Month: July 2020

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Abraham Lincoln and the Lightning Rod

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Tall LincolnAbraham Lincoln had an inquisitive mind, and on July 29, 1836 he sees his first lightning rod. Poor George Forquer was to bear the result of Lincoln’s inquisition.

While traveling between debates as an Illinois state legislator, Lincoln passed the home of George Forquer. Forquer had been a Whig but switched to the Democratic party and, suspiciously, was immediately appointed to the lucrative political position of Register of the Land Office. Many questioned his motives and integrity, including Lincoln in the Sangamo Journal. Soon after his appointment Forquer built a wooden frame house, the best house in Springfield, and erected a lightning rod to protect it. It was the only such rod in the county and the first time Lincoln ever came across one.

Lincoln, of course, queried about how the rod worked. None of his companions knew so Lincoln rode into town and, according to his close friend Joshua Speed, bought a book on the properties of lightning so as to inform his knowledge. His later law partner, William Herndon, says that Lincoln told him the incident led him to study the properties of electricity and the utility of the rod as a conductor.

But back in 1836 the lightning rod was a novelty. After Lincoln gave his speech in Springfield, Forquer stood up to give a rebuttal, saying “This young man will have to be taken down; and I’m truly sorry that the task devolves to me.” He then responded to Lincoln’s speech with a great deal of condescension and moral superiority. Lincoln watched silently, then retook the stage and began “Mr. Forquer commenced his speech by announcing that the young man would have to be taken down. It is for you, fellow citizens, not for me to say whether I am up or down.” Suggesting that he is not up on the tricks and trades of politicians, and referring his recent discovery:

I desire place and distinction; but I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live to see the day that I would change my politics for an office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then feel compelled to erect a lightning rod to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God.

Much later, Lincoln would team up with Joseph Henry, who before becoming the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, had studied electricity and conductance at Princeton. Perhaps Lincoln’s first exposure to lightning rods gave him the insights he needed to successfully use the telegraph to send “lightning messages” during the Civil War. More on that as the story unfolds.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

 

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Lincoln Presents the Draft Emancipation Proclamation to His Cabinet

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Emancipation ProclamationOn July 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln presented the draft Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Constructed as a military order, the Proclamation stated “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” It took some effort to get to this point.

By the early spring of 1862, Lincoln had privately decided to issue an emancipation order. But he kept this decision to himself for many months while secretly drafting his arguments. Meanwhile, he publicly voiced apprehension about such a decision, suggesting that turning the rationale of the war from maintaining the Union to freeing the slaves would cause significant loss of northern support, in addition to creating potentially disastrous implications in the border states.

In April 1862, at Lincoln’s urging, Congress emancipated slaves in the District of Columbia and compensated their owners. That June, Lincoln signed a bill prohibiting slavery in all current and future U.S. territories. Most of these steps went largely unnoticed to anyone not directly affected, but they helped move public sentiment toward freedom. Unknown to anyone, Lincoln was preparing a draft of the now-famous document as he shuttled between the Soldier’s Home where he spent his summers and the telegraph office of the War Department.

On July 13, 1862, Lincoln presented his preliminary draft to Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Both men were caught off guard, but after discussions and suggested changes to the text they agreed to what Lincoln was proposing. Seward warned, however, that the action might sound desperate, given the recent Union losses on the battlefield. He suggested Lincoln wait until after a Union victory. Lincoln agreed.

Meanwhile, on August 19, New York Tribune editor and staunch abolitionist Horace Greeley, perhaps alerted that something was afoot, published an editorial he called “A Prayer for Twenty Millions,” suggesting it was time for the administration to act on the slavery question. Three days later, Lincoln published a reply that somewhat surreptitiously explained his objective in the war:

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’ If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

As the world read this, no one knew Lincoln had already drafted his proclamation. His goal for months had been to influence public sentiment so citizens were prepared to accept what he was about to do. In September, the battle of Antietam was considered enough of a victory to heed Seward’s caution, and on September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Written in dry, legal language, the proclamation stipulates that on:

…the first day of January [1863], all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free…

The initial reaction was as Lincoln expected. Many of the more radical Republicans were ecstatic, while Democrats and other “peace at all costs” proponents saw it as an unnecessarily extreme act. Many voters agreed; Republicans lost twenty-eight seats in the House of Representatives that November. As Lincoln feared, many northerners were vehemently opposed to a civil war to free the slaves as opposed to preserve the Union.

