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Juneteenth and the Freedman’s Memorial

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Emancipation MemorialOn June 19th, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger entered Galveston, Texas and discovered that somehow word had not previously been communicated to the enslaved people that they were free in accordance with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation effective January 1, 1863. With Granger’s General Order No. 3, June the 19th came to represent the end of slavery in America, and as such became an African American holiday called Juneteenth.

Technically, the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t a sufficient post-war protector of freedom and actual permanent freedom was only guaranteed by ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865. But the date stuck because of its immediate meaning and has been celebrated by African Americans since that time, ebbing and flowing in response to societal suppression or promotion. Some local governments and states acknowledged the holiday, and more recently the trend is for more governments and companies have established the day as an official holiday or day off from work. Juneteenth is one element of a long history related to the attainment of equal rights for African Americans and all Americans, although our nation has also been plagued by historical and continuing systemic racism.

One aspect of that history that remains controversial today is the Freedman’s Memorial in Washington, DC. Often referred to as the “Emancipation Memorial” or “Freedom’s Memorial” or even “Lincoln and Emancipation,” the statue by sculptor Thomas Ball was erected in Lincoln Park east of the U.S. Capitol. It depicts Abraham Lincoln standing over an enslaved black man being released from his shackles and beginning the slow rise to equality. The face of the African American man represents that of a real person, Archer Alexander. Frederick Douglass was the keynote speaker at the 1876 dedication, which was also attended by President Ulysses S. Grant. Importantly, the funding of the statue was solely provided by freedmen (and women), with the first $5 donated by former slave Charlotte Scott of Virginia. While they didn’t have a say in the final design, the statue represents the efforts of African Americans to commemorate their emancipation from centuries of forced servitude.

Much of the controversy stems from the positioning of the figures, in particular the apparent subservient position of Archer Alexander. The original concept of Lincoln freeing the slaves and the depiction of now formerly enslaved men to rise seems to have been lost from current understanding. Another problem with today’s interpretation is the tendency to cherry pick from Frederick Douglass’s dedication speech, a wonderful oratory that delved into the complex relationships between Lincoln, Grant, former slaves, and the continuing struggle for equality. As the statue was being dedicated, so too was the Reconstruction period coming to an end. Whereas Reconstruction had guaranteed the rights of African Americans, the Jim Crow era that arose in response sought to destroy those rights. As W.E.B. Dubois said, “the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” Alas, our long history of systemic racism continues to this day.

Emancipation Memorial

As we celebrate Juneteenth 2020 we are again faced with the realization that racism and inequality are not an artifact of the past; they are a fact of reality today. This again offers us an opportunity to better understand our history, and use that understanding to, as Lincoln said, save “our last best hope of earth.”

As an Abraham Lincoln scholar, I hope that everyone interested in this statue and its ultimate fate spend the time to learn about its history and meaning. Likewise, we have a unique opportunity to learn about the importance of Juneteenth, not just to African Americans, but to the history of all Americans.

Happy Juneteenth!

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 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.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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A Brief History of Systemic Racism in America

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The Soiling of Old Glory by Stanley FormanEmmett Till, a 14-year-old African American falsely accused of flirting with a white woman, was lynched in 1955. George Floyd died under the knee of a police officer in 2020. Together, and with thousands of other examples and millions of cases, the long history of systemic racism continues in America. To provide some background, what follows is a brief outline of the history of systemic racism and discrimination in the United States.

White Lion, 1619: Jamestown, the first permanent settlement of white Europeans on the continent that would become America, was visited by a privateer sailing ship called the White Lion. On board were several dozen Africans stolen from a Spanish slave ship San Juan Bautista, headed for Veracruz, New Spain (now part of Mexico). Some of the Africans were traded by the White Lion crew for food at Virginia Colony’s Point Comfort. Slavery had come to America.

U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776: When Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, it originally had a clause attacking slavery as something forced on the American colonies by the British rulers and an antithesis to the Declaration’s concept of “all men are created equal.” The clause was removed during debate as southern slaveholding states in conjunction with their northern merchant partners refused to agree.

