.

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Speaker 1: Lincoln was an incredibly sensitive individual. While he knew what

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Speaker 1: was right, he also knew the level of pain and

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Speaker 1: anger on both sides. That knowledge, and his willingness all

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Speaker 1: through his presidency to speak in person to as many

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Speaker 1: regular citizens as he could fit into his day, gave

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Speaker 1: him a powerful knowledge of what he could be facing

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Speaker 1: when it came to his own safety. At one point,

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Speaker 1: he told the members of his cabinet that he'd had

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Speaker 1: a recurring dream that he was on an indescribable vessel

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Speaker 1: on the water, headed toward a dark shore, and he

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Speaker 1: felt it was a premonition. So how sure was he

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Speaker 1: that his life was on the line. Well. The story

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Speaker 1: goes that several days before his assassination, President Lincoln took

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Speaker 1: a moment to say goodbye to his former law partner

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Speaker 1: and bodyguard, Ward Hill Lahman Laman later said, mister Lincoln

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Speaker 1: saying goodbye was very strange to me. He always said

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Speaker 1: good night before we departed, never goodbye, and there was

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Speaker 1: another really disturbing dream. Laman recounted a conversation he witnessed

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Speaker 1: three days before the assassination, as Lincoln spoke to his

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Speaker 1: wife and several friends. He said, mister Lincoln told us

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Speaker 1: about ten days. I retired very late. I had been

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Speaker 1: up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could

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Speaker 1: not have been long in bed when I fell into

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Speaker 1: a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream.

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Speaker 1: There seemed to be a deathlike stillness about me. Then

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Speaker 1: I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people

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Speaker 1: were weeping. I thought. I left my bed and wandered downstairs.

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Speaker 1: There this silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing,

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Speaker 1: but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room.

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Speaker 1: No living person was in sight, but the same mournful

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Speaker 1: sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I

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Speaker 1: saw light in all the rooms. Every object was familiar

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Speaker 1: to me. But where were all the people who were

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Speaker 1: grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled

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Speaker 1: and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this?

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Speaker 1: Determined to find the cause of a state of things

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Speaker 1: so mysterious and so shocking. I kept on until I

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Speaker 1: arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There, I

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Speaker 1: met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque

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Speaker 1: on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around

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Speaker 1: it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards, and

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Speaker 1: there was a throng of people gazing mournfully upon the corpse,

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Speaker 1: whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. Who is dead

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Speaker 1: in the White House, I demanded of one of the soldiers.

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Speaker 1: The President was his answer. He was killed by an assassin.

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Speaker 1: Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd,

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Speaker 1: which woke me from my dream. I slept no more

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Speaker 1: that night, and although it was only a dream, I've

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Speaker 1: been strangely annoyed by it ever since. While Mary Todd

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Speaker 1: Lincoln worried about the possibility of assassination during their entire

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Speaker 1: time in Washington during his presidency, she never had any

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Speaker 1: dreams of it, at least that she spoke of. Despite

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Speaker 1: her connection to spiritualism. Only Abraham Lincoln seemed to understand

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Speaker 1: his desk tony and maybe how his martyrdom to the

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Speaker 1: cause would impact his legacy. Hope you're enjoying the Backstory

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Speaker 1: with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to get

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Speaker 1: new episodes delivered automatically, and feel free to dm me

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Speaker 1: if you have a story you'd like me to cover.

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Speaker 1: On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Reel Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

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Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer

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Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new

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Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out

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Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram

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Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the

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Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.

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Speaker 1: No