Abraham Lincoln's Favorite Doctor

“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.”

—President Abraham Lincoln

I’m a Lincoln man. I’ve read more than 50 books about America’s 16th president and consider Abraham Lincoln to be the nation’s greatest chief executive. I believe it was Providence that put him on Earth when we needed him most

In my study of President Lincoln, I learned he had a great gift for friendship. One of his very good friends during very trying times was New Jersey physician and politician, William Augustus Newell. Though he doesn’t get a lot of notoriety, Newell was an amazingly accomplished man.

Born in September 1817 in Ohio, he was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania medical school (1839), a US congressman (1847-51 and 1865-67), governor of both New Jersey (1857-60) and Washington Territory (1880-84), founder of the US Life-Saving Service (today’s US Coast Guard), and a White House physician (1865).

Among Newell’s congressional colleagues were Lincoln (who served one term 1847-49), John Quincy Adams (the only former president to serve in the US House, who died at the Capitol with Newell caring for him) Henry Clay (“The Great Compromiser”), and Andrew Johnson (the nation’s 17th president).

Lincoln and Newell had adjoining seats in Congress and lived in the same Washington, DC, boarding house. Newell was “a true friend of the Union,” Lincoln said.

He also had a distinguished medical career and was an early adopter of plastic surgery. Newell was still taking care of patients when is died in August 1901 in Allentown, NJ.

In 1865, the year Lincoln was assassinated, Newell was appointed the White House physician. During that time he was credited with treating and saving the life of the president’s son, Tad Lincoln, who had Typhoid Fever.

Mary Lincoln was particularly fond of the good doctor (“a most estimable gentleman,” she called him). In my readings, I saw several of the First Lady’s letters to Newell, asking him to join the Lincolns for dinners and other various events. It was for good reason that she liked having Newell around. She had already lost 2 other young sons, Edward (in 1850 at age 4) and Willie (in 1862 at age 12), to illness. Tad would later die young in 1871 at age 18.

Lincoln also named Newell the superintendent of the US Life-Saving Association, NJ District in 1865. He had represented the Jersey Shore area (my home) from Sandy Hook to Little Egg Harbor in the House of Representatives. As a young doctor, he had watched helplessly from the beach as a ship was wrecked and its passengers perished in a storm.

Newell, like Lincoln, was a member of the Whig Party when he entered politics and later joined the Republican Party. During his political career, the doctor was an advocate for low taxes, balanced budgets, and improvements to the school system.

I conclude this post with an observation and a fact:

In my study of history through the years, it seems to me that if you dig deep enough you will find a physician often playing a large part in history-making events. An old photo of Lincoln up on the podium during the Gettysburg Address in November 1863 was recently uncovered and enhanced. And who else was up on the dais that fateful day in Western Pennsylvania on perhaps the greatest day of President Lincoln’s life? It was Dr. William Augustus Newell.