Month: November 2021

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Lincoln’s Day at Gettysburg

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Gettysburg AddressMost people know what Lincoln was doing on November 19, 1863 because they had to memorize the Gettysburg Address in school. But the rest of the day itself is less known. Looking at The Lincoln Log, which is an expanded online version of a book called “Lincoln Day-by-Day,” provides some fascinating detail. Keep in mind that Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg the evening before, taking time to touch up the final passages at David Wills’s house on the square in downtown Gettysburg. The following is what he did almost hour by hour on November 19th, according to The Lincoln Log (the sources are listed at the end of each entry):

 

Thursday, November 19, 1863.

Gettysburg, PA and Washington, DC.

According to Nicolay’s account, after breakfast at Wills house, Lincoln retires to his room, where Nicolay joins him, and completes preparation of his speech. John G. Nicolay, “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” The Century Magazine 25:598.

About 10 A.M. President, dressed in black, wearing white gauntlets and usual crepe around hat in memory of Willie, leaves Wills house to join procession. Receives round after round of “three hearty cheers,” and shakes many hands as crowd gathers. Washington Chronicle, 21 November 1863.

Thousands welcome President in Gettysburg. Weather fine. Flags in Washington at half-mast in honor of dead in cemetery at Gettysburg. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 19 November 1863, 2d ed., 2:6.

Gov. Curtin (Pa.), who arrived last evening with numerous important people on special train from Harrisburg, Pa., remarks to Lincoln about serenade given Gov. Seymour (N.Y.), and Lincoln replies: “He deserves it. No man has shown greater interest and promptness in his cooperation with us.” Rice, 514.

President mounts “a magnificent chestnut charger.” Monaghan, Diplomat, 341.

Rides in procession to cemetery. Hay, Letters and Diary.

Procession delayed; starts to move about 11 A.M. LL, No. 1425.

Head of procession arrives at speaker’s platform inside cemetery at 11:15 A.M. President receives military salute. President and members of cabinet, with group of military and civic dignitaries, occupy platform. “The President was received with marked respect and a perfect silence due to the solemnity of the occasion, every man among the immense gathering uncovering at his appearance.” Washington Chronicle, 20 November 1863.

Lincoln shakes hands with Gov. Tod (Ohio), who introduces Gov.-elect John Brough (Ohio), and takes his place between chairs reserved for Sec. Seward and Edward Everett, orator to make principal address. At 11:40 A.M. Everett arrives, is introduced to President, and program music begins. Washington Chronicle, 21 November 1863.

Once during Everett’s two-hour oration Lincoln stirs in his chair. “He took out his steel-bowed spectacles, put them on his nose, took two pages of manuscript from his pocket, looked them over and put them back.” Monaghan, Diplomat, 341.

About 2 P.M. Lincoln “in a fine, free way, with more grace than is his wont” delivers Gettysburg Address. He holds manuscript but does not appear to read from it. John G. Nicolay, “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” The Century Magazine 25:602; Dennett, Hay Diaries and Letters, 121; Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg, 19 November 1863, CW, 7:22-23.

Pronounces his “r” plainly, does not speak like Southerner. Henry B. Rankin, Intimate Character Sketches of Abraham Lincoln (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1924), 285.

On platform, after speech, President remarks to Marshal Lamon: “Lamon, that speech won’t scour! It is a flat failure and the people are disappointed.” Lamon, Recollections, 173.

John R. Young, recording speech in shorthand for Philadelphia “Press,” leans across aisle and asks President if that is all. Lincoln replies, “Yes, for the present.” John R. Young, Men and Memories: Personal Reminiscences, 2 vols., edited by May D. Russell Young (New York: F. T. Neely, 1901), 1:69.

President decides to hear address by Lt. Gov.-elect Charles Anderson (Pa.) at 4:30 P.M. in Presbyterian Church. Meets “old John Burns, the soldier of 1812, and the only man in Gettysburg who volunteered to defend it.” Burns accompanies him and Sec. Seward to hear Anderson speak. President’s special train leaves Gettysburg about 7 P.M. and arrives in Washington at 1:10 A.M. on Friday. Washington Chronicle, 21 November 1863.

Lincoln returns from Gettysburg with a mild form of smallpox (varioloid) and remains under half quarantine in White House for nearly three weeks. Bates, Diary, 30 November 1863; Welles, Diary, Dec.

