Monday, December 31, 2012

Lincoln's impact

The entry I chose for my book, “Lincoln 365,” for today’s date is as follows. It needs no elaboration.

“Lincoln's death was an unparalleled international phenomenon.
Of course heads of state, like his great and good friend Queen
Victoria, sent condolences. But what was astonishing was that,
according to one historian, condolences also came from the
Working Class Improvement Association of Lisbon, the Students
in the Faculty of Theology in Strasbourg, the Teachers of the
Ragged School in Bristol, the Vestry of the Parish of Chelsea, the
Cotton Brokers' Association of Liverpool, the Men's Gymnastic
Union of Berne, Switzerland [all 44 members]. As if moved
inexorably by some powerful if unseen gravitational pull, people
thousands of miles away made it their business to express their
profound sorrow at the passing of this most enigmatic of men.
For somehow Lincoln had managed to capture their imaginations,
this man carved from the granite of the great American heartland,
who had clambered through the dense entangling undergrowth of
misunderstanding and greed, of violence and stupidity, to burst
forth onto God's very own broad, sunlit uplands.”
- Arnold Kunst

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live
forever.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

Friday, December 28, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 9

Lincoln did in fact make the youngish – and little-known - James Ashley of Ohio the floor manager in charge of lining up the votes needed to pass the 13th Amendment.

The movie doesn’t show it, but Ashley was a gifted wire-puller who did in fact get the job done. On the other hand it’s hard to escape the conclusion that if the effort failed Ashley would have ended up taking the heat. Lincoln was a master wire-puller!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 8

Picky-picky time: The climax to the film is the vote on the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery forever.

However, the roll-call for voting in the House of Representatives was then - and still is - alphabetical, not, as in the movie, by state.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

From Lincoln to the rest of us: Merry Christmas!

In my book, Lincoln 365, the entry I chose for 25 December reads as follows:

'To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.'
- Abraham Lincoln

'Ultimately magic finds you, if you let it.'


Ease somebody’s heartache today. Chances are [s]he needs it!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 7

The movie’s depiction of Tad Lincoln leaves something to be desired. For one thing, the real Tad suffered from a pronounced speech impediment, probably a cleft palate, that left him incapable of communicating to any but a small number of people: his parents, his older brother Robert, Elizabeth Keckley [Mary Lincoln’s seamstress] and one or two others.

In addition, in contrast to the close affectionate relationship between Tad and his father [which is accurate] the film hardly even shows Tad and his mother in the same scene.

The implication the film gives that the boy was close to his father but not to his mother was far from the truth. In point of fact Mary had already lost two of her four sons to disease and during the White House years, with Robert away at Harvard, she was especially close to Tad, for example, taking him with her on trips on a regular basis.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Early Lincoln humor

Sigmund Freud once said, "The child is the father of the man" - truer words were
never spoken. They say that after a church service Lincoln, as a child, would mount
a stump and delight the other children with his rendition of the sermon he had just
heard. It showcased Lincoln's ability at mimicry, his remarkable memory
as well as his bubbly, ever-present sense of humor. 
 
It was important, of course,
that no adult be present!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” and Sandy Hook violence

The new Spielberg ”Lincoln” movie accurately shows Lincoln very fatherly toward his 11-year-old son Tad - picking up a sleeping Tad from the floor, packing him on his back and carrying him off to bed. Just what he was attempting to do with his sadly divided, Civil-War-torn nation.

Seems an apt picture for a nation in the grip of gun violence that we, somehow, don’t seem to have the will ever to do anything meaningful about.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 6

In one scene Lincoln actually slaps his son Robert. Almost certainly that slap didn't happen.

For one thing, both father and son had tremendous reserve. In addition, Mary, a Southerner, raised Robert in the tradition of a Southern gentleman which means he wouldn't have goaded his father as happens in the movie. Even so, the scene has a kind of emotional validity because it accurately highlights the tension between father and son – and that certainly was true.

