NUMBER 1921 SPRING 2019 Table of Contents 3 An Interview with John Marszalek “Just the Wood out of which Washginton Presidents are Carved” by Alan Guelzo LINCOLN LORE IS A PUBLICATION OF THE 6 FRIENDS OF THE LINCOLN COLLECTION OF 14 From The Collection: Lincoln Lore by Emily Rapoza INDIANA 16 An Interview with Al Zacher CONTRIBUTORS 18 An Interview with George Saunders by Craig Klugman JOHN MARSZALEK ALLEN GUELZO 22 Lincoln’s Magician by Jason Silverman EMILY RAPOZA AL ZACHER GEORGE SAUNDERS JASON H. SILVERMAN Upcoming Events

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THIS ISSUE OF LINCOLN LORE WAS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY A GRANT FROM Lincoln Lore celebrates 90 years of publication in 2019. THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BICENTENNIAL Shown on the cover is Lincoln Lore #1, April 15, 1929, FOUNDATION. Editor: Louis Warren. To see more, see “From the Collection” on pages 14-15. 2 SPRING 2019 An Interview with John Marszalek on Henry Clay, Lincoln’s “Beau Ideal” of a Statesmen Henry Clay, OC-0498 Sara Gabbard Sara Gabbard: Please explain Clay’s Burr had met Henry Clay in Lexing- Henry Clay, one of American’s great early legal representation of Aaron ton, Kentucky, and the latter agreed politicians, paid the price for his re- Burr. Did the relationship cause to defend him in court. A newspa- fusal to see the danger his political him later regret? per owned by Supreme Court Justice connection with Burr would cause him. John Marshall accused Burr, even John Marszalek: In the early 19th Clay, and a large number of other century, Henry Clay and Aaron Burr Democratic Republicans in the West were both young up-and-comers in of treason. Henry Clay then decid- American politics. Yet, Clay became ed not to defend Burr because he one of the most famous of all 19th had just been elected by his state to century Americans, while Burr nev- the US Senate. But then he accepted er lived down the accusations that Burr’s offer to pay him more to stay he unfairly killed Alexander Hamil- on, and he even signed an oath swear- ton in a duel and later tried to incite ing his innocence. Clay stayed on. a conspiracy against the stability of the United States. Clay was seen When Clay traveled to Washington as the symbol of the Union, while and found that Jefferson’s supporters Burr has come down in history as hated Burr as much as the Federalists someone who tried to destroy it. did, he began to worry. Then Presi- dent Thomas Jefferson showed him In late 1804 Burr resigned his place as a letter which he said proved Burr’s Thomas Jefferson’s vice president be- guilt, and Clay believed him. He now cause he worried about being found saw Burr as being guilty as charged. guilty of murder for killing Hamilton in He never forgave Burr for what he a July 11 duel. This occurrence and his was now convinced was Burr’s lie. ability to alienate a wide variety of peo- In 1815, the two men accidentally ple caused him to travel to the West, met, but Clay, still angry, refused to rather than remain in the East. People shake hands with his former client. in the West liked him, so they readily They never met again. Clay’s legal in- listened to him talk about the “grand volvement with Burr resulted in his expedition” of splitting off the West being implicated in the controversy from the rest of the United States. when he later ran for the presidency. Aaron Burr, Second Vice-President of the United States (engraving, c1836, Library of Congress) LC-DIG-pga-04519

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 3 AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN MARSZALEK

SG: What was Clay’s role at the whom he would Treaty of Ghent? battle for al- most the rest of JM: Henry Clay earned the nickname his life, called “War Hawk” for his leadership of those the agreement congressmen of similar philosophy “the corrupt hoping to lead the United States into bargain,” and the “War of 1812.” When the war came hung it around to an end, however, he, along with Clay’s neck for four other Americans: Albert Gallatin, the rest of his John Quincy Adams, Jonathan Russell political career. and James A. Bayard, was named to the peace commission. Along with John C. Calhoun British commissioners, these Amer- – John C. Calhoun icans brought the War of 1812 to an was another war end: actually to the “status quo an- hawk, but com- tebellum.” As a war hawk, Clay had ing from South pushed for the desires of the West. Carolina he was Sketch of the Life and Some of the Principal Speeches At Ghent he forthrightly opposed hardly the nationalist that Clay was. of Henry Clay (1854) 71200908409894 John Quincy Adams and Eastern in- The result was that, although they ported, although in different ways. terests and refused to go along with were allegedly in the same party, giving England the right to navigate the two men were in constant con- James Monroe – Henry Clay had many the Mississippi River in return for flict. Clay and Calhoun contested the claims to fame; one of the most import- fishing rights for easterners. He also so-called “tariff of abominations” by ant was his support for what came to be opposed giving England any rights fighting over the right of nullifica- called “the American System.” Clay es- to deal with the Indians in the West. tion. Their different beliefs resulted poused federally financed internal im- in their opposition to one another, provements like canals and roads, a high SG: Clay’s relationships with so yet their mutual opposition to Andrew protective tariff, and later a Bank of the many national leaders offers Jackson remained even stronger. United States. In addition, Clay wanted almost a mini-US history class: to make the United States the leader of Please comment on his experienc- Andrew Jackson – Like Henry Clay, the nations in the western hemisphere, es with and feelings about (the Andrew Jackson was one of the lead- i.e. Latin America. As a Democratic Re- following). ing figures of the early 19th century. publican, Monroe opposed a federal Actually, Jackson was more successful role in American economic life and op- JM: John Quincy Adams – Henry Clay because he was twice elected presi- posed an American role in Latin America. served on the Treaty of Ghent negoti- dent of the United States, while Clay ations commission and stood in oppo- ran three times and lost each time. John Randolph – In 1826, John Randolph sition to John Quincy Adams’ defense Clay was a great orator, philosophi- was on the floor of the US Senate and of easterners. Later, however, during cal rather than straightforward, and called President John Quincy Adams the pres- a leading member of the House of and his secretary of state Henry Clay, a idential Representatives and US Senate. Jack- “puritan with the black leg.” What made election son was a famed military leader and this comment so awful was that “black of 1824, appealed to the masses of Americans. leg” was a fatal disease which affected he ended Jackson was a great opponent of the livestock. Clay was insulted and for- up throw- Bank of the United States, while Clay getting that Senators could say awful ing his supported the concept as part of his things on the floor of that body without support American System. Clay was the “Great fear of being called to account, chal- to Adams, Pacificator,” while Jackson took forth- lenged Randolph. The Virginian remem- allegedly, right stands on a variety of the era’s bered the exception, but refused to tell for receiv- issues. Jackson and Clay were both Clay about it. He decided instead that ing the important contemporaries, but they he would not fire at his antagonist. This post of were poles apart in their attitudes. meant that Clay would certainly kill Ran- secretary dolph. When the two men fired on one of state James Madison – The major differ- another, Clay missed (accidentally) and in the ence between James Madison and Randolph (on purpose). It now came New En- Henry Clay was their completely op- time for the second shot, and Randolph glander’s posite stands on the desirability of simply fired in the air. Clay then stopped cabinet. war between the United States and the duel, and the two men left the field One of Great Britain. Madison opposed of honor unscathed and friendly again. his op- war, while Clay called for it. During ponents, the war itself, the two men stood SG: What do you consider to be Andrew shoulder to shoulder, determined Clay’s great accomplishment(s) as Jackson, to defend the nation they both sup- Speaker of the House? Andrew Johnson LN-0750

4 SPRING 2019 SARA GABBARD

JM: Henry Clay played a major role country’s leading Whig and national- ations after the War of 1812; he was a in changing the power of the Speaker ist. He strongly supported his Amer- powerful orator, and, established the of the U.S. House of Representatives ican System. This was, indeed, one of Speaker of the U.S. House of Repre- from simply deciding what bills came his problems: he took firm stands in sentatives as a national leader. He be- up at what time, and, instead, increas- favor of a strong central government, came a hero in Latin America, gained ing the Speaker’s political power. The at a time when Andrew Jackson was the nickname “The Great Pacificator” result was that the Speaker of the extremely popular and a believer in for his work on the Missouri Compro- House became much more powerful state rights. Clay was called “Harry mise, the Compromise Tariff of 1833, than the majority leader in the Senate. of the West,” but his nationalistic po- What the Speaker did was to look at sitions were and the Compromise of 1850. He ran the bills that were pending and as- more eastern for presidential office sign them to specific committees, the than western. three times. And, per- members whom he had himself ap- So, Jackson haps, most important- pointed. He also controlled the time became the ly, he had a tremen- for debate and made sure that he re- candidate of dous influence on the tained the right of the speaker himself the West, and man usually consid- to speak whenever he wished, by turn- bypassed Clay. ered the greatest pres- ing the House into a committee of the In 1844 Clay ident in American his- whole. Significantly he made all such came the clos- tory: Abraham Lincoln. changes in a way that did not seem to est to victory, alienate the members and they went but he unchar- Lincoln came from a along with him. It was no accident acteristically Whig political back- that he was Speaker of the House made a polit- ground, so he natu- for a total of ten years, the longest ical faux pas tenure of any 19th century Speaker. when he wrote rally placed Clay on the so-called the highest pedestal. SG: The topic of slavery obviously “Raleigh Let- At one time, he called cast a giant shadow over the era of ter” opposing Clay “My Beau ideal of Clay’s political life. What were his the annexation a Statesman.” Another feelings on the subject? of Texas be- time, he said that he cause it might “almost worshipped JM: Henry Clay did not approve of result in war Henry Clay.” Lincoln slavery, although he owned slaves with Mexico. never met Clay per- himself. He opposed abolition be- Then he wrote sonally, but he heard cause he saw it as a danger to the con- two “Alabama him speak at least tinuation of the Union, but he found Letters” seem- once; he voted for slavery to be abhorrent. So, he found ingly changing him, and in 1844 he himself in the throes of a dilemma. his mind on He tolerated the institution in order Texas annex- not only campaigned to preserve the Union. His method ation. This flip- for him, but he served of getting around this problem was flop probably as his elector in Illinois. to support the concept of coloniza- resulted in When Lincoln ran for tion. The best way to end slavery and James K. Polk’s office himself, he fre- preserve the Union, he believed, was narrow victo- quently quoted Clay through his leadership of the Ameri- ry. After this, in his speeches. In his “People’s Welfare, My Reward” can Colonization Society. Purchase Clay never 71.2009.082.0206 famous debates with freedom for American slaves and then ran for pres- Stephen A. Douglas, he send them back to Africa where they ident again. He died in 1852. quoted clay 41 times. The most famous might live a decent life. In fact, colo- connection Lincoln had with Clay was nization did not work, but Clay saw SG: Probably not a fair question, his eulogy of the man in Springfield, no other way to handle the matter. but please give your overall as- Illinois, upon Clay’s death in 1852. It sessment of the life and career of was not his greatest speech, but its SG: Henry Clay was determined Henry Clay. to become President. Why did he praise of Clay is obvious. He said: “our fail? At what time was he closest to JM: Henry Clay was indeed one of the country is prosperous and powerful; achieving his goal? most significant politicians in all of but could it have been quite all it has American history. Consider his career: been, and is, and is to be without Hen- JM: Henry Clay ran for the presidency he was born in 1777 in Virginia during ry Clay?” He certainly did not think so. in 1824, 1832, and 1844. He failed each the American Revolution. He moved time. He said in 1839 that “I would West to Kentucky and was one of the [John Marszalek is the Giles Distin- rather be right than president,” but, most significant attorneys of his era. guished Professor Emeritus at Mississip- in fact, he did want very badly to hold He was a War Hawk, and a commis- pi State University] the nation’s highest office. He was the sioner during the Ghent Treaty negoti-

