Category: Abraham Lincoln

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Lincoln, Science, and the Sand Bar Case

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Lincoln at Cooper Union, Mathew Brady photographOn January 5, 1858, Abraham Lincoln wrote to Robert A. Kinzie of Chicago regarding the case of Johnston v. Jones and Marsh, commonly called the Sand Bar Case. The case was revealing because, in an age where trial transcripts were almost never kept, journalist Robert Hitt was paid to sit through the entire trial and create a comprehensive 482-page trial transcript, although he omitted the closing arguments.

The case revolved around the accretion of new land created by various efforts to turn Lake Michigan’s shoreline at Chicago into a practical harbor, something nature had not designed it to do. Channels were dug, piers were built, and a great deal of sand was dredged. Eventually, Chicago had a harbor. In 1833, the government cut a channel across lakefront lots owned separately by William Johnston and William Jones. A newly erected pier caused the accretion of nearly 1,200 feet of new land, roughly six acres, which both Johnston and Jones claimed as their own. After four trials, the last of which found for Johnston, Jones appealed to the Supreme Court, which reversed the judgment and sent it back to the lower courts. At this point, Jones retained Lincoln while Johnston had retained Kinzie.

A legal colleague, while not specifically talking about the Sand Bar Case, seemed to capture the flavor of it when he called Lincoln “an admirable tactician” who “steered this jury from the bayous and eddies of side issues and kept them clear of the snags and sand bars, if any were put in the real channel of his case.” Fellow lawyer Leonard Swett also suggested Lincoln had a knack for focusing the juror on the key question while minimizing the rest. “By giving away six points and carrying the seventh, he carried the case.”

Lincoln demonstrated this Euclidean logic and technical expertise in a letter to Johnson’s attorney Robert Kinzie before the trial, querying him on such technical matters as the intersection of the pier, the accreted new lakeshore, and the properties in question, as well as the timing of the land formation and any changes since the initial pier was erected. Specifically, he asked:

1. Could you now certainly designate the point where the North side of the North pier, and the Lake shore met, before the new land began to form?

2. How long was it after the pier had reached that point, and continued Eastward, into the Lake, before the made land had formed, and filled in Eastward, on the North side of the pier, as much as sixty feet?

3. Do you remember whether any new land had formed at the time you sold and gave a bond to Hubbard? and if any had then formed, how much?

4. Do you remember whether any new land had formed at the time you deeded to Johnson & if any, how much?

5. At the time you laid out the addition, how far was it from where the South side of Water-Street struck the Lake Shore, down Southward along the Lake shore to where the East line of Lot 35 struck it?

I shall be greatly obliged, if you will answer these questions.

During the trial, Lincoln’s background in surveying helped him cross-examine the surveyor George Snow, catching that there were two maps created, each one alternatively benefiting the claims of the two litigants. The trial lasted eleven days, after which the jury sided with Jones. Lincoln’s questioning of the land surveys was key to winning the case.

He was paid $350 for his services (about $11,600 today).

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius]

[Photo by Mathew Brady, public domain]

Fire of Genius

 

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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The Year in a Writer’s Life – 2023

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David J Kent at the Lincoln MemorialThe year in a writer’s life was busy. Some of it actually went according to plan, while some of it was, well, off-plan. I continued to do events related to my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, and continued to write for the Lincoln Group and other venues. On the other hand, some of my writing goals turned out to be unrealistic and have been punted to next year. That said, overall, 2023 was a successful writing year.

You can read about my year of traveling here, and my 2023 Lincoln book acquisitions here. I also wrote a reflections on a decade of writing here. Shortly I’ll have a recap of my year in reading here.

Getting back to the year in a writer’s life, I started 2023 with a series of presentations for various media outlets. There was the talk on how Lincoln institutionalized science for the Looking for Lincoln conversations (video), the Scholar Session with President Lincoln’s Cottage (video), the premier of a radio program called Our American Stories featuring me on Lincoln’s education (audio), my talk for Lonestar College – Kingwood (video), and my keynote speeches for the annual dinner of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) and for the Lincoln Society in Peekskill. And that’s just in the first few months of 2023. You can check out more of the Fire of Genius-related talks I gave on my media page.

I also won the Lincoln Legacy Award conferred by the Lincoln Society in Peekskill. Lincoln: The Fire of Genius was nominated for a dozen book awards, of which it was a finalist for two. I also started getting royalties for the new book in addition to continuing royalties for my previous books.

There were also several media mentions, including articles about my appearances, book reviews in Civil War Times and The Civil War Monitor magazines, and other interviews. Additionally, I was interviewed and quoted extensively in articles published in Salon (a liberal-leaning national periodical) and Fox News (a conservative-leaning media conglomerate). I did, however, turn down a requested interview with the CEO and host of a nationally known podcast featuring a universally recognized political personality because of the host’s long history of deceit and continuing attempts to undermine democracy. I wrote about the experience on Hot White Snow under the title “Writing Responsibly.”

Other writing activities included continuing to write for the quarterly Lincolnian newsletter, for which I again wrote eight book reviews and several shorter articles. I also wrote four book reviews for the Lincoln Herald journal. I continue to write for the Lincolnian.org website, now approaching around 200 articles. Then there were dozens of articles each for this David J. Kent website and my Hot White Snow blog, plus I post reviews about Lincoln books on the Abraham Lincoln Bibliography Project website (about 50 so far). I also wrote for the Lincoln Forum Bulletin. When I wasn’t writing, I was responding to requests for writing advice from several people planning to write books of their own. I also provided my first official “back cover blurb” for the book, Defeating Slavery, by Nancy Spannaus.

What I didn’t do was finish the three works in progress (plus one, see 2024) that I had planned to publish on Amazon. They will have to wait until next year.