U.S. Constitution, 1789: After several years under the wholly ineffective Articles of Confederation, delegates began working on a new constitution in 1787. The U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788 and took effect March 4, 1789 with George Washington as the nation’s first president. Delegates engaged in significant debate about slavery, again with South Carolina and other southern states working with northern merchants to void any sections that would have eliminated slavery. Forced to compromise to get all the existing states to agree, the Constitution tacitly acknowledges the presence of slavery, although they took great pains to avoid using the words “slave” or “slavery” in the text, relying on euphemisms like “all other persons.” Article 1, Section 2 allows slaveholding states to count “three fifths of all other persons” (i.e., enslaved people) for purposes of determining the number of representatives in Congress. Article 1, Section 9 prohibits Congress from banning the “migration or importation of such persons” (i.e., the international slave trade) for 20 years. Article 4, Section 2 dictates that any “person held to labour or service” (i.e. slaves) in one state that escapes to another still remains a slave and must be returned. Thus, the Constitution, while many members wanted to eliminate slavery, tacitly acknowledges its continued presence.

Abolition of International Slave Trade, 1808: As noted above, the Constitution did not allow the end of the international slave trade for twenty years after the Constitution was ratified. In 1807, Congress, including some southern slaveholding states, voted to abolish the slave trade, effective January 1, 1808. Congress had already banned slavery in the northwest territories via the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (a few months prior to the Constitution). While slavery still existed, there were actions taken in an attempt to encourage its demise.

Antebellum Period, 1789-1860: Many of the founders believed that slavery was on a path to its “ultimate extinction.” The formal end of the international slave trade, the banning of slavery in the territories, and the gradual elimination of slavery in the northern states seemed to signal that end. However, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin made it more profitable to grow cotton in the South. As smaller farms were bought up by rich plantation owners, more acreage was planted, thus requiring more enslaved people for labor. In addition, the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 doubled the land area available for expansion. The Mexican War in 1847 again enlarged the nation by a third, now essentially making the United States a coast-to-coast nation. As these territories formed into states, they provided potential new plantations, but more importantly, new slaveholding power in Congress. A series of compromises attempted to deal with “the slavery question” inherent in this western expansion. All of these compromises provided continued power to slave states, which simultaneously threatened to secede if new power was not extended to them. As slavery expanded, it became more and more likely that a peaceful resolution of the slavery issue was not possible.

Civil War, 1861-1865: Led by South Carolina, the southern slaveholding states seceded from the Union, claiming that the election of “Black Republican” Abraham Lincoln was an attack on slavery despite Lincoln’s insistence (and the 1860 Republican platform) that no attempt would be made to ban slavery from those states in which it existed. In fact, Lincoln and most Republicans believed that the Constitution barred federal authorities from abolishing slavery. As had occurred with all the northern states that enacted state legislation to remove slavery, Lincoln and Congress knew that it was up to the individual southern states to choose to do the same. And yet the war came. In the midst of the war, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure, knowing that it had authority only during a time of insurrection and would become moot once the war ended. All of the southern states stated that slavery was the cause of their secession and the war, and that they believed that whites were superior to blacks, and that this was the natural order of things. John C. Calhoun had declared a decade earlier that the highest form of civilization was a chain of hierarchy from master to slave, and that slavery was “a positive good.” Alexander Stephens, former Congressman and newly elected as the Confederate Vice President, declared in his “Cornerstone” speech that the Confederacy was born of the belief that the nation’s “foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery – subordination to the superior race – is his natural and normal condition.” White supremacy and racism was officially codified.

13th, 14th, 15th Amendments, 1865-1870: Lincoln understood that the Emancipation Proclamation was a temporary measure and immediately began lobbying Congress to pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. As anyone who has seen Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln movie knows, Lincoln forcefully pushed for passage of an amendment to forever ban slavery from the United States. After his assassination, the 14th Amendment provided for citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. The 15th Amendment declared that no citizen shall be denied the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” These amendments were an attempt to protect the rights of formerly enslaved people, free blacks, and all American citizens.

Reconstruction, 1863-1877: Even before the war was over, Lincoln began the process of reconstructing the United States by defining the conditions under which the former Confederate states could be brought back into the Union. States that had been entirely or partially reclaimed by Union forces (e.g., Louisiana) were supported in their efforts to reestablish themselves. Following the war, states had to acknowledge the sovereignty of the federal authority and ratify the 13th amendment. Free and formerly enslaved African Americans were protected under the three reconstruction amendments, began work and education to allow them to exist as free men and women, eagerly embraced their right to vote, and ran for local, state, and national office. Unfortunately, over time the North lost interest in protecting their rights (the South showed no interest from the beginning) and those rights slowly eroded away. As W.E.B. Dubois put it, “the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.”

