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Summer, 1994
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association

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Lincolniana in 1993

FRANK J. WILLIAMS


   

A Second Shot or a Mulligan?

 
Another year of Lincoln activities and publications has drawn to a close. But what is there to make of this year? To some, it will be remembered as the year in which the "memoirs" of Mariah Vance, servant to the Lincolns in Springfield, were almost purchased by a publisher as the "insider's" story. The first-ever teachers' institute on approaching Lincoln in the classroom was held at Louisiana State University-Shreveport, and the largest exhibition of manuscripts and items relating to Abraham Lincoln began at the Huntington Library in October. 1
      To others, the year represented tragedy with the continued attacks against Lincoln biographer Stephen B. Oates by the American Historical Association and others not content with a prior AHA decision, the lessening of the jovial cordiality between Lincoln students and scholars, and increased mayhem in Lincoln collecting, with prices far outpacing the ability of most to purchase, thus driving further the wedge between collectors and scholars. It was the year of thirty-nine books published or reprinted on Lincoln. It was also the year when Lincoln continued to be used and abused, with one supermarket tabloid reporting that he was resurrected for ninety-five seconds. 2
      To steal from Dickens, it was a year so unlike every other as to be almost the same as every other. As we approach a new Lincoln year, many of us long for a mulligan—a second shot, a chance to do it all over again, a bonus time to avoid looking at what has gone before and to look forward to a revival of the convivial spirit among Lincoln students, a friendly competition among Lincoln collectors, a closer collaboration between Lincoln collectors and Lincoln scholars, and the hope that all the pent-up energy heretofore used in a demeaning way be rechanneled to the more positive endeavors of research and publication. 3
      The nit-picking and attempts to create scandal where none exists can wait. This is the time to enjoy all of the positive things that have been done and to look forward to new works on Lincoln. [End Page 45] 4
   

The Spoken Word: Lincoln Group Activities

 
William D. Pederson spoke on "The Character of Franklin and Lincoln" for the Tarshar Society in Shreveport on January 22. The society is patterned after Benjamin Franklin's Junto, whose members gathered on convivial occasions to discuss the affairs of the day. 5
      Gabor S. Boritt delivered "Black, White and Lincoln: British Caricatures" for the second meeting of the fifty-fourth season of the Lincoln Group of Boston on February 6. At the April 10 meeting, Terry Alford presented "John Wilkes Booth and George A. Townsend: A Marriage Made in Hell," and Michael Burlingame presented "A New Look at the Lyceum Speech." Thomas R. Turner analyzed the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations on October 16. 6
      "'And the War Came': Lincoln and the Question of Individual Responsibility" was the topic of Gabor S. Boritt's paper presented at the February 9 meeting of the Lincoln Group of New York. On April 13, the group heard Charles B. Strozier's "Lincoln and the Apocalyptic at Mid-Century." 7
      The Lincoln Club of Delaware heard Calvin Skaggs, producer and director of "Lincoln and the War Within," at its annual Lincoln Dinner on February 11. 8
      On February 9, I spoke on "Collecting Lincolniana" before the Rhode Island Civil War Round Table. Michael Burlingame presented "The Lincoln Marriage" on September 16, and at the annual dinner meeting on November 9, Richard N. Current delivered "Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy." 9
      The Associates of Saint Louis Libraries heard Mark E. Neely, Jr., recipient of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for history, discuss "Abraham Lincoln as a Literary Figure" on February 11. 10
      Ralph Geoffrey Newman reviewed his "Sixty Years on the Lincoln Trail" before the New Salem Lincoln League on February 13. 11
      On January 19, Philip B. Kunhardt III, coproducer of the ABC-TV production "Lincoln" and coauthor of the accompanying book, Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography, addressed the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. On February 12, the group heard Kentucky attorney Kent Masterson Brown's "Lincoln as a Lawyer," following a selection of Civil War-era music by folksinger Joe Hickerson. L. Terry Oggel spoke on "The 'Other' Booth: Edwin Booth and the Making of Myth" on April 20. 12
      The Lincoln Memorial Association of the Lincoln Shrine in Redlands, California, heard James M. McPherson at its sixty-first annual Watchorn Lincoln Dinner on April 18. In "Who Freed the Slaves? Lincoln and Emancipation," McPherson gave due credit to the pro- [End Page 46] ponents of "self-emancipation"; he pointed out that there would have been no freedom without the war and victory. McPherson spoke before the Union League Club of Chicago and Civil War Round Table on September 24. The speech has been published by the Lincoln Memorial Shrine. 13
      The twentieth annual Abraham Lincoln Symposium was held on February 12 in the Old State Capitol, Springfield, opened by its protector, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, for only one day while undergoing extensive environmental repairs. "Abraham Lincoln and the Whig Party" included papers by Daniel Walker Howe ("Why Abraham Lincoln Was a Whig"), Major L. Wilson ("Lincoln on the Perpetuation of Republican Institutions: Whig and Republican Strategies"), and Drew R. McCoy ("Lincoln and the Founding Fathers: A Reconsideration"). Comments were by John Niven. The traditional banquet was held that evening, with an address by Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. In an interview with Doug Pokorski of the State Journal-Register (Springfield) that appeared on February 13, Wills observed, "Many people believe Lincoln was a good man despite the fact that he was a politician. Actually, he was a great man because he was a politician. He accomplished a lot that way." According to Wills, leaders in a democracy must be effective politicians, and Lincoln put a lot of effort into being effective. 14
      Brooks Davis delivered "Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln as Commanders-in-Chief" to the Civil War Round Table (Chicago) on January 8 and to the St. Louis Civil War Round Table on January 26. 15
      The North Louisiana Civil War Round Table heard William D. Pederson's "Abraham Lincoln and Leadership" at its February 16 meeting. 16
      The Lincoln Group of Florida heard William Hanchett's "The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Lincoln's Assassination as a Confederate Conspiracy" on February 27. He was preceded by the third annual Basler Memorial Lincoln Symposium, with speakers Margaret Bearden and David Long. Hanchett also presented "John Wilkes Booth and the Terrible Truth about the Civil War" at the fifty-third annual meeting of the Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin on April 18. 17
      The sixth annual Harman Memorial Lincoln Lecture was held on March 11 at Washburn University, along with the monthly meeting of the Lincoln Club of Topeka. Peter Knupfer presented "Lincoln and the Old Fogies—The Struggle over Henry Clay's Legacy," which explored how Lincoln adopted parts of Clay's political philosophy to forge his own political development. Members of the Lincoln [End Page 47] Club of Topeka heard Robert Payne's "Abraham Lincoln and the Russians" on September 9. 18
      The Stephen A. Douglas Association commemorated the 180th anniversary of Douglas's birth on April 23 at the Harold Washington Library, Chicago. A dramatic performance of "Lincoln and Douglas in Chicago" was followed by an address by Harold Holzer, "The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: What They Really Said." 19
      Thomas F. Schwartz presented the second Thomas J. Dyba Annual Lecture, "A Curator's Perspective on Collecting," at the annual meeting of the Lincoln Group of Illinois on June 12. Jack Smith offered remarks on collecting, with examples from his collection of Lincoln images. 20
      Senator Paul Simon spoke to the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia on May 18 about "Elijah Lovejoy and Abraham Lincoln." On August 20, the group commemorated the centennial of the Lincoln statue in the Old Calton Burial Ground in Edinburgh. Ferenc Szasz spoke on "The Scotts and Abraham Lincoln" at lunch, and Lloyd Longford spoke at the rededication of the Lincoln statue. Harold Holzer discussed his Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First, Complete Unexpurgated Text on September 21. 21
      The second annual Frank L. Klement Lecture was held at Marquette University on October 11; Richard N. Current delivered "What Is an American? Abraham Lincoln and Multiculturalism." Marquette University Press has published the lecture. 22
      To commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the march on Washington held at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, Scott A. Sandage presented a slide lecture on the significance of the monument in the civil rights movement at the National Archives on August 28. 23
      The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania heard John Sellers's "Dear Therena: Letters from the Lincoln White House" on November 19. 24
      The speaker at the Gettysburg Soldiers' National Cemetery was Shelby Foote, who reminded the crowd that Lincoln spoke there of reconciliation as well as sustaining the Union: "Lincoln did not come here or exercise his craft to cast aspersions on those who are doing their best to tear the fabric of the Union, even as he spoke.... He did not think they were wicked. He simply thought they were wrong." 25
   

