NUMBER 1919 FALL 2018 Upcoming Events

LINCOLN LORE IS A PUBLICATION OF THE THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WARS FRIENDS OF THE LINCOLN COLLECTION OF OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN INDIANA 23rd Annual Lincoln Forum Symposium CONTRIBUTORS HAROLD HOLZER Featuring: Edward K. Ayers, David W. Blight, Andrew Delbanco, Harold Holzer, FRANK J. WILLIAMS John F. Marszalek, Craig L. Symonds, JANE GASTINEAU Frank J. Williams NERIDA F. ELLERTON And Special Guest Novelist George M. A. (KEN) CLEMENTS Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo RICHARD HART ED BREEN November 16-18, 2018

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THANKS TO ASHER AGENCY FOR DESIGNING The images on the cover are part of the Lincoln Financial THE NEW FORMAT FOR LINCOLN LORE. Foundation Collection’s Lincoln Family Album that was the THIS ISSUE OF LINCOLN LORE WAS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY A GRANT FROM personal photo album of the Lincoln family. To see more, see THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BICENTENNIAL pages 14-15. (LFA-0091 Tad Lincoln, LFA-0484 Willie Lincoln, LFA- 3 FOUNDATION.FALL 2018 0486 Robert Lincoln). HAROLD HOLZER

The Debate over the Debates

How Lincoln and Douglas Waged a Campaign for History

Harold Holzer

As most readers of nineteenth-century while Democrats read pro-Democrat- ly Times, respectively.1 For a century history know, the 1858 Lincoln-Doug- ic journals. And the politically slant- and a half, most readers have relied las debates sparked an explosion of ed debate coverage each published on, accepted, and cited these “offi- public interest in Abraham Lincoln, differed so markedly they seemed cial” party transcriptions even though Stephen A. Douglas, and the sport of to be reporting entirely different they were undoubtedly burnished political debating itself. The encoun- events. The reprinted debate tran- before their initial appearance in ters not only riveted the tens of thou- scripts varied dramatically as well, re- newsprints.2 How they came to be sands of eyewitnesses who packed corded on the spot, but with entirely permanently enshrined in book form Illinois town squares and fairgrounds different results, by separate stenog- constitutes a compelling story in itself. to hear them, but also captivated the raphers hired by Chicago’s pro-Re- hundreds of thousands more around publican and pro-Democratic dailies. The actual debates proved unre- the country who devoured every word strained, highly entertaining, if not of their arguments in the newspapers. The debates have been republished always eloquent free-for-alls. They many times since 1858. But follow- seem even more so in their origi- Often forgotten, however, is that what ing their initial appearance in book nal, unedited, unvarnished, and sel- these readers got to examine in 1858 form in 1860, they have almost always dom-reissued form—that is, the way depended very much on the political featured the Republican newspaper opposition stenographers recorded party with which they (and their favor- versions of Lincoln’s remarks, and them on the scene—sans editorial ite newspapers) were affiliated. And the Democratic reprints of Douglas’s, amelioration—even if it might reason- what Democrats and Republicans just as they were first transcribed for, ably be argued that a Republican ste- saw was quite different. In the age edited by, and issued in, the pro-Re- nographer might as easily misreport a of Lincoln and Douglas, Republicans publican Chicago Press and Tribune Democratic speech as a loyal Demo- read Republican-affiliated papers, and the pro-Democratic Chicago Dai- crat might mangle a Republican one.

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 4 THE DEBATE ON THE DEBATES

Even as the debates progressed, a book binder to paste the speeches in making inquiries to secure its safe secondary debate erupted over these consecutive order,” obtained two sets return, he intrigued a local Repub- partisan transcripts. The Republican of the complete run of transcripts lican leader who thought it might press charged that Democratic re- from both the Tribune and Times (in impress the Columbus publishers prints garbled Lincoln’s utterances case some transcripts appeared on Follett, Foster & Co. It did. The book and refined Douglas’s. The Democrat- back-to-back pages), and in short or- appeared under their imprint just ic press unleashed similar attacks on der began cutting them out and neatly before the 1860 race for president Republican iterations. By way of exam- gluing them in his new “Scrap-book.”5 got underway. And it became so suc- ple, the Chicago Times insisted that the It was Lincoln who determined to use cessful that it served almost to cam- the Republican versions of his tran- paign nationally in Lincoln’s behalf scripts, and the Democratic record of in an age in which presidential can- his opponent’s. Adopting these au- didates did no campaigning on their thorized, party-sanctioned printings, own.7 The book sold 30,000 copies he reasoned, “would represent each in the spring and summer of 1860. of us, as reported by his own friends, and thus be mutual, and fair.” But Douglas was not grateful. As far as he did proceed to make minor cor- his camp was concerned, the repub- rections to his own remarks, offering lication of the transcripts only rein- Douglas the opportunity to correct vigorated the 1858 debate over their typographical errors in his, if he so accuracy, a matter he clearly felt re- desired. Twisting the knife a bit, Lin- mained unresolved. Moreover, Doug- coln left no doubt that he believed he las may well have feared that a new had more of a right to make editorial edition could remind Southern voters changes than did his rival, explaining that, during the debates, Lincoln had somewhat dubiously: “I had no re- cornered him into conceding the right porter of my own, but depended on of a local jurisdiction to ban, as well as a very excellent one sent by the Press welcome, slavery. Choosing to cast & Tribune, but who never waited to doubts about the book before it ap- show me his notes or manuscripts.”6 peared, the Democratic press charged Even a pro-Lincoln man would have that Lincoln had unfairly re-edited his been forced to admit that Douglas “manuscripts” while denying the same had enjoyed no more time to review privilege to his once and current foe. Political Debates, 1860 and amend his speeches immediately after their delivery than had Lincoln. James W. Sheahan, editor of the Tribune was guilty not only of shame- pro-Douglas Chicago Times, wrote lessly marring “The Little Giant’s” Still, it was Lincoln who seized the provocatively to Lincoln in late Jan- debate speeches, but of “re-writing initiative to republish the debates; uary 1860: “I see it stated that you and polishing the speeches of…poor Lincoln who cannily realized that they have furnished some gentlemen of Lincoln,” who, it taunted, “requires might yet help him in future endeav- your party in Ohio with revised cop- some such advantage.” The Tribune ors by further circulating his verbal ies of your speeches [emphasis add- countered that Times mutilations left battles with a national figure as prom- ed].” To this sly insult Sheahan added Lincoln’s actual words so “shamefully inent as Senator Douglas. At first, Lin- a long-overlooked, veiled threat to and outrageously…emasculated” that coln elicited no interest in the project outrace Lincoln for their reissue. “I if doctoring prose became a crime, from publish- am about publishing a “the scamp whom Douglas hires to ers, but during report Lincoln’s speeches would be a barnstorming a ripe subject for the Penitentiary.”3 tour through Ohio in 1859, he The still-relevant issue—the accuracy found a buyer of the debate transcripts we general- through a fortu- ly accept—remains unresolved to this itous accident. day. But it was Lincoln, loser of the Apparently he campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1858, had taken the who subsequently won the campaign bulky scrap- over how posterity remembers them. book along with Stung as he was by his defeat—and him (no doubt with it, the implicit rejection of his hoping to at- debate arguments—Lincoln within tract interest weeks grew “desirous of preserving in along the way), some permanent form, the late joint then careless- discussions between Douglas and ly left it behind myself.”4 With no private secretary to one day in his help him, he proceeded to purchase “a hotel room. In Political Debates, Given to E. L. Baker from A. Lincoln 5 FALL 2018 HAROLD HOLZER

book,” Sheahan warned. “In it I pro- change a word or a letter in his, and pose to include one or more, possi- the changes I have made in mine…are bly all of your speeches delivered in verbal only, and very few in number.” 9 the joint discussions between Judge Douglas & yourself.”8 Sheahan was in The Follett & Foster project went for- fact preparing only a campaign biog- ward, with no sign of a competing vol- raphy of Douglas, but Lincoln had no ume from the Douglas camp. Feeling way of knowing and ample reason exposed, Douglas predicted that the to think that the Times might rush permanent record collected by Lin- forward a pre-emptive rival book. coln would be “partial and unfair,” with Lincoln refused to cooperate, telling Lincoln’s speeches “revised, correct- Sheahan he had “no copies” of his ed, and improved,” and his own, “am- speeches “now at my control” to pro- biguous, incoherent, and unintelligi- vide the Times, true enough, having ble.” Lincoln’s entire project, Douglas sent his only set to Follett & Foster; bristled, constituted an “injustice.”10 but he made no offer to secure ad- ditional copies. “You labor under a Unjust it well might have been for mistake, somewhat injurious to me,” Lincoln to publish his debates scrap- Lincoln further informed Sheahan, book without Douglas’s review and “if you suppose I have revised the permission. But it was also a brilliant speeches, in any just sense of the political and public relations strike, word. I only made some small verbal all the more remarkable because Lincoln conceived it when allegedly wallowing in melancholy after com- Stephen Douglas LN-1708 ing up short on Election Day 1858. note that “urgent partisan rhetoric” was “a staple of the political press.” Lincoln had lost that election, but “won” 3 the debates in part because he pro- Chicago Times, October 12, 1858; Chi- vided the source material for all sub- cago Press & Tribune, October 11, 1858. 4 sequent book versions through 1993. Lincoln to Henry Clay Whitney, No- The debates came down to us not as vember 30, 1858, in Roy P. Basler, The they were originally argued in the sev- Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 8 vols. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers en towns that hosted them in 1858, University Press, 1953-1955), 3:343. but as Lincoln wanted his own—and succeeding—generations to remem- 5Lincoln to Charles H. Ray, No- ber them, beginning with voters in the vember 30, 1858; Lincoln to Hen- presidential campaign of 1860. It is no ry Clay Whitney, December 25, surprise that most readers and writ- 1858, Collected Works, 3:341, 347 ers still believe, as James M. McPher- son once put it, that Lincoln won the 6Lincoln to William A. Ross, March debates “in the judgment of histo- 26, 1859, Collected Works, 3:373. ry—or at least of most historians.”11 7Douglas defied tradition by speak- Harold Holzer is Jonathan F. ing in public in the South and was Fanton Director of Roosevelt roundly mocked for the effort. House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. His next book is Mon- 8James Sheahan to Lincoln, January 21, Abraham Lincoln, OC-0003 ument Man, a biography of Lincoln Me- 1860. Sheahan was intentionally impre- morial Sculptor Daniel Chester French. cise here; he was not actually contem- corrections, mostly such as an intelli- plating a rival edition of the debates, gent reader would make for himself, Endnotes but working on a campaign biography not feeling justified to do more.” Per- 1An intentional exception was my book, of Douglas, who was not only a fellow Democrat but an investor in the paper. haps worried about the Democratic The Real Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The attack, Lincoln decided to codify that Complete, Unexpurgated Text (New York: 9Lincoln to James W. Sheahan, Janu- very argument in the preface to the HarperCollins, 1993), which printed the “opposition transcripts”—Demo- ary 24, 1860, Collected Works, 3:515. actual book, steadfastly maintaining cratic versions of Lincoln’s remarks, that its contents were “reported and 10 and Republican versions of Douglas’s. Robert W. Johannsen, ed., The Let- printed, by the respective friends of ters of Stephen A. Douglas (Urbana: Senator Douglas and myself, at the 2Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. University of Illinois Press, 1961), 489. time—that is, his by his friends, and Blumin, Rude Republic: Americans and mine by mine. It would be an unwar- their Politics in the Nineteenth Cen- 11James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of ranted liberty,” the prologue rather tury (Princeton: Princeton Univer- Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: self-righteously maintained, “for us to sity Press, 2000), 163. The authors Oxford University Press, 1988), 187.

