Category: Abraham Lincoln

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Lincoln in Japan – Wiegers Calendar March

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Wiegers calendar MarchTravel has been curtailed for the near future due to coronavirus, so I remember my trip to Japan as I look at the March calendar photo from David Wiegers. You can click on these links to see the entries for January (Scotland) and February (Ecuador). March takes us to Asahikawa, Japan. The second largest city on Japan’s norther Hokkaido island, Asahikawa is about a two hour drive northeast of Sapporo. Mount Asahi looms further to the east, while downtown you can slurp the city’s signature ramen noodle soup.

Asahikawa also has a statue of Lincoln.

More than a statue, a full-sized Lincoln with his stove-pipe hat lounges casually on a park bench, his arm outstretched as he gazes the empty seat next to him in anticipation of passersby stopping to chat or tell stories. It might look familiar to you because it is a copy of the statue sitting in front of the McLean County History Museum in Bloomington, Illinois. Bloomington/Normal is a sister city with Asahikawa. The sculptor, Rick Harney, is a Normal resident who also has Lincoln sculptures in Pontiac and Danville, Illinois. The one in Asahikawa is his only one in Japan.

I had the privilege of seeing the statue in Bloomington during a visit with the Lincoln Group of DC a few years ago.

Bloomington Illinois

My whirlwind tour of Japan a few years ago took me to Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, but not as far north as Hokkaido, although it’s on my list for the future. While in Japan I got to ride the Shinkansen bullet train (with a view of the bottom part of Mount Fuji; the top was shrouded in clouds), hike among the gates of the Inari Temple in Kyoto, check out the aquarium in Osaka, and checked out Tokyo’s nightlife in Shibuya and Shinjuku. Then there was the “conversation” I had with a dignified yet tipsy Japanese man on the Yamenote line around Tokyo.

Each month I get to be reminded of overseas travels and how Abraham Lincoln has been revered all over the world. Next month, like January, adds a frustration I’ve experienced several times – sometimes I don’t see the statue even though I was at the location. 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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That Time Lincoln Got a Virus and Almost Died

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Since everyone’s mind is on the coronavirus, it’s a good time to remember that Abraham Lincoln once caught a life-threatening virus. As wrote in Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, this occurred during and after his trip to Gettysburg to give his famous address:

As he gave his address, Lincoln was already feeling the symptoms of variola, a mild form of smallpox, which kept him bedridden for weeks after his return to Washington. He eventually wrote out several copies of his address, including one sent to Everett to be joined with his own handwritten speech and sold at New York’s Sanitary Commission Fair as a fundraiser for wounded soldiers.

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains, smallpox, like coronavirus, is an infectious disease. Caused by two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor, initial symptoms of smallpox include fever and vomiting, followed in extreme cases by sores in the mouth and a skin rash. As it worsens, large fluid-filled bumps appear on the skin, which result in characteristic and deforming scars. Like coronavirus, the smallpox virus was spread as people coughed or sneezed and droplets from their infected nose or mouth spread to other people. The smallpox scabs forming on the skin remained contagious until the last scab fell off. Coronavirus doesn’t form the scabs – it attacks the lung tissue rather than the skin – but both smallpox and coronavirus can be spread by residues left on surfaces from bedding and clothes to handrails and elevator buttons. Which is why it is so important during this coronavirus pandemic to practice social distancing, wash your hands often, and avoid touching your face.

Most scholars treated Lincoln’s case of variola as a mild case of smallpox, but some recent researchers suggest it was much more serious and that he could have died. In 2007, for example, two researchers reported that:

When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, he was weak and dizzy; his face had a ghastly colour. That evening on the train to Washington, DC, he was febrile and weak, and suffered severe headaches. The symptoms continued; back pains developed. On the fourth day of the illness, a widespread scarlet rash appeared that soon became vesicular. By the tenth day, the lesions itched and peeled. The illness lasted three weeks. The final diagnosis, a touch of varioloid, was an old name for smallpox that was later used in the 20th century to denote mild smallpox in a partially immune individual. It was unclear whether Lincoln had been immunized against smallpox. In that regard, this review suggests that Lincoln had unmodified smallpox and that Lincoln’s physicians tried to reassure the public that Lincoln was not seriously ill. Indeed, the successful conclusion of the Civil War and reunification of the country were dependent upon Lincoln’s presidency.

