http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/ The American Film Co. - Discussion Comments Feed - April 1865: Lincoln, Washington City, and the Civil War's End en-us Fri, 18 May 2012 06:05:27 -0400 info@americanfilmco.com http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-695 APRIL 1865 WAS A TIME WHEN SEVERAL HISTORICAL EVENTS HAPPENED IN OUR COUNTRY. THE CIVIL WAR WAS FINALLY ENDING THANK GOD. BUT ALSO IT WAS INDEED A VERY SAD TIME WITH THE SENSELESS MURDER OF AT THAT TIME THE BEST PRESIDENT OUR NATION HAD EVER HAD IN MY OPINION. SO WITH THAT BEING SAID I FULLY UNDERSTAND THE STRESS OUR NATION HAD TO BE UNDER AT THAT TIME. I AM TRULY AMAZED THAT OUR COUNTRY WAS ABLE TO GO ON AS WELL AS IT DID. I DO NOT FEEL THAT PRESIDENT JOHNSON WAS A STRONG LEADER, SO I AM CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT LEADER OR LEADERS HELD US TOGETHER. Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:10:02 -0400 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-695 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-652 I would like to see a movie on the July 30th, 1866 Riot in New Orleans. Everything that had taken place before the event points at Andrew Johnson. After the death of Abraham Lincoln, President Johnson reversed everything that the Union and President Lincoln fought for in the Civil War. He granted amnesty to ex-confederates and allowed Southern States to place the "black codes" which were just another of enslaving the colored race. A movie based on or around these events would and could be entertaining and also informative. Most Americans only know about the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln but nothing on the Reconstruction Period. Its a period that I believe Americans need to learn about and the importance of the period. Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:09:18 -0400 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-652 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-603 In the 1950s scholars published a series of books called Great Thinkers of the Western World. The aim of the series is the promotion of the liberal to make better human beings as a result of educational polishing. No time period was in more need of growth and development of the human capacity than Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. Yet, at the Civil War's end the efforts undertaken to make the USA a more perfect union by fostering free public schools amongst the emancipated was condemned as "uppity" or "insolence." The Freedmen's Bureau and their efforts to improve the country by improving the downtrodden was beleaguered and instigated by the men who fielded an Army against the sovereignty of this nation. It was the South who in the main were against egalitarian policies. Sure, all was not a bed roses in the North, but no one could assail the fact that the "REDEMPTION" of the Lost Cause was the raison de etre of why Reconstructioin failed. Surely every Black person elected to office was not incompetent-even if a few were (many more politicians today are incompetent by their inability to work together for the betterment of our society). Its as if we have not learned the lessons from the Great Rebellion that we should. That A More Perfect will take the efforts of everyone for everyone. Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:06:08 -0400 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-603 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-578 The death of Lincoln was a turning point for the history of our Country...the South didn't realize the friend they had in the President...indeed the south would have had a much different history if President Lincoln had lived. However it appears that it was the will of this country to not have that good fortune... Again look at the politics at the time...the south was to be punished..they caused the war and the north was determine to exact it's price... In 1870, Robert E Lee asked for forgiveness from the US government for resigning and leaving the Union Army...he was denied...why? He become a commander and leader for the Southern cause, however if the war was truely over why could he not be forgiven...again this war causes strong feelings.. The War between the States lasted 4 years in battle and a 150 years in after thought!!!... Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:06:28 -0400 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-578 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-541 The Aftermath of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln "Confusion and mystery still surround the shooting of Abraham Lincoln, and we probably will never know all the facts......One thing is for sure his murder was part of a larger conspiracy." The words have appeared through the years on brochures and pamphlets issued by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology & the United States Army Medical Museum [better known as the National Museum of Health & Medicine]. Their origin comes from a formerly separate, General Biographical Research, file. In 1996, the GBR file was added to the Otis Historical Archives [named after George Alexander Otis, Major and Surgeon, who served as Curator of the Army Medical Museum], specifically OHA 233, as part of the Medical Ephemera