The Lincoln Legal Papers Project

 
Herbert Mitgang, cultural correspondent for the New York Times, wrote on February 15, "Documents Search Shows Lincoln the Rail- [End Page 48] splitter as a Polished Lawyer." The article indicates that far from being the country boy who wove homespun tails before juries, Lincoln was an extremely sophisticated lawyer with a significant appellant practice and so respected by judges that he was asked from time to time to sit as a judge. Cullom Davis, director of the Lincoln Legal Papers Project, was quoted as saying, "His peers considered him a lawyer's lawyer." The search throughout seventy-one Illinois county courthouses indicates that Lincoln's law practice was larger and more active than anyone had previously estimated. As historian Robert V. Bruce said, "He could split hairs as well as rails." One of the finds in the search for pleadings was an answer Lincoln erroneously filed as "Lincoln and Lincoln" in the matter of Robert B. Courtney, et al. v. Nelson Madison. There never was a firm, partnership, or relationship called "Lincoln and Lincoln." Lincoln may have accidentally substituted his own name for that of Ward Hill Lamon in one of their joint cases in Vermilion County, where the matter was heard. The January–March Lincoln Legal Briefs points out that there is no record of a lawyer named Lincoln practicing in the county. 26
      The project has issued a new descriptive brochure, "The Lincoln Legal Papers: A Documentary History of the Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln, 1836–1861," which features the "tombstone" advertisements of the three Lincoln partnerships: J. T. Stewart and A. Lincoln, Logan and Lincoln, and Lincoln and Herndon. 27
      At the Lincoln Legal Papers Advisory Board meeting on February 12, Richard E. Hart, chair of the fundraising committee of the Abraham Lincoln Association for the project, indicated that the project's budget was now $244,000, with 8 percent provided by the fundraising efforts of the association, 21 percent from corporate or foundation grants, 18 percent from federal grants, and 53 percent from the state of Illinois. During 1992, the association raised $20,976.30. 28
      In May, the James S. Copley Foundation awarded a grant of $16,140 to assist in the search for evidence of Lincoln's law practice in Sangamon, Logan, and Montgomery counties. A revised timetable for the book edition publication was also announced in May. The first and second volumes are scheduled for 1998, and volumes three to five are anticipated by 2002. 29
      Davis described "The Lincoln Legal Papers" in the May OAH Newsletter and presented "A Tarnished Lawyer Is a Homeless Man" at the annual convention of the American Inns of Court held in June. 30
      The April–June Lincoln Legal Briefs reported the staff's discovery of forty-nine legal documents from 1842 to 1855 in Lincoln's handwriting in the Tazewell Circuit Court. In October, Davis reported [End Page 49] that the project was on schedule, having completed searches in fifty counties and reaching a document tally of 75,000, with Lincoln's caseload reaching 5,300. 31
      Cameron McWhirter of the Chicago Tribune profiled the project on September 19 in his widely syndicated "Honest Abe: Unique project lifts veil on early life of Lincoln, tackles cherished myths." Doug Pokorski's profile of Lincoln Legals researcher Michael Duncan, "An Eye For Abe's Hand," appeared in the July 6 State Journal-Register (Springfield). 32
   

Conferences

 
William D. Pederson conducted "Abraham Lincoln and Leadership: A Comparative and Historical Perspective, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for Teachers" from June 8 to July 2 at Louisiana State University-Shreveport. The institute, the first-ever such event, was cosponsored by the university and the Abraham Lincoln Association. During the four-week meeting, twenty-five secondary school teachers explored the sixteenth president's leadership style and contemporary relevance. Lecturers included Pederson, David Long, Jody Potts, Marguerite R. Plummer, Brenda J. Cox, and myself. 33
      The Lincoln Family Symposium, "From Log Cabin to Hildene," was held in Manchester, Vermont. Speakers for the July 29–31 event included Harold Holzer ("The Lincoln Family Album" and "The Image of the Lincoln Family"), James T. Hickey ("Photographic Memories of the Lincolns"), John S. Goff ("The Boyhood of Robert Todd Lincoln" and "The Pullman Company"), Thomas F. Schwartz ("Robert Todd Lincoln's Life at Exeter and Harvard"), Douglas Wilson ("The Herndon Papers"), Thomas D. Visser ("The Architecture of Hildene"), and my "Robert Todd Lincoln and John Hay, Fellow Travelers." A panel discussion moderated by Albert C. Jerman, Hildene historian, capped the conference. 34
      The eighth annual Lincoln Colloquium of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, directed by George Painter, was held at Sangamon State University on October 23 with the theme "Abraham Lincoln in the American Mind." Harold Holzer and Mark E. Neely, Jr., discussed Civil War art and their new book Mines Eyes Have Seen the Glory; Richard W. Sellars analyzed "Remembering Abraham Lincoln: History and Myth at Historic Sites"; Douglas L. Wilson discussed "William H. Herndon and the 'Necessary Trust'"; William Hanchett spoke on "When the Bells Tolled: The Misunderstood [End Page 50] Aftermath of Lincoln's Assassination"; and I presented, with slides, "The Crisis in Lincoln Collecting: Mayhem and Beyond." 35
      As part of the Smithsonian Institution lecture series "The Civil War and Washington," Bob Bridges offered "Abraham Lincoln's Washington" on May 5. 36
      The theme of the June 27-July 3 Gettysburg Civil War Institute was "Lincoln and His Lieutenants: Command Relations." Included were papers by Tom Wicker ("Thinking of Manassas"), Stephen Sears ("Lincoln, McClellan and the Goals of the War: Command Relations"), Harold Holzer and Mark E. Neely, Jr. ("Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: The Civil War in Art"), Mark E. Neely, Jr. ("Lincoln, Hooker, Halleck, and Defeat"), Gabor S. Boritt ("Meade and Gettysburg"), Michael Fellman ("Lincoln and Sherman"), and John Y. Simon ("Lincoln, Grant, and Victory"). Boritt presented the tribute "Remembering a Friend: Michael Shaara." 37
      The Huntington Library and Museum sponsored "'The Last Best Hope of Earth': Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America" on October 16–17, with papers by Jean Baker ("Lincoln's Narrative of American Exceptionalism"), William Gienapp ("The Presidential Leadership of Lincoln"), Mark E. Neely, Jr. ("Lincoln, War and the Two Party System"), Phillip S. Paludan ("Emancipating the Republic: Lincoln and the Means and Ends of Antislavery"), Merrill Peterson ("The International Lincoln"), Kenneth Stampp ("Lincoln's History"), Harold Holzer ("Avoid Saying Foolish Things: The Legacy of Lincoln's Impromptu Oratory"), and my "Abraham Lincoln: Our Ever-Present Contemporary." Richard N. Current delivered the keynote, "Abraham Lincoln and 'Multiculturalism.'" 38
      The Lincoln and Gettysburg Symposium commemorating the 130th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address was held in Gettysburg on November 19–20, with Jerry L. Russell as chair. Speakers were Ralph G. Newman ("Thoughts on Mr. Lincoln"), Harold Holzer ("Hope to the World: Lincoln on Democracy"), Allen Guelzo ("Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence"), Brooks D. Simpson ("Lincoln Finds His General"), Archie McDonald ("'That Reminds Me of a Story': Lincoln and His Use of Humor and Anecdote"), Lloyd Ostendorf ("Lincoln's Gettysburg Address"), Terry Winschel ("The Meaning of the Gettysburg Address"), Gary Laderman ("Abraham Lincoln's Hallowed and Hallowed Body: Shaping the Symbolism of Death, National Collective Memory, and the Funeral Industry in Nineteenth-Century America"), David E. Long ("Wartime Democracy: The 1864 Presidential Election"), Michael Vorenberg ("Beyond the 'New Birth of Freedom': Lincoln's and the National Vision of the Future of African-Americans"), John Mason Glen ("Lincoln, the [End Page 51] Great Emancipator"), John Y. Simon ("Lincoln a Year after Gettysburg"), William C. Harris ("Lincoln on Amnesty and Reconstruction"), Thomas D. Matijasic ("Thomas Masaryk's Visit to Gettysburg"), Glen La Fantasie ("Lincoln and the Gettysburg Awakening"), and my "Abraham Lincoln: Our Ever-Present Contemporary." 39
      On August 27–28, the second annual Lincoln-Douglas Debates Celebration, "Practices of Democracy: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates in Perspective," was held in Ottawa, Illinois, with presentations by Kay Carr ("Reaching the People in Early Illinois: Railroads, the Telegraph, and Local Newspapers and the Transition to Modern Politics"), Phillip Paludan ("Lincoln's Prewar Constitutional Vision"), Harry V. Jaffa ("The Speech That Changed the World"), and David Zarefsky ("'Public Sentiment Is Everything': Lincoln's View of Political Persuasion"). Comments were by Michael Burlingame and Robert Bray. "An Evening with Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln" and debate reenactments were also presented. 40
      Michael Maione, site historian, directed the symposium "Ford's Theatre: A Stage in History" on September 13–15. Among the presenters were William Hanchett ("Myths of the Lincoln Assassination"), James Hall ("Who Was John Wilkes Booth and Why Did He Kill Mr. Lincoln?"), Michael Kauffman ("Eyewitness Accounts of April 14, 1865"), Harold Holzer ("Mr. Lincoln's Mail"), Gabor Boritt ("Black/White and Mr. Lincoln: British Cartoons of the American Civil War"), Michael Burlingame ("Mary Lincoln"), Clark Evans ("Mr. Lincoln and the Performing Arts"), Gayle Harris ("John Thompson Ford and His Theatre"), Gary Scott ("The U.S. Government, National Park Service and Ford's Theatre since 1865"), and I ("Mr. Lincoln and the Road to Mythdom"). There were also two panel discussions: "The Case for, the Case against, Dr. Samuel Mudd" by John McHale and Richard Sloan, and "The Case for and against Mary Surratt" by Joan Chaconas and Laurie Verge. 41
      The fourteenth annual Illinois History Symposium, held on December 3–4 in Springfield, included "Lincoln's Wartime Meetings with General Duff Green" by David Woodard, "The New York Herald and the Lincoln Message: Was the Source Mary Todd Lincoln?" by Robert L. Spellman, "Lawyer Lincoln as Judge on the Eighth Circuit" by Martha L. Benner, "Lincoln and Speed: Attorney and Client" by Susan Krause, and "How Good an Oral Historian Was Billy Herndon?" by Rodney O. Davis. [End Page 52] 42
   