It’s interesting to note that Lincoln had been absent for much of Robert's early years. During that time Lincoln was riding the circuit for up to six months every year - traveling from one court house to the next with a group made up of a judge, court clerk(s) and an assortment of lawyers bringing grass-roots justice to the hinterlands. This arrangement also had the (happy?) circumstance of allowing Lincoln to be away from both a difficult wife and two demanding sons.

In other words, Lincoln was not gifted with an all-purpose golden touch. As a daddy clearly he was too much here, not enough there - just like you and I. That is, this man, like you and I, had feet of clay.

There's very good news here: by extension, if Lincoln matches us in our grubby humanity, the good news is, it's possible that we can match his ability to influence spectacularly the world he lived in by influencing equally spectacularly the world we live in!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 5

The real Seward-Lincoln relationship was far more nuanced and interesting than the rather two-dimensional relationship depicted in this movie.

William Seward’s relationship with Abraham Lincoln started off on the wrong foot. Seward was the heir-apparent to the Republican presidential nomination in 1860 – only to be outmaneuvered by the gangly lawyer from the middle of nowhere whose existence he had, up to that point, barely acknowledged.

As Lincoln’s Secretary of State he treated the new President as a kind of constitutional monarch, and he was the Prime Minister with the real power. Like the proverbial princess and the pea he threatened to resign early on because he didn’t get his way, only to be put in his place firmly but politely by the one who really was his boss [“If a change is to be made, I must do it.”]

That was the sledge hammer between the eyes Seward needed, and the relationship between the two men was solid from those early days of the Lincoln Administration to Lincoln’s death. In fact theirs was as sincere a friendship as any to be found in American political history. They genuinely enjoyed, and relaxed in, one another’s company, often regaling one another with wildly funny, occasionally bawdy, stories and jokes into the wee hours. Each was a tonic for the other.

The movie, by contrast, depicts Seward in two roles.

First, as a kind of foil to Lincoln’s urge to get this 13th Amendment through the House although the votes weren’t to be had. [“It simply can’t be done” versus “I like our chances.”] The reality was more interesting: both men were passionately opposed to slavery, and eager to secure this final nail in the slavery coffin. Seward as foil to Lincoln was more for dramatic effect than historical accuracy.

The second function Seward plays in the movie is as a kind of lackey employed to do Lincoln’s dirty work for him – in effect, “get the votes by any means necessary, and when you’re done burn your notes.”

Is that the way it played out, Seward as Lincoln’s lackey? Possibly; the notes did in fact get destroyed, so we will probably never really know.



Friday, December 14, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 4

We like to think that Lincoln, since he was a great orator, had a powerful, booming voice, ideally a baritone voice, and we’re understandably disappointed to find this high, thin, reedy thing exiting [apologetically?] from the mouth of Daniel Day-Lewis.

It is true that Lincoln was a great orator with a voice perfectly adequate for the audiences he addressed – never more than a few thousand people at any given time. But if truth be told, Lincoln’s was pure Indiana [“Mr. Cheeeerman”] twang.

Day-Lewis got it right.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 3

At one point in the movie Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who was not known for his sense of tact [or sense of humor], complains that they’re about to be subjected to yet another of the President’s stories.

Was Speilberg’s Stanton behaving in character? Well, listen to the following and you be the judge:

According to Stanton, just before he announced the draft Emancipation Proclamation, Mr. Lincoln "was reading a book of some kind, which seemed to amuse him. It was a little book. He finally turned to us and said: 'Gentlemen, did you ever read anything from Artemus Ward? Let me read you a chapter that is very funny.'

“Not a member of the Cabinet smiled; as for myself, I was angry, and looked to see what the President meant. It seemed to me like buffoonery. He, however, concluded to read us a chapter from Artemus Ward, which he did with great deliberation, and, having finished, laughed heartily, without a member of the Cabinet joining in the laughter.

“'Well,' he said, 'let's have another chapter,' and he read another chapter, to our great astonishment.

