Screeria nigeria. Lincolns life. Professor wilson. [applause] professor wilson good morning. See what it says here. My name is douglas wilson. [laughter] im the codirector of the Lincoln Studies Center in illinois. It is my privilege to introduce the first speaker in the 2015 Abraham Lincoln institute symposium. He is a young scholar. He has already earned an array of honors. He was educated at penn state where he took his bachelors degree in two dozen one, and the receipt of maryland where he earned a masters degree in 2003, and a phd in 2008. The department of history maryland awarded him a price in potable history. His doctoral dissertation earned a prestigious prize and thousand 10. He has already authored several books. Including to lincoln titles most recently, emancipation, and the union army and reelection of lincoln. More than two dozen articles have appeared under his name in scholarly journals and Popular History magazines. In 2005, he won the john t hubble prize for the best article in civil war history. His current book project is midnight in america night sleep, and dreams in the civil war. This energetic young historian is currently assistant professor at Christopher Newport university. He is here to speak on lincoln and dreams of death. It is a pleasure to enter his professor jonathan w white. [applause] professor white thanks, doug. Im honored to be here today. Ive sat in the audience here at fords theatre a dozen of times, but this is my first time on the stage. I almost thought i should wait until the end of the introduction and make a dramatic appearance on the stage. I was wondering if maybe i could recline in one of the couches in the box up there for the rest of the symposium. [laughter] i have to say from the outset that i have been coming to the symposium for more than 10 years. It just so happens that my wifes birthday is tomorrow, which means im out of town for her birthday almost every year. Lauren, if youre watching from home happy birthday. I had a but youd gift yet but when im done, i will go out to the book table and ill see if theres something you would like. At about two years ago, i have the idea of writing a history of dreams during the civil war. I have a chapter on lincoln. That is where i will focus moc st of my remarks on today. The civil war place new genes on lincoln and his generation. The dreams reflected the hardships. Sometimes dreams intruded on their slumber, bringing horrors of the conflict to lead to them in their sleep. For others, nighttime was an escape from the wartime. The dreams of civil war americans reveal that generations deepest longings, hopes, and fears. Its desires and shame. When americans recorded their dreams in their diaries, letters, and memoirs they sought to make sense of the changing world around them and cope with the confusion, despair, and loneliness of life among the turmoil of a gigantic civil war. In my research, i found that northerners and southerners dreamt about lincoln during the war. Union officers sometimes dreamt that they met with him to discuss promotions. [laughter] it did not always work out how they hope. Po talked pows jumped about exchanges. My favorite happens to be a confederate civilian stream. On july 7, 1864, one died that h one junk that he died and went to another war. Woman said, is the mayor fritchman appeared . And he replied, you will find him in the other place. He turned around and went to what he described as being a somber looking castle. Above the castle was written the word help. He saw satan and all of these seats on the floor. Some of them were they get they get, others were occupied by lawyers. He sat on one seat, and the devil said no, you cant sit there, that is for the mayor of richmond. He sat in another seat, and he said no that is reserved for the Union General butler. He sat in another seat, and people yelled at him, dont sit in that seat. They said, that is for old abe. He wrote from the stream shaking and shivering, but also saying that he hoped it wasnt a dream. In my last book, i found one new york soldier i exited the included in that book, i will include it in my next one he included this about lincoln, he said lincoln has become at vampire, the nightmare be beneath the nation. There you have it. Before Abraham Lincoln ever became a vampire hunter, he was a vampire himself. [laughter] since the civil war, americans have been fascinated by lincoln streams and prophetic statements. Such as in 1861 at Independence Hall he said he would rather be assassinated in that spot then sacrifice the principles of the declaration of independence. Sometimes lincoln sense of humor came out in his dreams. His private secretary recorded one such stream and his diary. He wrote, lincoln dreams that he is a party of people. As they become familiar with the is, they common on his appearance. One says, he is a common looking man. The president replied in his dream, Common People most of what we know about lincoln stdreams come from secondhand accounts, but there are times when we get accounts from his own hand. He wrote to mary, about a dream that he had about their child. It made him very concerned until you got a letter from mary saying that robert was ok. In june of 1863, lincoln sent a telegram to mary telling her to quote put teds pistol away because he had a ugly dream about him. According to the last dr eam, Richard Brightman fox wrote that they gave one a sense, however murky, of what might come to pass. I think this is a very good assessment of what lincolns view dreams was. One of his most famous trees was depicted in a famous spielberg movie. On april 14, 1865, lincoln said this to his cabinet, i had a strange dream again last night. We shall soon have great news. The secretary of the navy asked him about the nature of this remarkable dream to which lincoln replied, it had to do with his expertise, the water. He described the dream and some in some detail. He was in the wate in a vessel moving towards an indefinite shore. He told the cabinet that he had had this dream before the confederate attack on fort sumter, as well as preceding the battles of bull gettysburg, and