Abraham Lincoln and the Plymouth Forefathers Monument: Researching Lincoln in the Electronic Age Thomas R

Bridgewater Review Volume 22 | Issue 2 Article 5 Dec-2003 Abraham Lincoln and the Plymouth Forefathers Monument: Researching Lincoln in the Electronic Age Thomas R. Turner Bridgewater State College, [email protected] Jennifer A. Turner Recommended Citation Turner, Thomas R. and Turner, Jennifer A. (2003). Abraham Lincoln and the Plymouth Forefathers Monument: Researching Lincoln in the Electronic Age. Bridgewater Review, 22(2), 3-6. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol22/iss2/5 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Abraham Lincoln and the Plymouth Forefathers Monument: Researching Lincoln in the Electronic Age by Thomas R. Turner and Jennifer A.Turner The presidential papers of Abraham Lincoln have been In spite of this shortcoming, authors writing about the available to scholars since 1947 when they were publicly sixteenth president used many parts of this vast corre- opened twenty-one spondence. But the sheer volume of the collection, years after the death of which runs to about 20,000 items, always seemed to Robert Todd Lincoln, hint that there might be additional insights about the president’s eldest Lincoln’s life and career if only there were some way and sole surviving son. to make the papers more user friendly. Robert took charge of That need has now been answered due to significant Courtesy BSC the papers after his advances in technology in recent years and specifically father’s assassination, the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress. sometimes carrying The Lincoln documents have been scanned and placed them between homes Special Collections in a database that allows the user to search not only in Washington, D.C. chronologically, but also by name of correspondent and and Chicago and also keywords. Additionally, many of the documents have to his summer resi- been transcribed under the supervision of Douglas dence Hildene in Wilson and Rodney Davis at Knox College in Galesburg, Manchester, Vermont Illinois, the site of one of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas before donating them to the Library of Congress. Robert debates. It is now possible to sit at a computer and view occasionally made the documents, which consisted any document in the collection, to print a copy, and in mainly of incoming correspondence, available to friend- many cases to read a transcription. ly authors such as Lincoln’s secretaries John Nicolay and John Hay who utilized them in writing their monumen- One interesting example of the type of insight such a tal ten-volume Lincoln biography. However, he refused search can yield involves the Forefathers Monument in access to other writers who he feared might be too criti- Plymouth, Massachusetts. During a sabbatical, one of cal and who could not be counted on to sufficiently the co-authors of this article, while searching the micro- defend Abraham Lincoln’s legacy, a legacy of which film edition, came across a certificate indicating that Robert himself had become one of the chief guardians. Abraham Lincoln had donated money to the building of this famous memorial. However, that was not the topic Additionally, the papers were also made available in a being investigated and no written note was made about microfilm edition so that researchers did not have to this document, although a mental note was taken that travel to the Library of Congress but could work in this might be an interesting issue to pursue more thor- other libraries that had acquired the microfilm. A find- oughly another time. Since no follow-up was made over ing guide was developed, but since it consisted primarily a number of years, an attempt to locate the document of an alphabetical listing of those who had correspond- would now have required a search of forty to fifty reels ed with Abraham Lincoln it was cumbersome to use. of microfilm looking for an individual document, a task Anyone who has worked with microfilm can attest to that appeared rather daunting and uncertain enough of the difficulty in locating a specific item on a single roll of results to justify the time expenditure required. microfilm, as well as the limitations of microfilm readers that make it difficult to decipher often-illegible nine- Using American Memory and typing in the word teenth century handwriting. In short, while the Plymouth, however, not only yielded the sought-after Abraham Lincoln papers were an invaluable resource for certificate but additional correspondence about the Lincoln and Civil War scholars, they were not entirely president’s contribution to the Forefathers Monument easy to utilize. as well as an attempt to enlist his name in support of other nineteenth century monument projects. While the idea for a monument to honor the Pilgrims was pro- BRIDGEWATER REVIEW DECEMBER 2003 3 posed as far back as 1794, the plan received a boost with “the monument was designed to remind all citizens, the founding of the Pilgrim Society in 1820, the