Bridgewater Review

Volume 37 Issue 2 Article 8

11-2018

Something Solid to Rest Upon: Abraham Lincoln’s Interest in Science

William F. Hanna

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Recommended Citation Hanna, William F. (2018). Something Solid to Rest Upon: Abraham Lincoln’s Interest in Science. Bridgewater Review, 37(2), 25-28. Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol37/iss2/8

This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. of another kind. Keenly aware of the Something Solid to Rest Upon: vagaries of an ever-changing world, he confronted the painful ambiguity of life Abraham Lincoln’s Interest and death by seeking solace in the laws in Science of physical science. Lincoln’s interest in science and math- William F. Hanna ematics began in 1833, when he took a surveying job in Illinois. Wayne C. s darkness fell on a warm summer evening Temple writes that the twenty-four- in August 1864, Dr. Joseph Henry, the year old Lincoln mastered enough geometry and trigonometry to earn A Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, a reputation as a competent surveyor. stood in the tower of a building on the grounds of William H. Herndon was Lincoln’s longtime law partner, and his volumi- the Old Soldiers’ Home, located three miles northwest nous correspondence has been col- of the U.S. Capitol. Called by one historian the lected and edited by Douglas L. Wilson greatest American scientist since Benjamin Franklin, and Rodney O. Davis. Their research presents a letter in which Herndon Henry was a physicist by training. His work on remembered that during the same electromagnetism in the 1840s helped lay the period that Lincoln mastered survey- groundwork for the first practical telegraph. ing, he also studied natural philoso- phy, astronomy and chemistry. “His Standing nearby was President mind,” wrote Herndon, “required and Abraham Lincoln, whose summer lived in facts, figures and principles.” cottage was located adjacent to the Although generally a patient man, said Old Soldiers’ Home. The two men Herndon, his partner hated abstraction. were together to witness an ultimately “If you wished to be cut off at the knees successful experiment in which Morse just go at Lincoln with … glittering code signals would be flashed by lan- generalities.” tern light from the Soldiers’ Home with In addition to the demands of fron- the hope of receiving an answer from a tier surveying, Lincoln also put his signalman placed across the city in the accumulating knowledge of scientific tower of the Smithsonian Institution. principles to another, deeply personal, As the Civil War dragged into its fourth use. As a young man, Lincoln was an year, Lincoln and his generals looked outspoken religious skeptic. It was for any advantage that might bring the during this period, wrote his friend bloodletting to a speedier conclusion, James Matheny, that Lincoln, “at least and they hoped that improvements in bordered on absolute atheism.” He was communication would help. “enthusiastic in his infidelity,” and he Over the previous three years the sci- used science to argue against scriptural entist and the president had developed a revelation. His was “the language highly successful working relationship, President Abraham Lincoln, November 1863 of respect,” wrote Matheny, “yet it (Photo credit: Alexander Gardner). based in large part upon Lincoln’s life- was from the point of ridicule—[but] not scoff.” long fascination with scientific prin- his ability to read, write and perform ciples and their practical application. simple arithmetic, Lincoln admitted In 1834 Lincoln was elected to the Unlike Dr. Henry, the president’s mea- that whatever education he gained Illinois legislature for the first of four ger formal education had come through afterward had come informally and as terms, and two years later was admit- brief sporadic attendance in frontier required during his rise to professional ted to the state’s bar. After moving “blab schools.” In an autobiographi- and political success. “The pressure to Springfield in 1837 he became cal sketch written during his 1860 of necessity,” he called it. And yet, as a familiar figure within legal and presidential campaign, he noted that he Lincoln matured, he also felt pressure political circles. As a loyal member went to school only “by littles.” Beyond

