Talk:Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's premonitions

I cannot believe that a serious encyclopedia would contain a sentence quoting a "paranormal investigator" and his opinion on Lincoln's reported premonitions. That part should be deleted. 2601:41:200:5260:31D8:A73D:E952:3430 (talk) 01:09, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

Or perhaps we should add the opinions of astrologers and phrenologists as well. 2601:41:200:5260:31D8:A73D:E952:3430 (talk) 01:12, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

sounds like it should only be mentioned in passing NotQualified (talk) 14:23, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

Oh yes, let's under any and all circumstances dump all over any possibility of the paranormal really existing, let's do, it's an absolute must. Jersey Jan (talk) 17:22, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

As a matter of fact, yes. EEng 17:37, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the article says what you think it says.

The paranormal investigator the article references is Joe Nickell, who is a skeptic. He investigates the paranormal, but only to perform what he always believes is a debunking. The article states that Nickell "wrote that dreams of assassination would not be unexpected, considering the Baltimore Plot and an additional assassination attempt in which a hole was shot through Lincoln's hat." In other words, because Lincoln received assassination threats (Nickell mentions only one, but there were many) and had survived one attempt, it is only logical that the possibility of assassination would be on his mind, and this in turn would lead to dreams of assassination. Ergo, the dream was not a true premonition. I myself, who am intensely interested in and open minded regarding the paranormal, also take this view. Jersey Jan (talk) 12:58, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

It should be noted, that like how some more careful historians have tended to question some of the accusations labelled against Boston Corbett, Booth's killer, historians Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher have cited internal inconsistencies and external evidence regarding Lamon's account that lead them to question its veracity. As talked about at https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/19423, Lamon stated that the incident had occurred only a few days prior to the assassination, yet within Lincoln's monologue he related at one point that the dream occurred "the other night" and also "about ten days ago." The Fehrenbachers also note that although Lincoln stated in the account that on the night of the dream he "had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front," during the period of March 24 to April 9, he in fact had been at the front, rather than in the White House. In addition, there was no contemporaneous account of the dream following the assassination. No one mentioned it in the voluminous writings of the period, not Mary Lincoln, Lamon, anyone else at the supposed telling of the dream, or anyone to whom those who heard it may have relayed it. The supposed dream should be treated in consideration as one of the most popular lore myths to emerge out of the assassination, much like the myth that Lincoln reportedly told his bodyguard, Crook, "Goodbye" instead of "Goodnight." 2.100.74.138 (talk) 15:37, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

Additionally, the article contradicts itself at one point by saying “Mary developed a headache and was inclined to stay home, but Lincoln told her he must attend because newspapers had announced that he would,” but then says “bodyguard, William H. Crook, advised him not to go, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife.” So one version says Lincoln didn't want to go to Ford's Theater, but Mary insisted. In another, Mary didn't really want to go but Lincoln felt that they must go as it had been published in the paper that they would be attending. I'm sure there are other variations of what happened, but by some accounts I heard, the Lincolns seemed to have been in a good mood, so I am a little surprised to hear some state that the president didn't want to attend the play, although I'm sure being tired is a good enough reason. In fact, the belief in Abe's hesitancy to attend, is the source for this is William H. Crook. Crook wrote that Lincoln said, "It has been advertised that we will be there, and I cannot disappoint the people. Otherwise I would not go. I do not want to go." This is on p. 67 of Crook's book entitled Through Five Administrations.

I must add, however, that several highly respected historians do not regard Crook as a reliable source. Among these folks are Ed Steers and William Hanchett. Crook's reminisces have been studied and are regarded as not trustworthy. For example, Crook says Lincoln was depressed that day and had promised his wife they would go, but this contradicts other accounts which describe Lincoln being cheerful that day. It is like how some myths about Corbett are regarded as fact, such as the claim that Secretary of War Stanton had issued orders that Booth be taken alive, so Corbett was initially arrested to be court martialed. After a brief interview, Stanton declared him a patriot and dismissed the charge. This story is also regarded as lore/myth.2.100.74.138 (talk)

Photos & text

Photos used to illustrate this article are now out of sequence with the corresponding text. Just an FYI to other editors - over the next few days I am going to attempt to bring everything into agreement with each other, which might necessitate putting some of the images on the left of the article's text, etc. Before any reverts of my edits let's discuss them here please. Thanks. Shearonink (talk) 15:08, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

removed text about other targets / ticket rejections

another editor has removed my edit about other targets and people rejecting the tickets. can we have group consensus on if what i said was worthy of being presented in this article or should be modified or removed entirely NotQualified (talk) 14:24, 20 April 2024 (UTC)