two both North and South, of their collective heritage— hundredth anniversary of the landing. However, it was Billings’ aim was to give shape to the words of the great not until the mid-1850s that the Society had accumulat- orators of his day in the cause of preserving national ed enough funds to search for an architect. Although unity—through the celebration of a shared heroic several individuals submitted designs, the Society final- origin.” . TURNER ly settled on Hammatt Billings. In any event, once Billings had secured the contract, he Billings was a well-known 19th century artist and archi- hired the Reverend William Harding as general fundrais- tect, although by the 20th century he had become a ing agent since the cost of the completed project was much more obscure figure until his reputation was estimated to be the not insignificant sum of $300,000. somewhat rehabilitated by James O’Gorman of Billings planned to build the monument in the grand Wellesley College in his biography entitled Accomplished style; the original design stood 153 feet high, although in All Departments of Art, Hammatt Billings of Boston, 1818- the project took a lot longer to build than planned and 1874. The artist had made his reputation with designs the final memorial was reduced to an 81 foot height. for businesses, theaters, libraries, funerary monuments, Parenthetically, Billings also submitted plans for a mas- and especially his illustrations for Harriet Beecher sive statue to honor Daniel Webster to be erected in the Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. According to Professor Boston Public Garden and another colossal monument O’Gorman, the main reason that Billings was eventual- to the Minutemen on Lexington Green, but neither of ly forgotten was that he was a generalist in what was those projects was ever built. Indeed, Billings, who died . TURNER AND JENNIFER A becoming an age of specialization. While he was skilled in 1874, did not live to see the Forefathers Monument in many areas, he was not so outstanding in any one completed. The project was finished by his brother, area as to be remembered as an expert. Joseph, and was dedicated on August 1, 1889. Billings undertook the monument project at an auspi- On April 15, 1861, subscription agent Renewick cious moment. Throughout the early part of the nine- Dickerson wrote to the president in reference to the THOMAS R teenth century, there seemed to be a growing national Forefathers Monument, consciousness that developed in particular around the Under ordinary circumstances I would have legacy purported to have been created by the founding been thrice happy to have had your name on of Massachusetts by the Pilgrims and by extension the my book but I forbear inviting your coopera- creation of the United States. Prominent public speakers tion in this momentous crisis—Please accept of the day, such as Daniel Webster and Edward Everett, the enclosed Honorary Certificate of Life delivered many addresses at annual celebrations of the Membership to the Pilgrim Monument landing at Plymouth Rock as well as other commemora- Association. tive events. For example, at a Forefathers Celebration in 1853, Edward Everett equated the Pilgrims and their ide- Parenthetically, it should be noted that on April 12 the THERS MONUMENT ology as the basis for American freedom and civil liber- Confederates had attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston A ties. He said, “The political code of the Pilgrims united Harbor. Dickerson’s letter shows that even in times of religion and liberty, morals and law.” grave crisis, chief executives are also called on to deal with more mundane matters. The wording of In the same period, while there was also growing inter- Dickerson’s letter is interesting, leaving open the possi- est in the Pilgrims, as seen by the numerous literary bility that the agent actually made the contribution in works to appear on the Pilgrims in the 1850s such as Lincoln’s name in order to utilize the president’s pres- William Bradford’s Of Plimoth Plantation, the vision of tige to solicit other contributions. However, the fact the Forefathers Monument also became a symbol of that Lincoln received a receipt for $10 suggests that he YMOUTH FOREF national unity in a period of increasing sectional ten- actually made the donation and that Dickerson’s refer- sion. In many ways, the iconography of the monument, ence is merely to his inability to get the president to which describes the physical journey of the Pilgrims as sign the subscription book. well as the social and civil institutions established under them, became a way to demonstrate the founding, cre- In return for his $10, Abraham Lincoln received hon- ation, and sustaining of a national union increasingly orary life membership in the Pilgrim Society, a receipt called into question by divisive incidents in the 1850s illustrated with Billings’s drawing of the proposed mon- such as the Fugitive Slave Act, Bleeding Kansas, and Harper’s Ferry.

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