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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the war came.

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

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

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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A Trek to Burana Tower and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

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One of the stops on my region tour of several Silk Road (aka, “Stan”) countries was the Burana Tower in the Chuy Valley outside of Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. Less than a two-hour drive from the center of town, with a grand view of the Tien Shan Mountains overlooking the plains, the tower is all that remains of the ancient city of Balasagun, established in the 9th century. The tower is actually a minaret from an ancient mosque.

Or more accurately, part of a minaret. Originally around 150 feet tall, a 15th century earthquake toppled the top half, leaving the current structure at just over 80 feet. Since the remains reflect the wider bottom portion without the visually thinner top portion of most minarets, Burana Tower has a stumpy look to it. Restoration in the 1970s secured the centuries of decay, and now visitors can climb an external metal spiral staircase up to the entrance to an internal winding, dark stairway (not for claustrophobes) up to a view platform on the top. A closer look at the outside shows the intricacies of the design.

The Tower stands alone but is not the only artifact worth the trip out to the site. There are explanatory signs detailing the history of Balasagun leading to a small museum full of remnants from the ancient city. The museum also has a photograph of a model recreating the ancient city. Behind it is a graveyard where you can see the varied gravestones (many are literally carved stones) of centuries of former inhabitants. The seemingly amorphous mound behind the tower is easy to climb and doing so reveals the remnants of the ancient castle. Entering a large yurt gives a sense of how the founding Karakhanids lived.  Overall, it’s an amazing site and well worth the visit.

 

 

If you haven’t already, check out previous posts about the controversial cotton and silk industries of Uzbekistan and the incredible light show in Samarkand.

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

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius]

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

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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The Controversial Cotton and Silk Industries in Uzbekistan

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Silk needlework in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, 2023It took two or three days into my visit to Uzbekistan for the subject of the controversial cotton growing industry to come up. We also discussed the silk industry that made the country a key stop in the old Silk Road. Uzbekistan is the largest electricity producer in Central Asia, mainly due to the abundant natural gas reserves and huge Soviet-era power-generation plants. They also are the seventh largest global producer of gold, with copper and uranium not far behind. At first glance (and even second glance), Uzbekistan seems too arid to grow cotton. But cotton production is actually one of most important contributors to the Uzbek economy, accounting for about a fifth of its exports.

Decades of Soviet policies to increase cotton production have done severe damage to the Uzbek environment, with agriculture being the main contributor to air and water pollution. Adding in other damaging practices and the growing regional population and industry also contributed to the factors that are shrinking the Aral Sea. Much of the water was, and continues to be, drained for use in irrigating cotton fields. There is also a global concern that Uzbekistan (and others in the region) are using child labor to pick cotton, with the World Bank funding implicated in maintaining the practice. Our guide, when asked for comment, noted that it is the parents who are employed and sometimes children help out because they obviously have to travel with the parents during picking seasons. He insisted that changes have been made to avoid what some activists estimate to be 1.2 million “modern slaves” in Uzbekistan. As always, the reality is more complicated, and it is difficult to get an accurate accounting.

Less controversial is the Uzbek silk industry. The ancient cities of Bukhara and Samarkand were important centers of government and high culture as early as the 5th century BCE, and certainly by the 13th century when Venetian Marco Polo was traveling the area. We got a close up of the silk production process while in Bukhara.

As most people know, silk is a protein fiber produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons, the intermediate stage between caterpillar and moth (although silk can also be produced by some types of bees, flies, beetles, and spiders). The best-known silk comes from the cocoons of the mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori), which is found naturally on mulberry bushes in Uzbekistan, but usually reared in great quantities in captivity. The unique triangular prism-like structure of the silk fiber is what gives silk its shimmering appearance.

Dyes for silk, Bukhara, Uzbekistan

At one stop in Bukhara, we saw a display of the stages of development of the moth that creates the silk. We also saw how the soft cocoon is spun into a surprisingly coarse flaxen-feeling fiber before further spinning and processing creates a finer thread. Over a hundred mulberry leaves must be eaten by over 3,000 silkworms to produce only 1 kg of silk. The final threads and yarn is incredibly soft and can be dyed into many brilliant colors with dyes derived from a variety of natural vegetation.

We watched one woman doing needlework on a large piece of cotton, painstakingly stitching from one side to another. They also stitch silk on silk, an even more intricate process that takes many hours, days, and even weeks depending on the size of the cloth being embroidered. It was a fascinating process. It was also hard not to purchase something after watching all the work that went into its making, so many in my group (including myself) bought various stitched cloth, scarfs, and more.