Indeed, Lincoln’s free African American valet, William H. Johnson, contracted the disease while caring for Lincoln after they had returned from Gettysburg. Johnson ultimately died a few months later. He had traveled with Lincoln from Springfield and, having no other family, Lincoln arranged and paid for Johnson to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Like most 19th-century personages, this wasn’t the first time Lincoln had been seriously sick. At nine years old he was kicked in the head by a horse and “apparently killed for a time.” He also had malaria at least twice. His melancholy (depression) was infamous, especially on a few occasions where friends worried for his life. Debate still roils about whether he had Marfan syndrome or Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2B (MEN2B). Neither of these last two seems likely, but that doesn’t stop people from debating the ideas. There is no question, however, over whether he had variola/smallpox, although the severity of it remains undecided.

Lincoln survived his smallpox infection; William Johnson and many others did not. As much of the world today battles the current coronavirus pandemic, it is critical that we follow the advice of health professionals. As I write this, most of the USA is under some form of lockdown, from “social distancing” to “shelter-in-place.” Follow medical advice, stay away from people, and wash your hands frequently. Lincoln would agree.

 

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity andEdison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

 

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Coronavirus Cancellations

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Lincoln RoomWell, the worldwide coronavirus outbreak has certainly caused a lot of disruption lately. Like everyone else, I’m social distancing (even more than usual), which means tons of cancellations of upcoming appearances and presentations.

I keep a running list on my Media page, but here’s a rundown of my immediate schedule:

 

March 21st: The Abraham Lincoln Institute symposium has been cancelled. I was expecting to be on stage to introduce the first speaker. We will begin planning for next year.

April 4th: My presentation at the Rock Creek Civil War Roundtable, “Abraham Lincoln’s Long Road to Emancipation,” has been rescheduled for September 5, 2020.

April 17th: Invited speaker at the Cosmos Club Civil War Roundtable, “Abraham Lincoln and Technology of the Civil War,” is awaiting a final decision. I’ll update shortly.

April 21st: The Lincoln Group of DC dinner featuring Garrett Peck on “Lincoln and Walt Whitman” is cancelled. The speaker will be rescheduled for a later date.

May 19th: The Lincoln Group of DC dinner featuring Burrus Carnahan on “Lincoln and the Use of Presidential Pardons” will continue as scheduled.

September 5th: New date for my presentation at the Rock Creek Civil War Roundtable, “Abraham Lincoln’s Long Road to Emancipation.”

January 15, 2021: Invited to chair a panel on different methods used to teach Abraham Lincoln. Cosmos Club Civil War Roundtable. Continue as scheduled.

 

I’ll update as new information becomes available. For now, please stay home and flatten the curve. Pay attention to health officials. Stay healthy.

 

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 Runs for the Illinois Legislature – And Loses

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Candidate LincolnDuring Abraham Lincoln’s first year in New Salem he joined a pretentiously named Literary and Debating Society, which was actually an informal discussion group run by James Rutledge. Rutledge was a well-respected leader in town, father of ten children, and proprietor of an inn, Rutledge’s Tavern. He also had an extensive personal library of nearly thirty books, and this became one of Lincoln’s favorite hangouts.

By this time Lincoln was well known as someone ready with a funny story or ribald joke, but in his first debating effort he surprised the audience with a thoughtful, well-reasoned, analytical presentation. Rutledge was impressed, later telling his wife that “there was more in Abe’s head than wit and fun, that he was already a fine speaker; and that all he lacked was culture to enable him to reach the high destiny which he knew was in store for him.”

Reaction from townspeople was so positive that in March 1832 Lincoln put his name into contention for the Illinois state legislature. He composed a lengthy announcement titled “Communication to the People of Sangamo County,” which was published in the Sangamo Journal. In it he laid out his political philosophy, which was astonishingly rounded for a 23-year-old man raised on frontier farms. That philosophy largely mimed the American System originated under Alexander Hamilton and promoted by Henry Clay, whom Lincoln later eulogized as his “beau ideal of a statesman.”

The American System was an economic philosophy premised on three mutually reinforcing pillars: a high protective tariff, a national bank, and federal subsidies for internal improvements (roads, canals, railroads). The goal was to facilitate the development of transportation infrastructure and strong markets, particularly for rural farmers who were cut off from much of the market economy. While a stable two-party system had not yet fully developed, the American System quickly became the mainstay of the Whig party in opposition to the policies of Democratic President Andrew Jackson. Lincoln later asserted he “had always been a Whig” (that is, until he was a Republican).

