Here are three views of Abraham Lincoln. All have their own stories.
Come back shortly for “the rest of the story…”
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Category: Abraham Lincoln
Attendance at the American Society of Journalists and Authors Conference
Last weekend (April 25-27) I attended the annual conference of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). I’m not a member, yet, but plan to be as soon as I meet the strict eligibility requirements for this professional society. My book, Tesla: Wizard of Electricity, is one credit towards being eligible, and I’m working on others.
Three-and-a-half hours on Amtrak and a 1.25 mile trek through Manhattan (with laptop and garment bags heavily strapped to my shoulders) brought me to the Roosevelt Hotel, the “Grand Dame of Madison Avenue.” I arrived just in time for the awards ceremony, where ASJA honors their own for excellence in writing, including Wendee Nicole for science writing.
As a first-timer I picked a range of sessions to get my feet wet. I started with “Building Your Business Through Travel Blogging.” As readers of this site will no doubt have guessed, one of my passions is to travel, so I must admit to being envious of the panel members who get paid to travel and write about their experiences. I was especially intrigued by Patricia Serrano, whose unique blend of travel writing and film-making is summed up well in her Fresh Traveler blog’s tag line – “off the beaten path adventures for a fresh mind, body and spirit.”
Next up was “Covering Your Assets: Personal Finance for the Independent Writer,” where I learned about retirement plans, insurance, and why you should NOT quit your day job. Then on to luncheon with featured speaker A.J. Jacobs. Jacobs is the author of three best-selling memoirs that include reading the entire 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica, living a year by the rules of the Bible (Old Testament!), and his latest, Drop Dead Healthy. In short, Jacobs was both hilarious and helpful as he offered some great advice to writers. But Jacobs wasn’t the only person at the luncheon that gave out good advice – I had the pleasure of chatting with David Volk, an ASJA member and author of The Cheap Bastard’s Guide to Seattle. David was the one who reminded me to get photos of my meeting with the cast of the off-Broadway play, Tesla.
After lunch I couldn’t resist a session called “Spice Up Your Storytelling with Statistics.” Led by Laura Laing, author of Math for Grownups and the forthcoming Math for Writers, the session showed how statistics can help bring out the meat of the story. She also showed how not to use statistics, like pie charts of types of pies that total up to over 200%. The chart was confusing if not delicious. Next up was “Humanizing Esoterica: Turn Complex Ideas Into Great Stories,” by the inimitably named pairing of Barry Burd and Patchen Barss. Both of these afternoon sessions fit into my overall vision of communicating science in a way that is understandable and interesting to the general public.
But wait, there’s more.
As a winner of an ASJA scholarship to attend the event, I also had the chance to sit down for a mentoring session with an established author. I was privileged to spend a half hour with Tim Harper, author of 12 books as well as a freelance writer, writing coach, editorial consultant, and in his spare time, brainchild behind a new publishing venture at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Tim provided some valuable insight for putting together a proposal for my new book on Abraham Lincoln’s love of science and technology.
And that was just day one. A good place to stop. More on the second day in a later post.
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Abraham Lincoln Dies – April 15, 1865
Abraham Lincoln died today. Well, 148 150 years ago today. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth while Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln were in Ford’s Theatre watching the comedic play, Our American Cousin. It was April 14th, 1865. Good Friday. He was carried across the street to the Petersen House where he died the next morning, April 15, at 7:22 am. “Now he belongs to the ages,” spoke Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, before engaging in a 12-day chase that ended with the death of the assassin.
All of this is the stuff of history, well known to most everyone. Less well known are some of the fascinating details. For example, as the crowd at the theater slowly came to realize what had happened a cry rang out “Is there a surgeon in the house?” There was, Dr. Charles A. Leale, a recent graduate of Bellevue Hospital Medical College and commissioned as assistant surgeon only six days previously. As luck would have it, Leale was seated in the dress circle of Ford’s Theater that night, mere steps from Lincoln’s box. His quick action likely prolonged Lincoln’s life by several hours, though he couldn’t save him from his ultimate fate. Leale’s clinical report gives us a detailed record of the event.
