What Were President Abraham Lincoln's Last Words?

Rumors of President Lincoln's last words spoken in Ford's Theatre led to consulting the experts at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.in Springfield, Illinois

President Abraham Lincoln's box at Ford's Theater, Washington DC, April 1865.

Abraham Lincoln’s last words have been the subject of debate among scholars for well over a century. The 16th president of the United States was shot on April 14, 1865, and died on the 15th. He was shot by Confederate sympathizer and stage actor John Wilkes Booth while sitting in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Reportedly, Lincoln’s “likely last words” were published as: “We will visit the Holy Land, and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior. There is no city on earth I so much desire to see as Jerusalem.”

It would be difficult to confirm the last words of someone who died over 155 years ago, to say the least. In order to establish authenticity, we would need to see official records that left no doubt of their genuine nature. Unfortunately, no solid evidence exists in the case of Abraham Lincoln. However, this does not mean that no records exist at all.

We consulted about the former president’s last words with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, but he began his political career in Illinois. He also met his future wife, Mary Todd (marriage), in the Prairie State.

Christian McWhirter is a Lincoln historian at the museum. We asked him about the “Holy Land” quote. He told us that the quote “originates from an unpublished 1882 manuscript by the Rev. Noyes Miner, a Springfield neighbor, and friend of the Lincolns.” The manuscript resides in the museum’s collection.

The two sentences are actually lifted from two different parts of the same paragraph, in which Miner discusses things Mary Lincoln (life history) has told him about her husband’s plans for his post-presidential life. The first part about the “Holy Land” is from a more general description and the second sentence is actually paraphrased in the quote.

Miner’s actual quote reads: “He was saying there was no city on Earth he so much desired to see as Jerusalem; and with that word half spoken on his tongue, the bullet from the pistol of the [assassin] entered his brain.”

Many Lincoln scholars, however, are skeptical of this story. That it first appeared almost two decades after the fact and at least three steps removed from the source provides some reason for doubt. It also seems like an odd thing to say in the middle of enjoying a stage comedy.

More likely, Lincoln conveyed these sentiments during a better-documented carriage ride with Mary earlier that day, during which Mary herself recalls he was especially cheerful and spoke of their future.

In fact, Lincoln’s last words can’t be confirmed with certainty but there is a more reliable account from another Springfield friend, Dr. Anson Henry, who wrote on April 19, 1865 (only 4 days after Lincoln died):

“She [Mary] sat close to him and was leaning on his lap looking up at his face when the fatal shot was fired, his last words being in answer to her question ‘What will Miss Harris [one of their guests in the presidential box] think of my hanging on to you so?’—’She won’t think anything about it.'”

McWhirter said that this is still secondhand and should be handled with care. However, he continued, it is close enough to the event and the people involved that it can be said that Lincoln likely said it during the play, possibly as his last words.

Lincoln’s last words will likely be debated forever without coming to a definitive answer.

By Jordan Liles

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Chez Paul French Restaurant at 660 North Rush Street in Chicago. (1945-1995)

Chez Paul was a French restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, established in 1945 by Paul Contos. Chez Paul became famous under Bill Contos, Paul's son. It was the oldest French restaurant in Chicago and was only exceeded in prestige by Le Francais at 269 South Milwaukee Avenue in Wheeling, Illinois (1973-2001).

Paul Contos opened Chez Paul at 180 East Delaware Place, just east of Michigan Avenue in Chicago in 1945.

Chez Paul, 660 North Rush Street, Chicago.

Leander McCormick

Chez Paul occupied a mansion built in 1875 for industrialists Leander J. McCormick and his son Robert Hall McCormick (no connection to Robert Hall stores) and was originally constructed as two side-by-side homes. They lived across the street from Leander’s brother and business partner Cyrus McCormick, whose even grander home filled an entire city block.

Chez Paul moved into the Robert Hall McCormick II mansion in 1964 at 660 North Rush Street after refurbishing the building. From 1965 to 1995, one of Chicago’s most elegant restaurants served up both French cuisine and glamour in what had formerly been one of Chicago’s fanciest private homes. The steps and pillars are marble, as is the mantel in the Louis Room, which was presented to McCormick when he was Ambassador to Italy by Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy.

1976 Bill Contos opened "Chez Paul Country House" at Rt.53 & Euclid, 1900 Hicks Road, Rolling Meadows. It was closed in 1986.

A replica of the restaurant's interior was used for a scene in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. A similar set was used in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. They were filmed in Chicago for reference to duplicate on set, right down to the ashtrays.

