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Abraham Lincoln’s New England Sculptor – Augustus Saint-Gaudens

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Technically, Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin, Ireland and from the age of six months was reared in New York City. But by his late 30s he began spending his summers in Cornish, New Hampshire, moving there year-round from 1900 to his death from cancer in 1907. I had the opportunity to visit the Saint-Gaudens home and studio in Cornish a few weeks ago, now the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, where I saw several of his greatest sculptures.

The most recognizable is his Abraham Lincoln: The Man, better known as the Standing Lincoln, which graces Lincoln Park in Chicago. Full-size recastings can be found in London’s Parliament Square, Mexico City’s Parque Lincoln, and, of course, at the Saint-Gaudens site in New Hampshire. There are numerous reduced size replicas throughout the United States, including inside the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Saint-Gaudens also created a seated Lincoln called Abraham Lincoln: The Head of State, also in Chicago, for the 1909 centennial of Lincoln’s birth.

Abraham Lincoln, The Man at Saint-Gaudens Historical Park

My visit started the night before when I stayed at the Windsor Mansion Inn across the river in Vermont. Saint-Gaudens designed the stately home for his family friend, Maxwell Evarts, a Vermont lawyer and state politician. We’ll come back to the Evarts family in a minute. I stayed in the Auguste Rodin room, named for the French sculptor famous for The Thinker and The Kiss. Rodin never visited, but the story goes that he saw a plaster cast of Saint-Gaudens’s Robert Gould Shaw Memorial at an exhibition and, recognizing its brilliance, was noted to have bowed and tipped his hat to it. Another plaster cast is currently on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

After spending the night in the historic mansion, I crossed over the Connecticut River via the Cornish-Windsor Bridge, the longest wooden bridge in the United States and the longest two-span covered bridge in the world. I found the Saint-Gaudens site along a long early-fall foliage-lined lane, arriving just in time for a guided tour. Not surprisingly, the Standing Lincoln statue features prominently as you approach the main visitor’s center. With essentially a private tour for the two of us, the park ranger explained the background behind Saint-Gaudens’s life and the Lincoln statue. She expanded beyond her usual tour spiel when I told her I was a Lincoln researcher and writer. She was happy to expound to someone who knew more than the usual tourists.

The grand Lincoln is not Saint-Gaudens’s only famous statue, of course, and soon we were regaled with stories behind his first major commission, a monument to Civil War Admiral David Farragut that sits in New York City’s Madison Square. Like the Standing Lincoln, the architectural exedra surrounding the Farragut was designed by his friend Stanford White. Farragut established Saint-Gaudens’ reputation as a master sculptor. His many other significant figures include the Adams Memorial, the Peter Cooper Monument (of Cooper Union fame), and the John A. Logan monument, as well as the fabulous equestrian statue of William Tecumseh Sherman at the corner of New York’s Central Park. And then there is the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment, a massive bronze relief honoring the United States Colored Troops regiment depicted in the film, Glory, the original of which sits on the edge of Boston Common facing the Massachusetts State House. I had seen the original in Boston last year on one of my road trips.

Robert Shaw Memorial at Saint-Gaudens Park in Cornish NH

Which gets me back to Maxwell Evarts family of the Windsor Mansion Inn. Maxwell’s father, William Maxwell Evarts, had served for several months as Attorney General to Abraham Lincoln’s second vice president and successor, Andrew Johnson. He later served as Secretary of State under Rutherford B. Hayes and then United States Senator for New York. Exceedingly wealthy, Evarts was a patron of the arts. His daughter, Hettie, married Evarts’ law partner, Charles C. Beaman (who had negotiated the reparations agreement associated with the British allowing the Confederacy to build the CSS Alabama). Together they served as both models and benefactors for Saint-Gaudens lucrative business creating bronze relief sculptures. Saint-Gaudens used the money to purchase Beaman’s estate, which he renamed “Aspet” and that now makes up the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park.

Something I didn’t known. In addition to the prolific production of relief sculptures, Saint-Gaudens, and later his students, designed considerable coinage, including the ultra-high relief “double eagle” $20 gold coin for the US Mint, thanks to a recommendation from President Theodore Roosevelt.

The Saint-Gaudens site is so much more than his sculptures. There is his studio, the house, beautiful walking grounds and hiking trails, and a small temple where Saint-Gauden and his wife’s ashes are stored. The site is well worth the visit.

[Photos by David J. Kent]

 

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Lincoln-Douglas Debates: On to Jonesboro and Charleston

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After haggling out the arrangements and debates in Ottawa and Freeport in the northern part of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas slowly made their way down to the southern part of the state for two debates in quick succession. Along the way they each gave a myriad of additional individual speeches to smaller venues.

Jonesboro, September 15, 1858

The third official Lincoln-Douglas debate was held in Jonesboro, which was as far south as Freeport had been north. They reflected two vastly different citizenries. Whereas the northern part of Illinois had largely been settled by northeasterners moving west, the southern part of the state was mostly settled by slave state migrants moving north. Unlike Freeport, the sparsely populated Jonesboro (about 1,500 residents) was heavily supportive of the Democratic party views on slavery (i.e., proslavery or pro-accommodating to southern rights to enslave other Americans based on the color of their skin). It’s safe to say that Lincoln was at a disadvantage.

