“They brought the prisoner in last night. A tall man, rough clothes, calling himself ‘A. Lincoln.’ The guards laughed, but the man had the same deep eyes as the president’s portraits. He keeps insisting he is the real one, that the man in the White House is a fraud. They say he’s mad. But I watched him split rails this morning—for the exercise, he said. And he did it better than any farmer I’ve ever seen.”
“The impostor is dead. Booth did what I could not. God forgive me, but the man in the theater was not Abraham Lincoln. The real one died in a cell three years ago. I ordered it. For the Union. For the war. The real Lincoln would have made peace with the South. He would have let them keep their slaves. So I took him. I put a look-alike in the White House—an actor named John H. Little, who believed he was doing patriotic duty. And I have carried this secret like a stone in my chest ever since. Tonight, the stone is gone. But I fear history will not thank me.” when does lincoln get exonerated
After the ceremony, a reporter asked her the same question she had asked a thousand times. But now the words came out different. “They brought the prisoner in last night
She first asked it at age twelve, standing in the rain outside the Illinois State Capitol, holding a sign that said HISTORY IS A LIE . Her father had been a history teacher before he lost his job—before he lost his mind, some people said. But Ellie knew the truth. Or she thought she did. He keeps insisting he is the real one,
“Be it resolved that the individual known as Abraham Lincoln, lawfully elected President of the United States in 1860, was unlawfully imprisoned and replaced by a surrogate in 1861. Be it further resolved that the true Abraham Lincoln is hereby exonerated of all false claims of madness or desertion—claims made solely to justify his imprisonment. Be it finally resolved that his name, his honor, and his legacy are restored.”
“When does Lincoln get exonerated?”