Collection, Series III: biographical files. articles, correspondence, photographs, and manuscripts on or by people significant in medical history or connected to the Museum. Labeled “Lincoln, Assassination Conspiracy”, its story is as strange as some of the specimens stored at the “Old” Army Medical Museum itself. Within the Otis Historical Archives [OHA] & Anatomical Collections [AC], are found the following items of interest for those involved in the investigation of the assassination: OHA 108 Joseph K. Barnes Collection OHA 118 Booth Newspaper Clippings OHA 217 “Death of Abraham Lincoln” by Hermann Faber at request of Dr. Barnes OHA 233 Medical Ephemera Collection OHA 360 Winter Medical Illustration Collection AC 18 Presidential and Presidential Assassin Material including injured parts of John Wilkes Booth; Some noteworthy sample reports as regards the Lincoln Tragedy, Personal Recollections of the War of the Rebellion, as follows: The most melancholy mission assigned to Doctors [Army Surgeons] Woodward [Joseph Janvier] and Curtis [Edward] was that of doing the autopsy upon the body of President Lincoln, who died at 7:20 a.m., 15 April 1865. The pathologists were summoned to the White House at nine a.m. to perform the grievous task of finding and removing the bullet fired into Mr. Lincoln's head by the assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Woodward's laconic technical report, addressed to The Surgeon General [Joseph K. Barnes] gives no hint of the emotional tension under which he must have labored. After describing the bloodshot condition of the eyes and lids, and the condition of the wound and surrounding tissue, swollen with blood, he traces the course of the bullet, which entered through the occipital bone about an inch to the left of the median line, and just above the left lateral sinus, which it opened. It then penetrated the duramater [the outer sheath covering the brain], passed through the left posterior lobe of the cerebrum, entered the left lateral ventricle, and lodged in the white matter of the cerebrum just above the anterior portion of the left corpus striatum where it was found. The ventricles of the brain were full of clotted blood. A thick clot beneath the duramater coated the right cerebral lobe. There was a smaller clot under the duramater of the left side. But little blood was found at the base of the brain. Both orbital plates of the frontal bone were fractured, and the fragments pushed up toward the brain. The dura mater over these fractures was uninjured. The orbits were gorged with blood”. This account taken from a true copy of the original, certified by Maj. George A. Otis, in the collection of the Medical Museum. A more colorful and emotion-packed account has been left by Dr. Curtis, who wrote: “Eleven o'clock comes; the two designated pathologists are ushered into what was the bedchamber of the deceased, a room furnished in simplest style. There sit in solemn silence some officers in uniform and some civilians, while the Surgeon General paces nervously to and fro beside another silent occupant of the chamber, a shrouded figure, cold and motionless, lying outstretched upon two boards laid across trestles. The shroud is laid back, and see! A smooth clear skin fitting cleanly over well-rounded muscles, sinewy and strong. Next see at the back of the head, low down and a little to the left, a small round blackened wound, such as is made by a pistol-shot at close range. There is no counter-opening, so the missile has lodged and must now be found. The part is lifted from its seat, when suddenly, from out a cruel vent that traverses it from end to end, through these very fingers there slips a something hard — slips and falls with a metal's mocking clatter into a basin set beneath. The search is satisfied; a little pellet of lead”. So impressed was Dr. Curtis with the historical interest attached to the autopsy on the martyred President, that when he found some drops of the blood of the President upon his cuffs, Mrs. Curtis cut them off and saved them. Ultimately, they were presented to the Medical Museum where they may be seen today, along with a tiny sliver of bone which evidently had been driven into Mr. Lincoln's brain by the bullet and had adhered to the surgical instrument used by Dr. Curtis. [Note: From the bloodstains on the cuffs preserved by Mrs. Curtis, Col. Joseph H. Akeroyd, MSC, U.S. Army was able to type President Lincoln's blood as Type A]. The pictorial resources of the Museum were also called upon in the search for the President's assassin and his accomplices. "During the month of April," says a report of 1 July 1865 from Dr. Otis to The Surgeon General, "there were printed 1,500 photographs of the assassins of the President, for the assistance of the officers of justice.” Presumably, these photographic prints were used to illustrate the reward posters of the War Department, dated 20 April 1865. This poster is illustrated with a familiar pose of Booth, but the picture of David E. Herold is that of a schoolboy, while the one supposed to represent John H. Surratt is of some other individual entirely. Later, after the conspirators had been captured, tried, and executed, the War Department revised the photo-graphic part of the poster, changing the Booth picture to another