by Jake Betz

Created on: August 22, 2009

Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley were all victims of assassins' bullets. It was a period of American history in which a president was gunned down every 20 years - Lincoln in 1865, Garfield in 1881 and McKinley in 1901. These three presidents were all Republicans, a circumstance resulting from the dominance of the Republican Party in national politics in those days.

Amazingly, Robert Todd Lincoln, the only one of President Lincoln's four sons to survive to adulthood, was at or near the scene of all three assassinations. Although he did not witness any of the fatal shots being fired, his proximity to all three tragedies is an amazing historical oddity.

Lincoln's son is far from an inconsequential figure in American history. Robert Lincoln was a Cabinet member, ambassador to Great Britain and a major business executive. He was also touted time and time again as a potential aspirant for the Republican presidential nomination, although he never became an active candidate.

As John S. Goff explains in his excellent book, "Robert Todd Lincoln: A Man in His Own Right," the younger Lincoln was happy to be overshadowed all his life by his famous and nationally beloved father. Robert Lincoln appreciated the country's lasting admiration for his father, and strived to avoid the limelight. Yet he was an observant and influential witness to 60 amazing years of American history.

Robert Lincoln was not at Ford's Theater when John Wilkes Booth shot his father, although he could have been. Robert had been invited to accompany his mother and father to the theater, but he begged off and spent the evening in the White House. Upon being told of the shooting, he rushed to be with his mother at the private home where his father lay dying.

As Secretary of War on July 2, 1881, Robert Lincoln was at the Washington train station, along with other Cabinet officers, where Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker. According to Goff, Lincoln and other Cabinet officers, there to see Garfield off on a trip to Williams College, were walking on the train platform when they heard of the shooting. Lincoln arrived at the president's side within seconds. Garfield died on Sept. 19.

McKinley was shot Sept. 6, 1901, while he was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Lincoln, then president of the Pullman Company, was also attending the exposition, and learned about the shooting as he and his family were leaving a train. Goff reports that Lincoln visited the wounded McKinley, who died eight days later.

Goff reports that Lincoln's proximity to the scenes of three presidential assassinations, though coincidental, made him reluctant to accept future presidential invitations. He did share the stage with two chief executives - President Warren G. Harding and Chief Justice (and former president) William Howard Taft - on one more occasion, the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922. Fortunately, that event passed without any unfortunate incidents.

Reference:

Goff, John S., "Robert Todd Lincoln: A Man in His Own Right," University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.

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