In response to local concerns, Lincoln noted he was not (yet) in favor of railroads because their costs outweighed the benefits. But referring to his own experience on flatboats, he strongly supported improvements to the navigability of the Sangamon River, which was so important to New Salem. Presaging his future as an analytical thinker, Lincoln went into great depth in his discussion of why river navigation presented a more efficient economic opportunity than railroads. He also spoke up against usury, the loaning of money at exorbitant interest rates, and emphasized the importance of central banking. Finally, while not dictating any specific system, he stressed that education was “the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in,” stating that his wish was that “every man may receive at least, a moderate education.”

This was an extraordinary treatise for a man who had only recently moved into the county. Lincoln mentioned that his “peculiar ambition” was to be “truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem,” but also seemed to understand that he had a slim chance of winning a seat, noting “if elected [the independent voters of this county] will have conferred a favor upon me,” but that if he lost he had “been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined.”

He lost.

It is not clear whether Lincoln was chagrined over this loss. Immediately after publishing his announcement to enter the race, he volunteered for service in the Black Hawk War. This left him only a few weeks upon his return to canvass the outer portions of the county, while his many competitors had the entire summer. On a positive note, he won 277 of the 300 votes cast in New Salem. This was testament to his popularity in the short time he had lived in the village, especially considering that support came from a precinct that overwhelming voted for Jackson’s reelection that year (Lincoln was well-known backer of Jackson’s opponent, Henry Clay). In his 1860 Presidential campaign biography, Lincoln took solace in the fact that this was the only time he was ever “beaten on a direct vote of the people.” It would not, however, be the last time he lost an election.

[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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Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Movies – And So Can You: Special AFI Event!

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Lincoln at the movies

Abraham Lincoln is going to the movies. Granted, his last trip to the theater didn’t work out too well. But AFI – the American Film Institute – brings us a series of movies featuring Abraham Lincoln that everyone will want to see.

These are not just any Lincoln movies. “The Lincoln Cycle” is a series of newly restored, historic silent films from 1917 about the life of Abraham Lincoln. The restoration of the eight short films was done by the Library of Congress, debuted in 2018 and has been widely praised in the cinematic press. The restored films, featuring live accompaniment on a real theater organ, will be shown over two days — Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29 — at the AFI Silver theater, 8633 Colesville Rd., in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, starting at 5:15 pm on Saturday and 5:30 on Sunday. The showings will be in the AFI’s main theater, which is  widely rated as the best place to watch a movie in the Washington area.

According to AFI:

“The Lincoln Cycle comprises the surviving eight two-reel episodes of producer and star Benjamin Chapin’s 1917 life-of-Abraham Lincoln series. While Chapin gave himself screen credit for writing, producing and directing the films and portraying the 16th President (as well as his father Thomas and his grandfather, also named Abe), John Stahl credibly claimed to have been the series’ actual director, and the quality of the films’ structure and performances would seem to bear that out. Episodes from Lincoln’s youth are dramatized with vigor and sensitivity, and the portrayals by Charles Jackson as young Abe and Madelyn Clare as his mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln are revelatory. DIR John M. Stahl; SCR/PROD Benjamin Chapin. U.S., 1917, b&w, 217 min total (Part 1 approx. 106 min; Part 2 approx 111 min). Silent with English intertitles. NOT RATED”

As you can see, the films will be split over two nights. Part 1 on March 28th includes the first 4 short films. Part 2 on March 29th shows the other 4 short films. You can attend one night or both nights. Admission is $15 for each day and the screenings on both days will last about two hours. Tickets can be purchased at the AFI box office or in advance from the AFI Silver web site. The AFI Silver is about two blocks from the Metro Red Line and is near a host of Montgomery County parking garages, which are free on weekends.  There is also a wide selection of restaurants nearby for pre or post-screening dining.

For more information and tickets, click for Part 1 on May 28th and Part 2 on May 29th

Personally, I think this is an extraordinary opportunity to see these rare films and I plan to be there for both nights. I hope you’ll join me.