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 5 “Just the Wood out of which Washington Presidents are Carved”: Electing Lincoln in 1860

“A Political Race” published by Rickey, Mallory & Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1860 71.2009.081.0869

6 SPRING 2019 Allen Guelzo ALLEN GUELZO

The day after Abraham Lincoln came relation to States that were safe with- the Republican convention in Chicago from behind in a well-populated field out effort, to those which required at- and rancorously split at the seams. of potential candidates to win the Re- tention, and to others that were sure Northern Democrats were deter- publican Party’s nomination for presi- to be vigorously contested; Viewing mined to nominate Lincoln’s one-time dent of the United States, an “annoyed these questions in their various as- nemesis from the 1858 U.S. Senate and dejected” Thurlow Weed packed pects, I found Mr. Lincoln sagacious race in Illinois, the godparent of the his bags and prepared “to shake the and practical. He displayed through- Compromise of 1850, and the author dust of the city” of Chicago “from my out the conversation so much good of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Stephen feet.” Weed was the long-time editor sense, such intuitive knowledge of A. Douglas. But Douglas’s advocacy of of the Albany Evening Journal and the human nature, and such familiari- the doctrine of “popular sovereignty” “master-hand” behind the throne of ty with the virtues and infirmities of in the territories was insufficient to the man Weed had assumed would politicians, that I became impressed please slave-state Democrats. They have been the Republicans’ obvious very favorably with his fitness for mistrusted Douglas as a man who choice for a presidential nomination, the duties which he was not unlikely “turns his back on his promise, repu- William Henry Seward. The conven- to be called upon to discharge….This diates his words, and tells his people tion’s rejection of Seward “complete- conversation lasted some five hours,” that… the people of the Territories ly unnerved” Weed – “he even shed Weed remembered, and “inspired me can keep slaves out.” The pro-slavery tears over the defeat of his old friend” with confidence in his capacity and in- hard-liners stalked out of the Demo- – and he admitted to being so “unable tegrity.” cratic national convention in protest to think or talk on the subject” that and nominated their own presiden- he planned to spend a week in Iowa, And no wonder: perceptively boiling tial candidate, Kentucky’s hero and where he owned some property, be- a case down to its most basic ele- the sitting vice president of the Unit- fore facing the necessity of returning ments had always been Lincoln’s long ed States, John C. Breckinridge, while to New York and explaining himself to suit, and to- the remain- Seward. But then came up the cards gether Weed der of the of David Davis and Leonard Swett, and Lincoln nominating the two Illinois Republicans who had had shrewd- convention outmaneuvered Weed to secure the ly identified adjourned nomination for Lincoln. They “came the three in confusion to converse with me about the ap- elements and planned proaching canvass,” hoping that this which would for a second “most skillful political manager” and become the meeting in “past master of political intrigue and strategic cor- Baltimore. stratagem” could be persuaded to put nerstones his shoulder to Lincoln’s wheel. of the 1860 But Breck- presidential inridge was Weed did not hide the fact that he campaign: unable to was “greatly disappointed” in Lincoln’s bring the old- nomination. But Davis and Swett sug- First—Nearly line Whigs gested that Weed plan to return to all the slave of Kentucky New York through Springfield, Illinois, states would and Tennes- and meet Lincoln. The great intriguer be against us. see with him. was sufficiently intrigued to agree, and Lincoln was a Declaring a on May 24th Weed arrived in Spring- publicly com- pox on both field to consult with Davis, Swett, and mitted oppo- Democrats Lincoln. Weed had only met Lincoln nent of the and Republi- once before, and that had been so expansion cans, former long ago – during Lincoln’s campaign of slavery, border slave- tour on behalf of Zachary Taylor’s whether into state Whigs presidency in 1848 – that Weed had the western nominated entirely forgotten it. The general im- territories or John Bell of pression Weed had of Lincoln up un- into the Ca- Tennessee as til that moment was uninspiring and ribbean and David Daivs, LFA-0221 the presiden- provincial, but the resulting conver- Latin America, and as such, it took tial candidate sation surprised Weed: “We entered no imagination at all to realize that of the hastily contrived Constitutional immediately upon…the prospects of few voters in the slave states would Union Party – thus siphoning off still success, assuming that all or nearly all be casting ballots for him, and no more slave-state voters from the na- the slave States would be against us. slave states were likely to give him a tional Democrats. Nor was there much The issues had already been made, single electoral vote. But the votes of likelihood that these self-divided fac- and could neither be changed nor the slave states would be sharply dis- tions would find any way to reconcile modified; but there was much to be counted by the folly of the Democratic and rejoin forces before Election Day. considered in regard to the manner Party, which met for its national con- “At Baltimore,” warned a Democratic of conducting the campaign, and in vention in Charleston a month before newspaper, “the secessionists will not

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 7 JUST THE WOOD OUT OF WHICH WASHINGTON PRESIDENTS ARE CARVED

be permitted to enlist and repeat their slave states; but the votes he didn’t populations had increased by 65%, or disorganizing farce.” Douglas Demo- get would be squandered among only 11 million. In 1830, this had been crats would “yield no further capital to three candidates – Douglas, Breckin- enough to ensure that the twelve the sectional demagogues intent on a ridge, and Bell – without subtracting slave states would cast 118 of the 286 dissolution of the Union.” any free-state votes from the Repub- electoral votes (or 41%) and would licans. The New York Herald lamented only need Democratic majorities in They all reminded Lincoln of “a good, that if the Democratic split persisted one or two Northern states to ensure sound churchman, whom we’ll call “in this fashion to the end of the chap- victory. In 1860, the shoe was on the Brown, who was on a committee to ter,” then “the election of Lincoln is other foot, “the South...relatively di- erect a bridge over a very dangerous as certain as that tomorrow’s sun will minishing in prestige and strength in and rapid river. Architect after archi- rise.” the Union.” The slave-state portion tect failed, and at last Brown said he of the electoral pie had slipped to had a friend named Jones who had Second—The issues had already 35% and would command only 120 of built several bridges and could build been made. For the second time in the 303 total electoral votes at stake, this. ‘Let’s have him in,’ said the com- its existence, the Republican nation- while the free states would command al platform had published 183. Victory would require only 152. its opposition to giving Assuming that they would hold the “legal existence to slav- states which had gone for Frémont in ery in any territory of the 1856 and that Lincoln’s presence at United States,” even as it the head of the ticket would guaran- affirmed “inviolate…the tee Illinois’s 11 electoral votes, then all right of each state to or- Republicans had to do was to ensure der and control its own that New York (with 35 electoral votes) domestic institutions ac- and either Pennsylvania (with 27) or cording to its own judg- Ohio (with 23) went their way, and the ment exclusively.” What election would be won. was more, Lincoln was on public record, as far back For Lincoln’s part, the new Republi- as the Kansas-Nebraska can nominee was vastly relieved by Act in 1854 and even more Weed’s visit. “Weed was here,” Lin- obviously during the re- coln told Illinois’s Republican senator markable race he had run Lyman Trumbull, “and saw me; but against Douglas for the he showed no signs whatever of the U.S. Senate in 1858, as fully intriguer. He asked for nothing; and in harmony with that plat- said N.Y. is safe.” By the end of June, form. There would be no Lincoln’s election already began to catastrophic mid-course appear inevitable. “The prospect of pivots, like Henry Clay’s on Republican success now appears very the Texas issue in 1844, or flattering, so far as I can perceive,” Winfield Scott’s clumsy ap- Lincoln wrote to his vice-presidential peal to immigrants voters running mate, Hannibal Hamlin. “It and the “Irish brogue” he looks as if the Chicago ticket will be Thurlow Weed OC-1862 claimed to have “heard… elected,” he wrote to Anson Henry mittee. In came before on many battle on the Fourth of July. His early back- Jones. ‘Can you build this bridge, sir?’ fields” – although presumably not at er, Charles Ray of the Chicago Tribune, ‘Yes,’ replied Jones; ‘I could build a the battle of Chapultepec, where thir- began urging him “to consider what bridge to the infernal regions, if nec- ty Irish ‘San Patricios’ were hanged as shall be the quality and cut of your in- essary.’ The sober committee were deserters on Scott’s order. augural suit.” Even Mary Lincoln “feels horrified, but when Jones retired, quite confident of her husband’s elec- Brown thought it but fair to defend Third—There was much to be con- tion,” and Robert Lincoln was being his friend. ‘I know Jones so well,’ said sidered…in relation to the States that sarcastically christened as “the Prince he, ‘and he is so honest a man and so were safe without effort, to those of Rails.” good an architect that, if he states so- which required attention, and to oth- berly and positively that he can build ers that were sure to be vigorously The icing on the electoral cake was a bridge to Hades, why, I believe it. But contested. The time had long passed spread from a factor which might I have my doubts about the abutment when the slave states, simply by their have been an embarrassment for on the infernal side.’ So, when politi- popular majorities, could count on an old politico like Thurlow Weed to cians said they could harmonize the those majorities translating easily into have raised with Lincoln, but which northern and southern wings of the majorities in the Electoral College. The turned out to be as much an asset for Democracy, why, I believed them. But population of the free states had in- Lincoln as all the others: honesty. As I had my doubts about the abutment creased by 72% since 1830, from 6.9 if the divisive dispute over how per- on the southern side.” Lincoln might million (out of 12.8 million nationally) fectly pro-slavery the Democratic can- not get any votes from any of the to 18.5 million, while the slave states’ didates could make themselves, the