the surrender at vicksburg. Lincoln believe the stream for Great Results, hopefully involving shermans army. Title ulysses s general grant pointed out that stones river was no great victory and there were no Great Results that resulted. Sitting at the Cabinet Meeting that morning, secretary wells did not think much about the dream. He remembered it shortly thereafter and wrote it down in his diary. Great evidence did indeed follow , he wrote mournfully. For within a few hours, the good and gentle, as well as truly great man who narrated that dream close forever his earthly career. For witnesses reported on separate occasions. The most secretary of war also told the dream to charles dickens. Dickens in wrote about it to a friend in england. Frederick stewart, the assistant secretary of state, was at the meeting since his father just had a carriage accident, and stewart then recorded it in his memoirs in the early 20th century. Finally, the New York Herald reported the dream in 1865 before any of his cabinet members even wrote it down. By may of 65, the story had been repeated in newspapers as far as san francisco. The dream has fascinated readers, and is even the subject of a childrens book. Another genes in place around the time of his presidency in 1860. While reclining on his couch at his home in springfield, he looked across the room to a mirror. He saw a double image of himself. One image was very lifelike, while the other was ghostly pale. The image disappeared, he looks back, and the double image appeared again. He walked across the room to look at it and couldnt see the double image. This was curious to lincoln. In fact, there were several accounts that said while he was president in the white house, he tried to reproduce this fun almond on and was never able to make a happen. The people who heard this, and the meaning of it, some claims that lincoln thought this meant he would live through his first term in office, but die in his second. The surgery and is the most startling. Lincoln allegedly drunk this a few weeks before his assassination in april 1860 five. At first he kept it a secret until it overwhelmed them. One day in early 1865, according to lincolns friend, he approached a small group of friends at the white house included laman and Mary Todd Lincoln. He was in a melancholy and meditative mood. Finally, very aroused her husband to speak what was on his mind. It seems strange how much there is in the bible about dreams lincoln said. There are i think, 16 chapters in the Old Testament and four or five in the new, in which dreams are mentioned. There are many other passages scattered throughout the book that refer divisions. If we believee the bible, we must accept the fact that in the old days, and god and his angels came to people in their sleep and made themselves known in their dreams. Mary lincoln was struck and asked him, do you believe in dreams. . I cant say i do, he replied, but i had one the other night that was haunting. After he had the dream, he open his bible, and he said the pages of genesis he then turned to other passages, each one dealt with dreams or visions. As he was saying this, he was now so seriously disturbed, mary said, you frighten me, whats the matter . Lincoln replied, you should have brought the subject up. Somehow, it has gotten possession of me. According to laman, this only made merry more curious. She strongly urged him to tell the dream. He was hesitant, but decided he would tell the dream. Laman said he did so with his brow overcast. Laman recounted his words as accurately as he remembered them. This is what the gloomy president said. About 10 days ago i retire late. I had been up waiting important dispatches from the front. I couldnt be long in bed when i fell into a slumber, because i was weary. I soon began to dream. They seem to be a deathlike stillness about me. Then, i heard subdued sobs as if the number of people were weeping. I thought i left my bed and went downstairs. There, the silence was broken by more sobbing. The mourners were invisible. I went from room to room, but no one was in sight. It was light in all the rooms. All the objects were familiar to me, but where where all the people who were weeping as if their hearts would break . I was puzzled and alarm. What could be the meaning of all this . There i met with a sickening a surprise. It before me was a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. It around it were soldiers acting as guards. It there was a crowded. It others were weeping pitifully. Who is dead in the white house . The president was his answer. Then it came allowed burst of grief from the crowd which awoke me from my dream. I slept no more that night. It i have been strangely annoyed with it ever since. Mary lincoln responded that the story was horrid and she wished lincoln have not told it. I am glad i dont believe in dreams, she said it. Lincoln responded that it was only a dream. Say no more about it. He continued his telling of the story that the dream was so horrible and real and in keeping with other dreams that mr. Lincoln was profoundly disturbed by it. It lincoln looked grave and visibly pale as he described the vision. There was something about it that was real, true to the actual tragedy which occurred soon after that more than moral strength and wisdom what have been required to let it pass without a shutter or paying it. This is a remarkable story. The drink president dreamed of his own assassination a few days before it happened. Its no wonder that writers like Carl Sandburg of all included in their books. Just last week, i was reading a book. Its a wonderful book about the assassination of james garfield. Robert todd lincoln told the stream to president garfield during the final Cabinet Meeting in 1881, two days before he was assassinated. What irony. You cant get more than that. A historian appropriated it for their own book. Dont buy that book. Wait for mine to come out. It [laughter] is the story true . I think we should be hesitant to take such a fantastical story. It should because for concern. The account was First Published in 1887, 22 years after lincoln died. It