“I was considering whether I should rise and leave the meeting abruptly, when he threw his book down, heaved a sigh, and said: 'Gentlemen, why don't you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.'"

I don’t think Stanton agreed!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 2

Clearly the opening scene of the movie has more artistic than strictly historical accuracy. Even so that scene doesn’t quite sit right.

It is hard to imagine not only that common soldiers had chunks of the Gettysburg Address memorized but that they would quote it back to the original author of that address.
 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Speilberg’s “Lincoln” nit-picked by a history nerd, part 1

[Spoiler alert: let me suggest that you see the new Steven Spielberg movie LINCOLN before you read this series of blog entries.]

The first of the many dazzling characteristics of Daniel Day-Lewis's "Lincoln" is the President’s even-temperedness and approachability. He may be President of the United States but he’s as comfortable as an old pair of slippers.

The movie opens on a rainy evening. A battle has just concluded and two soldiers are speaking to someone out of view of the camera explaining what happened in the battle. As the camera pulls back it becomes clear that we are looking over the shoulder of President Abraham Lincoln. What is remarkable about him is his zen-like tranquility in the presence of a private to corporal – and their comfort in the presence of the President of the United States.

He proves to be equally tranquil as he is told by his advisers that the passage of the 13th amendment abolishing slavery is simply not possible; the votes in the House can't be had, he needs to deal with a group of high-ranking Confederate peace emissaries, he needs to focus on winning the war first, etc.

This is not a man to be rattled!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Lincoln jokes, part 4

Throughout his Presidency Lincoln was hounded by office seekers. When he returned from speaking at Gettysburg in November of 1863 he had contracted a mild form of [contagious] smallpox.

“Where are all those office seekers now?” he asked. “I’ve got something I can give everybody!”


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Lincoln jokes, part 3

Lincoln once described the frustration of sending troops to the Army of the Potomac.

“It’s like shoveling fleas across a barnyard.”


Saturday, December 8, 2012

Lincoln jokes, part 2

A conference was held in early 1861 just before the outbreak of what came to be called the Civil War. It was billed as a peace conference and was meant to bridge the gap[s] between North and South.

That, of course, reminded Lincoln of a story.

"I once knew a good sound churchman, whom we will call Brown, who was on a committee to erect a bridge over a very dangerous and rapid river. Architect after architect failed, and, at last, Brown said, he had a friend named Jones who had built several bridges and could build this.

“’Let us have him in,' said the committee. In came Jones. ‘Can you build this bridge, sir?' ‘Yes,’ replied Jones, ‘I could build a bridge to the infernal regions if necessary.'

“The sober committee was horrified. But when Jones retired, Brown thought it but fair to defend his friend. ‘I know Jones well,' said he, ‘and he is so honest a man, and so good an architect, that if he states, soberly and positively, that he can build a bridge to Hades, why, I believe it. But I have my doubts about the abutment on the infernal side.'

“When politicians said they could harmonize the northern and southern wings of the democracy, why, I believed them. But I have my doubt about the abutment on the southern side."

Friday, December 7, 2012

Lincoln jokes, part 1

At one point Secretary of War Edwin Stanton replied to a telegram from the President demanding urgent instructions, with "all right, go ahead."

"I suppose you meant," said Mr. Lincoln, "that it is all right if it is good for you, and all wrong if it is not.

“That reminds me," said he, "of a story about a horse that was sold at the cross-roads near where I once lived. The horse was supposed to be fast, and quite a number of people were present at the time appointed for the sale.

“A small boy was employed to ride the horse backward and forward to exhibit his points. One of the would-be buyers followed the boy down the road and asked him confidentially if the horse had a splint.

“‘Well, mister,' said the boy, if it's good for him he has got it, but if it ain't good for him he don't.'"

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Abraham Lincoln as Pain in the Neck!

