Category: Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln Book Acquisitions for 2021

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Books 2019The biggest feature of my Abraham Lincoln book acquisitions for 2021 is that most of the books I acquired aren’t even mine. As usual, I begin my annual “Year in the Life” posts with my Lincoln book collection. You can read last year’s post here. My shelves are getting fuller, but my garage and basement are now also filled with boxes of books, piles of books, and random books. In a sense, I’ve become a temporary storage facility.

This new role started in the spring. I had already become the holder of the Lincoln Group of DC‘s (LGDC) paper archive, big cabinets full of files, brochures, newsletters, and even some old photos, CDs, and VHS tapes. These cabinets were moved in a couple of years ago when the previous holder had to remove them from the borrowed space in a non-profit office downtown. Because of the limitations of travel due to COVID in 2020, the previous president of the Lincoln Group decided to move permanently to Denver so he and his wife could see more of their family. He was holding quite a few Lincoln books that belonged to LGDC, and since I was taking over as the organization’s president, I agreed to take them until we could get them to members. At this same time, the long-time secretary of the organization also decided to downsize, and 20-years of stored books from her basement shifted to my basement. We then had two members pass away, leaving instructions that their collections should be donated to LGDC.

All of this has led to the aforementioned boxes and stacks of books currently swamping my space. All told, there are many hundreds of books that belong to LGDC. To push the situation from the sublime to the ridiculous, or at least a bit overwhelming, I had already reached a critical point in shelf space, thus necessitating a bit of a purge of duplicate books. Those duplicates have joined the LGDC books and effectively are another donation to the Lincoln Group. The plan, if you could call it that, is to make as many as possible available to LGDC members. The continuing restrictions on in-person meetings due to COVID is making it hard to get them out to members, so they remain in my possession for the time being. That said, they will NOT be in my garage and basement for the next 20 years (or 2).

Beyond that, I have actually acquired quite a few Lincoln books this past year. While I limited my purchases of new books, I did pick up a few carefully selected used books from a variety of places, including two local used book stores, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. As with last year, I also received books from publishers for review in the Lincolnian, the Lincoln Herald, and elsewhere. The majority were related to my role on the book award committee of the Abraham Lincoln Institute (ALI), which I’m diligently trying to finish reading before our decision during the first week in January. I also won two book giveaways on Goodreads (one of which was a Lincoln book), received one book in a giveaway by a Civil War Round Table, and got seven books from my insurance company using points accrued. Thirty-eight of the books were published in 2021, while others have more time under their covers. The oldest book was published in 1865, and its poor condition reflects that fact. I was able to get several of the new books signed by their authors at the only in-person event that actually occurred in-person this year, the annual Lincoln Forum (of which I recently was elected to the Board of Advisors).

Among the books I acquired was one I purchased because it relates somewhat to my own forthcoming book – The Science of Abolition by Eric Herschthal. Several prominent Lincoln scholars were well represented. Michael Burlingame had two books come out this year. The first was An American Marriage, which turned out to be quite controversial as it describes the marriage of Abraham and Mary Lincoln in dramatically stark terms. Later in the year he published The Black Man’s President. The title is based on a quote from Frederick Douglass and in the book, Burlingame delves into the racial sentiments and experiences of Lincoln. In my personal opinion, it is one of the most important Lincoln books in many years. Another important book is James Oakes’s The Crooked Path to Abolition, which focuses on Lincoln’s belief – and the belief of most northern Americans – that the Constitution was an anti-slavery document.

The Oakes book was discussed in LGDC’s Study Forum, our group within the group that intently studies Lincoln’s life and times through books. The Study Forum is now working on another new book I added to my collection, Michael S. Green’s Lincoln and Native Americans. Lincoln’s role in Native American relations during the war, in particular the Dakota War in Minnesota, has been a topic of heavy discussion this past year. I did a presentation in April (summarized here) and have been familiarizing myself with the issues. Green’s concise book gives a solid overview and should be read in conjunction with other books on the topic I’ve read lately. Two other notable books this year were Ronald C. White’s Lincoln in Private, which deals with the 111 fragments Lincoln wrote to himself, and Getting Right With Lincoln by Ed Steers, which examines a dozen “knowns” about Lincoln that are either myths or still highly debated.

As always, collecting these books means I do a lot of reading. While I can’t claim to have read all of them, I have read many of them and plan to read the rest over time. And, of course, acquire even more. Note to publishers: I’m always open to receiving books in return for an honest review via my various venues, including Goodreads and Amazon.

