The Shut Mouth Society (23 page)

After they ordered and their drinks arrived, Baldwin said, “Lincoln is the most studied president in history, but he remains an enigma. Since 1968, over sixteen hundred books have been published on Lincoln. Every author looks for new ground and almost all of them find it … or make it up. The Library of Congress has digitized over two hundred thousand Lincoln documents, more than any one researcher could peruse in a lifetime, and yet nobody has successfully revealed the flesh and blood man.”

“
Not even you? Your last book stayed on the bestseller lists for months.” Evarts had a copy of
Quite Contrary
, but with the driving schedule and other activities, he had read only a small portion of it.

“
I told Abraham Lincoln’s story from Mary Lincoln’s perspective. In the beginning, I thought I could flush out the man by looking at him through the eyes of his wife, but she destroyed most of their personal letters, so I had very little new material. It only appeared fresh because of the point of view … and the book sold well because it appealed to women, who buy most of the books nowadays.”

“
Why can’t anyone get a handle on the man?”

“
Despite all that documentation, almost nothing of a personal nature survived … if it ever existed. Lincoln didn’t keep a journal like others in his cabinet, and his letters seldom revealed his feelings. Since Lincoln rarely made a record of his meetings, the notes we have about his private conversations come from the other participants.” Baldwin sipped her wine before adding, “He had to balance every power base in the country, so he might lead one party to believe he supported them and then appear to take a different slant with the next visitors.”

“
Douglass said you didn’t appreciate that politicians lie.”

“
It’s not whether historical figures lied or not, it’s whether a responsible historian can tag a specific utterance a lie without a sound basis for the assertion. If historians can dismiss any part of the record that conflicts with their point of view, then you lose all restraint on the discipline.”

The waiter brought them each a bowl of lobster bisque. One spoonful and Evarts knew food could go well beyond mere fuel. After another sip, Evarts asked, “How did Lincoln make different parties believe he agreed with them?”

“
People left meetings believing that he would seriously consider their positions, rather than that he agreed with them. If Lincoln encountered a particularly strident petitioner, he frequently told entertaining stories until the meeting time ran out. Sometimes the stories could be interpreted to support or oppose a position, but in either case, the petitioners took away no presidential declarations they could use. The man mastered several techniques to deflect people and issues when he didn’t want to get involved or thought the timing inopportune.”

“
And these deflections make it hard to get to the man beneath the myth?” Evarts asked.

“
Yes. He kept his own counsel.” She took a sip of her wine. “Due to the scanty or conflicting record, authors portray the man as evil or great, straight or gay, clinically depressed or a paragon of mental stability, decisive or vacillating, a racist or the Great Emancipator, a stalwart protector of the Constitution or someone who desecrated the Constitution and refused to accept any limitations on his powers.”

“
What do we know … for sure?”

“
We know that despite less than a year of formal education, he held his own with a cabinet impeccably educated in the best institutions in America. We know that despite his rail-splitter image, he actually ran a prominent and lucrative law practice. We know that despite his caricature as an inexperienced buffoon who accidentally won the presidency, he seemed to always get his way when confronted by powerful and experienced politicians. We know that despite his aw-shucks country-lawyer image, the man was driven by an implacable ambition that made him lament that he could never accomplish anything as great as George Washington. We know that despite his reputation as honest, Horace Greeley once famously said, ‘I can’t trust your Honest Old Abe. He’s too smart for me.’”

Evarts had a thought. “Do you think Greeley could’ve been the one in secret communication with Lincoln?”

“
Doubtful. By that time, Lincoln distrusted Greeley’s mercurial disposition.”

“
Who then? It had to be someone in New York.”

“
William Cullen Bryant, maybe.” She didn’t look certain.

“
I’ve heard the name, but I don’t know where.”

“
A distinguished poet who helped found the Republican Party. He presided over Young Men’s Central Republican Union, which sponsored the Cooper Union lectures. For his day job, he served as the editor of the
New York Evening Post.
He actually met Lincoln for the first time during the Black Hawk War, when Lincoln was a militia captain.”

“
Lincoln was in the military? I didn’t know that. When?”

“
1832. The Black Hawk War wasn’t much of a war, and the Illinois militia wasn’t much of an army. The Indians east of the Mississippi were being pushed west, and Sauk Chief Black Hawk repudiated a treaty he said was coerced under the influence of alcohol. At that time, militias elected their own leaders, and the men chose Lincoln to be captain. He never saw action and loved to claim the only blood he shed came from mosquito bites.” Baldwin sipped her wine. “Lincoln always said that being picked by his neighbors as their captain was his proudest election victory.”

“
I never heard that … or forgot if I did. What else?”

She hesitated. “He was one of the greatest public speakers in history.”

“
You said that before. Why? Because of the Gettysburg Address?”

“
That would be like saying Shakespeare should be considered a great playwright because of
Hamlet
. The Gettysburg Address represented but one speech in a long line of persuasive speeches.”

“
Persuasive? I thought that speech eulogized the dead and wounded.”

“
Read it again. He used the occasion to push emancipation further along in the public mind. He crafted all of his speeches to persuade, sometimes subtly, sometimes directly. He made his points with words, but he used emotions to make them forceful—gaiety, sorrow, hope—or perhaps he appealed to—”

“
Wait a minute. Something you just said has been nagging me. Did Lincoln read Shakespeare?”