8 SPRING 2019 ALLEN GUELZO

outgoing Democratic administration to the stiff-necked Ohioan who had although the suggestion specified of James Buchanan managed to taint earned the reputation of being “the that Seward come to Springfield, not them with one more liability, and that attorney general of fugitive slaves” Lincoln to Auburn, New York. This, was the stench of official corruption. for his famous defense in that to join Seward agreed to do, but the meeting Isaac Toucey, Buchanan’s secretary of “those distinguished and able men” would end up being included as a stop the navy, was denounced for rigging who were “already in high position on a speaking tour Seward would un- bids on navy contracts in order to steer to do service in the common cause.” dertake in the fall. That way, neither them to a single contractor, W.C.N. On June 18th, he turned to securing Republican would be seen as coming Swift of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the German cap-in-hand to the who just happened to have been a vote by as- other. major contributor to Buchanan’s 1856 suring the presidential campaign; New York City prominent Even so, Seward postmaster Isaac Vanderbeck Fowler German Re- showed little ea- absconded after being indicted for publican, gerness to en- embezzling $155,000; one of secre- the émigré dorse Lincoln. tary of war John B. Floyd’s relatives Carl Schurz, Along his route, by marriage, Godard Bailey, skimmed that de- Seward praised $870,000 from an annuity fund estab- spite “your Lincoln as the Re- lished as part of government treaties having sup- publicans’ “great with Indian tribes, all the while work- ported Gov. and glorious lead- ing as a clerk in the Interior Depart- Seward, in er.” He stopped “in ment. Buchanan naively persisted in preference Springfield scarce- speaking of Toucey as “a gentleman to myself in ly fifteen minutes, of the old school, full of principle and the conven- and for about ten honor,” but Toucey, Floyd, and Fowler tion, [it] is of those fifteen all stank in the nostrils of the country. not even re- was engaged in It was inevitable that the Republican membered talking to the campaign would make “frugal govern- by me for crowd, and for the ment and honest administration…not any practical other five in intro- less vital” an issue than “aggressive, purpose…. I ducing his trav- all-grasping Slavery propagandism” go not back eling party to the and just as inevitable that “Abraham to the con- President-to-be, Lincoln will receive thousands of votes vention, to with whom he that never were Republican before.” make dis- at no time con- tinctions versed unheard Nevertheless, electing Lincoln was not among its by at least a doz- going to be done without some hard members.” en listeners.” He political work. Lincoln’s first major William H. Seward OC-0930 pledged that “the task was to secure the loyalty of the Pacifying State of New York will Seward, however, would require more candidates he had elbowed aside and give a generous, cheerful and effec- than a friendly chat with Thurlow their followers. That would involve tive support to your neighbor, Abra- Weed. The ambitious and melodra- placating New Yorkers (starting with ham Lincoln,” but he pulled shy of matic U.S. senator from New York had Thurlow Weed) who had expected making any personal pledges. Seward made no secret of his expectation of Seward to be the nominee, Ohioans could not entirely conceal the “disfa- becoming the 1860 Republican nom- who had backed Ohio U.S. senator vor, if not…contempt” he felt for “a inee, and when the word came that Salmon P. Chase, and Pennsylvanians man who, without any special merit of the convention had gone for Lincoln who had hoped against hope for their his own, was taken from the subordi- instead, Seward was almost inconsol- own favorite son, Simon Cameron. If nate ranks of the party and promoted able. If he had been keeping a diary, they chose to sulk in their tents and over his head.” he later told Charles Francis Adams, Lincoln lost those states to Demo- it would have been filled “with all my crats, the whittling away in the Elec- If appeals to party loyalty were not cursing and swearing on the 19th of toral College might lower the Repub- enough balm to heal disappointed Re- May last.” He gallantly replied to a lican electoral vote count to the point publican souls, patronage might be. In letter from the Republican National where the election would end up in Committee with the promise that he an era before the professionalization the House of Representatives, as it would give the party “a sincere and of the civil service, the president had had in the disastrous election of 1824. earnest support.” But to his wife, he complete hire-and-fire authority over “The speeches of Cameron and the confided that he dreaded his return every government job in the execu- Blairs are singularly cold,” smirked the to the Senate, since he would now ap- tive branch, from the cabinet down New York Herald, “while in this State pear there as “a leader deposed by my to the lowliest postmaster. Patronage the Seward men act as if they desired own party, in the hour of organization was the glue that held the political to encompass Lincoln’s defeat.” Two for decisive battle.” Lincoln gingerly parties together, and these appoint- days after meeting Weed, Lincoln went suggested to Seward that they meet, ments were understood frankly as the to work on Salmon Chase, appealing principal method of rewarding faith-

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 9 JUST THE WOOD OUT OF WHICH WASHINGTON PRESIDENTS ARE CARVED

ful political service. Altogether, 1,639 against the leading institutions of all the slaves in the Southern States government appointments were with- the Southern States.” The fire-eating by habeas corpus, using the whole in Lincoln’s direct gift, and he would Charleston Mercury described Lin- power of the army and navy in carry- make the most of them, dumping coln as a “horrid-looking wretch... ing out his grand scheme.” New York 1,479 incumbents from the Buchan- sooty and scoundrelly in aspect; a Democrat Samuel J. Tilden warned an administration; and an even wid- cross between the nutmeg dealer, the Gotham Democrats, “Elect Lincoln, er net of patronage appointments horse-swapper, and the nightman.” and we invite those perils which we fanned out indirectly from the Post A Georgia satirist pilloried Lincoln in cannot measure… Defeat Lincoln, and Office and the Treasury Department, rhyme: “His cheekbones were high all our great interests and hopes are, including 33,000 postmasters and and his visage was rough, / Like a mid- unquestionably, safe.” August Bel- clerks, 4,500 mail agents and contrac- dling of bacon, all wrinkled and tough; mont, New York’s Democratic finan- tors, 2,800 customs agents. Unwilling / His nose was as long, and as ugly and cial wizard, feared that “the election to jeopardize his “honest Abe” image, big / As the snout of a half-starved Illi- of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidential chair Lincoln insisted that patronage in a nois pig; / He was long in the legs and must prove the forerunner of a disso- Lincoln administration would be fair- long in the face, / A Longfellow born of lution of this Confederacy amid all the ly divided. Lincoln announced that he a long-legged race....” horrors of civil strife and bloodshed.” “neither is nor will be, in advance of In Indiana, the Douglas Democrats ex- the election, committed to any man, But Northern Democrats, even as horted the “Freemen of Indiana” not clique, or faction.” The “part of duty, they gritted their teeth at the pros- even to think of voting “for this man, and wisdom” is “to deal fairly with Lincoln—a genus of the same type all. He thinks he will need the as- as the traitor, John Brown, who sistance of all; and that, even if he was hung at Charleston; an abo- had friends to reward, or enemies to litionist of the reddest dye; and punish, as he has not, he could not a wholesale disunionist!” Ohio’s afford to dispense with the best tal- Clement Vallandigham was hor- ent, nor to outrage the popular will rified that a divided Democratic in any locality.” party would lead to the election of a president “as revolutionary, dis- However, lofty declarations of im- organizing, subversive of the Gov- partiality had never before stood in ernment” as Lincoln. the path of self-interest rightly un- derstood, nor did they in this case. By the same token, Lincoln made Salmon Chase would get the nod no gestures in the other direc- as secretary of the treasury, Simon tion, either, toward the absolute, Cameron would become secretary no-concession abolitionists. Wen- of war, and Seward would move in dell Phillips, for whom nothing less as secretary of state. The next tier than immediate and unconditional of appointments would be careful- abolition was acceptable, attacked ly divided between the partisans Lincoln’s concentration solely on of Chase, Cameron, and Seward. limiting the spread of slavery for Abram Wakeman, a prominent ally making him nothing more than a of Thurlow Weed, would get the lu- “constitutional slave-hound.” Lin- crative appointment as postmaster coln was of New York City; Cameron’s broth- “ready to hunt slaves so long as er James would win a commission the Union, the party, and the as colonel of the 79th New York, white race seem to need it; and he while his son Brua would become is therefore just the wood out of a military paymaster; Hiram Bar- Simon Cameron OC-0482 which Washington Presidents are ney, an ally of Chase, would win the carved. If any think such charac- even-more-lucrative post of collector pect of Douglas’s defeat, were no ters useful and necessary now-a-days, for the Port of New York, and Chase’s more inclined than their Southern let them. But that is no reason why I brother, Edward, would become U.S. counterparts to countenance a Lin- should call such persons honest men, marshal for the Northern District of coln presidency. They had not for- any more than I should call geese New York. gotten the stark, moralistic terms in eagles, because a goose once saved which Lincoln had cast opposition to Rome.” Lincoln made no similar attempt to slavery in his debates with Douglas in appease unhappy Democrats, and it 1858 and in the Cooper Union speech Radical abolitionists held their own probably wouldn’t have been worth it earlier that year. The New York Herald presidential nominating convention if he’d tried. The Breckinridge Demo- took the lead, denouncing the Repub- on August 29th in Syracuse, New crats might have loathed Stephen A. licans as “saturated with abolitionism York, adamantly refusing to vote “for Douglas, but they regarded Lincoln as of the most rabid kind” and Lincoln a candidate like Abraham Lincoln, a “Black Republican” who had “open- “as an extreme abolitionist of the rev- who stands ready to execute the ac- ly proclaimed a war of extermination olutionary type” who would “liberate cursed Fugitive Slave Law, to suppress

