Was Stanton a murder target?

[L Verge]

(12-08-2016 10:23 AM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  I am catching up late but this has been a very captivating thread!

With regards to Julia Grant...

I am curious as to how Julia might have defined “trouble”. It seems General Grant thought someone was aggressively trying to get a look at him - in an unfriendly way…as a result of his growing fame…not necessarily intending to do him or Julia bodily harm. As Roger posted earlier from Julia’s memoir “Mrs. Ruckner said, 'General, everyone wants to see you.' Grant replied, 'Yes, but I do not care for such glances. They are not friendly.' "

And although Julia recorded those 3 encounters, even though they were strange, I’m not sure any of those would have led her to believe at the time the “trouble” or “threat” was as severe as it turned out to be. Even if she did believe there was a more severe threat, I don’t know how she could have connected her encounters to the possibility of a real threat to others (i.e. Lincoln). The threat, if any, would appear directed at her and/or her husband only from what she knew and saw. Therefore, I’m not sure she would have felt the need to warn anyone because she and her husband were leaving town. She would presumably feel they were the targets and would be out of the way of those men and their potential “trouble”. I also wonder if she connected the 3 encounters and what they may have meant more in hindsight than she actually connected them at the time. Obviously, knowing the outcome of all that happened on April 14th would cause her to re-examine the events of the day through a different lens.

I would be interested to hear from someone who knows more than I about the social role of women in the mid 19th century chip in here. Would a woman at the time take it upon herself to take action and warn, or would she be expected to inform her husband and then let him decide as to how to proceed? Especially given the fact that her husband was the General in Chief. I may be wrong, but I can’t help but think, from what I know of the attitude of men toward women in the 19th century, that even if she had warned someone else in authority, she would have been dismissed as just being a “worrying hen” of a woman. I think at best they would have said they would "look into it" to placate her because she was Grant's wife. Of course, maybe I am being overly critical due to my perceptions of the attitudes of 19th century men toward women.

I think your assessment of a woman's "place" at that time is accurate, Scott. If Mrs. Grant was overly concerned, she would have alerted her husband or one of his close aides. I also agree that Julia "enlarged" the incident in hindsight years later - perhaps to show that her husband could have been a target also?

I've have never seen mention of a military escort accompanying the General and Julia to the train, but I would have to assume there was one. How did Booth manage to slip that close to the carriage?