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 6 Abraham Lincoln on Civil Liberties

By Hon. Frank J. Williams

Imagine, if you will, that the United national emergency and the permissi- through which Americans examine States suffers an unexpected attack. ble limits on the rule of law in wartime. themselves. Every generation reinvents The president deploys the armed Lincoln in its own image. He has been “Congressional leaders were outraged forces and assumes extraordinary variously described as a consummate by the president’s decision to deny powers that go well beyond what moralist and a shrewd political operator, American citizens a most basic consti- the Constitution seems to allow. a lifelong foe of slavery and an inveter- tutional right.” Thousands of persons suspected of ate racist. aiding the enemy are arrested and “Newspaper editors condemned the Today, people, governments, and busi- held without charge or tried before president. Lawyers, jurists, civic lead- nesses can communicate at the touch military tribunals. Talk abounds of ers, academicians, clergy, and others of a button. It’s hard to remember a day joined in the attack.” deporting members of a particular without the internet, but its introduc- ethnic group from the country. The “‘It was not believed that any law was tion and assimilation into daily life was a president meets frequently with evan- violated,’ the president said in re- mere twenty years ago. Despite our ad- gelical ministers, trying to assure their sponse to his many critics.” vances, our country has entered a time active support for his military conflict separate from, yet similar to, the time of Is this a news clipping from 2001 as an epic struggle between good and President Lincoln’s administration. evil, inspired by the country’s divinely through 2007, during President appointed mission to spread freedom George W. Bush’s decision to autho- Since 2001, our country has lived in a and democracy throughout the world. rize wiretaps without court approval, shadow cast by the September 11, 2001, to detain both U.S. & non-U.S. citi- attacks. The detention of enemy com- This period is not the early twen- zens accused of terrorist acts without batants and President Bush’s decision to ty-first century. Instead, the period charging or trying them? allow military tribunals spawned much is the 1860s, the president, Abraham heated discussion world-wide and with- Though such a conclusion would be Lincoln, and the conflict the American in our nation. President Barack Obama understandable, it, too, is wrong. Civil War. History never really repeats campaigned against military deten- Rather, the clipping describes the re- itself. But the uncanny resemblances tions and for closing Guantanamo Bay action to President Abraham Lincoln’s between that era and events in the in his election 2008 election campaign. decision to suspend the writ of habeas United States since September 11, When he was elected, he temporarily corpus, detain U.S. citizens, and to try 2001, have pushed to the forefront of stopped the use of military tribunals, them before a military tribunal. historical discussion such questions but within months reinstituted their as the status of individual rights in a Lincoln has always provided a lens use. Throughout his administration,

7 FALL 2018 FRANK J. WILLIAMS

President Obama continued many -and, of course, suspended the pre- By 1861, events in Maryland ultimate- of President Bush’s same policies. cious privilege of the writ of habeas ly provoked Lincoln’s suspension of Today, President Donald Trump is in- corpus. the writ of habeas corpus. Lincoln’s tent to follow a similar path that both defenders argued that “events” had The writ of habeas corpus is a proce- Presidents Obama and Bush traveled. forced his decision. Ft. Sumter was dural method by which one who is im- In making this choice to utilize such fired upon on April 12, 1861. On April prisoned can petition the court to have tribunals, our commanders-in-chief 19, the Sixth Massachusetts militia walk a fine line between protecting his or her imprisonment reviewed. If arrived in Washington after having the civil liberties all Americans hold so the court finds the imprisonment literally fought its way through hostile dear and guarding the safety of each does not conform with the law, the Baltimore. On April 20, Marylanders citizen. individual is entitled to immediate severed railroad communications release. With suspension of the writ, with the North, almost isolating Throughout our nation’s history, our this immediate judicial review of the Washington D.C. from that part of the leaders have been criticized for taking imprisonment becomes unavailable. seemingly extra-constitutional mea- nation for which it remained the capi- This suspension triggered the most tal. Lincoln was apoplectic. sures. Upon closer examination of heated and serious constitutional dis- the situations facing Abraham Lincoln, putes of the Lincoln administration. He had no information about the many parallels can be drawn to the whereabouts of the other troops current atmosphere in this country. promised him by Northern governors, Today, years after the start of the wars and Lincoln told Massachusetts volun- in Afghanistan and Iraq, our country teers on April 24, “I don’t believe there still lives in the shadow caused by is any North. The Seventh Regiment the attacks on September 11, 2001. is a myth. Rhode Island is not known Today, not only does our nation have in our geography any longer. You are a continuing presence in both those the only Northern realities.” nations, but is fighting a new threat: ISIS; along with Al Qaeda, and many On April 25, the Seventh New York other terrorist organizations. But to militia finally reached Washington af- fight terrorist organizations, and not ter struggling through Maryland. The countries, required and still requires a right of habeas corpus was so import- different set of rules than the set we ant that the president actually con- have used since the inception of our sidered the possible bombardment nation. of Maryland cities as an alternative to suspension of the writ. Lincoln In facing emergencies during the Civil authorized General Winfield Scott, War, Abraham Lincoln found himself Commander of the Army, in case of in many difficult political positions. “necessity,” to bombard the cities, but In the words of historian James G. only “in the extremist necessity” was Randall: “No president has carried Scott to suspend the writ of habeas the power of presidential edict and corpus. executive order (independently of Congress) so far as he did . . . It would In Maryland, there was at this time not be easy to state what Lincoln con- a dissatisfied American named John Roger B. Taney, OC-1006 ceived to be the limit of his powers.” Merryman. Merryman’s dissent from the course being chartered by Lincoln It has been noted how, in the eighty Lincoln proclaimed, not “civil war” was expressed in both word and deed. days between the April 1861 call for He spoke out vigorously against the troops at the beginning of what be- in those words, but the existence of “combinations too powerful to be Union and in favor of the South. He came the Civil War and the convening destroyed bridges and tore down tele- of Congress in special session on July suppressed by the ordinary course of graph lines isolating Washington, D.C., 4, 1861, Lincoln performed a whole judicial proceedings.” He called forth from the rest of the nation. Thus, he series of important acts by sheer as- the militia to “suppress said combina- not only exercised his Constitutional sumption of presidential power: tions,” which he ordered “to disperse and retire peacefully” to their homes. right to disagree with what the gov- ernment was doing, but also engaged -increased the size of the army and Lincoln considered these actions to be in attacks to destroy the government. navy; a “rebellion.” This young man’s actions precipitated -appropriated money for the pur- We all know that only Congress is con- chase of arms and ammunition with- legal conflict between the president stitutionally empowered to declare out congressional authorization; and Chief Justice of the United States, war, but suppression of rebellion has Roger B. Taney. -declared a blockade of the southern been recognized as an executive func- coast which is an act of war, which, tion, for which the prerogative of set- On May 25, 1861, Merryman was ar- arguably, recognizes a belligerent ting aside civil procedures has been rested by the military and lodged in nation placed in the president’s hands. Fort McHenry, Baltimore, for various

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON CIVIL LIBERTIES

alleged acts of treason. Shortly af- Ohioan Clement Laird Vallandigham, ter Merryman’s arrest, his counsel the best-known anti-war Copperhead sought a writ of habeas corpus from of the Civil War, was perhaps President Chief Justice Taney, alleging that Lincoln’s sharpest critic. He charged Merryman was being illegally held at Lincoln with the “wicked and hazard- Fort McHenry. ous experiment” of calling the people to arms without counsel and author- Taney, already infamous for the Dred ity of Congress; with suspending the Scott decision, took jurisdiction as a writ of habeas corpus; and with “coo- circuit judge. On Sunday, May 26, ly” coming before the Congress and 1861, Taney issued a writ to fort com- pleading that he was only “preserving mander George Cadwalader, himself and protecting” the Constitution and an attorney, directing him to pro- demanding and expecting the thanks duce Merryman before the Court the of Congress and the country for his next day at 11:00 a.m. Cadwalader “usurpations of power.” respectfully refused on the ground that President Lincoln had authorized Vallandigham was speaking at a the suspension of the writ of habeas Democratic mass meeting at Mt. corpus. Vernon, Ohio, on May 1, 1863, when he was arrested by Major General To Taney, Caldwalader’s actions were Ambrose E. Burnside. He was escort- constitutional blasphemy. He im- Clement Laird Vallandigham, LN-1997 ed to Kemper Barracks, the military mediately issued an attachment for was done about Merryman at the prison in Cincinnati, and tried by a Cadwalader for contempt. The mar- time. Merryman was subsequently military commission. He was found shal could not enter the fort to serve released from custody and disap- guilty and sentenced to imprisonment the attachment, so the old justice, rec- peared into oblivion. Two years later, for the duration of the war. ognizing the impossibility of enforcing Congress resolved the ambiguity in After being denied a writ of habeas his order, settled back and produced the Constitution and permitted the corpus, he applied for a writ of certio- the now famous opinion, Ex Parte president the right to suspend the rari to bring the proceedings of the Merryman. writ while the rebellion continued. military commission for review be- Notwithstanding the fact that he was Five years later, after the war, the fore the Supreme Court of the United in his eighty-fifth year, the chief jus- Supreme Court reached essentially States. tice vigorously defended the power the same conclusion as Taney in a case of Congress alone to suspend the writ called Ex Parte Milligan. The Court in of habeas corpus. The chief took this Milligan said that habeas corpus could In the Supreme Court’s opinion, Ex position in part because permissible be suspended, but only by Congress; Parte Vallandigham, his application suspension was in Article I § 9 of the and even then, the majority said ci- was denied on the grounds that the Constitution, the section describing vilians could not be held by the army Supreme Court had no jurisdiction congressional duties. He ignored for trial before a military tribunal, not over a military tribunal. the fact that it was placed there by even if the charge was fomenting an Of course, when the Court addressed the Committee on Drafting at the armed uprising in a time of civil war the issue in Ex Parte Milligan, after the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where the civil courts were operat- war was over, it held that the writ of as a matter of form, not substance. ing as they were in Indiana, unless habeas corpus could only be suspend- Nowhere in his written decision did Congress authorized such tribunals. he acknowledge that a rebellion was ed by Congress. The Court stated that Lincoln never denied that he had in progress and that the fate of the “[t]his court has judicial knowledge stretched his presidential pow- nation was, in fact, at stake. Taney that in Indiana the Federal authority er. “These measures,” he declared, missed the crucial point made in the was always unopposed, and its courts “whether strictly legal or not, were draft of Lincoln’s report to Congress always open to hear criminal accusa- ventured upon, under what appeared on July 4, 1861: tions and redress grievances; and no to be a popular demand, and a public usage of war could sanction a military “The whole of the laws which were re- necessity; trusting, then as now, that trial there for any offence whatever of quired to be faithfully executed, were Congress would readily ratify them.” a citizen in civil life, in nowise connect- being resisted, and failing of execu- They did in summer 1861. ed with the military service.” Ex parte tion, in nearly one-third of the States. Lincoln thus confronted Congress Milligan, 71 U.S. 2, 121–22, 18 L. Ed. Must they be allowed to finally fail of with a fait accompli. It was a case of a 281 (1866). execution? [A]re all the laws, but one, President deliberately exercising leg- to go unexecuted, and the govern- Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus islative power, and then seeking con- ment itself go to pieces, lest that one was specifically ratified by Congress gressional ratification after the event. be violated?” at the end of 1862, permitting suspen- There remained individuals who ad- sion nationwide. By addressing Congress, Lincoln amantly believed that in doing so he had ignored Taney. Nothing more had exceeded his authority. Many years later, in 1942, the United