10 SPRING 2019 ALLEN GUELZO

insurrections among slaves, to ad- could willingly say. Justice and fair- cal powers against Douglas in 1858 mit new slave States, and to support ness to all, is the utmost I have said, had boosted him into the national the ostracism, socially and politically, or will say,” he replied in August to an limelight. But Lincoln was acting on of the black man of the North” and overly curious New York abolitionist orders from the Republican National nominating the veteran abolitionist (with the ominous name of T. Apolion Committee, who could see the prize Gerrit Smith. Abolitionists even ar- Cheney). He was still repeating that dropping effortlessly into their hands gued among themselves over Lincoln: formula in October: “Those who will and who wanted to do nothing to in- when Scottish-born abolitionist James not read, or heed, what I have already terfere with it. “I have observed that Redpath announced after the Repub- publicly said, would not read, or heed, those candidates who are most cau- lican convention that “he should vote a repetition of it,” Lincoln wrote, add- tious of making pledges, stating opin- for Lincoln” because it “would bene- ing with a Biblical flourish which fea- ions or entering into arrangements fit the slave,” this former ally of John tured one Abraham quoting another of any sort for the future save them- Brown was roundly pummeled by the Abraham through Luke, “’If they hear selves and their friends a great deal come-outer abolitionist, Stephen S. not Moses and the prophets, neither of trouble and have the best chance Foster, who was “astounded that such will they be persuaded though one of success,” advised William Cullen a man as Redpath should declare his rose from the dead.’” The governor Bryant. “Make no speeches, write no willingness to vote for a man like Lin- of Illinois, John Wood, offered Lincoln letters as a candidate, enter into no coln, who declared his willingness to space in the old State Capitol as an of- pledges, make no promises, nor even be slave-driver general.” fice, and shortly after Weed’s visit to give any of those kind words which Springfield, Lincoln hired John G. Nico- men are apt to interpret into promis- Lincoln put less labor into reaching lay, who clerked for Lincoln’s friend es.” All Lincoln needed to do was “do out to Northern Democrats or radi- and the Illinois secretary of state, nothing at present but allow yourself cal Abolitionists, and more into fend- Ozias Hatch. He prepared for Nico- to be elected.” Even when he was in- ing off efforts by others to put words lay a form letter stating that friends vited to speak at a national horse into his mouth. “I would cheerfully had beseeched him “to write nothing show in the presumably friendly envi- answer your questions in regard to whatever upon any point of political rons of Springfield, Massachusetts, in the Fugitive Slave law, were it not doctrine. They say his positions were August, George Fogg, the secretary of that I consider it would be both im- well known when he was nominated, the Republican National Committee, prudent, and contrary to the reason- and that he must not now embarrass nixed the idea. “I answer very frank- able expectation of friends for me to the canvass by undertaking to shift or ly that I do not think it would ‘help,’” write, or speak anything upon doctri- modify them.” Fogg wrote. “Everything east I believe nal points now. Besides this, my pub- This was an unusually shut-mouthed is well. The election is ours now. The lished speeches contain nearly all I strategy for a man whose rhetori- triumph is ours.” And Lincoln stayed

“The Republican Wigwam,” Chicago, Illinois, 1860, based on a sketch by E. Whitefield 71.2009.083.1344 LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 11 JUST THE WOOD OUT OF WHICH WASHINGTON PRESIDENTS ARE CARVED

put in his own Springfield. When the gance could support. Fourteen cam- Tribune estimated that “the number Illinois Republican state convention paign biographies were written and of speeches made during the…cam- met in Springfield on August 8th, Lin- circulated; artists and photographers paign has been quite equal to that coln addressed a crowd that jammed were commissioned to capture (and of all that were made in the previous around his doorway and sidewalk, his improve) Lincoln’s likeness for mass Presidential canvasses from 1789 to “remarks” amounted to 268 carefully distribution; and even one sculptor 1859 inclusive. We estimate that not opaque words. “It has been my pur- was hired to prepare campaign stat- less than ten thousand set speeches pose, since I have been placed in my uettes. Lincoln might refuse to make have been made in this State alone, present position, to make no speech- public appearances, but the national and probably not less than fifty thou- es,” Lincoln said. “I appear upon the committee ensured that Republican sand within the limits of the Union.” ground here at this time only for the organizers made the campaign dra- In Portland, Maine, an “evening torch- purpose of affording myself the best matically visible through campaign light procession” of Wide-Awakes opportunity of seeing you, and en- newspapers, Lincoln clubs, and torch- “wore glazed black caps and cloaks, abling you to see me.” light parades by Republican “Wide- and presented a particularly somber Awakes.” appearance as they glided along be- Lincoln needn’t have worried that this neath the glimmering flashes of their silent campaign would damage his The Wide-Awakes provide a dash of flambeaux,” while “the Lincoln guard prospects. Although he remained in unusual electioneering color to the wore red glazed cloaks” and marched to the music of “a great number of

“Mohawk Wide Awakes and Band,” November 1860 LN-1487

Springfield, he sent a variety of emis- campaign of 1860. But they often saries on personal embassies to rep- disguise how calculating the Repub- bands.” In New York City, five differ- resent him and garner responses. The licans were in snagging the atten- ent Republican clubs – including the Republican National Committee did tion and commitment of younger, “Irrepressible Wide Awake Battalion” more than its share of work in craft- first-time voters through groups like and the “Republican Association of ing a national image of a moderate, the Wide-Awakes and “Young Re- the 19th Ward” held meetings. Across incorruptible, and (with some degree publican” clubs. The Young Men’s the North, recalled Charles Francis Ad- of fudging) substantially less homely Republican Union of New York City ams, “The campaign of 1860 was es- candidate whom anyone upset with “circulated 3,961,000 pages of Repub- sentially a midnight demonstration— insider politics and slaveholder arro- lican documents,” and the New-York it was the ‘Wide-awake’ canvass of

12 SPRING 2019 ALLEN GUELZO

rockets, illuminations and torch-light in the state legislature, and elected ty was so great as to be unassailable, processions. Every night was marked Republicans in twenty of their twen- even if the Democratic and Constitu- by its tumult, shouting, marching and ty-five Congressional districts. Ohio tional Union candidates had forgotten countermarching, the reverberation elected a Republican state Supreme their differences and made a common of explosives and the rush of rock- Court judge and handed thirteen of front. Besides, Douglas himself had ets and Roman candles. The future its twenty-one Congressional seats to pledged that “the election shall never was reflected on the skies. …We knew Republicans; overall, Republican votes go into the House; before it shall go nothing of the South, had no realizing overwhelmed Democrats with 53% of into the House, I will throw it over to sense of the intensity of feeling which all votes cast. Lincoln.” there prevailed; we fully believed it would all end in gasconade.” Lincoln was delighted with the “late “The contest has been so long and so splendid victories…which seem to exhaustive,” wrote John Nicolay after Election days in the 19th century did foreshadow the certain success of the election frenzy had worn off, that not follow a synchronized schedule. the Republican cause in November.” in Lincoln’s Springfield, the “people Presidential votes were cast across Which, of course, they did. On No- look and act as if they were almost too the nation on November 6th, but a se- vember 6, Lincoln carried the popular tired to feel at all interested in getting ries of state legislative, gubernatorial, vote of all eighteen of the free states, up a grand hurrah over the victory.” At including Oregon and California, least, Nicolay reflected, the long strug- which in turn, easily gave him gle to contain slavery was over. “I my- 180 electoral votes – twenty-eight self can hardly realize that after hav- more than needed. No Lincoln ing fought this Slavery question for votes were counted at all in nine six years past,…I am rejoicing at a tri- Southern states (although this was umph which…we hardly dared dream better than Frémont’s no-shows about.” Salmon Chase agreed: “The in 1856, when twelve states reg- great object of my wishes & labors for istered no Republican votes), but nineteen years is accomplished in the they hardly mattered. overthrow of the Slave Power,” Chase wrote to Lincoln that day after the John C. Breckinridge won eleven election. slave states, but this garnered him only 72 electoral votes. Douglas Lincoln hoped the same realization did much better in the popular would prevail in the South and ensure vote, outdistancing Breckinridge a peaceful inauguration five months by 61%. But Douglas still lagged far hence. “The prevalent apprehensions, behind Lincoln – by almost half a a week or two ago, of our lords of million votes; moreover, the Doug- trade, that the People of the Southern las votes were so scattered across States would insist on going naked in the country that they earned him case of Lincoln’s election,” smirked the only twelve electoral votes, placing New-York Tribune, “have already been him behind not only Breckinridge measurably dissipated.” Even “Mr. Lin- but even the faded John Bell. Lin- coln considers the feeling at the South coln won only 39.8% of the overall to be limited to a very small number.” popular vote; but he did it in con- They were, all of them, wrong. On the centrations big enough to win him same day, the South Carolina legisla- an easy majority in the Electoral ture voted unanimously to schedule College. elections on December 6th for a state Salmon P. Chase LFA-0208 secession convention. A very different and Only in California, where a change future was about to break upon the Congressional elections were being of 700 votes could have given the state nation, but, as Charles Francis Adams held in Maine, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to a Democrat, was the election even wrote, “of the tremendous nature of beginning in September and acted as close, and California had only four that future, we then had no concep- a bellwether for the direction of the electoral votes to contribute. In the tion. We all dwelt in a fool’s Paradise.” November voting. On that basis alone, states where Lincoln won, he mostly the Republican confidence in an elec- won by unchallengeable majorities: [Allen C. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce III toral sweep was more than borne out: 57% in Connecticut, 58% in New York, Professor of the Civil War Era and Direc- Republicans swept the six Congressio- 56.5% in Pennsylvania, 52% in Ohio, tor of the Civil War Era Studies Program nal districts of Maine on September 57% in Michigan. Although it has often at Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Penn- 10th and elected a Republican gover- been a parlor game to wonder wheth- sylvania.] nor, 69,000 to 51,000. Pennsylvanians, er the change of one or another state’s who voted a month later, elected a votes might have thrown the election For footnotes and additional notes, Republican, Andrew Curtin, as gov- into the House of Representatives, in please visit www.FriendsoftheLincoln- ernor by a 32,000-vote margin, gave the states that really mattered (like Collection.org crushing majorities to Republicans New York), Lincoln’s popular majori-

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 13 From The Collection

Since 1929, Lincoln Lore has been a staple publication of the Lincoln world. Publication began on the sixty-fourth anniversary of President Lincoln’s assassination and twenty-five years after Robert Lincoln granted permission for the commercial use of his father’s image to Lincoln National Life Insurance Company in Fort Wayne, IN. Louis Warren, the first Direc- tor of the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, began a tradition that would continue to this day. The intention of Lincoln Lore was to document the findings of the Lincoln Historical Research Foundation, created under the direction of Arthur Hall, President of Lincoln National Life.

“It will try to anticipate the needs of authors and students of Lincoln’s life; collectors and librarians who are gathering Lincolniana; and editors of newspapers, magazines, and house organs who find frequent need of short Lincoln items for their publications,” wrote Warren, who also planned for Lincoln Lore to be a supplement to the publications of the Abraham Lincoln Association in Springfield, IL. Since that time, the scope of the publication has wid- ened to the current policy of publishing articles by the foremost Lincoln scholars of today.

Louis Warren (L) and Gerald McMurtry, #2868 Lincoln Lore #1 Editor: Louis Warren

Ian Rolland (L) and Mark Neely, #2866

Lincoln Lore #39 Editor: Louis Warren

14 SPRING 2019Lincoln Lore #1421 Editor: Gerald McMurtry Emily Rapoza, Lincoln Librarian From The Collection at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN

Gerald Prokopowicz, Photo: E. Prokopowicz

Lincoln Lore #1842 Editor: Gerald Prokopowicz

In its 90th year, it is important to look back on the many renditions of Lincoln Lore since its initial publication. What began as a weekly, single-leaf publication grew to a folded pamphlet, and then on to a fully designed magazine. Throughout its 90 years and more than 1,920 issues, Lincoln Lore has had 5 editors at its helm: Louis A. Warren (1929-1956), R. Gerald McMurtry (1956-1972), Mark E. Neely, Jr. (1973-1992), Gerald Prokopowicz (1995-2002), and currently, Sara Gabbard. Lincoln Lore has grown from a mailing list to subscribers only and now reaches thousands more with the expansion of the Lincoln Lore archive online.

