Lincoln Stories - 2 Favorites

I love Lincoln. The stories of his youth and physical prowess abound, most untrue, but inspiring nonetheless. The first one was in the book "The Case of Abraham Lincoln" by Julie M. Fenster, which I have reviewed here before. The second one is an old story that I read sometime as a kid, somewhere. Hence I have not backed it up with a source. Both stories are emblematic of the man, and the times in which he lived.

‘Tis said that in his younger day, he made a vow that if he should ever find a man uglier than himself, he would shoot him. One day while rambling over the hills with his rifle in his hand, in search of game, he met a man who was exceedingly ugly; immediately he cocked his gun and took aim, but upon being asked by the stranger what he was going to do, if he was going to murder him, Lincoln lowered his gun, told the stranger his vow and that he must prepare to meet his fate.

The stranger, after eyeing Lincoln for a while and scanning him from head to foot, exclaimed,; “Well, if I am uglier than you, I don’t want to live- so shoot me!”

Source: Iota: pen name, Illinois Correspondence, Missouri Republican, June 25th, 1856 page 2.

Abraham Lincoln was riding on a train when the man next to him lit a cigar, fouling the air about him. "Excuse me sir," said Lincoln, "but your cigar smoke is drifting into my area and I am having a frightful time breathing. Might not you extinguish it?" The man replied that he had paid for his seat, and if the smoke from his cigar was drifting into Lincoln's area that was his problem, but he intended to smoke his cigar.

Lincoln produced a small pistol, which he aimed at the man's head, saying as he did, "I, too, have paid for my seat, and I wish to fire my pistol. If the bullet from my gun strays into your area, well that's too bad." The man extinguished his cigar.

Apocryphal- no source.

Lincoln Assassinated

My first recollection of President Lincoln is from 1959 and the release of the new Lincoln penny. The obverse was changed from "wheat stalks" to an image of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. His picture hung in every classroom from Kindergarten through at least Junior High School, right alongside George Washington. He was considered somewhat of a saint. So naturally I was curious about this man ever since I can recall.

I have read everything about him, from Carl Sandburg's brilliant 2 volume biography to the latest books on his sexual obsessions. I have seen him played by Raymond Massey and Henry Fonda in films and several actors on stage. Love him or hate him, he was quite a man.

Tasked with keeping the Union together took a great toll upon him. You can see it in photos, especially the one here, taken just 3 days before he was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth. Whether or not you agree with Lincoln's policies regarding slavery and States Rights, you cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the Union hadn't prevailed and the South had seceded successfully, pardon my alliteration.

It's possible that Mexico, with or without the aid of Spain, would have taken back Texas. And, what about the Spanish American War? Would it ever have happened? What would have been the fate of the Philippine Islands in World War Two? After all, Spain was neutral in that conflict and the Philippines was our pathway to Victory in the Pacific. I could go on, but I won't.

The flight and subsequent shooting of his assassin, John Wilkes Booth, is legendary, as is the trial and execution of his co-conspirators. Among them was the first of only two women ever executed by the United States Government. Her name was Mary Surratt. She essentially "ran the nest where the plot was hatched”, in the words of President Andrew Johnson.

But the most significant thing that Lincoln left us as a window into his character is the Gettysburg Address. First shunned here in the U.S. as "lackluster", it was hailed in England and is still considered by many to be amongst the greatest writings of Western Civilization. I am printing it here in the hope that all the people of our nation, currently divided as it is, will read it and fully understand its meaning. This would be the best way to honor the man who kept our Nation whole.

There are five different versions of the Gettysburg Address. This is taken from the one that is on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. It contains the words "under God." This is the most notable difference in the five versions.

The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. 

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

"The Day Lincoln Was Shot" by Jim Bishop (1955)

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. My reading of this book, and the resultant review you see here, are both coincidental to the occasion. But it does lend more of a relevance to the narrative when reading it.

I chose this book from the “stacks” in the library precisely because it is an older book, and as such it was written in closer proximity to the event. The author was writing at a time when these events were less than a century past, and there were a few people still living that had been alive when it occurred. They may have just been children at the time, but they would have remembered the events and the stories told by their parents and relatives.

