Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[RJNorton]

(12-16-2017 09:31 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  (and he wasn't the smartest at Harvard).

Robert seems to have felt that his difficulties as a student was an influencing factor in his father becoming President.

David C. Mearns wrote, "Robert would later say that had he not failed in his first attempt at college, and had not that failure aroused in his father an anxiety for his development, Abraham Lincoln would not have come East, would not have delivered the Cooper Institute address and eleven others en route to New Hampshire, would not have acquired a national reputation, and consequently would not have been nominated for the presidency."

Because Robert failed the Harvard entrance examinations, he spent 1859-1860 at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.

Regarding the Cooper Union Address, Harold Holzer has written:

"Had Abraham Lincoln failed at his do-or-die debut in New York, he would never have won his party's presidential nomination three months later, not to mention election to the White House that November. Such was the impact of a triumph in the nation's media capital. Had he stumbled, none of the challenges that roiled his presidency would ever have tested his iron will."

Many historians feel the Cooper Union Address delivered on February 27, 1860, propelled Abraham Lincoln to the 1860 Republican nomination.

I am curious if anyone has an opinion....was Robert exaggerating?....would Abraham Lincoln not have accepted the invitation to speak in New York City had the trip not also afforded the opportunity for him to visit his son at Exeter?