Which gets me to 2024

I have two main focus areas (writing wise) in 2024. The first and foremost is to complete a book proposal for a work I’ve been researching. I had hoped to get the proposal to my agent in 2023, but travel and Lincoln Group of DC activities conspired to drag out the process. So…2024 it is. My goal is to get the proposal done in January with hopes of signing a publishing contract in the first quarter and a book in stores in 2025. I’ll have more on that project as it develops.

The second main focus is to finish the aforementioned three works in progress. One is the confederate monument book (a rational dialogue). A second is to publish second editions of my two previous e-books as print books, complete with much-expanded text and photos. Third is to complete a new Tesla book by the end of the year.

In addition, I plan to submit several articles for publication, both professional treatises in Lincoln journals and more accessible articles in popular magazines. I’m also considering developing a podcast series with the Lincoln Group of DC. Another potential project is to start a Substack column. And then there is the fiction, which I will definitely write with greater urgency in 2024.

Of course, I’ll continue to write for the Lincolnian newsletter and website, my DJK and Hot White Snow websites, and wherever else I can find space.

And yes, I realize that is a lot, to which I’ll add more traveling and continued reading.

I’m excited about starting on 2024. It’ll be busy for sure.

[Photo by Henry Ballone, Lincoln Memorial Centennial, May 22, 2022]

Fire of Genius

 

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Abraham Lincoln Book Acquisitions For 2023

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Books 2019The year is nearing an end, which means it is time to check in on my Abraham Lincoln book acquisitions for 2023. As with recent years, my goal has been to reduce the number of books I buy. I may have actually ended the year with less books than I started with despite acquiring 37 additional Lincoln (and Lincoln-ish) books. You can read about past years acquisitions by scrolling through this link.

So, how might I have reduced the number of Lincoln books? Mostly because many of the books in the house belong to the Lincoln Group of DC. In addition to our Zoom-based meetings, we had four in-person meetings – three dinners and a luncheon – during the course of the year. At each we either held a raffle or gave away books to our members as a perk of membership. It’s a good chance to get Lincoln books in the hands of a bunch of Lincoln aficionados. We also donated books to the annual Lincoln Forum event in Gettysburg, which allows people to scavenge the donation table. In both cases, any proceeds collected go to our organizations’ support for scholarships. I don’t have a hard count on the number of books but likely it was around a hundred that found new homes. I’ll continue the process in 2024.

Of course, none of that does anything for reducing my personal book collection since I keep the Lincoln Group books separate and they are not listed on my spreadsheet of books owned (which currently has 1,724 rows, with some rows reflecting multiple volume books). I also only count my own books, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, once even though I still have a box or three of each still available (Hint: I can sign books ordered directly from me).

In 2022 I acquired 34 books, so the 37 new ones in 2023 are in the same ballpark. Both are less than in the years before that. While I managed to purchase fewer books (22 of the 37), those were augmented by 15 books I received as gifts or in trade or from publishers wanting book reviews. The number of free books is smaller because I am no longer on the ALI book award review committee (although maybe I will be again in 2024).

Publication dates of the books acquired range from 1891 (Chittenden’s Recollections on President Lincoln and His Administration, a gift from my cousin; and yes, it is an actual book from 1891) to 2023. Most of the books are new, i.e., published in 2023, which isn’t surprising given that some are from publishers and there were a lot of good books out this year that I just had to own. There were also four each published in 2022 and 2021. Two of the books I acquired were from the Southern Illinois Press’s Concise Lincoln Library series. The series editor won a special Lincoln Forum book award in November for its collection of about 30 volumes on various topics. Even with these two new ones I still have only about half the series. Three new acquisitions are Lincoln-related novels. House of Lincoln delves into the household from a servant’s perspective. Henry and Clara follows the chaotic lives (and deaths) of the couple who accompanied Lincoln to the theater that fateful night. By far the most intriguing was One Must Tell the Bees by J. Lawrence Matthews, in which Sherlock Holmes (yes, that Sherlock Holmes) recounts his previously secret early life in the Civil War solving the riddle of who was stealing gunpowder and tracking down John Wilkes Booth. Blending that with his late in life resolution of yet another mysterious murder in England makes for a clever juxtaposition. Since I’ve always been a Sherlock Holmes fan in addition to Lincoln historian, I was delighted by this well-written and entertaining novel.

Given my science background it shouldn’t surprise anyone that some of the books this year had “science in the Civil War” themes. They include Sand, Science, and the Civil War by Scott Hippensteel, Soldiers, Spies, & Steam by Scott Mingus, and The Science of James Smithson by Steven Turner. There were also books about people who are important to Lincoln’s presidency and the Civil War. Among them are two books on Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson, a book about James Shields (of almost-duel fame and much more), and Benjamin Butler (the Civil War general and much more). I also picked up a book called No Common Ground by Karen L. Cox about what to do with Confederate monuments. I finished the year with two books by Nancy Spannaus about Alexander Hamilton and the American System of economics. Hamilton Versus Wall Street acquired in February delves into the economic system of internal improvements that Lincoln favored (and I discuss in detail in my Fire of Genius book). Then her newest book in early December, Defeating Slavery, shows how Hamilton’s American System showed the way to ending slavery (and how the abandoning of it by Andrew Jackson and others delayed slavery’s demise and hurt the economy). Both are intensely researched and well written.

