Program on C-Span this weekend

[L Verge]

I may have to lose some of my negativity about David O. Stewart's book, The Lincoln Deception. My copy arrived in today's mail, and I have only had time to flip through several sections. I will have to forgive Stewart for writing a piece of fiction because he has already authored three works of non-fiction: one on the writing of the Constitution, another on Aaron Burr, and the last on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. It was during the writing of the last one that he stumbled upon the Bingham story.

Erving E. Beauregard, author of the article discussed above, wrote a little-known biography of John A. Bingham in 1989, entitled Bingham of the Hills. There was a very brief mention of the deathbed "confession and retraction" to the physician. That story about Bingham and Mrs. Surratt stuck in Stewart's head for three years before he decided what to do with it. He knew that the provenance was very weak and that Bingham never did reveal the secret, so Stewart decided that the story needed to be relegated to fiction, but with strong ties to the actual facts of the Lincoln assassination. I'll let you know after Christmas how well he did.

One thing I like about the book is a short Q&A section at the end where some pertinent questions were posed to the author. When asked why he would write about one of the worst crimes in American history, he replied that the assassination denied America the leadership of its greatest president at the beginning of perhaps his greatest challenge -- rebuilding a nation and integrating the freed slaves into American life.

Stewart also believes that the assassination was meant to be a coup d'etat because of the number of potential targets. He also lists five major points as to why he considers the conspiracy to be wider than generally thought: the above coup d'etat evidence, "follow the money" to see how the conspirators were able to live without visible means of support for months ahead of the assassination, ties to the Confederate secret service, the escape route that enabled him to have help in evading thousands of Union soldiers and agents for as long as he did, and the questionable statement by Mary Surratt that would destroy the Republic.

I was especially taken by his comment on resorting to a fictional novel. He says that there is a saying about writing historical fiction - that you can make up a lot, but Abraham Lincoln has to be tall; that is, you should be faithful to the facts when they are known. BTW, the book is set in 1900.

More will be revealed after the holiday hysteria calms down.