Lincoln Discussion Symposium

Dave Taylor has posted this retweet regarding the donation of a cane to the collection at the ALPLM. Hopefully, this will allow you to see the cane as well as read the provenance:

Thanks to Robert and Sherry Holt of Jefferson City, MO, for donating this cane! It belonged to Horatio Nelson Taft, whose young children often played with Willie and Tad Lincoln. An older Taft son, a doctor, helped treat #AbrahamLincoln after he was shot.

Oops, maybe no picture... Let me try again because it is a very rustic artifact.

Thanks to Robert and Sherry Holt of Jefferson City, MO, for donating this cane! It belonged to Horatio Nelson Taft, whose young children often played with Willie and Tad Lincoln. An older Taft son, a doctor, helped treat #AbrahamLincoln after he was shot.


View image on Twitter Aug 20, 2019

I quit! I can't even chirp let alone twitter! Dave or Roger, can you electronic wizards assist?

Here's a link to Dave's account:

https://twitter.com/BoothieBarn

I had a cane like that when I was a kid.
I think my mom threw it out.


A couple of days later after the post above,
In looking at Dave's twitter account Roger linked to and learned something new, there is a comment by Dr. Kate Larson and Dave on Aug 15 about how poor an attorney Aiken was.
Dave mentions "Frederick Aiken was not a very good lawyer"
Dr. Larson responds, " I completely agree. Reading the trial transcript shows what a terrible attorney Aiken was! Omg! No wonder Surratt became gravely ill half way thru the trial. Totally incompetent cross examinations, and really bad questioning of friendly witnesses. Really bad

Getting back to Laurie's original post -

In the book "Mary Todd Lincoln" by Jean Baker, Ms. Baker mentions some of the efforts Mary went to towards raising money to live off, before the government provided her a widow's pension.

"She also gave her attention to wealthy potential donors....(names mentioned)....
Off to possible benefactors - some personal friends, others rich strangers - went what Robert Lincoln despised as "Mother's begging letters."
Soon wealthy Republicans everywhere understood that with the stroke of a pen, they could prevent "my future spent without a home, forever a wanderer on the face of the earth".

"By way of encouragement Mary Lincoln bestowed a seemingly endless number of Lincoln's canes as a 'slight momento - a little relic of my Beloved Husband' ".

(page 260)