Abraham Lincoln's Oldest Son

choi

Ryan L Cole, The Son Also Rises; Prominent lawyer, self-made millionaire, cabinet secretary—Robert Lincoln was more than just his father's greatest advocate. Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2012
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 80462387092918.html
(book review on Jason Emerson, Giant in the Shadows; The life of Robert T Lincoln. Southern Illinois University Press, 2012)

Note:
(a) Robert Todd Lincoln
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Todd_Lincoln
(1843-1926; mother's maiden name Mary Ann Todd; following the 1865 assassination, Robert moved with his mother and his brother Tad to Chicago)
(b) Appomattox, Virginia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appomattox,_Virginia
("The town was named for the Appomattox River. The river was named after the Appamatuck Virginia Indian tribe"; Appomattox Court House [was] the site of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender to Union General Ulysses S Grant on April 9, 1865)
(c) The review says, "Robert was born in 1843 in Springfield, Ill, where his father, a lawyer with a growing reputation, had just served four terms in the state legislature."

Having failed in 1832, Abraham Lincoln's second campaign in 1834 was successful and went on to serve four successive [two-year] terms in the Illinois House of Representatives as a Whig. Afterwards, he was a one-term US Representative (1847-1849).
(d) chide (vt, vi):
"to voice disapproval to : reproach in a usually mild and constructive manner : SCOLD"
www.m-w.com
(e) sounding board
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_board

(f) The review then states, "The tragedy [assassination] hastened his maturity, leaving him to guide his adolescent brother, Tad, into manhood (an effort that was cut sadly short with the boy's death at the age of 18; brothers Eddie and Willie had also died prematurely) and support his grieving mother, Mary."

Abraham Lincoln had four sons: Robert, Edward, William and Tad (in that order).
* Edward (1846-1850; census records list "chronic consumption" as the cause of death)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Baker_Lincoln
* William (1850-1862; became ill in early 1862)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wallace_Lincoln
* Tad (1953-1871; Thomas Lincoln; The nickname "Tad" was given to him by his father who found Thomas "as wriggly as a tadpole" when he was a baby; died of heart failure at the age of 18
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tad_Lincoln
(g) The review mentions "his [Robert's] notorious institutionalization of his mother in 1875."

Mary Todd Lincoln
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Todd_Lincoln
(section 3 Assassination survivor and later life)
(h)
* James Garfield (1831-1881; presidency Mar 4, 1881-Sept 19, 1881;  shot by assassin Charles J Guiteau on July 2, 1881; Republican)
* Chester A Arthur (1829-1886; Garfield's vice president; presidency 1881-1885; "Suffering from poor health, Arthur made only a limited effort to secure renomination in 1884; he retired at the close of his term"; Republican)
* Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901; a grandson of President William Henry Harrison; presidency 1889–1893; Republican)
(i) Joseph Gurney Cannon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Gurney_Cannon
(1836-1926; US Representative from Illinois; speaker of US House 1903-1911)