There were “big name” books also out in 2023. Long-time NPR host Steve Inskeep’s Differ We Must explores how Lincoln learned from, and dealt with, people with whom he disagreed. Some he convinced to see things his way; others agreed to disagree. Columnist Joshua Zeitz, whose previous book, Lincoln’s Boys, about John Hay and John Nicolay was highly regarded, tackled with less success Lincoln’s views on religion and morality in Lincoln’s God. One of my most recent acquisitions is Brian McGinty’s Lincoln in California, which as the title suggests digs into a topic rarely discussed. I haven’t read this one yet but it’s on the top of my list to start the new year. I also picked up books by Walter Stahr (Stanton), whose tomes on individual members of Lincoln’s cabinet have become iconic, and Sarah Vowell’s fun yet informative Assassination Vacation, an older book following her road trips to the sites surrounding assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. BTW, for those not familiar with the name, you’ve probably heard Vowell’s voice as Violet in The Incredibles movies, as well as on radio and TV.

By far the most famous and sales-successful book in 2023 was Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson. HCR, as she is affectionately known by those in the know, is a professor at Boston College who became a household name thanks to her “Letters from an American” series. These daily letters, which appear on her Substack platform and Facebook, welcome millions of followers and have highlighted her exemplary career as an historian and ability to relate history to current events. Democracy Awakening continues her letters’ theme by delving into the attacks on American democracy throughout our history, up to and continuing in the current attempts to replace democracy with an authoritarian regime. The book is breathtaking in its capture of two Americas – one that sees the Constitution as applying to everyone versus one that sees America consisting of those who should lead and those who should just shut up and toil. Her second section on the existential crisis begun around 2016 is simply stunning. All of it impeccably documented. This is a must-read book.

As you can see in the list that follows my signature block below, I acquired many more notable books in 2023.

I will likely continue my attempt to reduce the number of books in 2024, although I’m sure to acquire a lot of new ones to offset the losses. I’m always doing research for possible new books I want to write, so some of the acquisitions may reflect that goal as well as my inability to stay away from the big new books of the year (one of which I know I’ll get is Harold Holzer’s latest, Brought Forth on This Continent, about Lincoln and American Immigration, due out in February). I have only a couple more weeks left in 2023 to find the shelf space. Wish me luck.

See the 2023 list showing author/title/publication date below my signature blurb below.

Fire of Genius

 

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

 

Here is the 2022 list! [Author, Title, Date of Publication]

Abbott, Richard H. Cobbler in Congress: The Life of Henry Wilson, 1812-1875 1972
Callan, J.P. Sean Courage and Country: James Shields, More Than Irish Luck 2004
Chittenden, L.E. Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration 1891
Cox, Karen L. No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice 2021
Dirck, Brian Lincoln and the Constitution 2012
Farrow, Anne, Lang, Joel, and Frank, Jenifer Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery 2005
Hippensteel, Scott Sand, Science, and the Civil War: Sedimentary Geology and Combat 2023
Horan, Nancy The House of Lincoln 2023
Hord, Fred Lee and Norman, Matthew D. Knowing Him By Heart: African Americans on Abraham Lincoln 2023
Inskeep, Steve Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America 2023
Kaplan, Fred Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War 2017
Lapisardi, Emily (Ed.) Rose Greenhow’s My Imprisonment 2021
Leonard, Elizabeth D. Benjamin Franklin Butler: A Noisy, Fearless Life 2022
Mallon, Thomas Henry and Clara: A Novel 1994
Matthews, J. Lawrence One Must Tell the Bees: Abraham Lincoln and the Final Education of Sherlock Holmes 2021
McCreary, Donna D. Mary Lincoln Demystified: Frequently Asked Questions about Abraham’s Wife 2022
McGinty, Brian Lincoln & Califonia: The President, the War, and the Golden State 2023
McKay, Ernest Henry Wilson: Practical Radical, A Portrait of a Politician 1971
Miller, Lillian et al The Lazzaroni: Science and Scientists in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ameica 1972
Mingus, Scott Soldiers, Spies & Steam: A History of the Northern Central Railway in the Civil War 2016
O’Connor, Thomas H. Lords of the Loom: The Cotton Whigs and the Coming of the Civil War 1968
Page, Elwin L., Introduced and updated by Pride, Mike Abraham Lincoln in New Hampshire 2009
Richardson, Heather Cox Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America 2023
Rodrique, John C. Lincoln and Reconstruction 2013
Sher, Julian The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln 2023
Silver, David M. Lincoln’s Supreme Court 1998
Soini, Wayne Abraham Lincoln, American Prince: Ancestry, Ambition and the Anti-Slavery Cause 2022
Spannous, Nancy Bradeen Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics 2019
Spannous, Nancy Bradeen Defeating Slavery: Hamilton’s American System Showed the Way 2023
Stahr, Walter Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary 2017
Steers, Edward Jr. The Lincoln Tree: 300 Years of Lincoln Ancestry, 1500 to 1837 2023
Stewart, Whitney Hildene: The Lincoln Family Home, Values into Action 2019
Thomson, David K. Bonds of War: How Civil War Financial Agents Sold the World on the Union 2022
Turner, Steven The Science of James Smithson: Discoveries from the Smithsonian Founder 2020
Vowell, Sarah Assassination Vacation 2005
Wasik, John F. Lincolnomics: How President Lincoln Constructed the Great American Economy 2021
Zeitz, Joshua Lincoln’s God: How Faith Transformed a President and a Nation 2023
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Lincoln, Faust, and Depression

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By Anton Kaulbach - This file was derived from: Anton Kaulbach Faust und Mephisto.jpg:, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74580425On December 5, 1864, President Lincoln, with Mrs. Lincoln, Secretary of State Seward, and Secretaries Nicolay and Hay, attends Grover’s Theatre for a performance of Charles Gounod’s Faust performed by the Grand German Opera Company.