One of the benefits of international travel is the opportunity to see local artisans actually making the products. Too often we head to the dollar store to buy something mass produced (often without any human contribution) and don’t appreciate the time and skill that go into hand-made wares. Learning about other cultures is a large part of why I travel, and why we all should travel. As Mark Twain has been reported to say, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness….”

I’m still sorting through my “stan” travel photos, so expect more posts in the future. I’ve already booked a trip to Botswana for next summer and will likely have much more before (and after) then. And there is plenty of Abraham Lincoln in the works, so stay tuned.

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

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Samarkand, Uzbekistan – The Light Show

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Samarkand, UzbekistanSamarkand was one of the stops on my recent travels to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. [Read more about that here] With over half a million inhabitants, Samarkand is the capital of its region, the second largest city in Uzbekistan, and a center of historical Islamic scholarly study. While the actual date of its founding is a bit fuzzy, most people agree that it came into being during the 7th and 8th centuries BCE, taking full advantage of its location on the Silk Road between China, Persia, and Europe. It was an important city in the Persian Empire, and indeed the primary language is Tajik, a dialect of the Persian language (aka, Farsi). It was from Samarkand that we traveled across the nearby border into Tajikistan.

One of its most notable sites in Samarkand is Registan Square, which means “sandy” or “desert” in Farsi. The square is encased by three madrasahs, or schools, of different periods: the Ulugh Beg Madrasah (1417–1420), the Sher-Dor Madrasah (1619–1636), and the Tilya-Kori Madrasah (1646–1660). Today all three are used for tourism and educational purposes rather than actual schools, and it’s common to see shops and even small bazaars housed in the old buildings, all of which have undergone extensive restoration. The first madrasah (on the left) houses a wonderful museum of the scientific and historical heritage of Uzbekistan and the surrounding regions. I’ll have more on that in a following post. For the current post I wanted to show part of the light show we were lucky to see that evening.

The show traced the long and storied history of the region. The video shows only the first five minutes of what was a more than 20 minute program. There is a narrative that is hard to hear behind the music, but the lights and 3-D video displays are fascinating in themselves.

The Uzbekistan part of the trip started in the capital of Tashkent, went on to Samarkand (with the side trip to Tajikistan), then to the even more ancient city of Bukhara. The three cities were all accessible by a modern bullet train, making travel easy. We then flew from Bukhara back to Tashkent for an overnighter before flying again from Tashkent to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. More on those later.

Visiting parts of the Silk Road (I’ve been to other parts in the past) was a fascinating experience. I also had a quick tour of Istanbul on the way there. It’s nice to be back, but even while still on the trip plans were being made for another long trip next summer that will take me back to Africa (I was in Tanzania last year).

Stay tuned for more!

[Photo Credit: David J. Kent, 2023]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Lincoln Sees His First Civil War Balloon

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

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

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

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

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius]

[Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution archives]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Reflections on a Decade of Writing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On to another decade in the writer’s life.

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

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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John C. Fremont Was a Problem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Mary and Robert Lincoln Go to Manchester, Vermont

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HildeneMary Lincoln hated Washington, especially during the pestilent humidity of the capital city during the heat of summer. It’s the reason President Lincoln moved to the soldier’s home (now President Lincoln’s Cottage) each summer, beginning with 1862 after Willie’s death earlier that year. Mary would take Tad northward, often to New York and into New England, usually to be joined by Robert during his summer break from his studies at Harvard College. In 1863 they traveled to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, then in August of 1864 Robert met his mother and brother in the Green Mountains of Vermont. He intended to return with the president in the summer of 1865, but the assassination kept that from happening. Notwithstanding, the 1864 trip would capture Robert’s fancy enough to return decades later to build his own summer cottage known as Hildene.

On their visit in 1864, the Lincoln family (minus the President, who was busy trying to save the Union), stayed at the Equinox House Hotel in Manchester. Manchester is in southwestern Vermont in Bennington County, home to the Robert Frost Stone House Museum, where the poet wrote some of the poems that garnered him four Pulitzer Prizes. It’s unknown whether Robert Lincoln ever met Robert Frost, although Frost frequented the area in the 1920s when Lincoln was in the final years of his life. In any case, Robert Lincoln had many opportunities to become familiar with the area long after his initial visit with his mother. In the 1890s, he commonly visited his Chicago law partner, Edward S. Isham, who had a large estate called Ormsby Hill just outside of town. Following Isham’s death, Lincoln returned for a two week stay at the Equinox Hotel and decided to buy land – conveniently adjacent to Ormsby Hill – to build “a modest summer place.” He named the resulting 24-room Georgian estate Hildene, combining the Old English words for hill (Hil) and valley (dene), reflecting the highland and lowland portions of the now 412-acre property.

