A few weeks ago, I gave the weekly tour of Congressional Cemetery – virtually, of course, and decided to play to my strengths, talking about the stories from the cemetery that have entered our collective memory, whether as urban legends, scandals, or ghost stories. While most of the stories were drawn from my books, there were a few that I have researched since then, as the stories have come to my attention. Especially apropos was the following story, which I had come across at some point. I have, alas, no memory whether I was researching Lincoln, Adams, or the cemetery itself when I chanced upon it. The short form is the following, taken from the Massachusetts Historical Society’s blog:
John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln indeed served together in the 30th Congress for three months before John Quincy Adams died on February 23, 1848. Lincoln served on the Committee of Arrangements for Adams’s funeral, but that is the only conclusive connection between the two.
It’s always intriguing when looking back on history to see – even tenuous – connections between people from two apparently different eras. The picture of a young Bill Clinton shaking John F. Kennedy’s hand comes to mind. It is thus hardly surprising that the fact that Representative Abraham Lincoln was in charge of the funeral arrangements for the man whom he would succeed as President a generation later is of interest, and has been offered as proof of some deeper connection between the two.
Sadly, as so often, while there is some truth to the matter, Lincoln played no substantial role in the funeral, a fact that he addressed not long after the events in question. Lincoln received a letter from the Reverend Henry Slicer, then Chaplain of the Senate, in which Slicer asked why he had been excluded from the service, and whether Lincoln had been party to that decision. Lincoln wrote in response.
As I remember, the House ordered the raising of two committees, one, of Arrangements, number indefinite, the other, thirty in number, to attend the remains of Mr. Adams to Massachusetts. By some mistake, a committee of thirty was appointed by the Speaker, as a committee of Arrangements, of which I was a member. At our first meeting, the mistake was discovered, and the committee being much too numerous for convenience, we delegated our authority to a sub-committee, of a smaller number of our own body, of which sub-committee, I was not a member.
Lincoln concluded by saying that he was thus not privy to any decisions in this regard, and that “until I received your letter, I should have given it as my recollection, that you did actually participate in those services.”
In spite of Lincoln’s immediate repudiation of his services that day, it is still often stated that he was involved, just going to show how difficult it is to rid the world of a false story once it has gotten into circulation.
Next week, I will look at what really happened on those fateful days.