The Bixby Letter

[Steve]

(07-17-2017 04:01 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(07-16-2017 06:06 PM)Steve Wrote:  I know the two stories aren't exactly equivalent, but it does seems like Butler might have had a tendency to exaggerate or make up anecdotes of events that happened many years earlier.

I have read similar. I believe Butler claimed Robert burned the papers in 1923. But Robert no longer had his father's papers in 1923. He had deposited the papers at the LOC in 1919. Did Robert destroy any of the papers prior to 1919? Yes, probably. But, IMO, these were private family papers or papers that Robert regarded as useless to history. IMO, they were not papers that pointed to a Cabinet member being involved in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy.

I only meant to imply that Butler's anecdote in his autobiography of John Morley telling him that Hay had told Morley that he had written the Bixby Letter, with Morley subsequently extracting a promise from Butler not to reveal that until after Morley's death was completely made up by Butler. The 1946 luncheon took place the year after Lloyd George's death with him unable to confirm or refute Butler's claims on that story.

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Here's a 1947 Time magazine article that might shed some light on the Robert Lincoln story:

https://books.google.com/books?id=LUIEAA...rs&f=false