In both movies, Chez Paul restaurant interior scenes were filmed on the West Coast per owner Bill Contos, who said, "It was either that [a replica] or ship the McCormick mansion to the West Coast, and this just seemed easier."

Bill Contos died in April 1993, and though the restaurant was struggling, his wife, Regina, kept it open for a few more years, long enough to see its 50th anniversary in 1995. 

Chez Paul closed in 1995. The building is currently used for office space.

VISIT OUR CHEZ PAUL SOUVENIR SHOP

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Airport Homes Race Riots of 1946. Whites Protested Negroes Moving Into New Temporary Housing Projects.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Faced with millions of returning veterans after WWII and the ''baby boomer'' families they were beginning, housing became Chicago's first priority. It was estimated that 375,000 negroes were living in the South Side 'black belt' in housing designed to accommodate only 110,000. They had to move out, and the only place to go was to previously all-white, working-class neighborhoods.

Example of post-WW II prefab aluminum and steel houses.

"Airport Homes" was the name of the site, near Midway Airport, established by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) to provide temporary housing during the postwar housing shortage. Residents of West Lawn and West Elsdon rioted and succeeded in intimidating negro war veterans from joining white veterans in the homes. The upheaval against negroes happened during the working hours while the white men were at work, which meant that the elderly and the women were the ones who started the riot.

On a cold afternoon on December 5, 1946, Vernon D. Jarrett, a young reporter on his first assignment with the Chicago Defender, one of the most prominent Negro newspapers in the nation, drove across Chicago’s South Side to the mundane residential neighborhood of West Lawn to cover an extraordinary event. That day, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) attempted to move two negro families into the Airport Homes housing project, a collection of temporary shelters erected on an open field at 60th Street and Karlov Avenue for veteran soldiers returning from World War II. For the CHA, Defender reporters, and hundreds of thousands of other negroes inhumanely crammed into a narrow ghetto located farther east, the integration of the project marked a tentative, yet hopeful step in addressing Chicago’s severe racial segregation.

The residents of West Lawn and other white neighborhoods on the Southwest Side, however, had a different reaction. They saw the arrival of the first negro residents as an invasion to be repelled by any means necessary. A large, vicious mob formed around the housing project, shouting “Ni**ers, go home” and “Kill the dirty communists.” They also promised to honor the newcomers with a lynching. The priorities of Jarrett and other members of the media, negro and white alike, quickly changed from covering the chaotic scene to self-preservation when the wild crowd identified them as “white ni**er-lovers” to be punished. Unable to safely retreat to their cars, they ducked into one of the project’s homes. The shoddy construction of the unit spared their lives. The wet, damp unit prevented a group of teenagers from succeeding in their attempt to, in their words, “barbecue all you ni**ers and white ni**er lovers.” Eventually, the Chicago Police Department escorted Jarrett and his trapped companions to safety.

Preying on racial fears, real estate speculators began to turn entire neighborhoods from white to negro virtually overnight. In the bargain, they turned handsome profits for themselves, scaring white families into selling their homes far below market values, and turning around to sell them to negroes at highly inflated prices. It was a situation intolerably inhumane both to negroes and whites.

Chicago's major newspapers published very few details about the riots at the recommendation of the city's Commission on Human Relations (CHR), who feared that excessive coverage would make the riots worse. As a result, there is very little information available on the riots. 

The riots were large-scale, with thousands of whites attacking negro-owned or rented homes in their neighborhoods, stoning police, and beating hapless negro and white passersby. After the Airport Homes riot other riots occurred in the Fernwood Park area on the Southwest Side in 1947, and in Englewood, Park Manor, and Trumbull Park areas on the South Side in 1949 and 1953, also spilling over into suburban Cicero in 1951. Those were the big riots, but the Human Relations Commission reported a total of 357 serious racial incidents between 1945 and 1950 over negroes moving into previously white enclaves.

With the power to veto placement of public housing in white neighborhoods, the city council effectively defeated any integration efforts attempted by the CHA. If an alderman in a white ward thought the CHA was going to try to bring blacks into one of his neighborhoods with a proposed project, he simply had the council deny the CHA permission to acquire the site.

Given the council's veto power, the whole CHA policy quickly shifted to contain the city's black population in its already overcrowded ghetto neighborhoods. Land in the ghettoes was at a premium, and it soon became apparent that the only way to build the numbers of cheap rental units that were needed was to build up — to go into high-rise construction.

The 1946 riots were the worst episode of racially inspired violence that the city faced since the 1919 Chicago Race Riots.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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ADDITIONAL READING: 

Forgetting How to Hate: The Evolution of White Responses to Integration in Chicago, 1946-1987 — From my Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal™