Author: David J. Kent

David J. Kent is an Abraham Lincoln historian, a former scientist, and an avid traveler. He is the author of books on Abraham Lincoln, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison. His website is www.davidjkent-writer.com.
No comments

Lincoln in Austria – Wiegers Calendar August

  By

Wiegers calendar AugustLincoln is in Salzburg, Austria. I missed it…and yet I didn’t. Each month I explore the statues and locations from the 2020 calendar prepared by David Wiegers. For August we’re in Austria.

The statue itself depicts Lincoln reading while sitting on his horse, the stead munching on some grass during a break on the circuit. Lincoln often read while traveling the 8th Judicial Circuit as a lawyer, and sometimes judge, moving from town to town and picking up cases in each district. Called “Abraham Lincoln on the Prairie,” it’s a massive piece by sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington. Huntington once studied under renowned sculptor John Gutzon Borglum, who is probably best known for Mount Rushmore and his huge bust of Lincoln that now resides in the Capitol crypt. One of the few female sculptors prominent in the New York City artist community, Huntingdon is especially known for her equestrian sculptures.

I saw the statue, not in Salzburg, but in front of New Salem, Illinois. Another copy of the statue stands in Lincoln City, Oregon to commemorate the territorial governor’s post that Lincoln turned down (yes, even places Lincoln rejected still honor him). I passed through Lincoln City on a northwest road trip a couple of years ago, and once again missed a statue I didn’t find out existed until after I was there. The same occurred in Salzburg.

It’s hard to believe that my visit to Salzburg was a decade ago. I was two-thirds of the way through my three year stint working and living in Brussels and decided a road trip was in order. A quick flight on discount airline Ryan Air got me to Bratislava, Slovakia, where I picked up a rental car at the airport. [There’s a long story about how the car would not go into reverse, but I’ll save that for another time] On a whistle-stop tour covering five countries I stayed one night in Bratislava, then a night each in Vienna (Austria), Munich (Germany), Fussen (Germany), Salzburg (Austria), squeezed in a day in Ljubljana (Slovenia), and finally two nights in Budapest (Hungary). Driving through the mountains – and the 10-mile-long tunnels – was amazing.

Like all European cities, Salzburg has its castle up on the hill and a very walkable old town replete with cobblestones. Mozart’s old house is a museum. The churches are massive, the beer is not bad, and there was an interesting 25-foot diameter golden ball on a pedestal, on top of which stood a sculpture of a remarkably anachronistic modern-dressed man. I enjoyed the city immensely. But I missed the Lincoln statue.

Salzburg, Austria

According to “the internets,” the Austrian Minister of Education had originally seen “Abraham Lincoln on the Prairie” on exhibit in the Illinois State Pavilion of the 1963 New York World’s Fair. Greatly enamored of the statue, and with many political connections, the Minister was able to have a copy gifted to Austria in 1965 and placed near the “Teacher’s House” in downtown Salzburg. Unfortunately, the location is now private property and the statue stands in the backyard. David Wiegers told me that the statue is visible through the fence and apparently no one bothered him as he stealthily moved closer to snap the photo for the August calendar month.

I’ll end with a note about my own photo above. While walking around Salzburg there are the usual street performers. This one worked a pretty cool marionette playing the piano (including a little Jerry Lee Lewis). Quite a few people were enthralled with the performance, including this little well-dressed boy, who stood there for some time communing with the puppet. As much as I admire statues, it’s real people with real emotions like this that make traveling such an amazing experience.

[Photo credits: My close up of David Wiegers August 2020 calendar page; my Salzburg photo]

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!

No comments

O Captain! My Captain! Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman

  By

Walt WhitmanEarly on the morning of August 12, 1864, poet Walt Whitman watches from his Washington, DC home as President Abraham Lincoln travels from the Old Soldier’s Home to the White House for a day’s work. Whitman would go on to write, not one, but two great poems about our 16th President.

The Old Soldier’s Home, now called President Lincoln’s Cottage, was a respite from the mosquito-infested swamps abutting the Executive Mansion. The heat, humidity, and pestilence drove the Lincoln family about three miles north of the White House each summer beginning in 1862. Mary, despondent over the death of son Willie, likely from typhoid caused by well water polluted from the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses dumping waste upstream of the open sewer that was the Potomac River, desperately needed a change of locale. Lincoln himself needed a breather after days spent besieged by office seekers, inventors, and crackpots lined up for their turn to imping upon the President’s time. He would travel by horse or buggy each day during the summer months. Walt Whitman would watch him pass, noting that they had begun to recognize each other with a formal nod each day.

