For the better part of the summer I've been debating how to approach my blog entry on Lincoln. There's no way I could even begin to do him justice. However, in the past few years, the combination of reading more about Lincoln and the Civil War, watching documentaries, listening to the Yale Civil War Class, and actually going to some of the historical sites, I've realized just how many myths and misconceptions most of us have about Lincoln and his era. So I figured the best approach is first show the story I had in my head about Lincoln and the Civil War, and contrast it with the realities.
Myth? Myth? YETH!
Once upon a time in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin that he built himself. As a little boy, he was already sporting a thick beard and a deep bass voice that was a cross between James Earl Jones and Gregory Peck. He was known to walk hundreds of miles in the snow uphill both ways to get to school.
Then he decided...I want to move north! And because Wisconsin wasn't a state yet, he did the next best thing and moved to Illinois. There he debated with a guy named Stephen Douglas. People liked Lincoln because he was for truth, justice and the American way.
Lincoln became elected president of the United States because everybody wanted him to go and free the slaves. All of the slave states got mad and decided they didn't want to want to be part of the United States anymore. So they put on gray uniforms, started twiddling their black Snidely Whiplash mustaches, and began shooting at the North.
The Union Army who, incidentally all looked like Jimmy Stewart, decided they had to take on the bad guys and free the slaves. Lucky for Lincoln Washington D.C. was waaaaaay far away from any of the fighting and from the slave states. It was kind of stressful being a war president but lucky for him, he only had to work with Northerners who all agreed on everything. First he asked Robert E. Lee to be general, but Lee opted to fight with the Snidely Whiplash army. So he decided "U.S. Grant sounds patriotic....how about we go with him?"
Eventually the war was over, but sadly right after it was over one of the Snidely Whiplashes assassinated Lincoln.
Reality Check
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Sinking Spring Farm, Kentucky, the second child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. There is a big memorial building where the cabin used to be. His family was quite poor, and eventually had to leave Kentucky due to being evicted. From age 7 until adulthood Lincoln lived in Indiana.
His father Thomas was a natural storyteller, a trait young Abraham also had. Often after church on Sundays Abe would do an instant replay of the sermon they had just heard, but it would be a funny version of it. (My sister and I did something similar with a church we sometimes attended....except we would make fun of the music....)
When Lincoln was 9, his mother died of "milk sickness." Years later it was discovered that the cows were grazing on poisonous plants in the woods that made their milk lethal. The death of Lincoln's mother was one of his first experiences with depression, something he would struggle with the rest of his life. He compensated for that by having a great sense of humor. He said one of the reasons he liked telling funny stories was to "whistle away the sadness."
Thomas soon realized he was totally incapable of caring for his children on his own. He went back to Kentucky and came back 6 months later with a new wife and some stepsiblings for Abraham and Sarah.
The new Mrs. Lincoln (who, to keep things confusing, was also named Sarah...) was totally appalled when she saw the living conditions of the Lincoln household. Her heart instantly went out to the two Lincoln children. She and Abraham grew to adore each other. She'd often run interference in his rather rocky relationship with his father. She also won major points with Abe by bringing books along with her.
Lincoln had roughly 1 year of formal education. However he was a voracious reader...except for fiction. While he was not a quick learner, he was very good at learning about ideas in depth. "I am never easy now, when I am handling a thought, till I have bounded it north, and bounded it south, and bounded it east, and bounded it west." This also explains why he suffered from periodic bouts of insomnia. It's hard to get to sleep when the wheels are always turning.
When he was 19 Lincoln was hired to take a flatboat of cargo to New Orleans. On the way down the river he and his companion fended off a robbery attempt. Other than that it was a pleasant trip, and Lincoln's first to the Deep South. It was also the first time he saw slaves. At the time he thought the slaves looked contented, but the image would later come back to haunt him when he became president.
At this point in his life Lincoln felt out of step with the rest of his family, who didn't share his passion for learning. He was also bored, and starting to play pranks. He finally decided it was time to move out on his own.
Lincoln settled in New Salem, Illinois. He tried several jobs at this point in his life such as running a store, being postmaster, and being a county surveyor. In 1832 he had a brief stint in the military as part of a militia in the Black Hawk War. His time in the military was so brief, and so unsuccessful, Lincoln later made fun of it during his political career.
While Lincoln found it easy to make friends, his love life was pretty rough. His first girlfriend, Ann Rutledge, died of typhoid fever. Lincoln then plunged into such a deep depression some of his friends worried he would commit suicide. With other relationships, he seemed to have the Groucho Marx attitude of "I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member." He broke off an engagement with Mary Owens. He had a rather tempestuous on again off again relationship with Mary Todd, who he eventually married. Don't get me started on that draaamaaa. (Given my choice of Civil War first ladies, I'd go with Varina Davis every time.) If you want an in depth view of the Lincoln marriage I'd recommend seeing the documentary "Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided." Although she does have a great quip about their courtship. Abraham and Mary were at a dance together. Abe said to Mary "I want to dance with you in the worst way." She'd then add, "And he did!"
As for Lincoln's political career, like many other presidential candidates, he had a good start on the state level, getting elected to the Illinois General Assembly. He served 4 terms. Once he became a lawyer, traveling the state as part of the circuit meant he got to meet a lot of his constituents, or future, constituents, and do some valuable networking.
On the national level, initially, his career was pretty lackluster. In 1846 Lincoln was elected for his first and only term in the House of Representatives. Most notably he spoke against the Mexican-American War, and was not for Manifest Destiny. This didn't do much for his popularity. When his term was up, he thought his political career was most likely over. It also did not help matters that he belonged to the Whig party, which was rapidly going the way of the dodo.
