Category: Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln, Zachary Taylor, and the Land Office Job He Didn’t Get

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Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was not happy. He had worked hard to get Zachary Taylor elected as president as a Whig, and yet he was being passed over for the lucrative General Land Office job. Worse, he was being ignored, something the man who had been Whig leader in the Illinois legislature and recent representative to Congress. On May 16, 1849, he made his dissatisfaction with Taylor’s appointment of Justin Butterfield to the Land Office in Illinois.

Always a Whig in politics (to that point), Lincoln had used his time between sessions of his single term in the U.S. House of Representatives to stump for Zachary Taylor in Massachusetts. Taylor was a strange choice for the Whigs, who had generally disapproved of the Mexican War as a transparent attempt to enlarge the territory in which to expand slavery. But the Whigs felt he was the only candidate who could win (both major parties courted him) and that he would be pliable (he professed no firm political views), so they chose him over perennial candidate, Lincoln’s beau ideal of a statesman, Henry Clay. That wasn’t the only problem. As a Southern slaveowner, Taylor rankled the antislavery sensibilities of the liberal wing of the Whig party in Massachusetts, although the more conservative Whigs (e.g., textile mill owners who depended on the availability of Southern cotton) were less concerned. Disaffected Whigs had built a Free Soil movement to promote an antislavery candidate and Lincoln was sent to smooth over ruffled feathers in an attempt to keep party leaders in the Whig camp. Lincoln was well received and did seem to convince many Whigs, and although the central part of Massachusetts with its more stringent Free Soil passions voted for former president Martin Van Buren as the Free Soiler candidate, the full contingent of Massachusetts’s electoral votes went to Taylor. Taylor became president.

Lincoln continued to stump for Taylor once he returned home to Illinois. Which is why he was so rankled. After first suggesting others for the Land Office job, he switched to seeking the office for himself to ensure that a strong supporter of Taylor would get the prime position. He was ignored. Taylor (or more accurately, those in the administration making the appointment recommendations) had gotten it into their heads to appoint Justin Butterfield of Chicago. Lincoln was incensed. Writing to the Secretary of the Navy William B. Preston on this date, Lincoln argued that Butterfield had done nothing to get Taylor elected:

“[W]hen you and I were almost sweating blood to have Genl. Taylor nominated, this same man was ridiculing the idea . . . and when Gen: T. was nominated, if [Butterfield] went out of the city of Chicago to aid in his election, it is more than I ever heard, or believe. . . . If there is one man in this state who desires B’s appointment to any thing, I declare I have not heard of him.”

His pleading fell on deaf ears. Butterfield got the job, and Lincoln was out of political office for the next twelve years. He would build a steady legal practice, get aroused back into politics by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, fail in two senate races, and then – after another tour of New England in 1860 – get elected as the 16th President of the United States.

Those two tours of New England bracketed the most contentious and critical decades in our nation’s history. Lincoln was vastly different men from one tour to the next, as was the country.

Stay tuned!

[Photo credits: Public Domain]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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 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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Chasing Lincoln Across Upstate New York

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Grace and Abe statue, Westfield, NYAbraham Lincoln traveled through upstate New York in early 1861 on his way to Washington, DC for his inauguration, stopping in Westfield, Buffalo, Albany, Peekskill, and New York City. Twelve years before, in 1848, he stopped in Buffalo and saw Niagara Falls on his way home between sessions of congress after he toured around eastern Massachusetts giving speeches in support of Zachary Taylor as the Whig nominee for president [Spoiler: Taylor won] In late April of this year, traveled much the same route in northern New York on my way to the Lincoln Forum spring conference at Hildene in Manchester, Vermont.

My first stop was Westfield, where Lincoln first met Grace Bedell, the young girl who had earlier written to tell him he would get more votes if he grew a beard. Granted, he didn’t start growing it until after the election, but he had it when he stopped in Westfield on his inaugural train journey. When he arrived in Westfield for a brief refueling stop, he called out to see if she was present. She was, and they shared a big hug to a crowd of cheers. Today, a small park features life-sized bronze sculptures of Lincoln and Bedell along with tributes to soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Right beside the park is Grace & Abes, a brewpub where you can choose from a selection of “Abe’s Ales” or all seven deadly sins from “7 Sins Brewery” (and no, there is no beer named after Grace Bedell since she had not yet turned 12 years old at the time).