Abraham Lincoln could be, and often was, a real pain in the neck. Let's suppose you, a college graduate, had made your way through local and state government; that you’d assiduously polished your résumé; that you had gone on to spend years climbing the Washington D.C. greasy poll; that you’d mastered the time-honored art of working a room with consummate ease, comfortable in that sophisticated setting [what a later generation would call The Beltway]; and, at this most crucial point in American history when the country was coming apart at the seams, you were now asked to join President Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet.

Challenges that others would run from as overwhelming you clutch to your bosom gladly because they’ll prove your mettle. You had achieved what for many was the panicle of ambition.

So far so good.

But be aware that you’d probably be annoyed, to put it mildly, being up close and personal with this lanky, ah-shucks prairie lawyer, with 17 years of experience as a member of a two-man law firm from Podunk, Illinois [if you went any further west from Springfiield you’d fall off!], a man country to the core, full of time-wasting, corny, cracker-barrel jokes, whose kids on a regular basis would burst into cabinet meetings to jump on their daddy’s lap And Disturb Everythinng.

And you’d have to stifle your urge to burst in and say, “LET’S GET ON WITH IT!”

After all, he’s the boss, isn't that right?

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

A Crescendo of Magnificant Proportions...

In 1849, after his lone two-year stint in the House of Representatives, Lincoln returned to the wilds of Illinois to practice the law. As he did so, Lincoln, in this self-imposed exile from politics, set out to take stock of himself, sort out his ideas, figure out where he wanted to go both personally and politically.

He was like a fertile field that was destined for a time to lay fallow, and he had, or developed, the self-discipline necessary to acquiesce in being shunted like some unused box car into an unused siding. One has the feeling that the seeds of greatness were nurtured during that time - that immense power was gathering in the shadows for a crescendo of magnificent proportions.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Lincoln, the word-wizard war leader

One of the principle jobs of any war leader is to marshal the resources of the nation behind the war effort. Few have performed this task with the consummate skill of this wizard with words.

The following quote, even 150-odd years later, is still white-hot, still utterly compelling. Here is Lincoln in his message to Congress in December of 1862, the equivalent of The State of the Union speech of another century; drink what he says, utterly pliant to the subtle ministrations of this wizard with words:

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and in what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”

The Master has spoken!


Monday, December 3, 2012

Lincoln's Family Troubles, Part 1

In February 1862 Willie Lincoln, aged 11, died. His brother Tad would break into intermittent sobbing because Willie “would never speak to me any more.” And Mary was so prostrate with grief that she did not even attend the funeral.

Within a few weeks Mary had suffered a nervous breakdown and shut herself in her room for the next three months. Lincoln, according to one observer, “worried about her, haunted by fears that she might lapse into insanity. One day he led her to a window and pointed to a distant building where mental patients were confined. ’Try to control your grief,’ he said firmly, ‘or it will drive you mad, and we may have to send you there.’”

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Implaccible Hatred, Part 1

Reconciliation had a long way to go in the days following Lee’s surrender. Edmund Ruffin, credited with firing the first shot at Sumter four years earlier, reacted to the news of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox by leaving a farewell note decrying “the perfidious, malignant and vile Yankee race” - then putting a bullet through his head.

Not to be outdone, as it were, the famous Northern preacher Henry Ward Beecher, vitriolic as ever, foresaw eternal agony for the secessionist aristocrats – “guiltiest and most remorseless traitors, polished, cultured, exceedingly capable and wholly unprincipled…Caught up in black clouds full of voices of vengeance and lurid with punishment, [they] shall be whirled aloft and plunged downward forever and forever in endless retribution.”

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Lincoln as permissive parent Part 4: Goats in the White House!

On one occasion Tad Lincoln harnessed his pet goat Nanko to a chair and drove this make-shift charriot through the East Room during a White House reception!


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Lincoln as permissive parent Part 3: Executive Pardon for The Doll Jack

One day Lincoln’s two sons held a solemn court martial in which a soldier doll named Jack was found guilty of desertion, and sentenced to death by firing squad. But since that would require his burial in the Rose Garden and the anger of the gardener, that wanted “Paw” to solve their problem.

