Tag: Chasing Abraham Lincoln

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Lincoln-Douglas – The Final debates – Quincy and Alton

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It is the final stretch before the fall elections. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas have had joint debates in Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, and Charleston, and Galesburg, plus each have given many dozens of individual speeches across Illinois. The final two joint debates occurred in quick succession in Quincy and Alton, two towns on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Lincoln-Douglas debates Quincy

Quincy

On October 13, the two men took the stage in Quincy in what was then called John’s Square but today is Washington Park. Approximately 10,000 to 15,000 people crowded into the square, many of whom claimed to be “Old Whigs” like Lincoln, who considered Henry Clay – a long-time leader of the Whig party – his “beau ideal of a statesman.” Because they were alternating who spoke first in a format that gave each of them plenty of time to present their views (as opposed to today’s “debates” in which each is given a scripted 2-minutes to answer a moderated question), it was Lincoln’s turn to begin. He reiterated what he had said in previous debates, reminding everyone that Douglas kept lying about Lincoln’s views and the party platform. Lincoln also reiterated his belief, and the belief of the Republican party at the time, that slavery was a moral wrong that should not be spread.

“We [the Republican Party] also oppose it as an evil so far as it seeks to spread itself. We insist on the policy that shall restrict it to its present limits.”

Republicans would focus on blocking the expansion of slavery into the western territories but abide by constitutional constraints that did not authorize federal abolition of slavery in the states where it already existed.

When Douglas’s turn came to speak, he said that:

“I will not argue the question whether slavery is right or wrong. I tell you why I will not do it. I hold that under the Constitution of the United States, each State of this Union has a right to do as it pleases on the subject of slavery.”

Douglas also denied Lincoln’s insinuation that Douglas has conspired with others to make slavery permanent. This denial stemmed from the first debate in Ottawa, where Lincoln implied that “Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James” (i.e., Douglas, Pierce, Taney, and Buchanan) had secretly worked together to nationalize slavery. Having said it in Ottawa, Lincoln dropped the line from future debates because it was too conspiratorial and without evidentiary support (although clearly Buchanan and Taney had so conspired). That didn’t stop Douglas from denying it at every debate thereafter.

Today, a bas-relief frieze sculpture depicts the event, while a low wall on either side of the sculpture features six pairs of “Point/Counterpoint” quotes take from the debate.

Lincoln-Douglas debates Alton

Alton

After Quincy, the two candidates hopped onto the same steamboat to travel to the next debate site in Alton. About 5,000 people gathered in front of the new city hall to hear the two men battle it out for one last joint debate. Many came from St. Louis, across the river from Alton, paying one dollar for each round-trip ticket. The Chicago and Alton Railroad offered half price fare from Springfield and elsewhere for those who wanted to attend the debate. Still, by this time most people had read about the debates in the newspapers, who had shorthand stenographers recording (more or less) verbatim what the two men were saying. The day was cloudy and fall weather was starting to settle in, which contributed to the lower turnout.

Douglas declared that the founders knew that the country had sectional differences and that they had deliberately left open the question of slavery for the states to decide.

“If they want slavery let them have it; if they do not want it, allow them to refuse to encourage it.”

Lincoln reiterated his “wish is that the further spread of it may be arrested, and that it may be placed where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction.”

The Alton city hall burned down in 1923, but life-size statues of Lincoln and Douglas stand on a platform of the site in commemoration.

Aftermath

The seven joint debates were critically important, although they didn’t change the almost certain outcome of the senate election. At the time, state legislatures chose senators [the 17th Amendment giving direct vote to the people wasn’t until 1913], and although Lincoln’s Republican party gained more votes, Democrats still dominated the Illinois legislature and thus selected the incumbent Douglas for another senate term. Unquestionably, Lincoln the vote counter knew his chances of winning the election under such a system was unlikely, but the debates made him a national figure. Lincoln made sure to collect the newspaper transcripts of all seven debates, which he had published in book form in the spring of 1860, thus reminding everyone of his and Douglas’s views on slavery. Because of the Freeport Doctrine – Douglas saying that any territory becoming a state could block slavery if it so wanted – the slave powers of the South would never support Douglas as the Democratic presidential nominee. That led to a split Democratic party in 1860, allowing Lincoln as the Republican nominee to win the election and become president.