Despite these setbacks, Lincoln was confident that the proclamation was both just and necessary. He explained that his action was solely as a war measure; that is, the proclamation was necessary to deprive the South of slave labor so important to their troop movements. With the danger of losing the border states in mind, the proclamation did not free any slaves in those states or any state or part of state now controlled by the Union. The only slaves who were freed were those in the Confederacy, where the federal government was powerless to enforce their freedom. Some have argued that this made the proclamation meaningless, but it did lead to the escape of many southern slaves into Union divisions. As Union forces captured more territory, freedom slowly spread to a broader group of southern-held slaves.

The Final Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, and along with freedom for slaves in the designated areas was a call for the enlistment of black soldiers. Many freemen as well as escaped slaves joined the Union military. Discrimination was still rampant in the North—black companies were segregated and required a white commanding officer—but for the first time black men had an opportunity to defend their own liberty.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Lincoln in Portugal – Wiegers Calendar July

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Setubal PortugalPerhaps one of the oddest locations for an Abraham Lincoln statue is at a winery in Portugal. Which gets us to David Wiegers’s calendar entry for July. And a chance to reminisce on my quick visit to Portugal near the three years I spent living and working in Brussels.

My first thought looking at the July photo was that this was a strange background for a Lincoln statue. Perhaps it was my early years working hazardous waste sites in New Jersey, but it looked like there were some sort of petrochemical refinery tanks, with Lincoln standing in an overgrown field. Nah, must be grain silos in the mid-west. Nope. Turns out they are fermentation tanks at the Bacalhoa winery in Setubal, Portugal.

The winery started way back in 1922 and has undergone several iterations, slowly becoming one of the most respected vineyards in the country. José Manuel Rodrigues Berardo, Portugal’s most famous art collector, became the majority shareholder in 1998, so it comes as no surprise that he created a blend of wine and art on the property. In addition to modernizing the wine-making facilities and vines, the grounds now display a large collection of exotic statuary ranging from replicas of terra cotta warriors from Xi’an, art deco, Zimbabwean soapstone sculptures, and yes, a full length standing statue of Abraham Lincoln sculpted by Charles Keck. New York City born, Keck’s works include a seated Lincoln statue in Wabash, Indiana, the Huey Long statue in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol, and a large Lewis and Clark statue in Charlottesville, Virginia. I missed seeing another Keck statue in Senn Park, Chicago, showing a barefoot young Lincoln taking a break to read a book.

Lisbon Portugal protest

My own visit to Portugal took me not far from the Lincoln statue. Setubal is just south of Lisbon, where I spent several days fighting overcast weather and occasional rain. On a multi-mile stroll I took in the grand bull ring, many marvelous statues, the huge central squares, the castle, and found myself in the middle of a labor protest. For the latter, I decided to follow along with the large crowd marching up the main road from the central square to the Monument to the Marquis of Pombal. Only after seeing the protest on the hotel television that night did I realize being in the middle of a protest march in a foreign country might not have been the best decision of the day. Luckily I also found my way out to the world-famous Oceanario de Lisboa, one of the earliest, and largest, big-tank aquariums in Europe. On another day I took the train north to Sintra, a World Heritage Site featuring the Castle of the Moors and Pena National Palace.

So as with other locations in this year of explore the Wiegers calendar series, I was close to yet another Lincoln statue outside the United States. It seems everyone likes our sixteenth president. Certainly many in the United States would like more Lincoln right now.

Until next month!

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!