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Robert Lincoln – Assassination Jinx?

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Robert Todd LincolnRobert Todd Lincoln was the oldest of Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s four sons, and apparently an assassination jinx in a story that includes several presidents, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison.

Robert died in 1926 after having lived to the age of 82, a longevity quite unusual for his family, as father Abraham was assassinated at the age of 56 and his mother died at 63. Robert was not only the first to be born, he was the last to die, and the only Lincoln child to even reach adulthood. Second born Eddie lived only three years, dying from tuberculosis. Then there was Willie, who died in the White House at age eleven. Thomas (Tad) managed to recover from the same sickness that took his brother in 1862, only to see his father’s life taken a few years later. Tad made it to the age of 18 before dying of heart failure, perhaps from the strain of his mother’s fragile mental state after the trauma of her husband’s demise.

Robert had many great accomplishments in his own right. He served as Secretary of War under President’s Garfield and Arthur, then minister to the United Kingdom under President Benjamin Harrison. He later became legal counsel to the Pullman railroad car company, and eventually became its president.

Perhaps the most interesting factoid is that Robert was either present or nearby at three Presidential assassinations. The first was his father’s, where he was at the White House and rushed to the Petersen House to witness his father’s last hours. Sixteen years later, while serving as Secretary of War, Robert witnessed the assassination of President Garfield at the Sixth Street train station. And if that was not enough bad luck, Robert was present at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo at the invitation of President William McKinley. After McKinley was shot and killed, Robert is said to have refused any further presidential invitations. I suspect Presidents also thought better about inviting him. *(See note)

President McKinley’s assassination happened six months into the second term of his presidency. The exposition was yet another World’s Fair to highlight rapidly changing technology and cultural exchange. McKinley had a busy schedule but managed to slip in a visit to the nearby Niagara Falls. After seeing the gorge with its beautiful falling waters (being careful to remain on the American side to avoid the inevitable political chatter), the President toured Goat Island where a statue of Nikola Tesla would be erected many years later.

One of the main goals of the Niagara Falls trip was to visit the hydroelectric plant, which included the alternating current generators and motors designed by Tesla. It was the alternating current from Tesla’s Niagara Falls system that lit up the entire exposition, including the centerpiece “Electric Tower” and the Temple of Music. There were also electric trains, ambulances, and other vehicles moving people to and from different parts of the fair and the Falls.

After marveling at the ingenuity of Tesla’s designs at Niagara, McKinley returned to Buffalo for a reception at the very same Temple of Music. While shaking hands with well-wishers, McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. It was September 6, 1901.

In an ironic twist of fate, Tesla’s rival Thomas Edison could have saved McKinley’s life. Doctors were unable to locate the bullet in McKinley’s abdomen, and an early X-ray machine designed by Edison was on display at the Fair. McKinley’s doctors, however, deemed the apparatus too primitive to be of use. Edison quickly sent his most modern X-ray machine from New Jersey up to Buffalo, but aides to the President refused to use it for fear of radiation poisoning. While McKinley at first appeared to be recovering, gangrene set into the wound and he died on September 14th, Edison’s unused machine sitting nearby.

There is another odd connection to assassination. Robert Lincoln’s life was saved by the brother of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. Here is more on that story.

[Adapted from my e-book, Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate, available for download on Amazon.]

*Note: The original that this piece was adapted from was written several years ago. Today, Jason Emerson, offered up a clarification on the FB version of this post. I serve with Jason on the Abraham Lincoln Institute Board of Directors, and can safely say he is the reigning expert on Robert Lincoln (as well as Mary Lincoln). Here is what he wrote and readers should defer to his research over my post:

“Actually, Robert was not at the Pan American Expo when McKinley was shot, and he was not invited to be there by President McKinley. Robert was on a train on his way to the Exposition with his family (for a family outing, nothing more) and when he arrived at the Buffalo train station, he was informed of the shooting. Robert also attended presidential events with Roosevelt, Taft, and Harding in later life. It’s all in my biography of Robert Lincoln, “Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln.””

