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'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.
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@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't deliver.
64
@DanieleSzymonik · 3 months ago
He spent his entire life being Abraham Lincoln's son.<br><br>And spent his entire life trying to become Robert Lincoln.
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@knickgrandk2 · 3 months ago
I had nooooooo idea Edwin Booth saved Robert's life like that. Damn, the irony made my heart drop a little.
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@pamwightman7855 · 3 months ago
That is not Theodore Roosevelt but his distant cousin Franklin D Roosevelt.
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@okthen77 · 3 months ago
History is never what we've been taught. We're only told what "they" want us to know.
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@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'm 71 years old and I'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 "I did not realize until he was gone how deeply my thoughts of the future were in him" — 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't know how you found that letter. I don't know how you knew to put it exactly there. But thank you. Quietly and sincerely, thank you.
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@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'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'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's Theatre owner being right there.... I had to rewind that twice. Sometimes history just stacks up in a way that doesn'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'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.
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