November is historically significant, especially in the lives of two of our former Presidents – Abraham Lincoln, the 16 th President, and John F. Kennedy, the 35 th President.  November 19, 2023 marks the 160th anniversary of Lincoln’s visit to Gettysburg, where he uttered his most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address.  November 22, 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the terrible assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.  Lincoln, too, fell to an assassin’s bullet after his visit to Gettysburg and his reelection to the Presidency.  There have been many stories and assertions over the years about some eerie connections between these two Presidents who were actually quite different in their lives and in the way they governed.  There are, however, some significant similarities.  Here are a few:

Both Lincoln and Kennedy were elected in the year that ended in ’60, a century apart.   Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican to be elected President, was elected in 1860.  John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, was elected in 1960.  Both succeeded Presidents who were from their party of opposition.  Lincoln succeeded James Buchanan, a Democrat; Kennedy succeeded Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican.

Both Presidents served their country as Congressmen.  Lincoln served for one term in Congress, in the House of Representatives, from 1846 to 1848.  Kennedy served for three terms in the House of Representatives, from 1946 through 1952.  He was then elected Senator from Massachusetts in 1952.  Lincoln attempted to win the election to the Senate in 1858 but lost the seat to Stephen A. Douglas.  His debates with the senator, however, made him a national figure.

Both Presidents married society wives who were politically astute and intelligent.   Lincoln married Mary Todd, a banker’s daughter from Lexington, Kentucky.  She grew up with famous politicians, including Henry Clay, whom Lincoln idolized.  Mary was highly intelligent and discussed politics – something considered unladylike in her day.  She also endured an unhappy childhood due to the early death of her mother.  Her father remarried quickly, and the new Mrs. Todd was not good to her stepchildren.

John Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier, a wealthy debutante who also suffered from a broken family as a child.  She met her future husband while working as a reporter and photographer, and interviewed him as a junior senator.  The couple married in 1953.

Both Presidents were highly intellectual and were competent writers.   Lincoln’s speeches were hallmarks of his rising star, and he wrote them himself.  The self-educated lawyer-turned-politician could turn the tide with his prowess with words and his understanding of human behavior.  In that same vein, John F. Kennedy, educated at Harvard, had a brief encounter with journalism before he decided on a political career.  His book, Profiles in Courage, won a Pulitzer Prize.  Had either not attained the Presidency, they would have made names for themselves in the literary world.

Both were elected to the Presidency amid the clouds of war.   The United States was politically and socially divided in 1860, with the slavery issue a catalyst for the issue of states’ rights, secession and war.  With the election of Abraham Lincoln, several Southern states seceded.  Shortly after Lincoln’s first inaugural address, a few more joined the ranks of departure, and on April 12, 1861, as the Lincoln Administration sent supplies to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, the Confederate batteries opened fire upon the Federal fort, beginning the Civil War.

While Kennedy was elected in a time of relative peace and reasonable prosperity, there were also clouds of distant war and unrest.  The United States was in the middle of what was termed The Cold War against the Soviet Union.  One of the Soviet allies was Communist leader Fidel Castro in Cuba.  Fearing that Castro was arming to aid the Soviets in making war with the U.S., the Kennedy Administration attempted to assassinate Castro.  A further attempt for revolution there, an invasion called the Bay of Pigs, failed.  Fortunately, war was averted.  Another armed conflict in Vietnam had already begun in the 1950s.  Although that war became the hallmark of Kennedy’s successor, there were already U.S. troops going to the former French Indochina.  Kennedy sent nearly 15,000 troops there before his assassination.

Both had Vice Presidents named Johnson, both of whom were born in the year ending in ’08, a century apart.  When Lincoln was first elected in 1860, his Vice-President was Hannibal Hamlin from the state of Maine.  When he ran for reelection, he was persuaded to drop Mr. Hamlin in favor of a Southern Unionist named Andrew Johnson, who served as military governor of Tennessee during the war.  They were hopeful that a man from one of the divided Confederate states might win more votes in such a critical time.  Andrew Johnson, who was not capable of leading the nation as Lincoln had, was born in 1808.  He only served for one term.