9 FALL 2018 FRANK J. WILLIAMS

States Supreme Court decided Ex er they did or not is a question to be how President Bush’s reactions and Parte Quirin, a case in which civil decided by the tribunal before which actions to the problems of national se- German saboteurs detained for tri- they are tried, they not only can, but curity and war have on his legacy and al by military commission appealed ought to be tried before a military civil liberties. President Obama was, a denial of their motions for writ of tribunal.” in part, elected for his promises to habeas corpus. The Supreme Court, change those policies. He was unable After Speed wrote the memorandum, refusing to review the case, held that to realize his goals laid out in 2008, President Johnson ordered the use of “military tribunals … are not courts in and incorporated some of President a military commission for trial, and the sense of the Judiciary Article [of Bush’s reasoning into his own. after a seven-week trial, all were con- the Constitution].” Rather, they are victed. Some were sentenced to be the military’s administrative bodies to While “it is encouraging to know that hanged, while others were sentenced determine the guilt of declared ene- this nation has endured such troubles with prison terms from life imprison- mies and pass judgment. before and survived them,” measures ment to six years in prison. regarded as severe in Lincoln’s time Ex parte Quirin I never thought, as a seem mild when compared to those became the veteran, lawyer, and a of ISIS, Osama Bin Laden, or Saddam foundation of judge, that I would be Hussein. President Bush’s living through a situ- claim that the After Osama Bin Laden and his forces ation where the issue government has of Al Qaeda admitted to master-mind- of homeland securi- the right to hold ing the horror that was September ty and civil liberties, “enemy com- 11th, hundreds of suspected Al Qaeda would once again be batants”—even and Taliban associates, not U.S. citi- in conflict as it was Americans—in- zens, were arrested and detained in during the Civil War. definitely, with- Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as “enemy out evidence, As we were during combatants.” President Bush pro- charge or trial. Lincoln’s era, we are posed the use of military tribunals to That legal basis is once again a nation try those individuals charged with ter- still used today, at war, and the laws rorism. Such commissions do not en- despite President of war are different. force national laws, but a body of in- Obama’s at- I know that this is a ternational law that has evolved over tempt to close difficult concept to the centuries. the prison at grasp, because most Our soldiers are required to follow Guantanamo people today are not certain guidelines, most simply stat- Bay. President used to thinking in ed to be the “rules of war.” General Trump has stated Ambrose Burnside, LN-0434 terms of wartime and Order Number 100, or the Lieber publicly that he peacetime. But in reality, the laws of Code, was issued by Abraham Lincoln not only intends to keep Guantanamo war ARE different. to define the requirements by which Bay in use as a military prison, but U.S. soldiers were to conduct them- that he hoped to add other enemy Think about this: our country lost selves during wartime. The Lieber combatants there. 750,000 people over the four years of the Civil War. We could lose that Code was the basis for the Geneva Others used the military trials of the many people in one day if we were at- Convention and the genesis of the conspirators of John Wilkes Booth, tacked by terrorists using a chemical, Hague declarations. who helped Booth assassinate biological, or other weapon of mass During the American Civil War, President Lincoln. During that time, destruction. Abraham Lincoln also declared mar- Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, tial law and authorized such forums wished to convict the conspirators In his 1991 Pulitzer prize-winning to try terrorists because military tri- in a military tribunal, while Secretary book, The Fate of Liberty, historian of the Navy Gideon Welles and for- Mark E. Neely, Jr., closes by admitting: bunals had the capacity to act quickly; mer Attorney General Edward Bates “If a situation were to arise again in the to gather intelligence through inter- both argued it was unconstitutional. United States when the writ of habeas rogation; and to prevent confidential President Andrew Johnson request- corpus were suspended, government lifesaving information from becoming ed that the Attorney General James would probably be as ill-prepared to public. define the legal situation as it was in Speed write an opinion on the legality During Lincoln’s time, the Union Army 1861. The clearest lesson is that there of a military trial for the conspirators. conducted at least 4,300 trials of U.S. is no clear lesson in the Civil War—no Speed concluded his memorandum, citizens by military commission, which neat precedents, no ground rules, no stating: reflected the disorder of the time. map. War and its effect on civil liber- Lincoln answered his critics with a rea- “[I]f the persons who are charged with ties remains a frightening unknown.” the assassination of the President soned, constitutional argument. A na- committed the deed as public ene- Neely’s point is well taken today— tional crisis existed and in the interest mies, as I believe they did, and wheth- since September 11, 2001, many of self-preservation he had to act. At scholars and citizens have questioned the same time, he realized Congress

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 10 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON CIVIL LIBERTIES

had the ultimate responsibility to pass ions upon making a decision in these time to time appointing one or more judgment on the measures he had cases. military commissions to try individu- taken. als subject to the President’s Military Like Lincoln’s critics during the Civil Order and appointing any other per- These confounding problems remind War, many have expressed their con- sonnel necessary to facilitate such me of the burglar who, while robbing cern about the modern use of military trials.” a home, heard someone say, “Jesus is tribunals. watching you.” To his relief, he realiz- Despite efforts to clearly regulate Today, the issue of whether or not es it is just a parrot mimicking some- the parameters of these tribunals, military tribunals should exist is sim- thing it had heard. criticism has remained. A New York ply one layer of this complex debate. Times editorial issued after the estab- The burglar asked the parrot, “What’s The Bush administration did not do lishment of these regulations noted your name?” The parrot says, a good job explaining the law of war, that, despite the fact that the idea of “Moses.” the process of the military commis- military tribunals for suspected ter- sions, and the differences between The burglar goes on to ask, “What kind rorists is less troubling than it was at civil liberties during wartime versus of person names their parrot Moses?” inception, “there is still no practical or peacetime. The public is used to our legal justification for having the tribu- The parrot replies, “The same kind regular system of dispensing timely nals. The United States has a criminal of person that names his Rottweiler and evenhanded justice through the justice system that is a model for the Jesus.” courts. However, the laws of war are rest of the world. There is no reason different from those we have come to Our culture and nation are confront- to scrap it in these cases.” understand. ing many Rottweilers The rebuttal to this argument has It is not clear whether the 9/11 ter- Today’s commissions are composed been that with over ninety million rorists and detainees apprehended of military personnel or civilians who civil and criminal cases in our justice in the United States or abroad, are are commissioned sitting as both trier system each year, the federal courts protected under America’s criminal of fact and law. Initially, any evidence may be ill-equipped to efficiently adju- justice system. Initially, President may be admitted as long as, accord- dicate terrorism cases. Unique issues Bush proposed that those detained as ing to a reasonable person, it will have like witness security, jury security, and enemy combatants would neither be probative value. The defendant is en- preservation of intelligence have and protected by the international law of titled to a presumption of innocence will cause even more extraordinary war nor the four Geneva Conventions. and must be convicted beyond a rea- delay. However, he reversed himself when sonable doubt. Only two-thirds of the many countries indicated that if de- So what is the best way to handle cas- panel, however, is needed to convict. tainees would not be entitled to the es of those detained as enemy com- Now, the Uniform Code of Military Geneva Convention protections, they batants? Who has jurisdiction over Justice lays out these rights and pro- would be hesitant to turn over any such matters—federal courts or mili- tects the due process rights of enemy alleged terrorists in their custody. tary tribunals? Do United States citi- combatants as it does for members of President Bush argued that he, as the zens detained as enemy combatants the country’s armed forces. commander in chief, had the prerog- warrant different protections than During the Bush administration, I ative to choose in which forum cap- foreign detainees? was chosen to be one of five civilians tured enemy combatants could be Actually, both have jurisdiction. The who sat on the Military Commissions tried. president may decide that military tri- Review Panel. This panel was charged Furthermore, our own Department of bunals are an avenue for trial. Trials with reviewing cases that went before Defense indicated that if this country have also been held in U.S. District us and determining whether or not a refused to apply the international law Courts as well. During the 2003-2004 material error of law had occurred. protections, Bush would have put U.S. United State Supreme Court term, the Upon a finding of such error, the pan- troops in Afghanistan and Iraq at risk Court agreed to consider three cas- el could return the case for further if they were captured. Afghanistan es in which jurisdiction and authority proceedings, including dismissal of and other unfriendly countries would over enemy combatants were at issue. the charges. Appeals were able to likely refuse to apply such protections be made to the D.C. Circuit Court of The Supreme Court first considered as well. These rights, protected by the Appeals as a right and by writ of certio- the case of Rasul v. Bush brought by Geneva Convention, govern the hu- rari to the U.S. Supreme Court. foreign detainees captured abroad mane treatment of prisoners of war, during the hostilities between the When a case came before us, we had include the prohibition of murder, tor- United States and the Taliban and de- the option of granting the parties oral ture, and mutilation. tained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. arguments. The other panel members To address some of the confusion, the and I believed in hearings and briefs The detainees challenged their deten- Pentagon issued regulations to govern for these appeals. We addressed tion by filing petitions in the District tribunals. Under Military Commission important issues, and we wanted ev- Court for the District of Columbia. Order No. 1, issued in March 2002, eryone involved to have a full and fair The district court determined that the secretary of defense was vested opportunity to present their case. We because the petitioners were held with the power to “issue orders from were required to issue written opin- outside of the United States, it did not

11 FALL 2018 FRANK J. WILLIAMS

have jurisdiction to hear their peti- tribunal, there must be a hearing tions. The court of appeals affirmed. in order to first determine whether the terms of the Geneva Convention The United States Supreme Court apply. If they do apply, then the de- granted petitioners’ writ of certio- fendant is entitled to have his case rari and after hearing arguments, heard under the Uniform Code of opined that because petitioners Military Justice, and the defendant were being held at an American would receive the same procedural naval base, over which the United safeguards as any American citizen. States exercises “complete jurisdic- tion and control,” “aliens held at the A three-judge panel of the U.S. base are entitled to invoke the fed- Federal Appeals Court overturned eral courts’ authority” by filing writs the district court ruling stating that of habeas corpus. the president does have the authority by the post-9/11 congressional legis- The Supreme Court remanded the lation to establish military tribunals, case to the district court, finding try, and punish enemy combatants that it did indeed have jurisdiction who have violated the laws of war. over challenges made by foreigners The panel court also held that the relative to their indefinite deten- Geneva Convention does not apply to tion in a facility under United States members of al Qaeda. control. On November 10, 2005, the Senate The Court next heard arguments Abraham Africanus, 71200908400101 voted to prevent captured “enemy in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. Unlike the pe- States citizen detained in a military combatants” at Guantanamo Bay the titioners in Rasul, Yassar Hamdi was brig in Charleston, South Carolina. He right to seek writs of habeas corpus. In an American citizen. He was fight- was being held as an enemy combat- an amendment sponsored by Senator ing with the Taliban in Afghanistan ant. The threshold questions raised Lindsey Graham, that was passed 49 in 2001 when his unit surrendered by the Padilla case were 1) whether he to 42, Guantanamo detainees, non- to the Northern Alliance, with which properly filed his petition in the prop- U.S. citizens, would have one appeal American forces were aligned. He was er court and 2) whether the president to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held at a military brig in Charleston, possessed the authority to detain at the conclusion of the military pro- South Carolina, for two years without Padilla militarily. Because the United ceeding, including review thereof if being formally charged. States Supreme Court ruled that the sentence is ten or more years In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Padilla improperly named Secretary of imprisonment or death. But they Hamdi challenged the government’s of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and filed would no longer have a right to the treatment of him as an “enemy com- his petition in the wrong jurisdiction, writ of habeas corpus. On January batant”. The Supreme Court held that it did not reach the second issue re- 11, 2006, President Bush signed the due process requires that citizens garding the president’s authority over Detainee Treatment Act incorporating detained in the United States be giv- this United States citizen accused of these provisions. en a meaningful opportunity to con- terrorism. After that, the Supreme Court heard test their detention before a “neutral The decisions made by President Bush the appeal of Hamdan with Chief decisionmaker.” increasingly came under attack during Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., who was The Court stated that the “neutral his administration, and even after the a member of the Circuit Court Panel, decisionmaker” could be either the Supreme Court’s decisions in Hamdi recused. Arguments were held in federal judicial system or a military and Rasul, the legal waters remain March 2006, and on June 29, 2006, the tribunal provided such tribunal al- murky regarding citizens and nonciti- United States Supreme Court decided lowed him to challenge the factual zens detained as enemy combatants. the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 126 basis for his detention. The burden is Another case has wound its way S. Ct. 2749 (2006). In this 5-to-3 de- initially on the detainee. Hamdi had up to the United States Supreme cision, the court ruled that President also asked the Supreme Court to find Court. In 2004, Federal District Court George W. Bush did not have the pow- that the lower court erred by denying Judge Robertson heard the matter of er or authority to create military tribu- him immediate access to counsel af- Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Captured and nals in Guantanamo, but four of the ter his detention and by disposing of originally detained in Afghanistan, justices indicated that the Congress the case without the benefit of coun- Petitioner Hamdan was transferred to could authorize the president, and sel. The justices found that because the detention facility at Guantanamo that is exactly what the Congress did. counsel had been appointed since Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Hamdan chal- On October 17, President Bush signed their granting of certiorari, there was lenged the government’s plans to try the Military Commissions Act of 2006. no need to decide the issue. him in front of a military tribunal in- In 2008, the Supreme Court consid- The Supreme Court was also pre- stead of before a court martial. ered Boumediene v. Bush, in which sented with Padilla v. Rumsfeld. The The District Court held that before several individuals imprisoned at petitioner, Jose Padilla was a United a prisoner can be tried by a military Guantanamo Bay challenged congres-

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON CIVIL LIBERTIES

sional action denying them their abili- Lincoln’s success, I think, can be dis- ter by saying, “if I had another face ty to file a petition in federal court. In tilled into four basic tenants. First, would I use this one?” that case the Supreme Court held that, Lincoln was clear and confident in The third leadership quality that despite being labeled enemy combat- his belief that everyone should have Lincoln possessed was the signifi- ants, the individuals are not prevent- an equal chance in the race of life— cance he placed on nobility, honor, ed from petitioning the courts seeking devoid of tyranny and terrorism. So and character—in himself and in oth- a writ of habeas corpus. ers. He so eloquently professed These issues are more exac- this element of his leadership erbated today than during philosophy in one sentence, “I Lincoln’s time because of the desire so to conduct the affairs ever- shrinking global village of this administration that if in which we all live. During at the end, when I come to lay the Civil War, Lincoln was down the reins of power, I have concerned about the war’s lost every other friend on earth, implications with Britain and I shall at least have one friend France. Today people are even left, and that friend shall be more acutely aware of how the down inside me.” United States is perceived by And finally, the characteristic its citizens and our allies, es- that perhaps best evidences pecially on matters of human Lincoln’s leadership, was his rights and freedom. ability to thrive in the midst of The length of the war we fight the fray and in the midst of a today is much different than noble crusade—a focused pur- the Civil War. The Civil War, suit of justice. despite its high cost in lives, As the following story shows, only lasted four years. The Lincoln was sometimes too con- war started today originated sumed by this noble pursuit. on September 11, 2001, mean- ing that these wars have lasted The trial was proceeding poor- for more than sixteen years. ly for Melissa Goings, charged Today, our nation has fought with murdering her husband. four times as long as we did in Her attorney, Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War. However, we are called for a recess to confer less aware of and exposed to with his client, and he led her the current war than citizens from the courtroom. were during the Civil War. And When court reconvened, and that affects how we both feel Mrs. Goings could not be found, and think about civil liberties Joel Parker, Habeas Corpus and martial law Lincoln was accused of advising with regards to war. (1862) 71200908409222 her to flee, a charge he vehement- It is clear that the argument over strong was his conviction that he was ly denied. He explained however, that Lincoln and civil liberties was as ro- willing to challenge the political hier- the defendant had asked him where bust in his own time as in ours and archy in order to attain that goal. And she could get a drink of water, and he deserves an equally careful reexam- people resist change. had pointed out that Tennessee had ination by modern historians. That darn good water! She was never seen Lincoln emerges from the perennial Lincoln’s actions drew swift and se- again in Illinois! Rough justice to be controversy that afflicted his adminis- vere disapproval. But, in keeping with sure. tration over civil liberties with a repu- the second tenant of leadership, he The point of the story is that when tation for statesmanship may be the held true to his principles, remaining we judge history or historic individ- most powerful argument for his judi- steadfast even in the face of criticism. uals, we need to look at the events cious application of executive authori- Lincoln’s critics did not confine their and the persons within the context ty during a national emergency. attacks to his professional decision making. He also suffered continuous of the times in which the events oc- Lincoln’s legacy is that of a great lead- assaults on his personal character. curred and the individuals lived—and er. Both President Bush and President Lincoln’s height (6’4’’) and long arms not through the wrong end of the Obama’s legacies have yet to fully take led newspapermen to label him a “ba- telescope. shape in the public’s eye. However, boon,” a “gorilla,” the “Illinois beast,” From time out of mind, warriors have Lincoln’s words that the United States and “Abraham Africanus I” for issuing been asked to lay down their bod- was “the last best hope of earth,” still the Emancipation Proclamation. He ies, their lives, on the martial altar. resonate for survival of democracy in was called a “political coward,” “tim- Modern wars have also visited agonies the world. id and ignorant,” “pitiable,” and “two of deprivation on civilian populations. faced.” Lincoln responded to the lat-

13 FALL 2018 FRANK J. WILLIAMS

In a total war like World War II, the There are times when dangers are so war, and thus lessen its expenditure lines between battle front and home immediate and so terrifying that we of money and of blood? Is it doubt- front blurred, compelling far-reaching do need to sacrifice some freedoms ed that it would restore the national economic mobilizations and requiring to stop them. And the Civil War was authority and national prosperity, civilian moral and material support — one of those times. For sixteen years and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it not to mention political approval—to we as a nation have tried to balance doubted that we here—Congress and maintain a fighting force in the field. the objectives of both individual liber- Executive—can secure its adoption? ty and national security. All of us need War leaders have long understood Will not the good people respond to to continue thinking and talking about the utility of nurturing the feeling that a united, and earnest appeal from us? when we would give up some liberties “we’re all in this together,” combatant Can we, can they, by any other means, to save the Union today. If we faced and noncombatant alike, whether the so certainly, or so speedily, assure a rash of suicide bombers striking privations on the home front were these vital objects? We can succeed several American cities at the same truly necessary or not. The sentiment only by concert. It is not ‘can any of time, how much would our nation- of shared sacrifice binds soldier to ci- us imagine better?’ but ‘can we all do al conversation change? Worse yet, vilian. For better or worse, that sen- better?’ Object whatsoever is possi- how would our conversation change timent is what has made successful ble, still the question recurs, ‘can we if a “dirty bomb,” nuclear attack, small modern warfare possible. do better?’ The dogmas of the quiet pox or anthrax attack occurred? It is past, are inadequate to the stormy During the Vietnam War, the Lyndon only through discussion today that we present. The occasion is piled high Johnson administration scarcely can perfectly or imperfectly ensure with difficulty, and we must rise with dared ask the affluence-intoxicated that we balance these two objectives the occasion. As our case is new, so American public to share even a mod- as best we can—and as Lincoln did. we must think anew and act anew. We icum of the afflictions endured by the In his message to Congress in 1862, must disenthrall ourselves, and then troops in Asia. Lincoln addressed the pressures of we shall save our country.” The contrast between the country’s protecting civil liberties and the na- Hon. Frank J. Williams is the found- sorry experience in Vietnam and its tion. His words are as applicable to- ing Chair of The Lincoln Forum and achievement in World War II suggests day as they were 155 years ago. He the retired Chief Justice of the Rhode that some measure of civilian sacri- wrote to Congress addressing his Island Supreme Court. He teaches at fice, illusory or not, may be necessary “remunerative emancipation” plan. the U.S. Naval War College and serves to sustain the will to go the bitter dis- Lincoln’s plan called for the payment as a mediator and arbitrator. In 2003, tance in the war on terror. to slave owners in return for their he was appointed a judge of the U.S. slaves’ release. Lincoln told Congress Lincoln’s wartime decisions raised the Court of Military Commissions to hear the following: really tough issue that many continue appeals from enemy Combatants at to evade: When should we give up “Is it doubted, then, that the plan I pro- Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. some liberties in the name of security? pose, if adopted, would shorten the

Baltimore riot 1861, Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 85 71200908406574 LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 14 Compiled by Jane Gastineau, Lincoln Librarian at the Allen The Lincoln Family Album County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Like many middle-class women of her era, Mary Todd Lincoln kept a photo- graph album. The introduction of small, inexpensive cartes-de-visite photo- graphs and the specially constructed albums to hold them had made col- lecting photographs popular and affordable after 1860, and Mary collected photographs of her famous contemporaries as well as pictures of her family and friends. Her collection was passed down to Robert Todd Lincoln and his descendants. Each generation added family photographs.

The Lincoln Family Album Collection contains more than 600 photographs collected by four generations of the Lincoln family. You can view the entire collection by typing https://bit.ly/2Jq8TNY into your web browser.

Mary Todd Lincoln (1863) LFA-0078 Mary Lincoln was still dressed in mourning following the death of Willie Lincoln the previous year when this photograph was taken.

Abraham Lincoln (Aug. 13, 1860) LFA- 0006

Willie Lincoln (1861) LFA-0484 Tad Lincoln (1861) LFA-0091 Ten-year-old Willie struck a Eight-year-old Tad also posed debonair pose with hat and cane. with a cane. This photograph is the last one of Willie included in the family al- bum—Willie died of typhoid fever on February 20, 1862.

The Lincolns never had a family photograph taken. After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, artist Francis Carpenter created this composite of the family using photographs of the individuals as models. Willie Lincoln, who died in 1862, is shown in the portrait on the wall. The rest of the family is focused on the book in Lin- coln’s lap. This family image quickly became one of the most popular Lincoln pictures.