The gun used by Booth was a Philadelphia deringer, a small large-bore pistol fired by loading a percussion cap, some black gunpowder, and a lead ball. Since it can only fire a single shot without reloading, Booth dropped the gun on the floor of the box, slashed Major Henry Rathbone with a large knife, then leaped to the stage. The gun now is on display in the museum of Ford’s Theatre.
Into trivia? Here’s something with which you impress your friends. Deringers were made with “rifling,” that is, grooves in the barrel to spin the ball. Unlike most derringers where the rifling creates a clockwise twist, the one used by Booth had rifling that turned counterclockwise. No matter what the twist, the rifling is designed to improve accuracy by creating a more predictable flight of the ball or bullet. Needless to say the direction of rifling was a moot point since Booth shot Lincoln at very close range.
Ah, but what happened to the lead ball? Well, it now sits in a glass case at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland. Along with it are several skull fragments, just in case you’re into “morbid oddities.”
There is much more to come on the science of Abraham Lincoln. Stay tuned!
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David J. Kent has been a scientist for over thirty years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and the e-book Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time. He is currently writing a book on Thomas Edison.
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Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin (and a book review of Rebel Giants)
Each born on February 12, 1809 in very different parts of the world, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin never met. Darwin spent five years traveling the world on The Beagle and eventually defined how we think about life. Lincoln spent four years staying pretty much in Washington DC and eventually came to define how we think of leadership.
To examine these two men who each went on to have a dramatic impact on the future, I review a book called Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, by David R. Contosta. The author takes us back and forth between the parallel lives of these two great thinkers.
Parallel in terms of age and impact, but not on much else it seems. While Contosta notes that they both lost their mothers in childhood, had strained relations with their fathers, went “through years of searching for a direction in their lives,” and struggled with religious doubt, the similarities come off as largely contrived. The differences are much more evident. Lincoln was born a poor pioneer while Darwin inherited wealth from his father and wife (an heiress to the Wedgewood pottery fortune). Lincoln went to school “by littles” while Darwin attended the best schools money could buy. Lincoln was of generally robust health, though did sometimes suffer from depression, while Darwin had severe health problems all his life. Lincoln sought out politics and the enamor of the crowds while Darwin was largely reclusive, preferring to let his writing and others carry his work forward.
Still, the book toggles between Lincoln’s life and Darwin’s life, comparing the two at key junctures in their maturation as thinkers, family men, and leaders. Because they were the same age many of these life choices occurred at roughly the same period of time. Contosta notes that both put off making decisions as to their life’s work since neither really wanted to follow too closely in the footsteps of their fathers. Lincoln traveled down the Mississippi on a flat boat before settling for some years in New Salem, Illinois. Darwin traveled around the world by ship for five years doing the research that would eventually lead to his most famous works. Once this phase was completed they each “found their calling,” Lincoln in politics and the law, Darwin in development and experimentation on what would eventually be called evolution.
During the time of their greatest achievements it seems unlikely that Lincoln had heard of Darwin or followed his work. After all, Darwin’s “Origin of Species” was published just days after Lincoln’s election as President and with Civil War brewing he likely was a tad busy. Darwin, however, had heard of Lincoln once the war started. He was what could be called an abolitionist and he carried on a long letter correspondence with botanist Asa Gray at Harvard regarding the progress of the war and slavery in general. Contosta only touches on this correspondence but the glimpse he gave makes me want to see more of these letters.
The book spends some time after the early death of Lincoln and the much later death of Darwin to assess their impact on the world. Clearly the emancipation of the slaves and the subsequent problems with reconstruction led to issues experienced for another century (and continuing). And clearly Darwin’s theory of natural selection challenged the conventional thinking of the day. History has shown that many would “adapt” the work of these two influential men to serve their own purposes (e.g., “social Darwinism,” which Darwin would have been aghast to see).
