Tag: Chasing Abraham Lincoln

Abraham 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/]

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.

During Abraham Lincoln’s first year in New Salem he joined a pretentiously named Literary and Debating Society, which was actually an informal discussion group run by James Rutledge. Rutledge was a well-respected leader in town, father of ten children, and proprietor of an inn, Rutledge’s Tavern. He also had an extensive personal library of nearly thirty books, and this became one of Lincoln’s favorite hangouts.

By this time Lincoln was well known as someone ready with a funny story or ribald joke, but in his first debating effort he surprised the audience with a thoughtful, well-reasoned, analytical presentation. Rutledge was impressed, later telling his wife that “there was more in Abe’s head than wit and fun, that he was already a fine speaker; and that all he lacked was culture to enable him to reach the high destiny which he knew was in store for him.”

Reaction from townspeople was so positive that in March 1832 Lincoln put his name into contention for the Illinois state legislature. He composed a lengthy announcement titled “Communication to the People of Sangamo County,” which was published in the Sangamo Journal. In it he laid out his political philosophy, which was astonishingly rounded for a 23-year-old man raised on frontier farms. That philosophy largely mimed the American System originated under Alexander Hamilton and promoted by Henry Clay, whom Lincoln later eulogized as his “beau ideal of a statesman.”

The American System was an economic philosophy premised on three mutually reinforcing pillars: a high protective tariff, a national bank, and federal subsidies for internal improvements (roads, canals, railroads). The goal was to facilitate the development of transportation infrastructure and strong markets, particularly for rural farmers who were cut off from much of the market economy. While a stable two-party system had not yet fully developed, the American System quickly became the mainstay of the Whig party in opposition to the policies of Democratic President Andrew Jackson. Lincoln later asserted he “had always been a Whig” (that is, until he was a Republican).

In response to local concerns, Lincoln noted he was not (yet) in favor of railroads because their costs outweighed the benefits. But referring to his own experience on flatboats, he strongly supported improvements to the navigability of the Sangamon River, which was so important to New Salem. Presaging his future as an analytical thinker, Lincoln went into great depth in his discussion of why river navigation presented a more efficient economic opportunity than railroads. He also spoke up against usury, the loaning of money at exorbitant interest rates, and emphasized the importance of central banking. Finally, while not dictating any specific system, he stressed that education was “the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in,” stating that his wish was that “every man may receive at least, a moderate education.”

This was an extraordinary treatise for a man who had only recently moved into the county. Lincoln mentioned that his “peculiar ambition” was to be “truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem,” but also seemed to understand that he had a slim chance of winning a seat, noting “if elected [the independent voters of this county] will have conferred a favor upon me,” but that if he lost he had “been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined.”

He lost.

It is not clear whether Lincoln was chagrined over this loss. Immediately after publishing his announcement to enter the race, he volunteered for service in the Black Hawk War. This left him only a few weeks upon his return to canvass the outer portions of the county, while his many competitors had the entire summer. On a positive note, he won 277 of the 300 votes cast in New Salem. This was testament to his popularity in the short time he had lived in the village, especially considering that support came from a precinct that overwhelming voted for Jackson’s reelection that year (Lincoln was well-known backer of Jackson’s opponent, Henry Clay). In his 1860 Presidential campaign biography, Lincoln took solace in the fact that this was the only time he was ever “beaten on a direct vote of the people.” It would not, however, be the last time he lost an election.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

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.

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