Thanks to the vision and support of the Friends of the Lincoln Collection of Indiana, Lincoln Lore past and current issues, are now available online at www.FriendsoftheLin- colnCollection.org.

Lincoln Lore #1921 Editor: Sara Gabbard

Lincoln Lore #1870 Editor: Sara Gabbard

Sara Gabbard, Photo: E. Rapoza

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 15 An Interview with Alfred J. Zacher

Trial and Triumph: Presidential Power in the Sara Gabbard Second Term (Presidential Press, 1996)

Sara Gabbard: Which presidents and National Review will occasionally which existed and biographies. I in- do you believe showed the great- have an article on a book that is not cluded in my studies their speeches, est leadership skills. widely covered. The reviews in Lin- letters, public documents, and diaries. coln Lore have merit. I read many of I continued my research until I was Al Zacher: Strong presidential leader- these books that seem to present an satisfied that I understood: the inner ship might be defined as the ability of insightful and/or broader perspective. nature of each, their strengths and a president to pursue major objectives shortcomings, and both their success- to fulfillment. This requires persever- SG: Do you buy more books be- es and failures. ance, support of the public and of Con- cause you think that you SHOULD gress if their approval is required. This read them or because you WANT SG: Do you believe that some is an understatement, but it provides to read them? presidents have been overrated? a guideline to judging the leadership Underrated? skills of a president. However, it does AZ: I want to read any historical book not mean to imply that the objectives that offers valued insights. But I avoid AZ: James Madison has not received are in the best long-term interests of books that I believe fail to accurately the recognition he deserves in the the nation. Those presidents with present their subject. For example, annals of presidential history. He strong leadership skills were: George I would not read books on Jefferson was the great contributor to the Washington, Thomas Jefferson in his which rejected his relationship with Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and first term, James Madison in his sec- Sally Hemmings. I believe those au- the Federalist Papers. As president ond term, Andrew Jackson, James thors failed to understand Jefferson’s he was granted the opportunity to K. Polk, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore character and nature, which was the pursue their implementation. In his Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin basis for his decisions in all matters. second term, he found the flexibility D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight to implement Federalist concepts Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald SG: I know that you are a great while retaining the power of the veto. Reagan, and George W. Bush. student of the U.S. presidency. Do And he stood alone in preserving you explore one man at a time, or Washington as the federal capital as SG: How do you keep track of all of do you “jump back and forth?” Do the British destroyed most of the gov- the newly published books on history you reach a point at which you are ernmental buildings. The great admi- and determine which to read? satisfied that you “know” a presi- ration of Jefferson exists despite his dent? failures in his second term. Jackson AZ: I carefully seek out new books by became hugely popular among much authors with recognized credentials AZ: My book on the second term of of the population by appearing as the that appear in the New York Times our presidents has a chapter on each fighter for their interests. However, Book Review, in the “Saturday Review” second term president, up to and in- that popularity aside, many of his section of the Wall Street Journal and in cluding George W. Bush. I studied significant decisions have later been the New York Review of Books. Interest- these presidents in the greatest detail judged to be unfavorable. ingly, magazines such as the Atlantic by reading the few autobiographies

16 SPRING 2019 AN INTERVIEW WITH ALFRED J. ZACHER

SG: In your opinion, which books SG: Your book, Trial and Triumph: pers that were in the infancy of this written by Lincoln’s contemporar- Presidential Power in the Second media. Many of the articles, both for ies best stand the test of time? Term, was critically acclaimed. and against the administration, were How did you conceive of the con- either unsigned or written by the AZ: The book that stands out is the cept of second terms as a focus? Founders under assumed names. one written by John G. Nicolay and Many contained fake news, other John Hay. Herndon’s so-called biog- AZ: In reading Henry Adams’s History made scurrilous accusations, such as raphy made some contributions, and of the United States during the Adminis- referring to Jefferson’s relationship a number of his quotes from others trations of Thomas Jefferson and James with Sally Hemmings. Abraham Lin- have particular value. Madison, I discovered Adams’s view coln invested in a German Language that Jefferson had a troubled second newspaper to influence that group. SG: Gordon Wood wrote a book ti- term. I recalled vividly the unfavor- He worked closely with the editors of tled The Purpose of the Past: Reflec- able impact his attempt to pack the major newspapers to gain their sup- tions on the Uses of History. Have Supreme Court had on the second port. Franklin Roosevelt attempted to Americans as a whole lost the term of Franklin Roosevelt. And of dominate the newspaper media by belief that understanding history course the resignation of Richard Nix- maintaining a close relationship with is important? If so, why? on in his second term added to my reporters through his frequent press decision to study presidents who had conferences. AZ: The widespread disappearance served a second term. of history courses in colleges and However, the papers were owned universities, including many of by his opponents and regularly pub- the most prestigious, is a great lished editorials and articles in oppo- tragedy. Sages through time have sition to FDR. During the time when warned of the danger that ensues radio was in its infancy, his “fireside from ignoring the lessons of the chat” radio broadcasts drew a very past. However, it has to be not- high percentage of listeners. In the ed with pride that some of our meantime, radio personalities such presidents seem to have taken as Father Coughlin had a sizeable ra- lessons from the past as their dio audience listening to his virulent guide. Among those who under- attacks on Roosevelt, Jews, and more. stood this and followed through Television led Eisenhower and all with policy were Washington, presidents that followed to obtain as Madison, Lincoln, Theodore Roo- much exposure there as possible. sevelt, Eisenhower, Franklin Roo- sevelt, and Truman. Among those However, Donald Trump has set a who refused to learn from the new level of use of media by having past were Jackson and George W. had his own successful TV series, his Bush. Young people today are be- use of Tweeting, and his frequent ing denied the study of history by announcements, which bring him at- an academic view that seems to tention. Social media in its various refuse to understand the damage formats offers a vast public an oppor- it is causing. tunity to broadcast their positions on all matters of interest to them. Any SG: Abraham Lincoln so ad- presidential candidate now faces a mired our Founding Fathers. much broader onslaught from this Let’s use Thomas Jefferson as new world of media. Time will tell us an example. Have our feelings if democracy can weather the storm about him changed through the “Presidents of the United States” showing of such diverse and powerful media years? presidents from George Washington through Andrew Johnson, LN-1824 by allowing the two-party system to AZ: Abraham Lincoln trusted his function as it always has. However, own judgment in the lessons he drew there is reason to believe that media from the Founding Fathers whom SG: Please comment on the impact is only one factor in the survival of de- he admired so greatly. He borrowed of media on the presidency over mocracy. from each portions of their contribu- time. tions that he believed fit his times. [Alfred J. Zacher is the founder of The His support of improvement such as AZ: Surprisingly, presidents have had Zacher Company in Fort Wayne, IN. He the railroads and land grant colleges to manage the challenge of power- serves as a Board member of Friends of were counter to the firmly held views ful and sometimes new media from the Lincoln Collection of Indiana and for of the Jeffersonian outlook, although the early moments of our republic. many years has chaired the annual Mc- he expressed great admiration for Jef- George Washington and the Feder- Murtry Lecture. He is the author of Trial ferson. alists were bombarded with attacks and Triumph: Presidential Power in the published in the flourishing newspa- Second Term.]

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 17 An Interview with George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo

Lincoln and the Bardo, 71201700100053 Craig Klugman

George Saunders’ novel, Lincoln in the perience is like (among them “The of his son, Willie, that he supposed- Bardo, is exhilarating and experimen- Tibetan Book of the Dead”), but I re- ly went into the crypt soon after the tal. It was a New York Times and USA alized pretty early that verisimilitude burial to somehow interact with the Today best seller, and it won the Man wasn’t necessarily the job. It felt to me body – look at it, or speak to it, or Booker Prize in 2017. It may make you that, since this was a novel, the main hold it. This idea appeared, I heard, cry in parts and laugh in some others. job was something like “be dramatic.” in some of the newspapers of the It will certainly make you think. So, to that end, “my” bardo ended up time. I carried that idea around for The novel is written in usually brief being a mash-up of the Tibetan tra- twenty-plus years, not feeling confi- paragraphs from what are essentially dition and the Catholic tradition and dent that I had the skill to write it – it ghosts in the cemetery where Willie some ghost tradition as well. In other seemed too straight, too un-ironic, Lincoln is laid to rest, but sometimes words, had I been truer to the “actual” not funny, etc. Then, finally, in 2012, Saunders uses quotations from real bardo, I would have been less true to I thought of how sad it would be if I histories and biographies. Because my job as a fiction writer, which is to kept avoiding this idea. That would Abraham Lincoln makes some appear- make meaningful drama, and there- be a concession, really, to my own ap- ances in Saunders’ novel (and seems by force the story to tell big truths parent artistic limitations. Which is a to loom over every page), Lincoln Lore that are not necessarily historical or great way to die on the vine as a writ- is publishing this interview with the demonstrative of a certain religious er. So I decided to launch in and even author. (C.K.) system. made a sort of contract with myself, Craig Klugman: What is the Bardo? CK: What was the inspiration for that I would allow myself three years the novel? Why Abraham Lincoln? and then, if it proved a total disaster, George Saunders: “Bardo” is a walk away happy. Tibetan term that means, roughly, GS: It was a version of that thing “transitional state.” So we are in a young writers always dream about: As far as “Why Abraham Lincoln?” – bardo right now, namely the one be- that some “idea” will grab hold of you the involvement of Lincoln was one of tween birth and death. The one re- for inexplicable reasons and not let go the reasons I avoided the idea for so ferred to in the book’s title starts at until you write the book. In my case, long. It just seemed impossible and the moment of our death and goes the “idea” came out of an anecdote potentially corny and sentimental. to…whatever’s next. There are won- I heard a long time ago: Lincoln had The operative question of the book derful books detailing what this ex- been so heartbroken by the death became, “Good Lord, how do you

18 SPRING 2019 CRAIG KLUGMAN

write about Lincoln without being im- ning of the book. Did you research My research just consisted of read- itative/mawkish/quaint?” Eventually, the nature of presidential parties? ing every description of that party I the dangers of writing about Lincoln And Mary Todd Lincoln does not could find and then typing them up became guard rails, sort of, or origi- come off very well. and cutting them up and endlessly nality stimulants. My desire to steer GS: The Lincolns decided to cut ex- rearranging them to find out which clear of the corny and sentimental penses by having three large recep- combination gave off the most ener- became a way to steer toward doing tions instead of several large state gy. Again, the goal was not so much to something new. It reminded me of dinners. This was Mary’s idea and it describe that party but to sort of enact that old joke: was a good and well-intentioned one, PARTY on the page – to make a sort Patient: It hurts when I do this. but that didn’t stop the Lincolns from of Platonic party. One of the myste- catching a lot of heat for hosting a rious truths I’ve discovered by writing Doctor: Don’t do that. celebration during this dire period of fiction is that simply seeking energy in Whenever my representation of the war. And, during that party, the a piece of prose (velocity, tight logic, Lincoln started feeling like it was veer- Lincoln boys, who were sick with ty- a feeling of being compelled through ing toward being too stock or sen- phoid, grew worse – and this was the it) actually, in the end, produces truth. timental, I would just say to myself, beginning of Willie’s decline, the guilt Or, you might say, that energy IS truth “Don’t do that.” Which was another of which, of course, stayed with the – reading about something and hav- way of saying that Lincoln – the re- Lincolns until the end. And they were ing it come simultaneously and spon- al-life Lincoln – remains very much a also criticized, cruelly, for having a taneously alive in one’s mind is a form mystery to us, and what is stock, sen- party while their son was upstairs dy- of living in truth. timental, etc., are just rounded-off, ing – which wasn’t accurate. He was Craig Klugman habitual ways of representing this sick, but a doctor had assured them CK: Describe Willie Lincoln’s funeral.