Overall this 2008 book is an interesting read and a fascinating glimpse into the lives of these men. Based on my own knowledge I have some quibbles with what I see as the superficiality of the information about Lincoln, and perhaps the same is true for Darwin as I’m less familiar with the details of his personal life. But that won’t detract from reading for most people. I recommend the book, especially for anyone who would like better to understand the process leading up to Darwin’s greatest, and most controversial, contributions to modern knowledge.
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Happy Birthday, Harold Holzer, Abraham Lincoln Scholar
Harold Holzer has a birthday.
The widely acknowledged preeminent Abraham Lincoln scholar, Harold Holzer, celebrates his own life on February 5th. Born in 1949 just seven days short of the 140th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, Holzer has spent much of his life studying and writing about the man who freed the slaves and saved the Union.
So what is that he has done to warrant the title of preeminent scholar? You can start with the 43 books on Lincoln that Holzer has authored, co-authored, or edited. Add in the hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of lectures he has given over the years. And for good measure throw in his chairmanships of the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation and the lead work he has done for other major Lincoln organizations and events. He has won too many Lincoln scholarship-related awards to count, but one notable recognition was the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia‘s annual Award of Achievement in 2006.
In checking my list it seems I only own 11 of Holzer’s books, three of which are signed first editions. I’ve attended a lecture (or three), and witnessed his amazing recall – and understanding – of Lincoln’s words and intent. Perhaps he will write a foreword for my book when it comes out; he’s written dozens over the years in addition to his own volumes and articles.
Holzer is currently a Hertog Fellow at The New York Historical Society. As he enjoys the public reception to the Steven Spielberg film, Lincoln, on which he was a content consultant, it’s easy to imagine that Harold Holzer is having a very happy birthday. Lincoln fans are certainly happy that Harold Holzer has taught us so much about Abraham Lincoln.
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Lincoln to King to Obama: President Obama’s Second Inaugural Address Continues the Push Toward a More Perfect Union
As President Obama was sworn in for his second term he channeled both Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. In his inaugural address he sought to keep us on a path toward a more perfect Union, walking in the footsteps of these other two great men of history. This is Part Three of my series on inaugural speeches. It is best to first read Part One and Part Two to put this part into context. [I’ll wait again]
Inaugural emcee Senator Chuck Schumer primed us to think about Abraham Lincoln in his introduction of the President. Schumer noted that when Lincoln was first being sworn in the Capitol Dome was only half built. Lincoln insisted that construction continue through the brutal war to follow, and on the occasion of his second inaugural the dome stood gloriously the proceedings, a sign that “the Union shall go on.”
Obama did not mention Lincoln by name during his inaugural address. He did not have to. At least some of Lincoln’s words and deeds are known to most and understood by all. In the most recognizable homage to Lincoln, Obama noted that the Founders of this country “gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.” Shades of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in which he extolled that the nation would have a “new birth of freedom” and that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Obama goes on to remind us that for more than two hundred years we have done so, though often with struggles against our own demons. Again channeling Lincoln, this time his own second inaugural and his “House Divided” speech, Obama noted that “through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.”
Perhaps fewer in the crowd were aware of another reference to our 16th President. Early in his state legislative career Lincoln was a big proponent of “internal improvements,” the building of railways, canals, roads and other large capital intensive projects. As President he signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act, which effectively created the first transcontinental railroad. During his inaugural address President Obama acknowledged Lincoln’s contributions when he said “Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers.”
The “schools and colleges” part is also a reference to Lincoln, who in 1862 signed into law the Morrill Land-Grant Act, which allowed the creation of land-grant colleges.
While Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that began the process ending slavery and inequality for African-Americans, that process was slow and painful. One hundred years after the Civil War it took the strength of conviction of another man, Martin Luther King, to bring us closer to equality in basic civil rights. President Obama paid homage to King by being sworn in on his bible, along with Lincoln’s, on the day we honored the birthday of the civil rights leader. In a larger sense, the very presence of an African-American man “with a funny name” was taking not only his first, but his second, oath of office as President of the United States is testament to how important Lincoln and King are to our history. Obama captured the spirit of both men and the continuing struggles to achieve that “more perfect Union” as he bound together the common goals of equal rights for all men, all women, and all peoples:
We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.