So the President of the United States of America interrupted what was probably a very crowded day and drew out a sheet of Executive Mansion stationary and wrote the following: “The Doll Jack is pardoned by order of the President.” And he signed it “A. Lincoln.”

Monday, November 26, 2012

The Lincolns as permissive parents, Part 2: Grassroots capitalism in Action.

These “Public Opinion Baths” didn’t go unnoticed by the Lincoln boys. They saw that people came from far and wide to visit their father, so [naturally?] the two boys charged each visitor a nickel for what they called an “admission fee.”

In the tradition of classic American can-do capitalism, Willie and Tad Lincoln found a need [more or less], and filled it!

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Lincoln’s “Public Opinion Baths”

Those around Lincoln strove from beginning to end to erect barriers to defend him against constant interruption. He disliked anything that kept people from him who wanted to see him. 'You will wear yourself out,' his advisors pleaded with him. Lincoln of course agreed, but they wanted so little - how could he refuse to see them?

He gave a considerable amount of time to these meetings [Lincoln himself called them Public Opinion baths]’ they took place from 10 - 2 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 10 - 12 on Tuesday and Thursday.

All a person had to do was merely show up in the White House at the stated time and wait their turn.

Usually he would greet people with 'what can I do for you?' Then he would listen and would promise to do what he could if the request were reasonable. If it wasn’t, or if he was in a hurry to get rid of someone, he would crack a joke and with both of them laughing he would ease the caller out the door.

People availed of this opportunity for any number of reasons.  Of course, one of those reasons might be, and often was, because the person concerned wanted a job [“Mr. President, you never would have won Cobbs County except for my influence; make me a US Marshall!”].

On the other hand the person’s concern just might be something Lincoln needed to know about, something about which he could learn in no other way. [Washington DC had, and some say still has, a way of warping beyond anything recognizable the sincere concerns of a normal person.]

These public opinion baths were Lincoln’s answer to another age’s opinion poll. More time-consuming than opinion polls to be sure, but far more full-proof.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Lincoln and Compassion, Part 2

Lincoln said, and meant, the following: “To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.”

Of course, one can easily dismiss that pithy observation as a cutsey little nothing, but Lincoln practiced the kind of compassion he preached.

One day during the Civil War Lincoln was visiting the sick and wounded. He entered a tent in which lay Confederate wounded. A correspondent quoted him as saying they were “enemies through uncontrollable circumstances.”

After a silence, Confederates came forward and without words shook the hand of the President. Some were too sore and broken to walk or to sit up. The President went among these, took some by the hand, wished them good cheer, and said they should have the best of care. The correspondent wrote, “Beholders wept at the interview. Most of the Confederates, even, were moved to tears.”

Friday, November 23, 2012

You’re going to lose a few: Lincoln’s reaction

Lincoln was once dismissed by an acquaintance who said, “I can't understand those speeches of Lincoln.” Lincoln laughed: “There are always some fleas a dog can’t reach.”

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Lincoln as Flip-Flopper, Part One

Would we take to a man who wanted to be President who said anything remotely similar to this: “My policy is to have no policy”?


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Lincoln’s Cabinet: Not a Friend in Sight!

The six members of President-elect Lincoln’s cabinet in 1860 had not a yes-man among them. That cabinet was made up of three defeated rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860 [William Sward as Secretary of State, Salmon Chase as Secretary of the Treasury and Edwin Bates as Attorney General] and three Democrats [Gideon Welles as Secretary of the Navy, Montgomery Blair as Postmaster General and, eventually, Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War.] Clearly, each man had reason[s] aplenty to look down on and/or be antagonistic to the new President, especially in that age of knee-jerk spite.

As Doris Kearns Goodwin observes, “Every member of this administration was better known, better educated, and more experienced in public life than Lincoln. Their presence in the cabinet might have threatened to eclipse the obscure prairie lawyer from Springfield.”

