Category: Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln and the Supreme Court

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Abraham Lincoln may have been a “merely country lawyer,” as some of his critics avowed, but he had many far-reaching interactions with the  U.S. Supreme Court that changed the face of jurisprudence. I’m reminded of this today because on December 6, 1864, Lincoln nominated former Treasury Secretary, and constant foil, Salmon P. Chase to be the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Chase was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, and thus ended the nearly 30 year reign of the recently deceased Roger B. Taney.

As much as Chase had been an irritant while sitting in Lincoln’s “team of rivals” cabinet, Taney had been a major thorn, twisting the wounds as much as he could possibly do. As Commander-in-Chief during a time of insurrection, Lincoln felt he could take drastic steps to save the Union, including the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus when necessary. Taney disagreed, and in his duel role as circuit court judge ruled against Lincoln. Lincoln ignored Taney but did get Congress to pass the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act to officially legalize his actions.

Taney’s earlier Dred Scott Decision in 1857 had an even greater impact on Abraham Lincoln’s career. This widely despised decision played center stage in the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, and while Lincoln lost that Senate race on the vagaries of state-legislature-picked Senators, it set him up as the Republican party’s leader on the slavery question. In a sense, it helped make him President.

Even earlier, Lincoln had tried two cases in the U.S. Supreme Court to go along with his 175 cases pled at the Illinois State Supreme Court.

But Lincoln also had another major influence on the U.S. Supreme Court while President. The two dissenting judges on the Dred Scott case needed to be replaced (one died within weeks of Lincoln’s inauguration while the other had quit the court in disgust after the Dred Scott decision). One of the majority judges in the Dred Scott case also needed replacement; he quit the court after Lincoln’s inauguration and became the Confederate Assistant Secretary of War. So Lincoln filled three Supreme Court judgeships with Noah Haynes Swayne, Samuel Freeman Miller, and David Davis.

Ah, but this is where it gets interesting. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to determine how many Supreme Court justices will sit. That number had ranged from five to nine during our history, but Congress decided to deal with the many leftovers from the Dred Scott case by adding a tenth justice. Lincoln thus was able to appoint an extra new justice to the court, which he did in 1863 with Steven Johnson Field. It should be noted that Congress, in order to keep Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, from appointing pro-slavery justices to the court, reduced the number of justices down to seven. Immediately after Johnson was out of office, Congress reset the number once again to nine, so since 1869 that number has been the standard up to today.

With Salmon P. Chase’s appointment as Chief Justice, Lincoln put a total of five judges on the Supreme Court, one of the most prolific appointer-in-chief in our history.

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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GivingTuesday Fundraiser for the Lincoln Group of DC

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The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia is an incredibly active group supporting the study and dissemination of information on the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Regularly chosen as the most admired and best President in national polls, with both current major political parties claiming the mantle of Lincoln.

LGDC banner

Which is why on this #GivingTuesday I’m raising money on Facebook for The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia and your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $5 or $500. Every little bit helps. And on GivingTuesday Dec 3, Facebook will match a total of $7 million in donations first come, first served.

You can donate via this link. Thank you for your support.

The Lincoln Group brings in noted Abraham Lincoln scholars to present on their work. The Group also sponsors public events at the National Archives and Ford’s Theatre, tours of local Civil War battlefields and Lincoln sites, and helps fund scholarships for teachers to learn about how best to teach Lincoln and the Civil War to their students. We’re currently planning a program to fund student participation in educational events.

Today, in fact, I’m attending a lecture by the world’s foremost expert on the Lincoln assassination, Dr. Ed Steers. He’ll be talking about “Getting Right With Lincoln: Challenging Misconceptions About Our Greatest President.” If you’re in Washington, DC this morning, come on up to the Friendship Heights Metro stop and join us.

