Author: David J. Kent

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler, scientist, and Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of books on Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Abraham Lincoln. His website is www.davidjkent-writer.com.
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Abraham Lincoln on Labor and the Lynn Shoemakers’ Strike

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Don Sottile "A Welcome Conversation" in Hartford CTOn March 5, 1860, Lincoln gave a speech in Hartford, Connecticut during his tour of New England after his Cooper Union address. One of the issues that Lincoln tackled was the role of labor and the ongoing Lynn shoemakers’ strike. Lincoln pointed used the strike to point out the difference between the free labor of the North (i.e., the paid labor in which laborers are free to find better paying employers) versus the slave labor of the South (i.e., chattel slavery for the life of the person, their children, their children’s children, ad infinitum). The conservative party at the time complained that the Lynn strike was the result of antislavery agitation and sectional controversy. Lincoln noted:

Now whether this is so or not, I know one thing – there is a strike! And I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would to God that such a system prevailed all over the world.

He went on to acknowledge there was sectional controversy indeed involved, but only because the South had withdrawn their trade on a false accusation that somehow slavery was right and free labor was wrong. The Slave Powers argued that free labor in the North was worse than slavery because, after all, they claimed, slavery was a “positive good” in which enslaved people were given a way to rise up out of their natural inferiority. Lincoln replied incredulously by noting his surprise that no slaveholder was interested in desiring such a good thing for themselves, adding “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” Further supporting the idea of workers striking, he noted that if slavery were allowed to spread to the territories, then it was only a matter of time before all the jobs in free states would also be replaced with slave labor.

Lincoln had always valued labor. His views are succinctly stated in his first annual message to Congress on December 3, 1861:

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class–neither work for others nor have others working for them. In most of the Southern States a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor masters, while in the Northern a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their families–wives, sons, and daughters–work for themselves on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class.

I should note that what I’m calling the Lynn shoemakers’ strike goes way beyond Lynn, Massachusetts. Starting intentionally on February 22nd, George Washington’s birthday, around 3,000 workers walked out of shoe factories in protest of working conditions that included 16-hour days, low pay, and dangerous machines in what previously had been an individual artisan business. The strike quickly became known more broadly as the New England Shoemakers’ Strike as the cause grew to over 20,000 workers from more than 25 towns across the region.

Despite the widespread nature of the strike, it was ultimately unsuccessful. Most factory bosses refused to negotiate and after six weeks with no pay, most returned to work. The strike did, however, lead to some changes that helped future labor efforts and eventually to unions, which successfully changed labor laws to protect workers. We should keep in mind also that the Civil War was to begin about a year later and the national focus shifted to wartime production, ramping up manufacturing and stretching labor thin as men volunteered for the Union war effort.

Lincoln had universally fought for the ability of all men to better their own condition, which included the right to fight for better working conditions in an increasingly industrialized world.

[Photo of Don Sottile statue “A Welcome Conversation” in Hartford, CT by David J. Kent.]

 

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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.

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Lincoln-Douglas Debates and the Freeport Doctrine

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Freeport Lincoln-Douglas debateLess than a week after their first debate in Ottawa, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas ventured into Freeport, Illinois, for the second of their seven joint debates during the senate election of 1858. By all standards, Freeport turned out to be the most consequential. From it came the Freeport Doctrine.

Freeport sits in the northern part of Illinois, which meant that it was generally settled by northern state migrants and tended to be more antislavery. Lincoln was on safer ground here. The joint debate agreement stipulated that the two candidates would alternate who spoke for the first hour, after which the other candidate had ninety minutes to speak, followed by a thirty-minute wrap up by the first speaker. Since Douglas started in Ottawa, Lincoln got to speak first in Freeport.

He started by answering the seven interrogatories (aka, questions) posed by Douglas in Ottawa. There was some danger to doing so as Douglas had tried to peg Lincoln as a “Black Republican,” that is, a radical leftist and abolitionist who wanted not only the end of slavery but the complete equality in all respects for African Americans. Lincoln as actually a moderate on those points, noting that the U.S. Constitution effectively barred the federal government from abolishing slavery in the states where it already existed. Indeed, all of the northern states that had banned slavery had done so at the state level, and Lincoln and others understood that the same would have to happen for any remaining slave states. In addition, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, while it failed to acknowledge the immorality of slavery, was unfortunately the law of the land. Being an honest man, notwithstanding the danger even in a generally favorable part of Illinois, Lincoln reiterated and responded to Douglas questions:

Question 1. “I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law?”

Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. [Cries of “Good,” “Good.”]

Q. 2. “I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people want them?”

A. I do not now, or ever did, stand pledged against the admission of any more slave States into the Union.

Q. 3. “1 want to know whether he stands pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make?”

A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union, with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make. [Cries of “good,” “good.”]

Q. 4. “I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia?”

A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

Q. 5. “I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States?”

A. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States.

Q. 6. “I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the Missouri Compromise line?”

A. I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories.

Q. 7. “I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to the acquisition of any new territory unless slavery is first prohibited therein?”

A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territory; and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose such acquisition, accordingly as I might think such acquisition would or would not agravate [sic] the slavery question among ourselves. [Cries of good, good.]

After showing he was responsive to Douglas’s questions, Lincoln posed four of his own. He asked:

Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means entirely unobjectionable in all other respects, adopt a State Constitution, and ask admission into the Union under it, before they have the requisite number of inhabitants according to the English bill-some ninety-three thousand-will you vote to admit them? [Applause.]

Q. 2. Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution? [Renewed applause.]

Q. 3. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that States cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing in, adopting and following such decision as a rule of political action? [Loud applause.]

Q. 4. Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory, in disregard of how such acquisition may affect the nation on the slavery question? [Cries of “good,” “good.”]

Feeling pressured to respond truthfully as Lincoln had done, Douglas’s answer to the second question would come back to haunt him.

Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution?

The question directly positioned Douglas’s Popular Sovereignty (from his Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854) against the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision (of 1857). Douglas was forced to choose between alienating those people he required to get reelected to the Illinois Senate or the Southerners he needed in his third run for the presidency two years later. After some obfuscation, Douglas finally responded that people in a territory could keep out slavery despite the Dred Scott decision, which stated that federal and state governments had no authority to exclude slavery because it would deprive slaveholders of their “property” rights without due process.

Southerners, who wanted the ability to expand slavery without limit, had grown concerned that states could choose to exclude slavery in accordance with Douglas’s Popular Sovereignty. They saw the Dred Scott decision as confirming their right to bring slaves wherever they wanted, and now Douglas was saying that was not true, that states could somehow choose not to allow slavery intrusion. This presented a long-term problem for slave-owning states. While they knew that most of the new territories were grossly inadequate for growing cotton, which was still the primary driver of the need for enslaving millions of their fellow Americans based solely on the color of their skin, they recognized that every new slave state would increase their representation in Congress—and their continued power to dictate policy.

Lincoln and Douglas would debate five more times during the campaign. When the votes were counted, Lincoln’s Republican party had won the popular vote and picked up seats in the legislature. But the state legislature, which due to gerrymandering would remain majority Democratic despite the vote totals, was still choosing Senators. Douglas retained his Senate seat. Lincoln likely realized his chances of winning the seat were close to nil because of the legislature’s makeup. When he was asked why he would give Douglas an advantage for Senate reelection, Lincoln replied that he had a longer view in mind: Douglas might win the Senate, but he would lose the presidency. The Freeport Doctrine would see to that.

It would be almost three weeks before the next debate in Jonesboro deep into the southern part of the state and with a significantly different view on slavery than Freeport.

[Photo of Lincoln-Douglas statues in Freeport, IL by David J. Kent.]

 

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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.

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Lincoln and Douglas Debate in Ottawa

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Lincoln Douglas debates OttawaAbraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas engaged in perhaps the most important series of debates on American history, the haggling over which I discussed in my last post. Their first debate took place on August 21, 1858, in Ottawa, Illinois.