Whitman remembers:

“Mr. Lincoln . . . generally rides a good-sized, easy-going gray horse, is dress’d in plain black, somewhat rusty and dusty; [and] wears a black stiff hat . . . I see very plainly [his] dark brown face, with the deep cut lines, the eyes, &c., always to me with a latent sadness in the expression. We have got so that we always exchange bows, and very cordial ones.”

After Lincoln’s assassination, Walt Whitman writes a poem of mourning called “O Captain! My Captain!,” which begins:

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
                         But O heart! heart! heart!
                            O the bleeding drops of red,
                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,
                                  Fallen cold and dead.

Whitman’s more epic effort is the poem, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” In it Whitman never mentions Lincoln or the circumstances of his death. Instead he uses free verse in the form of an elegy, the first-person monologue lamenting death. Stretching on for 16 cantos ranging in length from five to 53 lines. Like his renowned poetry collection Leaves of Grass, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” evolved over several iterations in time to its present form. It begins:

1
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
2
O powerful western fallen star!
O shades of night—O moody, tearful night!
O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!
O cruel hands that hold me powerless—O helpless soul of me!
O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.
And ends:
16
Passing the visions, passing the night,
Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades’ hands,
Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul,
Victorious song, death’s outlet song, yet varying ever-altering song,
As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night,
Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy,
Covering the earth and filling the spread of the heaven,
As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,
Passing, I leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves,
I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring.
I cease from my song for thee,
From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee,
O comrade lustrous with silver face in the night.
Yet each to keep and all, retrievements out of the night,
The song, the wondrous chant of the gray-brown bird,
And the tallying chant, the echo arous’d in my soul,
With the lustrous and drooping star with the countenance full of woe,
With the holders holding my hand nearing the call of the bird,
Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well,
For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands—and this for his dear sake,
Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul,
There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim.
[See the link for the full poem]
Lincoln would continue traveling between the Old Soldier’s Home and the White House during the summers of 1863 through 1864. Whitman continued to work as a volunteer in Washington’s Civil War hospitals, keeping wounded men company, reading to them, and acting as amanuensis. After suffering a stroke in 1873, Whitman moved to live with his brother in Camden, New Jersey, where he carried on additional revisions to Leaves of Grass until his eventual death in 1892. Throughout his life his fondest memories were of Abraham Lincoln, a man he saw many times but never actually got to know.

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!

 

4 Comments

Abraham Lincoln Picks a Vice President or Two

  By

Abraham Lincoln Healy PortraitAs I write this, Barack Obama’s Vice President Joe Biden is within days of picking his own vice presidential running mate, so it seems a good time to revisit the two vice presidents that Abraham Lincoln picked. Well, saying Lincoln picked his vice presidents isn’t quite accurate. In fact, he had nothing to do with picking the first one and likely not much more to do with the second one.

Presidents and their running mates back in Lincoln’s day were picked by the party’s nominating convention. Today we have what seems an endless campaigns and a series of state primaries and caucuses that drag on for months. The public votes for delegates who are supposed to carry that vote to the convention, which is more for show than it is for making any decisions on candidates. By the time the convention shows up we already know who is the nominee.

Not so in Lincoln’s time. The public had no say in who the party nominated. Nothing was secured in advance. When the date of the convention came each candidate would have his representatives in the smoke-filled rooms trying to persuade enough of the delegates to swing to them. There were usually several rounds of voting. In 1860, most people expected that New York Senator William Seward would get the nomination, and he led on the first ballot. But Lincoln was surprisingly close behind, closed the gap on the second ballot, and won on the third ballot. Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee for President.

Then the convention delegates went on to pick the vice president. Seward’s people, not happy that their man hadn’t won, blocked any choice from nearby states, insisting that the convention choose Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. As a former Democrat, Hamlin was considered a good balance with the former Whig Lincoln ideologically, as well as the geographical balance with the westerner from Illinois. Through all of this deciding, Lincoln was in Springfield waiting in the telegraph office for news. He had nothing to do with picking Hamlin.

