President Abraham Lincoln Acts at the Request of His Wife, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, and Issues a Unique Protection Order to Her Cousin, Who Sought to Return South to Her Cotton Plantation After the Fall of Little Rock to Union Forces

Mrs. Craig, the recipient, was first cousins to Lincoln’s great benefactor and law partner, John Todd Stuart, and also to Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd

A search of “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln” shows that in no other instance through the entire Civil War did Lincoln prohibit molestation by the U.S. Army of civilians returning South, and in fact order their protection against retaliation by their pro-Confederate neighbors

We gain an insight into what Reconstruction would have been like had Lincoln lived

Abraham Lincoln owed a lot to John Todd Stuart. They first met when Stuart and Lincoln were both serving in the Black Hawk War. Stuart was well-connected in Springfield, Illinois, and already set up in a successful law practice when Lincoln moved to that city. Stuart offered him the opportunity to study law as a junior partner and work with him, and Lincoln accepted. On April 15, 1837, the notice of the new partnership appeared in the Sangamon Journal. This was a major step for the backwoods young man from New Salem, and perhaps the most important step he took on the ladder to the White House. Stuart was absorbed in politics, and Lincoln’s interest in – and knowledge of – that field deepened in his years with Stuart. Moreover, Lincoln was given important responsibilities and met men of consequence in Springfield through Stuart. As Lincoln’s later partner William Herndon wrote, “In consequence of the political allurements, Stuart did not give to the law his undivided time or the full force of his energy and intellect. Thus more or less responsibility in the management of business and the conduct of cases soon devolved on Lincoln.” While Mr. Lincoln managed the office and actively practiced law, he also campaigned hard for his partner in elections. In 1841 Stuart was sent to Congress and the partnership ended.

But it was not only in the political and legal fields that Lincoln owed so much to Stuart. Lincoln had no personal connections when he came to Springfield, and because of his association with Stuart he met influential people and was invited to glittering social events. Mary Todd was Stuart’s cousin – in fact her first cousin – and thus through Stuart, Lincoln met his wife. It was to Stuart that Lincoln wrote his famous letter shortly after his supposed break-up with Mary Todd, saying “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I felt were distributed to the whole human family there would not be one happy face on the earth. I must die or be better it appears to me. I awfully forbade I shall not…I can write no more.”

It is useful to recall that many in Springfield society had family ties to the South. Mary Todd Lincoln, for example, was born in Kentucky, and her brother-in-law (and thus Lincoln’s brother-in-law) General Benjamin Helm would be killed at the Battle of Chicamauga while serving in the Confederate Army. And there were Todd relatives from Arkansas who had been effected by the Little Rock Campaign of 1863, during which Union forces took back large swaths of land in Arkansas. This victory effectively restricted Confederate Arkansas to the southern half of the state, ending plans to use the state as a staging ground for efforts against Missouri. Politically, it placed Arkansas’s capital under Union control, making it the fourth southern capital to come under federal control following the captures of Nashville, Tennessee; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Jackson, Mississippi. The fall of Little Rock had a direct effect on President Lincoln’s decision to issue a “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction” on December 8, 1863. The proclamation stated that, in a state that had seceded, ten percent of the 1860 voters could take a loyalty oath and then establish a Unionist government. That would happen in Arkansas in January 1864.

In time Stuart and Lincoln drew apart politically, and while Lincoln was in the Executive Mansion, Stuart was a Democratic congressman and political opponent. As an old friend, and a close relative, he was nonetheless invited to events and had access to the First Family if he wanted it.

Stuart arrived in Washington for the December 1863 session of Congress, and wrote his wife about seeing the Lincolns and his attendance at a reception for visiting Russian naval officers on December 19, 1863. Stuart was not alone. He brought along with him “cousin Sue,” who was a Todd relative from Arkansas. Susan F. Carr Craig was the daughter of Mary Todd Lincoln’s aunt Elizabeth Todd and Walter Carr. So Mrs. Craig, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Stuart were first cousins. The Craigs had fled their plantation in Arkansas, which was now in Union territory and being run by an interloper from Illinois; essentially a carpetbagger. She wished to return to her home and seeing First Lady was her first step.

Stuart left a vivid account of the December 19 events, “At One O’clock I called at Willards for Cousin Sue and Charley and we went to the White House. We went into the Blue Room bowed to Mr. Lincoln who held out his hand & said How are you Stuart! I introduced Cousin Sue & Charley and passed over to Cousin Mary. Her salutations were how are you Mrs. Craig!!…and after a few common place words of ceremony & form we passed into the East Room. It was very select reception confined to Members of Congress, the Cabinet, Foreign legations and a few distinguished strangers…After we had been some time in the East Room we received a message from Cousin Mary that she wished us to remain awhile after the reception was over. We did so and after the reception was over Charley, Cousins Sue [Craig] and myself were invited in Mary’s private Room. After a very pleasant chat of several minutes I made my bow. Cousin John and Charley staid awhile longer who left Sue & Cousin Mary alone. Sue remained about one hour & left with an invitation to accompany Mary to Church to day, she promising to send her carriage to Willards for Sue & Charley and I believe also an invitation for them to dine at the White House.”

Stuart told his wife on December 20, 1863: “Last night Sue accompanied by Mr. [Henry T.] Blow of St. Louis who is an old friend called upon Mrs. Lincoln to arrange her business matters. She wants a pass & protection for Craig & herself to go to Arkansas to occupy their farm and raise a crop of cotton next year. The farm is now in possession of some Illinois preacher so Sue says. Mr. Lincoln as I am informed granted all Sue’s wishes and promised to have the papers made out for her by tomorrow…” Thus Susan Craig took her request to the First Lady, who arranged for her to see the President, who granted it. This is the very protection order Lincoln wrote for the Craigs, the one to which Stuart refers. It has been in the hands of the Craig / Todd descendants until we recently obtained it directly from them.

Autograph document signed, on Executive Mansion letterhead, Washington, December 21, 1863. “Mr. and Mrs. Craig, of Arkansas, whose plantation, situated upon the Mississippi River a few miles below Helena, has been desolated during the present war, propose returning to reoccupy and cultivate said plantation; and it is my wish that they be permitted to do so, and that the United States military forces in that vicinity will not molest them or allow them to be molested, as long as the said Mr. and Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful, loyal citizens of the United States.”

So Mary’s cousin needed a favor and she was able to get an audience with the President, not an easy task, and he received the group with great warmth. Lincoln wrote the Craigs a lengthy pass, starting out by saying – unusually – that it was his personal wish that the Craigs wishes be accommodated. He then issued what was in essence a protection order, instructing U.S. military forces not merely to avoid harassing the Craigs, but implicitly to see to it that any carpetbaggers were evicted from the Craig plantation. Moreover, the order requires Union leaders in the area to make sure the Craigs were not harassed by their pro-Confederate neighbors. Lincoln ended with the caveat that the Craigs remain loyal to the United States. It is astonishing to find, from a search of “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, that in no other instance through the entire Civil War did Lincoln prohibit molestation of civilians returning South and in fact order their protection against retaliation by others.

Here we see Lincoln’s willingness to grant this sweeping favor for family. But even more, this absolutely unique letter shows Lincoln’s appreciation of what it would take to truly help civilians returning South (or, additionally, residing in the South while reassuming loyalty to the United States), and what such civilians would have to do to be able to earn his support. It thus affords a glimpse of what Reconstruction would have been like had Lincoln lived.