For the People - The Abraham Lincoln Association
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For the People
A Newsletter of the Abraham Lincoln Association
Volume 2, Number 2 Summer, 2000 Springfield, Illinois
Ten “True Lies” About Abraham Lincoln
Part 1
by Allen C. Guelzo * that he had to be nudged and urged Lincoln’s Hanks relatives were a pretty
toward abolishing slavery. His best crude lot: “lascivious, lecherous, not to
n 1860, Abraham Lincoln told solution for dealing with the slaves be trusted,” and whispers about
I Chicago journalist John Locke
Scripps: “Why, Scripps, it is a great
piece of folly to attempt to make any-
was, up until the last two years of his
life, to deport them to Central Amer-
ica or Africa. Yet it is also true that he
Nancy’s origins may have filtered
down to Lincoln’s ears as rumors that
he himself was illegitimate. Whatever
thing out of my early life. It can all be genuinely hated slavery from his earli- the reality, Lincoln took the whispers
condensed into a single sentence . . . est years. In the end, he put weapons very seriously. In 1852, Lincoln told
‘The short and simple annals of the in the hands of freed black men, and his law partner, William Herndon, that
poor.’ That’s my life, and that’s all you put the blue uniform of the United “his mother was a bastard,” the natural
or anyone else can make of it.” That, States on their backs, and demanded daughter of a high-class Virginia
of course, was not true. No American that they be given the same civil rights planter. What was worse, Herndon
life has ever been less capable of being that any white citizen enjoyed. believed that “Mr. Lincoln was
telescoped into a single sentence; no It is in balancing each of these informed of some facts that took place
American life has ever been so far qualities that we learn to penetrate in Kentucky about the time he was born
removed from merely being “short and something of the mystery of Abraham (was told in his youth), that ate into
simple.” Lincoln, and who really was our great- his nature, and as it were crushed him,
Still, Lincoln was not exactly est president. So, let us consider a and yet clung to him, like his shadow,
telling a lie when he told Scripps that series of “true lies” about Abraham like a fiery shirt around his noble spir-
his life was a chapter out of the simple Lincoln and see if understanding him it.” Even if these were only rumors,
lives of the poor. His life up to age is really as great a “piece of folly” as it they weighed heavily on Lincoln. He
twenty-one was, to the surprise of seemed to him. never glorified his poor farmer ori-
many who knew him in the 1850s, LINCOLN WAS ILLEGITIMATE gins; if anything, they embarrassed
rooted in the harsh rural poverty of Abraham Lincoln was the son of him, and the suggestion that his birth
Kentucky (where he was born in Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks or his mother’s were morally tainted
1809) and southern Indiana (where he Lincoln, born on a farm near intensified what Herndon called “his
grew up). And even at the height of Hodgenville, Kentucky. No birth cer- organic melancholy.”
his prosperity as a railroad lawyer in tificate for Abraham Lincoln exists, LINCOLN HAD RELIGION
the 1850s, he could be “short and sim- and the only proof that he was born on Lincoln was certainly born in a
ple” in other ways. According to his the day that is celebrated as Lincoln’s religious home. Although his father,
friends, he could be socially aloof, “ret- birthday—February 12—is his own Thomas, was an elder in the Separate
icent,” “shutmouthed,” and likely to testimony in several letters and two Baptist Church, a rigidly exclusive
be telling funny stories one moment short biographical sketches that he Baptist denomination, Lincoln pulled
and plunging into manic depression wrote for political campaign use in shy of any religious commitments.
