Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

[Steve]

I want to say Roscoe Conkling, he collapsed on his way walking home during the blizzard, catching and then dying of pneumonia. But he lived for a couple of weeks after the storm. It's funny, I just saw a short video on the storm a couple of days ago which mentioned Conkling's death.

[L Verge]

(01-26-2019 12:54 AM)Steve Wrote:  I want to say Roscoe Conkling, he collapsed on his way walking home during the blizzard, catching and then dying of pneumonia. But he lived for a couple of weeks after the storm. It's funny, I just saw a short video on the storm a couple of days ago which mentioned Conkling's death.

You are correct, Steve, and my source is somewhat confusing. The way it is written, it sounds like his friends found him in the snow and already dead. Sorry.

My next clue would have been about his affair with Kate Chase Sprague.

[AussieMick]

Who's this (not US-born, Not Aussie, Not British) ?
   

[RJNorton]

Giuseppe Mazzini?

[AussieMick]

No, Roger. Not him, but this man's surname does end in an "i". He moved to the US in 1849 and could speak 8 languages. Seems like he was no fool ... and I get the feeling he knew how clever he was.

[AussieMick]

As far as being assassinated, Lincoln thought that this person was someone who might undertake that deed.

[Steve]

Adam Gurowski, although I don't know why Lincoln would think Gurowski would want to kill him.

[AussieMick]

Well done, Steve!!! I thought that I'd be dragging this out.
And I've just returned to the forum to amend that 'Hint'.
It was according to one person's reminiscences that Lincoln said that about Gurowski. It may have been tongue in cheek ... maybe not.

Ward Hill Lamon recalled Lincoln's musing, according to this "Lincoln's Gadfly" by LeRoy H. Fischer
https://web.archive.org/web/201204251533...ischer.pdf

I found this quite interesting (and addictive if you like reading other people's diaries ... this Adam Gurowski's)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29264/292...9264-h.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Gurowski

[RJNorton]

Fascinating, Michael. Here is the complete text of what Ward Hill Lamon wrote:

"It is a curious fact, that, although Mr. Lincoln believed that his career would be cut short by violence, he was incorrigibly skeptical as to the agency in the expected tragedy, with one solitary exception. Elderly residents of Washington will remember one Gurowski, a Polish exile, as many believed. He was an accomplished linguist, a revolutionist by nature, restless, revengeful, and of a fiery and ungovernable temper. He had been employed in the State Department as a translator, I believe, but had quarrelled with Mr. Seward and was discharged. This caused him to pursue Lincoln, Seward, and Sumner with bitter hatred. The curious will find in a published diary of his a fantastic classification of his enemies. The President he rated as "third-class," according to his estimate of statesmanlike qualities.

From this man Gurowski, and from him alone, Mr. Lincoln really apprehended danger by a violent assault, although he knew not what the sense of fear was like. Mr. Lincoln more than once said to me: "So far as my personal safety is concerned, Gurowski is the only man who has given me a serious thought of a personal nature. From the known disposition of the man, he is dangerous wherever he may be. I have sometimes thought that he might try to take my life. It would be just like him to do such a thing."

[David Lockmiller]

(01-27-2019 04:56 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  [Gurowski] had been employed in the State Department as a translator, I believe, but had quarrelled with Mr. Seward and was discharged. This caused him to pursue Lincoln, Seward, and Sumner with bitter hatred. The curious will find in a published diary of his a fantastic classification of his enemies. The President he rated as "third-class," according to his estimate of statesmanlike qualities.

From this man Gurowski, and from him alone, Mr. Lincoln really apprehended danger by a violent assault, although he knew not what the sense of fear was like. Mr. Lincoln more than once said to me: "So far as my personal safety is concerned, Gurowski is the only man who has given me a serious thought of a personal nature. From the known disposition of the man, he is dangerous wherever he may be. I have sometimes thought that he might try to take my life. It would be just like him to do such a thing."

Wikipedia entry for Gurowski has a different assessment of Gurowski's opinion of Lincoln. I would go with Lincoln's beliefs.

From 1861 to 1863, he was translator in the State Department in Washington D.C., being acquainted with eight languages.In 1862, he published the first volume of his three-volume Diary. It included three categories of men: Praise, Half and Half and Blame. President Abraham Lincoln merited the Praise column, as did Edwin M. Stanton and poet Walt Whitman, but otherwise Gurowski was highly critical of officials in the Lincoln administration.

William O’Connor, who translated some of the count’s papers into English, described him as “a madman with lucid intervals.” Whitman wrote, "He knew every thing & growled & found fault with everybody—but was always very courteous to me."

Count Gurowski died in May 1866 and was buried in Congressional Cemetery. Whitman considered the tempestuous count a friend and attended his funeral. “His funeral was simple but very impressive—all the big radicals were there,” Whitman wrote.

[RJNorton]

John Surratt, Sr. passed away in 1862. Mary Surratt purchased a coffin and the use of a hearse with two attendants. How much did this cost her?

[AussieMick]

Roger, to lead the way ... I'll guess $6 for the coffin and $4.80 for the use of hearse and two attendants. So $10.80 ?

[RJNorton]

Michael, she paid more.

[Eva Elisabeth]

$30??

[Anita]

I have Frederick Hatch's book "John Surratt: Rebel, Lincoln Conspirator, Fugitive" so I looked it up. Is this cheating?

The cost was $57.