Abraham Lincoln had a particular affinity for the fable of Faust. The Faust of German legend is an intellectual scholar, highly successful but rather bored and dissatisfied with his life. He falls into melancholia and, in a bout of severe depression, tries unsuccessfully to take his own life. Failing in that, he begs the Devil to give him “magical powers with which he can indulge in all the pleasure and knowledge of the world.” Being a shrewd bargainer, the Devil appears in the form of Mephistopheles to serve Faust with his powers for a set number of years, after which Faust must give up his soul to eternal damnation.

Hardly a light day at the office.

Most people know that Lincoln was also prone to bouts of melancholy, and on one occasion his depression got so deep that his friends put him on 24-hour suicide watch. But most people do not know that Lincoln, who was not himself able to play music, was still a lover of music played by others. He liked much of the popular music of the day – ballads, jocular minstrel songs, and even the song Dixie. He also enjoyed opera, and one of his favorite songs was the soldier’s chorus in Charles Gounod’s operatic version of Faust. Gounod’s opera is based on the two-part tragic play written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, considered by many to be one of the greatest works of German literature.

Interestingly, the legend of Faust has come to mean people giving up their integrity to ambition in order to achieve undue power and success for some defined period of time. That hardly describes Lincoln given his long history of integrity – he had been given the nickname Honest Abe at a relatively young age. More likely Lincoln was attracted to Faust both for the quality of the opera and to garner some insight into the machinations of his overly ambitious Generals and Salmon P. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury who worked behind Lincoln’s back in an attempt to replace him as the 1864 nominee for President.

Lincoln is said to have dealt with the grief of his son Willie’s death in the White House in 1862 by borrowing a copy of Goethe’s Faust from the Library of Congress. The main character’s trials may have helped Lincoln cope with his own great loss. The original play is written largely in rhymed verse – an epic lyrical poem – in Goethe’s native German. Lincoln obviously would have read an English translation.

Nikola Tesla, the famed Serbian-American inventor, on the other hand, read Goethe’s Faust in its original language; he could speak eight languages fluently. More on that in my e-book, Abraham Lincoln & Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

[Photo: By Anton Kaulbach – This file was derived from: Anton Kaulbach Faust und Mephisto.jpg:, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74580425]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

 

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The Lincoln Forum at Gettysburg

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Gettysburg National Cemetery

Abraham Lincoln famously gave his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, at what is now the National Cemetery. A commemoration is held every year on that date with prominent speakers, reenactors, and musicians. For Lincoln scholars and aficionados, the days leading up to the 19th are the annual Lincoln Forum. I’ve been privileged enough to attend the Forum every year since 2014, including this past week.

I arrived early morning on November 16th and joined colleagues at the Lincoln Diner in downtown Gettysburg for a robust breakfast. About twenty of us then headed out to the National Cemetery for a fascinating private tour by my colleague Scott Schroeder exploring the mysteries of who took the half dozen extant photos of the dedication. And that was before the Forum even began!

The Lincoln Forum officially begins with happy hour and dinner on the 16th. This year featured NPR’s Morning Edition host, Steve Inskeep, whose most recent book, Differ We Must, explored how Lincoln deftly interacted with those people who disagreed with him. I was lucky enough to have a short conversation with him and get a photo.

Me with Steve Inskeep

The first full day brought an amazing slate of speakers, such as Ron White, Craig Symonds, Kate Masur, and Forum Vice Chair Jonathan White. There was also a panel discussion including the likes of Ed Achorn, Joe Fornieri, Ron White, and Harold Holzer, moderated by Erin Carlson Mast. Not to be outdone, there was after-dinner entertainment from Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, the musical team that created the soundtrack to Ken Burns’s Civil War miniseries.

Jay Ungar and Molly Mason

The final day was just as interesting, with Achorn returning to discuss his book about the 1860 Chicago Republican convention, which was given the Harold Holzer Lincoln Forum Book Prize. Then there was Edna Greene Medford in conversation with Matthew Norman, co-author of an amazing compilation of African American voices on Lincoln, followed by a panel discussion featuring Allen Guelzo, Michelle Krowl, Dana Shoaf, and Melissa Winn, moderated by Jonathan White. It didn’t end there – the afternoon featured seven breakout sessions and a tour for first timers.

Lincoln Forum panel

The Lincoln Forum wrapped up its final night with its usual fantastic dinner. But the highlights were a reading of the Gettysburg Address by actor Graham Sibley, that everyone in attendance agreed was the finest rendition of the famous address any of us had ever heard. Then Harold Holzer led a session in conversation with the incomparable Doris Kearns Goodwin and her film production partner, Beth Laski. It was their film for the History Channel that starred Sibley, and it’s easy to see why it was so successful.

Beth Laski and Doris Kearns Goodwin

This conference has become my go-to conference each year in November, and 2023 showed why it has succeeded for 28 years. If you’re into Lincoln, this is the place to be in November. I’ve already put the 29th annual symposium on my 2024 calendar.

[All photos by David J. Kent, 2023]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Lincoln Agrees to Speak at Cooper Union, And the Rest is History

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Lincoln at Cooper Union, Mathew Brady photographOn this date, November 13, 1859, Abraham Lincoln agreed to give a speech at Cooper Union in lower Manhattan in New York City. History suggests this is the speech that made Lincoln president.

Except he wasn’t actually agreeing to a speech at Cooper Union. In his letter to James A. Briggs, with whom he has previously corresponded about the event, he agreed to give a political speech at what he thought would be the famous Plymouth Church across the river in Brooklyn. Under the leadership of its first minister, Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth was a center of anti-slavery activism at this time, and speaking there was sure to raise Lincoln’s profile as the still new Republican party moved toward picking its presidential nominee. If the Beecher name sounds familiar, it’s because his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, authored perhaps the most influential book of the time, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Originally invited to speak in late fall 1859, Lincoln agreed if the date could be pushed off until February to accommodate his political and legal schedule. The final date was set for February 27, 1860. Briggs eventually realized that coaxing an audience across the potentially frigid East River in the dead of winter may be problematic and thus sought to pass off sponsorship of the speech to the Young Men’s Central Republican Union, which moved it back to Manhattan. Considerable confusion arose in communicating this fact and it was only after he arrived in New York that Lincoln understood he would speak at Cooper Union instead of Plymouth Church. He hurriedly edited his speech for what he assumed would be a less religious audience.