Editorials

 
In the January–February Lincolnian, departing editor Paul H. Verduin bemoans the lack of a newsletter that would serve as a clearinghouse to announce Lincoln activities. 43
      David E. Rosenbaum's "Clinton's Bright Ideas Get to Meet the Ugly Facts" (New York Times, January 10) points out that although President-elect Clinton seemed to be backing off from a campaign pledge to cut the federal budget deficit in half during his first term, George Bush also broke a campaign promise, as had Lincoln. Bush promised not to raise taxes, and Lincoln promised not to abolish slavery. 44
      Edward Sorel's cover for the January 25 New Yorker depicts President Clinton delivering his Inaugural Address surrounded by all past presidents. Lincoln sits behind Clinton's right shoulder. 45
      Cartoonist Deering of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette portrays a compassionate Lincoln for the February 12 editorial page, with the first paragraph of Lincoln's House Divided speech in a sidebar. Editorials in the Gazette on the 184th anniversary of Lincoln's birth included Paul Greenberg's "Lincoln and the power of myth." He calls Lincoln a "moral realist" and the genesis for myth, "a truth greater than fact." Lincoln had faith and moral courage and so is summoned continuously as a myth. For example, when Fannie Burdock, a ninety-one-year-old former slave of Valdosta, Georgia, was interviewed by the Federal Writers Project, she recalled, "We been picking in the field when my brother he point to the road and then we see Marse Abe coming all dusty and on foot. We run right to the fence and had the oak bucket and the dipper. When he draw up to us, he so tall, black eyes so sad. Didn't say not one word, just looked hard at all us, ever one us crying. We give him nice cool water from the dipper. Then he nodded and set off and we just stood there till he get to being dust then nothing. After, didn't our owner or nobody credit it, but me and all my kin, we knowed, I still got the dipper to prove it." Of course, the event could not have happened in any world except that of spirit and symbol. Another Gazette editorial, "Lincoln's Birthday, 1993. He would be right at home," indicates that Lincoln always knew his country was changing and had to change. He would compromise anything but a principle, the editorial writer points out, and Lincoln's greatness lay in knowing what a principle was, in knowing what could and could not be compromised without losing all. There was a great contrast between Stephen A. Douglas and Lincoln. Douglas was one of the perennial champions of public life who can glide over every issue, whereas [End Page 53] Lincoln troubled his listeners more than he soothed them. The debate between the Little Giant and the Railsplitter did not end in 1858; it resumes at every "faithful juncture of modern history. Mr. Lincoln would understand our world; would we understand him?" The Gazette also reprinted the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's Second Inaugural. 46
      The annual Lincoln editorial from the State Journal-Register (Springfield), "Through words, Lincoln left unforgettable legacy," appeared on February 12 and reported that the record auction prices paid for an autograph quotation of the first paragraph of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and an early fragment of Lincoln's House Divided speech reinforced the importance of Lincoln's words in the nation's legacy. Lincoln's ability to put words to use in a "poignant and powerful way continues to fascinate, especially in a day when pictorial images often seem to supplant the written word." 47
      On Inauguration Day, January 20, the New York Times observed in "Mr. Clinton's Day, and America's" that columnist Russell Baker may have only been half jesting when he wrote the day before that Hillary Rodham Clinton had tried to persuade her husband to delete eleven thousand words from his text and admonished the president-elect that he might be better served by looking at the shorter inaugural addresses like Lincoln's "conciliatory second inaugural." 48
      William Safire's "On Language" article, "The Man in the Big White Jail" for the January 24 New York Times Magazine, cites Lincoln's first inaugural address, in which he told secessionists, "You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.'" Always one to try to count angels on the heads of pins, Safire argues that Lincoln was really stretching the point, as his "it" referred to the government although the oath's verbs referred to the Constitution, not necessarily the same thing. Safire believes that nowhere in the Constitution is there a prohibition of a state's power to secede, and he claims that Lincoln "creatively" used the oath of office as a method for making it impossible for the states to secede without war, thus placing the burden for the decision on the Confederacy. 49
      Bob Sampson's "Opinion" article in the February 11 Illinois Times warns against "puffing Lincoln to a higher station than other political figures." By doing so, we risk discounting the good he did, causing a loss of his reputation. Sampson points to a paper given at the December 1992 Illinois History Symposium attempting to place Lincoln in the mainstream of twentieth-century economic theory critical of capitalism. He correctly points out that Lincoln spent his entire political career opposing the methods of the theory's adherents. [End Page 54] Lincoln was a friend of capitalists, "not the son of God or a prophet of democracy but simply a politician who served his ambition, made his mistakes and, yes, sometimes achieved greatness." 50
      In "Connecticut Comment" in the Greenwich Times Ira Joe Fisher discusses how "in dead of winter, thoughts of Lincoln enliven imagination." Fisher remembers the month of February as a four-week "pageant" honoring Lincoln. He recalls his third-grade teacher and class as Mrs. Remington asked students to "carefully" cut out the silhouette of Lincoln. Fisher remembers being able to draw Lincoln before he could write his own name. George Washington's birthday was an anticlimax. Although Washington was a good man and a great general, Fisher's imagination remained with log cabins, a speech at Gettysburg, and the Emancipation Proclamation. 51
      "Don't feel bad, Mr. President, Lincoln had his problems, too" by Steven Stark appeared in the February 15 Boston Globe. With the bumps that President Clinton received during his first month in office, Stark, taking some liberties, indicates how the press might have covered Lincoln's presidency: "Washington, Oct. 23, 1862.—Abraham Lincoln continues to come under fire from friends and foes alike for his plan to free the slaves unilaterally by an executive order he would call 'the Emancipation Proclamation.' With the war going badly, critics are charging that Lincoln has been diverted from the issues that won him the presidency in order to focus attention on a cultural 'fringe cause.' 'Don't they remember the sign in campaign headquarters?' asked one Republican recently. 'It's preserving the union, Stupid.'" 52
      Cartoonist Don Wright of the Palm Beach Post depicted, on February 20, Lincoln standing by his desk and telling his handlers, "According to TV town meetings and radio talk shows, it's 1,736 for and 3,332 against, that settles it—we don't free the slaves!" 53
      On December 14, 1992, Wiley's non sequitur of the Washington Post Writers Group depicted a person making the traditional snowman while a child places the finishing touches on a full-scale Mount Rushmore in snow with the heads of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Jefferson, and Washington. 54
      According to B.C. for the New York Times in February, "Washington was a very great man. Lincoln was one, too! Put them together and you get a three day weekend." 55
      The February Harper's Magazine contained an extract of "President's Day: A Descent" by Roy Lincoln Karp, an editorial that appeared originally in the February 1992 Free Spirit, the student journal at LaGuardia High School in New York City, the editorial indicates that a tyrant would like the idea of President's Day, "As it is a step [End Page 55] towards the worship of all presidents—even those who do not deserve it." Based on the premise that all leaders should be praised simply because they are leaders, "It steals from the glory of the true heroes of this country, like Washington and Lincoln, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and redistributes it equally among all presidents, including the nearly impeached Richard M. Nixon." 56
      Cartoonist Marlette satirizes the failure of President Clinton's nominees to achieve higher office for not paying Social Security taxes in his syndicated June 21 cartoon that appeared in the Sun (Westerly, R.I.): a vacant chair in the Lincoln Memorial with the legend, "They found out he forgot to pay social security taxes on his housekeeper!" 57
      William D. Pederson's June 13 op-ed piece for the Shreveport Times pointed out that "Lincoln understood better than most the essentials of modern democratic leadership ... he maneuvered his vision through 'ideologues' on the left (abolitionists and radical republicans) and those 'on the right' who advocated neither moral nor objective equality." 58
      Richard Nilsen for the Arizona Republic on April 25 continued the thought that although Lincoln will always be known as the Great Emancipator, he in fact freed no slaves in the North and had no power to free slaves in the Confederacy. Nilsen points out: "It is Lincoln's intention and rhetoric of manumission that we recall. The practicality of action is less important." Joseph J. Semenza observes in a May 21 rebuttal letter that slaves were indeed freed as Union armies occupied Confederate territory and as slaves, upon hearing of the proclamation, freed themselves by walking into Union lines. Semenza correctly notes that Lincoln had certain constitutional limitations in freeing slaves. 59
      Gary Larson's The Far Side, syndicated on June 8, portrayed a tour guide speaking to tourists in front of a giant log home, "Of course, one of the more popular myths is that our sixteenth president was born in a little log cabin." 60
      In a discussion of the military's fear of the presence of gays in uniform, Robert Bly, in "What the Mayans Could Teach the Joint Chiefs" for the July 23 New York Times, describes that culture's four stages of man: boy, warrior, community man, and "echo" man. To Bly, the "echo" man "is not exactly man or woman but a person who hears ... is all ears, all grief, all intuition, all response to sound ... does not act but rather listens ... and tries to figure out to whom our debt for living is to be paid." Bly believes that Lincoln was a true "echo" man because in the Gettysburg Address he spoke [End Page 56] of our debt to the country's founders as well as to the living and the soldiers who had died in battle. 61
      In a letter to the Washington Post on June 22, Sandra L. Whittington questioned whether Lincoln was truly the Great Emancipator. She says that his purpose was to preserve the Union "with or without slavery." In a response that appeared in the Post on July 1, Simon Henshaw discussed Lincoln's life-long opposition to slavery and how he changed his government's policy to include African-American liberation. In the same issue, Stanley Kober cites Lincoln's Cooper Union speech as proof that Lincoln "was not willing to initiate war to exterminate slavery where it existed, but he was willing to accept war to prevent its spread." 62
      Rube's cartoon syndicated on November 3 has a line of "Lincolns" entering Ford's Theatre under a sign "Abraham Lincoln Look-Alike Contest Tonight," with John Wilkes Booth off to the side holding a pistol and scratching his head. The caption reads "John Wilkes Booth's plan hits an unexpected snag." 63
   

