tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657367566878021054.post3293506174600295376..comments2023-03-29T04:29:12.895-04:00Comments on Letters from Home: What If Your Name Is Mud?Suess Geiselhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17862819487164596987noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657367566878021054.post-11310983362920199472016-08-01T16:32:54.136-04:002016-08-01T16:32:54.136-04:00Dear Sues Geisel..Thank you for your contribution ...Dear Sues Geisel..Thank you for your contribution to this discussion. There are more questions than answers and Dr. Richard Mudd spent years trying unsuccessfully to get the conviction vacated. Most strange is that the Lincolns and the Mudd Family were so close for generations. My 5th generation Aunt Mary Mudd was first cousin to Luke Mudd, who was President Lincoln's cousin through marriage. Then there was Ben Lincoln, son of Mordecai and Mary (Mudd) Lincoln (first cousin 2X removed from Dr. Mudd) who married Benjamin Edelen Mudd, son of Hezekiah Mudd (first cousin to Mary Mudd Lincoln). It's all so strange.Andy Powersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657367566878021054.post-32563484227491458692016-02-12T12:29:43.620-05:002016-02-12T12:29:43.620-05:00Thank you Anonymous. I really appreciate your own ...Thank you Anonymous. I really appreciate your own scholarship on this topic. <br /><br />I see things this way: as I had read that Dr. Mudd was in a discussion on kidnapping (not killing) the President. Booth was in that discussion along with other conspirators. Dr. Mudd was approached as a potential recruit, but there is no evidence that Mudd was supportive of the idea. It looks like he stayed out of it. So, Booth and Mudd knew each other in the context of an no-go conspiracy...ugly it is, but that's no crime for Dr. Mudd. <br /><br />So, just a few weeks later, could an actor's disguise effectively conceal a familiar person, seeking help, in an unguarded and painful condition? I can't see it. How could Dr. Mudd not know it was Booth on that night? <br /><br />Nonetheless, there are many mitigating facts for Dr. Mudd's case. He WAS falsely imprisoned, later to be a hero, and came home a broken man. <br />Suess Geiselhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17862819487164596987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657367566878021054.post-32289651815500842912012-11-03T16:19:29.626-04:002012-11-03T16:19:29.626-04:00Also to add to the above..
This leaves several qu...Also to add to the above..<br /><br />This leaves several questions in my mind. First, why when Dr. Samuel Mudd's wife Frances was desperately seeking support to prove her husband's innocence did no one from the Lincoln family, or the Mudd family for that matter, provide any support or testimony in defense of Dr. Mudd, and secondly, why are there no documents of this relationship in the Lincoln Archives? As there are no historical documents we can only speculate. Although we have no evidence, here are some facts to ponder.<br /><br />It is well documented that SecWar Edwin Stanton and others including Ulysses S. Grant strongly disagreed with Pres. Lincoln's commitment to restoring relations with and reconstructing the former confederate states and instead felt that the South should be punished for Confederate Secession and immediately following the assasination pushed for the impeachment of President Johnson. Had Lincon not been assasinated his policies regarding the south would have been totally contrary to those of President Grant. <br /><br />At the time of the assasination the Union was still under martial law, and Constitutional authority, although in transition, was not yet official and Stanton was in a position of supreme authoritative power. <br /><br />There existed an outcry within the national capitol area demanding revenge for the assasination of Lincoln, and were convinced that there was a consiracy and Booth did not act alone. As SecWar it was Stanton's job to identify and punish anyone suspected of conspiracy to demonstrate he was doing his job and satisfy the public outcry. It was his decision, and in his best interests, to use his war powers to try any suspected conspirators in a secret military tribunal rather than a civil court of justice. By doing so he ramained in charge of the procedings and outcome.<br /><br />The first "suspect" who was arrested under Stanton's orders, for being a doctor in the wrong place at the wrong time, was Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, who was the first to be brought before the tribunal.