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His newest Lincoln book is scheduled for release in February 2022. 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 Visits the Patent Office

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Abraham LincolnOn March 17, 1863, President Lincoln and his wife, Mary, tour the Patent Office. Lincoln is no stranger to the Patent Office. His own patent model resides there, for Patent No. 6469, “an improved method of getting vessels over shoals.” He took his son, Robert, there when he was a Congressman.

Also as a Congressman, Lincoln often assisted other Illinoisans get patents for their inventions. Lincoln wrote to Amos Williams, for example, telling him to send a description and drawing of his invention, along with $20 for the filing fee. Williams had sent a model, but reminded him that “nothing can be done…without having a description of your invention. You perceive the reason for this.” Similarly, Lincoln visits the  Patent Office to inquire about an application for a patent by Jesse Lynch of Magnolia. “They tell me that no patent has [been] issued to any body,” Lincoln informs Lynch, “on any application made as late as the first of July last.”

On this day, however, the visit is more leisurely. He seems to be on a mission to find a suitable gift for foreign dignitaries. The New York Herald reports:

“This temple of American genius has lately received additions . . . Mrs. Lincoln, with characteristic unselfishness, has sent from the White House a splendid variety of the presents of the Kings of Siam and the Tycoon of Japan. Among the most noticeable is a suit of Japanese armor . . . for which the Knight of La Mancha would have given his boots. . . . The President and Mrs. Lincoln seemed to enjoy greatly this respite from the cares of State among so many interesting objects.”

Lincoln and Mary would return to the Patent Office several times for events raising money for organizations taking care of wounded soldiers. The Patent Office was commonly used for such events as it was one of very few locations with enough open space for large gatherings, outside the White House. On March 6, 1865, the President and Mrs. Lincoln attend the inaugural ball at the Patent Office. The Evening Star notes that:

“Mrs. Lincoln . . . wore a white silk skirt and bodice, an elaborately-worked white lace dress over the silk skirt . . . The President was dressed in black, with white kid gloves. . . . Shortly after midnight the Presidential party were escorted to the supper room.” After dinner, “President Lincoln and party withdrew about one o’clock . . . It is estimated that not less than four thousand persons were present at this ball.”

Today, the Patent Office is now the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum. I spent many a lunchtime inside its inner atrium. Inside rests the official portrait of Abraham Lincoln and all past Presidents through Barack Obama. Perhaps Lincoln is the light shining down through the atrium’s glass ceiling. Lincoln would have felt comfortable in that building.

David J. Kent is the author of 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.

Follow me for updates on my Facebook author page and Goodreads.

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Lincoln Fires General-in-Chief George B. McClellan, But Keeps Him Anyway

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George B. McClellanOn March 11, 1862, everyone was thinking about George B. McClellan. Lincoln’s cabinet met and groused about their chronic dissatisfaction with the General. Frustrated with McClellan’s “slows,” Lincoln issued War Order No. 3, which fired McClellan as General-in-Chief but retained him as commander of the Army of the Potomac. He spent the rest of the day explaining his decision. War Order No. 3 stated:

Major-General McClellan, having personally taken the field, at the head of the Army of the Potomac, until otherwise ordered, he is relieved from the command of the other military departments, he is retaining command of the Department of the Potomac.

 

Ordered further: That the two departments now under the respective commands of Generals Halleck and Hunter, together with so much of that under General Buell as lies west of a north and south line indefinitely drawn through Knoxville, Tennessee, be consolidated and designated the Department of the Mississippi; and that, until otherwise ordered, Major-General Halleck have command of said department.

McClellan had been an irritant from the beginning. The embarrassing loss at the first Battle of Bull Run sent Winfield Scott to retirement and left Lincoln desperately searching for a military leader. With few options, he turned to a young George B. McClellan for his next General-in-Chief. The Ohio-born McClellan had exhibited strong leadership in two small skirmishes in western Virginia, and he came highly recommended by Ohio Governor William Dennison and Ohio native Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase.

McClellan masterfully outfitted and drilled his raw recruits into a skilled Army of the Potomac, yet he consistently refused to put them into action. He repeatedly claimed the Confederates vastly outnumbered him, even though he had up to twice as many troops at his disposal. His soldiers loved him, but McClellan’s overabundance of caution led to Lincoln’s significant frustration. Adding insult, McClellan arrogantly considered himself vastly superior to the President, referring to Lincoln in letters home to his wife as “nothing more than a well-meaning baboon” and “a gorilla.”