In 1864 Lincoln was the sitting President in the midst of the Civil War. By the time of the nominating convention he had survived an attempted coup of sorts by his Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase. The Republican party, in an effort to secure all the pro-Union voters for Lincoln, opted to rename itself (for one election only) the National Union party. With this in mind the party operatives sought to balance the ticket more than the Mainer Hamlin could do, so they nominated Andrew Johnson of Tennessee as the vice presidential running mate. Johnson had been the only southern Senator that remained in the Union when their states seceded. Lincoln had appointed him as military Governor in those parts of Tennessee recaptured by the Union. He was a loyal Unionist, although he would have faults that would become all too evident.

Some have inaccurately argued that Lincoln forced Hamlin out and brought Johnson in, but that isn’t true. The delegates of the convention made the choices then, and they did in this case. When old friend Leonard Swett asked Lincoln about one particular candidate, Lincoln responded “Wish not to interfere about V.P. Can not interfere about platform. Convention must judge for itself.”

All of this set the stage for endless “what ifs” when Lincoln was assassinated, making Andrew Johnson President instead of Hannibal Hamlin. Johnson went on to be impeached by the Republican Congress and lived in infamy as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history (usually just behind James Buchanan, who preceded Lincoln).

In Lincoln’s time and before, vice presidents had very little in the way of official duties. Essentially they sat around waiting to see if the President passed away in office, which had happened a couple of times before and caused problems as Whig Presidents were replaced by Vice Presidents with differing ideologies. In modern times the presidential nominee for each party picks their own vice presidential running mate. This makes it more likely that they will pick someone with whom they are more compatible ideologically and stylistically. Many more significant responsibilities are delegated to vice presidents today, so the selection of running mate is much more important than in the past.

[Since I mention Joe Biden’s imminent running mate pick, I’ll update this with the name after the announcement: It’s Kamala Harris!]

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!

 

No comments

Abraham Lincoln and the Lightning Rod

  By

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!

 

 

No comments

Lincoln Presents the Draft Emancipation Proclamation to His Cabinet

  By

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!

No comments

Lincoln in Portugal – Wiegers Calendar July

  By ,

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!

 

 

2 Comments

Isaac Newton Becomes Abraham Lincoln’s First Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture

  By

Lincoln Department AgricultureOn June 30, 1862, the Senate confirmed Isaac Newton as Abraham Lincoln’s first Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, which Lincoln had signed into existence a month earlier. Having come to despise the hard labor of his early years on subsistence farms, Lincoln had always favored government intervention to help people better their condition and looked for ways to bring science to agriculture.

In his first annual message to Congress on December 3, 1861, Lincoln wrote:

Agriculture, confessedly the largest interest of the nation, has not a department nor a bureau, but a clerkship only, assigned to it in the Government. While it is fortunate that this great interest is so independent in its nature as to not have demanded and extorted more from the Government, I respectfully ask Congress to consider whether something more can not be given voluntarily with general advantage…While I make no suggestions as to details, I venture the opinion that an agricultural and statistical bureau might profitably be organized.

Congress took the hint. With his Republican Party in control and uncooperative Southern representatives no longer an impediment to action, Congress passed a bill creating the Department of Agriculture. Its goal was to institutionalize science in agriculture and thus put farming on the path to the future.

The bill stipulated that the goal of the new independent department, sent to the President by the aptly named Galusha Grow, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Solomon Foot, President of the Senate pro tem, stipulated that the role of the new independent Department was:

to acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and to procure, propagate, and distribute among the people new and valuable seeds and plants.

In his next annual message to Congress, Lincoln eagerly reported that he had “caused the Department of Agriculture of the United States to be organized.” The new Department would develop scientific experiments, collect statistics, test new seeds and plants, and disseminate any knowledge gained to agriculturists. [cite From the bill] As innovative variations were developed, seeds, cereals, and cuttings would be distributed to farmers for widespread propagation. New knowledge on nutrition, soil management, tilling strategies, and crop rotation would also be relayed to the farmers so they could improve crop yields for a growing nation. Lincoln’s vision of bringing scientific benefits to the people would begin.

Lincoln called Agriculture his “people’s department.” Isaac Newton—no relation to the famed English astronomer, mathematician, and physicist—was an agriculturist who had made acquaintance with Lincoln while selling farm products to the White House. Derided early on for his lack of formal education, Lincoln took a liking to him, perhaps because he could relate to his initiative and self-schooling. Newton turned out to be well suited for the job.

