Robert Todd Lincoln: A Man in His Own Right

by John S. Goff

University of Oklahoma Press, 286 Pages. 

You know you're a history geek when you're reading a book about Robert Todd Lincoln - especially one written by John S. Goff. Written in 1968, this is a polite  look at a statesman who most people know nothing about, a fact as true now as it was forty years ago. A millionaire businessman of the Progressive era, Lincoln also did his duty in American politics, serving first as Secretary of War and then as Minister to England. He was associated with three assassinated Presidents at the time they were shot, a distinction that led him to say of his many White House invitations: "If only they knew, they wouldn't want me there." His name was bandied about in several Presidential races and, as Special Counsel for the Pullman Palace Car Company, he may or may not have been influential in putting down the famed Pullman strike of 1894. Oh, and he was the son of Abraham Lincoln. Can't forget that - especially since no one else did.



This is very much the theme of Mr. Groff's clinical biography, who, in structuring Lincoln's life, makes it abundantly clear that Lincoln was a man forever stuck in his father's shadow. The only son of Abraham Lincoln to survive into adulthood, Lincoln had a long life (he lived until 1926) and remained a permanent link to his celebrated father. But, as Groff says, "Robert Lincoln does not fit well into the Lincoln legend." A corporate lawyer, a conservative businessman, a man who repeatedly begged the Republicans not to nominate him for President - this does not fit well with the myth of Abraham Lincoln, who rose out of poverty, set the slaves free and literally gave his life for his country. Lincoln was also responsible for sending his mother, former First Lady Marry Todd Lincoln, to the nuthouse, a fact which many have suggested was done simply so he could get her money. Then there's the fact that Lincoln was also notoriously stingy with his father's papers and fought hard to keep them out of the hands of biographers - a fact which meant those same biographers probably never painted him in the best possible light.

All this, according to our Mr. Groff, has kept Lincoln from ever becoming "a man in his own right" - his greatest attribute, according to posterity, seems to be that he was the son of someone else. Even his supporters had to go out of their way to convince the world that Lincoln succeeded on his own merits - I suspect he did, but I also suspect, as Groff does, that Lincoln might have quietly wished he could escape the Lincoln legend. Still, Lincoln wouldn't have been human if he wasn't full of contradictions: he may have wanted to escape his father, but he remained rabidly protective of him until his death. He was happy for Abraham Lincoln to descend all too quickly into myth and fought hard with those who suggested that Honest Abe's parents hadn't been married or that Mary Todd Lincoln had not been the President's true love.

All of which is to say that Lincoln is an interesting figure, but he succeeds in being too elusive to ever quite become a myth unto himself. His most interesting attribute - that he was nearby during the deaths of three martyred Preisdents - is mostly ignored in Mr. Groff's book. One has to wonder if Robert Todd Lincoln quietly feared he was an Angel of Death, and if his persistent disinterest in the White House was due to a fear that if just being close to a President got them killed, being President himself might lead to Armageddon. We do know that Lincoln was aware of his curse. Near the end of his life, after being asked if he would attend an event that had Calvin Coolige on the guest list, he said "They'd better not invite me because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present." Here then we see a glimpse into the thing that really made Robert Todd Lincoln tick: stuck in his father's shadow and possibly scared that if he ever emerged somebody somewhere would get shot.

As for Mr. Groff, he has written a dry and academic book: he can be applauded for his research, which is sometimes a little too thorough (do we really need a paragraph listing twelve years of the revenue of the Pullman Company?). There have been only one or two other biographies of Lincoln, so I suppose Groff has done his duty to history geeks like me, but it's unfortunate that the book is written in such a scholarly, lifeless tone. With Lincoln scholarship remaining at an all-time high, I suspect that even Lincoln scholars may soon be able to avoid Groff's book and it will remain, dare I say it, in the shadow of greater books.

Related Books:

"Dark Hourse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of James Garfield" by Kenneth Ackerman
"Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester A. Arthur" by Thomas Reeves
"Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character" by Alyn Brodsky
"Benajmin Harrison" by Charles W. Calhoun