Peninsula Campaign

Despite his position as General-in-Chief, McClellan rarely communicated his strategy or progress. His insubordination included ignoring the President and retiring to bed after Lincoln had sat patiently in McClellan’s parlor for an hour waiting for him to return from an evening out. Continuing to press his generals to fight, Lincoln suggested that the well-trained army make a frontal assault on Confederate forces between Washington and Richmond. McClellan disagreed, eventually counter-proposing a complicated plan to take the Confederate capital of Richmond from the South, which was in direct opposition to Lincoln’s strategy to defeat armies, not take territory.

After several months of obsessive planning, in March 1862 McClellan began shipping troops down the Potomac River to the Virginia peninsula between the James and York Rivers. The size of the troop movement was unprecedented, with more than 120,000 men, a dozen artillery batteries, and tons of equipment all ferried into place at the base of the peninsula. To Lincoln’s chagrin, further overland movement toward Richmond was painfully slow because of bad weather, mud, and McClellan’s exaggerated opinion of enemy troop strength. The Union forces negated the advantage of surprise, and by the time they advanced toward Richmond the more mobile Confederate army had positioned itself to defend the southern capital. Meanwhile, McClellan, against Lincoln’s wishes, had left the Union capital woefully unprotected.

By any measurement, the Peninsula Campaign was a disaster. The Union survived its critical blunder only because of Lincoln’s strategic decision-making. McClellan, of course, blamed Lincoln for supposedly meddling. A frustrated Lincoln demoted McClellan. This left the president once again in desperate need of a military leader. Generals Henry Halleck, Ambrose Burnside (whose trademark facial hair was the inspiration for the term “sideburns”), Joseph Hooker, John C. Fremont, John McClernand, John Pope, George Meade, and others were all considered by Lincoln but ultimately found wanting. Sitting in the wings were Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, western generals who had not yet captured the president’s eye.

McClellan’s demotion was short-lived. In utter desperation and after several disastrous Union losses in the summer of 1862, Lincoln once again turned to McClellan as his General-in-Chief.

At the time, Lincoln was experiencing personal heartbreak in addition to the pressure of mounting Union soldier casualties. In February, Mary Lincoln had planned a grand open house to show off the dramatic and expensive improvements she had made to the aging and neglected White House. By the night of the party, however, Lincoln’s two youngest sons had become severely ill. While guests gathered downstairs, Lincoln and Mary repeatedly slipped upstairs to check on their ailing children. Diagnosed with what was likely typhoid fever, Willie progressively worsened. On February 20, 1862, he died. Tad recovered, but never really understood the sudden loss of his older brother and constant playmate.

Mary was devastated, and for the rest of her time as First Lady (a term she coined to refer to her position) she wore nothing but black. Relying even more on her trusted confidante, former slave Elizabeth Keckley, Mary became an even greater burden on household staff and the growing list of Washington insiders who despised her. Lincoln mourned as well, coping by throwing himself more deeply into the continued struggle to save the Union. One part of that struggle was the hugely important battle of Antietam.

Antietam

In September 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia into western Maryland. Following their victory at a second battle of Bull Run, Lee moved his army north to a point near Sharpsburg, alongside Antietam Creek, where they took up defensive positions. With surprising aggressiveness, McClellan’s Army of the Potomac attacked Lee’s forces on September 17. The first assault came from Union General Joseph Hooker on Lee’s left flank, while General Ambrose Burnside later attacked the right. A surprise counterattack from Confederate General A.P. Hill helped push back Union forces. Eventually, Lee’s troops withdrew from the battlefield first. He moved his remaining army back across the Potomac into the safety of Virginia.

Always overly cautious, McClellan made no effort to follow. Lee had committed all of his 55,000 men, while McClellan only ordered a portion of his larger 87,000-man force into the fray. This numerical imbalance allowed Lee to create and exploit tactical advantages he should not have had. When questioned by Lincoln about his failure to pursue Lee, McClellan complained that his army and horses were sore-tongued and fatigued, and thus required rest. Lincoln responded tersely by telegram:

Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?