And the war came.

[Photos of Quincy (top) and Alton (bottom) by David J. Kent]

 

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Lincoln-Douglas Debates: Galesburg

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Lincoln-Douglas Debates GalesburgWith the Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, and Charleston locations in the books, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates took a nearly three-week break before the two men met again for the fifth debate in Galesburg, about 120 miles north Springfield. Galesburg was, and is, the home of Knox College, a private liberal arts college founded in 1837. Originally called Knox Manual Labor College, the school had been organized by George Washington Gale for a colony of Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The name was changed to Knox College only a year before the famed debates, in 1837, presumably to broaden its outreach and because the country was already known as Knox County. Because of its role in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the college seemed a natural place to host the Lincoln Studies Center led by Co-Directors Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson, whose series of books documenting William Herndon’s sources of Lincoln’s early life have become essential tools in Lincoln scholarship.

With more than 15,000 people jammed onto the Knox campus, Galesburg welcomed the largest crowd for any of the seven debates. Perhaps appropriate for the town’s name, near-gale force winds had battered the area, and a heavy rain had fallen the day before and continued as the stage was being erected. To help protect both speakers and audience, the organizers moved the stage into the shadow of “Old Main,” the largest building on campus. Old Main still exists today and carries two plaques honoring Lincoln and Douglas on its outer walls. To reach the platform that day, Lincoln, Douglas, and other dignitaries needed to enter the front door of the building and crawl out a window. The self-taught Lincoln, according to tradition, joked that “At last I have gone through…college.”

As with all of the debates, the primary issue debated was slavery. Douglas denied there was any wrong in slavery, and in fact, vociferously argued that the government was by and for white people. He attacked Lincoln’s argument that the Declaration of Independence’s “all men are created equal” applied to all men, including Black men. Douglas vehemently reiterated his contrary view that, given the existence of slavery at the time and the fact that Thomas Jefferson and others were slaveholders, clearly the Declaration only applied to white men and that whites were superior to Blacks in all ways. Douglas postulated that given this “natural” disparity (as opposed to forced condition), slavery was not only right, but it was also the natural order and good for all involved.

Lincoln strenuously disagreed:

I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social, and political evil [and] desire a policy that looks to the prevention of this wrong and looks hopefully to the time when as a wrong it may come to an end.

Two more debates would occur about a week later, in the Mississippi River towns of Quincy and Alton. More on those in the next post.

[Photos of Old Main and the Lincoln-Douglas plaques by David J. Kent]

 

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

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

Abraham Lincoln, The Man at Saint-Gaudens Historical Park

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

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

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

Robert Shaw Memorial at Saint-Gaudens Park in Cornish NH

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

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

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

[Photos by David J. Kent]

 

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

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

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

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Robert Lincoln’s Observatory at Hildene

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Hildene observatoryRobert Lincoln got his initial interest in astronomy from his father. Abraham Lincoln was fascinated by astronomy, as I discuss in my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, and in a previous post. Robert did him one better – he built his own observatory at Hildene, which I saw on a recent visit to Robert’s Vermont summer home.

As I crested the hill walking from Hildene’s welcome center to house, my eyes immediately gravitated to the odd-looking domed structure standing at the edge of the woods. Robert’s observatory. About 12 feet in diameter and maybe 20 feet tall, the observatory was much smaller than I expected. Whereas his father had a fascination with astronomy, Robert had made it into a deep hobby. Robert had a habit of diving into his avocations – he surveyed all of Hildene as it was being built and did math problems in the evenings “to relax” – and astronomy was no exception. It was Robert who selected and surveyed the site for the observatory not far from the main house.

In addition to his father’s influence, Robert’s interest was likely expanded by his mentor and benefactor Jonathan Young Scammon, who besides being a lawyer, banker, and newspaper publisher was a dedicated amateur astronomer. Robert frequently used the large telescope at Dearborn Observatory on the campus of Chicago University (now Northwestern), often accompanied by close friend, and later renowned astronomer Shelbourne Wesley Burnham. According to Robert Lincoln biographer, Jason Emerson, Robert became a voracious reader of books on astronomy, about thirty of which still remain in his library at Hildene. “I belong to the class of old-young amateurs in astronomy, but I enjoy my study of it very much,” Emerson says Robert wrote to the director of the Lick Observatory in California. Before building the observatory, he used his telescope on a tripod, and would synchronize his stopwatch every day at the Manchester telegraph office to ensure the precision of his astronomical calculations. Later, he installed a relay at Hildene so he could get exact noontime readings via telegraph without having to go into town.