While we usually refer to them as the Lincoln-Douglas debates, at the time there were referred to as the Douglas-Lincoln debates. Douglas was the incumbent U.S. Senator and de facto leader of the right wing conservative Democratic party. He had risen to fame in 1850, taking Henry Clay’s failed omnibus bill and turning it into five separate bills known as the Compromise of 1850. The most notable of the five were the creation of California as a free state and the formidable Fugitive Slave Law. Four years later he pushed through passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise banning slavery in the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase and opened up those territories and the new territories taken in the Mexican American War to a principle he called Popular Sovereignty. In short, Popular Sovereign meant that people in all territories and newly forming states could choose for themselves whether to enslave other Americans on the basis of color of their skin. This issue of expansion of slavery was the primary focus for both Lincoln and Douglas in the debate series.

Ottawa was, and remains, a small town southwest of Chicago. Newspapers report “Twelve Thousand Persons Present!” for the debate held in a small park now graced with full size statues of the two men perched on a podium in the center of a fountain. Being in the northern part of the state, most of the residents of Ottawa were migrants from New England, Ohio, and Indiana and thus more likely to oppose the extension of slavery. Later the two men would debate in the southern part of the state populated mostly by migrants from slave states like Kentucky. But Lincoln was on safer ground here in Ottawa. Still, Douglas was the incumbent senator, owned land in the Chicago area, and generally well liked. He also had a favorable state legislature where senators were still picked (the direct election of senators by the people would not occur until the 17th Amendment in 1913).

Douglas mainly stuck to his stump speeches heavy on pandering to racism and fears that somehow banning the extension of slavery to western territories would unleash millions of former southern slaves into the free state of Illinois. Douglas argued that this supposed influx would violate the Illinois state constitution “black laws” severely limiting the presence of African Americans, free or enslaved, in the state. He accused Lincoln of wanting full political and social equality for Blacks, something Lincoln would find himself having to refute. “Mr. Lincoln and his party…are trying to array all the Northern States…against the South, to excite a sectional war between the free States and the slave States,” Douglas would argue.

Lincoln countered this by pointing out how slavery was morally wrong and the primary source of conflict since the beginning of the country: “I leave it to you to say whether, in the history of our government, this institution of slavery has not always failed to be a bond of union, and, on the contrary, been an apple of discord and an element of division.” Lincoln and the recently formed Republican party – a progressive party arisen from the ashes of the liberal northern Whigs and the antislavery factions of other parties – emphasized the immorality of slavery but limited their platform to barring the extension of slavery into the western territories. Despite Douglas’s race baiting, Lincoln repeatedly said that the party would make no effort to abolish slavery in the states where it still existed. He understood that the U.S. Constitution effectively blocked the federal government from dealing with slavery in the states, and that all the northern states that had abolished slavery had done so at the state level. Lincoln reiterated that it was up to the states to rid themselves of the horror of slavery. But Lincoln also emphasized that the federal government did have the right to limit slavery in the federal territories like the District of Columbia and all the territories west of the Mississippi River.

Since Douglas had the privilege of making the opening arguments in Ottawa (they would alternate in the seven debates), he posed a series of questions to Lincoln with the expectation they would be answered in the next debate in Freeport. Lincoln would answer, but also propose four questions of his own to Douglas, which became the most consequential result of the debates for both their future political careers. I’ll have more on that next week when I talk about the Freeport debate.

[Photo of Lincoln-Douglas statues in Ottawa, IL by David J. Kent.]

 

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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.

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Haggling Over Presidential Debate Arrangements: Lincoln-Douglas Edition

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Stephen A. Douglas had been selected by the Illinois State Legislature to serve as senator in the same year that Abraham Lincoln was elected by the people to serve in the House of Representatives. Lincoln would serve only a single term, heading back home to a more pedestrian life as a circuit lawyer. Roused to get back into politics following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which his old rival Douglas had pushed through Congress, Lincoln found himself in 1858 trying to block Douglas’s reelection and become a senator himself. Perhaps if Douglas would agree to a series of debates?

On July 24, Lincoln wrote to Douglas:

“Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences during the present canvass?”

Douglas had little to gain. He was the incumbent senator, highly influential, and the state legislature that made the final senate selection was overwhelmingly gerrymandered to reelect him. He had known Lincoln for two decades and debated him many times. Douglas acknowledged to friends that Lincoln was a formidable debater. Why should he take the risk of debating?

