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A t o m b f o r a l l t i m e Governor Richard J. Oglesby and the battle over the Lincoln gravesite By Mark A. Plummer By accidents of time and geography, Abraham Lincoln and Richard J. Oglesby experienced similar environments. Both were born in Kentucky and both lost their mothers (Oglesby lost both parents to cholera at age 8). Both spent some of their youth in Indiana before migrating to frontier Illinois. They lived most of their lives in central Illinois. Each apprenticed as lawyers in Springfield. Both were Henry Clay Whigs who were superior speakers. Each stood for election in the Illinois legislature, to Congress, Oglesby returned home to Illinois to give very popular lectures on the Holy Land for the rest of his life, usually just before running for office, as a way to gain name recognition without seeming to be political. Lincoln heard the speech in Bloomington one night and commented favorably upon it. In 1860, Oglesby was elected to the Illinois state senate as Lincoln was elected President, thanks in part to Oglesby's rail-splitter image making (See my "Richard J. Oglesby, Lincoln's Rail-Splitter," Illinois Historical Journal, LXXX, No. 1 (Spring 1987). After the firing on Fort Sumter, Oglesby resigned from the legislature to organize the 8th Illinois Infantry. He was shot through the breast at Corinth, Mississippi, in October 1862. President Lincoln queried General Grant about Oglesby: "anxious to know the condition of Gen. Oglesby, who is an intimate personal friend." While convalescing in Illinois, Oglesby damned the copperheads and praised Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. He declared, on Jan. 9, 1863: "This proclamation is a great thing, perhaps the greatest thing that has occurred in this century. It is too big for us to realize." "A benign, heavenly smile" In November 1864, Oglesby was elected governor as Lincoln was reelected President. The new governor was anxious to travel to Washington, D.C., after he led the Illinois legislature to become the first state to ratify the 13th amendment, ending slavery. On April 11, 1865, he led a small delegation, which included his Adjutant General, Isham Haynie, who kept a diary. (Now at Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.) See "The Last Days of Lincoln" Journal of Illinois History, Volume IV, No. 3 (Spring 2001). Oglesby's unpublished account was given in 1894, in response to a letter from Haynie's son, who was trying to chronicle his father's life. Haynie had died in 1868, at age 43. 10 |ILLINOIS HERITAGE The "rubber room" Numerous engravings of the deathbed scene were produced after the assassination. The number of Lincoln associates who were to be pictured in the small 10 by 17 foot room grew from a dozen to 46 (historian Harold Holzer aptly calls it the "rubber room"). Oglesby is prominently A few hours after Lincoln's death, Illinois politicians in Washington and Springfield began organizing for the return of Lincoln's body to Springfield. The Washington group adopted a resolution deeming "it proper and just to the State of Illinois" that Lincoln's remains be "interred at the Capital of the State, so long his residence." Oglesby was selected to head a committee to confer with the family on a burial place. Oglesby was aware, through Orville Browning, who had conferred with Robert Todd Lincoln, that Mrs. Lincoln, who had secluded herself in the White House, preferred Chicago or the empty crypt in the nation's capitol which had been prepared for President Washington. Mary Lincoln initially acceded to Springfield's advocates when Robert Todd Lincoln and David Davis, whom Robert had called to Washington to take charge of the martyred president's estate, persuaded her to allow a Springfield burial by promising to take their son Willie's body along. The boosters vs. Mary Lincoln But the difficulties between Mary and the Springfield boosters had only begun. Meanwhile, state and city officials in Springfield passed resolutions favoring a local burial. Springfield leaders considered the new Oak Ridge Cemetery as Lincoln's burial place, but it was two miles from the heart of the city. City fathers quickly appropriated $20,000 for funeral expenses and appointed a committee to select a burial location. They chose a six-acre block owned by the Mather family (the location of the present Illinois capitol) where the tomb could be observed from the major railroad line. The community donated $10,000 to buy the land and construction was begun on an elaborate burial vault. But Mary objected, recalling that Lincoln had said he preferred a quiet place. Through Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, she proclaimed that "her final and positive determination ILLINOIS HERITAGE| 11 is that the remains must be placed in Oakridge Cemetery and nowhere else—see that this is done." The Oak Ridge vault was prepared but work continued on the Mather block tomb as a "contingency." By virtue of being governor of Lincoln's home state and a personal friend of the slain president, Oglesby was accorded a high place of honor in all the Lincoln obsequies. In Washington he headed the Illinois delegation to the funeral at the White House. He escorted the body on the fourteen-day railroad journey that retraced most of the route Lincoln had taken when he came to Washington in 1861. When the train reached Springfield on May 3, forty thousand citizens, dressed in black, were waiting. The governor led the Illinois delegation to the capitol where Lincoln's casket was placed on a specially built catafalque for viewing in the Hall of Representatives where he had made his "House Divided" speech in 1858. The next day (May 4, 1865) the casket was loaded onto an elegant hearse that had been quickly borrowed from St. Louis for the procession to the burial site. After passing the Governors Mansion, the procession seemed to be headed toward the Mather block, thus confusing many citizens about its ultimate location. Rut it soon turned toward Oak Ridge cemetery where Lincoln was interred in the public-vault with Willie. The National Lincoln Monument Association The instrument for maintaining Springfield's claim to Lincoln's body was the National Lincoln Monument Association. The Association was