More on the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia FB page and website: http://lincolngroup.org/ 

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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The Exhaustingly Exhilarating Lincoln Forum

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I have just returned from the annual Abraham Lincoln Forum in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The 3-day conference of non-stop meetings, presentations, and hallway socializing is somehow both exhausting and exhilarating. I came away with a great deal more knowledge, a renewed impetus for research, and a “to-do” list the length of my arm.

The schedule was shown in my pre-forum post, and the presenters didn’t disappoint. We heard about how the North felt they were an army of deliverance, how soldiers and Lincoln dealt with the constant reminder of death, and the intriguing story and legacy of how the first battle of the ironclad ships changed naval warfare. During the final day breakout sessions I participated in discussions on the Civil War Navy led by Craig Symonds and Anna Holloway. I even picked up a tip or two to discuss in my new book. I also had keynote speaker Sidney Blumenthal sign my copy of his book, my review of which will appear in the next Civil War Times magazine.

But the Forum is more than just scholarship, though there certainly is no shortage of that. It’s a chance for colleagues to compare notes, researchers to begin new collaborations, and friends to catch up since last meeting (which for many is, in fact, the last meeting of the Forum a year before). I found myself having deep discussions with some of the record number of fellow Lincoln Group of DC members in attendance (hence the long to-do list for follow up). With other DC-area colleagues I plotted future collaborations. I talked with photographer David Wiegers about future Lincoln statues to visit (and bought a calendar of statues in foreign countries). I even got to listen to a little blues guitar and harmonica by the inestimable Joe Fornieri.

One surprise happened during the first session. As we took a short break I notice that Michael Hardy was sitting in the row behind me. Mike runs the Facebook page “Liking and Learning About Lincoln,” which not only has shown incredible growth in the past year, under his guidance has continued to raise the amount members donate to the Lincoln Forum scholarship programs. Mike proceeds to tell me that he thinks about me every day, which I admit sounded a little weird until he reminded me of a conversation we had last year. I mentioned that I hadn’t written my Lincoln book for the deep scholars like Harold Holzer; I had written it to reach the public that might not pick up a scholarly tome. Mike took this to heart and uses that principle in deciding what to post on his page – the goal is to expand the knowledge among the populace. I wholeheartedly agree, and am humbled to do my small part in that regard.

One other surprise deserves mention. This past year the Forum arranged to have a sculpted bust of Lincoln donated to the town of Lincoln, Argentina. I have an personal affinity for Argentina, having spent some time there visiting a close friend a few years ago. Thanks to the Forum, that sculptor (and the original clay model upon which the bronze was cast) was on hand to explain his art while actually working on a new Lincoln bust while we spoke. As can be seen by the photos, sculptor Frank Porcu is amazingly talented and I thank him for taking the time to talk with me.

I have already put the Forum on my calendar for next year (yes, I have a 2020 calendar hanging on my wall quickly filling up). In the interim I plan to finish my next Lincoln book, give a few talks of my own, and continue traveling. On this last point I found my only disappointment of the last few days – an unexpected email informed me that my lower Caribbean cruise due to start in one week had been cancelled (ironically for a sailing vessel, because of necessary repairs to a propulsion engine). While not nearly as exciting or warm, I have plenty to do at home, including reading several new Abraham Lincoln books in competition for the Abraham Lincoln Institute annual book award to be given next March.

Time to get busy.

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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On the Way to the Lincoln Forum

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George Buss David KentA funny thing happened on the way to the Lincoln Forum. After a career as a scientist, I became a Lincoln historian. And in a few days I’ll have the chance to join 300 of my colleagues at the annual Abraham Lincoln Forum.

The Lincoln Forum is a national organization for people “who share a deep interest in the life and times of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era.” While my occupation was scientist, my avocation – now my focus – was Abraham Lincoln. From reading Jim Bishop’s The Day Lincoln Was Shot and Carl Sandburg’s Prairie Years and War Years as a boy to collecting various artifacts as a teenager to my 1300-volume book obsession as an adult, I’ve always been a bit of a Lincoln geek. [For the record, that’s a good thing.]