Arts

 
"Abraham Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom," produced by Bill Jersey and Judith Leonard and originally telecast on the Public Broadcasting System during December 1992, was shown in the Chicago area in January. The documentary features interviews with John Y. Simon, James M. McPherson, Harold Holzer, and Mario Cuomo. Mead Data Central, Inc., sponsored a benefit screening on April 29 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, with proceeds going to the Legal Clinic Programs at Georgetown University Law Center. 64
      James Earl Jones narrated Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, with Gerard Swartz conducting (Delos). Roscoe Lee Browne narrated the patriotic piece for the Boston Pops Orchestra, John Williams conducting, on January 18. The Juilliard Orchestra performed the piece with narration by David N. Dinkins at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, on February 12. K. Robert Schwarz believed that some of the innumerable versions of "Lincoln Portrait" have been "truly execrable," mentioning those by Margaret Thatcher and H. Norman Schwarzkopf as representative of the "height of perversity." To him, the recording by James Earl Jones in Portraits of Freedom gave the "old chestnut one more chance" because the actor was "equal to its musical merits" (New York Times, July 11). George J. Friedman, in an August 8 letter to the Times, reminded [End Page 57] the reviewer that earlier versions by Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, and Adlai Stevenson were also worthy. 65
      The Providence Journal-Bulletin reported on January 5 that "Emancipation Proclamation draws large crowds in D.C." Last displayed in 1979, the fragile document signed by Lincoln 130 years ago, was exhibited in the National Archives for only a few days at the end of 1992. Each day, about six thousand visitors passed by the proclamation. Joseph Fowlkes, president of the Providence chapter of the NAACP, said that the proclamation "was almost bogus, a lot of sound and fury, but there was no real enforcement power behind it," but Ted Wells, a lawyer who waited in line to view the document, argued that the proclamation "changed the whole fabric and tenor of the war ... [and] took the war to a whole new moral plane." 66
      Jay Wertz, director of the Smithsonian's Great Battles of the Civil War, a seven-videocassette presentation released by Master Vision, said "our hearts stopped" when he heard that a similar series, "The Civil War," would be released before his own. Thinking that the two projects would result in a "head-on confrontation," Wertz realized that the two programs complemented each other, "Burns is more the ambiance of the era. We're the nitty-gritty." Although Burns's series uses photographs, letters, and other recollections to create a haunting and grim evocation of the struggle, Wertz has produced a brisk description of the battles, complemented by maps, photographs, and readings by Charlton Heston as Lincoln and Richard Dreyfuss as Grant. 67
      PBS aired "Lincoln and the War Within," with Christ Carandon, Tom Aldridge, and Will Patton. It was produced by Calvin Skaggs. 68
      Lew Mallow (2814 Clark Place, Eau Claire, WI 54701) has prepared five one-hour slide programs with narration on cassette: "The Life of Abraham Lincoln"; "The Life of Mary Todd Lincoln"; "Gettysburg: The Battle and the Speech"; "Abraham Lincoln: A Contrast in Time"; and "The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Aftermath." 69
      Woodmere China (Box 5305, New Castle, PA 16105) offers the White House Dessert Collection, with twelve patterns that are reproductions of dinnerware designed for and used by U.S. presidents, including Lincoln, Grant, and Taylor. The National Archives (Trust Fund Board, Washington, DC 20408) is also offering dinnerware. 70
      The House of Tyrol is offering for sale a Lincoln ceramic relief beer stein and a porcelain plate. The Bradford Exchange also has available a porcelain plate of Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address. 71
      W. S. Gilman's "Chelsea Grist" describes "The Smiling Abe Lincoln" for the February Behind the Times (Bradford, Vt.). The paper [End Page 58] reproduced a copy of the original life portrait of Lincoln painted in autumn 1860 by Alban Jasper Conant, a native of Chelsea, Vermont, where the original hangs in the public library. 72
      Woodcuts by the late Charles Turzak, an early member of the Lincoln Group of Florida, were displayed at the Maitland Art Center (Florida) through April 18. The retrospective "Charles Turzak: Graphics" was described in the February 19 Orlando Sentinel. 73
      Dove Audio (301 N. Cannon Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210) has produced an abridged Lincoln at Gettysburg read by the author, Garry Wills, in four audiocassette tapes. 74
      An average audience of 11.4 million viewed the two-night documentary "Lincoln," which aired on ABC on December 26–27, 1992. 75
      The June 10 Blue and Gray describes the "Art of Alexander Lawrie," which hangs in McArthur Hall at the Indiana Veterans Home, West Lafayette. Included is a pre-presidential Lincoln. 76
      A Lincoln statuette created by Grossman Designs, Inc., and based on the Norman Rockwell painting of attorney Lincoln representing Duff Armstrong is available from Milton Seltzer (1263 Jonathan Ln., Wantagh, NY 11793). 77
      Theatreworks/USA Corp., in its fifth summer, presented a new musical, Young Abe Lincoln, at New York City's Promenade Theatre for a month beginning June 28. A national tour is planned for the United States. John Allen wrote the book and lyrics, and Jeffrey Lodin wrote the music. Ted Pappas directed. In the review for the July 7 New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder asked, "What's better than a lively musical with a love story?" His answer was "a lively musical with two love stories," and he praised the ill-fated romance between Lincoln and Ann Rutledge as "the deeper, more substantive love story ... of a young man impassioned by the tenets of the United States: exhilarated by the concepts of liberty and equality and exalted by the realization that such ideas, expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and books of law can be applied to the lives of ordinary people.... 'Young Abe Lincoln' offers good theatre and good education." 78
      John and Rose Buckner Ahart, directors of the Great American People Show at Lincoln's New Salem, presented a new Lincoln work, Mr. Lincoln and the Fourth of July, from July 23 through August 15. In a review for Illinois Times (July 22–28), William Furry called it "A Fourth That Fizzles," indicating that "while the play was crammed with volatile history, it fails to ignite, fizzling out like a soggy firecracker." But Margaret Boswell reported in the State Journal-Register (Springfield): "As a dramatic device, it is breath taking in its presentation and execution. Time was, time is. Scenes flow from the [End Page 59] present to the past until it is all one in our nation." Furry points out that there are more than 150 plays about Lincoln in the Illinois State Historical Library, not counting television and radio scripts. 79
      Sam Waterston portrayed Lincoln in Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning Abe Lincoln in Illinois at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Lincoln Center, New York. The play, with forty-nine actors, ran from November 24 through January 2, 1994. 80
      David Margolick's "The Cinematic Law Firm of Greedy, Vain and Immoral" for the New York Times on July 4, indicates that times have changed the image of lawyer heroes of yesteryear. If America had a love-hate relationship with its lawyers, the focus for awhile was on "love." Even though Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie may have given "short shrift to Lincoln as legal counsel —'Great President, lousy lawyer,' ... in many of the finest lawyer movies, the heroes had a Lincolnesque cast: noble, earnest, handsome, plain-spoken, impeccably ethical. They are exemplified by Atticus Finch in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Paul Biegler, ... 'Anatomy of a Murder.'" 81
      Allan Kozinn, in "Nonesuch Makes a Deal with Glass That Looks Ahead and into the Past" for the New York Times on September 14, reported that Phillip Glass's music for Robert Wilson's Civil Wars will be recorded by Nonesuch Records. 82
      The Dramatic Publishing Company has produced a new drama about Mary Todd Lincoln by Vaughn McBride, Pass My Imperfections Lightly By. 83
      David L. Wells, who attended the teachers institute on Abraham Lincoln at LSU-Shreveport in June, produced the rap lyrics "The Greatest" for his final classroom report (see page 41 of this issue). 84
      The September-October Civil War Times Illustrated contained a special book excerpt of Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory by Harold Holzer and Mark E. Neely, Jr., the definitive work on interpreting the Civil War through the paintings of the era. 85
      Fido Productions (P.O. Box 7075, Beverly Hills, CA 90212) has available a new videocassette narrated by Walter Matthau describing "The Making of 'The Last Best Hope of Earth': Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America." 86
      Sculptor Richard Mallon has created a statue, in stone, of a full-figured Lincoln (4813 S. 26th, Fort Smith, AR 72901). The Civil War artist Francis J. Barnum has produced a limited pewter edition Lincoln bust (Tiara Gifts, Wheaton Plaza, Wheaton, MD 20902). 87
      Business Boutiques Specialties of 908-A W. Broad Street, Dunn, NC 28334, is selling a set of Christmas ornaments featuring Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. [End Page 60] 88
      The University of Illinois Press has produced a cassette recording of Caroline Moseley's lectures and performance, "The Blue and the Gray: Popular Songs of the Civil War." 89
      Robin Cembalest's "Clinton and the Arts: 'He Never Stops Learning'" appeared in the January ARTnews, pointing out that an original print of Lincoln (by Garry Simmons, an artist from Hot Springs) hung in Bill Clinton's statehouse office. Those who saw the president deliver his first telecast from the White House on February 15 saw the Berke bust of Lincoln behind the president's left shoulder. 90
   