the next. 1859 and 1860. There is, neverthe- This did not mean that Lincoln was
Clustering around Lincoln are not less, no real doubt that he was legiti- unfamiliar with Christianity. He was
so much truths or lies, as are a galaxy mate—that his parents were quite gifted with an almost photographic
of “true lies”—exaggerations, paradox- legally married at the time of his memory, and he could mount tree
es, and myths that almost always turn birth—because the record of the stumps and replay the sermons of
out to have something of a truth in Lincoln-Hanks marriage in 1806 has preachers he had heard almost on
them. It is true that he started poor, survived. What may be true, though, demand, or recite an obscure verse of
but it is also true that he was a social is that Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who the Bible that he had read. But he
climber. It is true that he was the died when her son was nine years old, never joined a church. In fact, when
Great Emancipator, but it is also true may have been illegitimate herself. continued on next page2 For the People
continued from previous page In 1850, Lincoln’s second son,
he finally came of age and left his Edward Baker Lincoln, died of tuber-
father’s farm to become a clerk in a culosis. The death of the child drove In Memoriam
store at New Salem, he became notori- Mary Todd Lincoln to join the First
ous for sniping at Christianity. When Presbyterian Church in Springfield.
he moved again in 1837 to Springfield Although Lincoln did not join the lmer Gertz, world-renowned
to begin work as a lawyer, his
Springfield friends described him as a
“skeptic” or an “infidel.” Mary Todd,
church with Mary, he began to show a
noticeable softening of attitude. He
began instead to speak of himself as a
E Chicago civil rights attorney
and recipient of the Abraham
Lincoln Association’s Lincoln the
whom he married in 1842, was also seeker, but a seeker who was not sure Lawyer Award, died on April 27 after
known as a religious agnostic, and that he would be acceptable to God complications from open-heart
there is no evidence that either of them after all. “Probably it is my lot to go surgery in January. He distinguished
belonged to a church for the first eight on in a twilight, feeling and reasoning himself in a number of landmark cases,
years of their marriage. continued on page 6 including winning the release of
Nathan Leopold from prison, over-
turning Jack Ruby’s first trial convic-
Was Abraham Lincoln tion for the killing of Lee Harvey
Forced Into Glory ? Oswald because of pretrial publicity,
and successfully defending the publica-
erone Bennett, Jr., shocked the Many of the scholarly explorations on tion of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer
L American public with his
famous February, 1968 article
in Ebony, “Was Abe Lincoln a White
Lincoln, race, and emancipation
resulting from Bennett’s provocative
article are found in the Association’s
against the censorship statutes in
Chicago. Perhaps his most notable
accomplishment was chairing the
Supremacist?” Claiming that Lincoln recent collection of essays available committee that wrote the civil rights
was not the Great Emancipator and from Fordham University Press, “For section of the 1970 Illinois
that he represented the interests of his A Vast Future Also”: Essays from the Constitution. Gertz was ninety-three.
white constituents rather than Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Linda Culver, vice president of
enslaved blacks, Bennett concluded Association. Illinois National Bank, Springfield
that Lincoln was the embodiment of Now, thirty-two years later, business and civic leader, and member
the racist tradition in America. Bennett revisits these same themes at of the Abraham Lincoln Association’s
Herbert Mitgang of the New York greater length in his recently released board of directors, died suddenly on
Times and Mark Krug in the Chicago book, Forced Into Glory: Abraham May 18. Culver, a native of
Sun-Times responded to Bennett’s Lincoln’s White Dream (Johnson Springfield, rose quickly in the bank-
accusations immediately in the press Publishers, 2000). Columnist Jack E. ing industry from controller to senior
with rebuttals. Scholars such as White writing in Time agreed with vice president and executive vice presi-
George M. Fredrickson and Don Bennett that a “conspiracy of silence,” dent before being named president of
Fehrenbacher also wrote seminal arti- prevented the book from being widely First of America Bank (FOA), smash-
cles exploring the limitations of reviewed and openly debated. ing the glass ceiling confronting
Lincoln’s views on racial equality. continued on next page female executives. When FOA was
purchased by National City Bank,
Culver was named regional president.