For many years I attended the annual SETAC scientific meeting, which inconveniently put itself on the same week as the Forum. In 2014 SETAC was a week or so earlier, thus allowing me to also go to the Forum for the first time. The same happened in 2015 – after winning a prestigious SETAC award in Salt Lake City I returned in time to attend the 20th Anniversary of the Forum in Gettysburg. Now my focus is completely on the Forum and this year (2019) will be my sixth straight year in attendance. I’ve met a lot of great people each year, including Lincoln reenactor George Buss and a field of scholars led by the incomparable Harold Holzer and Frank Williams.

Lincoln Forum 2019

As the schedule above shows, this year’s Forum should continue to raise the bar on Lincoln scholarship. Among the speakers will be the authors of books I’ve recently read (e.g., Brian Dirck’s The Black Heavens, Sidney Blumenthal’s All The Powers of Earth) or read within the last couple of years (e.g., Anna Holloway and Jonathan White’s Our Little Monitor). Many of the other books to be discussed are on my further list of books to review in my roles as a columnist in The Lincolnian, reviewer for Civil War Times and other magazines, and a member of the book award committee for the Abraham Lincoln Institute.

If you’re going to this year’s Forum, feel free to look for me during meals and happy hours (or just roaming the hallways between sessions). I’m looking forward to catching up with old friends, making new friends, and discussing Lincoln with perhaps the single largest regular gathering of Lincoln scholars and aficionados in the world.

See you at the Forum!

[Photo: Selfie with George Buss/Abraham Lincoln]

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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Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Get Married

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Abraham and Mary Todd LincolnAbraham Lincoln married Mary Todd on November 4, 1842. It came as a surprise to many, possibly even Lincoln himself.

The fourth of seven children, Mary Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to a wealthy slave-holding family. Her mother died when she was only 6 years old. Within two years her father, Robert Smith Todd, remarried and had another nine children with his new wife. Mary Todd and her siblings all had difficult relationships with their stepmother, who essentially ignored them while favoring her own growing brood. Despite these difficulties, Mary grew up in comfort and privilege. The celebrated statesman Henry Clay owned a plantation called Ashland down the road from the Todd household. When she was 13, Mary rode her new pony to Ashland, and Clay, the perennial presidential candidate, noted to his guests, “If I am ever President I shall expect Mary Todd to be one of my first guests.” The precocious Mary said she would enjoy living in the White House.

Robert Todd was rather progressive for a nineteenth-century southern slave owner, and he encouraged his daughters as well as sons to get an education. In part because her stepmother wanted her out of the way, 14-year-old Mary was sent to live at Madame Mantelle’s finishing school for young ladies. There she received a classical education that concentrated on French and literature. She became fluent in French and also studied dance, drama, music, and, of course, the social graces needed to attract a suitable husband. Unlike most women of the time, she also took a keen interest in politics, becoming both knowledgeable and ambitious—and Whiggish. But like all women, politically she had to live vicariously through her husband.

In the fall of 1839 Mary moved from Kentucky to Springfield to live with her older sister Elizabeth, who had married Ninian W. Edwards, son of the former Governor of Illinois. The Edwards home was the center of Springfield’s social scene, and given that the city had far more single men than eligible women, their home was the place to shop for a well-heeled husband. Mary was in her element. Her advanced education gave her the advantage of choosing which of her many suitors she might spend time with, among them Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln.

Joshua Speed invited Lincoln to one of the Edwards soirées. Although Lincoln’s six-foot-four-inch lankiness towered over Mary’s five-foot-two-inch roundness, the two began courting over the winter of 1839–40. The courtship was somewhat one-sided. Lincoln remained a rough, uncouth, awkward man who alternated between sitting quietly and blurting out inappropriate faux pas. He was charmed by Mary’s knowledge and wit, often staring at her in apparent awe as she led the conversation. Still, she saw something in him and their unlikely courtship blossomed, with Mary doing most of the courting.