Jim Crow/Segregation/White Supremacy, 1877-1965: As the rights supposedly guaranteed under Reconstruction faded, white Americans began a system of blatant racism and white supremacy designed to keep black Americans from getting “too uppity.” As under the slave hierarchy, black men and women were treated by individuals, then groups, then by governments as inferior. Several supposedly “Christian” organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, grew as a means of keeping the black population “in their place.” This was blatant white supremacy and systemic racism enforced through terrorist activities like cross burning and lynching, as well as by unfair “separate but equal” facilities. Black men like Emmett Till were summarily hanged without trial simply for the “crime” of not being subservient enough to white people. Local law enforcement and conservative politicians often were the leaders of the KKK and lynchings were codified into both practice, and in many cases, the law. Separate but equal, which needless to say wasn’t actually equal, became the law of the land, as had slavery once been.

Civil Rights Acts, 1964-1965: Through the persistence of African American civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, President John F. Kennedy proposed and Lyndon Johnson pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Voting Rights Act of 1865 sought to eliminate the barriers that state and local governments had erected to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote. One hundred years after emancipation and the right to freedom was established, African Americans were still attempting to be treated as equal under the law.

Shelby County v. Holder, 2013: In 2013, the Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a key section of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of discrimination to get pre-clearance prior to making changes to their voting laws. This provision was necessary because many states (primarily what today we call “red states”) long had used Jim Crow and other laws to keep minorities from voting. Immediately after the Supreme Court eliminated the provision, supposedly because “it was no longer needed,” many states enacted laws that do exactly what the Court had suggested would not happen (which everyone, in fact, knew would happen). States began systematically putting up barriers to voting by minorities, including requiring special IDs while eliminating the local offices in which they could be obtained. Suddenly voting precincts in minority areas were eliminated, forcing voters to travel long distances and wait for many hours in long lines. Precincts in areas dominated by white and affluent voters were expanded. Hundreds of thousands of voters were summarily eliminated from voter rolls in minority-dominant areas. Gerrymandering was expanded to an extreme to ensure Republicans would win more seats even when receiving fewer votes. Systemic racism had joined forces with voter suppression.

Today: George Floyd is the most recent of many high profile cases in which black men and women have been killed as a result of either police action or racist hate crimes. The difference today is that everyone now carries a portable video camera in their smart phone. In many cases we see that the official police report falsely describes the incident, which begs the question as to how much systemic discrimination goes uncaptured on video. In many respects it appears that Jim Crow, segregation, and lynching have returned, and indeed are being encouraged, by the Trump administration. But it goes beyond these overt results of discrimination. African American men and women have been disproportionately imprisoned due to unequal laws, enforcement, and sentencing practices. Employment discrimination increases the risk of poverty. Systemic racism, poverty, and injustice has led to significantly higher risks of death and disease. The list goes on.

The brief history above is given to allow people a better understanding of today’s situation. Protests in the streets are not solely because of the death of one man, or even the many men and women who have died under questionable circumstances. The problem is that this has been going on in one form or another for the entire history of the United States, and before. Whether we admit it or not, racism and discrimination are built into our society. It’s systemic. The only way to fix it is to eliminate it from our societal construct. Redlining, voter suppression, politicians stoking fears of “the other”; all are systemic racism.

Given the attitudes and abuses of the Trump administration and Republican Party leadership, the only solution is to vote. Those protesting (and risking their lives given our current COVID pandemic) need to get to the polls. Voter suppression tactics will try to keep minorities, women, the poor, and others from voting, especially in an election where the coronavirus may limit the ability to vote in-person. All of us must vote. Only by eliminating those who encourage racism, both by individuals and the system, can we make the systemic changes that will ensure that all men and women are treated equally.

[Photo Credit: StanleyFormanPhotos.com; Called “The Soiling of Old Glory,” the photo won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 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.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

 

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Lincoln’s Last Speech and a Call for Voting Rights

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Abraham Lincoln Library and MuseumOn April 11, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln gave his last speech to the public. In it he called for voting rights for African Americans, both those already free and those freed from slavery. It wasn’t the first time he called for expansion of voting rights.

