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His Father Is on Every Penny. He Barely Knew the Man.

144K views · Jun 15, 2026 · People & Blogs

Comments · 344

  • @BehindTheThroneOfficial · 2 months ago · pinned

    Robert Todd Lincoln spent sixty years guarding the private version of his <br>father. He burned letters. He declined interviews. He decided, again and <br>again, which pages the country would be allowed to read. <br> <br>One letter escaped him. It was written in January of 1841, twenty-four <br>years before Robert stood in that boarding house on Tenth Street, and it <br>survives today in his father&apos;s collected works. It is eight words long at <br>its heart, and it is the most private thing Abraham Lincoln ever put on <br>paper. <br> <br>Our new episode is about what those eight words meant, and the thirty <br>years behind them. <br> <br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdY8EnIeOOA">https://youtu.be/EdY8EnIeOOA </a><br> <br>Robert scarcely had ten minutes of quiet talk with his father during the <br>presidency. This is, in a way, the conversation he never got to have.

    12

  • @BirdyBlink · 3 months ago

    I taught high school history for 31 years. Assigned Lincoln units every single fall. <br>I never once mentioned Robert. Not once. <br>I owe that man an apology I can&apos;t deliver.

    64

  • @DanieleSzymonik · 3 months ago

    He spent his entire life being Abraham Lincoln&apos;s son.<br><br>And spent his entire life trying to become Robert Lincoln.

    28

  • @knickgrandk2 · 3 months ago

    I had nooooooo idea Edwin Booth saved Robert&apos;s life like that. Damn, the irony made my heart drop a little.

    50

  • @pamwightman7855 · 3 months ago

    That is not Theodore Roosevelt but his distant cousin Franklin D Roosevelt.

    61

  • @okthen77 · 3 months ago

    History is never what we&apos;ve been taught. We&apos;re only told what &quot;they&quot; want us to know.

    39

  • @melthomas4143 · 3 months ago

    I gasped out loud several times at things I did not know. This was brilliantly done

    41

  • @kathleentewksbury3634 · 3 months ago

    My heart breaks for this man who endured so much!

    14

  • @PierreCovas · 3 months ago

    I&apos;m 71 years old and I&apos;ve read about Abraham Lincoln probably more than any other subject in my life. I thought I knew everything worth knowing about that family.<br>I did not know about Jack.<br>When you said Robert wrote &quot;I did not realize until he was gone how deeply my thoughts of the future were in him&quot; — I had to stop the video. I lost my own son eleven years ago. He was 34. And that sentence is the most accurate description of that feeling I have ever encountered, in eleven years of trying to find words for it.<br>I don&apos;t know how you found that letter. I don&apos;t know how you knew to put it exactly there. But thank you. Quietly and sincerely, thank you.

    39

  • @user-hn4gi3he5r · 3 months ago

    My grandfather was born in 1899 and he used to talk about Robert Lincoln like he was still alive somewhere. I never understood why until today.<br>That part about the penny got me. I&apos;m 74 and I never once thought about what it must have been like to reach into your pocket and pull out your dead father&apos;s face. every single day. for seventeen years.<br>Also I have to say — the Edwin Booth thing. I knew that story vaguely but the way you told it, with the Ford&apos;s Theatre owner being right there.... I had to rewind that twice. Sometimes history just stacks up in a way that doesn&apos;t seem real.<br>Wonderful work. My late wife would have loved this. She was the Lincoln reader in the family, not me. think I&apos;ll have to go back and watch your other videos now.

    46

  • @lovelydiva06 · 3 months ago

    Man you have a great voice, I love watching documentaries on history, all different kinds of history, this was well done

    28

  • @CathieDries-c9n · 1 month ago

    I too love the voice ❤ very soothing.

    2

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