 

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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Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln

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Mark Twain 1909 Wiki CommonsSamuel Clemens, known to most of us by his pseudonym Mark Twain, was born in Hannibal, Missouri on November 30, 1835, shortly after Halley’s Comet had made its regular but rare pass by the Earth. The 26-year-old Abraham Lincoln – an amateur astronomy buff who two years earlier had marveled at the Leonid meteor showers – may very well have been gazing at the skies when Mark Twain came into this world. At that age Lincoln lived in New Salem, Illinois, just a stone’s throw across the Mississippi River from Hannibal. In 1859, Lincoln rode the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad to give a speech in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The railroad just happened to be formed in the office of Mark Twain’s father thirteen years before.

Abraham LincolnLincoln floated flatboats down the Mississippi River to New Orleans as a young adult, then took steamboats back upriver. He often piloted steamboats around shoals near his New Salem home. Mark Twain had worked on steamboats on the river for much of his younger years, first as a deckhand and then as a pilot. Being a riverboat pilot gave him his pen name; “mark twain” is “the leadsman’s cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms (12 feet), which was safe water for a steamboat.” In 1883 Twain even titled his memoir, Life on the Mississippi. As we have already seen, Lincoln’s time traveling on and piloting steamboats eventually inspired his patent for lifting boats over shoals and obstructions on the river.

Lincoln would not have read any of Mark Twain’s stories (his first, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, was published in 1865, about seven months after Lincoln had been assassinated). But Twain says his humorous writing style was strongly influenced by another pen named-humorist, Artemus Ward, and the Jumping Frog story was published in the New York Saturday Press only because he finished it too late to be included in a book Artemus Ward was compiling. This is the same Artemus Ward that was so often read by Abraham Lincoln to break the tensions of the Civil War.

In fact, Lincoln was so entranced by the humor of Ward that on September 22, 1862 he read snippets from one of Ward’s books to his cabinet secretaries before settling into the business of the day – the first reading of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Ironically, Mark Twain’s piloting job ended when the Civil War started, as much of the Mississippi River became part of the war zone. So what is a writer/river-boatman to do? Well, join the Confederate army of course. His unpaid service lasted only two weeks in 1861 before disbanding. He then left for Nevada to work for his older brother, out of harm’s way for the rest of the war, though his brief service for the confederacy did give him material for another of his humorous sketches, The Private History of a Campaign That Failed.” Later, Mark Twain would publish the memoirs of Civil War hero and President, Ulysses S. Grant.

Like Lincoln, Mark Twain was very interested in science and technology. Twain actually had three patents of his own, for a type of alternative to suspenders, a history trivia game, and a self- pasting scrapbook.

Lincoln and Twain never met, but I think they would have gotten along famously.

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 Ecuador – Wiegers Calendar February

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Lincoln in QuitoAs Lincoln’s birthday week begins I turn to the David Wiegers calendar for another international statue of Abraham Lincoln. This one is in Quito, Ecuador.

Shockingly, I have yet to make it to Ecuador. I say shockingly because the Galapagos Islands are part of Ecuador and my past history as a marine biologist almost demands I make a pilgrimage. I have two potential options for doing so this year, which makes David’s February calendar photo even more appropriate.

So why does the capital of a South American country have a statue of the 16th President of the United States? Certainly the Union had diplomatic relations with Ecuador during the war. Lincoln authorized a “Convention for the mutual adjustment of claims between the two parties,” although it’s unclear what claims he was referring to. Oddly, Frederick Hassaurek, editor of a German-language newspaper in Cincinnati, was appointed Minister to this Spanish-speaking nation. [Lincoln would later free Hassaurek’s half-brother from Libby Prison at his request]

But that isn’t why there is a statue in Quito. Instead, in 1959, to mark the sesquicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, the statue was donated by a committee of Americans living in Quito. The dedication was part of a city-wide renovation to make way for a large international conference. A re-dedication ceremony was held on Lincoln’s 200th birthday in 2009.

Lincoln in Quito

The statue itself depicts Lincoln from belly-button up hovering over the top of a lectern, presumably giving one of his great speeches. He is beardless so he had not yet been elected President. The half-figure sits on top of a stone pedestal. In the background stands a wall with a plaque, although the wall sits back a ways and off to the side so is only visible in photos taken from a certain angle. As you might expect, the statue sits in Abraham Lincoln Plaza just off Calle Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln in Quito

Unlike last month’s photo from Scotland (and some upcoming photos), I didn’t miss seeing this because I haven’t been there yet. But I will (go there, not miss it). I’m thankful that David Wiegers has been to these places and taken such great photos.* For more of his wonderful Lincoln photos, check out his Facebook page, “Images of Abraham Lincoln.”