After some hesitation, Douglas responded with a certain amount of indignance and some accusations that Lincoln wanted to include third-party candidates–which Lincoln just as indignantly denied–and some rather whining complaints about the tardiness of asking for joint debates. After more discussion, Douglas offered the following to Lincoln:

“I will, in order to accommodate you as far as it is in my power to do so, take the responsibility of making an arrangement with you for a discussion between us at one prominent point in each Congressional district in the state, excepting the second and sixth districts, where we have both spoken and in each of the cases you had the concluding speech. If agreeable to you I will indicate the following places as those most suitable in the several Congressional districts at which we should speak, to wit, Freeport, Ottawa, Galesburg, Quincy, Alton, Jonesboro & Charleston.”

In his response, Lincoln pointed out that Douglas was not correct that Lincoln “had the concluding speech” in Chicago and Springfield, but notwithstanding this misrepresentation, he accepted the proposed seven joint debates. Douglas followed up on July 30 by stipulating the times and places:

  • Ottawa – August 21
  • Freeport – August 27
  • Jonesboro – September 15
  • Charleston – September 18
  • Galesburg – October 7
  • Quincy – October 13
  • Alton – October 15

Douglas also in that letter agreed to Lincoln’s suggestion that the two of them alternate the opening and closing of the debates, stipulating that:

“I will speak at Ottawa one hour; you can reply occupying an hour and a half and I will then follow for half an hour. At Freeport you shall open the discussion and speak one hour, I will follow for an hour and a half, and you can then reply for half an hour. We will alternate in like manner at each successive place.”

The following day, Lincoln responded in a bit of a whiney tone that “although, by the terms, as you propose, you take four openings and closes to my three, I accede, and thus close the arrangement.”

The debates were on!

[Photo of Lincoln-Douglas statues in Freeport, IL by David J. Kent. This post was originally published at Lincolnian.org]

 

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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.

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Ford’s After Hours – A Day with Lincoln in DC

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Ford's Theatre tourFord’s Theatre plays an important role in the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. It was here that Lincoln was assassinated by a slavery sympathizer and actor. Today, Ford’s does double duty as a working theater and a memorial to our 16th president. Last night I did something I had never done in all my years of going to Ford’s. I took an after-hours tour.

Called “Ford’s @ 5,” the theater has been offering a limited series of tours this summer. They begin at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, after the theater and museum close to the general public. And they are wonderful.

About a dozen of us gathered in the main lobby. Promptly at 5 p.m., we were escorted by Sophie, our tour guide for the evening, down the ramp and stairs into the basement museum. Using the displays as props, Sophie gave us the history of Washington in Lincoln’s time, as well as insights into Lincoln’s family, the war, and, of course, the assassination. We learned about how the unfinished dome of the Capitol became an important symbol. Lincoln wanted construction to continue even during the war to show that the work of democracy continues. We heard about the death of Willy Lincoln in 1862 and how Mary Lincoln rejuvenated the dilapidated White House (perhaps with more exuberance than funding allowed). We heard about how John Wilkes Booth stalked Lincoln around Washington, turning his kidnapping plan into a murder plan as the South was surrendering and Lincoln was voicing a desire that African Americans be allowed to vote.

And then it was time to enter the theater itself. Sophie explained the reason Lincoln attended the theatre that night, how Booth used his fame and influence to gain access to the presidential box, and how he expressed delusion and disdain for democracy as he jumped to the stage for his escape. Sophie’s narrative added important insights into the scene around us as we gazed down at the stage and across at the flag-draped box from our balcony seats. As a special treat, Elinor, another guide who was tagging along with the tour, opened up the door to the presidential box so we could each in turn get a close-up view of where Lincoln, Mary, Henry Rathbone, and Clara Harris were seated during the attack.

To top off the tour, wine and cheese was served in the lobby, giving us time to ask additional questions and chat further with Sophie and Elinor. Check the Ford’s website to see if any spots are available for future Ford’s@5 events.