Douglas was well aware of this. He charged Lincoln and the Republicans (which by now Democrats had started to refer to as “Black Republicans”) said one thing in northern Illinois, something different in central Illinois, and something wholly different in the southern part of Illinois. Douglas argued that Lincoln wanted full racial equality, a position that was anathema across Illinois in general and perhaps fatal in the deepest south portions of the state like Jonesboro. Lincoln not only denied he pitched differently in the north and south, but also went on offense to quote documents and speeches by Democrats to demonstrate that it was they, the self-avowed conservative Democrats who had entirely different stories across the state.

Lincoln’s main focus in Jonesboro was to argue that the expansion of slavery into the western territories would endanger the rest of the Union. He pointed out this was already happening as he looked back over the fight over slavery in Missouri, the upheaval over whether slavery could go into the territories taken after the Mexican War, and the resulting “Bleeding Kansas” violence. The only way past the crisis, he said, would be to put slavery on “the course of ultimate extinction.”

Jonesboro Lincoln-Douglas statues

Charleston, September 18,1858

Three days later the two men found themselves about 175 miles northeast in Charleston, where they would begin a wide counterclockwise swing through the remaining four debate sites. Charleston had many southern migrants from slave states but even the more antislavery residents were not in favor of equal political or social rights for African Americans. It was one thing to find slavery abhorrent, yet another to call for full equality. Douglas used this sentiment to his benefit by running a clearly racist campaign overall. In Jonesboro he had accused Lincoln of favoring racial equality. To emphasize Douglas’s constant fearmongering of amalgamation, or worse, his supporters held up a banner that read “Negro equality” with a picture of a white man, a negro woman, and a mulatto child. His goal was to either get Lincoln to declare he was for full equality or to declare he wasn’t for full equality. Admitting the former would have ended Lincoln’s campaign immediately in a time when racism was the norm, even among most abolitionists.

Painted into a corner, Lincoln chose to open the debate by saying that while he was entirely against slavery, he was not “in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” He further added that he thought “there a physical difference” that would “forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so lie, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

That particular passage and similar statements in the other debates continues to be analyzed to this day. Those so inclined to find fault with Lincoln see him as a typical racist. Those more understanding see it as a political hedging to avoid being booed off the platform, or worse, dragged through the streets and perhaps killed. Those more thoughtful analysts see Lincoln as a less racist man of his racist times struggling to maintain political viability to continue the opportunity of ending slavery.

Lincoln had some charges of his own. He accused Douglas of conspiring with Chief Justice Roger Taney, former President Franklin Pierce, and current President James Buchanan to enable the creation of a pro-slavery constitution for Kansas without allowing the actual residents of Kansas to express their views and vote on it. Not surprisingly, Douglas denied it. Douglas did declare that the government should exist as he believed the founders intended, with some states slave and others free.*

These two debates offered distinct contrasts in other ways as well. Jonesboro had the smallest attendance with perhaps 1,500 people present. Charleston had around 12,000 in attendance, including eleven railroad cars of people who traveled from Indiana to hear these two men speak on the most contentious issue of the day.

Charleston Lincoln-Douglas statues

As with all the other of the seven debate sites, statues of Lincoln and Douglas have been erected. In Jonesboro, full-size bronzes of the two men stand on either side of a large limestone boulder carrying a bronze plaque. A “Looking for Lincoln” wayside marker explains the debate. The Charleston site also boasts full-size bronze sculptures, this time with the two men facing each other over rock-like “podiums.” Charleston is also the only site with a Debate Museum on the grounds, where visitors can pose for photos and watch a film that tells the story of the debate.

After Charleston, the next official debate would not occur for almost three weeks in Galesburg, where Lincoln would “go through college” for the very first time.

[Photos of Jonesboro (top) and Charleston (bottom) by David J. Kent.]

 

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Lincoln-Douglas Debates and the Freeport Doctrine

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Freeport Lincoln-Douglas debateLess than a week after their first debate in Ottawa, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas ventured into Freeport, Illinois, for the second of their seven joint debates during the senate election of 1858. By all standards, Freeport turned out to be the most consequential. From it came the Freeport Doctrine.

Freeport sits in the northern part of Illinois, which meant that it was generally settled by northern state migrants and tended to be more antislavery. Lincoln was on safer ground here. The joint debate agreement stipulated that the two candidates would alternate who spoke for the first hour, after which the other candidate had ninety minutes to speak, followed by a thirty-minute wrap up by the first speaker. Since Douglas started in Ottawa, Lincoln got to speak first in Freeport.

He started by answering the seven interrogatories (aka, questions) posed by Douglas in Ottawa. There was some danger to doing so as Douglas had tried to peg Lincoln as a “Black Republican,” that is, a radical leftist and abolitionist who wanted not only the end of slavery but the complete equality in all respects for African Americans. Lincoln as actually a moderate on those points, noting that the U.S. Constitution effectively barred the federal government from abolishing slavery in the states where it already existed. Indeed, all of the northern states that had banned slavery had done so at the state level, and Lincoln and others understood that the same would have to happen for any remaining slave states. In addition, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, while it failed to acknowledge the immorality of slavery, was unfortunately the law of the land. Being an honest man, notwithstanding the danger even in a generally favorable part of Illinois, Lincoln reiterated and responded to Douglas questions:

Question 1. “I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law?”

Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. [Cries of “Good,” “Good.”]