John F. Kennedy’s Vice-President was Lyndon B. Johnson, also a Southerner, born in Texas in 1908.  He too only served for one term as Commander-in-Chief.  He had served in Congress and the Senate before being chosen as JFK’s running mate – also due to the fact that he would draw the Southern vote.

Both VPs were former senators from their respective states before selected as running mates.

Both Lincoln and Kennedy visited Gettysburg in the year that ended in ’63.   Lincoln visited Gettysburg as part of the dedication of the first National Cemetery, the Soldiers National Cemetery, on Cemetery Hill, from the evening of November 18 to the evening of November 19, 1863.  He gave his famous Gettysburg Address in that ceremony.  He was in Gettysburg for just over 24 hours, although he spent the night at the home of Gettysburg attorney David Wills.

Kennedy visited Gettysburg on March 30, 1963 and was given a tour, along with his wife, on the battlefield.  Kennedy came because of his interest in history, and because one of his ancestors from the Irish Brigade had fought in the battle.  While touring, Mrs. Kennedy was impressed with the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.  The Kennedys’ guide, Colonel Jacob M. Sheads, asked the President if he would like to return for the 100th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and make a commemorative speech on that occasion.  Kennedy declined, telling Sheads that he had to go to Dallas instead.

Both were warned not to go to the places where they were assassinated.   Lincoln was often a target during the war, and he disliked having bodyguards.  A close friend and bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, who had business in Virginia as the war came to a close, urgently asked Lincoln not to attend the theater while Lamon was unable to protect him.

Kennedy’s secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, had misgivings about the President going to Dallas and traveling in an open motorcade.  Like Lamon did to Lincoln, she urged JFK not to go to Dallas.  (It is interesting to note, that Lincoln did NOT have a secretary named Kennedy.  His two secretaries were John Hay and John Nicolay.)

Both Presidents were assassinated by gunmen who shot them in the head, and with the victims’ wives by their sides.   Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a rabid pro-slavery actor, in Ford’s Theater on Friday, April 14, 1865.  Lincoln lived several hours but never regained consciousness.  John Kennedy was supposedly shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, a Communist sympathizer, in Dallas, along the motorcade route.  Kennedy died almost instantly.

Both Mary Lincoln and Jacqueline Kennedy were sitting beside their husbands during their respective assassinations.  Both women were traumatized by the crimes, and neither ever fully recovered from the terrible events.

Both assassins died before being tried for their crimes.   John Wilkes Booth was hunted and shot upon capture in northern Virginia on April 26 – twelve days after his perfidious deed.  Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested shortly after the assassination, and was shot in the police station by Jack Ruby, a man known to police who claimed he was angry that Oswald had killed the President.  Both deaths, before being tried for their crimes, gave rise to conspiracy suspicions.  The conspirators surrounding Lincoln’s assassination were discovered and some were tried and executed, but theories continue to this day.  The conspiracy theory connected to the Kennedy assassination, of the fact that there was likely another gunman, remains prevalent.     

The catafalque upon which both coffins rested, and the carriage that carried Lincoln’s coffin during the cortege to his state funeral in 1865 also held and carried the remains of John F. Kennedy in 1963.   This little-known fact is a fascinating one.  The catafalque which held Lincoln’s coffin for the viewing in the East Room of the White House was used as the foundation for Kennedy’s coffin as he lay in state in the Capitol.  Additionally, both funeral processions involved a horse-drawn open carriage, or caisson, the same one for both men.  Both carriages were followed by a riderless horse.  In Lincoln’s case, the horse he rode in life, Old Bob , was part of his funeral procession.  Kennedy did not ride a horse due to his chronic back pain, but it was nevertheless his own horse, Black Jack, which followed the procession.

Another little-known fact is that both men sat in rocking chairs when available, due to back pain.  The dais provided for the cemetery dedication on November 19, 1863 contained a rocking chair for Lincoln’s use at his request.  He gave it up to a woman in the crowd who had fainted.  Kennedy suffered from chronic back pain, caused by injuries he sustained when his patrol boat was sunk near the Solomon Islands during World War II.   Like Lincoln, he often used rocking chairs to alleviate his suffering.  He was wearing a back brace when he was assassinated.