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Harvard's Lincoln: a Catalogue of an Exhibition at Houghton Library Harvard's Lincoln: A catalogue of an exhibition at Houghton Library The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Horrocks, Thomas A. 2009. Harvard's Lincoln: A catalogue of an exhibition at Houghton Library. Harvard Library Bulletin 19 (3-4), Fall/Winter 2008: 12-79. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363381 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA HARVARD’S LINCOLN a catalogue of an exhibition at Houghton Library 20 January—25 April 2009 HLB Lincoln THIRDD PROOF 2009-0327.indd 12 3/27/2009 3:05:58 PM Curator Tomas A. Horrocks, Ph.D. Associate Librarian of Houghton Library for Collections Support Generously Provided by Houghton Library, Harvard College Library Te Lehrman Institute Special Tanks to Houghton Library, Harvard College Library Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library Harvard University Archives Peter X. Accardo Susi Barbarossa Harold Holzer Lewis E. Lehrman Nicole Lindermen Jonathan H. Mann Dennis C. Marnon Leslie A. Morris Carie McGinnis Robin McElheny Sage Rogers Fredric Woodbridge Wilson HLB Lincoln THIRDD PROOF 2009-0327.indd 13 3/27/2009 3:05:58 PM Figure 5. Eastman Johnson. Te boyhood of Lincoln. Boston, 1868. Chromolithograph. 55 x 44.4 cm. Lincoln Collection Te William Whiting Nolen Collection of Lincolniana. Tis version of Eastman Johnson’s popular rendering of Lincoln’s youthful attempt at self-improvement was included in “Prang’s American Chromos,” a series of chromolithographs issued in 1868 by the Boston frm of Louis Prang and Company. Reproduction courtesy of Houghton Library. 14 Harvard’s Lincoln HLB Lincoln THIRDD PROOF 2009-0327.indd 14 3/27/2009 3:06:01 PM HARVARD’S LINCOLN RISE OF THE RAIL SPLITTER he second child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 in Hardin (now LaRue) County, TKentucky. When Abraham was seven years old, the Lincoln family moved to southern Indiana in search of better farm land and economic opportunity. In 1818, almost two years afer settling on the Indiana frontier, Abraham’s mother died from a disease called the “milk sickness.” A year later Abraham gained a stepmother when his father married a widow named Sarah Bush Johnston. Afer living thirteen years in Indiana, the Lincoln family, in another quest to improve its economic prospects, moved to Macon County, Illinois. Lincoln worked hard to overcome his humble upbringing. Self-conscious of his lowly beginnings and lack of formal education, which he estimated totaled less than a year in length, Lincoln dedicated himself to a regimen of self-improvement, spending as much time as he could enhancing his reading and writing skills. Te man who would later become one of this country’s most respected orators and writers did not learn the fundamentals of grammar until he was in his early twenties. In 1830, at the age of twenty-one, Lincoln lef the family farm to strike out on his own, moving to New Salem, Illinois, where he spent the next six years trying his hand at various occupations, including store clerk, mill hand, postmaster, and surveyor. Lincoln also served as a captain in the Black Hawk War for several months in 1832, though he was never involved in combat. It was during his New Salem years, however, that Lincoln developed an interest in politics. He was attracted to the Whig Party and its leader, Henry Clay, who espoused government support for internal improvements, education, a central banking system, and protective tarifs. Such policies conformed to Lincoln’s emerging view that government should create opportunity for economic independence for those, like himself, who were willing to work for it. Afer failing in his frst attempt to gain a seat in the Illinois legislature in 1832, Lincoln was elected two years later and served four consecutive terms. In 1837, Lincoln issued his frst public statement on slavery when he voted against several resolutions that condemned abolition societies. Although Lincoln was not a supporter of abolitionism, he believed Harvard Library Bulletin 15 HLB Lincoln THIRDD PROOF 2009-0327.indd 15 3/27/2009 3:06:01 PM strongly that slavery was “founded on both injustice and bad policy.” Around this time Lincoln began to study law, which he saw as a way to economic security and a political career. He received his license to practice in 1836. In 1837, Lincoln moved to Springfeld, Illinois’ capital city, where he would reside until he assumed the presidency in 1861. It was in Springfeld that Lincoln established a successful law practice and achieved political fame. It was in this city that Lincoln met and in 1842 married Kentucky-born Mary Todd, and together over the next decade they