I discussed the content of the speech here but suffice to say it went well for Lincoln. Earlier that day he had his photo taken at the studio of Mathew Brady, later acknowledging that the speech and Brady’s photograph made him president.

Having already planned to visit his son Robert at Phillips Exeter Academy after Cooper Union, he graciously accepted an offer to give a speech in Providence, Rhode Island on his way to New Hampshire. That idea quickly escalated into at least a dozen speeches in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut before he could make his way back to Illinois. This was Lincoln’s second, and last, trip to New England, having stumped through eastern Massachusetts for the successful Whig presidential nominee Zachary Taylor in 1848. This time Lincoln was stumping more on his own behalf and promoting the now Republican party view that slavery must not extend into the western territories. Again, he was well-received, and this time the New England electoral votes were comfortably in Lincoln’s corner (as they would be also in 1864).

As they say, the rest is history. Cooper Union, the Brady photograph, and the release of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in book form all contributed to making Abraham Lincoln the best candidate for president in 1860.

And the war came.

For those looking for more information on the Cooper Union speech, I highly recommend the 2009 book by Lincoln historian Harold Holzer called, aptly enough, Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.

[Photo by Mathew Benjamin Brady – US Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25065667]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Abraham Lincoln’s Use of the Telegraph in the Civil War

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Transcontinental telegraphAbraham Lincoln was a big fan of technology and used the telegraph as a war-management tool during the Civil War. The value of the telegraph was reinforced daily. Lincoln received many messages over the new Pacific and Atlantic telegraph that began operation in October of 1861, including one from Governor-Elect Leland Stanford on October 26, 1861 noting, “Today California is but a second’s distance from the national Capital.” Stanford went on to become president of the Central Pacific Railroad, the western leg of the transcontinental railroad system Lincoln signed into existence in 1862. The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent from California Chief Justice Stephen Field in San Francisco to Lincoln in Washington over the Western Union telegraph lines. Lincoln would appoint Field as the newly created tenth U.S. Supreme Court justice.

But first he needed access. When the war started there was no telegraph line running to the War Department offices next to the White House, never mind into the president’s mansion itself.

As the First Battle at Bull Run raged, aging and largely immobile General-in-Chief Winfield Scott took a nap, accustomed to the traditional lack of communication during battles. Lincoln was more intent for news, spending hours in the War Department while army engineers like Andrew Carnegie strung telegraph wires into northern Virginia, never quite reaching the front as men on horseback rushed to deliver information. A year later, at the second battle near Bull Run Creek, Lincoln was actively monitoring telegraph messages as the battle ensued. According to Bates, “when in the telegraph office, Lincoln was most at ease of access. He often talked with the cipher-operators (all messages were put into codes), asking questions about the dispatches which were translating from or into cipher.”

Lincoln was aided by the fact that he appointed Thomas A. Scott, vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, as assistant secretary of war, along with Edward S. Sanford, president of the American Telegraph Company, whom he put in charge of military telegraphs. Similar to what he did with railroads using the power of congressional acts, Lincoln effectively nationalized the country’s telegraph network and put it under control of the military. Lincoln used the telegraph sparingly early in the war, sending no more than twenty telegrams throughout 1861. But after taking control in early 1862, Lincoln became an avid reader and sender of telegrams to more actively manage generals in the field, in particular those like McClellan who seemed eager to train troops but not to use them in combat.

Lincoln occasionally used telegrams to vent his frustration, most often at General McClellan. In early October 1862, a month after the Battle of Antietam, with little or no movement on the part of McClellan’s army, Lincoln wrote a long letter that included: “You know I desired . . . you to cross the Potomac below, instead of above the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. My idea was that this would at once menace the enemies’ communications, which I would seize if he would permit.” He laid out specific goals and strategies regarding cutting off communications, and then should the opportunity exist, “try to beat him to Richmond on the inside track.” All too familiar with McClellan’s tendency not to fight, Lincoln added, “I say ‘try’; if we never try, we shall never succeed.” When McClellan complained about tired horses, Lincoln shot back by telegraph: “I have just read your dispatch about sore tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?” Lincoln removed McClellan from command a few weeks later.

Lincoln’s influence on the spread of telegraphy was not finished. In his 1862 Annual Message to Congress, he indicated a preference for connecting the United States with Europe by an Atlantic telegraph, as well as a similar project to extend the Pacific telegraph between San Francisco and the Russian empire. Not only was Lincoln the first to use the telegraph extensively in wartime, he made sure that the telegraph became a key tool of diplomacy and communication in the peacetime that followed.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius]

[Photo Credits: all by David J. Kent, 2023]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Lincoln Sees His First Civil War Balloon

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Thaddeus Lowe balloonOn October 4, 1861, Lincoln observed the ascension of a balloon piloted by John LaMountain from General Benjamin Butler’s headquarters at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The balloon passes over Washington and lands 12 miles away in Maryland. While the sanctimonious LaMountain is sometimes accredited with having made the first report of useful intelligence on enemy activity, he was quickly overshadowed by other aeronauts, the Civil War name for balloon pilots.