The Abraham Lincoln She left National City Bank last year to
Association to Sponsor the help reestablish the locally owned
Illinois National Bank. Every
Lincoln Colloquium Springfield civic, cultural, and business
organization board actively sought
he Abraham Lincoln Associa- include the Lincoln Studies Center at Culver because she was energetic,
T tion Board of Directors voted
to provide $1,000 toward the
cost of the 15th Annual Lincoln
Knox College and the Lincoln
Museum at Fort Wayne. The speakers
for “Now He Belongs to the Ages:
industrious, and caring. Her love of
Springfield was legendary. Her brief
tenure on the Abraham Lincoln
Colloquium that will take place on Lincoln in the New Millennium,” Association board of directors pro-
September 23 from 10:00 A.M. to include Allen C. Guelzo, Eastern duced a revised accounting system for
5:00 P.M. at the Lincoln Museum in College, Harold Holzer, Metropolitan the association. She also headed the
Fort Wayne, Indiana. The event orig- Museum of Art, and Thomas F. task force to begin long-range plan-
inated as a lecture series sponsored by Schwartz, Illinois State Historian. ning for the association, which result-
the Lincoln Home in Springfield, The registration cost is $35. For fur- ed in a retreat and planning document.
Illinois. It has since expanded to ther information call 219.455.6087. Culver was forty-seven.For the People 3
continued from previous page Thomas C. Sorensen Professor of
Editorial pieces by Steve Chapman Political and Social Thought at the
THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN and Clarence Page in the Chicago University of Virginia and author of a
ASSOCIATION Tribune have questioned Bennett’s forthcoming book on the evolution of
DONALD R. TRACY conclusions. It has not generated the Lincoln’s political virtues, has agreed
President same level of excitement in large mea- to write a review essay on Bennett’s
MOLLY BECKER sure because in the past thirty-two book that will appear in the Summer,
RICHARD HART years scholars and authors have care- 2001, issue of the Journal of the
RICHARD MILLS fully examined Lincoln’s views on race Abraham Lincoln Association. And so,
Vice-Presidents
and emancipation. William Lee Miller, the debate continues.
THOMAS F. SCHWARTZ
Secretary
JUDITH BARRINGER
Welcome New Members!
Treasurer his list reflects members Mathewson, Philip M. Dripps, Dr.
DAN W. BANNISTER
Immediate Past-President
Board of Directors
T enrolled from Dec. 1, 1999-
May 31, 2000: Jonathan Rey-
man, Mr. And Mrs. Morton D. Barker,
Bruce Tap, Charles and Eugenia
Eberle, David B. Franco, Richard G.
Weigel, David A. Linehan, Michael
R-Lou Barker III, Robert G. Langford, Dr. E. Mark Starasta, Norman D. Schmidt, Harold
Roger D. Bridges Neihaus, Linda Stetz, Clare Connor,
Michael Burlingame Bezzant, Carlton L. Smith, Jerry
Sheldon S. Cohen Slater, Susan Krause, Stacy McDer- Terrance Brennan, Robert E. Shapiro,
John Daly mott, Harold J. Spelman, Sheila Riley- Stephen McGuire, Donald Walden,
Brooks Davis Nathan Boyer, Leland K. Post, Keith
Robert S. Eckley Callahan, Thomas Campbell, Matthew
Paul Findley Glover, Muriel Underwood, Michael A. Larson, Aaron R. Bachstein, Marie
Donald H. Funk A. Myers, Ronald C. White, Robert Decator, Samuel Smith, Jack Wilson,
Edith Lee Harris Jon M. Franchino, J. Gerald Moore,
Norman D. Hellmers and Janice Irwin, William A. Rolando,
Earl W. Henderson, Jr. John S. Melin, Stratton Shartel, Don Hamblin, Dorothy Richardson,
Fred B. Hoffmann Dennis E. Suttles, William H. Jacques, William S. Spears, Verne Hargrave,
Barbara Hughett Jennifer Light, Davis C. Bruce, Peter
Robert W. Johannsen Frank C. Ullman, Clifford and Shirley
Lewis E. Lehrman Greenwalt, Douglas and Jean McLain, M. Lowry, James Carley, Jane E.
Susan Mogerman Nancy Whalen, Rand Burnette, Shelby Lennon, and Helen G. Campbell. A
Georgia Northrup special thanks goes out to Molly
Phillip S. Paludan Harbison, Craig M. Chambers, Greg
James W. Patton III Walbert, Drew Davis, Susie Ripka, Becker and the membership commit-
Mark Plummer William and Nancy Simpson, Mark tee for their good work.