From there I was on to Buffalo, where among other attractions (and a side trip to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls), I checked out two statues of Lincoln. “The Boy Lincoln” by sculptor Bryant Baker depicts a young Lincoln seated on a log and holding a book. The other, simply titled “Lincoln,” was sculpted by Charles Henry Neihaus and depicts a sitting President Lincoln. It is located in front of the South side of the Buffalo History Museum. One trivia note – Niehaus at one time had eight statues of famous men in Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol, a record. Four have them have since been replaced, but the four that remain are still more than any other sculptor in the Hall.

In Rochester, I checked in on several sites related to Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. There are fourteen statues of Douglass in and around Rochester, including one of he and Anthony having tea. I visited the cemetery where both of them are buried. One of the Douglass statues has him and Lincoln standing full height grasping hands in a firm handshake between equals.

After checking out the Finger Lakes and Seneca Falls (where women began their struggle to get the vote), it was on to Auburn, the home of Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William H. Seward. Touring the home was fascinating, as was the grand bust of Lincoln in the library, joined by a similar one of Seward. Auburn is also the adopted home of Harriet Tubman, so I checked out yet another cemetery for the tombs of Seward and Tubman.

 

After a quick stop in Syracuse to see two more Lincoln statues, it was on to Manchester, Vermont, where I attended a weekend Lincoln Forum conference at Hildene, Robert Lincoln’s summer home. I had been there before, but this was a great opportunity to do some fact checking for the book I’m writing on Lincoln’s two New England tours, plus see about 150 other Lincoln researchers.

I’m currently in the final stages of writing the book that will be released in February 2026, so stay tuned for more information on that in the coming months.

[Photo credits: All taken by David J. Kent, April 2025]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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 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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Abraham Lincoln’s First Flatboat Trip to New Orleans

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Lincoln's flatboatIn 1828, nineteen-year-old Abraham Lincoln and neighbor Allen Gentry made what was the first of Lincoln’s two flatboat trips to New Orleans. Gentry’s father funded the trip. A typical investment required about $75 (over $2000 today) for the flatboat alone. The cargo could be worth over $3000 ($82,000 today). A successful trip could be immensely profitable; an unsuccessful one financially devastating.

Building the flatboat was the first chore. Unlike keelboats, which were long and narrow with a central ridge keel under the hull to maintain stability and easy steering, flatboats were entirely flat on the bottom like a raft. They had simple square sides, with angled bow and stern. They could range from fifteen to thirty feet wide and from forty to 120 feet long. Lengthy oars called sweeps extended from the sides for stability. In the back was a wide bladed steering oar; in the front an oar called a gouger to throw the boat in any direction to avoid snags, trees, and stumps.

While that sounds simple, Gentry and Lincoln had to use their full extent of “woods craft” knowledge learned felling forests and building log cabins. One circuit riding colleague of Lincoln described the basic construction of the flatboat for that era:

Two flat pieces of timber from thirty to fifty feet in length, two to three feet in breadth, and foot in thickness were hewed out of poplar log; one edge was level, the other two were beveled at each end. These pieces were called gunwales— pronounced gunnels. Into these gunwales, at suitable distances, were mortised cross-pieces of oak, fourteen feet long, six inches wide, and three inches thick, in addition to head blocks at each end, six- or eight-inches square. A stout frame being thus made, two-inch oak planks were fastened longitudinally to the oak cross-pieces by means of wooden pins an inch square, systematically cut out from tough species of timber termed “pin oak,” and driven by a heavy maul through an auger hole bored through both planks. The bottom, consisting of two-inch oak plank, was then fastened on to these longitudinal planks and rabbeted into the gunwales, the same being made water-tight by oakum and pitch. Thus far, no iron was used in the construction, and no iron tools employed beyond crosscut saw, mill saw, an axe, broad-axe, an augur, and a draw-knife.

This boat was launched by simply turning it over by two windlasses and levers so as to lie bottom side down in the river. Uprights consisting of 4 x 4 scantling were then mortised into the upper edge of the gunwales, and one-and-one-half-inch poplar plank securely fastened longitudinally thereon, and the seams caulked with oakum, and pitched. When produce was to be her cargo, a false bottom was put in, as it was impossible to construct such boats so that they would be entirely water-tight. Finally, a ridge-pole was placed longitudinally, and a roof was added. A cabin was improvised in one corner by the use of rough boards, and four huge oars were rigged, two on the sides, one at the bow, and one at the stern. A “check post” and coil of rope were then provided, and the craft was in commission.

