Lincoln Discussion Symposium

Lady Bird Johnson?

Hillary Clinton?

Even though the President would be her second husband, I'll guess Dolley Madison?

Bill Clinton, no change that to Hillary.

All great guesses but none are correct.

Hint: This first Lady had a lifetime love of music and taught at private schools before marriage. Both her parents had connections to Washington politics.

Mrs. Taft?

Congrats Laurie! It is indeed Nellie Taft. I didn't know much about her and enjoyed learning. Quite the woman.
http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/f...ography=27

Who was the only ex-President whose death was not recognized or acknowledged by the sitting President?

Would that have been upon the death of Jefferson Davis, as he had been the former President of the Confederacy?

Excellent guess, Roger, but it is not Davis.

I think it was John Tyler who was dissed by Lincoln and the U.S. government because he was considered a traitor for his efforts at a peace conference before Lincoln's 1861 inauguration? Tyler was a Virginian.

Nixon?

Eva, that is a very logical guess, but Laurie wins. Kudos, Laurie. The answer according to my source (The President is Dead! by Louis Picone) is John Tyler. In November 1860 Tyler wrote, "And so all is over and Lincoln is elected." Later Tyler was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives.

Tyler's death on January 18, 1862, was not officially recognized in Washington. This was due to his loyalty to the Confederacy.

Lyon Gardiner Tyler, a son of John Tyler, was also very critical of Abraham Lincoln. He had his own journal, Tyler's Quarterly and Genealogical Magazine, and wrote many disparaging articles about Lincoln.

Here is an example of Lyon Gardiner Tyler's opinion of Abraham Lincoln:

"As a matter of fact, Lincoln's character is not to be determined by those speeches and messages of his which were dressed up for the occasion, but by his private conversation and his public and official acts. The evidence is overwhelmingly that he positively revelled in impure suggestions, and that as a statesman he was vacillating and unstable, lacking in proper pride and self-respect, and, while not naturally venomous like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, callous to the obligations of humanity as defined in the International Law. There is little doubt that had the entire wiping out of the Southern people, or the failure of his war, presented itself to him, he would have unhesitatingly adopted the former alternative."

Which First Lady nearly died from blood poisoning from a cut on her hand caused by repeated handshake claspings against her diamond rings while on a transcontinental tour of the U.S. by train? This same First Lady (and her husband's administration) kept private from the public the fact that she suffered from epilepsy.

Was it Ida McKinley? I know she suffered from epileptic seizures.