Abraham Lincoln (Jan. 8, 1864) LFA-0054 Lincoln and Family (1865) LFA-0123 15 FALL 2018 Mary Harlan Lincoln LFA- 0508 On September 24, 1868, Robert Lincoln married Robert Todd Lincoln (May Mary Harlan of Mount Robert Todd Lincoln 1861) LFA-0486 Pleasant, Iowa. (1913) LFA-0560 Eighteen-year-old Robert, a On April 30, 1913, Robert student at Harvard Univer- Todd Lincoln inscribed this sity, posed for this photo- photograph to his grand- graph at Mathew Brady’s daughter, Peggy. He wrote, Washington, D.C, studio. “To Mary Lincoln Beckwith from her affectionate grandfather, Robert T. Lincoln.”

Jack, Mamie, and Jessie Lincoln (c1889) LFA-0506 Robert and Mary Harlan Jack (Abraham II) Lincoln Lincoln had three chil- (May 1885) LFA-0499 dren—Mamie (b. 1869), Jack Lincoln posed stand- Jack (b. 1873), and Jessie (b. ing beside his Star Bicycle 1875). dressed in his cyclist’s gear and with a bicycler’s bugle hanging from his shoulder.

Mamie (Mary) and Lincoln Isham (c1915) LFA-0555 Mamie Lincoln married Charles Isham on Septem- ber 2, 1891. She posed with their teenaged son, Lincoln Isham (1892-1971). The Beckwith Family (c1912) LFA-0561 Jessie Lincoln Beckwith posed with her two chil- dren—Peggy (Mary) (b. 1898), and Robert (b.1904) Beckwith. The Beckwith children, who died in 1975 and 1985 respectively, were the last direct descendants of Abraham and Mary Lincoln. LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S CYPHERING BOOK

ly hard to come by. It was one thing of Lincoln’s stepmother, of Dennis for a student in Boston, or New York, Hanks, and of many of those who Abraham or Philadelphia to prepare a cypher- went to school with Lincoln, that he ing book, but another for a student in was always readin’, writin’ and cypher- the frontier regions to prepare one. in’. It is almost certain that most of the As far as we know, only 22 pages (11 entries in his cyphering book were leaves) survive from AL’s cyphering made at school, where there were Lincoln’s book. Two leaves are held privately, flat surfaces on which he could write. and the others are at the Abraham Lin- coln Presidential Library and Museum At home, he was known to have (Springfield, Illinois), Brown University, worked out his arithmetic on wood- Chicago History Museum, Columbia en surfaces (such as walls, and the Cyphering University, Harvard University, Indi- backs of shovels), and only when ana Historical Society, Indiana Univer- at school did he enter solutions to sity, the Library of Congress, the Uni- problems in his cyphering book. versity of Chicago, and Yale University. Those of AL’s classmates who gave This unusual scattering of the pages evidence to William Herndon were Book of a manuscript is a direct result of the unanimous in their view that AL original cyphering book having been was easily the most academical- separated into individual leaves by ly capable of the students at the Lincoln’s former law partner, William schools he attended, and they all Herndon, who, following Lincoln’s noted his dedication to cyphering. assassination in 1865, was given the AL’s cyphering book was prepared Nerida F. Ellerton and manuscript by Lincoln’s step-mother, over at least three years—in fact, Sarah Bush Johnson Lincoln. Herndon we, believe it was probably prepared M. A. (Ken) Clements sometimes rewarded an “informant” over a period of six or seven years. (a person who provided him with in- formation about aspects of Lincoln’s The first two pages are concerned life) with a leaf from the cyphering with simple subtraction, and the The oldest extant handwritten man- book. Ultimately, it was only individu- handwriting is less mature than on uscript of Abraham Lincoln is his cy- al leaves which remained, and these later pages. We would conjecture that phering book, which comprised writ- became scattered across the nation. the first two pages were prepared in ten solutions to arithmetic problems What AL wrote in his cyphering book 1819 or 1820, at Andrew Crawford’s that he solved when he was at school. was not entirely consistent with school. Some of the later pages were The most detailed description and statements he would later make dated 1824, and 1826, by Lincoln. analysis of the manuscript is to be about what he did at school. In an AL attended school in winter months found in chapter 6 of our book, Abra- autobiographical statement written only, and it is impressive that, some- ham Lincoln’s Cyphering Book and Ten in 1859, AL stated that he cyphered how, he kept the pages of his cypher- Other Extraordinary Cyphering Books, to the “rule of three,” but analysis of ing book together over a period of published by Springer in 2013. In the the 22 pages shows that, in fact, he years, so that he might continue to text which follows “Abraham Lincoln” cyphered beyond the rule of three. cypher in it when he next returned will usually be referred to as “AL”. Although Dennis Hanks, who lived to school. When, on March 1, 1826, AL’s cyphering book was, indeed, with the Lincoln family for much of he was writing on the last page of his extraordinary. their Indiana years, told Herndon that manuscript, he was moved to write AL did not cypher to the double rule “no room.” He was 17 years of age and In the 1820s, relatively few school of three, on both sides of the leaf now had run out of pages, space, and time children in midwestern states such as held at Harvard University AL was spe- for cyphering. It was now time for him Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, cifically concerned with the double to move on to the next phase of his life. and Tennessee prepared cyphering rule. It is likely that when writing his Our recent research on AL’s cypher- books. We currently own about 500 1859 autobiographical statement the ing book has indicated that the order cyphering books prepared by North future President deliberately wanted in which the pages were prepared by American school children during the to give an impression that he was an Lincoln was consistent with a centu- period 1667–1861, but only 11 of “intelligent, ordinary man” who had ries-old abbaco tradition for school those were prepared in the 5 mid- had only a very limited education. arithmetic. That tradition originated western states—the midwest was a Our analysis of the 22 extant pages in India and in Arab-speaking nations, frontier in the early 1800s, paper was indicated that each page of AL’s cy- was taken up by Western Europe- scarce, and expensive, and schools phering book testifies to the future an nations around 1200 CE, and was were often several miles from the President’s determination to under- translated to North America in the sev- pupils’ homes. Teachers capable of stand what he was writing about. AL enteenth century. The cyphering era helping children to learn to cypher did not copy solutions from textbooks closed in the United States in the 1860s. were hard to find, and arithmetic or from other cyphering books. That We now clarify several issues re- textbooks were expensive and usual- observation fits with the evidence lating to the cyphering tradi-

17 FALL 2018 NERIDA F. ELLERTON. M.A. CLEMENTS

tion, especially as that tradition and 19th centuries. But what did it relates to AL’s cyphering book. assert, and why was it so important? Probably the best way to answer that What is a Cyphering Book? question is to discuss an example from A cyphering book is a handwrit- Abraham Lincoln’s cyphering book. ten manuscript, probably pre- One of the pages (which was headed pared before 1860, which focused “The Single Rule of Three”) showed on mathematical content and Lincoln’s solution to the problem: “If 1 had the following four properties: lb sugar cost 4½ what cost 48 lb?” It can 1. It was written either by a student be presumed that the unit “pence” (usually a boy, who was at least should have been given after the 4½. 10 years old), or by a teacher who In textbooks of the time, a solution to wished to use it as a model which this problem would have begun with could be followed by students pre- the following summary statement: paring their own cyphering books. lb. : Pence :: lb. Pence Figure 1: Abraham Lincoln uses the rule of three (c. 1825) 1 : 4½ :: 48 : ? The top section of the problem is from part of a leaf from Lincoln’s cyphering book, 1. Usually, all entries appeared in With this special notation, the 1, 4½, Lincoln Manuscripts. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University ink—as handwritten notes, or prob- and 48 were regarded as the first, Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/ lem solutions, or as illustrations. second and third terms, respectively, bdr:72542/ The lower section of the problem is from part of a leaf from Headings and sub-headings were and the rule for obtaining the fourth Lincoln’s cyphering book, often presented in decorative, cal- term was “multiply second by third Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library ligraphic style, and occasionally, wa- and divide by first.” Thus, the answer http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/ead/pdf/lincolnmss-0004-061.pdf ter-color illustrations were prepared. (in pence) to the given “sugar” prob- AL was solving problems which used lem would be found by multiplying the old English currency of pounds, 2. It was dedicated to setting out 4½ by 48, and then dividing by 1. shillings, pence, and farthings? The rules, cases, model examples and ex- For students who did not feel the short answer to that question is that ercises associated with a sequence of need to understand what they were the old English currency was still mathematical topics. Although most doing, the rule merely described legal tender is all parts of the Unit- cyphering books were specifically what could be done in order to get ed States—though, in fact, pounds, concerned with arithmetic, especial- a correct answer. For them, the “rea- shillings, pence and farthings had ly commercial arithmetic, some were son for the rule” was unimportant. different values in different states! dedicated to algebra, or geometry, But AL always wanted to understand The rule of three dominated school or trigonometry, or to mathematics not only what he was doing, but also arithmetic for centuries, but by about associated with mensuration, navi- why he was doing it. His solution to 1850 it was becoming less popu- gation, surveying, fortification, etc. the problem is shown in Figure 1. lar. After all, “if 1 lb of sugar cost 4½ The first step should have been to pence then, surely, 48 lbs would cost 3. The topics covered were sequenced multiply 4½ by 48, but that was far 48 times 4½ pence. One did not need so that they became progressively more difficult for AL to do than might to think in terms of “multiplying sec- more difficult. Typically, the first few have been expected—because by tra- ond by third and dividing by first.” topics were numeration, the four op- dition, learning to multiply common Slowly, but surely, educators began erations of arithmetic and their appli- fractions and decimals came well to insist that students thought about cations (especially with regard to mon- after the rule of three in the abbaco meanings and their implications, rath- ey, and measurement), reduction, and sequence. In other, words, AL would er than simply applying a rule which the so-called “single rule of three” (of- not have known how to multiply 4½ they had been told was true. After ten referred to as the “golden rule”). by 48 because he had never learned AL had solved problems using the For those few students who went how to multiply fractions. However, rule of three he proceeded to tack- further than this, there were more ad- he avoided the fractions difficulty by le problems which required the use vanced topics—such as the double rule adopting a standard procedure. He of the “double rule of three.” Some- of three, simple and compound inter- converted the 4½ pence to 18 far- times this was called the “rule of 5” est, loss and gain, discount, tare and things (since there were 4 farthings Because there were 5 known terms tret, equation of payments, alligation, in a penny, 4½ pence equaled 16 (and a sixth had to be determined). fellowship, arithmetic and geomet- farthings plus 2 more farthings); he The first problem of this type that he ric progressions, and mensuration. then applied the rule-of-three meth- solved in his cyphering book was: “If od to get 864 (farthings). He then 100£ in 12 months gain 7£ interest What is the Rule of Three? divided this by 4 to get 216 (pence), what principal will gain 3£-18S-9d in What is “the rule of three,” which and divided that by 12 to get 18 (shil- 9 months?” Such problems also had Lincoln specifically mentioned in his lings). This can be seen in Figure 1. a special rule which could be applied. 1859 biographical statement? The sin- Abraham’s solution to the problem is gle rule of three, which summarized The year when Abraham did this was shown in Figure 2. The modern reader the arithmetic of direct proportion, probably 1824 or 1825. U.S. coins for would have great difficulty following was hugely important for commer- decimal currency were first minted in what AL did, but the future President cial transactions of the 17th, 18th the early 1790s, so one might ask why knew what he was doing and arrived