Over the years the stories have changed. Prior to about 1970 most accounts agreed that Booth uttered his famous “Sic Semper Tyrannus!” as he leapt to the stage from the private box where he had just shot the President and stabbed Major Rathbone. But the contemporary accounts of the time tell a different story. That is, the individual eyewitness accounts. But history on this night would be written by one man; Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War.

Booth said two things after shooting Lincoln. The first was “Sic Semper Tyrannus!”; which was the motto of the State of Virginia, and also “The South has been avenged!” It was after saying these two things that he hung from the ledge of the box and dropped to the stage, breaking his ankle when his foot caught on the bunting draping the President’s box. But, I have to admit, the leap is a great flourish and Booth would no doubt be proud of this added highlight; true or false.

In 1954 and 1955 Mr. Bishop spent 6 months retracing the steps of the assassin and his co-conspirators, traveling from Maine and Canada to Virginia, reading all the old newspaper articles he could find and visiting the locations which were involved.

One of the strangest aspects of his research was in finding that news of the Presidents assassination was on the street the day of the assassination; as far away as Maine and almost 10 hours before he was killed. Even at a time when telegraph was the quickest means of communication, this still does not explain how the reports were so accurate as to name the theater, when at the time the President was himself still unsure of his plans. Remember that Mrs. Surratt’s son John was just then shuttling papers back and forth between Canada and the Confederate government in Virginia.

But this book is not given over to conspiracy theories. Rather, it is more concerned with an hour by hour description of what each of the participants were doing from about 7 AM on Friday April 14, 1865 until the President succumbed to his wound at 22 minutes past 7 AM the following morning. It is of interest to note that had Booth not killed Lincoln on Good Friday the late President might not have gained such stature as a martyr. In a way Booth helped bestow that honor on the man he claimed to loathe.

Each chapter of the book explores not only the events of that hour, but also the prior history of how the events led there. This is as an exciting account of the night Lincoln was shot as you will find. Robert Redford’s film; “The Conspirators”; was a fine film, but it relied on the “smooth” version of events. There is something lacking in the film which Mr. Bishop has captured so well within these pages; the confusion of the night as Booth was getting away.

One example of the contemporary inaccuracies which found it's way into the movie is the scene in Secretary of State Seward's room. The room was in complete darkness. Due to extreme amount of noise made by Lewis Paine as he attempted to shoot, and finally stab the Secretary's son at the top of the stairs, his daughter had extinguished all the lights in the room at the time and even tried to hold the door back when Paine attempted to enter. As a matter of fact he wound up struggling in the dark with two persons, one of whom was the daughter. 

As the streets of Washington filled with throngs of people on foot; and some in carriages; Booth stuck fairly to the script he had planned to make his escape over the bridge at the Navy Yard. That bridge was closed to traffic at 9PM nightly; and so no one really thought that Booth had gone that way. After all, the sentries were there to stop anyone trying to leave or enter the city. But, with the war just about over; General Johnston’s troops had not yet surrendered; the sentries were lax and allowed two of the assassins to pass over the bridge and on toward Surrattsville and the Surratt Tavern where there were guns and binoculars awaiting them.

The book has a sense of immediacy about it which can only come from the careful pacing of the author, as he lets you in on each piece of information as it happens over the course of the night. And even though you know the story; indeed the author references the outcome in several places; the reader is still held captive to the narrative.

Jim Bishop wrote a syndicated column for about 6 years between 1957 and 1963. In 1964 he released ''A Day in the Life of President Kennedy,'' which he had just finished 10 days before the assassination in Dallas. The book had been approved by JFK without revisions. However, Jackie Kennedy asked for 60 minor changes after his death and prior to publication; all of which the author acceded to. 

Mr. Bishop later wrote “The Day Kennedy Was Shot”, which was first released in 1968. TV personality Bill O’Reilly has had a successful run of books about the Lincoln and JFK assassinations, and I’ve even read them. They add nothing to the stories and in some places are very reminiscent of the style which Jim Bishop used in writing his books on the same subjects; only several decades earlier than Mr. O’Reilly. That’s why I like to roam “the stacks” at the library. A lot of “new” things can be found there.