Lincoln also looked to the skies to give every advantage to Union troops. Researcher Charles M. Evans notes that Pennsylvanian John Wise is often credited with being the first American to make significant contributions to the science of ballooning, including atmospheric conditions and construction. LaMountain had joined Wise in an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1859, an attempt that started in St. Louis and got no further than upstate New York before spectacularly crashing in a violent storm. Wise was joined early in the war by James Allen. But it was Thaddeus Lowe who had the most success engaging Lincoln and getting a contract to form an air corps. Lowe hooked up with Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry, and together they impressed Lincoln enough to gain his support. Lincoln repeatedly tried to get his first secretary of war, Simon Cameron, and General-in-Chief Winfield Scott to employ Lowe. Lincoln wrote General Scott on July 25, 1861, saying, “Will Lieut. Genl. Scott please see Professor Lowe, once more about his balloon.” When Scott still failed to act, Lincoln reportedly became more assertive, ordering Scott to “facilitate his work in every way.” Lowe eventually fielded a dozen balloons and made over three thousand ascensions using tethered balloons inflated by portable hydrogen gas generators. Lincoln gave Lowe the civilian title of chief aeronaut of the Union Army.

Lowe was an effective self-promoter who knew whose favors to garner. Joseph Henry had gotten him in the front door, Lincoln had gotten him a contract with General Scott, and his greatest use of balloons for reconnaissance was during General McClellan’s Peninsula campaign. To ingratiate himself with McClellan, Lowe put a picture of the general on the back of one of his biggest balloons, the Intrepid. But Lowe used another gimmick—he ran a telegraph line to the tethered balloon to report back in real time enemy troop numbers and movements. To ensure he maintained connection with the highest authority, on June 16, 1861, Lowe lifted his balloon Enterprise up near the White House and sent a telegraph to Lincoln: “This point of observation commands an area near fifty miles in diameter. . . . I have the pleasure of sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station and in acknowledging indebtedness to your encouragement for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability of the science of aeronautics in the military service of the country.”

There were others who promoted balloons to Lincoln, although he quickly realized that some of them were cranks. Beginning early in 1861 and continuing throughout the Civil War, the prolific Edward L. Tippett sent many letters to Lincoln touting every possible invention, including balloons for warfare. One letter seemed to have caught Lincoln at a bad time in February 1865. In a long rambling letter, Tippett wanted the opportunity to demonstrate to Lincoln “the practicability; by a mathematical problem, easy to understand; of the absolute existence, of a self-moving machine, yet to be developed for the glory of God, and the happiness of the human family.” Unimpressed, Lincoln endorsed the outside of the envelope: “Tippett: Crazy Man.”

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius]

[Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution archives]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Reflections on a Decade of Writing

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David J Kent at the Lincoln MemorialI double-checked my calendar as I started to write this because the idea of it being a decade into my second career seemed scarcely credible. But yes, ten years have passed since I left my thirty-plus year career in science to pursue a life of writing. It has truly been an amazing experience, and as I said in my first anniversary reflections, it’s still the best decision I ever made.

Not that it has gone exactly as planned. I originally referred to this website and reflections posts as Science Traveler in anticipation of my focus being on traveling and science. I envisioned visiting far off places and writing from a scientific perspective. Those things have certainly remained a part of my life (especially the travel), but I found myself becoming more and more immersed in my second passion – the study of Abraham Lincoln. That shift is reflected in, well, these reflections. After five anniversaries of Reflections of a Science Traveler, I skipped the intervening years and this tenth anniversary reflections is more about my decade of writing. So, what has happened in ten years? Let’s dive in.

The Writing: The book that started it all was about the eccentric electrical engineer and namesake of the electric car company, Nikola Tesla. I had fallen into the topic of Tesla after attending a writer’s conference and participating in what can best be described as speed dating for agents. The book was a huge success, garnering eight printings, translations into four languages, and six figure sales. Released in the summer of 2013, it was also the impetus for me to resign from my scientific consulting job a few months later. I had been thinking about the change for some time, but holding my first book in my hands gave me the confidence to, as the Nike commercials say, Just Do It! So, I did. I then published two e-books over the next two years. The first to expand on one component of Tesla’s life I thought was largely ignored (renewable energy); the second to show the astonishing number of connections between Tesla and Abraham Lincoln. The following year (2016) my book on Thomas Edison came out, sort of a counterpoint to Tesla. And then in 2017 my general biography of Abraham Lincoln was released, which like the other two from Fall River Press was packed with photos, graphics, drawings, and cartoons to capture the eye. That Lincoln book received several award nominations and was named “Best Lincoln Biography for Young People” by Tom Peet and David Keck in their 2021 compendium of Lincoln books.

Following Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, I decided to switch gears again and focus on the book I had always wanted to write. I had proposed a rudimentary concept for the book back in that 2012 speed dating conference, but it saw significant development while I was writing the other books, and a lot more research. By 2020 (aka, the year of the COVID) I was ready to formally propose it to my agent, who placed it with Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Lincoln: The Fire of Genius came out in 2022 and has received significant critical praise and many book award nominations. I’m immensely proud of this book and so happy I was finally able to get it out into the publishing world.

In addition to the books, I wrote a ton of shorter pieces, most of it unpaid. While I did receive payment for some book reviews, most of my reviews have been gratis, including those for the Lincoln Group of DC newsletter, the Lincoln Herald professional journal, and the Abraham Lincoln Bibliography Project website. Then there are several blogs, including my own author website (the one you’re reading now), my “personal side of writing” I call Hot White Snow, some now defunct blogs (no time for them), and the Lincolnian.org website, for which I’ve written nearly half of the 360 blog items published to date. I also squeeze in some random writing to practice my skills and submit to writing contests.

