Grant and Lincoln's invitation

[loetar44]

(10-08-2014 02:03 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Kees, you are doing an excellent job of changing my mind, but I am still wavering somewhat as part of me still agrees with Herb. Kees, I would ask you if Julia was so overwhelmingly worried about Ulysses' safety why did she let him ride with Mary in the carriage on the night of the 13th? Wouldn't this be very dangerous as shown by Booth's ability to ride close and harass the Grants' carriage the afternoon of the 14th? I also wonder if it's possible Julia wanted to keep her dislike of Mary out of her memoirs (for whatever reason). Possible?

Emma Dent Casey, daughter of Julia’s brother Frederick Dent, told that Julia had her premonitory dream of disaster for April 14 in the night of April 13. Julia woke in the morning of April 14 with an uneasy feeling and a strong desire to return to the Grant’s home, because she feared that her husband was in great danger in Washington. That’s de story which is told in de family Grant.

I don’t know why Julia kept her dislike of Mary out of her memoirs. She was a forgiving woman. She must have felt quite humiliated by Mary (think of Ord’s incident), but in her memoirs she wrote that Mary’s behavior was due to extreme fatigue from all of the traveling, and was not a result of her sickly jealousy. And Julia thought the incident was greatly exaggerated. She never spoke about it.

If you want to believe the story which is told in the family Grant, the Grants did not leave Washington because of Mary, but because of Julia’s premonitory dream.

Roger it is by no means my intention to change your opinion in this. I myself am not a strong believer in premonitory dreams, but I also don’t want to exclude them as a possibility, because a lot of people really do believe in them. I know a lot of them. But bear in mind such dreams are just what they are: beliefs and not facts. So you believe, or you don’t believe. I myself doubt, but I tend to believe that all kinds of feelings have played a role here, not just one. I mean that aversion to Mary certainly played a role, as did the fear of another incident. But I also believe that Julia's feeling that something intangible was in the air was also a reason of the hasty depart. Remember that Julia Grant was a very sensitive woman. The question is was it the prime reason?