<br /><br />Booth's detailed journal was turned over to Standton by the Union soliers when Booth was killed, yet Stanton initially withheld this from the members of the Tribunal. When Stanton was forced to show this to the Tribunal, several pages were missing from the diary, never to be found. Booth was meticulous as far as keeping his notes, yet although when Mudd's defense attorney questioned regarding the entries that Frances Mudd witnessed Booth entering in his journal the morning prior to his leaving the Mudd farm, those entries were amoung the missing pages, as were others. Could it be that Booth documented that he sought assistance from the same Dr. Mudd who he had soken with months prior regarding his purchasing Mudd's farm. and that he was able to conceal his identity from Mudd using his actor's disquise? This clearly would have provided evidence that Mudd did not know the identity of the man whose leg he had mended. If so, Stanton's charges against Mudd may have been dismissed, and that would look bad for Stanton as he continued his investigation as to other possible "consirators". <br /><br />What else was written in the missing pages? Was Stanton mentioned? As Booth was a renoun actor at the Ford theator, surely Stanton and others would have known him.<br /><br />Who had access to President Lincoln's private effects, including his letters. If there was any evidence that Lincoln corresponded with any of his freinds and family of the Mudd clan they would certainly addeded credence to the fact the Dr. Mudd would be an unlikely suspect as regards the assasination of his cousin and would not have been conicted in a civilian court. But today known terrorists have this right that was denied to Mudd ..Andy PowersAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3657367566878021054.post-86605648730415426942012-11-03T16:13:46.199-04:002012-11-03T16:13:46.199-04:00Dear Gray,
Thank you for taking the time to creat...Dear Gray,<br /><br />Thank you for taking the time to create this blog and share this little known truth, that the man who, for self serving political reasons, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton railroaded as being a conspirator of the assasination of President Lincoln was in fact a cousin of President Abraham Lincoln. This is not, now was it ever, taught in any history book although it is so easy to trace. My gggg aunt Mary Mudd (1775-1859), daughter of Luke Mudd (1737-1816) and Jane Hill Mudd (1741-?) was married to Mordecai Lincoln (1771-1830), who, according to numerous sources, were referred to by Abe Lincoln as his favorite Uncle and Aunt. The first members of the Mudd family, including Thomas Mudd, emigrated from Bristol England circa 1650, and settled in Maryland. The early settlers had many children and lived in close knit communities. While several of the Mudd family remained in Maryland, including the ancestors of Dr. Samuel Mudd, several migrated west along with other community members, including members of the Higdon family and others, to settle in Grayson County, KY, which bordered Hardin County KY where Abraham Lincoln was born and raised before moving north to Illinois. Mordecai Lincoln, being born in Virginia (bordering MD),also migrated to KY to settle in Hardin Cty, The Lincolns of Hardin, KY were close with the Mudd family of Leitchfiled, KY (which was rather large) and Abe Lincoln. Uncle Mordecai Lincoln married Mary Mudd, lived in Hardin Cty, KY and had several children before moving to IL along with other Lincoln family members including Abe Lincoln,, yet they all remained close friends and kin.<br /><br />Another fact that is known only to kin of the time, and those who have researched it, (and never published) is that members of the Mudd family who migrated from MD were Hezekiah Mudd (1755-1854) and Elizabeth Edelin Mudd (1758-1838). While living in KY, two of their children (Benjamin Edlelen Mudd and Elizabeth Lucretia Mudd), married two of the children of Morecai and Mary-Mudd Lincoln (Elizabeth Ann Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln, who were first cousins of President Abraham Lincoln). Thus the kinship of the Lincoln and the Mudd families was expanded and at the time of his assasination, Pres. Abe Lincoln was first cousin to both Benjamin Edelen Mudd and Elizabeth Lucretia Mudd of Kentucky, as well a more distant cousin to Dr. Samuel A. Mudd of Maryland. <br /><br />As the close kinship of both the Lincoln and Mudd families transcended from Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois, it it highly unlikely that a) the families did not maintain communication with each other, and b) that the members of the Mudd family across state lines were unaware that one of their kin was the President of the United States, and just as unlikely that the President was unaware that he had kin living in Maryland-and being so close to Washington, D.C., that there was no documented communication (IE letters) between President Lincoln and his friends and family of the Mudd line. Andy Powers Email a.j.powers@tax-power.com<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com