"Tales from Old Iredell County" by O.C. Stonestreet (2012)

Thanks to author O.C. Stonestreet I will never look at the local roads, such as route 115, 21 and 150, in the same light again. They say that the only thing new is the history you don’t know, and Mr. Stonestreet has managed to gather all of the local folklore into this delightfully entertaining, quickly read, 200 page book.

Mr. Stonestreet was speaking at the DAR meeting last Saturday in Mooresville, and Sue; who is a member; bought a copy of this book which details all of the local legends in the county. Some are suspect, but others ring very true, even explaining some of the things I see; or wonder about; as I travel the local roads each day.

Among the stories related here, which vary from Tom Dooley’s hanging, which made a great folk song; to some more important; although not fully proven tales. We also can boast that Iredell County was the birthplace of Kit Carson, the legendary pioneer, and North Carolina’s version of Daniel Boone. Remember, these events took place when North Carolina was the western frontier of our nation.

I especially liked the story about Abraham Lincoln, whom I have written of several times here and is one of my favorite Presidents. It seems that Abraham Lincoln may have been fathered by a man named Abraham Enloe in Rutherford County; about 60 miles from here; who had a maid named Nancy Hanks. She became pregnant by her employer; and although he was already married with kids; he did the honorable thing by paying Tom Lincoln $500 and a wagon; with a team of oxen; to claim the child was his. Tom Lincoln was on his way to Illinois and just passing through, so he readily agreed to the arrangement. Moreover, Tom Lincoln; who was never overly fond of his son; was short and stocky; while Mr. Enloe was tall and lean, just as Abraham Lincoln was. Even pictures of Mr. Enloe’s son bear a striking likeness to the President. This story has never been definitively disproven, with even some of Lincoln’s own words alluding to the uncertainty of his parentage.

From crimes and punishments, lynching’s and murders; with a bit of mayhem thrown in; there are some truly colorful stories in this book. Along with some stories concerning gravestones; the book is a wonderful thing to have in the car as you go about your daily business. It will enable the reader to expand upon the little tidbits of tales which he may have heard about, but thus far been unable to verify. So much of local history has been lost to the ages, and Mr. Stonestreet’s little book may go a long way in stopping some of that loss. 

"Midnight Rising" by Tony Horwitz

The best way to begin a review of this book is to quote, as the author has at the beginning of Chapter 3, from Henry David Thoreau, who, in remarks contained in his "A Plea for Captain Brown", said that "He (John Brown) could not have been tried by a jury of his peers, because his peers did not exist." After reading this account of John Brown and his remarkable life, I could not agree more.

Most of us were taught a very simplistic version of the John Brown saga, almost all of what many of us know is contained in the lyrics of that famous song, "John Brown's Body". But there is so much more to the life of this man. He was, at times, what we would today call a manic-depressive. Indeed, some of his family members had been confined to asylums, and some had even committed suicide. Many people, even after a visit to Harper's Ferry, come away with the impression that John Brown was killed that day in October of 1859 when he stormed the Federal Armory there. He was wounded, and lived to face trial for treason, murder and inciting rebellion. He was found guilty within 2 weeks of the crimes for which he was accused. In that time he had 5 different lawyers.

Although mental problems ran in his family, John Brown was considered to be merely a fanatic, with views of grandiosity. In that sense, he was not legally insane. He had none of the hallucinations, or other problems which met the criteria for Virginia to judge him "non compos, or deranged", thus enabling him to avoid a trial for his crimes. He was found guilty and promptly hung.

This book gives the reader a fascinating look at the final year and a half leading to the Civil War. With such characters as Robert E. Lee, then a Union Colonel in charge of putting down the insurrection at Harper's Ferry, and Governor Wise, the author is able to paint a clear and unvarnished picture of one of the most compelling adventures to come out of the Abolitionist Movement.