Gerald Prokopowicz
James A. Rawley
Brisbane Rouzan
Brooks Simpson
Save the Date!
Charles B. Strozier by Frank J. Williams. For more infor-
eptember 23, 2000-May 31,
Robert A. Stuart, Jr.
Louise Taper
John T. Trutter
Andy VanMeter
Margaret VanMeter
S 2001, “Picturing Lincoln: The
Changing Image of America’s
Sixteenth President,” Northern
mation, call 219.455.6087.
October 13-14, 2000, Conference
on Illinois History, Hilton Hotel,
Robert Willard Indiana Center for History, South Springfield, Illinois. The conference
Douglas L. Wilson Bend, Indiana. The exhibit will fea- will feature Ulysses S. Grant biogra-
Honorary Directors ture the print and photograph collec- pher Brooks D. Simpson and sessions
Governor George H. Ryan tion of Jack Smith along with major on Lincoln’s Illinois and the Civil War.
Senator Richard Durbin artifacts from the collections of the For information, call 217.782.2118.
Senator Peter Fitzgerald
Congressman Ray LaHood Illinois State Historical Library, the October 15, 2000, Abraham
Congressman John Shimkus Lincoln Museum, and other reposito- Lincoln Association Membership
Justice Benjamin K. Miller ries. For additional information, call Dinner, Jacksonville, Illinois. Featured
Mayor Karen Hasara
219.235.9664, or visit the Center’s at the dinner will be noted Lincoln
Emeritus Directors website at www.centerforhistory.org. scholar Douglas L. Wilson. For more
Willard Bunn, Jr.
Irving Dilliard September 23, 2000, The Fif- information, call John Power or Greg
James Myers teenth Annual Lincoln Colloquium, Olson at 217.245.6121.
Distinguished Directors Lincoln Museum, Fort Wayne, And don’t forget the Abraham
Mario M. Cuomo Indiana. The colloquium will feature Lincoln Association Banquet on
John Hope Franklin presentations by Allen C. Guelzo, February 12, 2001, featuring noted
Garry Wills author and television commentator,
Harold Holzer, Thomas F. Schwartz,
and the R. Gerald McMurtry lecture Michael Beschloss.4 For the People
A Lincoln in Name Only
by William B. Tubbs * 1732), to Warren Lincoln (b. murdered man, the charred remains of
December 11, 1878, in Mt. Pulaski, a house burned down. . . . the objec-
braham Lincoln may have been Illinois). tive proof . . . that a crime has been
A the most famous Lincoln to
practice law in Illinois, but he
was certainly not the only Lincoln to
At the urging of John T. Stuart,
Abraham Lincoln began his study of
law in 1834. Within two years,
committed.” Warren’s firm grasp of
this definition became quite evident in
January of 1924 when he confessed to
have done so. Warren J. Lincoln was Lincoln had a license to practice. In and was charged with the murders of
one of the others. Abraham and the spring of 1837, he and Stuart his second wife Lina and her brother
Warren were both descendants of began a partnership that would last Byron Shoup.
Samuel Lincoln of Hingham, Mas- until 1841. From 1841 to 1844,
sachusetts (the progenitor of the Lincoln practiced alongside Stephen
Lincoln name in America). Though T. Logan. In 1844, Lincoln took as a
both Lincolns for a time lived in cen- junior partner William Herndon—a
tral Illinois and practiced law, the sim- partnership that lasted until Lincoln’s
ilarities all but end there. election to the presidency. Lincoln
was involved in more than 5,600 cases
during his career.
Warren Lincoln attended Chicago-
Kent College of Law from 1913 to
1916, and for a time he was employed
as a clerk at the office of Chicago attor-
ney Henry W. Magee. In July of 1916,
Warren sat for the Illinois Bar exam
and on October 4 he was admitted to
the Illinois Bar. Soon after, he re-
sumed a professional relationship with
Magee, this time as an attorney. He
would also return to Mt. Pulaski and Lina (Shoup) Lincoln
begin a partnership with George J.
