The Lincoln Mystique

In Honor of his 200th Birthday

---By Kathy A. Barney

Seven score and four years ago our nation lost its most gifted and intriguing President when a bullet slammed into Abraham Lincoln’s brain by an assassin at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. that fateful evening of April 14th, 1865. The "Great Emancipator" was dead the following day.

We all know that story. We know of the "Emancipation Proclamation," an historic and bold order that became a platform to ultimately abolish slavery.  This order prevented slavery from spreading. Lincoln’s achievements are both extraordinary and courageous. His tenacity, conviction, and focus put an end to slavery, paved the way for women to begin suffrage, ended a war that divided the country, and made the nation whole again. When all is said and done, Lincoln was a fearless maverick, and simply put, fascinating.

Why do we still revere our 16th President Abraham Lincoln? What spell did he cast upon our nation that made him so loved and admired, yet vilified and hated enough to spur many assassination plots and, ultimately, the boldness of John Wilkes Booth? It all lies in the mystique of Lincoln himself---a reticent, complicated, compassionate, moody genius; a charismatic, funny story and joke teller; the gangly, disheveled appearance; the prosperous lawyer with an almost pathological need to right injustice; the endorser, as early as 1836, of "female suffrage"; "the Great Emancipator" who ultimately abolished slavery; the impeccable timing, stubbornness, universal appeal, compassion, and fascinating life. In short, we forgive his mistakes and the sheer "humanness" of this former "log splitter" and Post Master.

Self-taught, dirt poor farm boy becomes a lucrative and savvy attorney and President of the United States is a story as heady as any Shakespeare play. This universal appeal adds to his greatness and the Lincoln mystique and garners reasons why, after 200 years of his birth, February 12, 1809, we still celebrate and regard him as the most important president in our nation.

One of many reasons why we are celebrating his birthday all over the country in 2009, is that Lincoln, besides George Washington, is the most famous and recognizable of all of our presidents in our short history. We see Lincoln’s likeness almost everyday—on a one cent coin and on the five-dollar bill.  Noted here as well, another genius was born that same day and year as well -- Charles Darwin, the "Father of Evolution." The stars must have been favorably aligned in the skies on that date to produce two men of extraordinary genius who changed forever the course of the world and brought it into modernity.

All over the United States this year events are being held in "Old Abe’s" honor. The town of Elizabethtown in Hardin County, Kentucky, Lincoln’s birthplace (the first president we elected to be born outside the colonies), is in the midst of a two-year celebration. Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln’s last home before the White House, is holding special tours of Lincoln’s tomb as well as a myriad of other Lincoln-related events. The Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is asking people all over the country to send in birthday cards, preferably hand-made ones. Republican dinners are being held in his honor across the country all year; one in Mason, Ohio, which the Color Guard of the Ohio Valley Civil War Association recently participated. A movie by Steven Spielberg of Lincoln’s life has reportedly been completed. PBS ran an excellent special based upon a book by Henry Louis Gates, Finding Lincoln. Barack Obama used the "Lincoln Bible" to be sworn in as the nation’s 44th President in 2009. Just as recently as March 11, 2009, Lincoln’s watch was found to have a secret message inscribed inside it by watchmaker Jonathan Dillon, which marked the start of the Civil War when rebels fired upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina April 12, 1861. Written in cursive, the message reads in part: "Fort Sumpter [sic] was attacked by the rebels .... thank God we have a government ...." Lincoln was elected in November of 1860. Civil war was imminent when South Carolina and six other states seceded from the Union before his inauguration in March 1861.

We all learned "The Gettysburg Address" in school. "Four Score and Seven years ago ..." (Hence, the attribute above.). This short speech of two minutes and 39 seconds barely registered in the minds of journalists and the public at the time, but was quickly regulated and admired and it is now considered one of Lincoln’s best writings. It sums up his entire view of the world, war, and his reasons at that time. When the designated memorial battlefield dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania happened they invited Lincoln because he was commander in chief but restricted his time because they knew of his humor but not yet of his eloquence as a speaker. One of the country’s most famous orators, Edward Everette, was asked to speak and he spoke for over two hours. Later he duly noted Lincoln said more in his short time than he did in two hours.