The Ford’s tour wasn’t the only Lincoln I experienced that day. Prior to the tour I visited the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, a block or two up the road from Ford’s. As Wendy Swanson detailed in a post on the Lincolnian website in May, the Portrait Gallery is currently featuring a special exhibit called “Picturing the Presidents: Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes.” Early photographs of several presidents, including the four immediately preceding Lincoln, are featured with two ambrotypes of Lincoln himself. While at the Gallery, I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit with the life-size W.F.K. Travers painting of Lincoln installed a year or so ago.

Lincoln doesn’t stop there, however. Several members of the Lincoln Group of DC have already signed up for “Mister Lincoln,” a one-man show about the 16th president featuring renowned actor Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap, NCIS: New Orleans, Star Trek: Enterprise). The show runs at Ford’s Theatre from September 20 through October 13, 2024.

[Photo from inside Ford’s Theatre Museum by David J. Kent, July 28, 2024; This post with additional photos was originally published at Lincolnian.org]

 

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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.

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Fire of Genius to be Analyzed by LGDC Study Forum

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Fire of Genius and wineA funny thing happened on the last Lincoln Group of DC (LGDC) Study Forum meeting. The group selected Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America, to be the next book for study. The Study Forum group generally takes several months to review and discuss (and dissect) whichever book is under scrutiny. Over the last eleven years the group has tackled 20 books about Lincoln. This month was the final session for Kevin Peraino’s Lincoln in the World about foreign policy issues during the Civil War, which meant voting for the next book.

So, starting with the next study session, the LGDC Study Forum will read and discuss Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. I’m honored that the group felt my book was worthy of being studied.

Okay, so here is where things get weird. I have been a member of this particular Study Forum group for the last ten years. I am a vocal participant of the group, opining on this and that issue as we scour the books for insights and controversies. As a group we don’t hesitate to question whether the author has made their case. But now the book we’ll be digging into is the book I wrote. [FYI: I opted out of the vote, which nonetheless resulted in a significant majority in favor.]

On several occasions, and quite frequently in recent years, we’ve invited the author of the book to join us for the final session on his or her book. This gives us the opportunity to get further insights on their writing and research process, as well as answer some of the nagging questions we had developed over previous months. It’s a great opportunity to get more information and the authors enjoy the interaction. But, and this is a big “but,” we’ve never had the author sit in for all of the sessions, some of which can get rather contentious as different group members may not agree on interpretation or veracity of any given point. To make this “but” even more interesting, that author (aka, me) is one of the more engaged members of the group. Which puts me in the strange position of having to deal with potential criticism and/or finding that my presence inhibits some members from offering their honest feedback on the book. I’ve made it clear that I want people not to feel they can’t give the book the attention they would give any other book, but I just finished being president of the organization (and a leader of the group for a decade) and have sometimes moderated this Study Forum. Whether that has any effect on the deliberations remains to be seen.

Bottom line is that I’m a bit anxious about the decision to discuss Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. Not so much because I can’t take criticism. I know how much research I put into the book and feel confident I’ve sufficiently made and documented my case. But still, it’s a weird feeling being part of a group that will analyze a book I’ve written for several months…while I’m present. It could be an interesting experience.

The Study Forum group meets monthly, which means the next meeting is in August. That meeting will be a break from the norm as the goal is to meet in person in downtown Washington, DC for the first time since the beginning of the Covid pandemic (normally we meet virtually via Zoom). Logistics of having a remote hookup are still in the works, which is especially important given our moderator and several other regular members (we usually have about 15 people on the call) live well away from Washington, DC. Members will start to read the book and the first official meeting to begin discussion will be in September.

We’ll see how it goes.

 

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past 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 andEdison: 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.

 

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The Botswana Experience

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Lioness, Chobe National ParkI recently returned from a 16-day trip to southern Africa. I’m still recovering from the 15-hour flight from Cape Town back to America (and the three-and-a-half-hour flight from Zimbabwe before that) but wanted to get an overview of the trip up as a preamble to more detailed future posts. The trip took us to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and unexpectedly, Zambia.

Photo: Lioness in Chobe National Park. She scooted her two young cubs under the nearby bush as soon as she saw us.