“
All the time. Lincoln loved Shakespeare. Frequently read his plays aloud, which drove his law partner crazy. He wrote poetry as well, albeit rather mediocre poetry.”

Baldwin had lost him when she said Lincoln loved Shakespeare. She continued describing Lincoln’s literary interest and talents, but his attention had focused on the Shakespeare angle. Excitedly, he interrupted her midstream. “How many plays did Shakespeare write?”

“
What? About forty, I think. Were you listening to me?”

“
Sorry, but I think Shakespeare might be the key. I thought about fiction but considered only contemporaneous publications. I have a former English major in my department, and when this whole thing started, I asked him to make a list of popular nineteenth-century fiction, but then I got sidetracked with law books. Fiction over four hundred years old never occurred to me.”

“
Greg, don’t throw away the law book idea too soon. At least check out the new list I gave you.”

“
I’ll test the books I’ve already checked out, but tomorrow I want to try a few plays. It makes sense, especially if William Cullen Bryant sat at the other end of these encrypted messages.”

“
William Cullen Bryant was a radical abolitionist.”

“
So?”

“
Lincoln never endorsed abolition.”

“
You just said the Gettysburg Address pushed the idea of emancipation forward?”

“
That was later, after he had been convinced that the Civil War had to have a grander purpose than just preserving the Union.”

“
Perhaps he never had to be convinced. You said we don’t know what he really thought.”

“
We have his words,” Baldwin said.

“
Yes, we do. We have the words of a politician. Remember the old joke: How can you tell when a politician is lying? When his lips move.”

Chapter 25

Evarts woke up stiff. Without discussion, he had bedded down on the couch in the front room. He tried to stretch out the kinks after rolling off the too-short divan. He saw Baldwin making coffee in the kitchen and realized that the sound of running water had awakened him. As he raced to the bathroom to relieve himself, he noticed that she had already dressed in a loose-fitting gym suit.

“
I don’t know if I can work out this early,” he said as he came out of the bathroom.

“
Then don’t.”

“
You’re not going to the gym without breakfast?”

“
Banana and orange juice.”

“
That’s not food,” he said as he reached for a coffee mug.

“
I’ll eat a bowl of bran with yogurt after I get back.”

Evarts gratefully sipped the coffee. “If I insist on going with you, are you going to get all paranoid?”

“
No.” She peeled a banana and broke off a small piece to put in her mouth. “I may have overreacted.” She tried a smile, but it looked weak. “I guess if you wanted to kill me, you’d have done it already.”

“
So … everything back to normal?”

“
Nothing’s been normal since I met you.” She broke off another piece of banana. “Greg, when I said I needed time, I had something more than twelve hours in mind.”

He took a step back, and in an exaggerated gesture, threw his hands up, palms out. “Okay. I’m not pushing.”

Evarts wolfed down some cereal and another cup of coffee before they left for the gym. After they paid twenty dollars each for a one-day pass, Evarts went to the free weights, where he was able to watch Baldwin go through her routine on the abs lounger. No wonder she had an athletic body. She knew how to breathe and she pushed herself hard. Very hard. Evarts followed suit, and by the time he moved to the elliptical machines with her, he knew he would be sore the following day.

“
Did you enjoy that?” she asked, when he climbed on the elliptical next to her.

“
Yeah. It’s been over a week since I had a chance to work out.”

“
I meant watching me.”

“
I didn’t realize I was staring.”

“
That’s why I wear loose clothing when I go to a coed gym. I can do without the leering men.”

Evarts matched her rhythm at about seventy strides a minute. “Do you belong to a women-only gym in Westwood?”

“
Yes.”

“
And there you wear tights?”

She smiled for the first time in days. “I may not like men gawking at me like I’m some kind of pole dancer, but I do enjoy the envious looks of other women.”

“
Do any of them ever hit on you?”

She threw him a puzzled glance and said, “Occasionally.”

“
Then I don’t see the difference.”

“
Women make a direct bid and then leave you alone. Men keep pestering, if not with their stupid lines, then with their eyes.”

Evarts increased his pace to about eighty strides a minute. “Men don’t care as much about impressing their own sex.”

She matched his rhythm. “Bullshit.”

“
Yup. Bullshit.”

She actually laughed at his admission, and Evarts hoped it signaled that they were making progress. After a half hour on the elliptical, he thought they were done with the workout, but she moved over to a stair-stepper. Evarts hated the stair-stepper, so he stayed on the elliptical. After another fifteen minutes, they both moved over to the treadmill and cooled down for a mile.

As they walked back to the apartment, Evarts said, “I need protein.”

“
Fry up some eggs when we get back.”

“
Let’s go out for breakfast.”

“
Not all sweaty. Besides, look around. Do you see any coffee shops? Rent’s too high, and Bostonians like to pretend they’re European anyway. Croissant and coffee. If you want an American breakfast, you’ll have to go to a hotel.”

“
A hotel? You gotta be kidding. At fifteen bucks a head?”

“
Closer to twenty.”

“
I’ll fry up some eggs.”

“
Good idea.”

In just over an hour, Evarts and Baldwin found themselves back at the Athenaeum buried in books. Evarts tried several Shakespeare plays but had no more luck than with the law books.

After he failed with
Macbeth
, Evarts said, “I can probably get through all the plays in a few more days, but can you suggest a shortcut?”