We’re now on the cusp of 2022, and contrary to previous years, I hope to offload as many books as I acquire. I hope to remain on the ALI book award committee and expect to pick up selected Lincoln books as I deem necessary, but mostly I’m looking to cull my collection. That means sorting out any duplicates I may have and disposing of them through listings on eBay and Amazon, selling to local used bookstores, and donating to the local library (or to LGDC members). I plan to do the same with the LGDC books, with the focus on getting them in members’ hands at in-person events (which omicron might put in jeopardy). I hope to end 2022 with a significant net reduction in books. That’ll be a change.

One book I’m looking forward to having in my hands in 2022 is my own new book. I submitted the manuscript to the publisher in late June 2021 with the expectation that it would come out in February. The continuing COVID pandemic had other plans, however, as the supply chain issues that we all hear about has affected the publishing industry as well. Books in the pipeline were delayed, and the publisher pushed my book release date to September 2022. I’ve already seen a cover and the title is now settled, so I’ll start to release that information in January as the final countdown progresses. Stay tuned!

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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

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Lincoln the Philanthropist

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Emancipation Proclamation with LincolnFew people know that Abraham Lincoln was also a philanthropist. We remember him for saving the union and the Emancipation Proclamation, but he also was a big donator to charity. On December 17, 1863, he sent a letter thanking the Sanitary Commission of Chicago for a watch that was sent to him for his contributions. He wrote:

Executive Mansion,
Washington, December 17, 1863
To James H. Hoes
My Dear Sir,

I have received from the Sanitary Commission of Chicago, the Watch which you placed at their disposal, and I take the liberty of conveying to you my high appreciation of your humanity and generosity, of which I have unexpectedly become the beneficiary. I am very truly yours

A. LINCOLN

So why was he receiving a watch?

The managers of the Northwestern Soldier’s Fair at Chicago had earlier written to Lincoln, noting:

`Among the many remarkable incidents of our recent Fair, not one has been more pleasant, than the duty that devolves upon us, of consigning to you, on this National Thanksgiving Day, the accompanying watch; of asking you to accept it, as a memorial of the Ladies N. Western Fair. During the progress of the Fair, Mr. James H. Hoes, Jeweller of Chicago, a most loyal and liberal man, after giving very largely himself, in order to stimulate donations from others, proposed through the columns of the Tribune, to give a gold watch to the largest contributor to the Fair. . . . Emancipation Proclamation . . . was sold for $3,000, the largest benefaction of any individual. . . .”

In a nutshell, Lincoln had handwritten a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation to donate to the Fair. The two-week fair was the first of many Sanitary Fairs designed to raise money to support the care of wounded and sick soldiers. The fair was entirely organized by women, and the managers that sent the letter to Lincoln were indeed Mrs. Abraham H. Hoge and Mrs. David P. Livermore. Most of the crafts, food, and entertainment for sale at the fair were created and provided by women. Dignitaries such as Lincoln donated documents, lithographs, and other items for sale and auction. The Chicago Fair brought in $80,000 (roughly $1.7 million today). Many hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised in subsequent fairs held around the country through the end of the war.

Lincoln’s contribution garnered the greatest gain for the Fair, hence the watch. What became of the watch is unknown, but perhaps he donated to the next Sanitary Fair.

On a related note, a printed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation but signed by Lincoln was sold at auction in 2012 for $2.1 million. The buyer was modern philanthropist David Rubinstein, who has donated millions of dollars to renovations of Lincoln-related buildings around Washinton, D.C. A total of 48 printed copies were made in 1863, with Lincoln signing all of them and donating them to the Sanitary Commission for auction.

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 and John Dahlgren, Weapons Guy

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John DahlgrenLincoln liked John A. Dahlgren, his weapons guy, of sorts. On December 8, 1862, Lincoln sent a telegram to the Washington Navy Yard with the succinct request: “Will Capt. Dahlgren please call and see me at once?”

What they discussed on that particular occasion is unknown, but Lincoln often conferred with Dahlgren about the war effort. A few weeks into the war, he had pressed Dahlgren on a new gun presented by Orison Blunt. After encouraging Dahlgren to “please see Mr. Blunt,” Lincoln wrote “What do you think of it? Would the government do well to purchase some of them?” When Dahlgren replied positively the same day, Lincoln endorsed the envelope with another prod for action: “I saw the gun myself, and witnessed some experiments with it,” Lincoln wrote, adding “I really think it worthy the attention of the government.” Presumably these were the Enfield-patterned rifles Blunt made for the Army a year later.