The speech was occasioned because a few days before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Lincoln had just missed being there himself, having returned that day to Washington, where Secretary of State William Seward was recovering from a carriage accident. On April 10th, crowds gathered outside the White House asking for a speech. Lincoln demurred, saying that such a speech should be thoughtful and prepared, not extemporaneous. Instead he called for the band to play Dixie, a song that he believed the surrender demonstrated “we fairly captured.” The next night he again came to the White House window and read a carefully worded speech, silently dropping the pages behind him as he read to be picked up by his son Tad. Mostly he spoke about reconstruction and the “gladness of heart” that the long ordeal of Civil War was coming to a close. But he also made a rather radical call for voting rights for African Americans. Loyal citizens of Louisiana had passed a new constitution but was missing one aspect Lincoln felt important.

The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana government rests, would be more satisfactory to all, if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty thousand, instead of only about twelve thousand, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.

Through letters and telegrams, Lincoln had privately been encouraging Louisiana to give voting rights to the free and newly freed black population, which made up more than half of the total population. He was unsuccessful in convincing them but felt that bringing Louisiana back into the Union was a step in that direction. Of course, the 15th Amendment would shortly ensure that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

But this wasn’t the first time Lincoln encouraged the expansion of voting rights. He also worked to ensure that soldiers had a means to vote during the war. Republicans had lost several congressional seats in the fall 1862 elections, in part due to pushback after Lincoln’s issuance of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, but also because there were a disproportionate number of Republican voters in the field as soldiers volunteering to preserve the Union. At that point most states still required soldiers and sailors to return to their homes to vote in elections, a practical impossibility during wartime. Several, but not all, states made changes to allow field voting for the military. To ensure soldiers were able to vote in the 1864 election, Lincoln worked with field commanders to allow leave for those soldiers living in intransigent states to return home to cast their ballots. The election of 1864 is also special in the fact that it occurred at all. Many suggested to Lincoln that he postpone the election because of the war. Lincoln refused, insisting that elections were necessary for the continuation of the Union. He noted:

If the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have been already conquered and ruined us.

But yet again, this wasn’t the first time Lincoln encouraged the expansion of voting rights. On June 13, 1836 he announced his candidacy for reelection to a second term of the Illinois legislature (he would go on to serve four terms). At this early date, when blacks and women effectively had second-class citizenship, he said:

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government, who assist in bearing its burthens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms, (by no means excluding females.)

While the 15th amendment ensured the right to vote for black men in 1870, women were, contrary to Lincoln’s wishes, excluded until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. [This year is the 100th anniversary of that event]

Abraham Lincoln could be considered today as a prudent progressive, moving progress forward by increments, but steadily. And yet, he moved public sentiment such that we as a nation came to accept emancipation and, eventually, the concept that “all men are created equal” (by no means excluding females, minorities, elderly, disabled, veterans, LGBTQ, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and everyone else). Lincoln didn’t live to see all of these battles won, but he did take what would be considered bold steps for a mid-19th century politician. On this date, April 11, 1865, he stood up for the rights of people once held as slaves to vote.

“It is for us the living,” Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, “to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here so nobly advanced.” We must “here highly resolve” to ensure voting rights to all Americans even in this current time of turmoil.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 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.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

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Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln

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Mark Twain 1909 Wiki CommonsSamuel Clemens, known to most of us by his pseudonym Mark Twain, was born in Hannibal, Missouri on November 30, 1835, shortly after Halley’s Comet had made its regular but rare pass by the Earth. The 26-year-old Abraham Lincoln – an amateur astronomy buff who two years earlier had marveled at the Leonid meteor showers – may very well have been gazing at the skies when Mark Twain came into this world. At that age Lincoln lived in New Salem, Illinois, just a stone’s throw across the Mississippi River from Hannibal. In 1859, Lincoln rode the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad to give a speech in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The railroad just happened to be formed in the office of Mark Twain’s father thirteen years before.

Abraham LincolnLincoln floated flatboats down the Mississippi River to New Orleans as a young adult, then took steamboats back upriver. He often piloted steamboats around shoals near his New Salem home. Mark Twain had worked on steamboats on the river for much of his younger years, first as a deckhand and then as a pilot. Being a riverboat pilot gave him his pen name; “mark twain” is “the leadsman’s cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms (12 feet), which was safe water for a steamboat.” In 1883 Twain even titled his memoir, Life on the Mississippi. As we have already seen, Lincoln’s time traveling on and piloting steamboats eventually inspired his patent for lifting boats over shoals and obstructions on the river.