appeared in recollections of Abraham Lincoln, published in 1895. Laman claimed that it came from notes made in 1865. Scholars have treated the story with some reservation. David donald said he was highly unreliable in some accounts while a stanford historian claims that more than a little of his quotation of lincoln was invented it. He demolishes lamans credibility of the funeral dream. The timing doesnt make any sense. It there are a few ways that he points this out. Laman lincoln as saying he was waiting for dispatches from the front. Lincoln was at the front from march 24 until april 9. The analysis should have been enough to discredit the story. He did not do you deeply enough into the origins of the stream. I found several versions of the dream that predate lamans telling. The earliest came from a spence pennsylvania newspaper. A more detailed version appears in an unsigned article in a literary magazine called gleasons monthly companion. It was after the dream appeared in this literary magazine the newspapers around the country began circulating it. It the details differ in several ways from lamans account and recollection. The 1880 version has no chronological clues as to when lincoln was supposed to have had the stream compared to laman who said it was an early 1865 before his death area. Lincoln was in conversation with mrs. Lincoln and the children in the 1880 version. It was lincolns son who implored his father to tell the dream and later called dreadful. Robert todd lincoln makes an appearance in the 1880 version of the story. According to the 1880 version, mary lincolns first exclamation after John Wilkes Booth shot her husband was this, his dream was prophetic. The author of the 1880 article that this remark has not been understood. It makes me think that laman could not have written the version since he claimed to be present the telling of the story. He would have known what the dream meant and what mary meant by that statement. No other source has mary saying his dream was prophetic when he was shot. In 1866, mary told herndon that lincoln never dreamt of death. There are other discrepancies, i wont get into them here. The most important is that he is nowhere to be seen in the 1880 version of the story. That piece concludes subsequently the dream was told to many in washington. I have done a digital sirs search of newspapers. I found that the ship on the water dream was reproduced in 1865 and got widespread attention in the months after lincolns death. I found no mention of this funeral dream. If it was the talk around washington, surely without its way into the papers. Two weeks ago, i traveled to the Huntington Library to look at the collection of papers to see if i could find any evidence of the story. I searched to see if there were any notes that laman took. He said he took notes after lincoln said. I found no notes related to this story. I did find plenty of other notes that laman took for other stories. I found no correspondence with the publisher. It was common for laman to communicate with editors. I did find a set of drafts of letters that laman wrote to editors all of the country in 1887 saying i have some great recollections of lincoln and i will sell them for 25 each. He was trying to make a profit off his connection to lincoln. The most interesting evidence, i found a letter in which a correspondent sent a letter to laman about lincoln. Part of this correspondence thanked eight presentiment. The entire letter was about lincoln and it being dated 1882 after the story began circulating in newspapers, laman read the story in the newspaper and called it a counterfeit presentment. It was only later that he realized this was a great story that he can insert himself into. On april 27, laman wrote a letter to the secretary of war saying he met with lincoln on april 13 had not spoken with him for three weeks before that. By his own testimony he could not have heard the story from lincoln a few weeks before the assassination, which is how he rendered thanks 22 years later. Did he give story from lincoln . I dont think so. I think this was a fictional piece written for a newspaper. It was embellished by a literary magazine. I think the dream was another fabrication. I found a newspaper article from the 1940s where some of the todd family claims that Mary Todd Lincoln had the dream for the assassination. Somebody read it and as the story was told over generations it was mary. A number of stories i found like this. I think they are forgeries. I would be happy to tell you about them during the q a. The question is, why are dreams like this included in the most widely read books about lincoln . They are great stories. Americans want to read stories about our greatest leaders. John adams and Thomas Jefferson both tied on july 4 1826, the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence. That was true, by the way. We are fascinated to know that one of our most revered leaders envision his own assassination just days before it happened. The tragedy is gripping. It confirms our place in history. It seems believable because its in keeping with what we know about lincoln. Stories like these confirm the myths about lincoln that americans long to believe, that he was almost supernatural. The fascination with biographers and their readers with lincolns dreams may say more about lincolns admirers. During the war, he became a symbol of gods hand in the conflict. A woman wrote to Mary Todd Lincoln about a dream she had that she believed had significant meaning. She saw a great storm with terrible thunder and lightning and she said it was as if the heavens and earth were coming together. She saw lincoln standing above the clouds. He was towering over the city of washington with a book in his hand. He was crowned with honors. He looked very smiling. I thought i clapped my hand. I rose from my bed and tend this to paper. A voice from the north has proclaimed the glad morning and slavery has ended and freedom is born, the south is restored. Secession has ended and slavery is over. Think about that. May, 1861 prior to the first battle of the civil war. This woman envisions lin