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[John Fazio]

Linda, Roger, Laurie, et al.:

The matter of how Henry and Clara got to Ford's continues to crop up. Let me try to put it to rest.

1. Rathbone's statement that "...in company with Miss Harris, I left my residence...and joined the President and Mrs. Lincoln, and went with them in their carriage to Ford's Theatre..." sounds as if he stepped out of his residence and into a carriage that already had the Lincolns in it, but in fact it cannot mean that; it must mean, rather, that he stepped into the carriage which was then driven back to the White House for the purpose of joiining the Lincolns before being driven to the theater. How can I be sure of that? Because:

1. Noah Brooks, who was at the White House, recorded that: Speaker Colfax and your correspondent were at the house just before he went out for the last time alive...Mrs. Lincoln's carriage was at the door, seated in it being Miss Harris...and Major Rathbone...The President and wife entered and drove off..."

2. Forbes said, in his 1892 Affidavit: " "I still had it (a picture Tad Lincoln had given him) in my pocket when Mrs Lincoln and her guests were ready to start for the theatre.

3. Carl Sandburg wrote, in The Prairie Years, "In the carriage into which the President and his wife stepped were ...Rathbone and...Harris...The carriage left the White House with its four occupants...Burns (sic) and ...Forbes."

4. Clara M. Laughlin wrote, in 1909, that Mrs. Lincoln sent word to Harris and Rathbone that the White House carriage would call for them a little after eight and that when the carriage finally left [i]the [/i]White House for the theatre, [i]the young [i]sweethearts were in [/i]festive mood at the evening's prospect, [/i]and the President responded to it with much happiness in their care-free company (citing information given to the author by the Rathbone's son, Henry, Jr., from Chicago).

5. Katherine Helm, in The Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln, wrote:

a. Mrs. Lincoln invited us (a different couple; not Rathbone and Harris) to go to Ford's Theatre one night, sending the carriage to take us to the White House and thence to the theater. (p. 242)

b. It was after eight o'clock when the Presidential theater party left the White House. (p. 256)

Roger, Gath is good. Laurie, you are on the money.

I hope the foregoing will put this issue to rest, but I welcome further elucidation.

I have the honor to be
Your most obedient and humble servant,

John