Q. 2. “I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people want them?”

A. I do not now, or ever did, stand pledged against the admission of any more slave States into the Union.

Q. 3. “1 want to know whether he stands pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make?”

A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union, with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make. [Cries of “good,” “good.”]

Q. 4. “I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia?”

A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

Q. 5. “I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States?”

A. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States.

Q. 6. “I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the Missouri Compromise line?”

A. I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories.

Q. 7. “I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to the acquisition of any new territory unless slavery is first prohibited therein?”

A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territory; and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose such acquisition, accordingly as I might think such acquisition would or would not agravate [sic] the slavery question among ourselves. [Cries of good, good.]

After showing he was responsive to Douglas’s questions, Lincoln posed four of his own. He asked:

Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means entirely unobjectionable in all other respects, adopt a State Constitution, and ask admission into the Union under it, before they have the requisite number of inhabitants according to the English bill-some ninety-three thousand-will you vote to admit them? [Applause.]

Q. 2. Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution? [Renewed applause.]

Q. 3. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that States cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing in, adopting and following such decision as a rule of political action? [Loud applause.]

Q. 4. Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory, in disregard of how such acquisition may affect the nation on the slavery question? [Cries of “good,” “good.”]

Feeling pressured to respond truthfully as Lincoln had done, Douglas’s answer to the second question would come back to haunt him.

Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution?

The question directly positioned Douglas’s Popular Sovereignty (from his Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854) against the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision (of 1857). Douglas was forced to choose between alienating those people he required to get reelected to the Illinois Senate or the Southerners he needed in his third run for the presidency two years later. After some obfuscation, Douglas finally responded that people in a territory could keep out slavery despite the Dred Scott decision, which stated that federal and state governments had no authority to exclude slavery because it would deprive slaveholders of their “property” rights without due process.

Southerners, who wanted the ability to expand slavery without limit, had grown concerned that states could choose to exclude slavery in accordance with Douglas’s Popular Sovereignty. They saw the Dred Scott decision as confirming their right to bring slaves wherever they wanted, and now Douglas was saying that was not true, that states could somehow choose not to allow slavery intrusion. This presented a long-term problem for slave-owning states. While they knew that most of the new territories were grossly inadequate for growing cotton, which was still the primary driver of the need for enslaving millions of their fellow Americans based solely on the color of their skin, they recognized that every new slave state would increase their representation in Congress—and their continued power to dictate policy.

Lincoln and Douglas would debate five more times during the campaign. When the votes were counted, Lincoln’s Republican party had won the popular vote and picked up seats in the legislature. But the state legislature, which due to gerrymandering would remain majority Democratic despite the vote totals, was still choosing Senators. Douglas retained his Senate seat. Lincoln likely realized his chances of winning the seat were close to nil because of the legislature’s makeup. When he was asked why he would give Douglas an advantage for Senate reelection, Lincoln replied that he had a longer view in mind: Douglas might win the Senate, but he would lose the presidency. The Freeport Doctrine would see to that.

It would be almost three weeks before the next debate in Jonesboro deep into the southern part of the state and with a significantly different view on slavery than Freeport.

[Photo of Lincoln-Douglas statues in Freeport, IL by David J. Kent.]

 

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Haggling Over Presidential Debate Arrangements: Lincoln-Douglas Edition

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Stephen A. Douglas had been selected by the Illinois State Legislature to serve as senator in the same year that Abraham Lincoln was elected by the people to serve in the House of Representatives. Lincoln would serve only a single term, heading back home to a more pedestrian life as a circuit lawyer. Roused to get back into politics following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which his old rival Douglas had pushed through Congress, Lincoln found himself in 1858 trying to block Douglas’s reelection and become a senator himself. Perhaps if Douglas would agree to a series of debates?

On July 24, Lincoln wrote to Douglas:

“Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences during the present canvass?”

Douglas had little to gain. He was the incumbent senator, highly influential, and the state legislature that made the final senate selection was overwhelmingly gerrymandered to reelect him. He had known Lincoln for two decades and debated him many times. Douglas acknowledged to friends that Lincoln was a formidable debater. Why should he take the risk of debating?

After some hesitation, Douglas responded with a certain amount of indignance and some accusations that Lincoln wanted to include third-party candidates–which Lincoln just as indignantly denied–and some rather whining complaints about the tardiness of asking for joint debates. After more discussion, Douglas offered the following to Lincoln:

“I will, in order to accommodate you as far as it is in my power to do so, take the responsibility of making an arrangement with you for a discussion between us at one prominent point in each Congressional district in the state, excepting the second and sixth districts, where we have both spoken and in each of the cases you had the concluding speech. If agreeable to you I will indicate the following places as those most suitable in the several Congressional districts at which we should speak, to wit, Freeport, Ottawa, Galesburg, Quincy, Alton, Jonesboro & Charleston.”

In his response, Lincoln pointed out that Douglas was not correct that Lincoln “had the concluding speech” in Chicago and Springfield, but notwithstanding this misrepresentation, he accepted the proposed seven joint debates. Douglas followed up on July 30 by stipulating the times and places:

  • Ottawa – August 21
  • Freeport – August 27
  • Jonesboro – September 15
  • Charleston – September 18
  • Galesburg – October 7
  • Quincy – October 13
  • Alton – October 15

Douglas also in that letter agreed to Lincoln’s suggestion that the two of them alternate the opening and closing of the debates, stipulating that:

“I will speak at Ottawa one hour; you can reply occupying an hour and a half and I will then follow for half an hour. At Freeport you shall open the discussion and speak one hour, I will follow for an hour and a half, and you can then reply for half an hour. We will alternate in like manner at each successive place.”