Lincoln abhorred slavery and sought to stem the tide and to stop secession and so the Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect. But if it was war that would end slavery and keep the Union intact, war it was. The southern states seceded because they knew that Lincoln was an abolitionist. He wasn’t one of the abolitionists who didn’t care if the south seceded. Lincoln in contrast cared about the union first and then the abolition of slavery. "A nation divided cannot stand ..."

Lincoln was a Man of "Firsts" and Ideas Way Ahead of His Time

• To date, he is the only U.S. President to hold a patent. It was an invention that buoyed boats so they could get off of or float over shoals.
  

• He was the first president whose likeness appeared on a coin—the one-cent piece first minted in 1909. As we all know he also appears on a five-dollar bill.
  

• At six feet four inches he was the tallest President.
  

• He was the most photographed president of his time. Photography was a relatively new invention, and all the rage, so Lincoln used it to his greatest advantage. Lincoln knew the value of photography as a publicity tool. People could see what he actually looked like and he could show off his strong family values. There are literally hundreds of photographs of Lincoln. He was also the first president to have his face and hands cast. Yet, as one of many ironies that afflicted Lincoln, he and wife Mary Todd were never in a picture together.  They   always  posed  separately.   Any  pictures  seen  with  them  together are doctored. However, another first for a president, he posed with a family member (other than a wife), with his favorite son Tad. He did this not only because he loved him, but he used this medium cunningly to garner more appeal to the masses. Loving father and son are engaged in an intimate activity - reading. Tad and he are in the act of sharing a book. Such an appealing photograph became a sensation among the ladies (who could influence their husbands to vote for him), and this positive response among so many people was so strong that they assumed it could only be a Bible he and pre-teen Tad were reading. In reality, it was a simple photo album over which they were pouring. He was lenient and affectionate to a fault toward his sons whom he spoiled. Scholars and writers come short as to call his four sons "brats," instead  using "mischievous" or "troublemakers" as descriptions for his unruly brood. Lincoln did not discipline them because he abhorred and despised the way his father, Thomas, had treated him as a boy. Although it is recorded that he gave his father and stepmother, Sarah (whom he adored), money in hard times, these bad feelings against his father ran so deep Lincoln did not even attend his father’s funeral.
  

• Lincoln was the first president to sport a beard while in office. We all mostly recognize and identify Lincoln’s face with its hirsute look despite the fact he was beardless all his life until 1860. (As a side note, until 2004 the only statue ever known to exist of Lincoln beardless is in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio). It is widely accepted that he grew a beard at the suggestion of 11-year old Grace Bedell because she wrote imploring him to grow a beard. ".... I have four brothers and part of them will vote for you; you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin." He promptly wrote her a tender letter telling her he 'might' do it. A month later, however, his unshaven face began to appear in publicity pictures.
  

• Lincoln was also a "clutter bug." As a practicing lawyer he so frustrated his law partner William Herndon, that Lincoln kept on his desk one envelope marked "When you can't find it anywhere else, look into this."
  

• He probably never knew that his eldest son, Robert Todd, who lived to be in his 80's, was saved from certain death by the hands of John Wilkes Booth’s  brother, Edwin, when he pulled Robert to safety after he fell in front of a train in New York City. Robert was a noted attorney and married after his father’s assassination. This union produced grandchildren and great grandchildren, but there is no living descendant of Lincoln today.
  

• While there is no disputing his reverence for God, Lincoln never attended church, nor was he a member of any religious group. "In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible" (September 7, 1864), p. 542.
  

His Early Life

His experiences with death came early. At age nine, after the family had removed to Indiana from Kentucky, Abraham lost his mother, Nancy Hanks, to "milk sickness". Milk sickness comes from a cow that has eaten a weed that is poisonous to humans. When a person drank this tainted milk, it killed them. A year later, after this terrible loss, Thomas left young Abe in the care of his older sister, Sarah, age 12, to go back to Kentucky to claim a new bride, Sarah Bush Johnston. Sarah was a widow by then and brought along with her three children. Sarah and Thomas were not strangers---Thomas had courted her before he married Nancy. They married and set up housekeeping.

Lincoln was an attorney for over 25 years and his eloquence as a writer and charisma as a speaker are legendary. As a young attorney his caseload almost always was doubled or more than that of his partners. He proved a young man, Mr. Duff, a family friend, innocent of murder by refuting a witnesses’ testimony. The witness claimed he saw the murderer’s face in the "full moonlight" while Lincoln consulted the almanac to find on the night the murder occurred; there was no full moon. The alleged "murderer" was unanimously acquitted.