Initially supportive, Mary’s family (in particular, her sister Elizabeth) came to oppose the mismatch, feeling Mary could do much better. Lincoln was deeply hurt by this opposition, but the two continued to see each other and eventually became engaged.

A Hiatus

And then they stopped. Somewhere between late 1840 and early 1841 they abruptly called off the engagement. Many believed that Lincoln backed out, fearing he could not suitably meet any wife’s needs as a husband because of his distracted nature. Earlier he had told the wife of his circuit-lawyer colleague Orville Browning that he had “come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying” because he can never be satisfied with any one who would be block-head enough to have me.” Lincoln also may have been distraught that his intimate friend Joshua Speed was leaving Springfield to move back to Kentucky. Whatever the reason, Lincoln and Mary were no longer courting throughout 1841 and into 1842.

One More Try

Sometime in 1842 Mary and Lincoln began secretly courting again. Despite Elizabeth’s opposition, the two often met at the Edwards house and sat on the low couch for hours, talking about life and love. Likely they also discussed politics, as by this time Lincoln was actively involved in Whig party activities and Mary was as ambitious as he, perhaps even more so. Their romance bloomed again, enough that Mary flirtatiously and anonymously wrote a letter backing up Lincoln’s own anonymous letter to the local paper mocking James Shields, a political rival. Shields, feeling his honor had been attacked, challenged Lincoln to a duel. Lincoln tried to back out of it, but when Shields insisted, the tall and muscular Lincoln offered up heavy broadswords as weapon of choice. Faced with a severe disadvantage, the short-armed Shields allowed himself to be talked out of the fight.

To the astonishment of the Springfield social set, Lincoln and Mary suddenly decided they would get married—that night. Elizabeth Edwards claimed the wedding occurred with only two hours’ notice, and indeed the marriage license was issued that very day. Lincoln had a “deer in the highlights” look as he approached the hurried ceremony in the Edwards parlor. According to friends, when Lincoln was dressing for ceremony he was asked where he was going, to which he replied, “I guess I’m going to hell.” At least one Lincoln scholar believes Mary may have seduced Lincoln the night before into doing something that obligated him to marriage. Whatever the reason, they were married on November 4, 1842. A week later he seemed resigned to the fact, closing a business letter with, “Nothing new here except my marrying, which to me, is matter of profound wonder.”

[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 Receives First Transcontinental Telegraph Message

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Transcontinental telegraphIn October 1861, California Chief Justice Stephen Johnson Field reportedly sent a message to Abraham Lincoln via the newly completed transcontinental telegraph. The event was a milestone that predated the later transcontinental railroad.

By 1860 a network of telegraph lines covered much of the eastern United States. After the 1849 gold rush had spawned a rapid populating of the newly acquired California coast, telegraph lines quickly grew in that new state. But there was a huge gap in service through the central United States. The U.S. Congress authorized a transcontinental telegraph project in 1860, and like the transcontinental railroad that came after it, the telegraph system was built by separate crews that would meet in the middle. The Pacific Telegraph Company would start in Nebraska and head west while the Overland Telegraph Company would build east from Nevada, which was connected to the California network. Essentially the route followed that established by the Pony Express and the Overland stagecoach line.

It took just over three months to plant more than 27,000 poles carrying 2,000 miles of single-strand iron wire over prairies and mountains. The transcontinental telegraph was officially completed on October 24, 1861 in Salt Lake City and became a critical communication line for the Union. Justice Fields often gets credit for sending the first transcontinental telegraph to Lincoln; however, there is some uncertainty about this. In fact, documents show that on October 20, 1861 Lincoln replied by telegraph to Frank Fuller, the Governor of the Utah Territory reciprocating his congratulations for the telegraph achievement. Lincoln wrote:

Sir.

The completion of the Telegraph to Great Salt Lake City is auspicious of the Stability & Union of the Republic.