Less than a month after Lincoln's body had been placed in the public receiving vault at Oak Ridge, the "Battle of the gravesite" broke out again. Springfield boosters still preferred the Mather block for a tomb or a memorial site. On May 17, the Illinois State Journal reported that the National Lincoln Monument Association had decided that, "in accordance with the almost unanimous desire of the friends of President Lincoln," to build a tomb on the "commanding elevation in the Mather block." But Mary Lincoln had finally left the White House and had moved to Chicago. She soon heard about the association's plans and dispatched a series of ultimatums to Gov. Oglesby. On June 5, she gave the association ten days to send an official assurance that the monument would be erected in Oak Ridge Cemetery, or she would take the body to Washington or Chicago. She later read that Oglesby and Ozias Hatch were coming to Chicago to try to persuade her to accept the Mather block. "My determination is unalterable," she wrote on June 10 and demanded a formal promise that "the immortal Savior and Martyr for Freedom" would be at Oak Ridge. Faced with Mary's June 15 deadline, the association voted, on the evening before the deadline, by the narrowest of margins, 8-7, to accept her demands. But Mary possessed both might and right in this case. The central Illinois clique was threatened by the possibility that the mercurial widow might authorize a move to Chicago. Springfield boosters, who represented a majority on the association, recognized the inadequacies of the governmental facilities in Springfield and they feared that the capitol might follow the tomb to Chicago. That fear was not extinguished until the construction of a new capitol (ironically, built on the Mather block) began construction in 1868 and the Chicago fire of 1871. The July 7, 1865, report of the treasurer of the National Lincoln Monument Association showed that only $31,145 of the proposed $250,000 had been contributed. Fund-raising was constricted by confusion with other Lincoln funds, including those for the relief of Mary Lincoln, as well as the perceived partisanship of the association, inertia, uncertainty about the design, and lack of governmental support. Mary Lincoln believed, with some justification, that the Springfield boosters, including Oglesby and Edward Baker, whom she described as "that unprincipled man of the Springfield Illinois State 12 |ILLINOIS HERITAGE Journal," meant to divert funds being collected for her and to oppose her application for Lincoln's second-term salary. She may have been correct concerning the private funds. Rhode Island governor James E. Smith wrote to Oglesby inquiring whether a fund initiated for her might be better sent
Mary Lincoln seemed to focus on Edward Baker of the Illinois State journal and Governor Oglesby as the enemies who wanted to deny her remuneration. She wrote to Congressman Elihu Washburne, in November 1865, contending that they were on their way to Washington to sabotage the second-term salary appropriation. Oglesby did travel to Washington, but not to oppose the legislation. Mrs. Lincoln was voted one year's salary of $25,000 at the December session of the Congress. A tomb for all time During the last half of 1865, the association began to find its direction. Contributions continued at a modest rate. The tomb association adopted a suggestion made by the New York Times that a contest be opened for the best design for the tomb. Oglesby, on behalf of the association, successfully petitioned the secretary of the interior to assign William Saunders, "Botanist and Superintendent of Propagating Gardens" to plat and lay out the grounds around the tomb. Saunders, who had designed the famous cemetery at Gettysburg, quickly complied. Missouri, under Oglesby's friend, Gov. Thomas Fletcher, sent $1,000. Nevada sent $500, appropriately in gold, and New York, after considerable lobbying by Judge David Davis and Oglesby, promised $10,000. Gov. Oglesby persuaded the Illinois legislature to commit $50,000. A temporary tomb was built at the Oak Ridge Cemetery to free the public receiving vault. On December 21, 1865, Lincoln and Willie's bodies were transferred to the new tomb, only a hundred yards up the hill and to the left of the holding vault. Eddie Lincoln, who died in 1850, had been removed from Springfield's Hutchinson Cemetery and deposited in the new temporary tomb as well. Mary Lincoln, accompanied by son Robert Todd, made her first visit to the site of her husband's and sons' graves. Oglesby presided over most of the weekly meetings of the National Lincoln Monument Association as fund-raising progressed. By January 1868, they had sufficient funds to advertise for designs, not to exceed $200,000. Thirty-seven designs were presented by thirty-one artists. Many models were displayed at the state capitol. Larkin Mead supported by the New York Times, had been lobbying since 1865. Leonard Volk, already involved with the Stephen Douglas Monument in Chicago, submitted two plans. Vinnie Beam, commissioned to do the Lincoln sculpture that stands in the Capitol in Washington, had the support of Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull. Cochrane and Piquenard, architects of the new Illinois capitol, also offered a plan. Mead's classical design was adopted by the association on the fifth ballot by a vote of twelve to one (Oglesby and Phillips listed as absent or not voting). Mead was awarded a