Exhibits

 
The Library of Congress exhibit "'I Do Solemnly Swear': Presidential Inaugurations, 1789–1993" ran from January 20 through February 21 in the Madison Building. The exhibit was the subject of an article by Guy Lamolinara in the January 25 Library of Congress Information Bulletin. Lincoln's second inauguration, in 1865, was the first one in which blacks participated. A battalion of black soldiers marched in the parade from the Capitol to the White House. The exhibit featured a photograph from the 1865 inaugural ball (Lincoln had not attended the 1861 ball) and also included manuscripts for Lincoln's first and second inaugural addresses, delivered from the East Portico of the Capitol. His second "is probably the most famous of all inaugural addresses," says Andrew J. Cosentino. "The power of its sentiment is deepened even further when it is read as a counter point to the first inaugural address, perhaps as Lincoln meant it to be." 91
      A rare Lincoln photograph, taken in Springfield on May 20, 1860, was displayed on March 25 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The picture, a beautiful salt print, was part of the exhibit "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century. Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection." The Lincoln photograph was taken at the gallery of William Marsh, whose studio was just a few doors from Lincoln's law offices in Springfield. Lincoln's right hand is partially hidden in the photo so that the swelling he incurred from shaking hands does not show. The same day that the photograph was taken, the sculptor Leonard Wells Volk made a plaster cast of Lincoln's hands to serve as a model for a proposed life-sized statue. The exhibit's catalog, The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century was produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Abrams, with a preface by Howard Gilman, foreword by [End Page 61] Philippe de Montebello, and an introduction by Maria Morris Hambourg. 92
      An exhibition including papers in Lincoln's hand referring to Lincoln's 1858 House Divided speech about slavery was mounted through February 28 at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City. 93
      The traveling exhibition "The White House 1792–1992: Image and Architecture" was shown at the Lincoln Home Visitors Center from January 18 through March 1. A special exhibit focusing on Lincoln's 1860 election and the family's preparation for travel to Washington opened in conjunction with the White House exhibit. 94
      Drew Bailey in a February issue of the Chicago Tribune wrote about the "Exhibit to Retrace Lincoln's Return by Train." A fourteen-foot exhibit consisting of a miniature locomotive and two cars was scheduled to stop in ten cities during the summer of 1994 before arriving in Springfield on May 3, 1995. Called the "Lincoln Train Project," it is being sponsored by Illinois Benedictine College. 95
      An exhibit of siblings who were also rivals, "The Borglums of Fairfield County," sponsored by Frank Mercede and Sons, was on display at the Rich Forum in Stamford, Connecticut, in July. A life-sized "seated Lincoln," a copy of the "Children's Lincoln" in Newark, was located outside of the exhibit hall so people can sit and "visit" with the president. Solon Borglum, unlike his brother Gutzon (who helped carve Mount Rushmore), was a romantic who made sculptures that dealt with the Old West. 96
      Suzanne Muchnic on June 25 and Aileen Cho on October 14 described the exhibit at the Huntington Library, "'The Last Best Hope of Earth': Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America," for the Los Angeles Times. The exhibit opened on October 12 and runs through August 30, 1994. With 175 original letters, documents, and artifacts, it is the largest exhibit of original Lincoln material mounted and the biggest show ever presented at the Huntington. Included is the Edward Everett copy of the Gettysburg Address, a printed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, one of Lincoln's stovepipe hats, and the pair of white gloves worn by the president the night he was assassinated. John Rhodehamel, who organized the exhibition with Thomas F. Schwartz, credits Louise Taper with the idea of initiating the event. The handsome exhibit catalog, prepared in part by support from Nestle, U.S.A., was written by Rhodehamel and Schwartz, with a foreword by James M. McPherson (Huntington Library Press, 1151 Oxford, San Marino, CA 91108). 97
      The only statue of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln [End Page 62] together was rededicated in Racine, Wisconsin, on November 26. Steven Rogstad delivered the dedicatory remarks. 98
   

Tours

 
A walking tour of sites associated with Lincoln in Lower Manhattan, including St. Paul's Chapel and City Hall, was conducted on February 12. 99
      Lee C. Moorehead's annual Lincoln Seminar and tour of Lincoln sites in Springfield, New Salem, and Petersburg was held July 16–18. 100
   

Auctions

 
A "Fragment on Slavery," written by Lincoln on a leaf of unruled, blue paper in Springfield between 1857 and 1859, was sold at Sotheby's on May 21 for $992,500, with a prebid estimate of $300,000–$500,000. This was one of the Lincoln documents purportedly preserved in a trunk left in Springfield with Mary Todd Lincoln's cousin and friend Elizabeth Todd Grimsley when the Lincoln family moved to Washington. 101
      A Lincoln letter dated March 7, 1843, discussing his unsuccessful 1843 campaign for the Whig nomination for the seventh congressional seat, sold at Christie's on June 9 for $72,900. 102
      On April 7, Swann Galleries auctioned a W. L. Germon albumin print of an oval portrait of Abraham Lincoln and Tad. Estimated between $500 and $750, it brought $1,045. 103
      Monika Half wrote "Lincoln: The Most Photographed President" for the September–October Auction News from Christie's. 104
      For the benefit of its art acquisition fund, the J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, sold at a Sotheby's auction on November 1, the most famous signed photograph of Lincoln, the celebrated Lincoln-Speed portrait. It bears the longest inscription ever written by the Sixteenth President for a photograph: "For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, from whose pious hands I ax-/cept the present of an Oxford Bible twenty years ago" (October 3, 1861). Prebid estimate was between $100,000 and $150,000; it sold for $178,500. 105
      A letter from Abraham Lincoln consoling Robert Lincoln's friend on his failure to get into Harvard University sold at Christie's on December 9 in the amount of $728,500. [End Page 63] 106
   

Awards and Prizes

 
The Abraham Lincoln Association and Southern Illinois University Press continues its call for manuscripts for the Abraham Lincoln Association Prize, which awards $1,000 and publication. Manuscripts are due on September 1 of each year and will be judged by a panel of Lincoln scholars, including Richard N. Current, Robert W. Johannsen, and Mark E. Neely, Jr. The panel is chaired by John Y. Simon. 107
      Georgia L. Northrup, longtime membership chair of the Abraham Lincoln Association, received the third annual Abraham Lincoln Association Award of Achievement on February 12. 108
      The 1993 Barondess-Lincoln Award of the Civil War Round Table of New York went to Garry Wills on February 10 for Lincoln at Gettysburg. On February 28, Wills also received the 1992 Book Critic Circle Award in the criticism category and the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. Wills believes that in 272 words, Lincoln, "through slight of hand, recast the tradition of oration, the Civil War, and the history of American political thought." Lincoln's words were meant to end the war in ideological as well as military terms. The New York Times reported the honors on April 14 under the heading "Pulitzer Honors for Lincoln, Truman and Courage: Big Winner is Jefferson." This is the second Lincoln book in as many years to receive the Pulitzer, with last year's going to Mark E. Neely, Jr., for The Fate of Liberty, now available in paper from Oxford. 109
      The Civil War Round Table of New York announced that Jeremiah Barondess, the descendant of Benjamin Barondess for whom the Barondess-Lincoln award was created, will no longer continue to support the award, as he expected the Round Table to receive outside financial backing. The board voted to continue the Barondess-Lincoln award until a new prize designation could be made. 110
      Stephen B. Oates received the 1993 Civil War Round Table (Chicago) Nevins-Freeman Award. 111
      Kenneth M. Stampp, author of The Peculiar Institution (1956), was the recipient of the 1993 Lincoln Prize presented by the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College ($40,000). He shared the prize with Albert Castel for Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 ($10,000). A new sticker, "Lincoln Prize" and "Lincoln and Soldiers Institute Gettysburg College," with a full profile of Lincoln, has been developed and will be placed on the books of future Lincoln Prize laureates. In a book review for the Washington Post on February 28 David Streitfeld complained about the prize going to non-Lincoln books, especially one twenty-seven years old, and the 1991 prize [End Page 64] going for the PBS series The Civil War, calling it "television as scholarship." Gabor Boritt called such complaints unfair in the Post on April 25. 112
      The Springfield (Illinois) Renaissance Hotel has initiated a Lincoln Award to recognize businesses and organizations that have contributed to the city's cultural and human services. The February honoree was the Ronald McDonald House, which provides a place for families whose children are receiving medical treatment at hospitals or clinics. 113
      Josephine Miller (Brookwood Junior High School, Brookwood, Ill.) won first prize in the seventh annual Lincoln Essay Competition Awards presented by the Lincoln Home National Historic Site for "Lincoln Legacy." Second prize went to Emily Kiang (St. Michael School, Orland Park, Ill.), and third prize to Meredith Buamlet (Malan Junior High School, Harrisburg, Ill.). Winning essays were published in the February, March, and April issues of Historico of the Sangamon County Historical Society. 114
      On April 1, the New York Times announced that Herbert Mitgang was the winner of the George Polk Career Award. 115
      On April 17, Harold Holzer received the Award of Superior Achievement in the category of scholarly publications from the Illinois State Historical Society for editing the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, as did John Hoffmann for Guide to the History of Illinois. The society presented George L. Painter, historian of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, a Certificate of Excellence "for encouraging an increasing awareness of Abraham Lincoln" and "raising the level of the Lincoln site as a center for scholarly interaction and intellectual inquiry." 116
      On May 4, Stefan Lorant, who, like Meserve before him and Ostendorf after him, produced seminal work on Lincoln in photographs, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center of Photography. 117
      Wayne C. Temple was awarded the Silver Good Citizenship Medal by the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution on May 8. 118
      The History Book Club's winning essay went to Robert A. Warrner of Munsey, Indiana, whose essay discusses how Lincoln's assassination could have been prevented. The club indicates that such a fantasy is the most common among its entrants. 119
      Rodney O. Davis received the Emma Lou and Gayle Thornbrough Prize for the best essay in the Indiana Magazine of History for his article "William Herndon's Indiana Oral History Project, 1865." 120
      Gore Vidal won a National Book Award for United States: Essays, 1952–1992. [End Page 65] 121
   

