President Lincoln vignettes in F.B. Carpenter's "Six Months at the White House"

[David Lockmiller]

(05-18-2018 09:19 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  The following is an account of a fascinating and very important piece of President Abraham Lincoln and American history that took place on the night before President Lincoln took the oath of office for his second term as President of the United States and gave his memorable and inspiring second inaugural address to the nation. I am sure that many members of the Lincoln Symposium are aware already of this story, especially those that share my opinion regarding the quality of F. B. Carpenter's book.

Francis Carpenter, Six Months at the White House, p. 265 - 267.

I was looking today to see how noted Lincoln historians treated the accuracy of this story by going to Google books and putting the following quote in the search box: “If generals in the field are to negotiate peace, or any other chief magistrate is to be acknowledged”

The preference results were topped with names that I had not recognized. But shortly down the list was a very familiar name – Harriet Beecher Stowe and her book “Men of Our Times” at page 372 in a chapter labeled as Edwin M. Stanton. She did not quote the Boston Commonwealth article verbatim. Instead, she prefaced the Stanton quotation with the following statement:

“Mr. Lincoln intimated pretty clearly an intention to permit extremely favorable terms, and to let his General-in-Chief to negotiate them; even to an extent that overpowered the reticent habits of his Secretary of War, who, after holding his tongue as long as he could, broke out sternly: 'Mr. President, tomorrow is inauguration day. . . .'”

I thought this to be a very astute observation on the part of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Does anyone know if Professor Don E. Fehrenbacher thought that this story was not true? I could not find where a noted historian in this or the last century made reference to this story.