Antietam was destined to be the single bloodiest day of battle in American history. The casualties for both armies totaled a staggering 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.

Despite Lincoln’s frustration, Antietam stood out as an important battle in the fight for freedom. Although essentially a draw, the fact that Lee withdrew from the battlefield first allowed the North to record Antietam as a victory, something that Lincoln had been needing for some time.

He issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation a few days later.

[Adapted from my book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

[Image Credit: U.S. Signal Corps/National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

David J. Kent is the author of 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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Leadership Practices in the Sciences

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Healthy LandsSure, I write a lot about Abraham Lincoln these days, but for more than thirty years I was a practicing scientist. One area of sciences that was severely lacking was leadership. I’m lucky enough to be related to an expert on leadership in the sciences, and he has a new book out that I want to highlight for all my science colleagues.

Leadership Practices for Healthy Lands by Don Kent, Ph.D. is the book I wish many of my colleagues had available during my career. As the title suggests, this book is a practical manual for how to ensure good decision-making that applies to, but goes beyond, the idea of healthy lands – lands that retain their inherent hydrological, geological, biological, and chemical functions. This is a book about leadership; what it is, how to develop it, how to execute it, and how to refine it to succeed in the management of groups and organizations. The work applies to retaining, or reclaiming, healthy lands, but also would apply to other scientific efforts, and even to other significant business management endeavors.

The book is incredibly well-written and comprehensive. It’s clear that significant research and experience went into its making. Readers will find background on leadership theory, discovering your purpose, and embracing change, but also practical guidance on how to build trust, promote change, and focus on the benefits of shared vision. In essence, this a master course on leadership.

Don knows a thing or ten about leadership. He was President and CEO of the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, was the Chief Strategy Officer and Director at NatureServe, a Natural Heritage Administrator for the State of New Hampshire, and a long time Executive Director of nonprofit institutions, not to mention technical consultancies and Walt Disney’s Imagineering group. He’s considered a leader in wetlands and land management, having consulted and taught clients worldwide. His earlier book, Applied Wetlands Science and Technology, to which I was privileged to contribute a chapter, was such a huge bestseller that the publisher asked him to expand and update it for a second edition.

I encourage all my science colleagues to check out Leadership Practices for Healthy Lands. You can learn more about the book and the author on his website at HealthyLands.Org.

 

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of 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.

Follow me for updates on my Facebook author page and Goodreads.

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Abraham Lincoln, Blacksmith?

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New Salem blacksmith shopAbraham Lincoln briefly considered apprenticing as a blacksmith. Most subsistence farmers also doubled as tradesmen, working as coopers (barrel makers), tanners (leather makers), distillers (whiskey), brickmakers, shoemakers, or blacksmiths. While still in Indiana he and Dennis Hanks had spent many evenings in the Gentryville general store and at Baldwin’s blacksmith shop trading stories and “yarns,” so Lincoln had seen many an hour of blacksmithing in action.

Blacksmiths were accorded an honored place in the village. They forged the plows, the tools, and the cookware needed to sustain life on the frontier. The village blacksmith was a “gunsmith, farrier, coppersmith, millwright, machinist, and surgeon general to all broken tools and implements,” one scholar put it. He could be called on to forge such a variety of implements as nails, horseshoes, chains, bullet molds, yoke rings, bear traps, bells, saws, and all the metal parts of looms, spinning wheels, and sausage grinders. Lincoln had been familiar with the cast iron plows he used when he was young. With its relatively high carbon content (over 2%), cast iron tends to be brittle, which caused problems for Lincoln back on the farm. On the other hand, iron could be cast into a variety of shapes using molds. As a blacksmith, Lincoln would have learned how to work with wrought iron, which has a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) and much tougher, easy to hammer into useful shapes, could be drawn out into thin wires, corrosion resistant, and more easily welded.