Near the end of 1862, Newton sent a 54-page handwritten account to Lincoln, the first annual report from the Department. After describing the history of agriculture through the ages, Newton reported excellent harvests of crops across the northern states even with the loss of many men serving the war effort. He noted that the North, with its free labor, was faring better than the South, whose slave labor system harmed fertility and agricultural yield.

Newton went on to tout agricultural science advancements made by inventor Jethro Tull (horse drawn hoe, mechanical seed drill, improved plow), chemist Sir Humphrey Davy (Elements of Agricultural Chemistry), agricultural writer Arthur Young (Annals of Agriculture), and the reapers of John Henry Manny and Cyrus McCormick, with which Lincoln was already familiar from his legal career. Reiterating Lincoln’s Wisconsin speech, Newton noted that agricultural progress requires “a more thorough Knowledge and practice…as a Science and an Art.”

All of this would eventually lead to a more thorough education of the farmer in physical science and political economy. In too much of the nation, Newton wrote, farmers continued to cultivate depleted soil, thus necessitating the application of manure as fertilizer in an unwinnable battle against soil nutrient exhaustion. Using science, including proper tilling practices, crop rotation, and nutrient preservation, he argued, agriculture could provide greater consistency and magnitude of production for decades to come.

Lincoln had successfully turned his much-maligned farming drudgery into a department that would transform American agriculture.

[Adapted from a work in progress]

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!

No comments

Rally and Teach-In at Lincoln Park, Washington DC TODAY (6/26/20)

  By

Emancipation MemorialJoin the Rally and Teach-In for Lincoln Park
Friday, June 26, 2020, 6:00 PM

In a demonstration of solidarity and recognition of the history of Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C. members of the local, regional and national historic organizations and Douglassonian communities are called to assemble.

The history of Frederick Douglass & Abraham Lincoln will be shared as well as stories of the friendship of Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Keckley, excerpts of Frederick Douglass 1876 speech, and the friendship of Frederick Douglass and Robert Todd Lincoln. I discussed the history of the Emancipation, or Freedman’s, Monument in my previous post.

Nathan Richardson will present his internationally known reenactment of Honorable Frederick Douglass with excerpts from select speeches, including the remarks of Frederick Douglass on President Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Douglass will hold a post-performance discussion.

Members of FREED, “Female Re-Enactors of Distinction,” affiliated with the African-American Civil War Museum will present, including Marcia Cole portraying Charlotte Scott, who made the first donation towards the Freedmen’s Monument in Lincoln Park.

A friend to Congressman John Lewis, Washingtonian Dan Smith, whose father was born enslaved in 1863, will share some reflections and thoughts on history and the monument.

Howard University Professor Carolivia Herron, an indigenous Washingtonian and internationally known scholar, will offer historic and contextual remarks.

Support commentary will be presented by John O’Brien, President of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, John Muller, author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia, and several others.

Local student-Douglassonians will be serving as history ambassadors.

Invitations to attend have been extended to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC Mayor Muriel Bower, Douglassonians members of the United States Senate, United States House of Representatives and several other public officials.

Musical performances are waiting to be confirmed as well as participation of honor guards. More details forthcoming as they become available.
—
All CDC and DC DOH guidelines will be followed.

Note: Lincoln Park is walkable from the DC Metro, just east of the U.S. Capitol.

No comments

Juneteenth and the Freedman’s Memorial

  By

Emancipation MemorialOn June 19th, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger entered Galveston, Texas and discovered that somehow word had not previously been communicated to the enslaved people that they were free in accordance with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation effective January 1, 1863. With Granger’s General Order No. 3, June the 19th came to represent the end of slavery in America, and as such became an African American holiday called Juneteenth.

Technically, the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t a sufficient post-war protector of freedom and actual permanent freedom was only guaranteed by ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865. But the date stuck because of its immediate meaning and has been celebrated by African Americans since that time, ebbing and flowing in response to societal suppression or promotion. Some local governments and states acknowledged the holiday, and more recently the trend is for more governments and companies have established the day as an official holiday or day off from work. Juneteenth is one element of a long history related to the attainment of equal rights for African Americans and all Americans, although our nation has also been plagued by historical and continuing systemic racism.