Lincoln would not have read any of Mark Twain’s stories (his first, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, was published in 1865, about seven months after Lincoln had been assassinated). But Twain says his humorous writing style was strongly influenced by another pen named-humorist, Artemus Ward, and the Jumping Frog story was published in the New York Saturday Press only because he finished it too late to be included in a book Artemus Ward was compiling. This is the same Artemus Ward that was so often read by Abraham Lincoln to break the tensions of the Civil War.

In fact, Lincoln was so entranced by the humor of Ward that on September 22, 1862 he read snippets from one of Ward’s books to his cabinet secretaries before settling into the business of the day – the first reading of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Ironically, Mark Twain’s piloting job ended when the Civil War started, as much of the Mississippi River became part of the war zone. So what is a writer/river-boatman to do? Well, join the Confederate army of course. His unpaid service lasted only two weeks in 1861 before disbanding. He then left for Nevada to work for his older brother, out of harm’s way for the rest of the war, though his brief service for the confederacy did give him material for another of his humorous sketches, The Private History of a Campaign That Failed.” Later, Mark Twain would publish the memoirs of Civil War hero and President, Ulysses S. Grant.

Like Lincoln, Mark Twain was very interested in science and technology. Twain actually had three patents of his own, for a type of alternative to suspenders, a history trivia game, and a self- pasting scrapbook.

Lincoln and Twain never met, but I think they would have gotten along famously.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 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.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Black History – Abraham Lincoln and Black Voting Rights

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Lincoln MemorialAbraham Lincoln is best known for his Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, and saving the Union during the Civil War. But in this Black History Month it’s important to remember that Lincoln also pushed for black voting rights.

The Emancipation Proclamation declared “that all person held as slaves” within the states in rebellion “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Issued as a war measure – the only authority he had under the Constitution – Lincoln then began work that led to the 13th Amendment to permanently end slavery in all the United States. The struggle to pass the amendment was dramatically characterized in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 movie, Lincoln.

These two major steps set the stage for further African-American rights, which were enhanced by passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. While these two acts occurred after Lincoln’s assassination, they were set in motion by Lincoln’s leadership at the end of the Civil War.

Most notable was Lincoln’s April 11, 1865 speech from the White House. Among other points, Lincoln spoke about reconstruction efforts in Louisiana. He encouraged all Louisianans to join in the process of bringing the state back into the Union. He pressed for black voting rights:

It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.

While this seems a rather mild support for African-American suffrage, it was actually radical for its time. Lincoln understood that for many, if not most, Northerners, being anti-slavery did not necessary mean they were for equal rights for free or freed black men. [The fact that women of any color were not allowed to vote was not lost on Lincoln, who years before had suggested women might also be allowed to cast their ballots. This is an important point in this 100th anniversary year of women’s suffrage.] In any case, Lincoln was pushing as gently as he could the idea that black men should have the same rights under the law as did white men, including but not exclusively the right to vote.

His inclusion of this point in the speech was not an ad lib. The previous night when a gathering crowd had asked for a speech he deferred, stating that such a speech should be thought out and not given off-the-cuff. He spent the next day carefully wording his remarks, from which he read verbatim, dropping each page behind him as he orated out the White House window. He meant to push the idea of black voting rights. This was his first public statement of such, and one member of the audience on the White House lawn who heard it – John Wilkes Booth – stated that Lincoln’s advocacy for the black vote was what made Booth decide to assassinate the President.

Lincoln had also been pressing the Louisiana government and the U.S. Congress in private letters to allow African-American voting. It was not a popular sentiment, and as such Lincoln walked a fine line between pushing the idea and not wanting to force the issue for fear of losing any progress toward reconstruction. He was careful, but he still encouraged the idea. April 11th was his way of bringing the pressure public so the public themselves could start getting used to the idea. He knew, like the Emancipation itself, that leading the public with small doses of progressivism made it easier to swallow large changes. Pressing too hard created defensive postures and worked against progress.

Black leaders like Frederick Douglass were understandably impatient with incremental approaches like Lincoln’s, but Douglass himself understood the limitations of coercive force. It would be for Douglass and his fellow activists to keep the issue public, while allies like Lincoln pushed internally for change. We see this repeatedly in history, including the sometimes painful but effective interactions between Dr. Martin Luther King and President Lyndon Johnson to pass the 1960s era Civil Rights Acts.