Hildene Observatory

Originally, Robert’s telescope was a four-inch diameter Bardon, which in the observatory on a high point overlooking the “dene” gave a wonderfully unobstructed view of the sky. As his expertise and interest grew, however, the Bardon proved inadequate, so in 1909 he commissioned construction of a six-inch refracting telescope as a replacement. He became quite proud of the observatory and often bragged about it to his friends.

Being a scientist myself, I lingered at the observatory for a while, fascinated by the existing telescope. Whether it still worked or not was somewhat moot, as it was locked behind a metal gate to protect it from tourists. It was also time to go inside the main building to meet the archivist. More on that soon. As fascinating as it was inside the mansion, I couldn’t help but look back at the mini-dome as I strolled back down the hill. I would have loved to hang out with Robert gazing at the stars.

[Photos by David J. Kent]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is 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 Memorial Dedication, Daniel Chester French, and Many, Many Cemeteries

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The original Memorial Day, then called Decoration Day because gravestones of fallen soldiers would be decorated with American flags, was May 30, 1868. It remained the 30th until 1970, the first year it was officially designated as the last Monday in May. May 30th was also the date on which the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in 1922. Robert Lincoln, Abraham and Mary’s oldest son and the only one of the four boys to reach maturity, was present at the dedication. I had the privilege of emceeing the Lincoln Memorial Centennial program in 2022. If you missed it, you can watch the entire program on C-SPAN.

Memorial Day was celebrated yesterday, May 29, 2023. President Biden Vice President Harris laid the traditional wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington was created in the Civil War on the property belonging at the time by Robert E. Lee, whose defection to the confederacy led the United States government to take possession of the land and dedicate it as a resting place for soldiers. It also holds the graves of presidents (e.g., John F. Kennedy) and Robert Lincoln, who was buried in Arlington at the request of his wife rather than in the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield, Illinois with his parents and brothers.

The Memorial Day observances reminded me how many cemeteries I’ve visited in recent years. I had grown up across the street from the Old Burying Ground, one of the oldest cemeteries in the country, having been established in 1634. I’ve visited many cemeteries over the years during my various road trips to examine Lincoln sites. In addition to the Lincoln Tomb, I’ve seen the gravestones of Lincoln’s sister Sarah, his parents, and many other relatives and others associated at one time or another with Lincoln. And of course, I usually end up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania each year where Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the cemetery with his unforgettable Gettysburg Address.

On my most recent road trip that took me to New England, I made sure to stop at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. Concord had been a hotbed of transcendentalism in the 1800s, which attracted authors such as poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer Louisa May Alcott (Little Women), Nathaniel Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter, House of Seven Gables), and Henry David Thoreau (Walden, Civil Disobedience). Gravestones for these authors are conveniently placed near each other in an area called “Authors’ Ridge.” One of the more famous memorials at Sleepy Hollow is from the team that brought us the Lincoln Memorial. Daniel Chester French was commissioned by Boston businessman James Melvin to create a funerary monument to honor his three brothers who died in the Civil War. Asa, John, and Samuel Melvin had all served in Company K of the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. French designed the central figure of Mourning Victory emerging from a block of marble and overlooking bronze memorial tablets for each of the three brothers. The exedra that surrounds the monument was designed by Henry Bacon, just as Bacon designed the Lincoln Memorial that surrounds French’s massive seated Lincoln sculpture that dominates the Memorial’s interior.

French’s original design was to have the image of “Victory” with her right arm outstretched and the left raised. After seeing the location of the monument in Sleepy Hollow, French decided to switch the positioning, putting the left arm outstretched so that people coming up the path would not have the face of “Victory” covered by her upraised elbow. But when a copy of the monument was created for the Metropolitan Museum of Art a few years later, French had it carved according to the original design, with the right arm outstretched.