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S CYPHERING BOOK

at the correct answer (75 pounds). time when the arithmetic on the page Following his excursion into the dou- was written. The handwriting is much ble rule of three, Abraham then tack- more mature than other writing on led problems involving simple inter- the first and second pages. It is likely est, compound interest, and discount. that at some later period AL was look- These later topics required him to ing for space to write the excerpt from go a fair way beyond the single rule Watts, and he then decided to use of three—something which, 35 years vacant space in his cyphering book. later Abraham did not acknowledge (when he claimed that at school Most of the extant pages of the cy- he cyphered to the rule of three). phering book were probably prepared during the 1824–1825 and 1825–1826 Casting-Out-Nines in the Lincoln winters, when AL was attending Cyphering Book Azel Dorsey’s subscription school. Some writers who have examined It is received tradition that during his AL’s cyphering book have commented school days AL had five teachers—in that he made numerous errors, espe- Kentucky there were Zachariah Riney cially in relation to what was known and Caleb Hazel, and in Indiana, An- as “casting-out-nines.” On checking drew Crawford, James Sweeney, and the manuscript, we found that Abra- Figure 2; Abraham Lincoln applies the double rule of Azel Dorsey. These individuals ran ham made very few errors overall. three subscription schools—Abraham prob- Part of a leaf from Lincoln’s mathematical exercise The casting-out-nines technique ap- book, c. 1825, MS Am 1326 ably attended Crawford’s school in peared 18 times altogether—but, in Gift of Christian A. Zabrinskie, 1954, Houghton Library, the winter of 1819–1820, Sweeney’s fact all 18 occurrences can be found Harvard University school in the winter of 1821–1822, and on just 4 pages, all of which were ded- AL’s calculations are shown in Fig- Dorsey’s school during the winters of icated to multiplication or division. ure 3, in which his casting-out-nines 1824–1825 and 1825– 1826. In our re- Casting-out-nines was a check that check is shown within a small circle, search, however, we found reference was often used, especially with mul- slightly to the left of his calculations. to a fourth Indiana teacher, James tiplication or division, as a safeguard The casting-out-nines check was not Davis Bryant (or Briant). According against making calculation slips. infallible. Sometimes it could sug- to Goodspeed Brothers and Compa- We explain the method by show- gest an answer was correct when, in ny (1885), Bryant “taught all through ing how Abraham used it to find the fact, it was not. A more reliable check this portion of the county, and Abe product of 34567834 and 23423. was to divide the answer to the mul- Lincoln was one of his pupils” (p. 412). In order to begin the check, one need- tiplication task by one of the original Bryant was born in 1800, probably in ed to add the digits for each of the two numbers. Abraham did that (see Fig- Kentucky. It appears to have been the numbers, and then get the remain- ure 3). The result of such a division case that he was an itinerant teach- ders after dividing the sum of the dig- should be the other original number. er who taught in several schools in its for each of the two numbers by 9. Of the 18 casting-out-nines checks Spencer County in the early 1820s. Thus: in Abraham’s cyphering book, 17 The fact that very few Lincoln biogra- 3+4+5+6+7+8+3+4 = 40 were correct, and 1 was not. The in- phers and story tellers have referred and, on dividing that sum by 9, one correct check is shown in Figure 4, to James Bryant as one of AL’s teach- gets 4 and 4 remainder. It is the re- and the writing was almost certain- ers begs comment. In and around the mainder, 4, which is important for the ly done by someone other than AL. Pigeon Creek and Rockport, region check. Then, for the second number: Azel Dorsey was highly regarded both 2+3+4+2+3 = 14 The error was to include two 9s in the as a teacher and a prominent citizen Dividing this by 9 gives 1 and 5 re- check—the 9s should have been ze- in the community. As his popularity mainder—again, it is the 5 which is ros. So, our conclusion is that in his cy- within the local community grew, he important for the check. The next step phering book, AL himself carried out took on wider official duties and the is to multiply the two remainders: 17 casting-out-nines checks, and got demands on his time became greater. 4 × 5 = 20 and if this divided by 9 one all of them correct. Someone else— gets 2 and 2 remainder. This third hopefully not a teacher—did one We conjecture that Dorsey asked remainder should equal the remain- check, and got it wrong. Furthermore, Bryant to take on some of his teach- der after the sum of the digits in whoever made that error also seemed ing responsibilities, while he (Dorsey) the answer to the original multipli- to believe that the product of 30000 attended to other matters in town. cation is divided by 9. That answer and 3000 was 90000 (see Figure 4). The possible presence of a fourth In- was 809682375782 and the sum of On the second page of his cyphering diana teacher for AL would go some the digits is 65. When 65 is divided AL penned his famous ditty, “Abra- of the way toward explaining the ap- by 9 one gets 7 and 2 remainder— ham Lincoln, his hand and pen, he will pearance, in AL’s cyphering book, of and that remainder is equal to the be good, but God knows when.” This problems from American arithmetic Authorremainder Name obtained earlier. Hence, was followed by an excerpt from a textbooks by Stephen Pike and Zach- it would be concluded that no error hymn by Isaac Watts. It is unlikely that ariah Jess and, on the final two pages, had been made in the calculations. the Watts inclusion was written at the of problems from the British arithme-

19 FALL 2018 NERIDA F. ELLERTON. M.A. CLEMENTS

tic textbook by Francis Walkingame. “blab-school” and, as such, students penmanship and calligraphic headings. According to several of William Hern- were expected to talk aloud, mainly to According to Ida Tarbell, Thomas Lin- don’s informants, AL cyphered with themselves, for most of the school day. coln did not like Abraham reading all of his Indiana Although we or studying much in their home, but teachers, but the cannot pro- his step-mother succeeded in get- 22 extant pages vide many ting Thomas to allow AL to spend are all that re- specific de- time at home on his school work. main, and most tails about At school, AL’s writing instrument of them were Dorsey’s was a turkey-buzzard quill pen used prepared during school, such with home-made brier-root ink. the last two win- schools The cyphering tradition demanded ters that AL at- were usu- that all entries into a cyphering book tended school. ally of the should be correct, and therefore AL We conjecture log-cabin had to work out solutions to prob- that during those variety, hav- lems before having them checked by winters Bryant ing just one the teacher and before writing them allowed AL to room, dirt in his book. Abraham was well-known copy from text- floors, and, for having a strong memory, and it is books by Pike, Figure 3: Abraham Lincoln “casts out nines.” of course, likely that once he was happy with a Part of a leaf from Lincoln’s cyphering book, Rare Book and Jess, and Walk- Manuscript Library, no interior solution to a problem he would com- ingame which Columbia University in the City of New York. bathroom Bryant owned— facilities. In- or, alternatively, to copy from a side, there was a large, crudely-con- cyphering book that Bryant him- structed fireplace, and rows of split self owned which included ques- logs provided seating for the students. tions from those three authors. At the front, there was a teacher’s ta- Did Abraham Consult an Arithmetic ble, and chair, and along one of the by Nicolas Pike or by Stephen Pike? walls was a long, rectangular open- Several of Herndon’s informants who ing—sometimes covered with greased Figure 4: Who made the error in this casting-out-nines check in went to school with Abraham men- paper—which, together with candles, Abraham Lincoln’s cyphering book? Part of a leaf from Lincoln’s cyphering book, Rare Book and tioned that he referred to “Pike’s was a major source of light in the dim, Manuscript Library, arithmetic,” but it is not clear whether wintery weather which prevailed. Be- Columbia University in the City of New York. that arithmetic was written by Nico- neath the rectangular “window” was a las Pike (probably in the 1790s) or by flat, slightly sloping bench which was mit it to memory and then, after hav- Stephen Pike (written at some time used by those who needed to write ing explained it to the teacher during between 1810 and 1824). Arguments in their books. There was only one a recitation session, would enter it could be presented for either possi- teacher, and the children were of all into his precious cyphering book. bility, or even for the possibility that ages and sizes—from small 3-, 4-, or Abraham Lincoln’s cyphering book AL had the book by Nicolas Pike at 5- year olds to mature young women pages are the earliest known handwrit- home, and the teacher (perhaps Bry- and farm boys. In non-winter months ten manuscripts penned by the 16th ant) had the text by Stephen Pike at most of the older boys were expected President. Through these pages we school. Many of the problems which to work in the fields. There were no are given a glimpse of the character AL solved could be found in editions blackboards, no slates, hardly any text- and skills of a young lad, growing up of Stephen Pike’s book, but several of books, limited supplies of rag paper, in Indiana, and destined to change the Herndon’s informants mentioned that and home-made ink and quill pens. face of the world. We feel privileged to AL had an old arithmetic at home. For most of a school day students were have held and examined most of these There is not enough evidence to make expected to blab continuously. When extant pages. His cyphering book rep- a strong conclusion on the issue. a student was called to the teacher’s resents the start of a lasting legacy desk for individual recitation, the oth- that set him on track toward an un- Conditions in the Schools Where er students kept on blabbing. Blab derstanding of the power of numbers Abraham Prepared his Cyphering schools were common in the remote well beyond the rule of three. Indeed, Book regions of Kentucky and Indiana—in- we sense that through this beginning, During the winter of 1824–1825 the deed, almost all schools which young he became intrigued and captivated by constant shrill of young voices com- Abraham attended, were of the blab the logic and beauty of mathematics. ing from the 15-or-so children who variety. It is likely that most of the attended Azel Dorsey’s subscription entries in AL’s cyphering book were Nerida F. Ellerton and M. A. (Ken) Cle- school house, which was located made during school hours, because ments are on the faculty of Illinois about two miles from 15-year-old AL’s the wood-slab table located immedi- State Univeristy. This research was home in Pigeon Creek, in rural Indi- ately below the rectangular “window” published in “Abraham Lincoln’s cy- ana, would not have surprised any was the best place to write in order to phering book and ten other extraor- of the locals. Dorsey’s school was a achieve the desired outcome of neat dinary cyphering books” (2014).