Current presidential candidates would be wise to study Lincoln and his times (and Lyndon Johnson and his times) as they deal with a resurgence in voter suppression activities that strive to disenfranchise the votes of racial, religious, and other minorities in this nation.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 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.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

 

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Keynote Speaker: Lincoln-Thomas Day

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Join me as I give the keynote address at the annual Lincoln-Thomas Day event to be held Saturday, September 21, 2019 from 12 noon to 2 pm at Fort Stevens, Washington, D.C. The event jointly honors Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862 and Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, the free African-American owner of the land that became Fort Stevens (where Lincoln was chastised with “Get down you fool” as he stood in enemy fire on the Fort’s wall).

This event is also free to the public so please come on down and support me, the National Park Service, and the Military Road School Preservation Trust. More information can be found on the flyer below and the Civil War Defenses of Washington Facebook page.

Lincoln-Thomas Day flyer

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 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.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Upcoming Abraham Lincoln Talks in Washington, DC

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David J Kent 2019This has been a very busy summer in Lincoln world. For me personally I have two upcoming presentations in Washington, D.C., including keynoting a major annual event at Fort Stevens. And both are free (so come on down).

The Lincoln Group of DC, of which I am a Vice President, suspends our monthly dinner meetings and author lectures for June, July, and August. That doesn’t mean we’re not active. In early June we held our annual guided tour, this year at Manassas Battlefield Park. Our monthly Lincoln book study group continues to meet every month except August. And members and officers are busy preparing for future events, publishing the newsletter, reviewing books, and lining up speakers for our fall and spring dinner meetings. [See the Lincoln Group website for the great slate of speakers we have scheduled.]

Lincoln’s Nomination: The next summer event arrives in about ten days from this post. I will join Lincoln Group President John O’Brien and Lincoln Group Recording Secretary Ed Epstein in a special mini-symposium at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church (“Lincoln’s Church”) in downtown Washington DC. The event takes place Saturday, August 3rd from 10 am to 12 noon. Even better – it’s FREE! The focus will be “Lincoln’s Campaign for the Presidential Nomination” and John, Ed, and I will delve into Lincoln’s renewed political zeal after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and his ensuing path to the surprise Republican nomination. We will also relate it to the eerie parallels to today’s political climate. It’s a program not to be missed. More information on the Lincoln Group website.

Lincoln-Thomas Day Keynote: I’m happy to announce that I will give the keynote address at the annual Lincoln-Thomas Day event to be held Saturday, September 21, 2019 from 12 noon to 2 pm at Fort Stevens, Washington, D.C. The event jointly honors Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862 and Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, the free African-American owner of the land that became Fort Stevens (where Lincoln was chastised with “Get down you fool” as he stood in enemy fire on the Fort’s wall). This event is also free to public so please come on down and support me, the National Park Service, and the Military Road School Preservation Trust. More info soon as the organization updates their website.

Beyond that I’m already scheduled to give a talk at a private club in D.C. next April and will be at the annual Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg in November. The Lincoln Group of DC has already scheduled speakers throughout the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020, so check out the Lincoln Group of DC website for more information and join us.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 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.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Lincoln Room Dedicated in U.S. Capitol

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Lincoln RoomIt’s official. The room once used by Abraham Lincoln has been designated the Lincoln Room by House Resolution 1063. It’s a fitting tribute both to the 16th President of the United States and to Past-President of the Lincoln Group of DC, John Elliff. I was privileged to attend the dedication ceremony on May 1, 2019 in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

The road to the dedication is a long one, from one former president to another. Currently Room H-226 in the U.S. Capitol, the space was the House post office during the time that Abraham Lincoln served his single term as a U.S. Congressman from Illinois. The House chambers then are now Statuary Hall, where visitors can see the statues from each of the 50 states (two for each state). A small metal plate in the floor designates where Lincoln’s desk was as a Congressman, way in the back of the hall. Behind it is a door that led to the post office. Today that room is in the rear of the suite designated for the House Majority Whip, currently Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina.

Lincoln would spend many hours between votes and debates in the post office. Representatives didn’t have offices or staffs then, so the post office was a good place to discuss issues of the day and trade stories and jokes.

Flash forward to the present. In 2014 I attended a special ceremony in Statuary Hall celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s second inaugural. Congressman Rodney Davis, who serves in part of what had been Lincoln’s district, took me into the room then occupied by Steve Scalise, who had set aside the old post office room as an unofficial tribute to Abraham Lincoln.