Until next month!

*In a comment left on Facebook, David clarifies: “This picture is of the original statue on the campus of Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN. The one in Ecuador is a copy of this original.” After checking my photos I realized I had seen the original at LMU during my visit a couple of years ago.

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!

Photo credits: Two photos by me of David Wiegers 2020 calendar photos. Photo on pedestal from Frederic Calvat on Twitter.

 

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Black History – Abraham Lincoln and Black Voting Rights

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Lincoln MemorialAbraham Lincoln is best known for his Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, and saving the Union during the Civil War. But in this Black History Month it’s important to remember that Lincoln also pushed for black voting rights.

The Emancipation Proclamation declared “that all person held as slaves” within the states in rebellion “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Issued as a war measure – the only authority he had under the Constitution – Lincoln then began work that led to the 13th Amendment to permanently end slavery in all the United States. The struggle to pass the amendment was dramatically characterized in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 movie, Lincoln.

These two major steps set the stage for further African-American rights, which were enhanced by passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. While these two acts occurred after Lincoln’s assassination, they were set in motion by Lincoln’s leadership at the end of the Civil War.

Most notable was Lincoln’s April 11, 1865 speech from the White House. Among other points, Lincoln spoke about reconstruction efforts in Louisiana. He encouraged all Louisianans to join in the process of bringing the state back into the Union. He pressed for black voting rights:

It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.

While this seems a rather mild support for African-American suffrage, it was actually radical for its time. Lincoln understood that for many, if not most, Northerners, being anti-slavery did not necessary mean they were for equal rights for free or freed black men. [The fact that women of any color were not allowed to vote was not lost on Lincoln, who years before had suggested women might also be allowed to cast their ballots. This is an important point in this 100th anniversary year of women’s suffrage.] In any case, Lincoln was pushing as gently as he could the idea that black men should have the same rights under the law as did white men, including but not exclusively the right to vote.

His inclusion of this point in the speech was not an ad lib. The previous night when a gathering crowd had asked for a speech he deferred, stating that such a speech should be thought out and not given off-the-cuff. He spent the next day carefully wording his remarks, from which he read verbatim, dropping each page behind him as he orated out the White House window. He meant to push the idea of black voting rights. This was his first public statement of such, and one member of the audience on the White House lawn who heard it – John Wilkes Booth – stated that Lincoln’s advocacy for the black vote was what made Booth decide to assassinate the President.

Lincoln had also been pressing the Louisiana government and the U.S. Congress in private letters to allow African-American voting. It was not a popular sentiment, and as such Lincoln walked a fine line between pushing the idea and not wanting to force the issue for fear of losing any progress toward reconstruction. He was careful, but he still encouraged the idea. April 11th was his way of bringing the pressure public so the public themselves could start getting used to the idea. He knew, like the Emancipation itself, that leading the public with small doses of progressivism made it easier to swallow large changes. Pressing too hard created defensive postures and worked against progress.

Black leaders like Frederick Douglass were understandably impatient with incremental approaches like Lincoln’s, but Douglass himself understood the limitations of coercive force. It would be for Douglass and his fellow activists to keep the issue public, while allies like Lincoln pushed internally for change. We see this repeatedly in history, including the sometimes painful but effective interactions between Dr. Martin Luther King and President Lyndon Johnson to pass the 1960s era Civil Rights Acts.

Current presidential candidates would be wise to study Lincoln and his times (and Lyndon Johnson and his times) as they deal with a resurgence in voter suppression activities that strive to disenfranchise the votes of racial, religious, and other minorities in this nation.

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 Scotland – Wiegers Calendar January

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Wiegers calendar JanuaryDavid Wiegers is a photographer. He is also an Abraham Lincoln fan. He has combined those two interests into a calendar featuring photos of Lincoln statues from around the world. January is the statue in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This particular statue represents one of those “argh” moments for me. I was in Edinburgh and yet didn’t see the statue. And when I say I was “in” Edinburgh, I don’t just mean for a few days on vacation – I actually lived there for three months in the summer of 2005. The company I worked for at the time had an office in Edinburgh. As manager of the Washington DC office I had the opportunity to work out of the Edinburgh office for that summer (which I’m told was the sunniest summer they had had in a decade, and that’s all I’m going to say about that). I lived in an apartment about a mile or two away from the center of town, so although the actual work facility was a drive in the opposite direction, I did hike downtown fairly often.

