A Potus Geeks Halloween Story: Lincoln's Ghost
This being Halloween, it is probably fitting that we tell a ghost story, that of Lincoln's ghost and the monarch who claimed to have had an encounter with it. The ghost of President Abraham Lincoln, also known as the White House Ghost, is said to have haunted the White House since Lincoln's assassination in 1865. Lincoln's ghost has also been said to haunt many of his former residences in Springfield, Illinois, including his former law office. Within the walls of the White House, Lincoln's ghost had been reported by a number of prominent and credible persons, including First Lady Grace Coolidge, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Theodore Roosevelt and Maureen Reagan, daughter of President Ronald Reagan. Another credible person who claims to have encountered this spectral presence was a Queen, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.
Wilhelmina was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign encompassed two world wars as well as the Dutch economic crisis of 1933. Born in 1880, she was the only child of King William III of the Netherlands and Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Wilhelmina ascended to the throne at the age of 10 after her father's death in 1890, under her mother's regency. After taking charge of government, Wilhelmina became very popular, first for maintaining Dutch neutrality during the First World War and also for helping to solve many of her country's industrial problems. A brilliant leader economically, her business ventures had made her the world's first female billionaire. A staunch believer in monarchy, she ensured that her family was one of seven European royal houses remaining in existence at a time when monarchies were failing.
When Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Wilhelmina fled to Britain and led the Dutch government-in-exile. She frequently spoke to the nation over radio and came to be regarded as a symbol of the resistance. By 1948, she had returned to the liberated Netherlands and was the only one of the 16 monarchs who were sitting on their thrones at the time of her coronation. Poor health led to her abdication in favor of her daughter, Queen Juliana in September 1948 and retired to Het Loo Palace, where she died in 1962. She remains a very figure in the Netherlands, even among many anti-monarchists, for leading the Dutch Resistance during World War II.
On August 6, 1942, the Queen was in Washington DC, the guest of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, where she would address a joint session of Congress. Her daughter, the future Queen Julianna, accompanied her, and they also made a visit to George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. Eleanor Roosevelt was along on that visit and wrote about it in her column entitled "My Day":
The sun shone yesterday and the weather has certainly been kind, because it has not been oppressively warm either yesterday or today. I went with Queen Wilhelmina to the Capitol and sat in the gallery to listen to her as she addressed those members of the Senate and the House who were in session and some of their friends and relatives.
Then we drove to the Navy Yard. The papers have told you of the ceremony as the United States turned over an American subchaser to Queen Wilhelmina. A lump came in my throat when I saw this kindly faced woman go abroad to greet, not only her officers, but all of her men.
She looked at all there was to see. Not content with a glance she made a real inspection of the quarters and even of the gun on the forward deck. One gets a sense of unity between a sovereign and her people when you see Queen Wilhelmina with her Navy men. It gives one an understanding of why she has been known as "the mother of her people."
I have a feeling that any Dutch citizen who wished to reach his Queen would find her accessible, and if what he had to say was worth while, he would get a hearing. This is democracy, no matter whether the head of the nation is a sovereign or an elected chief.
The trip to Mt. Vernon on the "Potomac" was very pleasant. We lunched and chatted and landed immediately on arrival and the usual ceremony took place at George Washington's tomb. From there most of the party drove to the Mansion, though some of us walked up the hill.
There was time only for a brief glance at the rooms and then we drove to the National Cemetery in nearby Arlington, Va., to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The ceremony seemed to me even more poignant than usual. The bugler sounded taps and as the notes floated over the valley below, everyone thought of the new "unknown soldiers" all over the world today.
Back at the White House we had a cup of tea and then the President went to his office and the Queen left to prepare for the dinner and reception by her at the Dutch Embassy last night.
This morning Queen Wilhelmina attended the President's press conference. Then, on our way to the Cabinet room, I showed her Miss Tully's office, which is always filled with things awaiting the President's attention. She was interested to know that the President always presides at Cabinet meetings. I pointed out the fact that we marked each member's chair with his or her name, so that there could be no question of ownership.
Now Queen Wilhelmina has gone to visit the American Red Cross Headquarters and her own embassy, after which there will be a small informal lunch here.
The Queen stayed not in the Lincoln Bedroom, but in the Rose Room at the White House. The following night President Roosevelt held a cocktail reception for her. It was at that reception that the Queen reported to a shocked president that she was not feeling well because she had fainted the night before. Roosevelt asked the Queen what had happened, and she replied: "Someone knocked on my door in the middle of the night. I got up and opened it. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I saw Abraham Lincoln standing there. Then everything went black and I came to on the floor." She said that Lincoln was wearing a frock coat and a top hat, and that he was standing directly in front of her.
Lincoln's ghost would continue to make a number of subsequent appearances at the White House. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill reported a sighting after taking a long, hot bath while drinking a Scotch, and smoking a cigar. Churchill claimed that he climbed out of the bath, naked but for his cigar. He walked into the adjoining bedroom where he claims he was startled to see Lincoln standing by the fireplace in the room, leaning on the mantle. Churchill reported that he simply took his cigar out of his mouth, tapped the ash off the end of it and said "Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage." He claimed that Lincoln smiled softly, as if laughing and disappeared.
Ronald Reagan's daughter Maureen Reagan, her husband Dennis C. Revell, and a number of White House staff members all claimed to have seen Lincoln's ghost. On one occasion Roosevelt's personal valet ran screaming from the White House claiming he had seen Lincoln's ghost. Eleanor Roosevelt never claimed to having seen Lincoln's ghost, but did say that she felt his presence repeatedly throughout the White House. She also said that the Roosevelt family dog, Fala, would sometimes bark for no reason and the first lady attributed this to seeing Lincoln's ghost. President Dwight Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty, and Liz Carpenter, press secretary to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, also claimed they felt Lincoln's presence many times. In her 1961 autobiography My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House, Lillian Rogers Parks reported that she heard Lincoln's footsteps many times outside the Lincoln Bedroom. Margaret Truman, daughter of President Harry S. Truman, said she heard rapping at the door of the Lincoln Bedroom when she stayed there, and believed it was Lincoln. President Truman himself was once awakened by raps at the door while spending a night in the Lincoln Bedroom.
Other unnamed eyewitnesses have claimed to have seen Lincoln actually lying down on the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom (which was used as a meeting room at the time of his administration), while others have reported seeing Lincoln sit on the edge of the bed and put his boots on. Mary Eben, Eleanor Roosevelt's secretary, claimed to have witnessed Lincoln pulling on his boots (after which she ran screaming from the room).
Whether these reports are real, imaginary or fictitious, they make for an appropriate entry for this the 31st of October.