In Manhunt, Abraham Lincoln and Edwin Stanton Are History’s Greatest Bromance

Apple TV+’s historical thriller Manhunt is, like many period dramas, a story that’s emotionally driven by a central relationship. Just not quite in the way many people have likely come to expect. The story of the aftermath of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the seven-part series is one part crime drama, one part legal procedural, and one part political history lesson. It is the story of the man charged with hunting a murderer, and the killer who tried to bring down a nation. But, like so many other historical dramas that have come before it, Manhunt is also a love story, just one between two friends who dreamed of changing America for the better, and the one who was left behind to try and finish the work of doing so alone. 

While, on paper, Manhunt is quite correctly framed as a high-stakes cat-and-mouse chase between Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies) and assassin John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle), but at its heart, it’s the story of the abiding, deep friendship between President Abraham Lincoln (Hamish Linklater) and his war secretary. But the pair isn’t just a simple bromance. The series recontextualizes Stanton and Lincoln’s bond as a key driver of public policy, not just during the war but afterward. It is the war secretary’s abiding affection for his lost friend that drives him to honor his memory, both by catching the man who killed him and by obsessively shepherding his vision for the future of the country in the wake of his death. And make no mistake, Stanton risks everything: his political future, his marriage, even his own health, all in the name of getting justice for Lincoln’s murder and honoring the world the two of them planned to build together. That’s some serious soulmate shit, if you ask me. 

Though our modern pop culture has made tremendous strides in terms of representation, it still tends to assume that male characters—particularly those coded as traditionally masculine, including well-known heroes and famous leaders—automatically default to stoic, stubborn, emotionally repressed types. They’re rarely allowed to express deep feelings and almost certainly never toward one another. Usually, they’re allowed to be upset if someone is dead, but not too much, and they’re rarely able to be soft and vulnerable with one another about either the things they long for or the things they fear.  At first glance, it seems that Manhunt may follow a similar path, showing us a briefly emotional Stanton at a dying Lincoln’s bedside before briskly launching into the logistics of Booth’s escape. But while the show may begin with the president’s death, it deftly incorporates flashbacks throughout each episode that allow us to see the depth of his bond with Stanton for ourselves. 

Manhunt’s Lincoln is quieter and more playful than the figure history generally likes to remember him as—unabashedly folksy, more than a little bit corny, constantly swathed in a home-y black shawl that makes him look cozily matronish rather than presidential. Edwin is his sounding board and devil’s advocate, the pragmatist who balances out his determined optimism, and the nerd who pushes him to embrace more modern tactics and technology like the telegram. Between the two of them, they not only win the Civil War but forge a vision for a better, more perfect Union. Through what feels like virtually unending conversation and debate, the pair discuss everything from the morality of faith and justice to how to treat the former rebels upon the reunification of the country. And their scenes together often beg painful questions about what the world might have looked like had they been allowed to see all their grand plans through to completion.

Unexpectedly, the two are frequently depicted as openly warm and affectionate toward one another. Unlike the rest of Cabinet, Stanton is generally referred to by a nickname (Mars, in honor of the Roman god of war) rather than his official title, and even First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln calls him her husband’s “war wife.” He’s the only person Lincoln physically hugs when the news of Lee’s surrender arrives, and the president frequently bullies his war secretary into self-care activities like resting, hydrating, or seeing his doctor. Both men are unafraid to be genuinely vulnerable with one another, and one of their earliest bonding moments takes place over Lincoln’s dying son’s sickbed.

It is Stanton’s overt and obvious love for his friend that somehow infuses Lincoln’s assassination with a necessary humanity that the frequently mythologized story of his death often lacks, and it is his unabashed love for him that provides a stark and constant reminder of the personal tragedy that underlies the public loss of such a great statesman. Given everything we see pass between them, of course Edwin refuses to let anyone else shoulder the burden of investigating Lincoln’s death. His attempt to process the churning mix of grief, anger, and guilt he carries—we see that Staton was originally invited to attend Our American Cousin with the Lincolns that fateful night—may, by necessity, have to play out upon a national stage, but that doesn’t make it any less deeply or personally felt. And while his ultimate discovery of Booth’s whereabouts (this is history, guys, it’s not exactly a spoiler), as well as his outing of the larger web of men who helped him, is certainly a victory for both America and its democratic institutions, it’s a victory that is also felt most keenly on an individual level. 

But while Stanton may succeed, his accomplishment remains largely bittersweet. Yes, he finds the man who killed his friend and unmasks the conspiracy that helped take his life. But it’s an emotionally hollow victory at best. He can see Boothe dead, mete out justice to the powerful men who plotted a presidential assassination, practically kill himself fighting to pass Lincoln’s Reconstruction amendments, and thwart the odious backsliding of his Vice President. He does all those things, and America, both then and now, is undoubtedly better for them. But no matter how hard he works or how much he accomplishes, at the end of the day, Lincoln is still dead and their friendship is nothing more than the memories we’ve watched play out before us. And perhaps it is the fact that he keeps going—that he essentially dedicates the rest of his own life to finishing the work the two of them started together—that is the most meaningful tribute to their extraordinary bond. 

Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB.

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