On one such foray I walked up to the top of Calton Hill, one of seven in the city. What I didn’t know at the time was that right across the street was Old Calton Burial Ground. And that is where the Lincoln statue stands.

Old Calton Burial Ground

 

When I found out years later I had missed the statue I was, let’s say, more than a little disappointed. I had literally been steps from it without noticing. Worse, that was the first summer I had finally ditched my old 35-mm film SLR and purchased a digital SLR, only to have most of my photos lost in a once-in-a-lifetime comedy-of-errors involving my computer and all of my layered backup options. [A story for another time]

Which means I need to get back to Edinburgh.

Luckily, David Wiegers has been there and has photographed the statue. Seeing it in the very first photo of his calendar brings back both good and bad memories of my brief life in Edinburgh.

Wiegers Calendar January

So why is there a Lincoln statue in Scotland? Because of the six Scottish men who fought on behalf of the Union during the American Civil War. The names of those men are etched into the large dual-figure monument erected in 1893. The lower figure represents an enslaved man being released from shackles at the feet of Lincoln. A bronze shield bears the flag of the time, with thistles to the left and cotton to the right. Two regimental flags complete the grouping.

As I flip through the calendar I see many places that I’ve visited and realize that I missed Lincoln in a few of them. Each month I’ll write one of these posts featuring David’s calendar photo and my own story associated with the statue and/or location. One thing is sure – I’m getting many more ideas for future Chasing Abraham Lincoln tours.

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!

Photo credits: Two calendar photos are my photos of David Wiegers calendar photo; Old Calton Burial Ground photo by Kim Traynor – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17821287.

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Abraham Lincoln and the Forces of Nature

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Lincoln Quote BustSeveral times in 1858 Lincoln delivered a lecture he called “Discoveries and Inventions.” Not a particularly successful lecture – the fragments we have remaining suggest it was a bit rambling and lacking in his later eloquence – it presented what was essentially the “American System” of economics based on continuing intellectual and technological improvements.

In his lecture he notes that man has figured out to substitute for his own brawn other “forces of nature” such as “the power of the wind” and of “running streams.” Lincoln strongly highlights the power of the wind:

“Of all the forces of nature, I should think the wind contains the largest amount of motive power—that is, power to move things. Take any given space of the earth’s surface—for instance, Illinois—- and all the power exerted by all the men, and beasts, and running-water, and steam, over and upon it, shall not equal the one hundredth part of what is exerted by the blowing of the wind over and upon the same space. And yet it has not, so far in the world’s history, become proportionably valuable as a motive power. It is applied extensively, and advantageously, to sail-vessels in navigation. Add to this a few wind-mills, and pumps, and you have about all. That, as yet, no very successful mode of controlling, and directing the wind, has been discovered; and that, naturally, it moves by fits and starts—now so gently as to scarcely stir a leaf, and now so roughly as to level a forest—doubtless have been the insurmountable difficulties. As yet, the wind is an untamed, and unharnessed force; and quite possibly one of the greatest discoveries hereafter to be made, will be the taming, and harnessing of the wind. That the difficulties of controlling this power are very great is quite evident by the fact that they have already been perceived, and struggled with more than three thousand years; for that power was applied to sail-vessels, at least as early as the time of the prophet Isaiah.”

Here is Lincoln fifty years before Nikola Tesla, using much of the same language, referring to motive power and the taming of the power of the wind. He also advocated for the power of running streams as “a motive power,” in particular its “application to mills and other machinery by means of the “water wheel” – a thing now well known, and extensively used.” In fact, Lincoln supposedly invented a water wheel as early as the spring of 1834, long before his lecture on Discoveries and Inventions.

Of course, Lincoln’s water wheel provided mechanical power. We would have to wait a few more decades before Nikola Tesla invented a means for large-scale use of the motion of water to create hydroelectric power, but Lincoln was already anticipating the idea. A few years later in the Civil War Lincoln worked closely with Joseph Henry, who prior to becoming the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution had developed the precursors to the induction motor.

Ah, but this wasn’t the first foray into science for Abraham Lincoln. More to come.

[The above is adapted from my e-book, Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate, available for download on Amazon.com.]

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.

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