Joseph Jefferson's Lincoln: Vindication of an autobiographical legend

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2000 by McArthur, Benjamin

In the years following Abraham Lincoln's assassination and rapid enshrinement in the American pantheon, countless people came forth with their "Lincoln moment." Stories of an encounter with the early Lincoln bestowed a special cachet, as if one had rubbed shoulders with a rusticated, prairie Solomon. Among the most famous of such tales was one related by America's favorite comedian of the nineteenth century, Joseph Jefferson. His Autobiography tells (with appropriate dramatic flourish) how the aspiring Springfield attorney came to the aid of the Jefferson family troupe.

But is Jefferson's account true? Historians for good reason have long been skeptical. Yet the story now deserves another look. The Lincoln Legal Papers project provides a tantalizing clue that suggests we should grant Joe Jefferson his story - at least in its substantial details.

Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905) stands alongside Charlotte Cushman, Edwin Forrest, and Edwin Booth as the preeminent stage stars of the nineteenth century. Unlike the other three, Jefferson's metier was comedy. Like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, he belonged to the noble tradition of low comedy. Broadly physical, often affecting accents of class or ethnic stereotypes, low comedians were the counterpart to the elegant, often foppish dandies of light comedy. In Jefferson's case this meant mastering a drawerfull of comic parts in regular comedies and short farces during his apprenticeship. He helped create notable roles in such mid-century stage hits as Our American Cousin and the racially charged melodrama The Octoroon. But above all, Joe Jefferson is remembered as Rip Van Winkle. Although not the first to bring Washington Irving's endearing ne'er-do-well to the stage, Jefferson's (with the help of play doctor and prominent Anglo-Irish dramatist Dion Boucicault) interpretation was the first to triumph. Produced in England in 1865 then with only intermittent breaks until the end of Jefferson's life, Rip Van Winkle remained a staple of the American stage, a sort of nineteenth century equivalent to The Mousetrap or The Fantasticks, an institution of the cultural landscape that many parents had seen and would subsequently take their children to enjoy

Joseph Jefferson not only understood the stage, he understood money and investment. He was among the relatively few stars of the century to successfully parlay stage success into lasting financial security. He built sprawling Victorian manses in Louisiana, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, and his final days were spent among the nouveaux riches splendors of Palm Beach, Florida. Socialites, politicians, and leading men of letters in Gilded Age America considered his friendship a mark of distinction. Grover Cleveland, in particular, was a neighbor, fishing partner, and close friend.

A luminary of the social and theatrical landscape, it was natural that Jefferson received requests to write an account of his life.' He obliged with his Autobiography, first serialized in The Century Magazine in 1889 and then published in book form in 1890. The Autobiography has by acclamation been pronounced the finest example of its genre in American theatrical annals. If his account fails to reveal the intimate secrets of his life (Jefferson betrays a circumspect Victorian sensibility) it also lacks the self-indulgence that more modern theatrical reminiscences often display. It does convey with brio American theatrical life in the middle two quarters of the nineteenth century. He tells the life of a child in a family troupe of actors as they barnstorm the West and South, including a stint near the front during the Mexican-American War. He relates his trials as an apprentice player and his measured rise to stardom. And he offers up wonderful vignettes of the famous actors of the day, most of whom he encountered at one point or another. Always Joe has stories to tell. He is the Mark Twain of theatre life. Jefferson's autobiographical sensibility was rooted in profound affection for his profession even while lampooning its foibles - and his own hard knocks - with comic detachment.

Jefferson's most memorable story (apart, perhaps, from his famous account of "The Little Church Around the Corner") was that of Abraham Lincoln's coming to the rescue of his family. Joe loved to retell it, and various other histories have kept the story in print. Most recently the anecdote was anthologized in Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley's Witness to America (1999) a widely marketed popular history. I Joe tells of his family's tour to Springfield when he was ten (it was the summer of 1839, though the date must be gathered elsewhere since chronology plays a small part in the early stages of his Autobiography). The troupe had prospered in its recent journeys about the Iowa-Illinois circuit and according to Joe decided to erect a theatre in the young capital, then a town of not more than two thousand. This being accomplished, a sudden blow fell upon the company:

A Religious revival was in progress at the time, and the fathers of the church not only launched forth against us in their sermons, but by some political manoeuver got the city to pass a new law enjoining a heavy license against our 'unholy' calling; I forget the amount, but it was large enough to be prohibitory. Here was a terrible condition of affairs; all our available funds invested, the legislature in session, the town full of people, and we by a heavy license denied the privilege of opening the new theater!2