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 20 Entertainment in Lincoln’s Springfield (1834-1860)

Richard E. Hart

Map of Springfield 1855-56, 71.2009.081.0172 21 FALL 2018 RICHARD E. HART

This essay is a summary of the book ment for what can be considered as were held in churches and other pub- “Entertainment in Lincoln’s Spring- “entertainment” in Springfield was for lic places. The hall of the House of field (1834-1860)” by Richard E. Hart the Sangamon County Lyceum. The ad Representatives and the chamber of and published by the Abraham Lin- appeared in the Sangamo Journal and the Senate in the State Capitol were coln Association in November of 2017. was dated January 4, 1834. The enter- favorite venues after about 1844. tainment was to be held on Thursday The public entertainments within a evening, January 9, at the Presbyteri- The Springfield population in 1850 community are a good barometer an Meeting House and the question had grown to 4,533. That decade saw of how its residents use their free for discussion was Ought the General the coming of the railroad, and after time and what type of entertain- Government appropriate funds in aid of about 1853 specific places were ded- ments draw them together. In early the Colonization Society? Thereafter, on icated to the commercial performing Springfield, Illinois, on long winter most succeeding Thursday evenings arts. These were not public places, nights, the folks not only enjoyed during January and February 1834, but rather private entrepreneurial entertainment, but they also wel- the Sangamon County Lyceum met businesses. They were usually on the comed an opportunity to get out of for discussions, lectures, and debates. upper floor of a three-story build- a cooped-up winter house and pass Titles of future Lyceum lectures and ing around the Public Square. There some time with other Springfieldians debates included: Ought capital pun- were a number of these: the Concert in a night out of “entertainment.” ishment be abolished? Do the signs of Hall on the north side of the Public the present times indicate the downfall Square, Cook’s Hall on the East Side For many years while scrolling of this Government? Ought Texas to be of the Square (rebuilt after a fire in through low tech microfilm of the admitted into the Union? Ought Aliens 1858), the Masonic Hall at Fifth and Sangamo Journal and the State Regis- be permitted to hold civil office? Habits Monroe, Chatterton’s Hall, Clinton’s ter, the two newspapers of Lincoln’s and foods natural to man. The Influ- Hall, and Gray’s Saloon. When the Springfield, I noticed advertise- ence of poetry upon National Character. Metropolitan Hall opened in early ments for various “entertainments.” 1856 with 1,200 seats, it was by far I thought that it would be interesting In 1838, The Young Men’s Lyceum re- the largest amusement hall in Spring- to collect these ads and share them quested Abraham Lincoln, a twenty- field as well as in the State of Illinois. with the Lincoln world, but the time to eight-year-old newly arrived Spring- do that was something I didn’t have. field lawyer, to address its members. After the February 13, 1858 fire, Several years ago, however, techie They met at the Baptist Church on the east side was rebuilt with four, geniuses created a new website that Saturday evening, January 27, 1838, three-story brick buildings. One of contained these Springfield news- and Lincoln spoke on The Perpetua- them housed a large public hall on papers in a searchable form—it is tion of Our Political Institutions. called GenealogyBank. (http://gene- Much has been written about alogybank.com.) I thank those techie this Lincoln lecture. It has been geniuses for their contribution to his- scrutinized and debated by his- torians and their gift of time that al- torians, who cite the lecture as a lowed me to search in this quick and foreshadowing of Lincoln’s later easy format and create Entertainment public policies and addresses.1 in Lincoln’s Springfield (1834-1860). This is the most enduring of all the Springfield entertainments. The population of Springfield in 1830 was less than 1,000. During that de- Here is how William Herndon, who cade, much of the “entertainment” would become Lincoln’s law part- was in the form of lectures by resi- ner in 1844, described the event: dents—Milton Hay, Dr. Anson G. Hen- East Side of the Public Square: Circa 1860. ry, Edward Baker Dickenson to name …we had a society in Springfield, Cook’s Hall is the third building from the right. a few. In step with a national phe- which contained and commanded nomenon—the creation of local lyce- all the culture and talent of the place. the second floor. It came to be known ums—two lyceums were formed and Unlike the other one [The Sangamon as Cook’s Hall and was a popular provided a platform for Springfield County Lyceum] its meetings were pub- place for public gatherings, theatri- men to learn and debate topics of cur- lic, and reflected great credit on the cal performances, balls and parties, rent interest. Some of these lectures community ... The speech was brought and drills of the Springfield Grays. were free and open to the public. Oth- out by the burning in St. Louis a few ers were open only to “members,” and weeks before, by a mob, of a negro. In the 1850s, Springfield was fortunate sometimes in the early days women Lincoln took this incident as a sort of to be on the tour route of many trav- were excluded. There were occasions text for his remarks ... The address was eling entertainments as they moved when women were invited to attend, published in the Sangamo Journal and between Chicago and St. Louis, often but they were never invited to lecture. created for the young orator a reputa- stopping in Springfield for a “gig.” That honor was reserved for men. tion which soon extended beyond the These “entertainments” were com- During the 1830s, the locals lectured, limits of the locality in which he lived. mercial ventures requiring the pur- debated, sang songs, participated in chase of tickets to be entertained by choirs, and performed popular the- By 1840, Springfield’s population had traveling artists in an astounding vari- atrical pieces. This was the standard grown to 2,579. During that decade, ety of performing arts: singers, family fare for entertainment during the as well as the preceding decade, bell ringers, opera singers, minstrel 1830s. The earliest record of these en- there was no “place” dedicated to in- singers, magicians, pantomimes, lec- tertainments and the first advertise- door performances. Entertainments turers on a number of subjects includ-

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 22 ENTERTAINMENT IN LINCOLN’S SPRINGFIELD

ing science and education, violin and leys to supper, and attended Miss Julia Abroad and at Home, a vocal concert flute concerts, holiday celebrations [Ridgley] to the State House to hear Em- by Malone Raymond and family—Fan- and balls, panoramas, readers of plays mersons [sic] third lecture on culture.3 ny, Emily and Louisa. They appeared and performers of plays from Shake- on Friday evening, August 29, 1851, speare to Irish farce, band concerts, Unlike Emerson’s name, most of the at American House, Springfield’s fin- and balloon ascensions, Fourth of names of the entertainers are not est hotel located at the southeast July celebrations, and celebrations of recognized by today’s reader. For- corner of Sixth and Adams streets, the birthdays of George Washington, tunately, technology in the form of opposite the Illinois State House. Benjamin Franklin, and Robert Burns.2 Google search provides biographical information in an instant, unveiling Fanny excelled as a salon musician, Many of the names of those “enter- the shadows of the past. One minstrel teacher, vocalist, and keyboardist. taining” in Springfield are familiar to was said to have been Mark Twain’s She was described as a fine organ- us even today. Horace Mann would model for his descriptions of min- ist and “the mistress of the German be surprised to know that 150 years strel shows. Another entertainer, a language, in the songs of Schubert, after his 1859 lecture in Springfield, French ascensionist, was said to have Schumann, and Robert Franz.” one of the city’s principal business- been the aero naught for Emperor Fanny was also sought after as a trans- es is Horace Mann Insurance. Titans Napoleon III in the Franco-Austrian lator, writer, and historian. Beginning in mid-nineteenth-century American War, one year after his ascension for in 1859, her translations, including political and intellectual life lectured an astounded Springfield audience. Wagner’s essays, were published. Her in Springfield between 1839 and 1860 first original article appears to have and included the following abolition- been “A Sketch of the Troubadours, ists: Samuel Hanson Cox, D.D., an Trouveres, and Minstrels” for the New “eccentric” orator who would some- York Weekly Review on August 13, 1870. times lapse from English into Latin; Fanny did original research as early as Rev. Joseph Parish Thompson; Rev. 1868 when she is credited with writ- Henry Ward Beecher; James Rucker; ing explanatory notes for her series Dr. Jonathan Blanchard; Rev. John of “historical recitals” performed at Mason Peck; Ralph Waldo Emerson; both Vassar and in New York. Many Elihu Burritt; Rev. Theodore Parker; of these essays were then compiled and Joshua R. Giddings. Their lec- in a book entitled Lyre, Pen, and Pen- ture titles gave no indication that the cil published in 1891. Her efforts cul- speaker was an abolitionist or that the minated in the translation of Robert speaker might speak about abolition. Schumann’s Gesammelte Schriften und Texten published in book form in 1876. On Monday evening, January 10, 1853, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the first of One of Fanny’s most significant -es three lectures in the Hall of the House says, Woman as a Musician: An Art-His- of Representatives at the Illinois State torical Study was written in 1876 for House. His first lecture was titled the Centennial Congress of the As- Wealth and The Anglo-Saxon. Orville sociation for the Advancement of Hickman Browning, Whig, Republican, Women. Fanny’s essay was the first United States Senator, and Secretary specifically musical writing of its kind of the Interior, was present and made and as such was a catalyst for dia- the following diary entries about his logue in American musical circles three evenings with Emerson lectures. concerning women’s place in music.

Monday January 10 At night I attend- Some of the itinerant entertainers ed in the hall of the house, and heard were scoundrels, leaving unpaid ad- a lecture from Ralph Waldo Emmerson vertising bills from their local stay. [sic] on the Anglo Saxon. His language Fanny Raymond Ritter, Woman as a Musician: One soprano had been the former was chaste, strong and vigorous—much An Art-Historical Study, https://archive.org/ wife of the King of Bavaria and the of his thought just—his voice good— details/womanasmusiciana00ritt mistress of many European notables. his delivery clear, distinct and delib- When she lectured on “fashion,” Wil- erate—his action nothing. He limned In the category of “she went on to liam Herndon did not like that at all. a good picture of an Englishman, and become” was Fanny Raymond Ritter, He lectured the night following her gave us some hard raps for our apish- America’s first female musicologist. appearance, scolding those who had ness of English fashions & manners. Fanny was born sometime between attended and lecturing all on the gen- 1830 and 1840, most likely in England, eral decline in community standards. Tuesday, Jany 11 1853 Heard Emmer- and died in Poughkeepsie, New York son’s [sic]lecture in the hall of the House in 1891. Her father was most likely But, the most interesting, salacious of Rep; upon power. He is chaste & fas- Richard Malone, an Irish entertain- tidbit from all of the entertainments cinating, and whilst I cannot approve all er who immigrated to America and involved a pianist, Sigismund Thal- his philosophy, I still listen with delight toured with his daughters in a family berg. He had been decorated by ev- to his discourses. They contain much act using the stage name Raymond. ery European potentate. While tour- that is good, and are worth hearing. ing Illinois, the mother of a young Fanny was a young lady when she member of Thalberg’s troupe shot Wednesday, Jany 12 1853 Went to Ridg- made her Springfield appearance in at him for “fiddling” with her daugh-

