Mary's Charlatans by Memoirs of Henry Villard

[RJNorton]

There were possibly as many as eight seances held in the White House itself. Abraham accepted gifts and read books and letters from mediums, but he never became a believer. According to "Lincoln Day By Day" edited by Earl Schenck Miers, the president “allegedly attended a spiritualist seance in the White House” on April 23, 1863.

Mary was much more into it than Abraham. In October 1863 Mary said to her half sister, Emilie Todd Helm:

"Willie lives. He comes to me every night and stands at the foot of the bed with the same sweet adorable smile he always has had. He does not always come alone. Little Eddie is sometimes with him, and twice he has come with our brother, Alex**."

Mary purchased a book entitled "The Disowned" written by Sir Edward Bulwer and published in 1862. It’s signed "Mary Lincoln, 1864," and is a novel about spiritualism.

**Alex = Mary's half brother, Lieutenant Alexander H. Todd, 23, who had been killed while fighting for the Confederates at Baton Rouge.