Admittedly, it was a balanced cabinet, more or less accurately representing the soon-to-be-bloody divisions that were poised to swamp the ship of state in a titanic Civil War. It was also, pound for pound, arguably the most talented cabinet in American Presidential history. But along with the talent were six egos the size of barns. In short, cabinet meetings stretching to the dim distant horizon seemed doomed to fight the war in miniature at their twice-weekly meetings.

And what of that obscure prairie lawyer from Springfield? Lincoln was warned about his cabinet choices at the very outset: “They’ll eat you up!”  Remarkably, Lincoln just laughed. “They’re as likely to eat each other up,” he countered.

What he seems NOT to have said – here or at any other of the many perilous points in his remarkable career – is anything remotely like, “Maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.”

Monday, November 19, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit, Part 22

As a people we listen to news outlets not for information but for ammunition.
We have degenerated to a state of endemic name-calling, of assuming the world will end If The Other Crowd Gets Eelected. Nothing, it seems, can shake our faith in bumper-sticker political discourse. We face real problems that are shunted off into a siding, presumably because it’s more important to blame instead of solve. We’d see this vast communal behavioral pattern as silly [which it is] if it weren’t so tragic. In short, none of us seems to put any real value on reconciliation.

On the other hand, nobody was as passionate about reconciliation as Lincoln, and in the world he lived in passionate hatred spilled over into a war producing more casualties than all the other conflicts this country has been involved in, from the Revolution to Iraq and Afghanistan.

We may not value reconciliation, but Lincoln did.

At one point he was visiting the sick and wounded, and came on a tent filled with Confederate wounded – the enemy. Shot-torn in both hips lay Henry L. Benbow, a colonel om the 23rd South Carolina artillary, and according to Colonel Benbow, “the President halted beside my bed and held out his hand. I was lying on my back, my hands folded across my breast.

“Looking him in the face I said, ‘Mr. President, do you know who it is to whom you offer your hand?’

“‘I do not,’ he replied.

“I said, ‘You offer it to a Confederate colonel who has fought you as hard as he could for four years!’

“‘Well,’ said he, ‘I hope a Confederate colonel will not refuse me his hand.’

“‘No sir,’ I replied, ‘I will not,’ and I clasped his hand in both of mine.”


Sunday, November 18, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit, Part 21

We sometimes choose tawdry, media-construct leaders who, if truth be told, are not all that comfortable living inside their own skin, and so they end up choosing people in their immediate circle who are inclined to agree with him/her more than, perhaps, is good for the country.

Not so Lincoln

An old friend of Lincoln advised him not to take Salmon Chase into his cabinet “because Chase thinks he’s a great deal bigger than you are.” “Well,” asked Lincoln, “do you know of any other men who think they are bigger than I am?” “I don’t know that I do,” the man replied, “but why do you ask?” “Because,” answered Lincoln, “I want to put them all in my Cabinet.”

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit, Part 20

We don’t take kindly to any politician who bears the slightest whiff of “flip-flopper,” so we’d have difficulty tolerating Lincoln who not only said the following, but even seemed COMFORTABLE about it!

“I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.”


Friday, November 16, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit, Part 19

We assume a leader who doesn’t have an answer for every question is not a real leader. We’d have trouble with Lincoln who seemed, maybe, comfortable with his own ignorance!

“I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”


Thursday, November 15, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit, Part 18

Politics is a blood sport – if you’re playing the game and you screw up, trust me, you’ll get bloodied. Not true for Lincoln!

“I choose always to make my statute of limitations a short one.”


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit Part 17

Presidents have, over the years, devolved into a purveyer of the Nice-Nice.



Not Lincoln

Early in the war when a delegation of women visiting the White House asked Lincoln for a word of encouragement, he replied bluntly, “I have no word of encouragement to give. Our people and our generals have not yet made up their minds that we are involved in an awful war. Our officers seem to think the war can be won by plans and strategy. That is not true. Only hard and tough fighting will win.”