Later, during the Civil War, Lincoln would recall his short-lived experience with blacksmithing to describe his relationship with George B. McClellan, the man he would assign as General-in-Chief of the Union Army but later described as “having the slows” because of his lack of aggressiveness in battle. Lincoln described a blacksmith in his boyhood days that tried to put to a purposeful use a big piece of wrought-iron he had in the shop. Firing up the forge, the blacksmith put the iron on the anvil determined to make a sledgehammer out of it. Giving up on that after a while, he decided to draw it out and make a clevis (a U-shaped fastener). After a few whacks and pumping the bellows to heighten the fire he again stopped. “Okay, maybe a bolt.” Working it hard for a while longer it now was too thin even for a bolt. Frustrated with his lack of success trying to make something useful happen, he proclaimed, “darn you, I’m going to make a fizzle of you.” And with that he dunked it into the water and let if fizz. McClellan, Lincoln told his friend, is someone who should have been productive but no amount of working him hard could make him useful. McClellan’s career soon fizzled out.

Being a blacksmith was respectable work, but it was also hard work, Lincoln decided. The idea of toiling over a hot forge, slinging a heavy hammer for hours on end while sweat poured from his skin was unappealing. Given his distaste for the hard labor of subsistence farming, Lincoln chose not to pursue blacksmithing. He would find some other trade.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius]

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, now available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (click on the respective links to pre-order). His previous books include Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity, 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 Misguided Idea of Targeting Abraham Lincoln and Other Statues

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Abraham Lincoln ChicagoSan Francisco targets Abraham Lincoln schools for renaming. Chicago targets Abraham Lincoln and other statues for possible removal. DC Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduces a bill to remove the Emancipation Memorial statue in Washington, D.C. These efforts are severely misguided, based on political expediency rather than an informed discussion of Lincoln and other past American leaders.

I’ve been addressing the issues surrounding removal, and consideration of removal, of Confederate statues across the nation. There is a rational case for removing Confederate statues. There is no rational case for removing Abraham Lincoln statues.

The motives are understandable and I strongly encourage an open and honest discussion of problematic statues. In my “rational case” post I explained that there are three time periods reflected by, and must be considered, for every statue: the subject, the motive and timing of erection, and the present. Norton’s bill to remove the Emancipation Memorial statue is based almost entirely on the present perspective. While many believe that present perspective overrides the two earlier perspectives, proponents of removing the statue are obligated to make that case in a public forum, not by arbitrarily passing a bill by politicians without any interest in the discussion or the outcome, i.e., 99%+ of the House Representatives and Senators who would vote on the bill. Norton would better serve her constituents by using her power to garner news coverage, input from the city, from the National Park Service (who owns the statue, hence the need for a law before it can be removed or augmented), and a much needed discussion of the larger issues beyond the presence of the statue. This last point is critical and I’ll return to it shortly.

While the Emancipation Memorial is controversial because of its inherent design elements (Boston removed its copy of the statue for this reason), the actions by San Francisco and Chicago have no such controversies stimulating their actions. Instead, they are acting based on misrepresentation of Lincoln’s attitudes and actions.

San Francisco has every right to name, or rename, schools within their jurisdiction. Their far-ranging list of names they want to move away from includes several U.S. Presidents, the current California Senator (who was once Mayor of San Francisco), environmentalist John Muir, and many others. While some of the reasons are potentially persuasive, others border on the ridiculous.

Regarding Abraham Lincoln, the chair of the renaming committee argued that “Lincoln, like the presidents before him and most after, did not show through policy or rhetoric that black lives ever mattered to them outside of human capital and as casualties of wealth building.” This comment is simply absurd. Lincoln was literally murdered because his assassin listened to Lincoln argue for black voting rights. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people and brought African Americans into the armed forces, which played a large role in why the Union won the Civil War. As the Spielberg movie Lincoln dramatically documented, Lincoln acted aggressively to ensure passage of the 13th Amendment ending slavery. African American leaders like Frederick Douglass recounted their personal experiences with Lincoln, all saying that he treated them like any other American. As historian Jonathan White explains in Smithsonian, Lincoln most certainly believed black lives mattered.