John Elliff also was at that ceremony. As President of the Lincoln Group of DC he recognized that Rep. Scalise’s unofficial designation might not hold after the results of the 2016 election changed party leadership of the House (much like Lincoln pushing for the 13th Amendment to codify the gains made in the Emancipation Proclamation). After finishing his presidential term in spring 2018, John began working in earnest to convince Congress to officially designate the room as the Lincoln Room.

In August 2018, John Elliff suddenly and tragically passed away. By then he had received commitments from several members of Congress to pass a resolution. The Lincoln Group of DC, the Illinois State Society, and the Abraham Lincoln Association of Springfield, Illinois (and its president, former Lincoln Group of DC officer Bob Willard) all engaged with Congress to support the permanent designation of the Lincoln Room.

Near the end of the 115th Congress, Representatives Darin LaHood and Raja Krishnamoorthi co-sponsored a bipartisan resolution to officially designate the Lincoln Room. It passed and the room was formally dedicated this week. Representatives LaHood and Krishnamoorthi, Lincoln Group of DC President John O’Brien, Illinois State Society President Jerry Weller, and John Elliff’s wife Linda all spoke at the dedication. About 50 proud members of the three organizations attended the event in Statuary Hall and toured the Lincoln Room.

As Representative LaHood noted during the dedication, this resolution and designation would not have been possible without the tireless work of John Elliff and the support of these Lincoln and Illinois organizations.

For me personally this was a fitting tribute to the man who became my Lincoln mentor, John Elliff, as well as to Abraham Lincoln himself. As I wrote in my tribute post last August, John was, as fellow friend and Lincoln scholar Bob Willard noted, “Lincolnian in character – honest, smart, hard-working, empathetic, curious.” Everyone in the Lincoln Group of DC appreciated these characteristics. He was a true leader.

And now he will be forever linked with his own political mentor, Abraham Lincoln. Thank you John, Linda, Bob, Jerry, Representatives LaHood and Krishnamoorthi, and all the members of each of the organizations that made the Lincoln Room happen. See the slideshow below for some photos of the event.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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John Quincy Adams Died in Lincoln’s Presence – A Book About Both

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John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. What many people do not know is that after his presidency he was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he served for 18 more years. He died on February 23, 1848 on the House floor during Abraham Lincoln’s one term as a US Congressman. Lincoln served on Adams’s funeral committee.

Fred Kaplan is known for his biographies, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer and John Quincy Adams, American Visionary, as well as biographies of Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Henry James, and others. His most recent book is called Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War. I recently read Lincoln and the Abolitionists and provide the following review, also posted on Goodreads.

Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War by Fred Kaplan (Harpercollins, 2017, 357 pp)

As a Lincoln scholar, this was a tough book to read for a variety of reasons. Kaplan is obviously enamored of John Quincy Adams, the subject of one of his previous biographies. The book contrasts Adams’s attitudes and actions regarding slavery with Lincoln’s, finding Lincoln sorely lacking because he wasn’t an active abolitionist. The author also seems to channel Wendell Phillips, the northern abolitionist that mirrored the extremism of the southern pro-slavery firebrands. Phillips also happens to be one of Lincoln’s greatest critics, and at times it appears Kaplan is Phillips in his treatment of Lincoln.

Much of the first half of the book focuses on John Quincy Adams, while the latter half focuses on Abraham Lincoln. This is entirely appropriate as the two are found in two different eras of political strife, with Adams literally dying in the House chambers while Lincoln likely sat in the back of the same room as a single-term Congressman. Adams likely listened to Lincoln’s extended speechifying in the House during his “spot” resolution discussions, which attacked President Polk’s decision to invade Mexico. Adams would have agreed with Lincoln’s views, including the argument that the rationale for the Mexican War was to gain territory in which to expand slavery.

Kaplan’s writing almost deifies Adams’s contribution to the abolition debate, not the least of which included pressuring despite the “gag rule” that forbade even the discussion of how to end slavery. In contrast, Kaplan barely gives Lincoln credit for any contribution to the end of slavery. Kaplan paints Lincoln as “an anti-slavery moralist who believed in an exclusively white America” and Adams as “an antislavery activist who had no doubt the US would become a multiracial nation.” He threads this rather tenuous premise throughout the narrative, using it repeatedly to drive his opinion that Lincoln was a reluctant emancipator who did nothing until he was pushed to do so by others and by circumstances. He carries this premise and repeats it ad nauseam throughout the book. Lincoln is to blame, in Kaplan’s opinion, for the war, for slavery continuing, and for taking the chance that the South might come back into the Union after the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, thus potentially returning the Union to a pre-war status, i.e., with slavery intact.