Earlier this year I also traveled to Vermont, roughly following the route Robert would have followed as he made his way from Harvard. Even today the environment remains pristine. It’s no wonder Robert Frost was inspired to write his most famous poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” while living at the Stone House. After a brief pilgrimage to Frost’s house, I moved on to my main goals in Manchester – the Equinox and Hildene.

I had booked a room at the Equinox Golf Resort and Spa because I wanted to feel the presence of Mary, Tad, and Robert as they enjoyed the time away from the constant trials of civil war. The Equinox was expanded in 1980 but retains the original portions where the Lincoln’s stayed. The sprawling, but intensely beautiful, white edifice now sprawls across several buildings while maintaining its historic charm. The Equinox Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s impossible not to be awed by the history. My visit to Hildene wasn’t until the next morning so I had time to wander around Manchester to visit the compelling River Walk and Veterans Park, hit up the local independent bookstore (for Lincoln books, of course), and take in a late lunch at the quaint Mystic Restaurant.

When I finally did get to Hildene it was easy to see why Robert Lincoln felt at home there. Built when he was still president of the Pullman sleeping car company, Robert maintained his house in Chicago, then later when he was Secretary of War to two presidents, a house in Washington, D.C. But Hildene was where he went to relax. The home itself is cozy despite its two-dozen rooms (some of which were for his servants). While he did do some work there, he wanted it not as a show house for guests but as a retreat to escape the madness of corporate and government life. He even built himself an observatory where he could gaze at the stars. After Robert’s death in 1926, the house remained in the family, with his granddaughter, Mary Lincoln Beckwith (who everyone called Peggy), the last Lincoln descendant to live at Hildene. She died in 1975, leaving the property (at least briefly) to the Church of Christ, Scientist in accordance with her grandmother’s wishes. It wasn’t long before Hildene was transferred to the nonprofit Friends of Hildene that now owns and runs it.

There is much more about Hildene to talk about, including the Pullman car and goat farm, but I’ll save those for another day. Peggy herself deserves some discussion as she reminds me of another woman I admired, Katharine Hepburn.

[Photo: Hildene, 2023, 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 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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“I am Not a Know-Nothing, That is Certain”

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Abraham Lincoln photoIn 1855, the Whig Party had all but fallen apart. Always a Whig in politics, Lincoln was deciding whether to join the new Republican Party. The American Party, called the Know-Nothings because of their habit of denying any knowledge if asked about the party, had also been making inroads with a platform based on bigotry toward foreigners and Catholics (often Irish immigrants). In a letter written August 24, 1855, he tells his longtime friend Joshua Speed that “I am not a Know-Nothing. That is Certain. How could I be? How can anyone who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favoring of degrading classes of white people?”

The letter to Speed covers a lot of ground and I encourage people to read the entire letter. In it he gently chastises his most intimate male friend, who has returned to his native Kentucky to get married and run the family plantation, complete with enslaved workers. The issue of Kansas entering the Union as a free state was a hot topic at the time, and Lincoln calls out Speed on his actions not matching his rhetoric:

You say if Kansas fairly votes herself a free state, as a Christian you will rather rejoice at it. All decent slaveholders talk that way; and I do not doubt their candor. But they never vote that way. Although in a private letter, or conversation, you will express your preference that Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no man for Congress who would say the same thing publicly. No such man could be elected from any district in any slave-state.

In other words, slaveholders who claim to believe in liberty don’t back up their claims.

Responding to Speed’s query as to where Lincoln himself stands on the issues, Lincoln responds with:

I think I am a Whig; but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an abolitionist. When I was at Washington I voted for the Wilmot Proviso as good as forty times, and I never heard of anyone attempting to unWhig me for that. I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery.

After reiterating that he was not a Know-Nothing, Lincoln laments the state of our democracy:

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.” When it comes to this, I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty—to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

Lincoln does, of course, join the new Republican Party, which is made up of antislavery Whigs and likeminded Democrats, Free-Soilers, Liberty Party, and even the segment of Know-Nothings who are antislavery. The Republican focus is on keeping slavery out of the western territories (and eventually the District of Columbia), acknowledging that the Constitution does not provide the authority for federal abolition of slavery in the states in which it already existed. Lincoln had been reelected to the Illinois state legislature in 1854 without his consent, and refused to accept so he could run for Senate. Almost winning the seat (state legislature politics kept him out), he then received 110 votes for the 1856 vice presidential nomination, losing out to William Dayton. In 1858 he ran as a Republican against old rival Stephen A. Douglas for the other Senate seat, again losing out to legislative politics despite the Republicans winning the popular vote in the state. In 1860, Lincoln beat Douglas and two other candidates to become our 16th president. And the war came.

[Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

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.