A small woodstove was installed for cooking. Because Lincoln and Gentry were its sole crew, their flatboat was probably about eighteen feet wide and sixty-five feet long, and they likely omitted the side sweeps, controlling the boat solely with the steering and gouger oars.

This deceptively simple boat provided a significant showcase of construction and navigation. Lincoln and Gentry had to consider structural stresses on the frame to avoid any twisting that might open up leaks between the boards. Flipping the hull into the water required an understanding of leverage and windlass, the latter being a rudimentary block and tackle, perhaps even a rope thrown over a tree branch or wooden frame. When a boat had them, sweeps needed to be almost twice as wide as the width of the hull in order to create enough physical force against the water to maintain positioning in the river. The gouger must be strong and thick enough to jab into shallow mud to jolt the flatboat to the side when necessary. Like the steering oar at the stern, the gouger required almost superhuman strength to ensure boat stability and direction. Lincoln and Gentry would use both their brains and their brawn throughout the voyage.

Most likely the two men departed Rockport in the spring to take advantage of high waters. The winter of 1828 had been rather mild, with an early spring bringing rapid tree growth. Corn crops were already beginning to grow in Louisiana. With the Ohio River cresting over its banks, the high waters offered smoother and faster sailing to the Mississippi River and on to New Orleans. The two men loaded the flatboat with James Gentry’s cargo, which included corn and hay for the mules on sugar plantations and meat and potatoes for the enslaved workers. They also likely carried “barrel pork,” a preserved pork similar to bacon that Southern planters preferred as a low-cost, high-energy food for slaves. Since much of the sugar was grown north of New Orleans in places like Natchez, Mississippi and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the two men likely made several stops to sell their wares or barter for products they could sell further downstream, including cotton, tobacco, and sugar. The flatboat was well-battered by floating debris by the time they reached New Orleans about 1,300 miles distant. Once there, Lincoln and Gentry lingered long enough to sell their remaining stock before the flatboat was sold off to be taken apart for building houses, repairing docks, or fueling the boilers of steamboats. The two men then took a steamboat back to Rockport, Indiana.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America]

[Photo credit: Flatboat display outside New Salem, IL taken by David J. Kent]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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 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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Abraham Lincoln and the Chiriqui Coal Scheme

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By German, Christopher S. - Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25149728On April 10, 1861, two days before the Confederacy opened fire on Fort Sumter, Ambrose W. Thompson met with Lincoln to gain support for a coal mining project in the Chiriqui region of the Granadian Confederation (now Panama near the border with Costa Rica). Thompson headed a corporation that had been created to provide coal to the U.S. Navy. Lincoln again relied on Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry for scientific advice. Henry wrote to John Peter Lesley, one of the leading geologists in the United States and an expert on coal. In his confidential letter he said he was writing on behalf of President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward to get Lesley’s opinion on the value of the coal deposit in the Chiriqui district. Interest in the coal was two-fold. It was needed for coal-fired boilers for steam ships and railroad locomotives, but it also offered itself as a possible solution to the likely emancipation of enslaved people. Lincoln and others had hoped that freed slaves (and other free blacks) could be relocated to avoid the problems of a racially mixed society. Should the Chiriqui coal be viable, it could serve as an economic basis for such a colony. Henry asked Lesley to give him “in addition to your opinion derived from general scientific principles any reliable information you may possess relative to this matter.”

In his reply, Lesley gave the worst possible news to Henry and Lincoln’s ears. The coal was tertiary coal, also known as lignite or brown coal (as opposed to bituminous black coal) consisting of only thirty to sixty percent carbon (anthracite hard coal is eighty to ninety percent carbon). Thus, Lesley noted, the Chiriqui coal was “as nearly worthless as any ‘fuel’ can be.” He further opined that “the property will always be of little or no value to its owners” and warned that the government would likely regret any plan to enter into contract for the land. “If I have any influence on the government,” Lesley wrote to Henry, “I should decidedly use it to dissuade from touching Chiriqui coal.”

Lincoln was not immediately convinced by Lesley’s report as he was still looking for a solution to the problem that would be created by the end of slavery. On August 14, 1862 (after he had already drafted but not yet released the Emancipation Proclamation), Lincoln met with a delegation of freemen and advocated for the establishment of a black colony in Central America, most likely Chiriqui. According to a report in the National Intelligencer (August 16, 1862), Lincoln stated that he found the physical differences between the two races “a great disadvantage to us both, as I think. Your race suffers very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence.” He admitted that slavery was, in his judgment, “the greatest wrong inflicted on any people,” but did not see how even freedom from slavery would improve their lot “on a continent [where] not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours.”