Not long before the mysterious 1862 telegram, Lincoln had visited Dahlgren at the Navy Yard along with Secretary of State William Seward, and Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase. Dahlgren took the group down to the banks of the Anacostia River to witness testing of the Hyde rocket. Instead of shooting off across the river as planned, the rocket exploded, nearly sending shrapnel into the group of distinguished leaders, all of whom escaped unharmed. Lincoln skipped the next trial two days later when the rocket flew out of control and landed on the roof of a nearby blacksmith shop.

Lincoln had also consulted with Dahlgren to discuss the veracity of claims by one of Lincoln’s old friends, Isaac Diller, who had proposed “a new and secret art of making gunpowder.” Diller was acting as an agent for a German developer of a chlorate-based gunpowder as an alternative to that based on saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Satisfied with Dahlgren’s assessment, Lincoln entered into an agreement with Diller authorizing additional secret testing in a rented building on Timber Creek in New Jersey.

Dahlgren was such an asset to Lincoln that after Lincoln signed into existence the new National Academy of Sciences, Dahlgren was assigned as one of the fifty charter members, alongside another Lincoln science advisor, Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. It was no surprise then that Lincoln and Mary’s carriage ride on April 14, 1865, took them to the Navy Yard to talk strategy with Dahlgren, who by that time had risen to the rank of Admiral. While there, Lincoln viewed three ironclad ships recently damaged in action at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, including the Passaic-class monitor, USS Montauk. After touring the vessels and talking with Navy Yard staff, the Lincolns returned to the White House and shortly thereafter set out again for what they had hoped would be a relaxing night at the theater. Our American Cousin, a comedy, should lift their spirits as this long grueling Civil War appeared to be coming to an end.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, due out in September 2022]

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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

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Lincoln on the Importance of Education

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Lincoln reading by firelight“Upon the subject of education,” Abraham Lincoln wrote in his Communication to the People of Sangamo County in 1832, “I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.”

True to his word, on December 2, 1840, during his tenure in the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln offered a resolution: “That the committee on education…inquire into the expediency of providing by law for examination as to qualifications of persons offering themselves as school-teachers, that no teacher shall receive any part of the public school fund who shall not have successfully passed an examination.” This resolution is embodied in sec. 81 of common school code adopted at this session.

Up to that point, teachers on the frontier weren’t required to have any qualifications beyond “readin, writin, and cipherin’ to the Rule of Three.” The state of education on the frontier was so limited that “if a straggler supposed to understand Latin, happened to so-journ in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizzard.” Even with his limited access to formal education, Lincoln quickly outclassed his occasional teachers in capability, mostly because he did what he could to “pick up from time to time under the pressure of necessity” any other education. To give him proper credit, that included teaching himself English grammar, Euclid geometry, surveying, and the law.

In fact, a closer look at Lincoln’s ciphering book (often referred to as his “sum book”) shows that Lincoln was less than forthcoming about his educational achievements, intentionally downplaying his expertise for political expediency. The ciphering book includes an additional page covering his practice with the double rule of three, a slightly more complicated skill than he suggested. There are also several fragmented pages in which he practices both simple and compound interest, and calculation of a discount rate. Based on these few entries, only a fraction of the original 100-page volume, Lincoln clearly gained more intense mathematical knowledge than suggested in his biographical sketch. Early twentieth century researcher M.L. Houser went so far as to suggest Lincoln received a “collegiate education” before he was 18 years old. Taking Lincoln at his word that he ciphered clear through Pike’s Arithmetick, with additional study in Daboll’s book, he would have covered more advanced skills such as reduction (converting unlike numbers), vulgar (simple) fractions, decimals (called decimal fractions), duodecimals, and the inverse rule of three. He likely studied square and cube roots (and their extraction), permutations, and involutions. The two books also provided instruction in practical mathematics that he would find useful in his later life as a store clerk, including gauging the volume of casks used for liquid goods, ways to calculate payments, and general bookkeeping skills. Pike’s provides information on mechanical powers of levers, an introduction to physics that Lincoln would have found useful in loading and unloading flatboats. From Daboll’s he could have learned geometrical progression, or how to determine the sum of the terms in any series of numbers increasing or decreasing by one common multiplier.

But there is so much more about Lincoln’s education that I discuss in my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius.

 

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 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.

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Lincoln’s Scientific Approach to Military Strategy

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

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

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

But there is more…much more!

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

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

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

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If Destruction Be Our Lot…We Must Ourselves be its Author and Finisher – Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can we be so confident today?

 

Fire of Genius

 

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

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 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.

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Lincoln and McClellan’s Fatigued Horses

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Tired and Fatigued horsesI have just read your dispatch about sore tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything? A. LINCOLN

General George B. McClellan was at it again. Or not at it, in a sense. McClellan had a habit of overestimating the enemy troop numbers and underestimating his own ability to attack. Lincoln was constantly frustrated.