The Traveling: A large factor in the decision to leave my old job was to give me more time to travel. I’ve certainly done that, although the COVID pandemic truncated the decade by about two years. I had been to Asia and Europe prior to my three-year secondment there from 2008-2011, plus a lot more of Europe while there. Since then, I’ve expanded my travels, both around the United States and six of the seven continents. In 2014 I spent three weeks on a road trip through Argentine Patagonia. In 2016 I did both the Caribbean and the Balkans, including a visit to the Royal Palace to meet the Prince and Princess of Serbia. I went to South Korea and China in the spring of 2017, then to Australia and New Zealand that fall. The year 2018 took me to into the Baltic Sea in June, then the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore in December. 2019 was a “C” year, with separate trips to Cuba and Costa Rica, as well as Chicago and Charleston. COVID wiped out 2020 and 2021 was largely empty of travel, although I managed a November off-season retreat to eastern Long Island. Back to real travel started up in 2022 with trips to Iceland and Tanzania (my first time in Africa). I went back to Africa earlier this year, hitting Morocco as well as Portugal, Spain, and even tiny Andorra. Soon I’ll be seeing some Turkey and some “Stans” (more on those in later posts). Overall, my travels have taken me to 67 countries and territories (according to a tracking app called Been) and 42 states (somehow, I’ve missed the middle of the country).

The Reading: Another goal in my new career was to find more time for reading. My job and studies required so much technical reading and writing that I had largely given up reading anything for pleasure. Now I read 75-100+ books a year. Most of that is still nonfiction, but I read a lot more fiction than in the past. The fiction ranges from classics to the hot new releases, with the choice often defined by what shows up in the local mini-libraries. Nonfiction has a lot of science, history, psychology, civil rights, and, of course, a lot of Abraham Lincoln. Which gets me to…

The Lincoln Groups: The same month I took the plunge, and the train to New York, to test the writing conference waters, I joined the Lincoln Group of DC. The group had been around since 1935 but I hadn’t heard of it until I returned from Brussels seeking to explore my other interests. It wasn’t long before I was on the board, then a vice president (the group has three), and for the last 2.5 years, the president. I also ended up on the board of the Abraham Lincoln Institute and I’m now their treasurer. I’m on the board of advisors for the Lincoln Forum, a book reviewer for the Lincoln Herald, and active in the Abraham Lincoln Association and other Lincoln organizations. Over the years I’ve won several awards and recognitions related to Lincoln work, most recently the Wendy Allen Award from the Lincoln Forum as president of the Lincoln Group of DC and the Lincoln Legacy Award from the Lincoln Society of Peekskill. I also was the primary organizer for the big 2022 centennial celebration for the Lincoln Memorial, coordinating with the National Park Service and other groups, plus serving as Master of Ceremonies for the two-hour program on the Memorial steps in the shadow of where Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech.

I’m sure there is more. You can also look at the previous five reflections for more insights: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. Or just click here and scroll down to see them all at once.

It’s been a busy, and satisfying, decade. So, what’s the plan for the next ten years? Well, keeping in mind that my “plans” are fluid, changing not quite willy nilly depending on conditions and opportunities, here’s at least an outline of future goals.

Retire: I have no idea what retirement means, so presumably I’ll know it when I see it. That said, I do anticipate some changes.

Future Writing: Perhaps my biggest problem is my inability to focus (which ironically is a subject for a potential future book). I currently have three or four books I’m actively trying to finish, plus I’m working on a proposal for another to have my agent shop around to publishers. Since I can’t seem to focus on one at a time, they all creep along at a snail’s pace and seem never to be completed. My “book ideas” list has reached 51 books, some of which are in progress while others are almost certainly never going to get beyond the brilliant idea stage. To date, all my published books have been biographies. I want that to shift into more creative writing, which will include memoir, travel, history, mixes of memoir/travel/history, and yes, even fiction. These genres scare me. The biographies (which I won’t abandon completely; I have ideas for several) feel like an extension of the scientific writing I did in my past life. Indeed, my first two biographies were of famous scientists. Narrative nonfiction and the various genres of pure fiction are something I’m going to have to work at. And yet, my life has been a series of tangents, the adaptation necessary to remain employed in the uncertain world of regulation-driven consulting. I’ve managed to be successful now in two broad careers, and it feels like a good time to go off on one of those tangents while remaining in the writing sphere.

Future Travel: I’ve been to six of the seven continents, so the obvious step is to get to Antarctica. That’s definitely on my “must” list, as are the Galapagos, Machu Picchu, the pyramids, and a few other places that I’ve somehow managed not to see yet. The goal is to do the must-see places within the next five years. In the short term, I’m scheduled for those previously mentioned “Stans” and have tentative plans for the Caribbean next spring. I also have tentative plans for southern Africa for about a year from now. I also expect to do a series of domestic road trips in the next year or two. Beyond that will depend on some personal factors out of my control. If all the more proximal plans come to fruition, that will mean by the end of next year I will have visited 80 or so countries and territories (territories include places like Bermuda that officially count as a British Island Territory). Maybe I’ll hit 100 someday. On the other hand, there are places I wouldn’t mind going back to and I’ve already tentatively planned on a road trip through the UK, Scotland, and Ireland. And we’ll always have Paris (yeah, cheesy, I know, but I couldn’t resist using the line after having been in Casablanca earlier this year).

Future Reading: This is the easy one. I’ll likely continue to read 75-100 books a year. I’ve broadened my selection considerably over the last decade and expect to continue to do that in the next. As long as it exists, you can always find me on Goodreads as I track my progress. And yes, I do take book suggestions.