His Love Life

As a young lad and adult, always seen with a book in his hand when he wasn’t doing his chores, Lincoln enjoyed the company of men more than that of women, because he felt awkward and shy around them. That changed in his 20’s. In later years his law partner, William Herndon, wrote "Mr. Lincoln .... had a passion for women, and could hardly keep his hands off a woman" yet he lived a "virtuous life." His honor, wrote Herndon, "saved many a woman’s life."

He suffered greatly the death of his first love, 22-year old Ann Rutledge. "My heart lies buried there," he said of Ann’s grave. After Ann, Abraham courted Mary Owens, 29, who rejected him. Mary Owens said of Abraham, that for her, "Mr. Lincoln was deficient in those little links which make up the chain of a woman’s happiness ...." After this rejection, Lincoln wrote, "I have come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason; I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me." Then he met Mary Todd, an heiress, who lived in Springfield, Illinois. This love story became legendary. Thus, that he found kinship and love with Mary Todd must have seemed nothing short of a miracle to him. Mary Todd saw a man of potential and said he appealed to her mind. She was a strong-minded woman, (blockhead enough?) and she and Abraham had many a lover’s quarrel. Yet Mary loved him, even if her family did not at first care for her choice. Why as an heiress, a social butterfly with a beautiful face, who had her choice of any number of "suitable" men, choose a lanky, self educated farm boy? This union produced four sons and terrible pain. Lincoln didn’t live long enough to see son Tad die at 18, but he saw Willie die in the White House and Eddie when they were living in Springfield.

Attorney, Congressman, Senator, President, and

Commander in Chief of a War that Tore the Nation Apart

Perhaps it was the great things he did as well as the small things. No other president was faced with such drama as a Civil War, the most important world-changing event in our history since the American Revolution. As mentioned above Lincoln’s life was filled with unusual and often cruel ironies. The cruelest of all is that he never lived to see his most earthshaking law, the complete abolishment of slavery. He didn’t live to see the 13th Amendment ratified, nor did he live to see the end of the Civil War that he helped stop by putting into force the "Emancipation Proclamation" orders, and choosing Sherman and Grant to be his Generals to bring it to an end. The Civil War was ultimately a fight over slavery and Lincoln strongly believed in the Constitution that "All men are created equal."

"The Gettysburg Address" that Lincoln spoke during the dedication of that famous battlefield lasted only a few brief minutes, and was largely ignored by the press, but was soon hailed as genius--a deeply powerful, but simple summation of a great man’s ideals that worked.

His popularity in his second term as president soared, despite the South’s hatred of him. Many victories were won by then. He was shrewd in war tactics. At the advice of his cabinet he waited to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation after a sure-fire victory at Antietam. To deliver during the time Lincoln originally wanted to would be considered "a shriek from the government" for help, since the war at that time was going badly for the Union.

His Convictions Have Worldwide Influence

Lincoln stopped the Civil War, proposed the 13th amendment, ended slavery, and mended the broken States are his greatest legacies, but these victories came, not by chance, but by careful thought, prodding, and planning. The shot by Booth, who obviously thought he was helping the South, ended any peaceable ways to end the war.

Lincoln was great because of how he handled the war crisis which some believe to be the final battle of the Revolutionary War, the fruition of the promises of the Declaration of Independence: "That all men are created equal ...." These actions forever changed the course of not just the United States but the world as well.

Thus, the Lincoln Mystique can be whatever one wants it to be. There is no more slavery in the United States. And there are small everyday constant reminders of Lincoln. No doubt, you have a five-dollar bill or a penny in your pocket right now.

Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln. You were strength when our nation needed it most.

Kathy A. Barney is a freelance writer and contributes her work to magazines and other periodicals. She regularly writes for Over the Back Fence and several other publications. Kathy currently resides in Centerville, Ohio.

-Contact Kathy:   kbarney1157@gmail.com 

"The Lincoln Mystique- In Honor of his 200th Birthday" Copyright by Kathy A. Barney, 2009. (Written and submitted in April, 2009)

Sources: Lincoln, A Picture Story of His Life, by Stefan Lorant, 1969.

PBS special based upon a book by Henry Louis Gates, Finding Lincoln.

Photos of Abraham Lincoln are from the Library of Congress (Public Domain)

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May, 2009- "The Single Most Destructive Shot of the Civil War" by Kevin Richard