Researcher Can't Be Prosecuted for Altering Abe Lincoln Pardon, National Archives Says
Updated: A researcher who gained attention in 1998 by claiming to have found the perhaps last document executed by President Abraham Lincoln prior to his assassination in 1865 has now admitted that he altered the date on the presidential pardon, says the National Archives in a written statement on its website.
Archivist of the United States David Ferriero thanked the Office of the Inspector General for uncovering researcher Thomas Lowry’s “criminal intention to rewrite history.” Lowry admitted to altering a document from April 14,1864 to show a signature “date” of April 14,1865, the very day of Lincoln’s assassination. But Lowry can’t be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The statement says Lowry violated National Archives regulations by bringing a fountain pen into a research room there. Then, using fadeproof, pigment-based ink, he allegedly changed the signature year on Lincoln’s pardon of civil war soldier Patrick Murphy, who had been court-martialed for desertion, to increase its historic import.
However, the Washington Post says Lowry, a retired psychiatrist, denies wrongdoing and says he was pressured to confess by federal agents who promised him nothing would be said.
“I consider these records sacred,” he told the newspaper yesterday. “It is entirely out of character for me. I’m a man of honor.”
His wife blamed another researcher for making the change.
Paul Brachfeld, who serves as inspector general for the archives, tells the Post that Lowry gave “a written confession in his own hand.”
Lowry has been banned from doing further research at the National Archives, which is trying to figure out how to change the date of the Murphy pardon back to its original year of 1864.
The apparent alteration was discovered by another researcher who brought it to the attention of authorities, the National Archives says.
The Post notes that there were, at the time, no security cameras to record what might or might not have happened when the pardon apparently was altered and says the statute of limitations for tampering with government property is five years.
Ferriero tells the newspaper that the National Archives was too trusting and did not adequately oversee the access it gave Lowry and his wife during the years that it took them to create an index of pardons for tens of thousands of Union soldiers.
For more details, read the full Post article.
Hat tip: Chicago Tribune.
Updated at 5:49 p.m. to include information from the Washington Post.
