Good Brother, Bad Brother

[L Verge]

I have heard the story of John refusing to meet with Lincoln before, but I have never checked out its veracity. However, from a website called civilwarsaga.com: According to the book Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln And The Soldiers’ Home, Lincoln enjoyed Booth’s performance so much he sent a note backstage inviting him to the White House so they could meet.

Booth, a rebel sympathizer and Confederate spy, evaded the president’s invitation. Booth didn’t give Lincoln a specific reason why he couldn’t visit but he later told his friends “I would rather have the applause of a Negro to that of the president!”

According to the book Inside Lincoln’s White House, the actor Frank Mordaunt later corroborated this story:

“Lincoln was an admirer of the man who assassinated him. I know that, for he said to me one day that there was a young actor over in Ford’s Theater whom he desired to meet, but that the actor had on one pretext or another avoided any invitations to visit the White House. That actor was John Wilkes Booth.”



As for the death of Edwin's first wife, Mary Devlin, did the author mention that John was very fond of his sister-in-law and was very upset that his brother did not leave at once to be with her? As for wife #2, Mary McVicker, there have been reports that her family may have held Edwin responsible for her mental illness and death because he had suffered from syphilis in his early years and may have even delayed his marriage to Mary Devlin while he took the mercury cure. Perhaps some vestige of the disease was passed on to wife #2 (instead of wife #1).

There are also some folks who think that venereal disease led to Booth's actions. There was an article written about this by an Annapolis doctor many years ago in the Surratt Courier.

P.S. If you've never seen a photo of Mary Devlin, check out the avatar of our forum member, Carolyn Mitchell...