The following day, Lincoln responded in a bit of a whiney tone that “although, by the terms, as you propose, you take four openings and closes to my three, I accede, and thus close the arrangement.”

The debates were on!

[Photo of Lincoln-Douglas statues in Freeport, IL by David J. Kent. This post was originally published at Lincolnian.org]

 

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Lincoln Attends Laying of Cornerstone for the Washington Monument

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Washington MonumentThe fourth of July, our annual anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, has always a day of commemoration. Throughout his life, Abraham Lincoln attended many of these celebrations. But July 4, 1848, was even more special than usual. On that date, Lincoln watched the cornerstone of the new Washington Monument being laid.

Lincoln was serving his single term as a U.S. congressman at that time. It would be a busy 1848 year for him. He had given his “spot resolution” speech on the floor of the House of Representatives a few months earlier and would give another speech on internal improvements in another month or so. By September, he would be stumping across Massachusetts in support of Zachary Taylor’s Whig candidacy for president. But Lincoln was not about miss the groundbreaking for a monument for the father of our country.

That monument was a long time coming. George Washington had completed his second term as president in 1897, after which he moved back to Virginia to live out life on his Mount Vernon estate. He died in December 1899. While plans to erect some sort of monument had started even before his death, but disagreement about its form and cost kept the idea in stasis until it began again in earnest in the 1830s. Funding and design disagreements continued until the idea of a simple, but giant, obelisk began construction in 1848.

As might be expected, a large ceremony accompanied the symbolic laying of the cornerstone. Executive officials, congressmen (including Lincoln), various fire companies, school children, and fraternal organizations. This latter group included the Freemasons, the “secret” society of which Washington had been a member. Originally seen as part of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s grand design for the city, the Monument again ran into funding problems. The core of the monument is made of bluestone gneiss for the foundation and granite for the construction. But that’s just the inside. The outer facing consists of three different kinds of white marble.

Why three kinds of marble? That’s because the lack of funding stopped building progress for many years. The bottom third of the Monument has marble from Baltimore County, constructed from 1848 to 1854. The Monument stump then sat unfinished at a height of 152 feet. And that is what Abraham Lincoln could see every day from the White House as he fought to save the nation during the Civil War. Following the war, Congress eventually appropriated more money, but by this time people were second-guessing the simple design and more embellished plans were submitted. By the time this played out (with the original simple design intact, albeit with some modifications to the foundation to withstand the weight of the additional height) it was 1879. Construction then ran from 1879 to its final completion date in 1888. Initially, marble from Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts was used, but only for a narrow zone just above the original base. The rest of the obelisk was finished using Cockeysville marble coming from the same quarry town as the original.

Lincoln never got to see the Washington Monument completed, but he not only saw the building of the Smithsonian castle, he also spent a lot of time there during the Civil War. The design of the Castle, the first and only building at the time of what is now a vast Smithsonian Institution complex, had been completed prior to Lincoln’s arrival for his single term in Congress. Construction began just as he arrived and was ongoing throughout his term. The East Wing of the Castle was completed about the time Lincoln left Congress, and Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, moved in with his family while construction continued. The West Wing was completed later that year (1849). The exterior took a few more years, finally being completed in 1852 while Lincoln toiled away at his legal practice back in Illinois.

Then came the Civil War and Lincoln came back to Washington as the nation’s president. Joseph Henry became an informal science adviser to Lincoln and several events and signal light tests were done in the Castle. Then tragedy struck just as the four years of horrible war came to a close – the Castle was on fire (read my account of the fire here). One tower was destroyed, along with some of Joseph Henry’s belongings and virtually all of James Smithson’s papers, instruments, and mineral collection.

On the Fourth of July a few years ago, I sat on the hillock at the foot of the Washington Monument. I had spent the day at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival and was now watching the annual fireworks display bursting across the sky between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Both structures had taken some time to complete, but now, with “bombs bursting in air” above them, it was impossible not to be inspired.

Happy 4th of July!

[Photo of Washington Monument taken by David J. Kent]

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

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Rocket Man Abraham Lincoln

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It is no secret to anyone who has read Lincoln: The Fire of Genius that Abraham Lincoln was a fan of advanced weaponry during the Civil War. He would routinely entertain inventors promoting their new device “that would surely end the war tomorrow.” Some of those devices were rockets, and one of them almost killed Lincoln.

On this date in 1864, Lincoln was joined by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox and Senator Orville H. Browning on an excursion from the White House to the Washington Navy Yard. Lincoln frequently visited the Washington Navy Yard to discuss weapons and strategy with Commander John Dahlgren, a like-minded acolyte of technology. On this occasion, according to Browning’s diary, the three men witnessed the “throwing of rockets and signal from six- and twelve-pound guns.” The demonstration went off as planned and no unexpected dangers to the president were evident.