 

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC 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’s Scientific Approach to Military Strategy

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Lincoln testing a SpencerLincoln took a scientific approach to military strategy. The Anaconda plan’s focus was on securing the coastlines and the Mississippi River. Recognizing New Orleans as the hub of the cotton trade and commerce, Lincoln saw it as the first port to be targeted for blockade. He also hoped to block southern ship traffic from Charleston, South Carolina to cut off Confederate attempts to woo Great Britain and France to their side. Helping him make this happen was Alexander Dallas Bache and the Coast Survey. The Coast Survey had been authorized by Thomas Jefferson, and Bache, who was Benjamin Franklin’s great-grandson, was quick to send nautical charts of the Chesapeake Bay to Lincoln. He also forwarded two terrestrial maps produced by the Survey that had far-reaching influence on Lincoln’s decisions on emancipation and military strategy.

The first map was of the state of Virginia. A relatively new technique of color-coded shading was used to show the percentage of enslaved population in each county based on the 1860 census. The darker shaded counties reflecting higher percentages of enslaved persons were primarily in the tidewater region and toward the southern part of the state. The mountainous western counties held only small percentages of enslaved. That told Lincoln the western counties were less likely to support the insurrection, and indeed, those counties rejoined the Union as the new state of West Virginia.

The second map showed the entire slaveholding portion of the country. Lincoln quickly recognized that the four “border” states—Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware—had relatively few slaves in most of their counties. That fact helped inform Lincoln’s strategies to retain the border states in the Union, including proposals for gradual compensated emancipation in an effort to stimulate the process of freeing the enslaved. The map also clearly showed that eastern Tennessee had relatively few slaves, which again allowed him to target that region for initial military and diplomatic forays in the hope many of the residents would retain their Union sentiments. Also clear was that the highest densities of enslaved populations were in the cotton belt of the deep South and along the Mississippi River borders of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, where over 90 percent of the populations of some counties were enslaved. The map reinforced the importance of capturing New Orleans to cut off the main supply and transport line for the Confederate economy. Controlling the Mississippi was the key to the war, which “could never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.” It also reinforced the belief that the deep South was so dependent on slavery it would never willingly give it up. Lincoln found this second map especially fascinating, according to Francis Carpenter, who spent six months at the White House preparing his famous painting, “First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln.” Carpenter added the southern slavery map to the lower right corner of his painting, reflecting its significance to the decision-making process.

But there is more…much more!

[Adapted from my book, The Fire of Genius, coming from Rowman & Littlefield in 2022]

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC 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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If Destruction Be Our Lot…We Must Ourselves be its Author and Finisher – Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address

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At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

If destruction is our lotAbraham Lincoln spoke these words in a speech generally referred to as  the Lyceum Address. Given on January 27, 1838 and more formally titled “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” the speech shows a surprising level of insight for a 28-year-old man who had spent the first three-quarters of his lifetime to date as a frontier farmer and railsplitter. He had passed the bar to become a lawyer less than two years before but had been a Whig member of the Illinois state legislature for half of the four terms he would serve. He was young, with limited political experience, but he was also a deep thinker.

Ostensibly, Lincoln was talking about how the rule of law was critical to the continuation of democratic institutions. Recent violence had led to the murder of Presbyterian minister, journalist, and abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois. Right wing mobs had destroyed Lovejoy’s warehouse, thrown his printing press in the river (for the third time), and killed him. In a second murder, a racist mob had attacked, lynched, and set fire to a free black man for no reason. Lincoln argued that mob rule cannot replace the rule of law in a legitimate society.

Lincoln’s speech goes further. He was concerned about the irreparable effects of division in the nation. Although our country is diverse in national origins, religions, and political ideologies, we needed a unified democracy to function properly as a nation. Our democratic institutions are fragile, and Lincoln warned that political concerns could only be properly addressed through the law. Mob action ultimately damages the rule of law, and with it the Constitution and democracy itself. He noted that as a nation we are strong enough to repel any foreign enemy. Our destruction will be because of our own divisions. If we are honest and hard-working, we will prosper. If we give ourselves to division, it is akin to dying by suicide.

If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.

Are we paying attention? Are we willingly allowing destruction of our democracy through violence and perpetual lies?

Will we live through all time, or die by suicide?

This has happened before. And even more recently on January 6, 2021.

Democracy is fragile. The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present.

Lincoln was confident we would survive the times and grow as a nation and a democracy.

Can we be so confident today?

 

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

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David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

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.