The spreadsheet outlining the reasons for renaming noted that Lincoln was “not seen as a hero” among Native Americans “as the majority of his policies proved to be detrimental to them.” By this standard, every American president before Lincoln – and since Lincoln – would not be acceptable for naming schools, including Ronald Reagan. The country has a long history of maltreatment of Native populations; Lincoln neither enlarged it nor shrunk it during his time in office. Given he was faced with the most critical existential crisis of our nation’s history, the Civil War, which did not end until the time he was assassinated, it is unrealistic to expect that he would have to time to reverse long-standing attitudes and policies that virtually no one in the country was acting to change. And yet in his last two annual messages to Congress he did call for a reevaluation of the government’s treatment of Native Americans, something he had planned to deal with in his second term after the war was over if he had lived to do so.

Chicago, yes, even Chicago, has also recently called for the reevaluation of 41 statues and monuments within the city as part of their “racial healing and historical reckoning project.” Again, the focus of the Lincoln statues is because the committee “determined Native Americans were mistreated during his administration.” The points made above apply to Chicago’s actions as well. Part of this idea is a misunderstanding of Lincoln’s role in the “Dakota 38,” which resulted the hanging of 38 Dakota Native Americans in Minnesota in 1862. I’ve discussed this misunderstanding in depth here.

Which gets me back to the idea for a much needed discussion of the larger issues beyond the presence of the statue. Removing these statues and renaming schools does not make these larger issues – white supremacy, systemic racism, continuing disadvantaging of BiPOC individuals suddenly disappear. In some ways it may exacerbate them, especially when the reasons presented for removal are based on misrepresentation and misunderstanding of history, along with unrealistic expectations of perfection in our past leaders. These are not Confederates who literally chose to divide America, they are leaders who fought hard to create, protect, and bring America closer to the ideal of a more perfect Union. They were human, like all of us, and should be treated as human, not as some idealistic “god” of humanity who aren’t allowed not be perfect.

So rather than simply remove statues by edict for political expediency, current day leaders should take advantage of the opportunity our more recent awareness affords us and lead public discussions across America. Rather than pass a resolution to rename schools on misinformation, use the school names as a focal point for deep public education. Neither San Francisco, nor Chicago, nor Washington, D.C. involved historians in their debates. How is that even possible? Historians expert on each of the historical figures are happy to participate in discussions with school boards or monument commissions. They, we, are happy to sit down with the public and policy-makers to help everyone better understand the relevant history. That’s what we do.

Ultimately, it is up to those responsible communities to decide how they will proceed. Undoubtedly there are some historical figures that we will, and should, choose no longer to honor. But that discussion should be done in the open. Beyond that, the discussion must include the larger issues that remain even after statues and school names are removed. Leaders have an opportunity to lead; they must embrace this opportunity, not hide from it by making arbitrary decisions.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of 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 the Surveyor

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Lincoln the Surveyor by Lloyd OstendorfThe Sangamon County Deed Record on February 17, 1836 has this notation from Abraham Lincoln, the Surveyor.

“I hereby certify that the town of Petersburgh has been surveyed according to law, and that this is a correct plat of the same. A. Lincoln.”

“The Surveyor of Sangamon,” Lincoln later wrote in a third-person autobiography, “offered to depute to A[braham] that portion of his work which was within his part of the country. He accepted, procured a compass and chain, studied Flint, and Gibson a little, and went at it. This procured bread, and kept soul and body together.” Calhoun was a devout Democrat and the Whiggish Lincoln only took the job after he was assured his politics would not be held against him.

Over the three years he was deputy surveyor, he surveyed the towns of New Boston, Bath, Albany, Huron, and resurveyed the city of Petersburg. The city had been surveyed years before but Lincoln was asked to redo it when it began to grow more substantially, in part as New Salem began to fade away and its residents moved to nearby Petersburg. He also laid out the area that town fathers decided to name after its surveyor – Lincoln, Illinois. Lincoln christened the town with the juice from a watermelon. Beyond towns he also surveyed and laid out numerous roads and private properties, including a bridge over the Salt River at Musick Crossing. In one case, he found in resurveying some land that the seller had by error granted more land than he received payment for. Lincoln convinced his client, the descendant of the original buyer, to pay the cost of the additional land to the seller’s heirs. He was paid $2.50 for each quarter section of land, although as little as 25 cents for smaller lots.