The same cannot be said for another rocket test in late 1862, where Lincoln was perhaps more closely involved than anticipated. This time Lincoln had been joined by Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase on the trip to the Navy Yard, where Dahlgren had planned for them to observe the testing of a Hyde rocket. The Hyde was an improvement of the Congreve rockets that had been used for many decades. It was “red glare” of the Congreve rocket and “bombs bursting in air” that had allowed Francis Scott Key to see “proof through the night that our flag was still there” during the British attack on Fort McHenry in 1814. But the Congreve was little more than a bottle rocket on a stick and unsuitable for the current Civil War. Since then, English inventor William Hale had created a much more advanced rocket using side vents allowing the release of propulsion gases, which caused the rocket to rotate in flight, thus improving its stability, distance, and precision. Hale’s rocket had been introduced in the United States by Joshua Burrows Hyde and received limited use during the Mexican American War of the 1840s. It was an improved version of this newly renamed Hyde rocket that Lincoln and companions were at the Navy Yard to observe.

Hyde rocket patent

The initial launching of the Hyde rocket didn’t go as planned. Rather than arcing across the Anacostia River, the rocket exploded in a fury of fire and smoke. Luckily for all present, the rocket had exploded without even leaving the launcher, thus containing most of the shrapnel and no one was injured. Lincoln would return to the White House while the operator, Lt. Commander William Mitchell, investigated the incident. Two days later, Mitchell was ready to try again. This time, Lincoln, Seward, and Chase remained safely ensconced in the White House, which turned out to be a good decision. The Hyde rocket managed to leave the launcher without exploding, but rather than hitting its intended target it flew out of control and landed on the roof of a nearby blacksmith shop, where again luckily it caused no further damage.

At this point the idea was mothballed and Hyde, although patenting it the following year, gave up on the idea. He did, however, contribute to the war effort in other ways, focusing his later efforts on improving smaller guns and cannons with much better success.

Abraham Lincoln would continue to encourage the development of new weapons throughout the war, which I discuss in more depth in Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. As for rockets, they played only a small role in the Civil War and would have to wait for future wars to be further developed into the weapons of mass destruction we use today.

[Photo of Hyde’s 1863 rocket patent, Google patent and Robert Pohl, 2018]

 

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

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The Two “Republican” Conventions of 1864

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Abraham LincolnThings were not looking good for Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party in 1864. The populace was fatigued from over three years of bloody war with no end in sight. Lincoln had finally found a general “who fights” in Ulysses S. Grant, but even Grant was bogged down with a series of inconclusive – and horribly bloody – battles in the Wilderness, Petersburg, the Crater, Cold Harbor. And where the heck was William Tecumseh Sherman, who had gone radio-silent in his march across the South.

Then there was the Republican in-fighting. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase was intriguing behind the scenes to undermine Lincoln’s nomination for reelection. And the Radical Republicans thought Lincoln was too moderate on slavery and racial equality and may not win a second term. Even Lincoln was having doubts. The uncertainty led to a splitting of the party, at least temporarily, and two conventions that were each Republican but called something else.

While Chase backed down, the Radicals in the party sought an alternative candidate. Coming together in Cleveland in May 1864, the Radical Republicans rebranded as the Radical Democracy Party. They nominated the Republican Party’s 1856 presidential nominee, John C. Fremont for president and War Democrat John Cochrane for vice president. Their platform called for a continuation of the war without compromise, a constitutional amendment banning slavery and authorizing equal rights, confiscation of rebel property, congressional control of reconstruction, and a one-term limit on the presidency.

A week later, the rest of the Republican Party, especially those who supported Lincoln for a second term, met on June 7-8, 1864, in Baltimore. Feeling pressured by the split in their own party (with memories of how the Democrats had split in 1860 into Northern and Southern factions, thus ensuring their loss), the Lincoln Republicans sought to broaden their appeal and reflect the national character of the war while providing a place for War Democrats. Like the other Republican faction, this one rebranded itself into the National Union Party. They nominated Abraham Lincoln for president and Democrat Andrew Johnson as vice president. The party platform made many of the same points as the Radical Republicans had, including winning the war, destruction of the Confederacy, and a constitutional amendment ending slavery (although not equal rights or a one-term limit). All parts of the Republican Party agreed on the basic principles, if not some of the more contentious details.

The change in vice presidents was driven by the perceived need to present a more inclusive party. Baltimore convention delegates felt that Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln’s first vice president, was superfluous. Vice presidents had little to do anyway, but by 1864 the state of Maine was firmly for the union, meaning Hamlin would not bring any substantive new voting cohort to the ticket. Hamlin had leaned more radical, yet had been, and no doubt would have continued to be, loyal to the Lincoln administration. But the delegates felt outreach to the Democrats necessary to assure reelection. Andrew Johnson, at least on paper, seemed a perfect fit. A senator from Tennessee when the war started, he was the only southern senator to remain loyal to the United States when his state seceded. Lincoln would make him the territorial governor of Tennessee during the war, at least that part that had been recaptured by Union forces. Johnson also talked a good game when it came to being hard on the Southern elite he despised (mostly because he had been a poor tailor, and they were rich landowners). He seemed a textbook companion candidate, especially since he likely would not have much of a role for the next four years. That choice would come back to haunt the party and the nation.