pose, the picture of Herold to one made after his capture, and the Surratt picture to one of Surratt made after his capture and return to the United States. The poster exhibited at the Medical Museum is one of the revised edition. In addition, after the examination of the cervical vertebrae and section of the spinal cord of the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, the specimens were removed from the body, officially identified as that of Booth, on 29 April 1865; and show the course of a conoidal bullet through the third, fourth, and fifth cervical vertebrae and the perforated spinal cord, all of which are now on exhibition in the Museum. Another connection between the Museum and the events surrounding the death of President Lincoln was the preparation by Hermann Faber, medical artist at the Museum, of the earliest and most accurate sketch of the scene at the deathbed of the President. Mr. Faber, a German artist enlisted as a hospital steward and assigned to the work of what would now be called medical illustration, entered the Petersen house, in which Mr. Lincoln had died, immediately after the removal of the body. Nothing had been disturbed, and the sketch made was approved for accuracy by Surgeon General Barnes, who had been one of the physicians attending the President and who was present at his death. The original of the sketch is among the exhibits at the Medical Museum and was presented on 30 January 1933, by Erwin F. Faber, son of Hermann Faber, to the Army Medical Museum [Letter on file in historical records of AFIP]. In its first three years of life, the Museum had been housed in three different buildings and now, in its fourth year, Barnes and Otis were looking to move again to a perfect piece of real estate, but not without the approval of Secretary of War Stanton, who apparently objected to the concept at first according to Dr. Daniel S. Lamb, who was the pathologist of the Museum and affiliated with the Museum from the Civil War until World War 1."The Secretary of War had to be informed. He was told by General Barnes and said he would decide the matter and speak of it tomorrow. On the morrow about nine o'clock on his drive from his home to the War Office, he stopped at the Museum building, descended from his carriage, ran hastily through the Museum rooms, stamped his foot, growled ‘Ugh’, drove to his office, sent for Acting Surgeon General Barnes, and said sharply to him: ‘Are these lectures to be given in the evenings?' To an affirmative reply he growled: 'They will go to the theatre and neglect their duties. It shan't be.' And this was thought to be the end of a favorite plan for doing some good for the Medical Corps of the Army and for disseminating a more correct and general knowledge of Military Medicine and Surgery." However, Stanton, himself, had a change of heart and the rest, of course, is history. “The old Ford's theatre building in which President Lincoln was assassinated had been closed after the tragedy. Congress had authorized its use for purposes of the Museum and the Pension Records. The building had been altered and repaired and was nearly ready for occupancy and preparations were made to occupy it. Its old number was 454 Tenth Street, N.W., afterwards No. 511”. Its new quarters were in the building formerly occupied by Ford's Theater, on 10th Street, NW., where, on Good Friday of 1865, President Lincoln was shot. The building had been closed as a theater immediately after the assassination and had been in the possession of the Government since 8 July 1865. The purchase of the building "for the deposit and safekeeping of documentary papers relative to the soldiers of the army of the United States and of the Museum of the Medical and Surgical Department of the Army" was provided for by Act of Congress approved 6 April 1866, and on 7 May 1866, the building was assigned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to The Surgeon General. Its interior fittings had been torn out and replaced with three floors, of which the upper floor was assigned to the Museum, the second floor to the surgical records of the Surgeon General's Office, and the ground floor to the Record and Pension Division of the same office. There had been an effort to fireproof the building by putting in brick floors resting on iron arches, sup- ported by columns of iron. Stairways between floors were also of iron. The building had a front of 71 feet on 10th Street, and a depth of 109 feet. Museum workshops and a chemical laboratory were housed in small wings on each side. Into this building, "the scene of the assassination of the lamented Lincoln," in the words of Dr. Woodward, the collections of the Museum were to be moved. "What nobler monument could the nation erect to his memory," the doctor asked, "than this sombre treasure house, devoted to the study of disease and injury, mutilation and death?" The movement of this "sombre treasure" from the building on H Street began on 12 November 1866, and continued until 8 December. The removal of the records, and that portion of the collection which had been housed at 180 Pennsylvania Avenue, followed between 11 December and the 21st of the month. On the 22cl, General Barnes advised the Quartermaster General's office that the former quarters had been vacated, and