In the aftermath of the attack, while he lay bleeding, and possibly dying from wounds received during the brief skirmish, John Brown, in great pain, parried with his interrogators, sparring with them, most times to a draw. Governor Wise proclaimed him "the gamest man I have ever met." Senator Mason, who was also present in the immediate aftermath of the fight, had the following exchange with the wounded man;

"How do you justify your actions?" queried the Senator. Brown replied, "I think, my friend you are guilty of a great wrong against God and Humanity. I say that without wishing to be offensive. It would be perfectly right for anyone to interfere with you, so far as to free those you willfully and wickedly hold in bondage. I do not say this insultingly."

Realizing that he would surely be hung for his crimes, he said, "You may dispose of me very easily; I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is to be settled - this Negro question I mean - the end of that is not yet."

In addition to exploring all the details of John Brown's early life, and his plans for the attack on Harper's Ferry, the author delves into the history of the "insanity" plea, which was just coming into its own in American criminal justice. Only months before John Brown's trial began, New York Congressman Daniel Sickles shot his wife’s lover in Washington, DC. He argued, successfully, that he was deranged at the moment of the shooting. He was found not guilty.

This is not the story we were all fed in grammar school. It is, at once, an account of the incident, and attendant crime, as well as a look into ourselves as a people, and our history as a nation. In his essay "Civil Disobedience", Henry David Thoreau pondered these questions; "Is it possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? .....Are laws to be enforced simply because they are made?" These are pertinent questions, even today.

The Gettysburg Address

This is the only authenticated photo of President Lincoln at Gettysburg. It was taken about noon on November 19th, 1863, some 3 hours before the President spoke.

When the event was over, the newspapers here in America pronounced the President's remarks as "lackluster" and "barren." Instead they concentrated on the more than 2 hour speech which preceeded the President's remarks, and was given by Edward Everett, who was considered to be the greatest orator of his time. Nobody remembers what he said.

The crowd measured from fifteen to twenty thousand that day. The President had arrived the night before and was accompanied by a crowd on his way to the Cemetery. Mr. Everett spoke first, after an opening prayer. After he was through, Lincoln rose and spoke for 2 minutes. The crowd seemed almost suprised at the short speech which Mr. Lincoln made. Coming, as it did, upon the heels of Mr. Everett's speech they were almost in a trance, and Lincoln remarked to his aide, John Hay, "It is a flat failure and the people are disappointed."

This is the photo of the crowd at the time that Lincoln was making his speech. The photo at the top of the page was enlarged and taken from this photo. It is the only known photo of the proceedings that day in which the President's presence has been authenticated.

The following day, on November 20th, Everett wrote the President to praise the speech, and gradually, as it was printed across the country, it came to be seen for the perfect piece of oration that it was, and still remains today. Place all of the politics of that war aside and really listen to what Mr. Lincoln was saying that day. I don't think these words have ever been surpassed, in either beauty or brevity.

Here is the speech;

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here, dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

"The Fiery Trial" by Eric Foner

Abraham Lincoln was a complex man. A potrait of him hung on the wall in my Kindergarten class, so his image is a part of my psyche. There are certain things I have come to accept about him. The Emancipation Proclamation is one of those things. But the story behind it is quite another. History is never cut and dry, and as I said, Lincoln was a complex man.

The author of this book has done a superb job of attempting to find the "real" Lincoln. He has gone to painstaking lengths to do so, and in the process has shed some light on a very volatile, and often misunderstood, chapter in our collective history.

Did Lincoln free the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation? All the slaves? Right away? Most Americans believe the answer to be yes to all three of these questions. And most Americans would be wrong. The issue of slavery has been a thorn in the side of the Republic since the first day of it's founding. How one group of men could write of tossing off "the chains and shackles that bind us", while continuing to allow the institution of slavery to exist, is mind boggling. That the Civil War didn't occur sooner than it did, is amazing.

Lincoln found himself in the middle of all these questions, both moral and legal, which surrounded the issue of Abolition. And he took all sides, playing them all. He was a moral man, to be sure. But, he was also a shrewd politician, and that profession can often trump "our better angels."

Take the Missouri Compromise as an example. As a Congressman, Lincoln was for it. It would abolish slavery East of the Missouri, but allow it to continue West of that divide. True, he was attempting to hold the Union together, but how wise was it to delay the inevitable confrontation that awaited the nation?