23 FALL 2018 RICHARD E. HART

ter. The report is that Thalberg qui- India, and The Philosophy of Travel. Hall, in Washington, D.C. President etly left Illinois and headed back to Abraham Lincoln was in Springfield. Lincoln attended the lecture and a Europe on the sly and in disgrace. week later suggested to Bayard that Taylor arrived in Springfield in a driv- he prepare a lecture on “Serfs, Serf- The saddest story involves a young ing rain and found the town a mud dom, and Emancipation in Russia.” boy named Nicholas Goodall, a flute hole. In 1859, he published his im- player genius. Nicholas appeared pressions in the first volume of At at the Masonic Hall in Springfield Home and Abroad. There he wrote: Lincoln’s Springfield was indeed a on February 21, 1855. He was wild- small town on the western frontier ly popular and extended his Spring- of the United States. Such or sim- field stay. He was even invited to ilar descriptions have led many to parties in private Springfield homes. assume that it was a backwater, a There is no evidence to put Abra- sleepy, uninvolved, intellectually bar- ham Lincoln at any of his concerts, ren place.Young John Hay, the recent but he was in Springfield during class poet at Brown University, wrote this time and may have attended. to his friend back east that there was On the evening of April 14, 1865, not much going on in Springfield and Nicholas was purported to have been not anyone worth talking to. Abraham present at Ford’s Theatre where his Lincoln’s office was next door. Such father was first violinist in the orches- are the errors of youthful perception. tra. It is said that young Nicholas wit- nessed the assassination of Lincoln To the contrary, Springfield was home and thereafter fell into a hopeless to a vast array of interesting enter- depression. His father placed Nich- tainments. From 1834 until the end of olas in an institution for the insane. Nicholas lived there and in the local 1860, there were over three hundred alms house until his death at age entertainments given in at least twen- thirty-two in 1881. No doubt Abra- ty-two separate Springfield venues. ham Lincoln attended some of these While minstrel shows are offensive by entertainments during his residency today’s standards, most of the other in Springfield from April 1837 to Feb- entertainments are similar to those ruary 1861. He loved Shakespeare that remain current today. They would and the theater. There were a num- not be found in the popular culture of ber of performances of that sort that our time, but rather they would be he may have enjoyed—Mr. Emmett, Baynard Taylor, OC-1007 reading Othello and Richard III, Mr. classic fodder for PBS, National Geo- Boothroyd reading Shakespeare, graphic history programs, or today’s Mrs. Macready reading scenes from I must do Springfield the justice to say performing arts centers. They would Macbeth, Charles Walter Couldock that it has its sunshine side, when the find it hard to compete with today’s reading Macbeth, Miss M. Tree read- mud dries up with magical rapidity and popular movie and television culture, ing Hamlet, and Rev. Henry Giles lec- its level streets become fair to look upon. and that speaks highly of the enter- turing on Women of Shakespeare. The clouds cleared away on the morning tainments of Lincoln’s Springfield! after my arrival, and when my friend, Abraham Lincoln most likely attend- Captain Diller, took me to the cupola Richard Hart is an attorney in ed several of the Springfield enter- of the State House and showed me the tainments. Entertainment in Lincoln’s wide ring of cultivated prairie, dotted Springfield, Illinois, and a mem- Springfield notes the dates when Lin- with groves of hickory, sugar-maple, ber of the Board of Directors of coln was in Springfield and could have and oak, which inspheres the capital the Abraham Lincoln Association. possibly attended entertainments. The of Suckerdom, I confess that it was a amazing fact, however, is that some of sight to be proud of. The young green Endnotes the entertainments that appeared in of the woods and the promising wheat- 1.The full text of the speech may be found in the Springfield later appeared in Washing- fields melted away gradually into blue, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, pp. ton, D.C., and were attended by Presi- and the fronts of distant farm-houses 108-115. Journal, Saturday, January 27, 1838, dent Lincoln. Perhaps he also saw the shown in the morning sun like the sails p.2 ,“The Springfield Lyceums and Lincoln’s 1838 entertainment in Springfield as well. of vessels in the offing. The wet soil of Speech,” by Thomas F. Schwartz, Illinois Historical the cornfields resembled patches of Journal, Vol. 83, No. 1, Spring 1990, pp. 45-49. Bayard Taylor was one of those who black velvet—recalling to my mind the University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Illi- appeared in Springfield and Wash- dark, prolific loam of the Nile Valley. nois State Historical Society. ington. Taylor gave three lectures in 2. There were other forms of entertainment: cir- Springfield on Monday, Friday, and In 1862, during the administration cuses, the annual state fair when it was held in Saturday, March 12, 16, and 17, 1855. of President Lincoln, Taylor entered Springfield, and a slew of dancing classes, which He spoke in Metropolitan Hall, which the United States diplomatic service are not covered in this study. See the author’s seated 1,200, at the invitation of the as Chargé d’Affaires under the min- Circuses in Lincoln’s Springfield (2013). Young Men’s Christian Association. ister to Russia at St. Petersburg. On 3. The Diary of Orville H. Browning, 1850–1881 (2 He charged twenty-five cents for an Friday, December 18, 1863, Bayard vols. ed.), Springfield, Illinois, Illinois State Histor- attendee to hear him speak on Japan, gave a lecture on Russia at Willard’s ical Society.

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 24 What I Did Last Summer:

Ed Breen, Vice President of the Friends of the Lincoln Collection, Visits the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Sites

All photos courtesy of Ed Breen 25 FALL 2018 ED BREEN

Joe Judd sat behind the counter of his in Ottawa on August 21st and con- still there. It would be like today if used book store at 303 Lincoln Ave- cluded in Alton, on the banks of the a President, with all his stuff packed nue on the west side of Charleston, Il- Mississippi River, on October 15. in his car, stopped to see his mother linois, and talked about what it meant living in a trailer at the edge of town.” to him and others in town Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln are that their town buried in Shiloh Cemetery just south was among of Charleston, the seat of Coles Coun- the seven ty and it was at the Coles County fair- communities grounds, a few miles to the north, that across the Illi- the debaters squared off on that Sat- nois landscape urday in 1858, the day that local his- where the torian Charles Coleman described in What I Did future of the his book on Coles County as “the big- United States gest day in the history of Charleston.” of America was argued, The site – as with all seven sites— discussed, is preserved and revered by the Last Summer: and disput- ed 160 years ago this year.

“Debate” is the proper term. Judd’s town of Charles- ton was one of the seven sites, one “Oh, yes, it still means a lot. It’s a in each Illinois Congressional Dis- part of who we are,” Judd said, “but trict, (except for Chicago and Peoria, I don’t know that the young people where the two had already spoken, really understand that. They may- one after the other) where the two be think it was just two old men.” great political heavyweights of the era—Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Judd, a man in middle age who grad- A. Douglas — went toe-to-toe on uated from Eastern Illinois University, lawns, platforms, hurriedly-erected just across the street from his book- stages and a couple of fairgrounds. store, worked in Chicago and came These were the “Lincoln-Douglas De- back to Charleston (pop. 21,133) to bates,” the bedrock arguments on raise his daughters. The town, like all of the towns on this partic- ular circuit, is struggling with residents. There are Lincoln and its economy. Douglas statues, modest, small- Jobs have de- er-than- life, and a museum main- parted from tained and staffed by volunteers. Charleston, the student popu- Statuary, the figures of Mr. Lin- lation is about coln and Mr. Douglas, is found at half of three all sites, except Quincy, where a decades ago, larger-than-life bronze relief tablet partly because marks the downtown spot and tells how to correct what a 21st Century the State of Illinois can’t afford to the story. Just across the street, of observer, Condoleezza Rice, called maintain the university as it once was. course, is the fine old Lincoln Ho- “America’s birth defect”: Slavery. tel, now known as the Lincoln Doug- What John C. Calhoun and others had “But you know,” Judd said with some- las Apartments on Fourth Street. once called “our peculiar institution.” thing resembling Chamber of Com- merce pride, “Lincoln’s father and Freeport, Ottawa, Alton and Quincy In Charleston, the confrontation be- step-mother are both buried here, all posses central downtown squares tween the two U.S. Senate candi- just a couple of miles from right here. where the debates were staged. Some dates – Douglas the Democrat, Lin- Lincoln came through here after his – Ottawa and Alton, in particular -- are lavish: Heroic bronze figures and coln the fledgling Republican – was election on his way to Washington carefully landscaped surroundings. on September 18, 1858, midway and he stopped to see his step-moth- But perhaps most interesting is Gales- through a schedule that had begun er out there in that little cabin. It’s

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 26 WHAT I DID LAST SUMMER

like,” said Melody Diehl, an attraction south of downtown and Student Loans Coordi- within 100 yards of the once-sprawl- nator for the college, ing and still active Galesburg railroad whose office is adjacent yards. White frame house, picket to the historic wait- fence and a paving brick sidewalk. ing room and window. The house and visitor center are open “We let everybody sit Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. in it. Most of the com- mencement speakers Throughout the 420-mile expanse stop here and sit in from Freeport, hugging up against ad- the chair. Madeleine jacent Wisconsin, south to Jonesboro, Albright did, John Po- wedged in at that time only a few burg, which makes the most of the miles from the slave-hold- convergence of Lincoln and his mon- ing states of Kentucky and umental biographer Carl Sandburg, Missouri, are the remnants who was born and reared in Galesburg of the Illinois frontier. Two- and attended Knox College, the site of lane blacktop roads link the fifth debate on October 7, 1858. most of the towns. Family farms, both large and small, A platform was hurriedly construct- dot the landscape on both ed against the east wall of “Old sides of the roads. These Main,” the administrative build- communities, by and large, ing at the college, which appears are what remain. Tree- pretty much unchanged today. lined streets, architecture too ornate and expensive One problem: The raised platform, to be built or maintained necessary if the estimated crowd of today. Courthouse squares 20,000 was to see or hear the speak- and in each of these special ers, blocked the door leading from the places bound together by building. Thus did the two politicians history, special parks set crawl through a window adjacent to aside to mark what hap- the door and emerge on the stage. pened all those years ago.

The window is preserved. So is the red Jonesboro is the smallest upholstered chair beneath the win- of the towns, population dow which Mr. Lincoln allegedly rest- 1,749. Said Lincoln of Doug- ed in before climbing to the window. las on his arrival in Jones- “Oh, go ahead and sit in it if you’d boro: “Did the Judge talk of trotting me down to Egypt to scare desta did. Lots of famous peo- me to death? . . . ” (Southwestern Il- ple. Go ahead, you won’t break it.” linois has long carried the moniker of “Little Egypt” because the central Halls of “Old Main” are lined with town of the region is named Cairo). maps, photographs and artifacts, The Jonesboro appearance, third in including a bronze Lincoln life mask the sequence, was the most distant and a painting depicting the enor- from the Midwestern Illinois fron- mous and partisan crowd which had tier— geographically and culturally— assembled just beyond those doors. and also the most sparsely attended; the crowd was estimated at 1,500. It And while there are no life-size stat- ues of Lincoln and Douglas here, there is a larger-than-life rendering of Carl Sandburg at the heart of the down- town square. His childhood home is also

27 FALL 2018 ED BREEN

alds and talked about his town. Yes, that date, August 21, still looms large. “We went there on school trips when I was in third grade and again in sixth grade,” he said, mo- tioning in the direction of Wash- ington Park in downtown Ottawa where the debate occurred. Adja- cent to the park is a half-block-long urban mural painted in 2007 depict- ing what went on across the street in the park all those years ago.

“The kids in Ottawa Township High School now go to the park and read aloud the texts from the debates that day,” the young Ottawan said. “But, you know, the thing we talk about more is the radium poisoning, is also the most rural of the settings. the places that are still contaminated.” The bronze statues are surrounded by live oak timber, including a mas- That all began in 1922 when the Ra- sive oak believed to have been there dium Dial Company set up shop in a on that September day 160 years ago. former high school building in Ottawa and hired hundreds of young women It is surrounded by the Trail of Tears to paint wristwatch dials, using radio- State Forest, a commemoration of active paint that caused the watch the forced removal through the area dials to glow in the dark. Thus were of the Cherokee Native Americans. Thus did the glow of wristwatches over- wearers able for the first time to roll And that is the most abiding of impres- shadow that August day in Ottawa. over in bed in the middle of the night, sions from the seven-town tour: That glance at their wristwatches, satisfy the evidence of events past is ines- This article will continue in the Winter 2018 their curiosity and go back to sleep. capable across the arc of Illinois from issue of Lincoln Lore. Wisconsin south to the Ohio River. The result, as we know in a better

informed era, was massive radio- The Lincoln and Douglas debates, cer- active contamination of both peo- tainly the focus of 1858, were but a slice ple and places in Ottawa. Residents, of the continuum of history across this particularly the young women apply- western frontier of the Old Northwest ing the paint, ingested huge doses Territory, the huge swath of America of Radium radiation that led to ill- created by Ordinance in 1787, ter- ness and death from anemia, bone ritories (and later, states) in which fractures and necrosis of the jaw. slavery was prohibited by statute. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has been a constant presence In Ottawa, Ryan Prusynski, a teen- in Ottawa since 1986 and some areas of ager, served up fries at McDon- the community are still uninhabitable.

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