White House, LFA-0383 that the party would do no harm and boundless person. So the goal be- that he would recover. I also think GS: Well, there was a service in the came not “get Lincoln right” but “get that Mary Lincoln gets a bad rap pretty East Room and a shorter service out him wrong in a new way, a way that much everywhere you look. I’m sure at Oak Hill, in the chapel (which still feels original and unexpected enough she was difficult, but Lincoln seemed stands). It was very emotional and to cause the reader to, even briefly, to really love her, was very protective there was a particularly beautiful consider Lincoln anew.” of her, and man, the difficulties that speech by the Reverend Phineas D. CK: Please describe the White poor woman endured. And she often Gurley. The sense you get is that ev- House party depicted at the begin- gave him very good advice, too. eryone present realized that a very

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 19 INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE SAUNDERS

special child had been lost, and joined and bed-ridden and had no family but text felt more alive and organic. You the President and Mrs. Lincoln in their a brother, who was off on some sort of sense that there should be a ghost grief. (selfish, we feel) adventure and had left off to the right, you start typing (i.e., her in the care of a nurse. So she had a internally narrating that ghost’s voice) But I should say that my research lot of time on her hands and kept a de- and…voila. There he/she is. And then method was a little backwards – I tailed diary (from which I am “quoting”) you have to deal with him or her, i.e., would realize what I needed and go and spends a lot of time looking across you have to not forget what he or she in search of it. So what I know about the street at the cemetery. And, on just told you, and to continue to listen the funeral is exactly equal to the text the night in question, she sees Lincoln in the pages to come. fragments I accumulated about it, if twice – as he enters and then again as that makes sense, and I would have CK: Did your thoughts about he leaves. to wait and see where they might be Lincoln change while you re- needed. For example, I found Gurley’s CK: Are others named in the Bardo searched the novel? speech and typed it out and was just, real people or did you create their GS: Yes, but that was partly, of course, then, waiting for it to be necessary stories? Or are they a mixture? Did because I was injecting so much of my- and effective somewhere. And, in the you prepare detailed back stories self into him. So he became more like event, I actually split it up – some went for them? me, and consequently, I found I liked in Chapter XVIII, a section of testimo- GS: The non-living beings are all in- and agreed with him more. (Ha ha, nials about Willie, and some went to- vented (except for Willie Lincoln). I and yet not.) I did come to think that ward the end of the book, in the sec- don’t really prepare backstories off the the historical Lincoln was someone tion describing the funeral. page, except for birth and death dates. who had a good dose of depression, So I guess what I’m saying is I don’t They sort of revealed their life stories on top of which he got a good dose know a lot about the funeral, other as I wrote them and then, of course, of bad fortune and that this combi- than what I represent in the book. It the challenge was to “remember” nation took him very low indeed at wasn’t necessary for me to “master” what they had told you, as you came certain points – but that he may have the funeral and then decide what to back to them again and again. (And had some extraordinary glimpses at write about it. Rather, I was trying to continue to expand their stories in wisdom while in that state. I think to be sensitive to what the structure the new sections.) My theory is that we’ve all had moments of feeling com- of the book needed and then supply the writer’s first job is to make inter- pletely bottomed out, when all of our whatever it needed, and if it seemed esting and believable text chunks. So, plans and good intentions have come to be something from the funeral, whatever was interesting in the mo- to nothing, and, speaking for myself, I would do whatever reading was ment as I made the prose – well, that those moments are full of honesty needed. became the character’s life story. This prevents CK: Who was Isabelle Perkins? a very real problem that GS: She is a young woman I invent- every fiction writer has ed. When I was visiting Oak Hill, I got to deal with, namely the interested in a row of houses across problem of over-con- the street, from which a person would trolling the material. have had a view of both the guard- Asking “What ghost do house and the chapel. I felt like it I need right now?” has might be useful to have one more the effect of injecting living human available, to comment the writer’s (too simple) and help locate the reader from time intentionality into the to time. (Lincoln is actually the only work and thereby mak- “real” living person who shows up in ing it didactic and tidy. the fictive graveyard. I also invented Whereas, I found, if I a night watchman, Jack Manders. So just trusted my intuition Lincoln, Perkins, and Manders are the to help me “make” a only “living” people in Oak Hill that ghost at the needed mo- Authornight.) As Name I was writing Perkins, she ment, out of whatever started, as often happens, to tell me a language was available particular life story. She was disabled and interesting, then the

Abraham Lincoln, OC-1540 20 SPRING 2019 CRAIG KLUGMAN

and clarity – you have no bad ideas made me really, really want to extend or dear agendas to protect anymore. it, or, to be more accurate, that I could You’re allowed to just see. One sens- extend naturally. Before, I would have es that Lincoln spent a lot of quiet, to “try” to write a novel – slow things solitary time in that state, looking at down, or write a bunch of stuff I really the war and equality and mortality, wasn’t interested in. (Ugh, the scene and that, in the long run, the nation of X and Y’s wedding, snore.) This time benefitted from this sadness-wisdom. I was actively trying to make it NOT a Although I suspect it wasn’t always novel but the material kept insisting. very enjoyable for him. It kept insisting in this way: I’d write a section, trim it down with the same CK: How did you choose the actual kind of radical scissors I use on a sto- books on Lincoln that you quote ry…and that section would suggest from? Which did you admire, and the next one. I wrote and wrote and which, not so much? got to about 60 pages and had only GS: I admired, or at least was grate- just begun (was, maybe, an hour into ful for, every single one of them, be- that eight-hour night). cause I could use everything. Even if a I was, really, perfectly happy just writ- book was poorly written or had what ing short stories all those years – it’s seemed to me a weak idea of the cen- Willie Lincoln, LFA-0484 such a difficult and beautiful form Which, in turn, opens ter of it, I could potentially use it, since – and I’m back to writing them again up the fiction, when I the idea was to simulate “America now, blissfully. And I’m not sure this get back to it. singing.” Bad theories, weak voices is even a novel, really – my wife is fond (good theories, strong voices) were CK: What question do you wish we of pointing out how much white space all a part of it. In some ways it was had asked about Lincoln? there is in it. But I do feel that I found like walking through a train station, the right form to tell this story, and I’m GS: I wish you’d asked me for Lincoln’s recording on your phone: whatever happy that that form is sort of insane thoughts on audacity, so I would have was heard, was part of the portrait and, at the very least, can lay some an excuse to tell you the following sto- of “Train Station.” You took the good claim to being original. ry that he used to tell: with the bad. CK: Besides writing best-selling In a town, there was this man who I chose the books by a process of vo- novels, what else do you do? Are was known for being audacious – racious serendipity: any time I saw or you still teaching at Syracuse brave, bold, courageous, up for any heard about a Lincoln book or a Civil University? challenge. One day he’s at a big par- War book, I’d go to the index and see ty. Everybody’s dressed up, a very if Willie was mentioned or that party, GS: I am, and very happily so. We get formal occasion, all the best people in and I’d write down whatever I found. about 600-700 applications a year for town are there. And the host, know- I imagined my brain as a silo and the our fiction program and choose six to ing that this man was so Audacious, job was just: put as much as possible come. So our students are amazing. asked him to carve the turkey. The in there so that, at the moment of The nice thing is to be constantly re- Audacious Man stands up, cuts the invention, I would have a solid basis. minded that talent is constant in the turkey – and lets out a tremendous There were, of course, notes that I world. It might change flavor from fart. The room goes silent. What will didn’t use. Structure was king; if I had generation to generation, but not in the Audacious Man do? How can he a fact or a nice quote that didn’t some- its presence or intensity. possibly recover? The Audacious how serve a larger purpose (move the Other than that, I occasionally make Man takes off his jacket, rolls up his story along, help inhabit a chapter a trip to write a non-fiction piece. sleeves, picks up the knife, says: “Now that would move the story along) then During the 2016 campaign I went to let’s see if I can cut this turkey without it went into the Discard pile (where, some Trump rallies and wrote a piece farting again.” sadly, it remains, to this day). for The New Yorker about it. I love [Craig Klugman retired as editor of The CK: Lincoln in the Bardo was your doing those kinds of things because Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, IN. He first novel. How did that happen? they open up your mind and tend is a Director of Friends of the Lincoln to deconstruct one’s (my!) lazy, mid- GS: I’d never found material that Collection of Indiana.] dle-aged projections about the world.