Lincoln Home National Historic Site

 
"Abraham Lincoln: A Biography in Words and Music," re-creating an 1865 political rally with Fritz Klein playing the part of Lincoln, was presented at the Visitors' Center on February 6 and 7. 122
      The Lincoln Heritage Lectures, held on February 12, featured Harold Holzer ("The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete Unexpurgated Text: What They Really Said") and Douglas L. Wilson ("Editing the Herndon Papers"). 123
      The February 13 State Journal-Register (Springfield) reported that planning continues for an Abraham Lincoln Interpretive Center in Springfield. Norman Hellmers, site superintendent, indicated that a contract was being drafted for an architectural firm to prepare construction plans for the center. Congressman Richard Durbin reintroduced legislation in Congress to authorize up to $18 million for the center, which is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of Lincoln's life. The House Appropriations Committee approved $3 million for the center and $1.4 million for restoration work at the site. Formerly called the "Abraham Lincoln Interpretive Center," the project has been renamed the "Abraham Lincoln Presidential Center." On November 23, the House passed a bill authorizing $18 million to establish the center. 124
      The State Journal-Register (Springfield) reported on December 14 that the National Park Service had completed a draft version of the environmental assessment for the location of the center and that such a center could attract more than half a million visitors annually by 2001 ("Report: Lincoln Center, a Big Draw" by Doug Pokorski). The site preferred by the Park Service is a downtown block just north of the Illinois Executive Mansion and bounded by Capitol, Fourth, Jackson, and Fifth streets. 125
   

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial Lincoln City, Indiana

 
The memorial, with the Lincoln Club of Southern Indiana, held its annual Lincoln Day Program on February 7, with Carolyn E. Link, superintendent of the Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, as speaker. [End Page 66] 126
   

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site Hodgenville, Kentucky

 
A sampling of the seven hundred framed images of Lincoln in the collection of Jack and Pat Smith of South Bend, Indiana, was on exhibit at the Visitors' Center. Tina Kunkler, in "'Picturing Lincoln' Comes to Hodgenville," profiled the exhibit for the Larue County Herald News (Hodgenville) on June 16. 127
   