As both Lincoln and King asked us to withhold malice and work together, so too did Obama end with a call for us all to embrace our lasting birthright: “With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.”
If you missed them, here are Part One and Part Two.
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Obama and Lincoln – Second Inauguration Addresses
This is Part Two of a series about inauguration speeches, in particular that of Abraham Lincoln, whose bible was used by President Barack Obama for both his first and second inaugurations. It is best to read Part One here first, then come back here. [I’ll wait].
Okay, welcome back. As I noted in the previous article, Lincoln’s first inaugural address was methodical and logical. And long. Lofty inspiration it wasn’t, but that changed in his concluding peroration in which he invoked the depth of the emotion of the moment, a pleading for all men to abandon the path to civil war:
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Four years later Lincoln’s second inaugural address was the antithesis to his first – brief, introspective, war-weary. As we have seen in the movie Lincoln with Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln was hard at work trying to get the 13th Amendment to the Constitution passed, an act that would effectively codify the war-time Emancipation Proclamation. In his first address he was “devoted altogether to saving the Union without war.” But still the war came. Now, at his second inauguration, Lincoln lamented that while “both parties deprecated war,” one of them “would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.”
The sadness in his words captured the painful knowledge that over 600,000 men died during the war nearing its end, though not yet over. Lincoln ruminated over the possibility that God was allowing the war to continue as penance for the offense of slavery. While he exclaimed that “fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away,” he worried that:
if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
Finally, with many in the North calling for punishment of the South during the coming reconstruction after the war, Lincoln ends with a call for constraint and compassion.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Unfortunately for the South and North alike, Lincoln’s life was taken and a period of turmoil enveloped the nation. A period that extended at least 100 years until the efforts of Martin Luther King raised again the issues of inequality to the national discourse. And here again, on this day in which President Obama took the oath of office for his second term as President on both the King bible and the Lincoln bible, the insights of Lincoln rise once again to the forefront of the discussion. In the next part of this series I will have more on President Obama’s second inauguration speech and his references to Lincoln.
If you missed it, please take a moment to read Part 1.
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President Obama, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln’s Inauguration Addresses
Barack Obama, our first African-American President, took his oath of office in 2013 on the day we celebrated the birthday of the great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King. Obama was sworn in using both the King bible and the bible used by the man whose Emancipation Proclamation set the stage for freedom and equal rights for all, Abraham Lincoln. The symbolism of the confluence of these three men is palpable. Second inauguration addresses are commonly less inspiring than the first, though perhaps Lincoln offers a wonderful exception to that rule.
When Lincoln gave his first inaugural address we were on the brink of civil war. Several southern states had already seceded, and more were to follow. Lincoln faced the prospect of the Union ending before he even got into office and his first speech to the American people was an attempt to avert that occurrence. It was long. Very long. And like his very long Cooper Union speech of a year before, was eminently logical in structure and tone.
Lincoln first sought to soothe the South’s “apprehension” that the government was coming for their slaves. While he personally thought “if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong,” he acknowledged that the Constitution protected both the states’ right “to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively” and that fugitive slaves shall “be delivered up” should they escape to the North [Article IV, Section 2]. Essentially, his hands were tied and the South’s fears that he would end slavery was unfounded. Lincoln said:
I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
Lincoln was making it clear that the Constitution prevented him from acting on slavery where it existed. That “the only substantial dispute” was the question of the spread of slavery.
One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended.
He also argued that secession was illegal and unconstitutional, a view that was affirmed by subsequent Supreme Court decisions. So the onus was on the South for the war. And Lincoln made it clear that it was his duty as President to prevent a rebellion.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect, and defend it.”
After such a long and analytical discourse, Lincoln brought his first inaugural address to a close by shifting to an eloquent call for compassion. I’ll continue with that and his second inaugural address in my next post.
