It Didn't Happen the Way You Think (by Robert Lockwood Mills)

[mikegriffith1]

(12-20-2018 05:38 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  I do not know if the letter really existed. I just don't have strong feelings one way or the other.

Long ago I read Mills' arguments on this, and I feel that he makes sense on some of his points. Why didn't Booth simply mail the letter himself? That makes sense to me; Mathews said it was sealed and stamped. Mathews' memory of the letter...it got longer as the years went by... is certainly suspect/unbelievable. However, I do not agree that Mathews made up the story due to Stanton's intimidation (or other men in government). I do not agree with what Mills says on that issue.

Booth seems to make reference to it in his diary; I feel this may be an argument that the letter existed as Mathews claimed. Booth uses the word "left" not "mailed."

If Mathews created the story, I have no clear answer why he did so. The assassination story has many uncertainties (which is one reason why so many people are interested in the topic), and this is one of them. I do not have all the answers, but I do not think Stanton had anything to do with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. I do not think Mathews fabricated the story at the urging of Stanton or other government officials. If Mathews did indeed create the story, I feel he must have had other reasons for doing so; I don't think he was threatened by the government to make up the story to clear the government itself of being behind the assassination.

Mathews is the sole source for the story of the letter. The vast majority of Lincoln assassination books accept his account, but I do not think we can ever know with absolute certainty whether or not his story of receiving the letter is true or false. I cannot agree with Mills when he writes, "It never happened." I just do not have that strong of an opinion either way. However, I do agree that the 1881 recollection is impossible to believe (obviously copied from Booth's 1864 letter). When I walk into a room I sometimes forget why I did so, let alone remembering the wording of a letter from 16 years ago.

Some folks referred to him as Crazy John Mathews. Who knows - maybe there was good reason for it.

I can see a plausible scenario for Stanton coercing Mathews to invent this story. Mathews didn't come forward with this story until he was called to testify before the Johnson impeachment committee, two years after the assassination. This was at a time when some members of Congress were raising questions about the military commission's verdicts and sentences.

Mathews, as a longtime friend of Booth's, was vulnerable to coercion. Stanton and/or others in the War Department acting at Stanton's behest, could have coerced Mathews into claiming that he received Booth's letter and that it was also signed in the name of Herold and Atzerodt, and this could have been intended to support the commission's execution of those two conspirators, as if to say, "You see, even in Booth's letter, he congratulated Herold and Atzerodt as faithful conspirators in his murderous plot, so the commission was right to execute them."