In September 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia into western Maryland. Following their victory at a second battle of Bull Run, Lee moved his army north to a point near Sharpsburg, alongside Antietam Creek, where they took up defensive positions. With surprising aggressiveness, McClellan’s Army of the Potomac attacked Lee’s forces on September 17. The first assault came from Union General Joseph Hooker on Lee’s left flank, while General Ambrose Burnside later attacked the right. A surprise counterattack from Confederate General A.P. Hill helped push back Union forces. Eventually, Lee’s troops withdrew from the battlefield first. He moved his remaining army back across the Potomac into the safety of Virginia.

Always overly cautious, McClellan made no effort to follow. Lee had committed all of his 55,000 men, while McClellan only ordered a portion of his larger 87,000-man force into the fray. This numerical imbalance allowed Lee to create and exploit tactical advantages he should not have had. When questioned by Lincoln about his failure to pursue Lee, McClellan complained that his army and horses were sore-tongued and fatigued, and thus required rest. Lincoln responded tersely by telegram:

Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?

Antietam was destined to be the single bloodiest day of battle in American history. The casualties for both armies totaled a staggering 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.

Despite Lincoln’s frustration, Antietam stood out as an important battle in the fight for freedom. Although essentially a draw, the fact that Lee withdrew from the battlefield first allowed the North to record Antietam as a victory, something that Lincoln had been needing for some time. A few days later, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

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

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

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Lincoln at the Exhibition

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Lincoln at the moviesTechnically, Lincoln didn’t attend the exhibition, but on this date, October 14, 1861, a committee of commissioners for the industrial exhibition in England visits President Lincoln in the White House and asks use of a government vessel to transport American contributions to the fair. Lincoln had supported United States participation.

Eying an opportunity to showcase American science, Lincoln appointed Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry (an informal science adviser to the President) to yet another Commission, this one organizing American participation in the International Exhibition scheduled for London in 1862. Lincoln approved the Commission’s recommendations in December 1861 and the House Ways and Means Committee endorsed an appropriation of $35,000 for expenses.

Lincoln had always had an eye for scientific and technological advancement, which had been rapid leading up to his nomination. The canal system had opened up the Midwest and railroads were stringing themselves in all directions, creating towns and economies as they spread. Steamships were regular features on the Great Lakes and the great rivers like the Ohio and Mississippi. American reaping machines amazed visitors to the Paris World’s Fair in 1855 with their ability to cut an acre of grain in a third of the time of European models. By 1860, the United States had become the fourth largest manufacturing country in the world. George Perkins Marsh, perhaps America’s first environmentalist, approved of industrialization but also warned of the dangers of deforestation. Marsh began writing his now classic treatise, Man and Nature, as Lincoln accepted the nomination; once President, Lincoln appointed Marsh minister to Italy. Long-standing Whig principles would become part of Lincoln’s presidential platform.

Yet neither the full House nor Senate could pass a bill and the lack of political and financial support discouraged many companies from participating. The lost opportunity probably hackled Lincoln as the Exhibition showcased such industrial advances as the electrical telegraph, submarine cables, and a new thermoplastic called Parkesine, later renamed Celluloid, which became the basis of Thomas Edison’s motion picture film.

Lincoln quickly moved on to other more pressing matters as the Civil War settled into what would be four years of constant turmoil. But the only president with a patent never gave up on his vision of empowering science and technology in the federal government.

[The above is adapted from my forthcoming book due out in 2022]

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

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

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Lincoln and Me Tour Harpers Ferry

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Harpers FerryPresident Lincoln took a special train to Harpers Ferry on October 1, 1862. I drove my car to the National Park Service visitors center on October 1, 2021. Lincoln reviewed the troops on Bolivar Heights. I climbed to the overlook on Maryland Heights. One hundred and fifty-nine years separated us, but I still felt his presence.

Lincoln was anxious about his commanding general, George McClellan. McClellan had brought a military success, of sorts, near Antietam creek just a few weeks before. More of a draw than a clear-cut victory despite McClellan’s staff finding Confederate General Lee’s plans wrapped around three cigars, it had been enough for Lincoln to issue his Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd. Lincoln was not pleased with McClellan’s overall performance. McClellan complained incessantly that the enemy had decisively more troops, even when it was McClellan with the distinct numerical advantage. So Lincoln was coming to talk to McClellan in person.