While Lincoln had wanted to pursue Chiriqui further, the Central American nations of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica all made it clear they were opposed to any such colony. Eventually, Lincoln dropped the idea on Seward’s recommendation. Whether it was because the coal was of no value or the local opposition of the project is uncertain. Later Lincoln dropped the misconceived idea of colonization altogether.

[Photo credit: Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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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Remembering “Doc” Wayne C. Temple, Dean of Lincoln Scholars

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Wayne Temple and his wife, Springfield, IL, 2016The dean of all Abraham Lincoln scholars passed away on March 31, 2025. He was 101. Wayne Calhoun Temple, known to everyone as “Doc,” celebrated his 101st birthday on February 5th.

Temple was an internationally recognized authority on Abraham Lincoln. He was the Chief Deputy Director of the Illinois State Archives for decades. After serving under Eisenhower in Europe during World War II and receiving an undergraduate degree in engineering, Temple began his career as a historian working as a research assistant under the renowned professor J.G. Randall, then earning master’s and Ph.D. degrees under the direction of Randall and then Richard R. Current. Over the years he was a prolific writer and received many awards, including the “Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial edition of the Order of Lincoln.” He was Editor-in-Chief of the Lincoln Herald, Secretary-Treasurer of the National Lincoln-Civil War Council, on Memorial Bibliography committee for Lincoln Lore, and many other service positions. Temple also was a guest on a Lincoln Documentary produced by PBS and a member of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission’s Advisory Committee to mark the 200th Anniversary of Lincoln’s birth in 2009.

Among his many books are Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic to Prophet, Lincoln’s Connections with the Illinois-Michigan Canal, Lincoln’s Surgeons at His Assassination, Lincoln’s Travels on the River Queen, and Lincoln’s Confidant: The Life of Noah Brooks.

Those of us in the Lincoln Group of DC who took the tour out to Illinois in 2016 got to meet Wayne Temple in person. He and the late Dick Hart told us stories of their long careers in Lincoln scholarship. I had the privilege of being at his table for dinner and having a long discussion about Lincoln’s connections with the Illinois & Michigan Canal, which I talked about in my own book on Lincoln’s interests in science and technology. Temple was 92 years old at the time and only recently retired from the Illinois State Archives. That’s him and his wife from 2016 in the photo above.

Wayne Temple was the impetus for the Lincoln Day-by-Day project in 1959, which the Lincoln Group of DC helped bring to fruition. In fact, Wayne said he was incredibly proud to have worked with us and acknowledged that Day-by-Day never would have happened without the LGDC. He further suggested that there are plenty of gaps that perhaps we could work to fill in even today.

No doubt much will be said in the next few days as Lincoln scholars and aficionados recount their memories of “the dean,” “Doc” Wayne Temple. I know I will as I recently wrote about my own interactions with him as part of my forthcoming book. He will be missed.

 

[Photo credit: David J. Kent, taken in 2016 in Springfield, IL]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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 Stumps for Zachary Taylor for President

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Zachary TaylorAbraham Lincoln stood at the podium in the U.S. House of Representative chambers on July 27, 1848. His topic – the presidential question. Notwithstanding the negative reaction to his previous “spot resolutions” speech, Lincoln was still considered an effective speaker and thus was called upon to help convince people that Zachary Taylor was the correct choice as the Whig nominee for president. Lincoln had strongly supported the nomination of Taylor over the aging Henry Clay, previously Lincoln’s beau ideal of a statesman. He even spoke at the nominating convention in favor of Taylor.

Like many Whigs, Lincoln, the one who had so bitterly questioned the rationale for the onset of hostilities with Mexico, realized that winning the next presidential election would mean signing on the great military hero of that war. It was General Zachary Taylor and his troops that first put pressure on Mexico at the beginning of the war, and Taylor’s definitive win over Mexican President and General Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista that led to the war’s end. Taylor seemed to be the only person the public was interested in hiring to be the next chief executive. If the Whigs did not get Taylor to run for them, the Democrats would.

The move seemed decidedly hypocritical. Whig leaders had rightfully gained a reputation in opposition to the war, even though Whigs like Lincoln continued to vote for weapons and resources for the troops. Most Whigs felt the war was a cynical attempt to gain more land onto which slavery could be spread. The inveterate John Quincy Adams, who after his single term as president had toiled nearly two decades in Congress fighting the Slave Powers, was one of fourteen House “irreconcilables” who had voted against the war declaration prior to Lincoln’s arrival in congress.