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit, Part 16

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

 “Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense.”


Monday, November 12, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit Part 15

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

 “When our own beloved country once, by the blessing of God, united, prosperous and happy is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him, and to pray for His mercy.”


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit. Part 14

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

“Avoid popularity if you would have peace.”


Saturday, November 10, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit. Part 13

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

 “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?”


Friday, November 9, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit. Part 12

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

“I cannot understand why men should be so eager after money. Wealth is simply a superfluity of what we don't need.”

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit, Part 11

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

“I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.”

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit Part 10


It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

Is Lincoln in a class by himself, or what?

 “I don’t like that man; I must get to know him better.”

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit Part 9

A Third Victory Speech:

In November 1864, “Having served four years in the depths of a great, and unended national peril, I can view this call to a second term, in nowise more flatteringly to myself, than as an expression of the public judgment that I may better finish a difficult work in which I have labored from the first, than could anyone less severely schooled to the task.”

Monday, November 5, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit Part 8

A Second Victory Speech:

And again, in 1860, “In all our rejoicing let us neither express, nor cherish, any harsh feeling towards any citizen who, by his vote, has differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.”


Sunday, November 4, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit Part 7

Victory Speech

Winning the Presidency in 1860, he said, “I have been selected to fill an important office for a brief period, and am now, in your eyes, invested with an influence which will soon pass away; but should my administration prove to be a very wicked one, or what is more probably, a very foolish one, if you, the people, are but true to yourselves and to the Constitution, there is but little harm I can do, thank God!”

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Saturday, November 3, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit Part 6

Concession Speech


In losing the race for the Illinois senate seat to Stephen Douglas in 1858 Lincoln gave the following answer when asked for his reaction to his defeat:

“I feel like the boy who stubbed his toe rather badly; he was hurt too much to laugh and he was too big to cry,”           

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit. Part 5

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

“We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.”

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit. Part 4

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

 “These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”


Monday, October 29, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit. Part 3

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

 “I am charged with making too many mistakes on the side of mercy.”


Sunday, October 28, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit. Part 2

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

“He has a right to criticize who has a heart to help.”


Saturday, October 27, 2012

Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit. Part 8

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

“I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.”


Lincoln and the 2012 Campaign: Not a Fit, Part 1

It seems clear that Abraham Lincoln no longer fits the context of an American political campaign. But you be the judge: can you think of any of our current crop of candidates – from president to dog catcher – who would express anything like the following?

“Mr. Chairman, this work is exclusively the work of politicians, a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men. I say this with the greater freedom, because, being a politician myself, none can regard it as personal.”

Friday, October 26, 2012

Lincoln as Permissive Parent: Part 1: "Enriching" Cabinet Meetings


Lincoln allowed his sons the run of the White House. To the dismay of harried Cabinet members the boys periodically would burst into Cabinet meetings and jump on their daddy’s lap – and their daddy would welcome the interruption [“Boys will be boys!”].

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Lincoln and the levers of power

‘Lincoln liked using Charles Sumner, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a check against his Secretary of State William Seward, and decided to make it a standard practice. Therefore he designated Sumner as his chief adviser on foreign policy, authorized him to go through all foreign correspondence …and according to his biographer, Sumner now possessed ‘a virtual veto over foreign policy.’

In return for such power, Sumner gave tacit approval to Lincoln’s war policies and became a valuable Lincoln man on Capitol Hill.’

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Lincoln Keeping it Simple


In the 1850's Lincoln was involved in a high-profile case arguing for a steam ship company against a railroad company. The issue had to do with low-lying trestles across a river. In his summation to the jury the lawyer for the railroad argued brilliantly as to why the burgeoning economic prosperity of the entire region demanded free and unfettered access to bridges across rivers. His summary took over an hour.

Lincoln's summary was one sentence: 'What this jury has to decide is whether one group has more right to cross a river than another has to go up and down the same river.'

He won the case.