Future Lincoln Groups: Here is where the near future might bring the most adjustment. I’ve been in some form of management with the Lincoln Group of DC for virtually all of this decade. I was Vice President of Education and Outreach for not one but two non-consecutive two-year terms, Vice President of Programs for two years, and I’m in my final year in a three-year stint as President. But as onerous as that sounds, I’ve also acted in a kind of shadow capacity for other positions during that time. Interestingly, when I looked back on my first anniversary reflections, I noticed that I was in the final year of the presidential cycle for CPRC (it was my second time as president for this scientific organization, ten years apart) and just beginning my first year officially as vice president on the Lincoln Group board. A decade hence and it’s time for me to recalibrate again. I’ve already informed the board that I will step down at the next election in May 2024, but since I’m still obsessed with Lincoln, I won’t be gone – I’ll serve as Immediate Past-President for whoever takes over the position. Dropping the presidency will give me more time to write for the website and newsletter, plus taken on a much-needed role as historian-at-large as I wade into the Lincoln Group file drawers to collate a history of the group. I’m also thinking of starting a Lincoln podcast. We also have a grant application in the works for a big (big) program, so stay tuned.

Then there are the other groups. My term as treasurer and executive board member of the Abraham Lincoln Institute runs until 2025, although I’m likely to continue indefinitely. My term on the Lincoln Forum Board of Advisors is somewhat open-ended but may be turned over to the incoming Lincoln Group president. I’ll remain active in all Lincoln Groups for the foreseeable future. As my interests evolve, I’m likely to get involved with non-Lincoln groups as well, although I’ll have to be careful not to end up as president (somehow that has happened five times before).

What else? I mentioned above that I’m not sure what “retirement” means, but I’m thinking it starts with offloading some responsibilities so I can focus more on things I enjoy. For ten years I’ve been talking about rekindling my interest in photography, so I consider that being part of it. I also want to travel as much as I can manage. Then there are more entertainment events. More relaxing time instead of hyperventilating myself through the day. More creative writing. Whatever. I’ll know it when I see it, right? All that said, I doubt I’ll ever actually retire, just allow myself to follow those tangents-of-the-moment opportunities when they arrive. I suspect no one will even know when that time comes. I probably won’t know it myself.

On to another decade in the writer’s life.

[Photo Credit: Henry Ballone photo of David J. Kent emceeing the Lincoln Memorial Centennial, May 2022]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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John C. Fremont Was a Problem

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John C. FremontOn September 5, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln had a problem, and that problem was John C. Fremont. Seeking a solution, Lincoln conferred with Commanding General of the U.S. Army Winfield Scott. He wanted some input on what to do with Fremont. Here is what I wrote up for the Lincolnian.org website:

On August 30, 1861, General John C. Fremont, who Lincoln had put in charge of the Department of the West based in Missouri, issued what effectively was martial law and a proclamation of emancipation. President Lincoln was not amused.

Fremont was not just some appointed general. He had been the first Republican nominee for president in 1856. Lincoln had supported Fremont at that time and even received 110 votes in nomination to be Fremont’s vice-presidential running mate (he lost out to William Dayton). In the 1840s, Fremont earned his nickname “The Pathfinder” by leading several expeditions to California. He also married Jesse Benton, daughter of powerful Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Fremont served in the Mexican War and was briefly the territorial governor of California, later becoming one of its first two senators. But he was also no stranger to controversy, including being court-martialed for insubordination in 1847 (later commuted to merely a dishonorable discharge by President Polk).

Fremont ran a strict operation in Missouri at the beginning of the Civil War. His proclamation included a rather problematic passage:

All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, will be shot. The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, and who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free.

Lincoln quickly recognized this as a major conflict with the confiscation acts passed by Congress, not to mention that Missouri had remained in the Union even though it was a slave state. Emancipating enslaved people by edict would violate the Constitution as Lincoln (and most others) understood it. Furthermore, taking such extreme action in a loyal state would cause problems with the other border states, most especially Kentucky. As Lincoln reportedly said elsewhere, “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.”

Finding out about Fremont’s proclamation from the newspapers, Lincoln responded in his usual deferential way asking Fremont to reconsider. Fremont replied in his usual arrogant way by telling Lincoln he (i.e., Fremont) knew better than Lincoln and if Lincoln wanted Fremont to rescind the proclamation, he would have order it. Fremont sent his response with his wife, Jesse Benton Fremont, to be personally delivered on September 8. Equally self-assured, Jesse attempted to persuade Lincoln that Fremont’s action was correct. Lincoln disagreed, and on September 11, 1861, Lincoln called Fremont’s bluff and wrote:

Your answer, just received, expresses the preference on your part, that I should make an open order for the modification, which I very cheerfully do. It is therefore ordered that the said clause of said proclamation be so modified, held, and construed, as to conform to, and not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of Congress entitled “An Act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes” Approved, August 6. 1861; and that said act be published at length with this order. Your Obt. Servt A. LINCOLN.

Again, the rationale was clear. A general in the field may not issue proclamations that 1) are illegal in that they do not confirm to the laws, and 2) would cause tremendous national security issues that could result in the end of the United States. Not long after this incident, Lincoln sent envoys to assess the situation in Missouri. Their reports confirmed general disarray and Fremont “doing absolutely nothing.” One reported that Fremont was “wholly incompetent.” Seeing no other recourse, Lincoln removed Fremont from command. Fremont did get a second chance as commander of the forces on the Virginia and Kentucky border, but after being badly defeated in battle, Fremont eventually resigned. 

Not learning the lesson, one of Fremont’s division commanders at the time in Missouri, Major General David Hunter, also garnered President Lincoln’s castigation with his similar General Order No. 11 in May of 1862.

The rescinded Fremont proclamation was one of many factors that pulled the slavery question one way and another over the course of the next years, the culmination of factors which would lead to the end of slavery in the District of Columbia and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.

[Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons; This post is adapted from one written for Lincolnian.org]