The first stop, and the first 15-hour flight, was to Cape Town, South Africa. Wary of arriving at the beginning of the organized tour with no buffer time, we planned a two-and-a-half-day stay in the most southwestern city of the southernmost country in Africa. Cape Town is a large, modern city most noted for its iconic football (aka, soccer) and rugby stadium and Table Mountain, the high plateau that dominates the skyline of the city. It also has Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of the 27 years he was a political prisoner by the apartheid white supremacist government. The day up to the mountain via cable car was anticlimactic given it was socked in pretty conclusively with clouds and drizzle, but it was memorable in its own way anyway. We also rented a car and drove (on the left side) down the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (where we saw elands and ostriches). We also drank a lot of good South African wine, added my 61st aquarium visited, and enjoyed the sunny weather of the South African winter (cold in the morning, warm in the afternoon).

Then it was back to the airport and a flight to Maun, Botswana, known as the “Tourism Capital” of Botswana, mainly because it is an entryway into some of the more attractive safari parks in the country. Here we officially started our tour. From Maun we immediately boarded a small plane (a dozen seats) to fly up the Okavango Delta. The Delta is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is one of the few interior delta systems that don’t flow into an ocean. In fact, the Delta begins in the Angola highlands and the river spreads out into the Botswana flatlands. The amount of surface water area varies significantly depending on season. Rather than flow into a large sea, the water just dries up. This is partly by rapid evaporation and transpiration and partly by sinking into the Kalahari Desert, which covers about 70 percent of Botswana. There was plenty of water while we were there, and plenty of birds, almost all of which were new to us. More on that in future posts.

Video above: An elephant in Okavango Delta warns us not to get any closer.

After a couple of days in the Delta we flew back to Maun and started the trek up through the Moremi Game Reserve to see elephants, various antelopes, zebras, wildebeest, and even more kinds of birds. From there we drove further north through the Chobe National Park. Chobe is known for its vast number of elephants, about 50,000 in the park alone. There are also large numbers of lions that prey on elephants. While they mostly look for calves or juveniles, the lions have been known to take small adults. At one point we crossed over the bridge over the River Khwai, which all of us conflated with the movie of the same name (but different spelling and location). I swear I heard whistling.

The final stop was across the border into Zimbabwe for its best-known feature – Victoria Falls. I’ll have much more on this in a future post, but the Falls are a must-see experience. The massive Zambesi River crosses through several countries on its way to the Indian Ocean. On the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe it drops over 100 meters (well over 300 feet) into a narrow gorge. Measuring in at about twice the height and twice the width of the combined Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls is classified as the largest waterfall in the world. The Zimbabwe side has the best view, with a walkway wiggling in and out along the cliffside where you’re sure to get wet from the mist. The Zambian side has a narrower view of one end.  

Video above: A small part of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Which gets me to the unexpected visit to Zambia. The tour officially ended in Victoria Falls, the Zimbabwean town along the eponymous falls. But we were told by someone we ran into near Chobe that it was an easy walk across the bridge into Zambia, as long as you got a double-entry visa when you crossed into Zimbabwe from Botswana. Always willing to tag on another country, that’s what we did (even though the crossing, and especially the return, was not as easy as suggested).

And just like that it was time to go back home.

I plan to do additional posts on specific stops and/or events as soon as I can download and sort all the photos. Stay tuned.

[Photos by David J. Kent]

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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 andEdison: 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.

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Lincoln Attends Laying of Cornerstone for the Washington Monument

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Washington MonumentThe fourth of July, our annual anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, has always a day of commemoration. Throughout his life, Abraham Lincoln attended many of these celebrations. But July 4, 1848, was even more special than usual. On that date, Lincoln watched the cornerstone of the new Washington Monument being laid.

Lincoln was serving his single term as a U.S. congressman at that time. It would be a busy 1848 year for him. He had given his “spot resolution” speech on the floor of the House of Representatives a few months earlier and would give another speech on internal improvements in another month or so. By September, he would be stumping across Massachusetts in support of Zachary Taylor’s Whig candidacy for president. But Lincoln was not about miss the groundbreaking for a monument for the father of our country.