Other stops on the New England road trip took me to Hildreth Cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts to see the massive gravestone of General Benjamin Franklin Butler, a key figure in the Civil War and later a Massachusetts congressman and governor. I also stopped at the Grove Street Cemetery not far from the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, to see the graves of Eli Whitney and his family. Whitney played a major role in my book Lincoln: The Fire of Genius because in 1794 he patented the cotton gin, which made it easier to remove the seeds from cotton bolls, thus making cotton more profitable and inadvertently leading to the expansion of slavery.

All this talk about my time visiting cemeteries reminds me that last September I had the honor of being one of the dedicatory speakers for a new monument in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC that honors famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady (whose photograph of Lincoln on the day of his Cooper Union speech may have made him president), Abraham Lincoln himself, and Frederick Douglass. I also had the privilege each of the last several years of laying a wreath at the feet of Daniel Chester French’s seated Lincoln in Henry Bacon’s Lincoln Memorial as part of the annual Lincoln’s birthday program.

I do feel as if I live a privileged life, even if it seems I spend an inordinate time in cemeteries.

[Photo 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 Goes to West Point (Plus, The Lincoln Legacy Award)

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West Point MuseumAbraham Lincoln made a secret trip to West Point in 1862. My recent trip to West Point was not so secret, and I also picked up and award in Lincoln’s legacy. I have the Lincoln Society of Peekskill to thank for both.

General Winfield Scott had been a hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War of 1846-1848, as well as the Whig nominee for president in 1840. Old Fuss and Feathers, as he was called because of his insistence on proper military etiquette, was the go-to man to become General-in-Chief at the beginning of the Civil War. By this time, however, he was 75 years old with enough medical problems to be incapable of field leadership, so by the fall of 1861 both he and Lincoln felt the need for a change. Scott retired to West Point to live out his days (ironically, he outlived Lincoln). Gone from leadership, but with his mind still sharp, Scott occasionally would be called on for input on military strategy. The desire for consultation with Scott is what led Abraham Lincoln to secretly travel to West Point in June of 1862. Secret in the sense that it was planned privately and not announced to the public. But once at West Point, the newspapers caught on and spread the news widely, along with speculation as to the reasons. Lincoln never commented on his trip, but the word was out. Anthony Czarnecki, past president of the Lincoln Society of Peekskill, wrote a wonderful history of the visit in the Winter 2012 issue of History, the quarterly journal of the New York State Historical Association.

Tony had invited me to be the keynote speaker for the Lincoln Society’s annual banquet on April 15, 2023. I arrived from my New England road trip the day before and met Tony and Lincoln Society vice president Emily Lapisardi (who took over as president the next night). Emily is music director of the Catholic Chapel at West Point, a position from which she arranged a tour of West Point during my stay. I’ll have more on the tour in another post, as well as my tour of the Lincoln Depot Museum, the Lincoln Society banquet itself, and other aspects of my road trip. I will mention that West Point is an amazing place in itself, but the insider information from Emily heightened the experience even more. It also helped that Emily both gave an impromptu concert on the massive organ in the Cadet Chapel (to the delight of a small tour group that happened to be there at the time) and sang during the Society’s banquet.

It seemed altogether fitting and proper that I should follow Lincoln’s footsteps through New England and to West Point. I could feel his presence. I was even more honored that the Lincoln Society of Peekskill presented me with their Lincoln Legacy Award at the banquet following my presentation. In presenting the award, Tony Czarnecki and outgoing Society president Michael Macedonia mentioned my service as president of the Lincoln Group of DC, my efforts to organize and emcee the Lincoln Memorial Centennial program on the Memorial steps in May 2022, and of course, the success of my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius (of which I signed many copies at the banquet). The award itself is a beautiful bronze of the Daniel Chester French seated Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial.

So, my personal thanks to Tony Czarnecki, Emily Lapisardi, Michael Macedonia, Paul Martin, and everyone else at the Lincoln Society of Peekskill for the wonderful tours and attention given to me on my recent visit. I’m honored to receive the Lincoln Legacy Award and will do my best to, as Lincoln once said, be worthy of the esteem of my fellow men and women.

[All photos by David J. Kent]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is 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 Goes to Harvard and Yale

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Massachusetts State HouseAbraham Lincoln famously had less than one year of formal schooling, but you can find him now at both Harvard and Yale.