Further complicating matters was that Henry Clay had offered a fervent antiwar speech in Lexington, Kentucky, which Lincoln witnessed on his way to Congress. Lincoln recognized that the speech would condemn the Whigs to oblivion if they picked Clay instead of Taylor. Ever the vote counter, Lincoln wrote a friend that “Mr. Clay’s chance for an election, is just no chance at all,” going on to enumerate which states Clay likely could not carry. Based on his read of public sentiment, Lincoln noted, “in my judgment, we can elect nobody but Gen. Taylor.”

It took a while for the Whigs to talk Taylor into being their nominee. He was a southerner and a slaveholder, for sure, but nevertheless was not a fan of expanding slavery into the western territories, now doubled in size after the Mexican War. With both parties vying for him to lead their ticket, Taylor at first said he would only agree if he could do so “untrammeled with party obligations or interests of any kind,” the sort of divine elevation that George Washington had enjoyed after the Revolutionary War. Both the Whigs and Democrats quickly disavowed him of that politically naïve delusion. Outgoing President Polk went so far as refer to Taylor as “well-meaning” but also “uneducated, exceedingly ignorant of public affairs, and, I should judge, of very ordinary capacity.” Still, the public wanted him, both parties wanted him, and he had to pick one. Eventually he agreed to sign on with the Whigs, finding them slightly less objectionable than the conservative Democrats of the South. Now it was time to sell him to the Whig party faithful.

Lincoln was headed to New England.

[Adapted from my forthcoming book]

[Photo credit: Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons, unknown, possibly Maguire of New Orleans]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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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Register for the Abraham Lincoln Institute Set for March 22 at Ford’s Theatre – It’s Free

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More information and Register Here

ALI Promo from Ford's Theatre

More information and Register Here

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Join Me and Michael Vorenberg for the White House Historical Association History Happy Hour, March 13, 2025

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Lincoln's Peace, Michael VorenbergJoin me and author Michael Vorenberg on Thursday, March 13, 2025, for the White House Historical Association’s History Happy Hour. The program is free and begins at 6 pm ET. Register Here to receive the Zoom link.

The White House Historical Association (WHHA) is “a private, nonprofit, educational organization with a mission to enhance the understanding and appreciation of the Executive Mansion.” One of their many initiatives is History Happy Hour, which enables experts to present topics related to the White House and the presidency. True to its name, the Happy Hour begins with a cocktail created by James coming to us from the Publick House in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

Last year I presented a program for the History Happy Hour on my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, focusing on how Lincoln helped institutionalize science and technology in the federal government [Click the link to watch the video]. This time I will be moderating the program, which features a presentation by Brown University history professor Michael Vorenberg. He’ll be discussing his newest book, Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War. Then I will moderate and lead the Q&A with Michael for the rest of the program.

Again, the program is free, but you’ll need to Register Here to get the Zoom link.

The title of the book, and the cover, is based on “The Peacemakers,” an 1868 painting by George P.A. Healy, which has been an important part of the White House Collection since 1947. The piece depicts President Abraham Lincoln and his top military commanders, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and Rear Adm. David D. Porter, seated in the after cabin of the Union steamer River Queen less than a week before the fall of Petersburg, Virginia to plan the end of the Civil War and the nature of the peace terms to follow on March 27, 1865. Two weeks later, Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

Although Healy’s painting tells a story of a glorious, peaceful end to the war, through artistic choices, such as the rainbow glowing just beyond Lincoln’s tilted head, Michael Vorenberg’s new book, “Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War,” which bears this image on its cover, reveals an alternative narrative. Within its pages, he details an end filled with chaos and strife rather than one pioneered by peace.

So, how and when did the Civil War? Tune in on Thursday, March 13, 2025, to find out!

[Photo compliments of Michael Vorenberg]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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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Annual Abraham Lincoln Institute Set for March 22 at Ford’s Theatre – All Invited (and it’s Free)

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ALI Promo from Ford's TheatreThe Annual Abraham Lincoln Institute (ALI) Symposium is set for March 22, 2025, at historic Ford’s Theatre in downtown Washington, DC. The full day program starts at 9 am and runs to 5 pm.

All tickets are free but please register in advance on the Ford’s Theater website: https://fords.org/event/abraham-lincoln-institute-symposium/

ALI has been organizing this annual symposium for many years, first at the National Archives and now at Ford’s Theatre. ALI provides free, ongoing education on the life, career, and legacy of President Abraham Lincoln. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., ALI offers resources for educators, governmental and community leaders, and the general public through symposia, seminars, lectures, and special events.