transmitted the keys. For the next 20 years, the life of the Museum was to be centered in the Ford's Theater building. From the beginning, the Museum had attracted an increasing number of visitors. Within a year of its establishment, its usefulness had been recognized by the civilian medical profession as well as by the military, and it was "weekly and almost daily" consulted by them. To the medical profession, there was added another class of visitors with a special interest. In Dr. John H. Brinton's phrase, "officers and soldiers who had lost a limb by amputation would come to look up its resting place, in some sense its last resting place." Then, too, as Dr. Brinton wrote, "the public came to see the bones, attracted by a new sensation." While the Museum was still at the H Street address, Curator Otis reported, more formally, "the number of visitors to the collection constantly increases." With the removal to the Ford's Theater building, and its tragic associations with the great appealing figure of Lincoln, [including but not limited to, of course, the bullet that ended President Lincoln's life, the instrument used to locate it, and bone fragments which adhered to it] the number of visitors mounted to such an extent that rules, approved by order of The Surgeon General and issued on 25 April 1867, were posted. Between mid-April of 1867 and the end of the year, some 6,000 persons, an average of about 25 for each day the Museum was open, had been registered in the visitor's book. Within the next 4 years, the number of visitors had trebled, 10 and the Museum had become established as one of the "sights" of Washington. When extra crowds came to the city, as upon the occasion of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's inauguration as President in 1869, the visiting hours were extended — opening at 9 a.m. and closing at 4 p.m.; and at his second inauguration, in 1873, from 8 a.m. until 4 p-m. In 1887, the building exclusively became a clerk's office for the War Department, when the medical departments moved out. The front part of the building collapsed on June 9, 1893, killing 22 clerks and injuring another 68. This led some people to believe that the former church turned theatre and storeroom was cursed. The building was repaired and used as a government warehouse until 1931. It languished unused until 1968. The theatre reopened on January 30, 1968, with a gala performance. The theatre was again renovated during the 2000s. The re-opening ceremony was on February 12, 2009, which commemorated Lincoln's 200th birthday. It has a current capacity of 661. References & Sources: The Army Medical Museum in Washington by Louis Bagger: (pp. 294-297) in Appletons' Journal: a magazine of general literature. Volume 9, Issue 206. 1873. New York. D. Appleton and Co. Last Professional Service of the War pp. 54-65, 7 October 1908 by Edward Curtis, Brevet Major, Late U.S.A. A History of the United States Army Medical Museum 1862 to 1917 compiled from Official Records by Dr. Daniel S. Lamb The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology: 1862-1962, published in Medical Annals of the District of Columbia, vol. XXXI, no. 10, October 1962; Colonel Frank M. Townsend, USAF, MC The Role of the Old Army Medical Museum in the Development of Pathology, by Maj. Gen. James P. Cooney; Guest Editorial by Dr. Townsend, from Military Medicine, April 1963 The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology - Its First Century 1862-1962 by Robert Selph Henry, A.B., LL.B., Litt.D. OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY. 1964 Includes two lectures; 1st by Col. Hugh R. Gilmore, Jr., "it is doubtful if modern medical practice could have saved Lincoln's life” and 2nd by Lt. Col. George J. Hayes, M.C., Chief of Neurological Service, said “that even with the best of modern medical service, the President would have had no more than a 50-50 chance of survival, and even if he had survived, he would probably have been completely paralyzed on the right side and possibly unable to talk” at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on 25 May 1960 [Medical Aspects of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln reported in the Washington Post of 05/25/1960] Guide to Collections at the National Museum of Health & Medicine. Michael Rhode & Kathleen Stocker, Archivists & Editors. © AFIP 2009; within OHA 54 Museum Records & Historical Collections Records [includes Helen Purtle’s article from 1958, Lincoln Memorabilia in the Museum, wherein Ms. Purtle discusses interestingly the various Lincoln items in the Museum, and gives an account of the acquisition of each one, which was mostly by gift. TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2011 OTIS HISTORICAL ARCHIVES 2010 Annual Report With the Pathology Institute closing in the spring, there's no official requirement to do an annual report this year, but I feel that people should be able to find out what we did. Annual Reports for the time I have run the Archives, 1989-2009 are available on the Museum's website. Michael Rhode, Chief Archivist 2010 was the last year of almost-normal life in the Archives, although BRAC [Base Realignment and Closure] planning began to take a large amount of time. A significant amount of time was also spent in planning