My apologies to my regular (and new) readers for the lack of postings this past month. Job, home, and some other issues have been working against me in recent weeks and I've simply not been up to the task of putting out new stories about Mr. Lincoln.
This is about to change. I have some news about the trip I took this past weekend to southern Indiana for my first visit ever to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Lincoln State Park, and a highly interesting archaeological dig at a home associated with Lincoln. I also will be sharing a personal story about my being quoted in a Civil War magazine in an article about Lincoln.
Thanks for your continued support and patience during this extended absence. I'm gratified by the hundreds of hits I receive on the blog every day.
Hi, I just discovered your blog, and will start reading. We are doing our own project of building a facsimile of Lincoln's birthplace cabin. I just put an article up concerning this on my own blog: http://justjera.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteI am also studying a lady I met when I was 8. She was born in 1858 into slavery. I noticed you put something about emancipation on twitter. I discovered that in KY the emancipation proclamation wasn't ratified until approximately 100 years later, sadly.
It's nice to see you back! I think we've all been jonesing for a Lincoln related update :D! Of course sometimes it's not always possible, it's understandable :)
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh....those trips sound so exciting! I was born in AZ but now live in Australia. I never got to see any museums or related monuments/statues dedicated to Lincoln, so I live vicariously through you. LOL.
Welcome back!
I look forward to your next posts.
ReplyDeleteVery nice blog, very well done.
ReplyDeleteI don't hold myself out as any kind of expert at all - but I have been reading on google books -- old books from 1840-1870. You can get the entire books online free.
What is lacking is a clear knowledge of what Lincoln was up against.
Did you know for example -- that the South claimed they had warned the North all through the campaign (they called it "canvass") of 1860,that if the North elected Lincoln, they would take it as "an act of war."
This comes from a book called "Southern history of the great civil war in the United States" By Edward Alfred Pollard page 37.
Its almost impossible to imagine now the huge hatred and fear in the South before Lincoln's election.
In fact, read the Declaration of Causes from Florida, in 1861. They said Lincoln - -just by stopping the SRPEAD of slavery - was like burning them to death slowly.
Others said they would have to KILL their slaves if Lincoln tried to make them free them.
We seem to be taught a sanitized, romanticized picture of the South leading up to the War.
Did you know that Lincoln and the GOP were not even allowed on the ballot in the deep south? There was no election in the deep south.
I took a lot of history courses in college -- and read a lot of Lincoln and Civil War stuff.
But I had no idea how violent and hateful the South was before the Civil War ever started.
Its almost like reading Nazi propaganda about Jews when you read Southern histories at the time.
The more you read this stuff - the more I wonder - -why isnt this stuff taught? Its pretty much hidden.
This is what Lincoln faced - daily. Hourly. It was his reality.
You can't understand Lincoln if you don't know what he faced.
For example -- even in the NORTH, there were Congressmen saying that people who insisted slavery had to end for the war to end - should be EXECUTED. That's right - executed.
But I've never seen it reported that NORTHERN congressmen were calling for the literal execution of those who demanded slavery end before the war ends.
Have you?
By the way - I got that quote from a book "The record of Hon. C. L. Vallandigham on abolition, the Union, and the Civil War" By Clement Laird Vallandigham, page 137.
There is much to learn from the SOUTH's own books, or people who were sympathetic to the Confederacy.
Read the Southern books, their own Declarations of Causes, their own speeches, and you will understand Lincoln much better.
You do a wonderful job on your web site. But I'd sure like to see some harder hitting stuff - some stuff which shows what Lincoln was really facing.
Lincoln knew all about the threats - he knew what the Congressmen were saying - he knew the arguments from the South.
Hi Douglas,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughtful comment on Lincoln and the hate he faced from not just the South, but from many factions in the North.
One of the lingering myths that most of the public holds is that Lincoln was universally loved during his lifetime, at least by the people in the North. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Abolitionists didn't like him because he didn't move towards abolishing slavery quickly enough. The Democrats in the North obviously didn't like him. The intelligentsia didn't like him because of his lack of education and "manners."
In fact, I recently reviewed the book "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" by Larry Tagg, a marvelous and insightful work about just how hated Lincoln was in his lifetime. It's available at Borders books if you're interested. It's one of the best books on Lincoln I've ever read.
Indeed, it wasn't really until Lincoln's assassination that he became to be seen in a near-universal positive light. Even the South began to realize that he would've been their best friend after the Civil War was over.
The congressman you mention, Clement Vallandigham, was from Ohio. He was a major thorn in Lincoln's side, and Lincoln ended up "deporting" him to the South. Vallandigham was from a town just about 40 miles from where I live and you can see his house to this day.
Thanks for your comment and for reading The Abraham Lincoln Blog.
I will try to get that book from a library - the Unpopular Mr Lincoln.
ReplyDeleteI think Lincoln's assination allowed the 13th to pass in the states. As you know, he personally got the 13th passed in the House where it was stuck.
I often wonder if the 13th would have passed if Linclon had not been killed and created huge sympathy for his cause. I never saw that adressed by the experts.
That Vallandigham was quite a guy. I read a speech of his today -- he said "the secret but real purpose of the war is to abolish slavery in the States"
ReplyDeleteThis was an indictment --he was trying to insult Lincoln about the Emanicpation Proclamation.
Davis said the same thing - at the same time -- that EP proved Lincoln was really out to free the slaves. For them, Lincoln was lying about caring about Union- he only cared about freeing the slaves.
It's ironic that nowadays, the Confederate apologists say just the opposite - Lincoln only cared about Union, not the slaves.
And of course - if you don't know that NORTHERN Congressmen were calling for the EXECUTION of people insisting slavery had to end, then you won't undertand Lincoln's talk about UNION being what he cared about.
But my question was really - why don't we see accounts of the South as it really was. The hate, the violence, the threats, the insistance that Almighty God ordained white men to enslave blacks?
Even Davis spoke repeatedly about "extermination" of slaves if they were freed. He used the word twice in one speech. The EP was going to cause slaves to try to kill the masters -- and the masters were going to have to exterminate the slaves as a result.
Davis said that Lincoln issuing the EP was the "most execrable (vile) measure in recorded history."
Yeah - slave rape, selling children, burning to death slaves that rebelled -- that was all fine. That was the will of God.
But issuing a document in wartime to codfy freedom for slaves -- that was the WORST thing ever to happen in history!!
The man was a sociopath.
Other Southern leaders said they would have to exterminate their slaves --with their own hands -- if anyone freed them.
Can you imagine a high school text book talking about Confederate threats to exterminate slaves?
There should be politically incorrect -- but true-- histories of the Confederacy. Six generations of white washing the Confederacy is enough.
Sir I have just discovered this insightful blog and am really impressed with what you've achieved here.
ReplyDeleteI am a Brit but when I think of Politicians that I respect I gotta say it would a tough choice for me between Lincoln and Churchill. Lincoln's life story and his rise to the top is an inspiration in itself.
It would be interesting to discuss or Analiese what Lincoln what have made of today's GOP