What did Joe Biden's great-great-grandfather do? The US President's ancestor was pardoned by Abraham Lincoln 160 years ago

As per the Washington Post, court material records in the US National Archives show the connection between the former US President Abraham Lincoln and the current US President Joe Biden. As per the records, Lincoln pardoned US President Joe Biden's great-great-grandfather, Moses J Robinette, after a brawl during the Civil War era.

Moses J Robinette was married and ran a hotel near the Baltimore-Ohio Railroad Junction at Grafton, Va.

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What happened between President Joe Biden's great-great-grandfather and Abraham Lincoln

President Biden Returns To The White House From Delaware on February 19, 2024 (Image via Getty)

Joe Biden's great-great-grandfather, Moses J Robinette, was a civilian employee. He worked as a surgeon in the Union Army when he got into a brawl with an employee, John J. Alexander, at the Army the Potomac's winter camp in Virginia.

Robinette drew his pocketknife, resulting in multiple cuts on Alexander after the latter started a fight as he overheard Robinette saying something about him to a cook. Although Robinette claimed that he acted in self-defense, military judges convicted him of attempted murder, and he received a two-year sentence of hard labor. Robinette was then sent to the Dry Tortugas Islands near Key West, Fla.

After three army officers appealed to President Lincoln on Robinette's behalf and argued that the punishment was too severe, Lincoln signed a pardon on September 1, 1864.

After spending over a month in Dry Tortugas, Robinette was set free and returned to Maryland to his family. He took up farming and died at his daughter's home in 1903. According to his obituary, Robinette was "a man of education and gentlemanly attainments."

David J. Gerleman, a 19th-century historian, Lincoln scholar, and history instructor at George Mason Univerisity in Fairfax, VA, wrote in the Washington Post about the connection between the two presidents.

It is important to note that Joe Biden is an ardent follower of former President Abraham Lincoln. One of the perks of being the US President is personalizing the Oval Office. In the video tour of the Oval Office by President Joe Biden for Architectural Digest Magazine, one can see portraits of Abraham Lincoln along with George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy.

He also has a carved bust of Abraham Lincoln on the Resolute Desk. Additionally, according to an August 2023 TikTok video, an American woman pointed out that Biden was born closer to Abraham Lincoln's presidency than his own.