Needless to say, you can find him at every university in Illinois and colleges in other states. During his senate campaign against Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, the two men were required to walk in the door of the Old Main, still the oldest building on the Knox College campus. Once inside they climbed out a window onto the makeshift speaker’s platform, moved next to the building as protection against a rainy day. Lincoln quipped that this was his first time ever going into a college. After a laugh, the audience settled down to a rip-roaring 3-hour debate between the two long-time rivals.

During the Civil War, Lincoln’s son Robert attended Harvard, alma mater of quite a few American presidents, as well as abolitionists like Charles Sumner (whose statue sits just outside of Harvard Yard) and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, T.S. Eliot, and perhaps more surprisingly, Henry David Thoreau. Lincoln was given honorary degrees from Knox College, Princeton, and Columbia, but never Harvard. And yet, there he is in Cambridge Commons, a full figure of Lincoln standing tall in the center of a monument to the city’s Civil War heroes.

Not to be outdone, the Massachusetts State House in downtown Boston has a bust of Lincoln and a painting in Doric Hall (apparently another bust is in the Senate chambers, but I missed that). I didn’t miss the women’s rights protest outside featuring Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and Mayor Michelle Wu (who I had also seen a half hour earlier at Boston City Hall for a ceremony honoring a late state congressman).

Lincoln Memorial Oak tabletSeveral days before my visit to Harvard I was on the Yale campus. Lincoln had given a speech in 1860 in Union Hall. The hall no longer stands (the High School in a Community is now in its place) but there is a memory of Lincoln on the green at Yale. There, at least up until recently, stood a majestic Oak deemed the “Lincoln Memorial Oak” that had stood for ages. In late 2012 the stately old tree was toppled by Superstorm Sandy, revealing old bones from the 17th and 18th centuries from the original graveyard it had been growing over. With the massive old tree gone, a new tree was planted along with a granite stone explaining its history.

I’ll have more photos and stories from my road trip as I get the chance.

[All photos by David J. Kent]

Fire of Genius

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

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

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is 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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Road Tripping Lincoln in New England

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Lincoln Covered WagonAbraham Lincoln made two trips to New England in his lifetime, and I will soon embark on a road trip of my own to follow in his footsteps. This isn’t my first such trip. Pre-COVID I made several road trips – long solo drives tracing Lincoln’s roots through Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, with side trips into Lincoln-related sites in Tennessee, Michigan, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. You can check out my previous road trip reports here or by searching “Chasing Abraham Lincoln.” Seeing the locations in person brought life to my research and helped flesh out my most recent book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. Plans to do other trips into New York and New England ground to a halt during the pandemic and my book writing, but it’s time for another drive. New England it is!

Lincoln’s first trip was 1848. The still fairly young one-term U.S. Congressman was asked to head up to Massachusetts between sessions to stump for the Whig presidential candidate, Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor. Taylor was a strange choice for the Whigs, who had generally disapproved of the Mexican War as a transparent attempt to enlarge the territory in which to expand slavery. But the Whigs felt he was the only candidate who could win (both major parties courted him) and that he would be pliable (he professed no firm political views) so they chose him over perennial candidate, Lincoln’s beau ideal of a statesman, Henry Clay. That wasn’t the only problem. As a Southern slaveowner, Taylor rankled the antislavery sensibilities of the liberal wing of the Whig party in Massachusetts, although the more conservative Whigs (e.g., textile mill owners who depended on the availability of Southern cotton) were less concerned. Disaffected Whigs had built a Free Soil movement to promote an antislavery candidate and Lincoln was sent to smooth over ruffled feathers in an attempt to keep party leaders in the Whig camp. Lincoln was well received and did seem to convince many Whigs, and although the central part of Massachusetts with its more stringent Free Soil passions voted for former president Martin Van Buren as the Free Soiler candidate, the full contingent of Massachusetts’s electoral votes went to Taylor. Taylor became president.

Lincoln’s second, and last, trip was 1860. Riding the high of a successful Cooper Union Address, Lincoln again headed to New England, this time bypassing Massachusetts and giving a dozen lectures in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. In the latter state, Lincoln visited with his son Robert, who was at Phillips Exeter Academy preparing to re-take the Harvard entrance exams he had failed so miserably the year before. [Perhaps not surprisingly, Harvard admitted him soon after Lincoln’s presidential nomination a few months later.] 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).

