Lincoln's autocrat

[kerry]

(11-04-2017 06:41 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(11-04-2017 01:15 PM)kerry Wrote:  

(11-04-2017 12:39 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(11-04-2017 12:24 PM)kerry Wrote:  I recently did a bunch of newspaper research about the assassination, and no one mentions Stanton saying Lincoln belonged to the ages. There are some very detailed accounts, and they all say there was silence and then Gurley was asked to say a prayer by Stanton and was barely able to do so. That definitely seems like an embellishment added later. The first mention I see of it is in Hay and Nicolay's biography, in 1890.

Several years ago we had an extensive discussion of this issue here.

Thanks, I just read it. My own belief is that neither was said. O'Beirne gives a graphic description of Mary in a book that I think is called Generals in Bronze, so it seems he was there, but maybe only for a few minutes. It is possible that the people there at the time of the actual death talked less and therefore Stanton's phrase didn't get into print.

The supposed photograph of the deathbed is not available anymore in that thread - I saw a few articles that mentioned its existence, and that Mary had given it to the Gurley family. Is it available anywhere?

Does anybody know when the very first account of Stanton saying the quote was first written down? (For this question, it doesn't matter if it says "ages" or "angels", I just would like an idea of how long it was between the death and when the quote was written down.)

A newspapers.com and genealogybank.com search shows the first mention in 1890, in an excerpt from Nicolay and Hay's book. I saw a website referencing the stenographer Tanner's account as the first, saying "He belongs to the angels/ages now." But Tanner gave that account in 1905, I think, and he admitted his pencil broke and he was unable to record Gurley's prayer or the aftermath. According to him, Stanton sobbed through the prayer, and then said it when Gurley was done.

“As ‘Thy will be done, Amen’ in subdued and tremulous tones floated through the little chamber,” Tanner later wrote, “Mr. Stanton raised his head, the tears streaming down his face. A more agonized expression I never saw on a human countenance as he sobbed out the words: ‘He belongs to the angels now.’ ”