That monument was a long time coming. George Washington had completed his second term as president in 1897, after which he moved back to Virginia to live out life on his Mount Vernon estate. He died in December 1899. While plans to erect some sort of monument had started even before his death, but disagreement about its form and cost kept the idea in stasis until it began again in earnest in the 1830s. Funding and design disagreements continued until the idea of a simple, but giant, obelisk began construction in 1848.

As might be expected, a large ceremony accompanied the symbolic laying of the cornerstone. Executive officials, congressmen (including Lincoln), various fire companies, school children, and fraternal organizations. This latter group included the Freemasons, the “secret” society of which Washington had been a member. Originally seen as part of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s grand design for the city, the Monument again ran into funding problems. The core of the monument is made of bluestone gneiss for the foundation and granite for the construction. But that’s just the inside. The outer facing consists of three different kinds of white marble.

Why three kinds of marble? That’s because the lack of funding stopped building progress for many years. The bottom third of the Monument has marble from Baltimore County, constructed from 1848 to 1854. The Monument stump then sat unfinished at a height of 152 feet. And that is what Abraham Lincoln could see every day from the White House as he fought to save the nation during the Civil War. Following the war, Congress eventually appropriated more money, but by this time people were second-guessing the simple design and more embellished plans were submitted. By the time this played out (with the original simple design intact, albeit with some modifications to the foundation to withstand the weight of the additional height) it was 1879. Construction then ran from 1879 to its final completion date in 1888. Initially, marble from Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts was used, but only for a narrow zone just above the original base. The rest of the obelisk was finished using Cockeysville marble coming from the same quarry town as the original.

Lincoln never got to see the Washington Monument completed, but he not only saw the building of the Smithsonian castle, he also spent a lot of time there during the Civil War. The design of the Castle, the first and only building at the time of what is now a vast Smithsonian Institution complex, had been completed prior to Lincoln’s arrival for his single term in Congress. Construction began just as he arrived and was ongoing throughout his term. The East Wing of the Castle was completed about the time Lincoln left Congress, and Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, moved in with his family while construction continued. The West Wing was completed later that year (1849). The exterior took a few more years, finally being completed in 1852 while Lincoln toiled away at his legal practice back in Illinois.

Then came the Civil War and Lincoln came back to Washington as the nation’s president. Joseph Henry became an informal science adviser to Lincoln and several events and signal light tests were done in the Castle. Then tragedy struck just as the four years of horrible war came to a close – the Castle was on fire (read my account of the fire here). One tower was destroyed, along with some of Joseph Henry’s belongings and virtually all of James Smithson’s papers, instruments, and mineral collection.

On the Fourth of July a few years ago, I sat on the hillock at the foot of the Washington Monument. I had spent the day at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival and was now watching the annual fireworks display bursting across the sky between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Both structures had taken some time to complete, but now, with “bombs bursting in air” above them, it was impossible not to be inspired.

Happy 4th of July!

[Photo of Washington Monument taken by David J. Kent]

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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 andEdison: 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.

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Rocket Man Abraham Lincoln

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It is no secret to anyone who has read Lincoln: The Fire of Genius that Abraham Lincoln was a fan of advanced weaponry during the Civil War. He would routinely entertain inventors promoting their new device “that would surely end the war tomorrow.” Some of those devices were rockets, and one of them almost killed Lincoln.

On this date in 1864, Lincoln was joined by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox and Senator Orville H. Browning on an excursion from the White House to the Washington Navy Yard. Lincoln frequently visited the Washington Navy Yard to discuss weapons and strategy with Commander John Dahlgren, a like-minded acolyte of technology. On this occasion, according to Browning’s diary, the three men witnessed the “throwing of rockets and signal from six- and twelve-pound guns.” The demonstration went off as planned and no unexpected dangers to the president were evident.