So now the Republicans/National Union Party had Lincoln in place to run for a second term. That still left John C. Fremont out there as a potential spoiler. Fremont was not all that happy with Lincoln, who had unceremoniously rescinded Fremont’s emancipation order early in the war and removed him from service. But as the summer progressed, the Radical Republicans/Radical Democracy Party failed to get much traction. None of the Republican newspapers supported Fremont and most Republicans continued to back Lincoln for reelection. Then on September 2, 1864, General Sherman resurfaced to announce he had captured Atlanta on his “march to the sea.” Realizing their lack of support, and that being a spoiler would be disastrous, Fremont and Cochrane withdrew from the race on September 21, 1864. Fremont remained critical of Lincoln, and, behind the scenes, his withdrawal may have been part of a deal with Lincoln in which Radical Republicans forced the removal of Postmaster General Montgomery Blair from the cabinet.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, now driven entirely by Southern slave interests, managed to shoot itself in the foot (so to speak). They fervently backed a party platform calling for an end of the war at all costs, most likely by a negotiated peace with no end to slavery and recognition of the Confederacy as a separate country. They then nominated Lincoln’s former General-in-Chief, George B. McClellan for president. McClellan immediately disavowed his own party’s platform to avoid looking like the Democrats were ready to dismiss the sacrifices all who gave their lives in the war (some 750,000 combined). McClellan’s renunciation was effectively negated by the Democrats’ choice of George H. Pendleton as the vice-presidential nominee. Pendleton was a protégé of Clement Vallandigham, leader of the Copperhead faction of the Democratic Party, a faction seen by many as traitorous to the Union.

By early fall, Lincoln’s chances started to seem much better.

Still, the election is never over until the votes are cast. The people still had to vote, and many of them were out in the trenches fighting a war.

[NOTE: On October 15th, join the Lincoln Group of DC as David J. Kent and Ed Epstein lead a discussion of the critical election of 1864. As discussed above, just getting the candidates straight was a complicated chore, but there is much more to the election story. You won’t want to miss it!]

 

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

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Join Me for the White House Historical Association History Happy Hour, June 6, 2024

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History Happy Hour logo

Join me on Thursday, June 6, 2024, for the White House Historical Association’s History Happy Hour. The program is free and begins at 6 pm ET. Register Here to receive the Zoom link.

The White House Historical Association (WHHA) is “a private, nonprofit, educational organization with a mission to enhance the understanding and appreciation of the Executive Mansion.” One of their many initiatives is History Happy Hour, which enables experts to present topics related to the White House and the presidency. True to its name, the Happy Hour begins with a cocktail created by Fernando Sousa on behalf of the program’s sponsor, Diageo North America, from their headquarters in New York City.

My program riffs off my most recent book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. I will talk about how Abraham Lincoln helped institutionalize science and modernized America. Lincoln had a lifelong fascination with science and technology and was the only president with a patent. He advocated for technological advancement as a legislator in Illinois and Washington D.C. and became the “go-to” Western lawyer on technology and patent cases during his legal career. For this presentation, I’ll focus on how, during the Civil War, Lincoln drew upon his commitment to science and personally encouraged inventors while taking dramatic steps to institutionalize science via the Smithsonian Institution, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Department of Agriculture.

My guest moderator for the program is John O’Brien, who, like me, is a past president of the Lincoln Group of DC. John will introduce me and then feed me questions from the audience after my presentation. The entire program will take only about 50 minutes, during which we are sure to have a little fun (especially if the audience pours themselves a little “happy hour” refreshment along with Fernando Sousa).

The program is presented virtually via Zoom so pre-registration is required to receive the Zoom link. There is no charge for the program. Register Here.

I hope you will join me. Normally there are around 400 participants in these programs, so I am asking for all Lincoln and science aficionados to sign up!

Register Here!

 

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

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Abraham Lincoln: The Only President with a Patent

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Lincoln Patent ModelAbraham Lincoln is the only U.S. president to own a patent. His idea for “an improved method of lifting vessels over shoals” was given Patent No. 6369 on May 22, 1849. The development of the patent stemmed from his personal experience getting his flatboat hung up on the New Salem mill dam and his observation of a steamship run aground in the shallows of the Detroit River passing Fighting Island. He watched as the captain of the steamship Canada ordered his crew to collect “all the loose planks, empty barrels, boxes, and the like which could be had” and force them under her hull to buoy the ship higher in the water. Ever the inquisitive one, Lincoln was enthralled with the ongoing operation. The incident got him thinking seriously about how to solve this particular kind of problem.

Combining his own experiences and some self-study, Lincoln settled on the physics concept of displacement. He probably picked up the basic idea of displacement in his early studies of geometry when preparing to be a surveyor. Displacement in geometric terms is simply the straight-line distance from one position to another. When applied to ships, this translates into the distance a vessel sinks into the water before its weight equalizes with the pressure of the water pushing up. A ship is said to have a certain degree of buoyancy, defined simply as the ability of something to float in a liquid, usually water.

To raise a ship that has run aground, another concept of physics is employed—the Archimedes principle. Archimedes was an ancient Greek mathematician and physicist who lived in the third century BCE. Among his many discoveries, besides deriving an accurate approximation of π (pi), was the principle of buoyancy that bears his name. In his treatise On Floating Bodies, Archimedes states: “Any object, totally or partially immersed in a fluid or liquid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.” He supposedly discovered this principle after noticing that the level of water in his tub rose as he got in to take a bath, realizing this effect could be used to determine the volume of any irregularly shaped object. In practice, displacement is the occupation of a submerged body (like the hull of a ship) that would otherwise be occupied by a liquid, or the weight of fluid that would fill the volume displaced by a floating ship. This is measured in tons, which is why a ship’s size is usually referred to in tonnage.

