Andrew Johnson - Mistress

[jparkuntz]

(11-14-2017 02:47 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(11-14-2017 09:08 AM)Gene C Wrote:  I just can't believe it. What president would be foolish enough to have an improper relationship like that while president in the White House?

.......... never mind

Says Gene with tongue in cheek...

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(11-14-2017 09:57 AM)jparkuntz Wrote:  Here's how the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph described Eusebia's meeting with Johnson to get a second pardon for her husband. It's just dripping with irony:

"The President could not withstand the irresistible and fascinating influences that were brought to bear in behalf of the prisoner, and that extraordinary generosity and magnanimity of soul that prompted the first pardon induced him to grant a second, and once more was the culprit released from custody.
"It is no more than just to remark that both these pardons were in a great measure attributable to the indomitable and persevering efforts of the prisoner’s wife. She is represented as a woman of more than ordinary persuasive powers, and she left no means unemployed that a woman can employ to accomplish the release of her convicted husband. She was almost ubiquitous, restless, sleepless…it would have been impossible for even a sterner nature than that of our susceptible President to have avoided yielding to the pressure and power of so much beauty, eloquence, and matrimonial solicitude."

Does a picture exist of this persuasive woman?

As for the theory that Booth had sent Ella to keep Johnson "occupied" and at home, Jerry knows that I have serious reservations about that. First, I don't think that even Booth was that big a cad to ask her to do something like that and second, that he would subject her to witnessing a murder if Atzerodt or Herold did get up enough nerve. You can just call me a romantic at heart.

I have a photo of Eusebia when she was very old, and fleshy. At her 1885 trial, she kept a veil over her face; an engraving of her was printed in the National Police Gazette with the veil. The written descriptions of her when she was younger describe a stunningly beautiful blonde woman, with a regal bearing, dressed in the latest fashions with much jewelry. By 1885, the newspapers were not complimenting her looks; but by my calculation she was then 55, though she usually tried to shave 15 or more years off.

Here's a throwaway fact about her: before the war, in Philadelphia she was staying at a boarding house that was also inhabited by Charles Dunham (Sandford Conover). It was a small world for shady characters, as well as the famous.

Jerry Kuntz
Warwick NY