The Government reciprocates your Congratulations

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Fuller’s original telegraph message to Lincoln from earlier that day says:

`To the President of the United States:— Great Salt Lake City.

“Utah, whose citizens strenuously resist all imputations of disloyalty, congratulates the President upon the completion of an enterprise which spans the continent, unites two oceans and connects remote extremities of the body politic with the great government heart. May the whole system speedily thrill with quickened pulsations of that heart, the parricidal hand of political treason be punished, and the entire sisterhood of States join hands in glad reunion around the national fireside.

“FRANK FULLER,

“Acting Governor of Utah.”

So did Field send the first transcontinental telegraph message to Lincoln? Or did Fuller? Evidence suggests the latter. In either case, the telegraph played a hugely important role in the Civil War, and like many other technology-based advantages, helped the Union more than the Confederacy.

By the way, in May of 1863 Lincoln appointed Field as a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, thus becoming the first person to fill the newly created extra seat after Congress expanded the Supreme Court from 9 to10. But that’s a story for another time.

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

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

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Lincoln in Peoria – The Speech Heard Round the World

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Abraham Lincoln PeoriaOn October 18, 1854 Lincoln rose to the forefront of the Republicans with a speech he gave first in Springfield, and then a dozen days later in Peoria. Newspapers published the second presentation, so it came to be known as the Peoria speech. It began when Stephen A. Douglas, the originator of the Kansas-Nebraska policy, spoke to a large crowd at the state fair in Springfield. Lincoln was in the audience and proclaimed that he would respond to Douglas’s arguments, saying “Douglas lied; he lied three times and I’ll prove it!” That evening he did so at the Illinois state house. While Lincoln sat quietly listening to Douglas’s speech, Douglas repeatedly interrupted Lincoln.

Lincoln vigorously condemned slavery. After giving a brief history of slavery in America, he forcefully denounced it. He reiterated his belief that slavery was morally and politically wrong, but also that the Constitution protected it in the areas where it already existed. Therefore, the federal government could not remove it from the South, but it could, and must, restrict its spread into the territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, he argued, violated those principles, and Douglas was contradicting himself with regard to his support for the Missouri Compromise, which the Act now voided. Lincoln made his views on the Kansas-Nebraska Act and slavery clear:

I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world—enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites—causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very principles of civil liberty—criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.

Lincoln further argued that slaves and free blacks were men, and as such had the same right to self-governance that white men did. Quoting from the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln asserted that the phrase “all men are created equal” included black men as well as white, and that “no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent.”

These were progressive words in 1854. Being anti-slavery in the North did not necessarily signify belief in equality between the races. Lincoln recognized that even if all slaves were free, society would not function given inherent inequalities, attitudes, and bigotries. Overlooking the fact that most slaves at this time had been born in America, he favored colonization as a means for free blacks to leave the United States and set up black-led countries of their own. Despite this inconsistency, by forcefully arguing for the moral wrong of slavery and the dangers of slavery spreading because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Lincoln set the framework for a slavery debate that lasted the rest of the decade.

And thus, like the shot fired in Concord, Massachusetts on April 18, 1775 that started the Revolutionary War, Lincoln’s Peoria speech on October 16, 1854 began the intense debate on slavery that would lead to the Civil War. Peoria was indeed, the speech ’round the world.

[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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Galesburg – Chasing Lincoln’s 5th Lincoln-Douglas Debate

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One of the stops on my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour was the campus of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, site of the 5th Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Drawing the largest crowd of any of the seven debates, Galesburg seems the natural place to host the Lincoln Studies Center led by Co-Directors Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson.

Due to fierce winds and foreboding weather, the debate platform had to be moved into the shadow of “Old Main,” the largest building on the Knox College campus. To reach the platform Lincoln, Douglas, and other dignitaries needed to enter the building and crawl out a window. The self-taught Lincoln, according to tradition, noted that “At last I have gone through…college.”