According to Herndon, Lincoln had watched intently how the Canada’s captain used the power of displacement to buoy up the stranded vessel. Empty casks contain air, much lighter than the displacement of water. As additional lighter-than-water materials were placed under the hull, the ship gradually lifted until it was clear of the sandbar. Lincoln recognized intuitively the application of the Archimedes principle, that the objective of underwater vehicle flotation systems was to counteract the weight of the vessel pushing down with some additional buoyancy pushing up. The wooden planks, boxes, barrels, and casks would provide that buoyancy. As Lincoln continued on his way, he undoubtedly pondered deeply the problem of getting stranded vessels afloat. There had to be a better way. Obsessed with the idea, Lincoln decided to invent that better way.

For his design to lift stranded vessels, Lincoln decided on “expansible buoyant chambers placed at the sides of a vessel . . . in such a manner that . . . the buoyant chambers will be forced downwards into the water and at the same time expanded and filled with air for buoying up the vessel by the displacement of water.” Fleshing out his idea to get the design in line with the physics, Lincoln worked with a Springfield mechanic named Walter Davis to build a working model of the device. How much of the model Lincoln himself manufactured is uncertain, but at the very least he fashioned the central pillars. When it was finished, Lincoln showed off the model in “the big water trough at the corner opposite” his office in downtown Springfield. One witness noted that the four-foot model was set afloat in the trough, then forced downward with bricks to simulate a grounding. Lincoln “then applied the air pumps modeled like the old fire bellows, four in number, two on each side that were beneath the lower or first deck and in a few moments, it slowly rose above the water about six inches.” The gathered crowd, although much impressed, was not entirely convinced the device would help open up the Sangamon River for navigation, but they gave him three cheers for the entertainment value.

When Lincoln returned to Washington for another session of Congress, he sought out Zenas C. Robbins, an experienced patent agent, to help navigate the cumbersome patent process. “He walked into my office one morning with a model of a western steamboat under his arm,” reported Robbins. “After a friendly greeting he placed his model on my office-table and proceeded to explain the principles embodied therein and what he believed was his own invention, and which, if new, he desired to secure by letters patent.” Robbins helped Lincoln create the necessary drawings and paperwork, and the patent application was submitted on March 10, 1849.

While the theoretical concept of the invention was simple, the actual mechanism to achieve buoyancy was somewhat unwieldy, as was the ninety-six-word opening sentence of his application:

Be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, of Springfield, in the county of Sangamon, in the state of Illinois, have invented a new and improved manner of combining adjustable buoyant air chambers with a steam boat or other vessel for the purpose of enabling their draught of water to be readily lessened to enable them to pass over bars, or through shallow water, without discharging their cargoes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being made to the accompanying drawings making a part of this specification.

His astounding grasp of both the necessary physics and the intricacy of the design is demonstrated in three accompanying figures—a side elevation, a transverse section, and a longitudinal vertical section—that show the placement of the buoyant chambers on the sides of the vessel.

“Each buoyant chamber,” he explains, “is composed of plank or metal, of suitable strength and stiffness, and the flexible sides and ends of the chambers, are composed of India-rubber cloth, or other suitable waterproof fabric, securely united to the edges and ends of the top and bottom of the chambers.” These are in effect inflatable rubber bellows held in place within a strong collapsible frame that can be raised or lowered as needed. “A suitable number of vertical shafts or spars” would be secured to the bottom part of the bellows and to a main shaft passing horizontally through the center of the vessel. Ropes wound around the main shaft would, upon turning, raise or lower the vertical spars, thus inflating or deflating the chambers.

And on he went, describing in great detail every aspect of the system: how the bellows were to be operated, how the devices were attached to the vessel, how the system of ropes and pulleys was used to manipulate the positioning of the spars. Lincoln even considered the scalability of the design such that it could be operated by manpower on smaller vessels or by steam power on larger steamships. He incorporated enough flexibility in the design to cover a range of mechanical arrangements, thus providing broader protection for his patent. What he claimed as his patent was not to be limited by the specific design shown in the drawings, but the “combination of expansible buoyant chambers placed at the sides of the vessel” and a system to deploy them as needed. When finished, “the buoyant chambers will be contracted into a small space and secured against injury.”

Lincoln had used his still growing knowledge of hydraulics, hydrology, mechanics, and construction to successfully develop an application for “an improved method of lifting vessels over shoals.” After submitting the application, Lincoln put his focus back on his responsibilities as U.S. congressman, which included drafting a bill that would have emancipated enslaved people in the District of Columbia if it had passed. A year earlier Congress had passed a new patent law that gave sole power of issuing patents to the commissioner of patents and increased the salaries of examiners to $2,500 per year, thus increasing the professionalism of the office. A law passed the following year moved the patent office from the State Department to the newly created Department of Interior (originally called the Home Department).

On April 13, Robbins wrote excitedly to Lincoln: “It affords me great pleasure to inform you that I have obtained a favorable decision on your application. . . . The patent will be issued in about a month.” On May 22, Abraham Lincoln received Patent Number 6469 from the U.S. Patent Office, the only president ever to receive a patent. A few weeks later, Lincoln recommended his model creator, Walter Davis, be appointed receiver of the Land Office in Springfield. While he had regaled Herndon with his belief of “the revolution it was destined to work in steamboat navigation,” Lincoln made no attempt to commercialize the invention. In truth, the apparatus was probably heavy enough in itself to weigh down the vessel, plus presented a potentially insurmountable array of ropes and pulleys on the deck that might limit room for cargo or crew movement. Still, the overall concept of inflatable chambers or pontoons has been employed in more recent times to raise sunken ships, so there is some merit to Lincoln’s design even if he never promoted it.