Smith. It is unknown how many Warren and Lina Shoup were mar-
clients Warren had, how many cases he ried in Lincoln, Illinois, on September
tried, or whether he was considered 7, 1912. At the time, Warren was the
competent as a lawyer. But his legal postmaster at Mt. Pulaski and Lina
career was short-lived. After a nervous was his assistant there. It is unknown
breakdown in 1918 and a month-long whether Lina’s older brother Byron
stay at Chicago’s Alexian Brothers’ accompanied the couple to Chicago
Hospital under the care of nerve spe- when Warren began law school, but by
cialist A. B. T. Heym, Warren’s legal the time that the Lincolns moved to
career was over. At the suggestion of Wichita, Byron was clearly in the pic-
Heym that he find a less-stressful occu- ture. Byron continued to be a member
Warren J. Lincoln pation, Warren moved to Wichita, of the Lincoln extended family once
Abraham’s great-grandfather and Kansas, to study horticulture. In the couple moved to Aurora, helping
Warren’s great-great-grandfather were March of 1921, he returned to Illinois out with Warren’s greenhouse busi-
brothers. Abraham and Warren’s to open a greenhouse and truck-farm- ness.
genealogical paths diverge at Mordecai ing operation just north of Aurora. The confession to the murders
Lincoln, Jr., Samuel Lincoln’s grand- There he sold fruits, flowers, and veg- brought to a conclusion a twelve-
son. One can follow the lineage of etables. His knowledge of the law, or month roller coaster ride for Warren
Mordecai’s first son, John (b. 1716), at least one tenet of it, however, Lincoln. The previous January his
to Abraham Lincoln (b. February 12, remained with him. wife tried to poison him, and his
1809). In 1830, Abraham and his Corpus delicti is defined in Black’s brother-in-law severely beat him. In
family came to Illinois, and the rest is Law Dictionary as the “body (material March of 1923, Warren filed for
history. One can follow the lineage of substance) upon which a crime has divorce. On the morning of April 30,
Mordecai’s eighth son, Thomas (b. been committed, e.g., the corpse of a 1923, Warren disappeared. His houseFor the People 5
was found ransacked. Blood was contacted the authorities and Warren
found in the house, in the greenhouse, was arrested on January 12 in Chicago
and on clothing recovered from a near- and charged with obtaining money
by well. As a nationwide search began under false pretenses. Once in cus-
for Warren it became clear that all had tody, Warren began telling the tale of
not been well at the Lincoln household his life with Lina and Byron in sordid
for some time. Reports of several detail. He also, in the span of twelve
occurrences of abuse were told by days, made several different confes-
Edward Lincoln (Warren’s brother and sions as to the murders and/or possible
business partner) and John Lincoln whereabouts of his wife and his broth-
(Warren’s son from his first marriage). er-in-law.
Soon, the prevailing opinion was that Eventually, Warren confessed to
Warren had been killed or kidnapped the murders of both Lina and Byron.
by his wife and his brother-in-law. But a confession is not enough to con-
vict someone of a crime. Warren knew
that, and for twelve days seemed to
enjoy the notoriety that the case
brought him, as the newspaper
Jailer Pete Fatten displays pieces of
reporters swarmed around him mak-
the concrete block that concealed
ing him a local celebrity. There was no
the heads of Lina (Shoup) Lincoln
evidence that the murders that Warren
and Byron Shoup.
had confessed to had occurred.
Warren claimed, alternately, that the sequential and ancillary fact to the
bodies were burned in the furnace of focus of my ongoing research on the
his greenhouse, buried, or taken away case, the relationship of Warren to
by persons unknown. Searches of his Abraham Lincoln has been inescap-
property turned up nothing. Warren able. In recounting the incidents at
even returned to his house to reenact Aurora, reporters made room for
the crime to hopefully jog his memory Warren’s claims of kinship with the
as to what happened to the bodies. Sixteenth President, even though his
But nothing came from that. On Jan- actions and his other claims were more
uary 25, 1924, once Warren decided than enough to fill the columns of
that he’d had enough fun, he made his newspapers from around the state and
Byron Shoup final confession. The following day, he the country. Most would hope that
took the authorities to the North Lake none of Warren’s claims were true.