One aspect of that history that remains controversial today is the Freedman’s Memorial in Washington, DC. Often referred to as the “Emancipation Memorial” or “Freedom’s Memorial” or even “Lincoln and Emancipation,” the statue by sculptor Thomas Ball was erected in Lincoln Park east of the U.S. Capitol. It depicts Abraham Lincoln standing over an enslaved black man being released from his shackles and beginning the slow rise to equality. The face of the African American man represents that of a real person, Archer Alexander. Frederick Douglass was the keynote speaker at the 1876 dedication, which was also attended by President Ulysses S. Grant. Importantly, the funding of the statue was solely provided by freedmen (and women), with the first $5 donated by former slave Charlotte Scott of Virginia. While they didn’t have a say in the final design, the statue represents the efforts of African Americans to commemorate their emancipation from centuries of forced servitude.

Much of the controversy stems from the positioning of the figures, in particular the apparent subservient position of Archer Alexander. The original concept of Lincoln freeing the slaves and the depiction of now formerly enslaved men to rise seems to have been lost from current understanding. Another problem with today’s interpretation is the tendency to cherry pick from Frederick Douglass’s dedication speech, a wonderful oratory that delved into the complex relationships between Lincoln, Grant, former slaves, and the continuing struggle for equality. As the statue was being dedicated, so too was the Reconstruction period coming to an end. Whereas Reconstruction had guaranteed the rights of African Americans, the Jim Crow era that arose in response sought to destroy those rights. As W.E.B. Dubois said, “the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” Alas, our long history of systemic racism continues to this day.

Emancipation Memorial

As we celebrate Juneteenth 2020 we are again faced with the realization that racism and inequality are not an artifact of the past; they are a fact of reality today. This again offers us an opportunity to better understand our history, and use that understanding to, as Lincoln said, save “our last best hope of earth.”

As an Abraham Lincoln scholar, I hope that everyone interested in this statue and its ultimate fate spend the time to learn about its history and meaning. Likewise, we have a unique opportunity to learn about the importance of Juneteenth, not just to African Americans, but to the history of all Americans.

Happy Juneteenth!

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!

No comments

Lincoln in Australia – Wiegers Calendar June

  By ,

Abraham Lincoln AustraliaAbraham Lincoln is in Australia! Well, maybe. It’s complicated.

The June photo in David Wiegers’s calendar is of a statue of Lincoln that supposedly stood in Melbourne, Australia. He adds a parenthetical notation – (Missing). And missing it is. Very missing. What little I’ve been able to find suggests the statue was built of white marble and installed about the time Centennial Park opened in 1888. The photo matches David’s photo. Except for one detail – Centennial Park is in Sydney, not Melbourne, Australia.

Lincoln was joined by about thirty other statues, all commissioned by New South Wales Premier Sir Henry Parkes, who some liken to Lincoln in style and ability. Among the statues was “British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, US President James Garfield, and figures representing the four seasons, commerce, science, the arts and architecture.” Then in the 1970s all the statues were removed for restoration. Neglected for decades, many of the statues were in poor condition. Poor Lincoln was missing a nose, thumb, and part of his coat. Unfortunately, most of the statues, including Lincoln, never made it back into the park and no one seems to know what happened to them. Only about ten have been accounted for, although apparently none of them was reinstalled in the park.

In 2017 I had the good fortune to visit both Sydney and Melbourne (as well as Cairns and Uluru). The closest thing to a Lincoln memorial in Melbourne is The Lincoln, a hotel and pub that may or may not be as missing as the Lincoln statue (its website link doesn’t seem to be working). I did, however, get to see the Melbourne Sea Life Aquarium and tour out of town to gaze upon the famous “12 Apostles” rock formations on the southern coast. The scientist in me noted that there was nearby FitzRoy Gardens (named after the captain of the Beagle, the ship that carried Darwin around the world) and the Cook’s Cottage, named after world traveler Captain Cook. Lincoln may be lost, but science is everywhere.

Sydney Opera House

In Sydney I was able to visit all the famous landmarks: Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, and much more. I didn’t visit Centennial Park (there’s no Lincoln statue there anymore, remember), but did experience aboriginal culture and ventured out into the Blue Mountains. Of course, I also visited Sydney’s Aquarium. Absolutely beautiful.

Abraham Lincoln may be missing from Australia, but at least I got to experience much of the nation-continent. I also visited New Zealand. Given the distance and time necessary to make the trip, I may not get there again. That is, unless they find the Lincoln statue. Then I’m hopping a plane to see it.

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!