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 21 Lincoln’s Magician:

The Saga of Captain Horatio G. “Harry” Cooke

Jason H. Silverman Harry Cooke, courtesy of Mark Cannon

The author wishes to express his deep having as a youth entertained with summer months to escape the brutal gratitude and appreciation to profes- rudimentary magic tricks anyone who Foggy Bottom heat of the Executive sional magicians par excellence, Dean would watch him. His fascination with Mansion. While marching, Blitz pulled Carnegie and Mark Cannon, for their magic continued into adulthood as he a bird from the hair of one of the girls crucial assistance with this article. They matured into a successful attorney on the parade route. This impromptu generously provided me with some very and politician. Whenever he could slip act stopped everyone in their tracks. important primary sources and much away Lincoln would frequent magic So Blitz continued several dazzling needed materials for this article. shows. In fact, he liked magic so much slight-of-hand tricks, including whisk- that he returned four times to see ing an egg from the mouth of ten- The name Horatio Green “Harry” Cooke the famous American-born conjuror year-old Tad Lincoln. is not one usually bandied about when “Wyman the Wizard,’ (whose real name speaking of Abraham Lincoln and the A gentleman from the crowd formally was John Wyman) perform at the Odd Civil War. Indeed, you might be hard introduced the President to the magi- Fellows Hall located almost exactly pressed to find him mentioned in any cian. Lincoln replied, “Why, of course, halfway between the Capitol and the of the 17,000-and-counting volumes it’s Signor Blitz, one of the most fa- White House. in the great pantheon of Lincoln litera- mous men in America.” So impressed ture. And yet his saga is a remarkable Lincoln also saw the British magician was Lincoln that he invited Blitz to vis- one and his relationship with Lincoln Antonio Van Zandt, whose stage name it the White House. There the magi- an untold story of bravery, dedica- was “Signor Blitz,” perform several cian made a bird appear in Lincoln’s tion, prestidigitation and escape artist- times. Taking a break from the bur- famous stovepipe hat. The bird had ry. In the end, Cooke would become dens of war, Lincoln and his son Tad a note attached to its wing that read “Lincoln’s Magician,” a title he wore watched Blitz perform at a rehearsal “Victory, General Grant,” referring proudly throughout his long life. for a July 4th parade near the Cottage to the Battle of Vicksburg that Grant on the grounds of the Soldiers’ Home would soon win. Awed by this perfor- Lincoln was no stranger to magic, that Lincoln often used during the mance, Lincoln reportedly asked Blitz

22 SPRING 2019 JASON SILVERMAN

how many children he had made hap- write in beautiful Spencerian cursive turned his back, Harry performed py in his career. “Thousands and tens handwriting. This ability, coupled what would be the first of a lifetime of thousands,” Blitz replied. “I fear with his expert marksmanship with a of magic tricks for an audience. “In a that I have made thousands and tens rifle, soon caught the attention of his flash [I] had freed [my] thumb,” Cooke of thousands unhappy,” Lincoln mo- superior officers. “Typewriters were recounted, “and made a mocking ges- rosely responded. “But it is for each of not in general use at this time,” Cooke ture at the back of the retiring officer,” us to do our duty in the world and I am recalled, “so my skill in penmanship much to the amusement of all who trying to do mine.” What neither knew was in great demand.” So, too, was observed. Harry Cooke’s life-long ca- at the time was that the Union would his ability with a rifle as he was quickly reer as an escape artist had begun. soon win twin victories at Vicksburg named an infantry sharp shooter. The following spring, Cooke’s Iowa and Gettysburg which would turn the regiment was sent first to Mississippi But that certainly didn’t keep Harry tide of the war. where he took part in Grant’s siege of out of trouble. Civil War or not, Harry Vicksburg and then on to the begin- Thus it is not surprising that, when Cooke loved magic and escaping from ning of the Red River campaign with Lincoln learned of young Horatio camp and going AWOL just to see if General Nathaniel P. Banks. Cooke’s Cooke’s formidable skills as a magi- he could get away with it. “Among cian, the President was determined to job was to perform scouting assign- meet him if for no other reason than ments, skirmishing out to be entertained. Entertained he ahead of the Union Army was; however, so much more would as an advance agent or come from the relationship between spy. the two. It was at this time that Cooke had been a precocious child, Cooke, because of his pen- both studious and entertaining. manship and knowledge Harry, as his friends knew him, quick- of the English language, ly excelled in his studies despite the was requested to do some family moving around several times correspondence work for from Connecticut to Illinois before General Ulysses Grant. “I they landed in Iowa on the eve of the first did the private cor- Civil War. Due to his excellent grasp respondence for Gen. of the English language, as well as his B.M. [Benjamin Mayberry] comfort in speaking before groups, Prentiss at Helena, Ark.,” Cooke wrote in his diary, the then seventeen-year-old Harry “My writing being most- was hired as a teacher for a small ru- ly on official documents, ral school and planned on continuing [and it] created a good his career in education. But events deal of comment and in- were about to occur that would forev- quiry as to who was the er change Harry’s life. writer, until I became As the threads of the Union were final- quite well known at the Antonio Van Zandt, courtesy of Dean Carnegie ly torn asunder and secession drew Executive Headquarters lines in the sand from which one must my comrades I had the reputation of in Washington.” In fact, later Cooke decide his loyalties, Harry found him- being clever in performing a number would also write correspondence for self swept up in the drama. Once he of ‘tricks,’ among which was rope ty- Generals Rosecrans, Sherman, and turned eighteen in early 1862, Harry ing feats, the knowledge of which was Sheridan Cooke, now legally an adult, enlisted a strong factor later on in saving my But it was at escaping that young in the 28th Iowa Volunteer Infantry in life and [several] of my comrades,” Private Cooke seemed truly to excel. nearby Marengo, Iowa, along with his Harry proudly wrote. So it wasn’t long Frequently he would prove to his su- brother, Nathan W. Cooke. Eight of after enlisting that Cooke found him- perior officers that, as hard as they his students followed Private Cooke self with his thumbs tied over a limb might try to restrain him, he would in- and his brother into the army as well. of a tree as punishment for yet again evitably shock them by quickly freeing As his diary, letters, and scrapbook leaving camp unauthorized. As soon himself. Soon, the youngster began attest, Harry Cooke had learned to as the solider who had secured him expanding his repertoire. He added a

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 23 LINCOLN’S MAGICIAN

number of magic tricks, studied rope we would make an investigation.” States Secret Servicemen or Pinkerton tying, and other skills, and quickly es- They had heard of the young man’s Agents. tablished a reputation as quite the es- unusual ability to free himself from Cooke’s group of scouts accompanied cape artist in his regiment. It wasn’t restraints and were curious to see him General Sheridan on his Shenandoah long before his reputation spread demonstrate his abilities. campaign in the second week of much further than that. Cooke was then tied up with fifty feet September 1864. “There was a good In 1864, Cooke was transferred to of rope by two generals and one sen- deal of skirmishing during the next the battlefront in the Shenandoah ator and recounted what happened four weeks,” Cooke recorded, “and my Valley to serve under General Phillip next in his diary. “When all was ready scouting party was kept very busy, but Sheridan. While en route, he was I asked Lincoln to walk ten feet away. no regular battle was engaged again summoned to the office of Secretary Then I asked Lincoln to walk towards until the 19th day of October, when at of War Edwin Stanton in Washington, me. While Lincoln was walking the Cedar Creek the enemy surprised our D.C. When Cooke entered the room, ten feet, I liberated myself and stood ‘pickets’ before daylight and got inside he met Generals William T. Sherman up, shaking hands with Lincoln when our ‘lines’ before we were aware of it.” and Winfield S. Hancock, Secretary of he was close enough.” The President The Confederate forces had over- War Stanton, the noted attorney and was both entertained and amazed, whelmed the Federal lines there, orator Robert Green Ingersoll, Senator as were the others. Cooke contin- compelling them to retreat in great Isham Harris of Tennessee, and, much ued, “Taking a [$2] ‘greenback’ of the disorder. Cooke was with Sheridan at to Cooke’s shock, President Lincoln first issue of Federal currency from Winchester when word arrived of the himself. In Cooke’s diary, the stunned his pocket, Lincoln gave it to me [and rout. Immediately Sheridan mounted put me] strictly in charge to keep it his horse and made his famous ride always, and also told me that he was down the Shenandoah Valley “Hell going to keep an eye on me for some- bent for leather,” as Cooke described, thing better as I grew older. ‘Here my from Winchester to Cedar Creek to boy, keep this to remember Uncle stop the retreat and rally the Union Abe by. The Johnnies would have to forces. Harry Cooke and his six fel- go some to hold you if you should fall low scouts mounted up and started into their hands.’” Cooke later said with him, but, according to Cooke, that “remark seemed rather prophet- they were unable to keep up with the ic, and it was fulfilled afterwards.” General’s furious pace. Cooke lament- Harry kept that $2 bill his entire life. ed that he fell behind because his According to Cooke, at this point primary purpose as one of Lincoln’s Lincoln immediately sat down and Scouts was to operate out of uniform personally handwrote a letter ap- and spy on the Confederate troops in pointing him on the spot a Federal advance of Sheridan’s Cavalry. Scout whose very dangerous job it Cooke records in his diary that be- was to penetrate the Confederate cause they couldn’t keep up with lines incognito and send back intel- Sheridan, “We were determined to ligence reports. After the appoint- take to the foothills; this was our un- ment, he was detached from his en- doing, for we ran into an ambush of listment with the Army, officially given [Confederate] guerillas, 12 of them the brevet-rank of Captain, and des- [from John Singleton Mosby’s famed ignated as “Chief of Lincoln Scouts.” Robert Green Ingersoll LN-0748 Rangers].” “Before we could real- Cooke then handpicked six associate ize our situation,” wrote Cooke, “we scouts, who affectionately went one soldier wrote that Lincoln walked over were surrounded and there was no better than Lincoln and always re- to him, firmly shook his hand, and alternative; we were in their power ferred to him as “Major” Cooke. When said, “Well lad, I am informed that you and threatened to be shot if we made he wore his military uniform, over his are rather tricky.” Cooke replied that any resistance.” The great escape heart proudly resided a medal which he was not aware that he had been artist had become a POW and his stipulated “Lincoln Scout.” Many of “guilty of doing mean tricks.” The skills would soon be put to the test. the Lincoln Special Scouts would lat- President responded, “Well, I thought Unfortunately for Cooke and his men er go on to become the first United