Lincoln had two unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate; the first in 1854,as a Whig, and the second in 1858, as a Republican. The 1858 campaign against Stephen Douglas helped put him in the national spotlight. He gave his "House Divided" speech where he said " "'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." He then participated in 6 debates with Stephen Douglas. Lincoln lost that election, but it was very close. It also should be noted that the descriptions of Lincoln's voice during the debates was high and reedy, with a Kentucky accent....so not like Gregory Peck at all. One thing I enjoyed with the documentary about Abraham and Mary Lincoln, the actor reading the Lincoln quotes had a tenor voice, so probably sounded a fair amount like Lincoln really did.
In the 1860 presidential race there were several promising Republican candidates. The tricky part was finding someone who would appeal to all the factions. When Lincoln's hat was put in the ring, he shrewdly opted to try and be everybody's SECOND choice. This worked in his favor, and he got the nomination. He won the election, just barely, with 40% of the vote. Lincoln did not carry a single Southern state, and in several states did not even appear on the ballot. A month after the election, South Carolina seceded from the Union. In the months before he was inaugurated Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas also seceded.
Lincoln spent the months between the election and inauguration building his cabinet; the famous "team of rivals". (To learn more about that, read Doris Kearn Goodwin's book...was quite the eye-opener.)
The first few month of the administration were a difficult balancing act for Lincoln. He wanted the seceding states back in the Union.....but he also did not want to alienate the remaining Southern states and cause them to secede as well. As Washington D.C. was between two slave states, Maryland and Virginia...one false step and the capital would be surrounded. Lincoln's biggest miscalculation during this time was not realizing how dead-set on secession the Confederate states were. He figured with time and common sense, they'd see the errors of their ways and come back.
On April 12, 1861, the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, one of the last federal bases to remain in Union hands. To use Lincoln's words, "And the war came." Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina seceded. Lincoln could watch the confederate flag going up over the border in Alexandria, Virginia from the White House.
One of the big struggles for Lincoln was finding the right general to head the Union army. A year ago, we took our 5th graders to a Civil War-themed field trip in Greenbush. One part of it was getting to talk to a Lincoln impersonator. He asked if we had any questions, and I said "Why didn't you get rid of McClellan sooner?" The impersonator reacted exactly how I expect the real Lincoln would have. He laughed and said "I didn't have any other options!"
McClellan was a greater general than Alexander the Great....if you took his word for it. While he was probably good for the initial training of the Army of the Potomac he had, in Lincoln's words, "a case of the slows." He simply did not pursue the enemy aggressively enough, or at all, sometimes. He also had an exaggerated sense of how many troops were in the Confederacy, and how many he needed to defeat them. Once, an aide even found a copy of General Lee's plans...and he STILL didn't pursue the troops. After Lincoln finally fired him for good, McClellan ran against Lincoln for president in 1864. McClellan came very close to winning....until General Grant and General Sherman started bringing in the Union victories.
Once Lincoln won the election in 1864, he began to lobby hard for the 13th Amendment to free the slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation had been put into effect in 1863, but all that did was free slaves in states under rebellion. As Lincoln was still pandering to slaves states that were still in the Union: Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware. The 13th amendment, passed in 1865, ended slavery for the whole nation. Lincoln signed the amendment even though, as president, technically he didn't need to.
Lincoln was fond of General Grant. When some people made remarks about Grant's drinking, Lincoln remarked that he wanted to find out what Grant drank and send a barrel of it to all of his generals. Not long after Lee's army surrendered to Grant in Appomattox, Lincoln invited Grant and his wife to join him and Mary for a night at the theatre. Julia Grant, who had witnessed Mary Lincoln give the mother of all tantrums in public, found an excuse for her and Ulysses to be out of the state that night.
On April 14, 1865 Abraham and Mary Lincoln went out to Ford's Theatre to see the comedy "Our American Cousin." Both were having a good time, Mary snuggling up against Abraham. It was during one of the bigger laughs that confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth sneaked in and shot Lincoln in the head. Booth then leaped from the balcony to the stage, breaking one of his legs in the process, and shouted "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" Or "Thus always to tyrants"....what Brutus supposedly said when he stabbed Julius Caesar, and the Virginia state motto. The audience, naturally, was initially in a state of confusion after this. Some thought it was part of the play. Lincoln himself had seen Booth in several plays, and had once expressed a desire to meet him.
It shows just how physically strong Lincoln was that it took 9 hours for him to die of wounds that would have done most people in after 2 hours. His body was taken on a train back to Springfield, making stops throughout the country so mourners could see him.
Naturally I have not even begun to scratch the surface here. I could potentially do a whole blog series just on Lincoln. Here are some resources if you want to learn more about him:
Documentaries:
American Experience - Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided
The Civil War: A Film By Ken Burns
Books:
"April 1865: The Month That Saved America" by Jay Winik - Short book, but great narrative style. Has mini-biographies of all the major players in the Civil War, and is a great mythbuster.
"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin - If you want to know about Lincoln in depth, this should be your first stop.
Itunes University: "The Civil War and Reconstruction Era 1845-1877" by David Blight - This is a course from Yale about the Civil War. Blight is both very informative, and very entertaining. The whole class can be downloaded on itunes.
Literature: I usually don't have a lot of patience for Walt Whitman, but I do enjoy what he wrote about Lincoln. Probably the more famous poem is "O Captain My Captain." My favorite is "When Lilacs Last In the Dooryard Bloom'd" which is about the nation in mourning, and the train procession that carried Lincoln's coffin from Washington to Springfield.
www.bartelby.com/142/192.html
Pop Culture
Probably all of us can think of several examples of Lincoln in pop culture. As I think Lincoln himself would approve of going out on a lighter note, here's a montage I made of Lincoln in TV and the movies.