Something I've Wondered About....

[Linda Anderson]

(06-28-2014 06:51 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  Thank you very much, BettyO.

I find Powell mysterious and fascinating, along with Mary Surratt. Something about their roles in the tragedy haunts me, I can't figure out what it is. Two and two doesn't add up.

Ironically, the people who had every right to hold a grudge against Lewis-the Seward family-apparently never did.

During the attack, Secretary Seward is said to have felt strangely detached from the whole thing as if he was viewing it all from a dream. He said he mostly remembered looking up at Powell through a haze of blood and thinking how nice looking he was, and how fine his clothing was.

He was disfigured for life, his son almost died, and his wife did die a few weeks later but he never excoriated Lewis in print.

The letters I've read from the Seward family right after Powell's attack never mention him; they are concerned with the health of Secretary Seward, Mrs. Seward, Fred and Fanny.

Fanny wrote about the assault in her diary a few weeks later.

"As we sat through those long dark hours the thoughts they brought were almost overwhelming. The thought that such cruel & inhuman beings, as the man who had attacked my father & brothers, existed, made me wish myself dead, & out of such a world, anywhere seemed better."

That is the enigma of Lewis Powell. How do we reconcile the "cruel and inhuman being" with the churchgoing, intelligent gentleman that Reverend Stryker describes?

Secretary Seward looked at the assassination attempt as something to be expected in a time of revolution.

"Waking suddenly from one of those dozes, when very weak, and only half conscious, his eye fell upon his daughter's face, and the impression that passed through his mind was that she was staring like a maniac, with a most horrible expression of terror upon her face. Next he saw what he thought the vision of a hand stretched toward him from the other side of the bed, and then an arm seemed to grow out from it, and while looking listlessly, he was saying to himself, 'What an elegant overcoat that arm has on?' Then he saw the figure of a man, as if coming out of the air where the arm was, first the bust appearing, then the lower part of the face, and then the whole figure leaning over him.
"He has no impression of seeing a knife, and yet his reflections at the moment would indicate that the purpose of the shadow (for he deemed it to be such) had been conveyed to his mind. These were as follows: 'We are engaged in a gigantic revolution. I have accepted it. Those who are attempting to overthrow the Government will shrink at nothing. Assassination has always attended revolution. There must be sacrifices of this nature in every revolution.' From this his mind turned to a contemplation of the face leaning over him, and he said to himself: 'That is a handsome face. How clean it is shaven! It is a very pleasant and attractive face.' Those who know Mr. Seward's habits, will at once perceive how natural it was that such thoughts should come into his mind. In regard to keeping himself close shaven, he is very particular, never allowing any sign of a beard to appear."

Cincinnati Daily Gazette - 2/6/1866