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President Abraham Lincoln holds his spectacles and a pencil in February 1865. A year earlier, a pamphlet called "Miscegenation" accused Lincoln of supporting interracial sex to create an "American race." It was a hoax meant to cost him his re-election. It didn't work, but the rumor never truly died. Alexander Gardner/Library of Congress/AP
The "Miscegenation" pamphlet hoax spurred anti-abolitionist political cartoons during the Civil War like this one, showing white officials dancing with African-American women at the "Miscegenation Ball." Courtesy of the Library of Congress
President Lincoln stands with Gen. George McClellan (facing Lincoln) at the Antietam battlefield in Maryland in 1862, during the Civil War. The anonymous authors of the "Miscegenation" pamphlet hoped to add to Lincoln's dimming popularity as the bloody war seemed to drag on forever. MPI/Getty Images
Another view shows Lincoln with McClellan and his officers at the Antietam battlefield in Maryland. The 1862 battle has been called "the bloodiest single day in American history": 23,000 men were killed or injured. After the battle, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which was quickly dubbed the "Miscegenation Proclamation" by his pro-slavery foes. Alexander Gardner/Lincoln National Life FoundationAP
President Lincoln is seen in the distance as he arrives at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, to dedicate the Soldiers' National Cemetery. It was 4 1/2 months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg when he delivered his magnificent Gettysburg Address. Lbrary of Congress/AP
The plot to topple Abraham Lincoln with the phony "Miscegenation" pamphlet failed. Tens of thousands of people, many of them African-Americans, attended and cheered his second inauguration on March 4, 1865. The Civil War and slavery were near an end, and Lincoln's address was somber and moving.
Fotosearch/Getty Images
Fotosearch/Getty Images
After his assassination, Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession moves down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington on April 19, 1865. His body was taken by funeral train to be buried in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois. Getty Images