Mary was a leaker

[David Lockmiller]

The bottom line on this topic for me is the following analysis which begins with the Hertz version of this story:

"During a crucial period of the war many malicious stories were in circulation, based upon the suspicion that Mrs. Lincoln was in sympathy with the Confederacy. These reports were inspired by the fact that some of Mrs. Lincoln's relatives were in the Confederate service. At last reports that were more than vague gossip were brought to the attention of some of my colleagues in the Senate. They made specific accusation that Mrs. Lincoln was giving important information to secret agents of the Confederacy. These reports were laid before my committee [on the Conduct of the War] and the committee thought it an imperative duty to investigate them, although it was the most embarrassing and painful task imposed upon us.

The sessions of the committee were necessarily secret. We had just been called to order by the chairman, when the officer stationed at the committee-room door opened it and came in with a half-frightened, half-embarrassed expression on his face. Before he had the opportunity to make explanation, we understood the reason for his excitement. For at the foot of the table, standing solitary, his hat in his hand, his tall form towering above the committee members, Abraham Lincoln stood. Had he come by some incantation, thus appearing of a sudden before us unannounced, we could not have been more astounded.

The pathos that was written upon Lincoln's face, the almost unhuman sadness that was in his eyes as he looked upon us, and above all an indescribable sense of his complete isolation--the sad solitude which is inherent in all true grandeur of character and intellect--all this revealed Lincoln to me and I think to every member of the committee in the finer, subtler light whose illumination faintly set forth fundamental nature of this man. No one spoke, for none knew what to say. The President had not been asked to come before the committee, nor was it suspected that he had information that we were to investigate the reports, which, if true, fastened treason upon his family in the White House.

At last Lincoln spoke, slowly, with infinite sorrow in his tone, and he said:

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, appear of my own volition before this committee of the Senate to say that I, of my own knowledge, know that it is untrue that any of my family hold treasonable communication with the enemy."

Having said that, Lincoln went away as silently and solitary as he came. We sat for some moments speechless. Then by tacit agreement, no word being spoken, the committee dropped all consideration of the rumors that the wife of the President was betraying the Union. We had seen Abraham Lincoln in the solemn and isolated majesty of his real nature. We were so greatly affected that the committee adjourned sine die."


To the very best of my knowledge, there has never been made in any Lincoln scholarly work a reference to a report made by the Committee on the Conduct of the War on the subject of the "specific accusation that Mrs. Lincoln was giving important information to secret agents of the Confederacy." Why not? There was no investigation? I think that there were just the beginnings of such a legitimate investigation. The only logical explanation to me that the Committee's investigation went no further than it did is the alleged appearance before the Committee on that fateful day by President Lincoln that properly resulted in no more consideration of the subject by the members of the Committee.

As to other scholarly analyses that have concluded there is no precedent for the President of the United States to appear before a Congressional Committee to give testimony, I also believe that there was no precedent for the President of the United States to attend the Hampton Roads Conference to discuss with high-ranking members of the Confederacy an end to the Civil War. The bottom line for consideration is that President Abraham Lincoln was a pragmatic Man.