On June 12, 1923, however, Street city dump in Aurora and led the The photographs for this article
Warren reappeared in Chicago telling a search for a concrete block that he had were taken from the January 14, 1924,
tale of a kidnapping, an international unloaded there the previous June. The Chicago American and the January 28,
drug ring, and a daring escape in heads of the two victims would be 1924, Chicago Daily Journal.
Buffalo, New York. He returned to found inside.
Aurora and tried to pick up his life Warren was sentenced to life in
Unless otherwise indicated, all
where it left off, but before long, prison on February 18, 1925, and was
photographs are courtesy of the
Warren disappeared again. Some sug- sent to the Illinois State Penitentiary at
Illinois State Historical Library,
gested that another nervous break- Joliet the next day. He died there of
Springfield.
down had caused him to seek treat- complications following gall bladder
ment with specialists in Michigan. surgery on August 11, 1941. For the People (ISSN 1527-2710) is
Late in 1923, requests for money published four times a year and is a
from Lina were received by her rela- *William B. Tubbs is the editor benefit of membership of the
tives in Mt. Pulaski, and a check drawn and designer of this newsletter and the Abraham Lincoln Association
on Byron’s account and endorsed by Associate Editor of the Journal of 1 Old State Capitol Plaza
him turned up at his Aurora bank. At Illinois History. Springfield, Illinois
the urging of Lina and Byron’s rela- Author’s note: The above is but a 62701.
tives, another search for Warren was synopsis of the odyssey that was
instigated. On January 8, 1924, Dr. F. Warren Lincoln’s life. The whole story Edited and Designed by
C. Van Hook of Mt. Pulaski received a is the subject of a book-length treat- William B. Tubbs
written request from Warren for a let- ment that has been my obsession for wbt60@earthlink.net
ter of recommendation. Van Hook nearly four years. Although an incon-6 For the People
Ten “True Lies” About Abraham Lincoln
continued from page 2 thought there was merit in it.” In a LINCOLN WOULD BE A
my way through life, as questioning, series of notes that he compiled for a DEMOCRAT IF HE WERE
doubting Thomas did,” Lincoln told lecture on lawyering in the 1850s, ALIVE TODAY
Aminda Rogers Rankin. After his Lincoln warned “young lawyers” to The fact that Lincoln was the first
election to the presidency in 1860, he “never stir up litigation” just to get Republican president has always pro-
began to speak in almost personal business. “Resolve to be honest at all vided good political capital for
terms about his need for the help of events; and if, in your own judgement, Republicans and irritated embarrass-
God and his confidence that Divine you can not be an honest lawyer, ment for everyone else. That embar-
Providence would bring the war and resolve to be honest without being a rassment, however, has developed a
the emancipation of the slaves to a suc- lawyer. Choose some other occupa- double edge in recent years. The con-
cessful conclusion. tion, rather than one in the choosing sensus among historians seems to be,
Still, Lincoln pulled shy of identi- of which you do, in advance, consent as Andrew Delbanco remarked in a
fying with any organized religion. to be a knave.” New York Times review of a recent
While his Illinois political friend This did not mean, however, that Lincoln book: “In the old days the
Orville Hickman Browning noticed Lincoln was any sort of legal Robin good guys were the Republicans; now
that Lincoln frequently spent Sunday Hood. By the 1850s, his experience in it’s the other way around.” This sug-
afternoons reading the Bible, Lincoln the circuit courts and his network of gests that the party of Lincoln has
never prayed, either before meals or political connections had won him drifted away from Lincoln and that
anywhere else. Julia Taft Bayne, who agreements to represent most of the possession of Lincoln needs to be
babysat the Lincoln children in the major railroad corporations in Illinois. claimed by another party. This has
White House in 1861, thought it was The legal work that he did for them been encouraged by another lawyer-
odd that in a time when “many fami- often involved evicting farmers from politician, Bill Clinton, who has tried
lies conducted some sort of family lands claimed by the railroads, protect- to establish that a new Democrat is
worship . . . I do not remember that ing the railroads from lawsuits by busi- really more loyal to the principles of
the Lincoln family did.” Bayne never nessmen whose freight was damaged Lincoln than the Republicans are.