The same cannot be said for another rocket test in late 1862, where Lincoln was perhaps more closely involved than anticipated. This time Lincoln had been joined by Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase on the trip to the Navy Yard, where Dahlgren had planned for them to observe the testing of a Hyde rocket. The Hyde was an improvement of the Congreve rockets that had been used for many decades. It was “red glare” of the Congreve rocket and “bombs bursting in air” that had allowed Francis Scott Key to see “proof through the night that our flag was still there” during the British attack on Fort McHenry in 1814. But the Congreve was little more than a bottle rocket on a stick and unsuitable for the current Civil War. Since then, English inventor William Hale had created a much more advanced rocket using side vents allowing the release of propulsion gases, which caused the rocket to rotate in flight, thus improving its stability, distance, and precision. Hale’s rocket had been introduced in the United States by Joshua Burrows Hyde and received limited use during the Mexican American War of the 1840s. It was an improved version of this newly renamed Hyde rocket that Lincoln and companions were at the Navy Yard to observe.

Hyde rocket patent

The initial launching of the Hyde rocket didn’t go as planned. Rather than arcing across the Anacostia River, the rocket exploded in a fury of fire and smoke. Luckily for all present, the rocket had exploded without even leaving the launcher, thus containing most of the shrapnel and no one was injured. Lincoln would return to the White House while the operator, Lt. Commander William Mitchell, investigated the incident. Two days later, Mitchell was ready to try again. This time, Lincoln, Seward, and Chase remained safely ensconced in the White House, which turned out to be a good decision. The Hyde rocket managed to leave the launcher without exploding, but rather than hitting its intended target it flew out of control and landed on the roof of a nearby blacksmith shop, where again luckily it caused no further damage.

At this point the idea was mothballed and Hyde, although patenting it the following year, gave up on the idea. He did, however, contribute to the war effort in other ways, focusing his later efforts on improving smaller guns and cannons with much better success.

Abraham Lincoln would continue to encourage the development of new weapons throughout the war, which I discuss in more depth in Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. As for rockets, they played only a small role in the Civil War and would have to wait for future wars to be further developed into the weapons of mass destruction we use today.

[Photo of Hyde’s 1863 rocket patent, Google patent and Robert Pohl, 2018]

 

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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 andEdison: 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.

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What Does the Juneteenth Flag Mean?

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June 19th – Juneteenth – represents the end of slavery. But how did that come to be so? And what does the Juneteenth flag mean?

Juneteenth flag meaning

As the graphic above notes, Juneteenth is based on the date June 19, 1865, which is the date that Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas. As the Civil War was ending, Granger had been assigned to command the District of Texas. Upon arrival, he realized that word of emancipation had not filtered down to Texans, and white Texans continued to enslave African Americans. Granger issued General Order No. 3, which began:

The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection therefore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.

The Proclamation to which he was referring was the Emancipation Proclamation, which Abraham Lincoln had issued on January 1, 1863. The Proclamation declared that all people held in slavery in states in rebellion were “thenceforward and forever free.” As one of the states of the Confederacy, Texas was included in the Proclamation and thus all enslaved people were free. White slaveholders kept that information to themselves and hoped to continue to enslave other Americans. Granger’s General Order No. 3 ended that practice.

Technically, the Emancipation Proclamation was a wartime measure, and its authority was in question at that point in time. However, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution had already been passed by Congress (and signed by Lincoln to show his support even though there is no requirement for the president to sign amendments). Several states had ratified it, but officially the 13th Amendment permanently ending slavery in the United States was fully ratified and went into force on December 6, 1865. This is the official end of slavery.

But African Americans have for many decades celebrated June 19th – Juneteenth – as Freedom Day, a day representative of achieving freedom from slavery. Some states had made it a state holiday. In 2021, President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Each portion of the Juneteenth flag carries a specific meaning. The red, white, and blue colors remind us that African Americans were, and are, Americans (most of those enslaved by the Civil War had been born in the United States, some tracing family lines back several generations). The arc represents a new horizon, the opportunities and promise that lay ahead for Black Americans. Think of Martin Luther King’s “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The white star in the center symbolizes both Texas (the Lone Star State) and the freedom of African Americans in all fifty states. The starburst reflects the new beginning offered by freedom. And, of course, the date of General Order No. 3.

Enjoy your federal holiday, but also remember the deep meaning behind the date.

 

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.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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 andEdison: 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.