The day of my visit mimicked the day of the debates. Overcast and windy, I dodged puddles and raindrops (and a few modern day students) to record the following report:

As with all of the debates, the primary issue debated was slavery. Douglas denied there was any wrong in slavery, and in fact, vociferously argued that the government was by and for white people. Lincoln strenuously disagreed:

I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social, and political evil [and] desire a policy that looks to the prevention of this wrong, and looks hopefully to the time when as a wrong it may come to an end.

Two more debates would occur over the following week or so and due to the vagaries of the law at that time Lincoln would lose the election to Douglas despite Republicans gaining more votes [state legislatures still chose Senators; the 17th Amendment giving direct vote to the people wasn’t until 1913]. But these debates would firmly place Lincoln in the public’s eye for the forthcoming presidential election in 1860.

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 vs Slavery: The Mary Speed Letter

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Abraham Lincoln Joshua SpeedOn September 27, 1841, Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to Mary Speed, the half-sister of his good friend Joshua Speed. He spoke up about slavery, knowing that the Speed’s had been raised as slaveowners and having just returned from a long visit to their home in Kentucky. On the trip home he contemplates the inequities of life:

A gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different parts of Kentucky and was taking them to a farm in the South. They were chained six and six together. A small iron clevis was around the left wrist of each, and this fastened to the main chain by a shorter one at a convenient distance from, the others; so that the negroes were strung together precisely like so many fish upon a trot-line. In this condition they were being separated forever from the scenes of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and many of them, from their wives and children, and going into perpetual slavery where the lash of the master is proverbially more ruthless and unrelenting than any other where; and yet amid all these distressing circumstances, as we would think them, they were the most cheerful and apparently happy creatures on board. One, whose offence for which he had been sold was an over-fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost continually; and the others danced, sung, cracked jokes, and played various games with cards from day to day. How true it is that “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,” or in other words, that He renders the worst of human conditions tolerable, while He permits the best, to be nothing better than tolerable.

Lincoln loathed slavery as far back as the late 1830s, but he rarely spoke out about the slavery question until the 1850s. There were several reasons for his silence, starting with his belief that the institution was dying out. In a response to Stephen A. Douglas in June 1858, he told a Chicago audience that the Republican Party was made up of people “who will hope for its ultimate extinction.” How could it not be so, he thought, given that slavery is morally wrong and politically unsustainable?

This belief proved to be naïve. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 had made it possible to separate cotton fibers from its seeds mechanically; previously this painstaking process was performed entirely by hand and involved hundreds of hours of manual, usually slave, labor. Most northern states had banned slavery, but most southern states saw an expansion of slavery correlated with the growth of “King Cotton.” With the separation (ginning) process speeding the rate of production, plantation owners could dramatically increase the acreage on which they grew cotton. As cotton acreage expanded, more and more slaves were needed for cultivation. Rather than being on the cusp of extinction, slavery was booming.

Once he recognized this reality, Lincoln focused on how to stop its expansion. I talked about some of the ways, in particular his long road to emancipation of enslaved people in the District of Columbia, during my recent keynote address  on Lincoln-Thomas Day at Fort Stevens in the District. I talked about other ways in my book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. I’ll have more on this website in the future.

[Partially adapted from Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

[Note: Photo is of Joshua Speed and Abraham Lincoln]

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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Keynote Speaker: Lincoln-Thomas Day

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Join me as I give the keynote address at the annual Lincoln-Thomas Day event to be held Saturday, September 21, 2019 from 12 noon to 2 pm at Fort Stevens, Washington, D.C. The event jointly honors Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862 and Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, the free African-American owner of the land that became Fort Stevens (where Lincoln was chastised with “Get down you fool” as he stood in enemy fire on the Fort’s wall).

This event is also free to the public so please come on down and support me, the National Park Service, and the Military Road School Preservation Trust. More information can be found on the flyer below and the Civil War Defenses of Washington Facebook page.

Lincoln-Thomas Day flyer

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!