This is Part 1 of a three part series. See Part 2 and Part 3.
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Frank Smith to Speak to the Lincoln Group of DC on the Emancipation Proclamation
Dr. Frank Smith, Jr. will be the speaker at the Abraham Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia‘s monthly dinner event. In keeping with the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s issue of the Emancipation Proclamation, Smith will discuss “The Emancipation Proclamation: Saving the Union and Paving the Way to Freedom and Democracy.”
Dr. Smith attended Morehouse College in the early 1960s before becoming an activist in the civil rights movement and playing a leadership role in organizing protests and marches for civil rights in Mississippi during “Freedom Summer” (1964). He later moved to Washington DC, where he was active in the community before being elected to the DC Board of Education and then the DC City Council where he served for 16 years.
One of his prize achievements was as Chairman of the Board and CEO of the organization that established the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum. The African-American Civil War Memorial – The Spirit of Freedom – stands at the intersection of 10th and U Street (corner of Vermont Avenue) in Washington, DC.
In 2011 Dr. Smith was interviewed on the Black Eagle radio program by host Joe Madison. The video below shows Smith discussing the claim that African-American slaves chose to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YunYGr7VYnA&hl=en_US&version=3]
I’ll post more on Dr. Smith’s presentation after the event.
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What is Watch Night? The Emancipation Proclamation Turns 150
One hundred and fifty years ago, on December 31, 1862, a wide array of current and former slaves, freemen, abolitionists, and others anxiously awaited the coming of the new year. This new year would be different from all others, as President Abraham Lincoln had stated in his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that the final Proclamation would be signed on January 1, 1863. [Click on the image to the left to see all five pages at the Archives.]
Assembling in churches, community houses, even fields, across a country still at war with itself, the people waited. Some with hope for freedom. Some with trepidation that the final Proclamation would somehow not be issued. Others with trepidation that it would.
Tonight marks the 150th anniversary of Watch Night. Churches in Washington DC, Springfield, IL, and elsewhere hold services to celebrate that fateful night. The Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington DC has held Watch Night services for 35 years. According to the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum in Washington DC:
Frederick Douglass wrote that December 31, 1862 was “a day for poetry and song, a new song. These cloudless skies, this balmy air, this brilliant sunshine, (making December as pleasant as May), are in harmony with the glorious morning of liberty about to dawn up on us.” President Lincoln had promised a proclamation emancipating slaves in the states in rebellion 99 days earlier; and on “watch night,” Americans of African descent faithfully “watched” for his proclamation to be issued on the 100th day.
And so it was issued. The National Archives is displaying the original Emancipation Proclamation from December 30 to January 1 only. [Below, Lincoln depicted reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, painting by Francis Bicknell Carpenter]
When the day arrived for issuance of the Proclamation Abraham Lincoln first had to entertain hundreds of visitors to the White House. For three hours he stood in a receiving line and shook hands. Afterward he went to his office and prepared to sign the document but found his hand shaking, not from hesitation but from the exhaustion of having greeted so many. Frederick Seward, son of Secretary of State William Seward, recorded the event:
At noon, accompanying my father, I carried the broad parchment in a large portfolio under my arm. We, threading our way through the throng in the vicinity of the White House, went upstairs to the President’s room, where Mr. Lincoln speedily joined us. The broad sheet was spread open before him on the Cabinet table. Mr. Lincoln dipped his pen in the ink, and then, holding it a moment above the sheet, seemed to hesitate. Looking around, he said:
“I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper. But I have been receiving calls and shaking hands since nine o’clock this morning, till my arm is stiff and numb. Now this signature is one that will be closely examined, and if they find my hand trembled they will say ‘he had some compunctions.’ But anyway, it is going to be done.”
So saying, he slowly and carefully wrote his name at the bottom of the proclamation. The signature proved to be unusually clear, bold, and firm, even for him, and a laugh followed at his apprehension. My father, after appending his own name, and causing the great seal to be affixed, had the important document placed among the archives. Copies were at once given to the press.
The rest, as they say, is history.