for the BRAC move of the Museum, and the new storage systems that will be needed. Computerized cataloguing on the collection has continued on both the collection and item level. Cataloguing of new material coming into the museum was done for the General Medical Products Information Collection, Medical Ephemera, New Contributed photographs, Audiovisual Collection, AFIP Historical Files, WRAMC Historical Collection and other artificial collections. Implementation of a comprehensive computer catalogue for the entire Museum continued with data from the archives added to KE Software’s EMU database. New cataloguing is now done directly into EMU, unless a traditional archival-style finding aid is done. Tens of thousands of records were created or modified for the Archives after the initial data load, and in 2011, all of the IMC records and images will be added into the database. The Archives has a significant presence on the Internet including the Guide to the Collections of the Museum on the museum website which remains the main way researchers begin to use the archives.. A Repository for Bottled Monsters, an unofficial blog for the museum, continues to attract a worldwide audience. The notice about sharing the Civil War images was first posted to the blog and picked up from there. Since January 19, 2010, transcriptions of a ‘Letter of the Day’ from the Archives files have been posted to the blog with only July 4th not having a letter found for it. Books and documents scanned by IMC were uploaded to the free Internet Archive, where they are available for downloading. Titles uploaded included a score of scans of the Museum’s nineteenth century logbooks and the three 1866 printed Catalogues of the Museum. Rhode served on the AFIP's Institutional Review Board and HIPPA committees as well as Museum committees including the Admin group, the collections committee and the database committee. “The National Museum of Health and Medicine’s History as Seen through Its Archives” Michael Rhode, Society of American Archivists MEDICAL MUSEUM TO CLOSE EXHIBITS ON APRIL 3, 2011 TO PREPARE FOR MOVE TO SILVER SPRING, MD In accordance with Base Realignment and Closure, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology will disestablish by September 2011. New Location: The Joint Pathology Center (JPC) 606 Stephen Sitter Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20910. Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:04:53 -0400 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-541 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-493 The Expansion & Extension of the Executive Privilege in Wartime Washington Traditionally, the President and his Cabinet do not have to claim "executive privilege", but rather instead they are able to rely on the common law deliberative process privilege or the "privilege of secrecy". The stakes are obviously much higher if the constitutionally-based executive privilege is invoked. The doctrine of executive privilege, while not explicitly stated in the Constitution, is founded upon the basic principles contained within Article II, Section 1, Clause 1. History and precedent recognize Congressional power to oversee – and after all, the Constitution by no means contemplates total separation of each of the three essential branches of Government; Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The power of Congress follows from the system of checks and balances favored by the framers of the Constitution. However, the Supreme Court has been careful to limit Congressional power. The Court has found that Congress must have a valid legislative purpose. In addition, the Court has of course recognized the existence of executive privilege, but the Court has also found the privilege is not absolute. That being said, however, the Supreme Court has never been called upon to render a decision whether executive privilege can overcome a congressional demand. Presidents will attempt to increase their power at the expense of other branches of government and even the people. This despite those provisions of the Constitution that make it clear that powers not granted specifically should not be inferred. That this proclivity should increase in time of war should surprise nobody. Presidents for the most part seem to take the Constitution seriously but unquestionably war will strain their abilities to live within its bounds. War will strain the ability of all its participants to uphold values that routinely pertain in normal times. Presidents use wars and security concerns to replace the old Constitution, which limited federal powers, with a new one that does not. The argument could be made more simply without sacrificing much accuracy: The federal government expands its powers by all available means, and the written Constitution has little power to prevent this. An excellent example of the enabling of the expansion and extension of executive privilege ensued after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln when the executive branch [which still existed, of course, in the form, manner, and shape of Stanton] not the legislative or judicial, controlled the trial of the so-called conspirators. “The Constitution has never greatly bothered any wartime president,” wrote Francis Biddle, F.D.R.’s attorney general during World War II. Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, and in several states he ordered the trial of civilians by military tribunals. “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” [Article 1, Section 9, clause 2, U.S. Constitution]. During the Civil War, once Congress classified the conflict as a “Rebellion” it clearly had the right to suspend hapeas corpus. Although Congress explicitly authorized Lincoln to suspend the writ, it was a draconian measure that the president believed essential to preserve the Union. “Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?” he asked. Lincoln, of course was responding to an armed insurrection which threatened the nation’s survival. Most historians have judged his action as commensurate with the threat. There is an old legal maxim that in time of war the laws are silent: Inter arma silent leges. But the critical and crucial issue is the extent to which the nation is threatened. In the case of Lincoln, the survival of the United States hung in the balance. A president will be forgiven by his contemporaries, though not necessarily by later generations and historians, for acting outside the law when that is the case. As more than one Supreme Court justice has said, the Constitution is not a suicide pact. When national survival is not threatened, however, it is essential for a chief executive to resist an unwarranted enlargement of his powers. Though the best case for the Confederacy to succeed was still a long shot, does anyone seriously argue that suspending the writ of habeas corpus for the supposed “enemy within” in the North materially influenced the outcome of the Civil War? I seem to recall that the Supreme Court reprimanded Abraham Lincoln when he ignored a writ of habeas corpus, and he continued to do so in spite of the court’s decision: ex parte Merryman. Therefore, it’s no accident the one president who had legitimate Constitutional authority to do what he did- Lincoln- is remembered as the greatest President of them all. Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:04:19 -0400 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-493 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-312 no question that it was a rush to judgment -- in fact, Secretary of War Stanton initially wanted all the conspirators to be caught, tried and hanged before Lincoln was buried -- so the government's focus was very much getting to the endstate and, unfortunately for Mary, the process got short shrift. Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:03:20 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-312 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-285 02/17/2011 J Kendall The trial and hanging of Mary Surratt was a rush to judgment as a nation was compelled to act. Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:02:56 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-285 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-284 J Kendall: Mary Surratt's trail and hanging was a rush to judgment by a country compelled to act. Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:02:51 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-284 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-264 nluca raises an interesting point -- did the assassination somehow unite the country? It certainly united the "Radical Republicans" in Congress, in that they now were more determined than ever to radically "re-construct" the South. It is true that many Southerners were shocked by the assassination, but equally true that many took the view that Lincoln 'got what he deserved.' There is a popular myth that Southerners immediately understood that Lincoln's passing meant they had lost a "friend" who would have been measured and charitable toward them after the war. But I don't think this is really true ... Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:01:19 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-264 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-263 Yes, U.S. Grant and his wife Julia were going to attend the play at Ford's Theater on April 14. But, earlier in the day, they decided not to go with the Lincolns. So Secretary of War Stanton and Judge Advocate General Holt naturally thought that the conspirators might have hoped to murder Grant as well. But there was never any persuasive evidence that Booth and his fellow conspirators knew the Grants were going to attend, much less that they intended to assassinate the Union general. But it's an interesting historical 'what if.' If U.S. and Julia Grant in fact had been sitting next to the Lincolns on April 14, would John Wilkes Booth seen him as a target of opportunity?? Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:01:25 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-263 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-262 You write that while some people still didn't like President Lincoln, everyone (Northerners and Southerners) were shocked by what happened. Considering this fact, along with this being the first Presidential assasination, and the country being so severly divided, in a weird way did the assasination of President Lincoln unite the country in some way? Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:01:07 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-262 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-261 I had no idea that Ulysses S. Grant was supposed to be at Fords Theatre on the night of Lincoln's assassination. Was it ever proven if Booth and his associates intended to also attack him? Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:01:37 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-261 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-257 AJCameron's observations are so timely --- about JFK --- as it was EXACTLY 50 years ago today, on January 20, 1961, that John Kennedy took his oath of office as our 44th president. Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:01:41 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-257 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-256 After the Kennedy assassination, there were four days of commercial-free network TV coverage and it is estimated that at certain times 93% of American TV's were tuned in. Aside from observations about how communication medium transform the ways the public relates to two similar tragedies nearly a century apart, one has to marvel at how little we have changed emotionally and the outpouring of affection and respect that Americans have for those who sacrifice to be the leaders of our great democracy. The calls for civility in American politics today tap into that same emotion. Most Americans understand that being President has its perquisites, but that they pale in comparison to the personal sacrifice and risks. President Obama, agree or disagree with his positions, is cut from that same cloth. Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:01:38 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-256 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-255 My facts are not quite right on Lincoln's funeral -- and I regret the error! This is what I should have written -- the funeral procession of President Lincoln visited 11 cities and over 1 million people filed past his coffin. And on April 19, 1865, an estimated 25 million Americans attended memorial services for Abraham Lincoln in Washington City and around the country. So my claim that 10 million people turned out to watch Lincoln's funeral procession as it moved by train is wrong. That said, for one million Americans to file past Lincoln's coffin is incredible if you consider that the population of the United States was 31 million in 1861. And for 25 million to attend memorial services is truly remarkable -- Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:01:10 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-255 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-254 Did you know that --- when Lincoln died on April 15, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton muttered "Now he belongs to the ages." Or did he? Perhaps Stanton really said "Now he belongs to the angels." Last year, Adam Gopnik wrote a fascinating article in "The New Yorker" about this historical mystery. It's worth reading ... Thu, 20 Jan 2011 06:01:39 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-254 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-253 Did you know that --- some 10 million Americans turned out to watch Lincoln's funeral procession as it moved by train from Washington City to Springfield. Since the U.S. population had been 31 in 1860, this is a huge number --- in 2011, it would be as if 100 million Americans had taken to the streetsto mourn the beloved president. Thu, 20 Jan 2011 06:01:25 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-253 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-252 To historymaddog's point about legislation: perhaps a good example of the acts passed by the Union during the Civil War that had lasting economic effects on the rates of growth in the North and South, respectively, is the National Banking Act. This is legislation that would never have seen the light of day if the South had been part of the lawmaking process. Its immediate necessity arose from the need to finance the Union effort, but its lasting effect when combined with a 10% tax on state banks was to create an interest rate differential that favored the North for most of thirty-five years. The result was that credit was both scarce and expensive for the Southern economy at a time when it was going through a period when it was transitioning from the plantation economy, revolutionizing its labor model, and attempting to rebuild its infrastructure. Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:01:09 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-252 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-251 There is no question that the end of slavery wrecked the South's economy---as much of the region's wealth was tied up in the slave system. And there is no question that the North's victory meant a shift of political power from the South --- at least until the political compromise of 1877. Historymaddog raises a very interesting point: did the South's defeat somehow accelerate industrialization in America? I don't know. Anyone? Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:01:56 -0500 http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/talk/discussion/april-1865-lincoln-washington-city-and-the-civil-wars-end/#comment-251