Around 6 a.m. on the first day of October, Lincoln and entourage left Washington on a special train. Joining him were General McClernand, Ward Hill Lamon, Ozias Hatch, John Garrett (president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad) and others. Arriving at Harpers Ferry at noon, Lincoln meets with General Sumners until General McClellan finally arrives in the early afternoon. McClellan and Lincoln visit the troops at Bolivar Heights. That night, Lincoln spends the night in Harpers Ferry. The next morning he visits more troops on the Maryland Heights and moves to McClellan’s headquarters for a strategic discussion and critical job review. While there, several iconic photos are taken by Alexander Gardner. A month later, Lincoln would finally relieve McClellan from command, permanently this time.

My visit began around 8 a.m. for a drive of just over an hour. The day was about as perfect as could be, with no clouds and a high temperature in the low 70s. A fog enveloped the valley as we approached, but quickly disappeared once I arrived in the lower town of Harpers Ferry. John Brown’s Fort was getting a paint job as I headed for the Maryland Heights trailhead. Not only is Harpers Ferry the intersection between Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, it’s also where three trails intersect – Maryland Heights,  the C & O Canal Towpath, and the Appalachian Trail. The railroad and foot bridges over the Potomac River (with the Shenandoah River sliding in from the right) lead into the gaping maw of the tunnel under the heights. A short walk up the towpath brought us to the trailhead. A constant uphill hike of about 1200 feet elevation gain brought us to the Heights overlook, where we snacked and replenished electrolytes before hiking back down to the town. A delightful lunch on the patio of the Coach House Grill capped a perfect visit.

A week earlier I had toured Williamsport and Falling Water, another area not far away that had hackled Lincoln. After the decisive Union victory in Gettysburg, Lincoln was displeased with General George Meade for his failure to attack and destroy Lee’s army, giving it time to cross the Potomac River upstream from Harpers Ferry. Lincoln wrote a blistering letter berating Meade, his failure prolonging the war another two years instead of ending it in late 1863. Lincoln never sent the letter. Having spewed his anger onto the page, he rethought the wisdom of chewing his arguably one of his better generals. Luckily for us, he saved it for posterity “never signed, never sent.”

Eventually Lincoln would find likeminded generals in Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Philip Henry Sheridan, along with Meade, who would be key to closing out the rest of the war. But his trip to Harpers Ferry and Antietam was to reassess his commander. McClellan was found wanting, and Lincoln fired him.

Unlike Lincoln, my trip to Harpers Ferry was a total success, and despite the sore muscles afterward, a wonderful experience.

[David J. Kent has been “Chasing Abraham Lincoln” for the last several years, with the COVID pandemic putting much of it on hold. With most responsible people now vaccinated, David will be doing more road trips on the trail of Lincoln. Stay tuned.]

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

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

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Lincoln Draws on His Account at the Illinois Central Railroad

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Lincoln railroad comicOn June 23, 1854, Abraham Lincoln draws on his account at the Illinois Central Railroad. The ICRR had been a repeat source of work for the Lincoln, who had been focusing on his legal career after being relegated to the sidelines politically. He would not be in an elected position for eleven years. He did a variety of work for several railroads, but the ICRR by far was the most prolific and profitable. Still, he wasn’t making much money per case.

In this particular letter, Lincoln writes the ICRR attorney Mason Brayman in Chicago to indicate that he is collecting payment for a slew of small cases done for the railroad. He writes:

M. Brayman, Esq Bloomington
Dear Sir: Sept. 23, 1854

This is the last day of court here, and being about to leave, I have drawn on the I.C. R R Co or rather on you on their account, for $100, which the McLean County Bank have negociated for me. I have directed them to have the draft presented to you. Will you please see that it shall be honored?

The reason I have taken this liberty is, that since last fall, by your request I have declined all new business against the road, and out of which I suppose I could have realized several hundred dollars; have attended, both at DeWitt and here to a great variety of little business for the Co, most of which, however, remains unfinished, and have received nothing. I wish now to be charged with this sum, to be taken into account on settlement. Truly Yours &c A. LINCOLN

P.S. The draft is in favor of Mr. Pardee, who is Cashier of the Bank.

The other key element of the above letter is that he gave up opportunities to make money from individuals suing the ICRR. There were other cases in which Lincoln did work against the railroad, but these were outside of the retainer agreement.

And then there was the time that Lincoln sued the ICRR railroad directly for the sum of $5000. [Click on the link for that story]

Overall, railroad cases made up only four percent of Lincoln’s caseload overall, about 160 cases, but they were some of the most lucrative of his career. He tried cases for or against fourteen separate railroad companies, with some railroad names changing as lines merged or were replaced. Some of these cases set important precedents, both for railroad rights and worker rights. He would also be instrumental in the final determination of the transcontinental railroad route.

I look more at Lincoln’s work for, and against, the railroads in my forthcoming book, due out in 2022.

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!