heard Lincoln “pray or saw him in the or spoiled by the railroads, and win- But any proposals for Democ-
attitude of prayer.” Even when he read ning exemption from local property ratizing Lincoln need to cope with the
the Bible, he read it “quite as much for taxes for the railroads. By the mid- fact that Lincoln was driven by a deep-
its literary style as he did for its reli- 1850s, at a time when an ordinary seated hatred of the Democratic Party
gious or spiritual content.” In his last workingman earned only about $300 from almost his earliest days in poli-
great speech, his Second Inaugural, to $500 a year, Lincoln was earning tics. Herndon wrote that Lincoln
Lincoln spoke as no other American over $3,000 a year as a lawyer. In one “hated Jefferson, the man and the
president has ever spoken about God case for the Illinois Central Railroad, politician,” and Jefferson was, of
and God’s direction of human affairs. he took home a fee of $5,000. course, the father of the Democratic
But he spoke only of God as Judge, Still, there was no sense in which Party. Lincoln ran his first political
not theologically as Father, Forgiver, Lincoln was greedy—he was still rep- campaign against the Democrats of
or Redeemer. Lincoln was, as resenting $3.50 trespass suits. He did President Andrew Jackson and piled
Herndon remarked, a very religious not have “the avarice of the get,” sarcasm and invective on Democratic
man, but it was a religion of his own remembered Herndon, but he did heads whenever he had the chance.
making, not the religion of the Bible have “that avarice of the keep.” He After his election as president in 1860,
or of any other organized religion. was, in other words, stingy. He was he set a new record for federal govern-
LINCOLN WAS AN HONEST furious, as president, to discover that ment job firings by dismissing over fif-
LAWYER Mary had overspent the congressional teen hundred Democratic office hold-
In Lincoln’s time, as much as in appropriation for refurbishing the ers to replace them with Republicans.
our own, the words “honest” and White House, despite the obvious fact It is true that Lincoln tirelessly
“lawyer” are often classified as contra- that the White House in 1861 was preached the virtues of freedom and
dictions. Lincoln, however, developed falling down around its’ occupants democracy, but what he meant by free-
an outstanding reputation for honesty ears. He also hoarded large portions dom and democracy was economic
and fair play in his own legal practice. of his presidential salary, to the point opportunity, in which an individual
He told Noyes Miner, a Springfield where two uncashed salary warrants “may look forward and hope to be a
neighbor and Baptist minister, that “he were discovered in his desk after his hired laborer this year and the next,
would never take a case unless he death. continued on page 8For the People 7
A Lincoln Vignette
by Thomas F. Schwartz mately 180 special train cars transport- rally as well as Lincoln’s reaction to the
ed the party faithful to the monster plight of Kansas.
ne of the most recognized Springfield Republican rally. The Almeda Jane Bone was born on
O Lincoln photographs shows
the presidential candidate
dressed in a white summer suit stand-
parade photograph shows a wagon
carrying girls in white dresses repre-
senting the thirty-three states of the
April 1, 1846, at Rock Creek, an area
several miles south of New Salem,
Illinois. She married Robert P.