My road trip will hit most of the stops Lincoln made during his two visits, although not necessarily in the same order. I had already spent some time in the area, for example, last December when I stopped in Concord, Massachusetts to see the special Lincoln Memorial Centennial exhibit at the Concord Museum. On this trip I’m hoping to touch base with a few colleagues, see a few statues, hit a few museums and other historical sites, and take as many photos as time and weather allow. I’ll post here and on FB if possible.

[Photo of Lincoln Covered Wagon from Enjoy Illinois: https://www.enjoyillinois.com/explore/listing/worlds-largest-covered-wagon/]

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.

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

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

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Lincoln and Me Tour Harpers Ferry

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Harpers FerryPresident Lincoln took a special train to Harpers Ferry on October 1, 1862. I drove my car to the National Park Service visitors center on October 1, 2021. Lincoln reviewed the troops on Bolivar Heights. I climbed to the overlook on Maryland Heights. One hundred and fifty-nine years separated us, but I still felt his presence.

Lincoln was anxious about his commanding general, George McClellan. McClellan had brought a military success, of sorts, near Antietam creek just a few weeks before. More of a draw than a clear-cut victory despite McClellan’s staff finding Confederate General Lee’s plans wrapped around three cigars, it had been enough for Lincoln to issue his Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd. Lincoln was not pleased with McClellan’s overall performance. McClellan complained incessantly that the enemy had decisively more troops, even when it was McClellan with the distinct numerical advantage. So Lincoln was coming to talk to McClellan in person.

Around 6 a.m. on the first day of October, Lincoln and entourage left Washington on a special train. Joining him were General McClernand, Ward Hill Lamon, Ozias Hatch, John Garrett (president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad) and others. Arriving at Harpers Ferry at noon, Lincoln meets with General Sumners until General McClellan finally arrives in the early afternoon. McClellan and Lincoln visit the troops at Bolivar Heights. That night, Lincoln spends the night in Harpers Ferry. The next morning he visits more troops on the Maryland Heights and moves to McClellan’s headquarters for a strategic discussion and critical job review. While there, several iconic photos are taken by Alexander Gardner. A month later, Lincoln would finally relieve McClellan from command, permanently this time.

My visit began around 8 a.m. for a drive of just over an hour. The day was about as perfect as could be, with no clouds and a high temperature in the low 70s. A fog enveloped the valley as we approached, but quickly disappeared once I arrived in the lower town of Harpers Ferry. John Brown’s Fort was getting a paint job as I headed for the Maryland Heights trailhead. Not only is Harpers Ferry the intersection between Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, it’s also where three trails intersect – Maryland Heights,  the C & O Canal Towpath, and the Appalachian Trail. The railroad and foot bridges over the Potomac River (with the Shenandoah River sliding in from the right) lead into the gaping maw of the tunnel under the heights. A short walk up the towpath brought us to the trailhead. A constant uphill hike of about 1200 feet elevation gain brought us to the Heights overlook, where we snacked and replenished electrolytes before hiking back down to the town. A delightful lunch on the patio of the Coach House Grill capped a perfect visit.

A week earlier I had toured Williamsport and Falling Water, another area not far away that had hackled Lincoln. After the decisive Union victory in Gettysburg, Lincoln was displeased with General George Meade for his failure to attack and destroy Lee’s army, giving it time to cross the Potomac River upstream from Harpers Ferry. Lincoln wrote a blistering letter berating Meade, his failure prolonging the war another two years instead of ending it in late 1863. Lincoln never sent the letter. Having spewed his anger onto the page, he rethought the wisdom of chewing his arguably one of his better generals. Luckily for us, he saved it for posterity “never signed, never sent.”

Eventually Lincoln would find likeminded generals in Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Philip Henry Sheridan, along with Meade, who would be key to closing out the rest of the war. But his trip to Harpers Ferry and Antietam was to reassess his commander. McClellan was found wanting, and Lincoln fired him.

Unlike Lincoln, my trip to Harpers Ferry was a total success, and despite the sore muscles afterward, a wonderful experience.

[David J. Kent has been “Chasing Abraham Lincoln” for the last several years, with the COVID pandemic putting much of it on hold. With most responsible people now vaccinated, David will be doing more road trips on the trail of Lincoln. Stay tuned.]

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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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!