Periodicals

 
Eric Niderost wrote "The Great Debate" for the May America's Civil War. 128
      Harold Holzer's nineteenth annual article for Antique Trader appeared on February 10 ("Lincoln's Incredible Season"). "A Picture's Worth," in which Holzer answers questions about Lincoln prints, paintings, and photographs, also appeared, as did Roy Nuhn's "The Lincoln Memorial—An American Landmark." 129
      Bruce Tap's "Race, Rhetoric and Emancipation: The Election of 1862 in Illinois" and James Marten's "For the Army, the People and Abraham Lincoln: A Yankee Newspaper in Occupied Texas" were published in the June Civil War History. 130
      The spring Commentaries, edited by Dan W. Bannister, briefed Lincoln's representation of an insurance company in McConnell v. The Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance Company et al. heard before the Illinois supreme court's December term in 1856. In the summer issue, Bannister discussed Seeley v. Peters, a significant 1848 case because of Lincoln's involvement in upholding English common law as the law of Illinois. The autumn issue contained a discussion of Lincoln's representation of railroads, Amplified Illinois Central RR Co. v. Morrison & Crabtree, and discussed colleagues of Lincoln in his appellate practice. 131
      Michael Burlingame wrote "New Light on Lincoln" for the January–February Connecticut College Magazine. 132
      The winter Dispatch (Illinois State Historical Society) reported the "David Davis Mansion Restored" and the presentation to the society of a framed etching of Lincoln as a young militiaman by Lloyd Efflandt and Dorothy Pate. Eleanor Jontry Brown's profile of Lincoln's friend and supporter Jesse W. Fell, "The Man Who Planted Trees," appeared in the spring issue. 133
      "Lincoln's Legal Legacy" was the theme of the December 1992 [End Page 67] Documentary Editing (Association for Documentary Editing), with articles by William D. Beard ("'American Justinian or Prairie Pettifogger?'—Lincoln's Legal Legacy: Documenting the Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln"), Shirley J. Burton ("Lincoln in the Federal Courts: Preserving the Archival Record"), and Kellee Green ("Lincoln's Legal Legacy: Educational and Public Programs"). 134
      Candace Fleming's "Abraham Lincoln Is Not Buried Here" was published in the February Elks. 135
      The winter 1992 Illinois Historical Journal included William D. Beard's "'I Have Labored Hard to Find the Law': Abraham Lincoln and the Alton and Sangamon Railroad." Richard F. Hamm's "The Prohibitionists' Lincoln" appeared in the summer issue. David B. Chesebrough's "'His Own Fault': Rev. Charles H. Ellis of Bloomington Sermonizes on the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" was in the autumn issue. 136
      Articles in the February Illinois History: A Magazine for Young People, published by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, related to David Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, and Lyman Trumbull. John Y. Simon wrote the feature article, "Grant of Illinois." 137
      The June Indiana Magazine of History contained Rodney O. Davis's "William Herndon's Indiana Oral History Project, 1865." 138
      The June Journal of American History contained Scott A. Sandage's "A Marble House Divided: The Lincoln Memorial, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Politics of Memory, 1939–1963." 139
      The May Journal of Southern History contained "Southern History in Periodicals, 1992: A Selected Bibliography." 140
      The 1990 yearbook of the Supreme Court Historical Society, Journal of Supreme Court History, included Robert L. Stern's "Chief Justice Taney and the Shadow of Dred Scott." 141
      Lester I. Vogel wrote "'To See a Promised Land': LC Specialist Users Collection for Books on Americans in Holy Land" for the October 18 Library of Congress Information Bulletin. He describes how Lincoln "dreamed of a trip to the Holy Land" on the very day he was assassinated—Friday, April 14, 1865. Such ambition was no idle fancy because the Holy Land was a travel destination for many Americans. U. S. Grant, who was supposed to join Lincoln on April 14, changed his plans and eventually made the pilgrimage. Secretary of State William H. Seward, also attacked on the night of the assassination, recovered and also made the trip. 142
      Dan Bassuk's "A Lincoln Portrait of Benjamin Chapin (1874–1918)" appeared in the spring Lincarnations, the newsletter of the Association of Lincoln Presenters. The fall issue contained Dan Bassuk's "A Lincoln Portrait of Judge Charles E. Bull (1881–1971)" and [End Page 68] "Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt's Hero" by Ted Zalewski, who impersonates Roosevelt. 143
      The May 27 Lincoln Chronicle contained George L. Painter's "From Springfield to the Civil War," also reprinted in the July–August Lincolnian. 144
      The September Lincoln Group of Florida Newsletter contained Gary R. Planck's useful compilation of Lincoln-related organizations and publications. 145
      The summer 1992 Lincoln Herald contained articles by Mark H. Dunkelman ("Alas! He Is Gone"), Daniel McDonough ("Abraham Lincoln, Ambrose E. Burnside and the Fredericksburg Crisis"), and Stephen L. Hansen and Paul D. Nygard ("Abraham Lincoln and the Know-Nothing Question 1854–1859"). Gary R. Planck continues "Lincoln News Digest." The fall issue included Wayne C. Temple's "The Linguistic Lincolns: A New Lincoln Letter" and Planck's "Friends, Heroes, and the American Elegance." In the winter issue were Joseph George, Jr.'s "Henry Von Steinaecker and the Lincoln Conspiracy Trial," Alan Peskin's "Two White House Visits," and Planck's "The Inspiration and the Inspired." David E. Long wrote "The Race Issue in the 1864 Election" for the winter, spring, and summer issues. The spring issue included Mark E. Steiner's "Lincoln's Continuing Legal Education" and Westmore Peyton's "A Noble Army of Women." The summer issue contained Richard Sloan's memorial to Arnold Gates, Harold Holzer's "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century," and David A. Seddelmeyer's "Lincoln's 'Red Letter' Day." Articles by Brooks D. Simpson ("Alexander McClure on Lincoln and Grant"), Wayne C. Temple ("Lincoln in Trenton, N.J."), and Larry E. Burgess ("Lincoln Collections in Southern California") were in the fall issue. 146
      The February Lincoln Ledger (Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin) contained Kristine Adams Wendt's "Mary Todd Lincoln: 'Great Sorrows' and the Healing Waters of Waukesha" and the first "cumulative bibliography" compiled by Daniel Pearson, which follows the format of the bibliographies that appeared in Lincoln Lore until discontinued with the February 1990 issue. The new bibliography is intended to be more inclusive and is continued in the May issue. Frank L. Klement's "Thirteen and Three Tidbits Concerning Lincoln's Address and the Dedication of the Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery" appeared in the November issue. 147
      The October, November, and December 1991 issues of Lincoln Lore contained Matthew Noah Vosmeier's "'Election-Time in America': An Englishman's View of Popular Politics during the 1860 Campaign." Vosmeier discusses the view of a British traveler who had [End Page 69] toured the United States in 1860 and reported his observations in Charles Dickens's weekly All the Year Round. The February 1992 issue included Harold Holzer's "News from the Abraham Lincoln Association," with a description of the February 12 banquet. 148