ing in the doorway of his home on Union. A lone sulky trailing the Harrison on January 29, 1868, and
August 8, 1860. He is among a wagon has a girl carrying a sign, lived in Pleasant Plains, Illinois, for the
throng of spectators watching a giant “Wont you let me in Kansas” (lower- remainder of her life. When the local
parade pass by his home on the way to right-hand corner below), a reference newspaper, the Pleasant Plains Argus,
the fairgrounds, then located west of to the battle over whether Kansas published a special issue in 1928, they
the city in an area that is now bordered should be admitted as a free or as a included the following entry about
by the streets of Governor, Washing- slave state. The recollection of Almeda Almeda Harrison: “Mrs. Harrison is
ton, Douglas, and Lincoln. Approxi- J. Harrison sheds further light on this well preserved in mind and body and
has a most enviable memory. She
knew Abraham Lincoln, and tells an
interesting story of having been one of
a group of girls, each wearing a badge
and representing one of the States of
the Union, who rode in wagons in a
campaign parade. A girl riding alone
in a sulky depicted Kansas, then seek-
ing admission into the Union. When
the procession halted in front of the
Lincoln home, Abraham Lincoln came
out, and taking the little girl from the
sulky, lifted her into the wagon with
the other States.”
Lincoln’s symbolic granting of
statehood to Kansas became a reality
on January 9, 1861, two months
before he took the oath of office.
“Bleeding Kansas” would join the
ranks of free states just as the nation
divided on the slavery issue along sec-
tional lines.
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add $3.00 Zip ____________________________8 For the People
Ten “True Lies” About Abraham Lincoln
continued from page 6 LINCOLN WROTE THE printed for school distribution in
work for himself afterward, and finally GETTYSBURG ADDRESS ON 1910, and remained in print until
to hire men to work for him.” Lincoln THE BACK OF AN ENVELOPE 1956).
thought of the Democrats as the party WHILE ON HIS WAY THERE In reality, Lincoln had been work-
of bad faith; as a party that preached In November of 1863, two years ing on a draft of his remarks for weeks
that America was divided into hostile into the Civil War between the North in advance. When he arrived in
groups of oppressed and oppressors, and the South and four months after Gettysburg the night before the ceme-
of rich and poor, of free and slave, and the great battle at Gettysburg, Lincoln tery dedication, he only reworded the
that the business of government was was invited to deliver the dedication final sentences to get them as letter-
to ease the pain of the poor and the remarks at the opening of the national perfect as possible, and probably
oppressed with subsidies—in the form memorial cemetery at Gettysburg. recopied them to make a final draft the
of cheap land or slaves—and allow the The legend that Lincoln wrote his morning of the dedication. It would
great plantation owners to rule the remarks on the back of an envelope not have been like Lincoln to leave any
country. Lincoln thought of the while on board the train taking him important public utterance to the last
Republicans as the party of the middle there arose from a story published in minute. He usually prepared his
class and the small businessman. He Scribners’ Magazine in 1906 written by speeches with painstaking care, some-
saw no permanent antagonism of rich Mary Shipman Andrews. Andrews’s times memorizing them word-for-
and poor in America, no conspiracies story was intended to be a piece of fic- word before delivering them, and he
of the oppressed and oppressor, only tion and it was supposed to underscore frequently refused to speak at all if
the ambitions of the talented and the how spontaneous and natural invited to do so without warning or
envy of the lazy. To be free, for Lincoln’s imagination was—that the preparation.
Lincoln, was to be able to enjoy a words of the Gettysburg Address
socially open and economically mobile could come to him almost at the last *Allen C. Guelzo is the Grace F.
society. To be a slave was to have every minute. That made them seem more Kea Professor of American History
social relationship frozen hopelessly in like divine revelation. The story, how- and the dean of the Templeton Honors
place, with the great white planters ever, lodged itself in popular imagina- College at Eastern College in St.
making sure that no poor boys (like tion the same way that the story of Davids, Pennsylvania. He is the win-
Lincoln) ever upset the social ladder Christopher Columbus denying that ner of the Lincoln Prize for his book,
by trying to climb it. On those terms, the world was flat did: by being read Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President
there is not much doubt who Lincoln aloud in schoolrooms by schoolteach- (1999).
would have voted for at the last presi- ers who didn’t know the difference The conclusion of “Ten ‘True
dential election (and it would not have between fiction and fact (a book ver- Lies’ About Abraham Lincoln” will
been for the present incumbent). sion of Andrews’s article was actually appear in the autumn issue.
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