celebrated the birth of four sons, Robert Todd (1843), Edward (Eddie) Baker (1846), William (Willie) Wallace (1850), and Tomas or Tad (1853). In 1850, three-year- old Eddie died of pulmonary tuberculosis. Afer winning the Whig Party’s nomination to represent Illinois’ Seventh District in May 1846, Lincoln was elected to his only term in Congress in August 1846. Lincoln’s term began in December 1847 and he wasted little time in attacking President James Knox Polk’s 1846 decision to go to war with Mexico. Like many Illinois Whigs, Lincoln opposed the confict, asserting that Polk waged war for land for the expansion of slavery rather than against an invasion of American territory, as the president had argued. Te Mexican War was popular in Lincoln’s congressional district, as it was in the country at large, and he probably would have been defeated for re-election had he not agreed to step aside for another Whig candidate. Before he lef Congress, Lincoln introduced a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia (he failed to get the votes needed to pass the legislation) and supported the Wilmot Proviso, which prohibited slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. Disillusioned with politics, Lincoln spent the next fve years practicing law. It was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 that drew Lincoln back into the political arena. Written largely by Stephen A. Douglas, Democratic senator from Illinois, the legislation repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had banned slavery above the Mason-Dixon Line and allowed residents of territories and future states to decide the slavery issue for themselves. Te political turmoil engendered by this controversial act destroyed the Whig Party, divided Democrats, led to the formation of the Republican Party, and renewed sectional animosity by making slavery the predominant national political issue. Tough he had hoped to keep the Whig Party intact, Lincoln soon became a leader of the Republican Party, which comprised various “anti-Nebraska” groups that opposed the spread of slavery outside of the Southern states where it already existed. Lincoln emerged as Douglas’s most vocal critic in Illinois and in 1858 was nominated by the state Republican Party to challenge Douglas for his Senate seat. Te election was notable for the series of seven debates covered by newspapers across the North. Although Lincoln lost the election (his party won the popular vote, but the election was at that time decided by the state legislature, which was controlled by the Democratic Party), his performance in the debates enhanced his national reputation 16 Harvard’s Lincoln HLB Lincoln THIRDD PROOF 2009-0327.indd 16 3/27/2009 3:06:01 PM to the point that he was touted by Illinois Republicans as a potential candidate for president in 1860. On 9 May 1860 the Illinois Republican Convention endorsed Lincoln for the presidency, anointing him as the “Rail Candidate,” a homespun nickname that recalled his prowess with an axe during his prairie youth (the nickname later evolved into the “Rail Splitter”). Nine days later, Lincoln received the presidential nomination of the national Republican Party at its convention in Chicago. Harvard Library Bulletin 17 HLB Lincoln THIRDD PROOF 2009-0327.indd 17 3/27/2009 3:06:02 PM Figure 6. Abraham Lincoln. Exercise book fragment, ca. 1825. Manuscript. 32 cm. fMS Am 1326 Gif of Christian A. Zabriskie, 1954. Tis fragment contains mathematical exercises in the hand of Lincoln when he was a teenager. Reproduction courtesy of Houghton Library. 18 Harvard’s Lincoln HLB Lincoln THIRDD PROOF 2009-0327.indd 18 3/27/2009 3:06:05 PM case 1 Eastman Johnson. Te boyhood of Lincoln. (An evening in the log hut.) Boston: Louis Prang, 1868. Chromolithograph. Having attended less than one year of formal schooling, Lincoln was largely self-educated. Lincoln’s eforts to overcome his humble beginnings and lack of education have engaged writers and artists to this day. Te boyhood of Lincoln (1868) depicts how the American artist Eastman Johnson (1824-1906) imagined the future president, an exemplar of the self-made man, reading by hearth fre in the family log cabin. Tis version of Eastman’s popular artistic rendering of Lincoln’s youthful attempt at self-improvement was included in “Prang’s American Chromos,” a series of chromolithographs issued in 1868 by the Boston frm of Louis Prang and Company. Immigrating to Boston from Prussia in 1850, Prang (1824-1909), was a printer, lithographer, and publisher who became known as the “father of the American Christmas card.” (fgure 5) Lincoln Collection Te William Whiting Nolen Collection of Lincolniana. Abraham Lincoln. Exercise book fragment, ca.
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