Overall, Lincoln found surveying to be profitable both financially and in building relationships for his later political activities. “Mr. Lincoln was a good surveyor,” one investor noted, “he did it all himself, without help from anybody except chainmen.” The chainmen were men and boys would carry chains, drive stakes, and blaze trees for Lincoln, always with an ear out to hear Lincoln’s stories and jokes. Others were equally impressed with Lincoln’s honesty and industriousness. Whenever there was a dispute, both parties relied on Lincoln to settle the matter with his compass and chain.

[Adapted from my forthcoming book]

[Photo credit: Lincoln the Surveyor by Lloyd Ostendorf]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of 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.

Follow me for updates on my Facebook author page and Goodreads.

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Abraham Lincoln and the White House Stable Fire

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Abraham Lincoln was working in his second floor office on February 10, 1864 when he realized the White House stables were on fire.

It had been a long day already. Lincoln had spent the morning reviewing court martial cases, desperately searching for a reason to suspend the mandatory death sentence for deserters and working to keep soldiers in the army. Shortly after a light lunch of strawberries and milk, he had open office hours where the public could come in to vent their individual views. Lincoln called these his “public opinion baths,” which while distracting from more important work, helped him understand public sentiment. “Public sentiment is everything,” Lincoln had said. “With it we can accomplish anything; without it, nothing.” Later in the afternoon Lincoln received a delegation of 18 men from a convention at Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. They wanted to amend the Constitution “in favor of freedom.”

But then around 8:30 pm there was smoke. Lincoln’s private stables were on fire. He could see the small brick building between the White House and the the Treasury Building next door. Rushing out, his intent was to put out the fire but it was already consuming the small stables. Robert McBride recalled the event, which was also reported in the Evening Star newspaper:

“[Mr.] Cooper, the President’s private coachman, left the stable to get his supper about 8 o’clock, and he was first notified of the fire by the President himself, who discovered the smoke . . . The building . . . contained . . . six horses, all of which were burned to death . . . One of these ponies was all the more highly prized, in consequence of having once been the property of Willie, the deceased son of Mr. and Mrs. President Lincoln.”

Hours later, Lincoln stood in the East Room looking out at the still-smoldering stables. According to McBride, “Lincoln was weeping. Tad explained it was because Willie’s pony was there.”

Willie, Lincoln’s second oldest son, had died of typhoid almost exactly two years before, right here in the White House. The pony was the last remnant of the boy’s life remaining. Also lost were Lincoln’s own two horses, as well John Nicolay’s two horses and Tad’s other two ponies.

Lincoln conferred the next day with Commissioner of Public Buildings Benjamin Brown French about rebuilding the stables. Meanwhile, Patterson McGee, dismissed on the day the White House stables burned, was arrested the day after on the charge of having started the fire. He was released shortly thereafter.*

And the war continued.

*Edited to add McGee was cleared of wrongdoing. As Scott McCullagh in the comments alludes, McGee was released. Scott didn’t provide a source, but I’ve also heard via LinkedIn from historian and Lincoln scholar David Gerleman, who confirms McGee was released immediately after it was discovered he was in Grover’s Theater when the fire started. Gerleman says he has an in-depth article on the fire due out in 2022. Thanks to both for the additional information.

[Photo of Kazuhiro Tsuji sculpture of Lincoln, from The amazing story of Hollywood Make-up artist Kazuhiro Tsuji – Spoon & Tamago (spoon-tamago.com)]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of 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.

Follow me for updates on my Facebook author page and Goodreads.

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Lincoln Heads to Hampton Roads for a Peace Conference

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Lincoln RoomOn February 2, 1865, Abraham Lincoln headed to Hampton Roads in Virginia for a peace conference. It almost killed the 13th Amendment.

The House of Representatives was deep into debate about the 13th Amendment to end slavery in the United States. Extraordinary efforts were made on behalf of the administration to get the two-thirds majority needed for passage. It seemed like they had enough. And then someone heard that there were “peace commissioners” in Washington. Looking for a way to end the war without having to pass a constitutional amendment, many Representatives wavered. They sent a message to the President asking if any such commissioners were in town. Lincoln employed a bit of deception, replying that there were no commissioners in the city of Washington and he did not expect any. The vote squeaked through.