November 2018 25 of the Whig Party, both in the state the difficulty of boats trying to navigate brought into the office one volume legislature and later during his single the Sangamon River, Lincoln’s inven- in a series edited by David A. Wells term in the Thirtieth Congress (1847- tion was intended to keep vessels from entitled Annual of Scientific Discovery. 1849), Lincoln supported a vigorous running aground. Equipped with what These books featured brief articles program of “internal improvements,” he called “buoyant chambers,” the on new developments in science and and became a strong proponent for the apparatus was designed to float a vessel technology. Herndon wrote that after construction of railroads and canals. over dangerous shoals. Nothing came examining the book, Lincoln rose from of it, and Lincoln returned to his law his chair and said that he was going Robert V. Bruce, in his prize-winning practice, but to this day he remains the to immediately purchase the entire history of American science, writes that only president ever to hold a patent. set. After doing so, he told Herndon, Lincoln’s rise to prominence coincided “I have wanted such a book for years, with the era that saw the beginning In Lincoln’s time, frontier lawyers rode because I sometimes make experiments of modern scientific practice in the the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit, and have thoughts about the physical United States. In addition to rapid pop- traveling from town to town to hold world that I do not know to be true or ulation growth, the three decades after court each spring and fall. John T. false. I may, by this book, correct my 1846 witnessed geographic and eco- Stuart, the future president’s mentor errors and save time and expense.” nomic expansion resulting in scientific and first law partner, said that Lincoln improvements to both agriculture and knew nothing about history, had no Another book that Lincoln found industry. This period also saw increased faith in biography, and knew only a lit- interesting was Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, published in 1859. This was not Lincoln’s first foray into the subject of evolution. Both Robert In a world that often seemed V. Bruce, and more recently James Lander, have written that he had earlier random and capricious, Lincoln read Robert Chambers’ Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, published found comfort and a degree in 1844. Based on his partner’s inter- of certainty in the empirical, est in the subject and also upon many discussions with him, Herndon stated disciplined domain of science. unequivocally that Lincoln was a well- informed evolutionist. His election to the presidency in November 1860 gave Lincoln the specialization in science; more formal tle geography. Nevertheless, said Stuart, opportunity not only to meet practic- education in scientific subjects and Lincoln “read hard works,” remember- ing scientists, but also to influence more fulltime work in the field. In ing that as early as 1844 and continu- federal policy toward the adoption 1846, the year in which Lincoln was ing after his return from Congress, and implementation of new technol- elected to Congress, the Smithsonian he carried a volume of Euclid in his ogy. During this period he also forged Institution was founded and the first saddlebags while traveling the circuit. an important relationship with the issue of Scientific American was pub- Indeed during the campaign of 1860, Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Joseph lished. While living in Washington, the candidate himself thought it impor- Henry, its first secretary. The president it is likely that the young congress- tant enough to state that he had “nearly and his cabinet were ex-officio regents man visited the National Observatory, mastered” the six books of Euclid. of the Smithsonian, and though they which had opened in 1844 with a While many of Lincoln’s friends agreed never attended a meeting, Lincoln state of the art telescope. The planet that he read only to gain specific took an active interest in its welfare. Neptune had been discovered shortly knowledge and not for pleasure, it was In addition to attending lectures and before Lincoln’s arrival in the capital not because there was a shortage of witnessing the signaling experiments and considering his interest in astron- books available to him. Herndon had conducted there, he occasionally asked omy the Illinoisan was almost certainly an extensive library, Lincoln had full Henry for clarification or informa- a regular at the observatory. access to it, and he occasionally availed tion on scientific matters that might In March 1849, at the end of his con- himself of the privilege. For example, affect the war effort. Lincoln also gressional term, Lincoln applied for and Herndon remembered that he once provided critical help in bypassing the was granted a patent. Remembering

26 Bridgewater Review President Abraham Lincoln signing the Charter of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Apocryphal rendition shows Lincoln with several founding members of the NAS. Left to right: Benjamin Peirce, Alexander Dallas Bache, Joseph Henry, Louis Agassiz, President Lincoln, Senator Henry Wilson, Admiral Charles Henry Davis, Benjamin Apthorp Gould. (Painting by Albert Herter, 1924, courtesy of the National Academy of Sciences).