The original patent drawings, lost at some point, were rediscovered in 1997 in the patent office director’s office. The original model is stored in the Smithsonian Institution’s vault. A second model, and possibly a third, may also exist. Clark Moulton Smith, who was married to Mary Lincoln’s sister Ann, found the second model in the attic of Lincoln’s Springfield home shortly after his assassination. The model was given to Shurtleff College in Alton but disappeared after the college closed in 1957. In 1864, Adam S. Cameron requested Lincoln’s consent to reproduce the model for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission. Given Lincoln’s prominence, the model was sure to fetch considerably donations that the commission would use to support sick and wounded Union soldiers, according to Cameron. There is no evidence this third model was ever created.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius]

 

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 and the Permanent Commission of the Navy

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Lincoln testing a SpencerLincoln’s enthusiasm for mathematics, science, and technology made him a national sounding board for innovations, but he simply could not handle all the inventors pouring letters into his mailbox or showing up at the White House expecting a stamp of approval for their miraculous “war-ending invention.” Unlike today, there was no military-industrial complex developing new weapons during the Civil War. When it came to innovation, the government relied on “the chance, unreliable labors of inventors and amateurs of science” who “literally besieged official Washington after the outbreak of the war.”

Probably with Lincoln’s knowledge, Joseph Henry proposed to Secretary Welles an advisory board to serve as a more efficient mechanism for evaluating new ideas to aid the war effort. The navy had earlier tried a similar idea with its Naval Examining Board, but it failed in six months due to insufficient funding. By early 1863 Welles was willing to implement Henry’s idea, in part because any experimental research would be conducted by the originator, not the navy. With Lincoln’s approval, Welles created the Permanent Commission of the Navy Department “to which all subjects of a scientific character on which the Government may require information may be referred.” The three-member commission—Henry was joined by equally ubiquitous Alexander Dallas Bache (superintendent of the Coast Survey) and Charles Henry Davis (chief of the Bureau of Navigation)—met several times a week to evaluate the stream of proposals. After more than three dozen meetings in the first few months, Henry grumbled to Harvard botanist Asa Gray that his duties on the commission were overwhelming; the commission “occupied nearly all my time” other than that devoted to Smithsonian business.

From its creation in early 1863, the commission evaluated over three hundred proposals ranging from warship designs to underwater guns to torpedoes, all of which their originators claimed would immediately end the war in the Union’s favor. Despite the optimism of the inventors, mostly these ideas were oversold and underperforming. After the war, Henry bragged that the Permanent Commission kept the government “from rushing into many schemes which, under guise of patriotism, were intended to advance individual interest.”

The commission relieved Lincoln of the steady stream of inventors that had besieged him since the beginning of the war, but it did not stop all of them. Lincoln continued to receive letters and visits for the remainder of the war, and the always curious commander-in-chief continued to personally test some of the weapons that came his way. As the burdens of war became overwhelming, more and more often Lincoln would refer inventors to the Permanent Commission or directly to the military personnel most likely capable of evaluating the proposal.

And yet inventors still badgered Lincoln even after their proposal had been evaluated by the commission, either because the commission had refused their self-professed miraculous discovery or because a decision was bogged down in endless bureaucratic delay. John H. Schenk angrily wrote to Lincoln in early 1864 complaining he had been waiting a year to get approvals, yet the evaluation “is still throttled nearly to death with Red tape.” A few months later, John D. Hall wrote to Lincoln about his idea to lay cable across waterways to cut enemy obstructions lower than the keel of Union ironclads. He had originally written to Gideon Welles, who forwarded it to the Permanent Commission, and now impatiently was writing Lincoln. He complained that “notwithstanding these devices are so simple that any mechanical mind may easily comprehend them in the space of ten minutes of time,” he had yet to receive any report after thirty days. He asked Lincoln to speed up the acceptance. He received a reply that his invention was under consideration. Sometimes even Lincoln’s positive intervention had no effect. Inventor Peter Yates had proposed an “Improvement on Steam Engines” that was the subject of several letters between Yates, Lincoln, Welles, and the members of the commission. In the end, Charles Henry Davis grumbled to Welles that the “invention has not been described with sufficient clearness to be perfectly understood,” but based on what he could infer, “the loss of power which this invention is intended to prevent does not exist.”

On the other hand, Thomas Schuebly wrote Lincoln in late 1863 enthusiastically thanking him for supporting development of his new “impregnable” ironclad steamer, which the Permanent Commission told him to build at his own expense. Testing of this new ironclad, Schuebly cautioned in his letter, would be delayed slightly. It apparently was never built.

Despite its name, the Permanent Commission petered into nonexistence midway into 1865 as new weaponry became less important than mass manufacture of conventional rifles for the postwar occupation. The idea has been resurrected over the years as new wars required evaluation of new technology. One such board, the Naval Consulting Board, was chaired by Thomas Edison during World War I and led to the creation of the internally integrated Naval Research Laboratory, which still exists in Washington, DC.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius]

 

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.