Of course, there were peace commissioners, but Lincoln had arranged for them to wait in Hampton Roads, Virginia, for a conference on board the steamboat River Queen. Lincoln had given a factually accurate, if incomplete, response to Congress.

Early on the morning of the 2nd, Lincoln telegraphed General Ulysses S. Grant: “Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress-Monroe, as soon a I can get there. Those gentlemen were Alexander Stephens, former U.S. Congressman from Georgia and current Vice President of the Confederacy, Assistant Secretary of War Joseph Campbell (who had been a Supreme Court Justice prior to resigning), and Robert Hunter (former U.S. Speaker of the House and Senator, then Confederate Secretary of State and Senator). The three men had come on a mission to end the war under terms that were friendly to the South.

Lincoln left Washington around 11:00 AM by special train to Annapolis, where he boarded the steamer Thomas Collyer. He arrived at Fortress Monroe in Hampton Roads late in the evening and immediately meets with Secretary of State William Seward on board the steamship River Queen.

When the five men met the next day, Lincoln was adamant that any peace agreement include reunification of all the states and the permanent end to slavery. Not surprisingly, the Confederate peace commissioners refused those conditions and returned to Richmond. Jefferson Davis, who was not present at the conference, later claimed that Lincoln had demanded “unconditional surrender.” This was false, and was Davis’s attempt to rally the Southern people to continue to fight what was already recognized as a losing battle. Lincoln, while unwavering that slavery must end, was open to compensation to the South. After returning to Washington, Lincoln did press Congress for amnesty and up to $400,000,000 in compensation. Given that the war was clearly nearing its end with a Union victory, neither Lincoln’s cabinet nor Congress was much interested in such an arrangement. No compensation or amnesty act was passed.

By late March, Lincoln would be “relaxing” at City Point near Petersburg, Virginia, where Grant had his camp. Not far down the James River from Richmond, Lincoln would stroll through the former capital of the Confederacy, abandoned the day before by Confederate leadership as the war came to a close. Lincoln would return to Washington on April 8th; Robert E. Lee would surrender Grant the next day. The war was effectively over.

Lincoln would be assassinated a week later.

[Adapted from my book Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of 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.

Follow me for updates on my Facebook author page and Goodreads.

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Big News! New Book on the Way!

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David J Kent 2019If you follow my Facebook page (which you can do here if you don’t already), you may have already heard about my big news. For those who don’t (and why don’t you?), here is both the news and some additional info. Ready? BIG NEWS! I’m happy to announce that I have signed a contract with Rowman & Littlefield to publish my next Abraham Lincoln book.

There’s a long story behind the creation of this book, and no, I won’t bore you with it. Suffice to say I’ve been researching this topic for quite some time and that it blends my two career backgrounds – Science and Abraham Lincoln. I’ll have more updates, a title reveal, cover reveal, related content, and announcement of a special guest Foreword writer as the work progresses, but here’s some info to whet your appetite.

Rowman & Littlefield is a large, high-end independent publisher founded in 1949. Since that time it has acquired dozens of imprints and publishes everything from scholarly books for the academic market and trade books for the general market. My book is a trade book, written for a widely informed reader. Rowman, or sometimes just R&L, is based in nearby Maryland and has its own book distribution company to get books into Barnes and Noble and independent stores as well as Amazon and other online sales outlets. The plan is to produce hardcover, audio, and electronic (e.g., Kindle) books immediately, with a softcover book to follow in a year or two depending on sales.

Unlike the graphics heavy design of my three previous published books, the new Abraham Lincoln book will be more traditional in design. That means mostly text with a photo spray in the middle (or possibly interspersed throughout; final design is pending). The final word count will be between 80,000 and 90,000 words.

Oh, and there will be a special guest foreword by someone most people in both the political and Lincoln worlds will recognize. More on that in future updates.

My deadline for providing the manuscript is June 1st of this year, with a planned publication date in time for Lincoln’s birthday next year.

I’ll have more updates as time goes on, including the final title, cover, release date, and how to pre-order. And yes, before that I’ll let you know more about the topic and give a preview. You’ll get some hint by clicking around the articles I’ve posted on this website.

Back to writing!