War Department’s bureaucracy after White House or the Soldiers’ Home, to Colchester’s body. When the scientist fire ravaged the Smithsonian Castle in and Lincoln, always the skeptic, asked asked to examine Colchester’s person, January 1865. Upon an urgent request Dr. Henry to look into the subject the medium fled. from Henry, Lincoln saw to it that and figure out how the “communica- Thanks to the Republican Party’s the building’s roof received critically tion” actually worked. To comply with majority in both houses of the Thirty- important emergency repairs. the president’s request, Henry invited Seventh Congress (1861-1863), Lincoln Charles J. Colchester, one of the most At least once, Lincoln consulted was able to sign into law two bills prominent psychics of the day, to Henry on a matter of personal inter- that helped join both theoretical and display his powers at the Smithsonian. est. In 1862, Mary Lincoln, distraught applied science. On May 15, 1862, he When Colchester appeared, Henry over the death of their son Willie, signed a bill creating the Department of quickly determined that the sounds had turned to spiritualism in an effort Agriculture as a separate, non-cabinet allegedly emanating from “spirits” to communicate with her lost boy. federal agency removed from the Patent actually came from something attached A séance had been held at either the Office. Its first commissioner, the appropriately named Isaac Newton, was a self-made man who favored a scientific approach to agriculture, and …during the first three years within a short time his department had hired a chemist, botanist, entomologist of the Civil War, Lincoln, and statistician. Gabor S. Boritt, in his Lincoln and the Economics of the American because of his natural curiosity Dream, has written that in supporting the newly independent agency, Lincoln and the obstinacy of the was simply endorsing the traditional army’s bureaucracy, sometimes Whig “inclination toward intensive, scientific husbandry,” and Bruce notes found himself involved in that farmers soon began to appreci- ate the benefits of applied science. We the development of weapons can perhaps see the president’s influ- and ordnance. ence in Commissioner Newton’s first

November 2018 27 annual report. It was the department’s Additionally, Lincoln took an interest goal, he wrote, “to make two blades in any weapon that he thought might of grass grow where one grew before.” bring an earlier end to the war. In 1861, It appears that the inspiration for those for example, Thaddeus Lowe secured words came from Lincoln himself, who an appointment with the president to in an 1859 address to the Wisconsin present his idea to use hot air balloons Agricultural Society, said: “Every blade for reconnaissance. Lincoln was present of grass is a study; and to produce two as Lowe brought his balloon down where there was but one, is both a Pennsylvania Avenue and tethered it profit and a pleasure.” in back of the White House overnight. Lincoln’s intervention also led to the In July 1862, Lincoln signed the Morrill Union army’s largest order of breach- Land Grant Act into law thus support- loading rifles, and also resulted in tests ing colleges that gave instruction in of many unconventional weapons, agriculture and engineering. Originally including incendiary devices and body passed in 1859, this measure had been armor. By 1864, as a Union victory vetoed by President James Buchanan. became more apparent, Lincoln’s atten- Under the terms of the act, each state tion was demanded elsewhere and his received 30,000 acres of federal land for Dr. Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the active efforts to promote new weapons each member of Congress in 1860. The Smithsonian Institution. (Photo credit: and ordnance substantially decreased. land could be sold by the states with the Henry Ulke, courtesy of the Smithsonian proceeds going to fund the colleges. Institution Archives). Twelve weeks after securing a tempo- Engineering courses had been almost rary roof for the Smithsonian Castle, exclusively taught at the U.S. Military The most extensive study of Lincoln’s Lincoln was dead, and unburdened of Academy at West Point, but the new interest in science and technology has the “pressure of necessity.” Not only law made it possible for other institu- been in his advocacy of certain weap- had it made this boy who had gone tions to train engineers. ons of war, and in this the bar was to school “by littles” one of the most again set by Robert V. Bruce, whose eloquent proponents of human rights, In March 1863, eight months after the 1956 book, Lincoln and the Tools of War, it had also driven his enduring interest passage of the Morrill Act, Lincoln remains the standard. Bruce states that in science. “He wanted something solid signed an Act of Incorporation creating during the first three years of the Civil to rest upon,” said his friend Joseph Gillespie, and he pursued it in the mysteries of the physical universe. In a …to this day [Abraham Lincoln] world that often seemed random and capricious, Lincoln found comfort and remains the only president ever to a degree of certainty in the empirical, hold a patent. disciplined domain of science. the National Academy of Sciences. War, Lincoln, because of his natu- The president’s support came in spite of ral curiosity and the obstinacy of the opposition from his friend Dr. Henry, army’s bureaucracy, sometimes found who feared that the organization himself involved in the development would become elitist and undemo- of weapons and ordnance. Inventors cratic. Henry eventually overcame his hoping to skirt regular army channels objections and served as the Academy’s often appealed directly to Lincoln for second president. help, and this sometimes resulted in a request from the president to the War William F. Hanna is an Adjunct Department asking that a man be given Professor in the Department a hearing. of History.

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