Once the war began, Lincoln found himself committed to taking some sort of action that would underscore the issue of slavery. In late 1862 he rolled out the Emancipation Proclamation. This document was immediately construed to be the Instrument by which slavery, as an institution, was abolished in the United States. But that is only a half truth.

The Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in the states that comprised the South. The slaves in the North would not attain full freedom, by this Instrument, until 1900. The main idea was to grant freedom to the slaves in the South in an effort to get them into the fight on the side of the North.

As early as May of 1861, only 2 months after the war had begun, General Butler was already allowing runaway slaves to take refuge in Fortress Monroe, at the mouth of the James River opposite Norfolk, in Virginia. This was in direct contravention to the Fugitive Slave Act, which was nullified as soon as the South fired the first shot at Fort Sumter. The irony here is that these slaves were taking refuge to avoid working as slaves for the Confederacy, yet when they arrived at Fortress Monroe, they were immediately assigned to work details as cooks and laborers, for the Union Army, without pay.

Meantime, in Washington, Lincoln was formalizing plans to ship ex-slaves back to Haiti and Liberia. There was also something called the "Chiriqui Project", which Lincoln had discussed as early as 1861. This plan would have shipped all African-Americans to Colombia to build a colony on land owned by one Ambrose W. Thompson.

As all this talk of Emancipation and Repatriation was taking place, there was considerable opposition in the black community. Some, if not most, of the freed slaves were born here in America, which technicaly made them natural born citizens.Once again, irony rears it's head, as Lincoln had made this very argument himself while in Congress. Moreover, there were many white Republicans opposed to the plan, further hindering it's implementation. Frederick Douglass was also one of the most vocal opponents of these plans to ship African-Americans away from the land of their birth.

This is a fascinating book that will inform the reader on many levels concerning the Institution of Slavery and how it came to an end in America. And some of it will suprise you, because history is not always what you have been taught to believe.

Robert Todd Lincoln - Too Close to History

This is President William McKinley. It was this week in 1901 when Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the slain President, rushed from the train station in Buffalo to greet President McKinley at the Temple of Music. He did so in his capacity as President of the Pullman Cars Association to lend a hand in the political opportunites afforded by the Pan American Exposition which was being held in Buffalo that year. Robert Todd Lincoln was always late.

Just as he arrived Leon Czolgosz approached the President, his hand in a sling which concealed a revolver. He used this weapon to shoot the President within yards of the ever tardy Mr. Lincoln. The President was shot on the 6th and died of his wounds on the 14th of September. After this event, Mr. Lincoln would make no more public political appearances for the rest of his life. Some say this was a self imposed idea. Others say he fell out of favor as a guest for a very understandable, but unusual, reason.

You see, Robert Todd had a history of being late at the very times when Presidents were shot. He was late in 1881 when he was serving under President James Garfield, pictured here, as the Secretary of War. On this occasion he arrived, as he later did with McKinley, at the precise moment the fatal shots were fired by Charles Guiteau. Just as later, with McKinley, Robert Todd was only yards away. It has been written that both Garfield, and later McKinley, were having dreams portending their own deaths at the hands of an assassin. So much had been written about President Lincoln's premonitions, that both subsequent Presidents were eager to discuss this with his son Robert.

This is Robert Todd Lincoln as he appeared in the 1880's. The history of his presence at the assassinations began, of course, with the murder of his father, Abraham Lincoln, which occured on the very night that Captain Lincoln arrived back in Washington after having served as an aide to General Grant. He was too tired to attend the theater that night, electing to stay in the White House instead. But he was summoned about 11 PM that night after news of his fathers assassination had spread throughout the city like wildfire. Rushing to the President's side he was present when President Lincoln passed away at about 7:30 AM the following morning.

I have often thought about the burden that Robert Todd Lincoln carried with him for the rest of his life. He did write briefly about it, posing such questions as "What if I had been there?" and "Might it have gone differently?" No one will ever know. But every year when the anniversary of President McKinley's assassination rolls around, I think about poor Robert Todd Lincoln and the burden that he carried for over 6 decades until he passed away in 1926.