Ford’s Theatre is both a working theater and a national historic site. The box where Lincoln was assassinated is maintained in the condition that it was that night, and Lincoln scholars and the general public alike make pilgrimages to the site. There is also a museum on the lower floor. Standing on the stage gives somewhat of an existential feeling, as if you are transported back in time to that fateful night. For nearly a decade, Ford’s has also generously provided the theater space to the Abraham Lincoln Institute for its annual symposium. I was honored to have been one of the five speakers for the 2023 symposium, during which I presented about my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, and in particular, how Lincoln helped modernize America. This year, 2025, I will again be on stage, this time to introduce one of the speakers.

In 2025, there is another stellar group of scholars to discuss various aspects of Lincoln’s life, the times, and the tensions.

2025 Symposium Speakers

Hilary Green
Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War

Manisha Sinha
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic, 1860-1920

Jon Grinspan
Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War

Harold Holzer
Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration

Michael Vorenberg
Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the Civil War

After the final speaker, there will be a panel of all the speakers moderated by one of ALI’s prominent members.

For more information about ALI, check out their website at https://lincoln-institute.org/

To register and reserve your free admission, go to the Ford’s Theatre website at: https://fords.org/event/abraham-lincoln-institute-symposium

[Photo compliments of Ford’s Theatre]

Fire of Genius

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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, New York City, and Cooper Union

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Mathew Brady, February 27, 1860, Public Domain, Wikimedia CommonsIn February 1860, the western-bred Abraham Lincoln must have been astonished by the hustle and bustle around lower New York City. Having crossed the Hudson River from Jersey City to Manhattan, Lincoln made his way to the Astor House, one of most luxurious hotels in New York City, conveniently located near City Hall and Publishers Row (aka, Newspaper Row or Printing House Square) housing the city’s most important newspapers. New York City had grown by over fifty percent just in the last decade, many of whom were immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and other European nations. If Lincoln’s room was on the ground floor of the Astor House, he would have looked out on St. Paul’s Chapel, built in 1766 and where George Washington attended services immediately after taking the oath of office as the first president of the United States. No doubt Lincoln would have looked into the chapel. Today, from a vantage point on Broadway, you can see the new One World Trade Center looming behind the Chapel’s historic spire. From the other side, standing in the burying ground facing the skyscraper, is a “Bell of Hope” rung every year on September 11 to reflect both the mourning of that day and the Chapel’s role as a refuge during that warm, clear cataclysmic day in 2001.

Lincoln’s day was less devastating but also less warm. The weather was frigid and light snow was falling, but the Young Men’s Committee who had taken over sponsorship of his Cooper Union presence took him around Manhattan to see the sights. One stop was Mathew Brady’s photographic emporium, now housed in a temporary studio at 643 Broadway while his new studio was being prepared. Brady was already a celebrity in his own right, and having your photo taken by Brady was quickly becoming a necessity for any up-and-coming politician or social climber. This fit well with Lincoln, who had embraced the new technology of photography within a few years of its invention and had made an effort to have a photograph taken whenever he did anything noteworthy. This certainly fit the requirements and so Lincoln sat for a series of photos, one of the best decisions he would make. Not only would the Cooper Union address itself be widely published in the newspapers, but Brady would also reproduce one of these photos on the new carte-de-visite format, enabling thousands of copies to be made, sold, and broadly circulated. While many historians today refer to Cooper Union as “the speech that made Lincoln president,” the Brady photograph accentuated that by putting a face in front of the public at large. To these two I would add a third component that worked in synergy to make Lincoln president – publication of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in book form. And, of course, there was his post-Cooper Union tour of New England.

Having expected to speech at Beecher’s church to a religiously abolitionist crowd, Lincoln begged away from his tour guides and the many impromptu visitors to lock himself in his hotel room and edit his speech for an audience likely to expect a more erudite speech. Eventually he was escorted by carriage to Cooper Union, which despite the snow was reasonably well attended, about 1,500 people. He was introduced by William Cullen Bryant. Starting slowly, as was his habit, he quickly got into his material and held the audience enrapt for the next one and half hours.

I wrote previously about the gist of the speech, which you can read in this earlier post.

[Photo credit: By Mathew Brady, February 27, 1860 – Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons, ID: cph 3a0910]

Fire of Genius

 

Coming in February 2026: Unable to Escape This Toil

Available now – 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.