I started out studying Mary Lincoln, but eventually became equally fascinated by the New York Herald and its editor, James Gordon Bennett (Senior). He has not been done justice to by most historians, often portrayed as a villainous type. He was provocative and generally pro-slavery (or pretended to be, to please his audience, as the Herald’s policy was selling papers by telling the New York City public what they wanted to hear and giving the best news coverage and analysis around), but there was just so much more to all of it. The guy invented the interview, the phrase “the situation,” the weather and stock report, etc., etc. Everything about his life is just unbelievable.
You kind of have to read the Herald to understand what I’m talking about, although some great books on the history of journalism contain enlightening accounts. It is available on Chronicling America for free, though that site isn’t super user-friendly. Newspapers.com and Genealogybank.com both have most issues up—the former is the easiest to browse. Highly recommended—run a search for “Mr. Lincoln” and follow the coverage. The major papers at the time were hilarious and vicious, with no pretense to objectivity, but the product was generally higher quality than anything you get today.
While the elder Bennett remained at the helm, no criticism of Mary Lincoln appeared. This was not, as some times represented, because of obsequious flattery. That was just the Herald’s playful celebrity-style coverage, which pre-dated Mary Lincoln and was well-understood. Bennett had an unexpected talent for describing balls and society in an over-the-top way—the Long Branch stuff was all a parody. The problem was other editors hated Bennett, largely because he was so successful at selling papers while breaking all the rules—a style saucy and combative even for the time, and no partisan affiliation or pretense to consistency. So they pretended that the Herald’s coverage was intended literally and claimed to be appalled on Mary’s behalf. The whole thing is absurd and has been misunderstood, and I will write more about it at some time. It was also the Herald’s policy not to go after the wives and families of its targets. After marrying suddenly late in life, Bennett very much resented that his personal rivals in the industry attacked his wife and son, whom he liked to brag about in his paper, and made a big show out of deploring that behavior. He also seems to have truly liked Mary Lincoln personally, and she liked him, visiting his mansions as the guest of his wife.
The Herald was mischief personified and hated political radicals, especially abolitionists. Here are some of the greatest Mary Lincoln-related headlines:
“The Abolitionist War Upon Women—Mrs. Lincoln the Target of Party Malice”
“SATANIC ABOLITIONISTS AND THE PRESIDENT’S FAMILY”
“THE ABOLITIONIST WAR UPON WOMEN”
“MORE ABOLITIONIST ATTACKS UPON THE WHITE HOUSE”
“THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND THE SATANIC ABOLITION ELEMENT IN CONGRESS"
Some historians have bizarrely suggested this made abolitionists angry at Mary Lincoln—they well understood that this reflected Bennett’s ire, and they were used to it. Some of them were after her, but this obviously preceded the headlines. This style of headline was typical across all topics the Herald covered. When they weren’t getting shot at, abolitionists were having a good day. They weren’t too easily rattled by taunting.
Bennett and Lincoln never met, but some believe Lincoln promised Bennett the misson to France in exchange for the Herald’s support in the run-up to the 1864 election, which he was desperate to win. What exactly went on is hard to figure out, but Bennett wanted that position, and it was usually given to someone distinguished in the intellectual/literary world (Franklin, Jefferson), and he believed he qualified. The nomination never made it to the Senate because Bennett quickly declined, which may have been pre-arranged, and Bennett let the offer and his declination become known, which baffled many. His rival Horace Greeley agreed to publish this “scoop” and emphasize the great honor conferred upon Bennett, so there was more going on. After that, Bennett praised Lincoln in the highest terms, and I imagine he hoped to finally meet him once things quieted down, but Lincoln was assassinated weeks later.
A few months after Lincoln’s death, a few stories surfaced about his offering the French mission. Briefly, one alleged that Wikoff and a “Mr. S." [who seems to have been New York City businessman Isaac Sherman, a friend of Bennett], had arranged it. The story went that Wikoff told Lincoln he would get Bennett to decline before it was officially offered, which he did by reminding Bennett that there had been a scandal with his wife in France and people would dig it all up again. This may have been why she moved to Germany in 1866. Thurlow Weed later said the whole story was cringe-worthy and was the result of misguided efforts of two friends.
Bennett had been born in Scotland. He became an American citizen and spoke French fluently, visiting the country frequently once ocean steamers got fast enough to make it feasible. He declined on the excuse that he was too old, and he was indeed starting to become feeble. His vivacious much-younger wife, from a poor Irish-American family but very well-educated and talented, had been attacked as “fast” when they married. It is entirely believable that this was all fabricated to get at Bennett himself, as this was typical newspaper warfare in New York City. It is also quite possible that Bennett, who surprised everyone by marrying for the first time in his 40s, had not selected a bride mainly for her purity.
The marriage seemed happy enough for a while, but the loss of two children and the social shunning of the family led Henrietta Bennett to take the remaining kids to France for a couple of years at a time. While there, she wrote for the Herald about her European travels. She was quite friendly with Buchanan and other politicians, and spent much of the war era at home. In 1866, she moved back to Europe, permanently this time, fleeing the newspaper abuse and her failing marriage. It may be that Bennett was just too elderly and obsessed with the Herald to be a supportive husband, but in the 1850s, there had been some sort of scandal while Henrietta was in France. The Herald’s French correspondent (it was the first American paper to have international bureaus) threatened to publish some letters she’d written him. They must have had a falling out, and Bennett jumped on the first ship to France to shut it down. The implication is that she was having an affair, but it is also possible they contained sensitive information about the Bennett family or anything the Herald had secrets about.
Another story surfaced saying Lincoln had offered the mission to Bennett because the Herald had information about a family member that was false but somehow compromising, and essentially extorted the offer. This would likely be Mary Lincoln. I find this implausible—Bennett had a demonstrable history of leaving women out of things, except to point out when they were attacked by abolitionists. He didn’t post hit pieces on them, and I don’t think he would want the offer under such dishonorable conditions, especially since he declined it. The offer seemed to really mean something to him as a matter of recognition. Mary Lincoln was writing him friendly notes well after this, though she could have been shielded from what was going on. It is possible that Wikoff or someone else made up or used real allegations to get Bennett the offer and make him happy, but that just seems a stretch.
It is entirely possible neither of these stories are true, and people were just desperately casting about for an explanation for Lincoln’s strange offer, recklessly gossiping. Lincoln was dead, his cabinet apparently did not know about the offer until after the election, and Bennett quickly went senile. If there is truth to any of this, I tend to think that the gossip about Henrietta Bennett’s scandalous past in France derailing the mission may have gotten distorted to the point where someone thought it was Lincoln’s wife being discussed.
Or maybe, the whole thing was a mutual blackmail operation, both men ensnared by their troublesome wives. Wouldn’t that have been something!