contract worth about $70,000 to produce a Lincoln statue and a coat of arms. It was the largest award received by an American sculptor to that time. William D. Richardson was contracted to build the structure for $136,000. Construction was slow. One historian has labeled it: "One of the earliest of the Civil War monuments to be commissioned but one of the slowest to be completed." Not-with-standing the slow pace toward completion, the unfinished tomb could receive, in September 1871, the bodies of four Lincoln's: Abraham, Willie, Eddie, and now Thomas (Tad) who had died in July. They were moved from the temporary tomb to the new crypt, "quietly but reverently, and without any ceremonials whatever." But several old acquaintances viewed the body of the president and certified that it was indeed that of Lincoln. The association was frustrated by the slow pace of construction and of fund raising. Mead was dilatory in delivering the Lincoln statue and coat of arms. In 1871, Oglesby, newly elected to the U. S. Senate, still ILLINOIS HERITAGE| 13 president of the association and wrote that he was "anxious to raise the funds and complete the tomb sometime before the day of judgment." President Grant's "longest speech" The association planned to invite some prominent persons from Lincoln's cabinet to make the dedication speech. Unfortunately, the day of judgment came to William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Charles Sumner before the tomb was completed. When October 15, 1874, was agreed upon as the dedication date, Lincoln's associates were scarce. Governor John A. Dix of New York declined as did Gideon Welles. Oglesby traveled to Hot Springs to recruit the ailing former governor of Indiana, O. P. Morton, but his mission failed. President Grant was solicited but he did not like to speak, although he agreed to attend. As the Illinois State Journal reported: "After much embarrassment and explanation of his great disinclination to undertake so delicate and responsible a service, Gov. Oglesby accepted the invitation to make the dedicatory speech." The ceremony of the yet unfinished tomb (the military group was not yet in place) coincided with a reunion of the Army of the Tennessee being held in Springfield. President Ulysses S. Grant, Vice President Henry Wilson, Generals William T. Sherman, John Pope, and George Armstrong Custer were present. Mary Lincoln, living in Chicago, did not attend, her only surviving son, Robert Todd, did. A two-mile-long procession involving some 20,000 citizens marched to the tomb. President Grant read a 400 word speech: "keeping his eyes all the while upon the manuscript that he held in his hand." Nevertheless, the Springfield paper, erroneously perhaps, joked that it was the longest speech of his life." Oglesby was a great "stump" speaker but his hastily assembled dedication speech was no masterpiece. He later declared it was the only speech he ever scripted. If there were memorable phrases in the speech they were masked by its excessive length
Oglesby did not forgo the opportunity to connect himself to Lincoln and the rails. He mentioned his "long and somewhat intimate personal acquaintance" with Lincoln and introduced John Hanks, who was in the audience. Oglesby closed his long oration by dedicating the "monument to the memory of the obscure boy, the honest man, the illustrious statesman and the great Liberator, and the martyr President." "Behold the image of the man," and the statue was unveiled. Oglesby's efforts were generally applauded by both Republican and Democratic papers, although the Chicago Times, his worst enemies among newspapers, faintly praised his work as an "oration which was much superior in point of literary merit to his ordinary efforts." Oglesby's guardianship of the tomb continued for twenty-one years after his dedication speech. The association dealt with an abortive attempt to kidnap Lincoln's body in 1876, the burial of Mary Lincoln in 1882, and the upkeep of the structure. It was not until 1886, during Oglesby's third non-consecutive service as governor that the remaining military statuary groups were installed as a result of a special $27,000 state appropriation. The end at Elkhart Hill Oglesby retired to Elkhart Hill, north of Springfield, where on April 24, 1899, a few weeks short of his 75th birthday, he fell, hitting his head on a piece of furniture, and died a few hours later. In honor of Oglesby's relationship to Lincoln, Governor Tanner ordered that the flag that had draped Lincoln's casket and been preserved in the state museum, "hither-to-undisturbed," should be made available for the funeral. The statesman's casket was carried by eight African-American employees, as Oglesby had said that he wanted to be "carried to his grave by his friends...." And in death, as in life, Oglesby was symbolically draped in Lincoln's flag. Mark A. Plummer is a past president of the Illinois State Historical Society, professor emeritus of history from Illinois State University, and the author of Lincoln's Rail-Splitter: Richard T. Oglesby. 14 |ILLINOIS HERITAGE |
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and the U. S. Senate. They differed in that, while Lincoln rode the 8th Judicial Circuit, making both money and political friends, the younger Oglesby fought in the Mexican-American War, made a fortune in the California gold rush, and toured Europe and the Holy Land in 1856-57.
pictured in both the 26-person version of Alexander Hay Ritchie's "Death of President Lincoln" and Alonzo Chappel's forty-six persons version entitled "The Last Days of Lincoln." Haynie, often misnamed as Haynes (even in modern books) was also represented in the picture. The huge painting later toured around the country. In January 1869, a few months after Haynie's untimely death, it could be seen on the square in Springfield, for 50 cents admission charge.