24 SPRING 2019 JASON SILVERMAN

at this time, Mosby was engaged in you again, the boys will take care of from Mosby’s Rangers and certain ex- a savage take-no-prisoners person- you all right.’ As our lives were in the ecution. “Nothing remained [for the al war with Union General George hands of the bandits I dared not fight rest of us] but to swim the Potomac Armstrong Custer. In the fall of 1864 back so I had to content myself by to safety on the Maryland side,” Cooke word had spread that both generals telling him that we might meet again concluded. They removed all of their were executing POWs on the spot. someday—and we did.” clothes, “tied [their] trousers around [their] necks and plunged into the Thus Cooke had good cause to be wor- Soon after the incident occurred, river leaving the rest of our clothing ried. In his diary, Cooke writes that Cooke and his fellow scouts were behind.” Mosby’s men took all of their money, taken further up river where they all their possessions, and anything camped for the night. “I learned,” Swimming the river proved formida- that looked of value; and, they were Cooke recalled, “that the guerillas ex- ble as the currents were particular- then forced to change clothes with pected to be joined the next day by ly strong. Fatigued from their river their captors. “They took all of our more Mosby Raiders carrying addi- journey, Cooke and his men found letters from our sweethearts,” wrote tional prisoners.” Cooke feared that that they still had the Harpers Ferry Cooke, “read them and commented all of the POWs would then be hanged Canal to cross. The depth of the wa- on the contents. They took, also, my or shot as spies in retaliation for the ter proved fatal for one of Cooke’s se- most prized possession, President execution of Confederate POWs by verely exhausted men who drowned Lincoln’s letter appointing me a scout. General Wesley Merritt. attempting to navigate the deep ca- nal. The loss of a comrade weighed I begged them to let me keep it but “They tied us to trees and camped in heavily on Cooke who was now des- they only laughed, said I was a healthy a half circle around us from bank to perate to get back to Union lines. looking scout and asked me when I bank, leaving one of their number in was going to raise some whiskers.” the middle to guard us,” Cooke record- Down to three men including himself, For the next twenty-four hours Cooke ed in his diary. “It was now up to me Cooke led the weary band through the and his fellow soldiers were marched to get busy figuring out some means woods which were crawling with gue- up the Potomac River by Mosby’s of escape. My being tied cut no fig- rilla fighters from Elijah V. White’s 35th Rangers. “One of the gang, about 18,” ure with me, but for the others it was Battalion of Virginia Cavalry. “White’s Cooke remembered, “rode up behind different. The guard was seated with Guerillas,” as they were called, con- me and began cursing me. I told him his back against the tree about four cerned Cooke immensely since they he had me at a disadvantage and feet from me. I had no chance to do were “reputed to be even worse than that he would dare not call me such anything before midnight and at that Mosby’s men, as they generally killed names if we were on equal footing.” hour he roused another man to take their prisoners as soon as they got This enraged the Confederate who his place and went to sleep himself.” them.” Cooke’s harrowing description shouted back at Harry, “D—n you! I’ll Cooke correctly speculated that the details the three men’s difficulties. show you.” He then raised his gun new guard, still groggy from being “We wandered in the woods four days and aimed at Harry firing three shots. awakened, was not yet fully aware yet with no clothing except our trousers “Fortunately he missed me,” Cooke re- of his surroundings. So he waited pa- and nothing to eat except birch bark. counted, “I wanted to taunt him about tiently and as the guard dozed back to The fourth day as we were helping his poor marksmanship but realized it sleep, the escape artist extraordinaire ourselves to corn in a field, six armed would probably cost me my life if I did, easily freed himself from his bindings horsemen rode up and suddenly cap- so I remained silent.” and took the guard’s rifle without even tured us. We thought they were gue- rillas as they were dressed in a sort of Eventually they reached a farm- awakening him. “It was my plan to get his six shooters also,” said Cooke, mixed uniform such as many guerillas house where Cooke soon learned “which would give us 19 shots—as the wore and they believed us to be gue- that this was the home of the young carbine was good for seven—clean rillas because we were wearing the Confederate who had fired at him up the rest of the guerillas, seize their trousers that Mosby’s men had forced earlier in the day. “We were sitting on horses and escape.” us to put on in place of our own.” a wood pile near the gate to the yard when [an] old man came out to look Once he freed his companions, Cooke Cooke and his men, however, were us over,” Harry remembered. “I asked unsuccessfully tried to convince all of informed that they were now the pris- him if he thought he would know us if them to escape by way of the Potomac oners of a band of Federal Scouts! he saw us again. At that he struck me River. But half of them couldn’t swim Shocked by this revelation, Cooke on the mouth and said ‘I’ll never see and they chose to escape by land tried to explain that he was appoint-

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 25 LINCOLN’S MAGICIAN

ed Head of the Federal Scouts by the and then we burned the house so that return. commander-in-chief himself. The it could no longer be a rendezvous for Returning to Major Gallup’s camp leader of the group called Cooke a liar guerillas. Tell your son,” Cooke said, near Staunton, Virginia, weary and and Cooke said that he really “couldn’t that “when he comes home, what a emotionally spent by what he had un- blame him, knowing that he was judg- nice bunch of Yankees we are.” dergone during the previous weeks, ing [us] from appearances.” When From there Cooke’s rescue mission Cooke learned in early 1865 that he Cooke asked him who his command- took a tragic turn when they sad- was to be reassigned as a military ing officer was, he replied it was Major ly discovered his companions who clerk in Alexandria, Virginia, a posi- Sage Gallup of the 7th Illinois Cavalry had chosen to escape by land rather tion he readily and enthusiastically who, as stunning coincidence would than swimming the Potomac River. accepted. Because Mosby’s Rangers have it, happened to be a cousin of “We found their bodies hanging from had confiscated Lincoln’s hand-writ- Cooke’s whom he hadn’t seen since trees,” Cooke lamented, “riddled with ten letter of commission, it was now childhood. At that revelation, Cooke bullets and their faces mutilated by Cooke’s intention to use his proximity and his men were taken before Major birds. We cut them down, buried to the White House to see Lincoln and Gallup who confirmed Cooke’s iden- them and vowed vengeance upon request a new letter from him. Fate, tity, who then, in turn, vouched for their slayers.” however, intervened and had some- his men. They were then given food thing else in store for Harry Cooke. and new clothing, now twelve days after being initially captured, and With war’s end in sight, Cooke they relaxed a bit until they were in- figured he would be able to see formed that they had been listed as Lincoln with perhaps a bit less diffi- killed in action. But Cooke spent no culty than had the war been raging. time dwelling on that morbid fact; He chose what he considered to be too concerned about his men who an opportune time to visit Lincoln; had chosen to flee by land, Cooke five days after Lee surrendered requested of Major Gallup that they to Grant at Appomattox. Even if form a search party for them, which the war was over, Cooke had been they proceeded to do with the help of heartbroken to have lost the let- thirty-three fresh troops provided by ter written by Lincoln appointing the Federal Scouts. him “Head of the Lincoln Federal Scouts” and he wanted to share It wasn’t long before Cooke and his with Lincoln stories of his perilous colleagues came upon the farmhouse exploits as well as asking to have where he was slapped. Now facing a the letter replaced. On the cool sizeable number of Federal troops in spring evening of April 14, Cooke uniform, Cooke included, the farm- went to the White House but, as his er claimed he didn’t recognize the diary records, was informed that soldiers he had abused just a few the President had gone to Ford’s days before. Cooke interrogated him Theatre to see the British come- about his disloyal activities and those Harry Cooke, public domain dy, “Our American Cousin” starring of his son in Mosby’s Rangers, but the Laura Keene. Cooke hurried to the farmer denied everything. No longer Setting out on a reign of anger-fueled theater, purchased his ticket, grabbed being able to control his anger, Cooke revenge through the Confederate a program as he entered, and stood slapped him and later wrote that “I ranks, Cooke and his fellow scouts in the back so as not to disturb the gave him the scare of his life by having vowed to one other that they would audience. him tied to a post and telling him we never divulge to anyone what trans- were going to put some Yankee bul- What happened next was sadly de- pired on their ride, or the number of lets through him which I really did not scribed by Cooke in his diary. “About casualties that they inflicted. And true intend to do of course. Shooting [you twenty minutes after I entered I heard to his word, Cooke gave no details in is] too big [for] a coward to be shot a pistol shot, at the same moment his diary save for the fact that they like a soldier.” Cooke told him. “But a man (whom I soon learned was confiscated many guns, horses, arms, we did give him twenty minutes to J. Wilkes Booth) jumped from the and ammunition, and turned them remove his most valued possessions President’s box to the stage; he fell in to the Quartermaster upon their

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but got up again, and shouting some late nineteenth century, became fasci- ty feet of rope just like he had done Latin phrase, ran through the scenery nated with spiritualism. The glad tid- for Lincoln some six decades earlier. and out the backstage door. At first ings of spiritualism—that the dearly During this performance, Cooke wore the audience seemed to think the in- departed were ever present to offer his blue Union Army uniform with the cident was part of the play, but some- comfort and advice to the living— Head of the Lincoln Scouts badge over one shouted from the stage, ‘The were powerfully appealing in the nine- his heart just as he had done during President has been shot!’ I think it was teenth century, and the movement’s the Civil War. The result was the same Miss Keene who cried out. At that, influence soared with the suffering as when President Lincoln observed the whole audience rose from their seats; many rushing to the President’s box. Some started after Booth who had mounted a horse in the alley and fled. . . . These events cannot be fully comprehended from reading a bare statement.”

Cooke followed the crowd across the street to the Petersen Boarding House where they took the mortally wound- ed president. “I remained around the place all night with many oth- ers,” Cooke wrote, “and begged that I might be admitted, but that could not be. In the morning [Secretary of War] Stanton came to the door and seeing me, took me into the room where the President lay. He removed the cover- ing from his face, a face that was so physically homely yet so grand and Houdini and the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, Library of Congress, LC_3a27314u peaceful. But his spirit had passed on to the ‘Great Beyond.’ I did not ob- produced by the Civil War. Spiritualist it; Cooke escaped to the amazement tain that for which I sought, for ‘The newspapers proclaimed the faith, and of his audience. It was a poetic and Master’s Word was lost.’” For the rest circles of believers established them- fitting dénouement to an exciting of his life Cooke retained the April 14, selves in the leading cities. and dangerous life. It would be the 1865 Ford’s Theatre program from last time Cooke wore his uniform. Although an extremely clever and that fateful night and the $2 bill that Six weeks later Harry Cooke passed gifted magician, Cooke devoted most Lincoln had given him seemingly so away peacefully in his sleep having of his time to exposing fake spiritual- many years ago. been billed as “America’s Oldest Living ism and in fact sold out the Standard Magician.” With the close of the war, Cooke re- Theater in New York for four consec- turned to his home in Iowa, but his utive months in 1880 doing exactly That title, however, simply seems quite adventures over the previous three that. Skeptical of spiritualism from inadequate in describing the amazing, years made it seemingly impossible the start, Cooke spent night after if not historically significant, life of to be content with life in a small rural night debunking mediums and spiri- Horatio G. “Harry” Cooke. Perhaps, town. Restless, he moved frequent- tualists as charlatans long before the then, a more fitting title would have ly (Ohio, Illinois, then New York City) man who would become his protégé, been “Lincoln’s Magician.” Certainly, before eventually ending up in Los Harry Houdini, took up the cause. “Uncle Abe”, the Great Emancipator, Angeles where he lived the remainder would have heartily approved. For the next quarter of a century or of his life. so, Cooke was back on the road with [Jason Silverman is the Ellison Capers Cooke made and invented all the ef- his professional magic and spiritual- Palmer, Jr. Professor of History Emeritus fects used in his very popular mag- ism debunking show. On May 1, 1924, at Winthrop University.] ic act. Besides perfecting his magic at the age of eighty, Harry Cooke du- skills, Cooke, like many people in the plicated his feat of escaping from fif-

LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1921 27 ACPL.INFO LINCOLNCOLLECTION.ORG FRIENDSOFTHELINCOLNCOLLECTION.ORG