There is certainly room for debate on the various issues discussed, but while Kaplan says in his preface that the book honors both Adams and Lincoln, he clearly honors one and holds back credit for the other. The perspective is worth reading, but should not be taken at face value; additional knowledge of events must also be brought in to make the discussion more fact-based.

Regarding fact, Kaplan makes many errors of fact, from minor (Lincoln’s first inaugural was on March 4, 1861, not March 6) to horrendous (he discusses for several pages that Tennessee had not left the Union [It did]). He also claims “Confederates had been driven out of Louisiana early in the war” which isn’t true; only part of Louisiana returned to Union hands. He discusses in depth how Lincoln actively replaced Hamlin with Johnson, which is overstating the case tremendously as Lincoln’s role was likely very limited. He states that Lincoln “called Hannibal Hamlin to Springfield” and told him he wanted him as a running mate, which isn’t true. Lincoln didn’t meet Hamlin until after the two of them had been separately nominated at the Republican convention in Chicago (where neither of them was present). Other errors are laced throughout the book.

Which is a bit confusing because otherwise the book is well researched and documented. Likely Kaplan had a greater understanding of Adams because of his previous biography, but he also wrote a The Biography of a Writer about Lincoln, so the errors are a mystery. The organization of the book also makes it a tough read. Kaplan hops around in time and space, not only from page to page but paragraph to paragraph. This makes it sometimes difficult to follow the thought processes. At one point, for example, he starts to talk about the Matson case, in which Lincoln co-counseled with noted racist (and family friend) Usher Linder on the side of a man trying to retain his slaves. But after a few lines indicating he would discuss it, he veers off on a tangent, then returns to it a few pages later, only to give a quick introduction and veer off again before finally coming back to the case several pages down the road.

So would I recommend the book? Yes, and no. I do think he provides some interesting perspectives and good background, especially about John Quincy Adams, Wendell Phillips, and a cast of lesser known characters important to the slavery discussion. But I would caution that prior to digging in, readers should have a broader understanding of Lincoln’s attitudes and roles, and be careful of significant errors of fact. As I know less about Adams I can’t determine if there are errors or premise conflicts in the sections dealing with him. But readers without a good understanding of Lincoln should be wary of taking the ideas presented in the book at face value. Those with knowledge might find that knowledge challenged, though not always correctly or persuasively.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two 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 Dogmas of the Quiet Past are Inadequate for the Stormy Present

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Lincoln Saved America comicIn December 1862 President Abraham Lincoln was in the midst of a Civil War, his Emancipation Proclamation was due to take effect in a few weeks, and he was struggling to maintain some sense of our national meaning. What he wrote in his message to Congress (equivalent to today’s State of the Union address) gives us lessons on how we should handle our current crisis.

We can succeed only by concert. It is not “can any of us imagine better?” but, “can we all do better?”

We must, as a nation, stand up to tyranny, even that from within. The recent promotion of racism and neo-Naziism by the current administration is a disgrace to the nation, and it will take all of us citizens, from all sections of the country, all parties, all colors, all religions, all socioeconomic statuses, and all beliefs, to reverse this descent.

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

We, all of us, must stand up to racism, bigotry, misogyny, and dishonesty. We must stand up to hatred as one, as a whole nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.

Republican leaders in Congress must act in the best interests of the nation. Democrats in Congress and across the nation have vehemently spoken up against the promotion of bigotry, but Republicans control all branches of our government. Republicans set the stage by pandering to the very elements that created this administration. Thus, Republicans must be not only outspoken against it, but take action to reverse what they have wrought.

The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility.

Without action by Republicans and Democrats in Congress, without action by we as one nation indivisible, we are in danger of losing it all. Many years before he became president, Lincoln warned in a speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield:

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

The time has come to stand up against the approach of danger from within, as exemplified by the recent events in Charlottesville and the administration’s grotesque response to it. Lincoln believed in the rule of law and warned in that same Lyceum address about the dangers of mob rule. “There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law,” Lincoln said.

We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.

The time is now. If he were alive today, Abraham Lincoln would be the first to speak out against bigotry and the mobocratic rule of this administration.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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