Robert Todd Lincoln

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Robert Todd Lincoln Robert Lincoln Signature.svg

Robert Todd Lincoln (born August 1, 1843 in Springfield , Illinois , † July 26, 1926 in Manchester , Vermont ) was an American lawyer , businessman , diplomat and politician ( Republican Party ). He was the eldest of four sons of US President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary, and the only one who reached adulthood.

Life

Robert Lincoln graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and then studied from 1861 to 1864 at Harvard University , where he enrolled in law school. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity .

However, he did not finish his studies at Harvard, but initially joined the Union Army . With the rank of captain he served in the Civil War on the staff of Ulysses S. Grant , in a position in which he was not affected by direct combat operations. In 1863 (according to other sources 1864) Edwin Booth saved his life. Booth was the brother of the eventual murderer of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth . Robert Lincoln was caught on a platform in Jersey City between two cars of a stopping train.

After his father was murdered in April 1865, he moved to Chicago with his brother Thomas (Tad) Lincoln (1853–1871) and his mother . There he resumed law studies at a Baptist college, the predecessor institution of today's University of Chicago . He successfully completed this training on February 25, 1867. A year later he married Mary Eunice Harlan, the daughter of Senator James Harlan . They had two daughters and a son:

  • Robert Todd Lincoln (portrait by Daniel Huntington , 1885)
    Mary (called Mamie, born October 15, 1869, † November 21, 1938)
  • Abraham (called Jack, born August 14, 1873 - March 5, 1890)
  • Jessie Harlan Lincoln (born November 6, 1875 - † January 4, 1948)

In 1875, Lincoln had a tough argument with his mother. Because Lincoln found their way of life increasingly eccentric, he filed a lawsuit against them in 1875 in order to gain control over their finances. Lincoln's mother was then admitted to a mental health facility in Batavia , Illinois , but was released three months later. The split was final.

In 1877, Lincoln turned down an offer from President Rutherford B. Hayes , who had offered him a high position in the State Department . Instead, he was Secretary of War from 1881 to 1885 under Presidents James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur . Eventually he served as the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1889 to 1893 .

After that, Lincoln worked as a lawyer again. After the death of George Mortimer Pullman in 1897 he became the acting president of the Pullman Palace Car Company and in 1901 its permanent president. He held this office until his retirement in 1911. He then held the office of chairman of the board until January 14, 1922. He made his last public appearance on July 26, 1922 at the inauguration of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC , at which the US President Warren G. Harding , as well as the former President and then acting Chief Justice William Howard Taft were present .

In 1902, Lincoln bought 500 acres of land in Manchester, Vermont, and built a summer residence on it, which he called " Hildene ". Here he played golf and watched the starry sky. In 1911 he sold his house in Chicago and bought a three-story stone house in Washington, DC From then on he drove to "Hildene" in the spring and came back to Washington in the fall. The Lincoln's used their private Pullman car called the Advance for their return journeys.

Political positions

Like his father, Robert Todd Lincoln was a member of the Republican Party . After the American Civil War , he shared the views of the Radical Republicans and rejected the idea of compensating former slave owners for the loss of their slaves from tax revenues.

William Howard Taft , Warren G. Harding and Robert Todd Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial (1922)

Lincoln belonged to the conservative wing of the Republican Party and supported u. a. the presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 and 1872; and Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 . He firmly opposed the growth of the union movement and, in 1893, vehemently criticized John Peter Altgeld , the governor of Illinois , for a pardon for convicted men who were allegedly involved in a bomb attack during the so-called Haymarket Riot , but innocent according to Altgeld were. Lincoln also supported his friend George Mortimer Pullman during the Pullman strike in 1894 .

In the presidential election in 1912 , Lincoln supported the conservative Republican and incumbent President William Howard Taft . During the election campaign, Taft published a letter from Robert Todd Lincoln in which the latter sharply criticized Theodore Roosevelt for his direct democratic ideas . This was previously defeated in the candidacy for presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention against Taft and then founded the Progressive Party with his supporters as the candidate for which he ran. In the letter, Lincoln not only defended representative democracy , but also accused Roosevelt of alleging that he was acting on the lines of Abraham Lincoln , twisting his father's words. Lincoln insisted that his father was loyal to the US Constitution , which was built on the foundation of representative democracy, and believed that if his father were alive, he would loathe views such as those advocated by Roosevelt. Lincoln believed that town meetings like New England were a good thing, but in larger cities or states, direct democracy would lead to chaos and dictatorship . Lincoln also rejected the progressive policies of Woodrow Wilson , who emerged victorious in the 1912 presidential election.

death

Lincoln died in Manchester on July 26, 1926. He was temporarily buried in Manchester, but his final resting place was on March 14, 1928 in Arlington National Cemetery .

further reading

  • Jason Emerson: Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln . Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8093-3055-3

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Lincoln, Robert Todd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician and diplomat, son of Abraham Lincoln
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Springfield , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1926
Place of death Manchester , Vermont