The following is an excerpt from the new book Lincoln’s Ghost : Our Haunted Presidency.
Presidential ghosts outside the White House
It is portentous, and a thing of state;
that here at midnight in our little town;
a mourning figure walks and will not rest;
near the old courthouse pacing up and down.
— Vachel Lindsay, Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight
Many historic locations throughout the country have reported Presidential ghost sightings. From former homes and statehouses, these are the most notable sights that our deceased Presidents seem to haunt.
Washington’s Ghost Haunts Mount Vernon
As early as the 1820s there have been reports by visitors and staff of supernatural activity at Mount Vernon. In the early years of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, when the Ladies were at Mount Vernon they would sleep in the Mansion. Some brave souls decided to sleep in the bed chamber where our first President expired. Reported in the New York World newspaper one association member reported on seeing the brooding presence of George Washington in his room one evening.
"This historic chamber is haunted; of that, there would seem to be little doubt. Many people in recent years have slept in it, and they declare that they were awed by the viewless presence of the nation’s first President. They deny earnestly that the notion is based on imagination. Few of these temporary occupants have been able to get any sleep. It is one thing to see a ghost and quite another thing to feel one—to be aware of the nearness of a strange and brooding specter. They all agree that Washington visits his chamber in the still watches of the night."
In another instance, friends of an association member requested to both stay in the bedchamber and sleep in the bed that Washington passed away in. I suppose we all have different ways of dealing with our Presidential obsessions. The guests got spooked and couldn't sleep, apparently, the chamber gets very dark at night. So they lit a candle before going to bed, placing it in the center of a basin of water, away from the four-poster bed to prevent a fire.
Hours later the candle started flickering, waking them up. Then, the couple heard a noise, and the candle suddenly went out. Unsure of which side of the bed Washington died on, and sensing that they were not welcome there, they decided to get dressed and move into another room. Now properly scared, each slight settling noise of the house started to make them jump, and both thought they’d heard the noise of Washington’s sword clanking in the corner of the room. A few other visitors, who slept in the room where George Washington died, claim they were kept awake by routine visits to the chamber by George Washington’s spirit.
The 1980s and 90s seem to have been something of a heyday for Washington sightings. Long past the time when anyone could request to spend a sleepless night on Washington's deathbed, Mount Vernon is now a proper historic sight. Much care is taken to preserve and maintain the home and its treasures. As such much of the site is protected from disturbance by surveillance cameras and alarms. It's enough to prevent the living from meddling. But, it would seem not enough to stop a long-deceased ghost from messing around in his stables. Guards during this period claimed that the alarms in the estate's stables were constantly going off.
Alarms have gone off at strange times of the night when there was no reason for them to go off, the temperature will randomly drop and then go back to normal, and people have even heard the sounds of keys, as though someone was carrying them around.
Sightings of Mount Vernon's former owner have occurred as recently as 2006. A woman encountered the ghost while in the Yellow Room when she was locking things up at the end of the day. She let someone out of the building near the study, then made her way up the back stairs. She walked past Washington’s bedroom and made her way into the Yellow Room. It was then that she felt a sudden pressure on her shoulders, but no one there was when she turned. This happened to her more than once. Only when she had someone stay with her while she locked up the museum did she avoid the ghostly touch.
Haunted Springfield
Just like the White House and the surrounding D.C. metro area, Lincoln's presence seems to linger over the city of Springfield. It shouldn't be surprising, it's where he became a man, a husband, a father, where he was first elected, and where he was laid to rest. Springfield has always been connected to the great emancipator. As the excerpt for Vachel Lindsay's poem states, the sites of historic Springfield are always haunted or time-stamped by the figure of Lincoln.
Now you may be wondering dear reader just why Lincoln seems to be so restless. I mean the man has been dead now since 1865 and yet he keeps turning up. He's scaring naked Englishmen in the White House and according to local historians, is also haunting his Springfield home and his grave. These same historians claim that Lincoln’s remains were moved and disturbed quite a few times which may have contributed to his restlessness. It must be remembered that not only was he killed with unfinished business. But, he was also carted across the country for public viewings. He was then kidnapped by grave robbers, and reburied twice. Sometimes restless spirits try to find peace by staying or visiting a place where they are happy, successful, and peaceful. That would help explain why there are constant reports of seeing Lincoln in his beloved hometown. He is also said to visit the old Illinois State Capitol building where he got his first taste in politics.
But, while his house is granted rare visitations of the esteemed President, it is his grave that seems to be his main port of call. Before the tomb was finished, a tall shadow assumed to be the spirit of Abraham was seen by witnesses walking around the area where the tomb was being built. After being placed in it, his spirit still walked around the inside, looking at the statues, his family's crypts, and his own huge marker. After the second reconstruction of the tomb, he walked and continued to walk around the square path, seeing all the cemetery's various statues.
While state officials have not issued any official comments about these visitations, ghost hunters still flock to the site. There are also claims that modern security cameras may have picked up shadows and sounds of disembodied footsteps.
Lincoln’s Ghost is a new book that recounts all the humorous and odd history of White House/ Presidential ghosts and myths.
Lincoln’s Ghost Our Haunted Presidency is now available for purchase on Hardcover and Paperback
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