      Larry E. Burgess wrote "Simon Cameron: Lincoln's Corrupt Secretary of War" for the winter 1992 Lincoln Memorial Association (Lincoln Shrine, Redlands, Calif.). 149
      The spring Lincoln Newsletter contained articles by Barbara Hughett ("'The Hall of the Presidents' at the Lincoln College Museum"), George L. Painter ("Restoring the Historic Arnold House"), and William D. Beard ("The Ever-changing Law: A Lincoln Railroad Case"). The summer issue included a memorial to the late Raymond N. Dooley, "Lincoln the Student: The Story of the Statue" and Hughett's "Illinois Benedictine College Launches Lincoln Train Project." The fall issue contained Dan W. Bannister's "A Fight on a Train Ride to Lincoln, Illinois and Abraham Lincoln's Defense of the Victim" and Norman F. Boas's "Leonard Grover's Association with Abraham Lincoln and His Account as 'Special Attendant to the President' at Gettysburg." The winter issue included Hughett's "1860 'Wide-Awake' Banners in the Lincoln College Museum," Dennis E. Suttles's "Lincoln Speaks Out on the Kansas-Nebraska Act: Winchester, Illinois, 1854," Edward F. Finch's "Historical Images and Public Art: Reflections on Freeport's 'Lincoln and Douglas Debate,'" and "'Abraham Lincoln and Leadership': A Summer Institute for Secondary Teachers" by William T. Pederson and me. 150
      Clark Evans wrote "This Summer's Edinburgh Lincoln Festivities Spur Memories of Britain's Lord Charnwood" for the January–February Lincolnian (Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia). The group also distributed a 1993 membership directory with a copy of the program for its annual Lincoln Day Dinner on February 12. The March–April issue contained Paul Kallina's "Lincoln in Scotland Forever," Clark Evans's "Kunhardt Family Profile of the Great Emancipator Highlighted Lincoln Events for 1992," and Gayle T. Harris's "Members" page. The May–June issue featured Evans's "Kirkham's Grammar: A Key to Lincoln's Mastery of the English Language?" and Harris's "Members" page. "The Lincoln Group Remembers Fred Schwengel" appeared in the July–August issue. Harris wrote about LGDC member Frank D. Rich, Jr.'s beneficence in endowing a new Center for the Arts in Stamford, Connecticut. At his initiative, the Gutzon Borglum seated Lincoln, which is in Newark, New Jersey, was reproduced to be placed before the Rich Forum in Stamford. 151
      The January Little Giant (Stephen A. Douglas Association) featured Barbara Hughett's "Astrological Journal Predicted a Douglas Victory [End Page 70] in 1860." Lloyd Ostendorf and R. Bruce Duncan wrote "Douglas's Triumphal Return to Chicago—1858" for the April issue. 152
      In "The President Speaks," Fred Reilly erred when he ironically "improved" Lincoln's Second Inaugural, "with malice toward none, with clarity [sic] for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right" (LSE Magazine, London School of Economics, autumn–winter 1992). 153
      Greg Bailey's "Searching for a Legend" appeared in the winter Midwest Today; Bailey's "Abraham Lincoln, Dreaded Abe Wins Case" appeared in the June 8, 1991, Economist. 154
      The January–March International Lincoln Association Newsletter, edited by the association's president Wallace H. Best, contained a review of the exhibit "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 155
      John Hope Franklin's "The Emancipation Proclamation: An Act of Justice," delivered on the occasion of the 1992–1993 exhibit of the proclamation at the National Archives, appeared in the summer Prologue. 156
      The Providence Journal-Bulletin of February 15 included Bill Tammeus's "Insults to the Chief from One President to Another," in which James A. Garfield says of Lincoln, "He has been raising a respectable pair of dark brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no appendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty." Margaret Carlin asked in the same issue, "Will Clinton Be the New Abe Lincoln?" 157
      The February 7 San Francisco Examiner Image featured "Lincoln's Legacy," with Leon Litwack, Gore Vidal, and Noah Griffin. 158
      Garry Wills's "Dishonest Abe" appeared in the October 5 Time. Wills describes how America's most revered politician "dissembled, waffled, told racist stories and consorted with corrupt politicians—all in his noble effort to free the slaves and save the Union." 159
      The Scotsman (Edinburgh) reported the rededication of the Lincoln Monument in the Old Calton cemetery on August 21. 160
      Kenneth M. Stampp's "The United States and National Self-Determination: Two Traditions," originally published as part of The War President: The Gettysburg Lectures (Oxford), was reprinted in the summer Sino-American Relations. The autumn issue contained "Why Colored Americans Need an Abraham Lincoln in 1992" by Edward L. Jones, delivered before the Lincoln Society in Seattle on March 2. 161
      A condensation from U.S. News & World Report by Gerald Parshall and Michael Barone, "Lincoln, To Those Who Knew Him" appeared in the February Reader's Digest. Volume 5 of the large-type reader [End Page 71] Selections from Reader's Digest Condensed Books contained "Abe Lincoln's Second Mother" by Bernadine Bailey and Dorothy Walworth. 162
      Marianne Kyriakos wrote about the "Soldiers' Home Not at All Like a Barracks" for the July 24 Washington Post. Anderson Cottage, located on the grounds, served as the summer White House for three presidents, including Lincoln who, it is said, wrote the second draft of the Emancipation Proclamation there. 163
   

Books and Pamphlets

 
   

Lincoln

 
The Easton Press (47 Richards Ave., Norwalk, CT 06857) has published a leatherbound edition of the definitive Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, including both supplements. Rutgers University Press, which under the auspices of the Abraham Lincoln Association first published the Collected Works in 1953, maintains a trade edition in print. 164
      Mark E. Neely, Jr., has written a fifty-thousand-word biography of Lincoln for "The Last Best Hope of Earth": Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America (Harvard). The lavishly illustrated book was produced in conjunction with the exhibit that opened at the Huntington on October 1. Neely's book is the best, albeit short, biography of Lincoln since Stephen B. Oates's With Malice toward None. More than a political biography, Neely shows the "greatness, fears, and pettiness of the man." Intensely nationalistic, Lincoln had a strong faith in the Constitution and an intuitive understanding of the Founding Fathers' ideas, leading to a complete evolution of Lincoln's thoughts, which were surprisingly modern, especially concerning the rights of women and blacks. 165
      Neely's "Confederate Bastille: Jefferson Davis and Civil Liberties" was presented as the first Frank L. Klement Lecture at Marquette University and has been published by Marquette University Press. Neely demonstrates that the challenge to civil liberties was about the same in Davis's Confederacy as it was in Lincoln's United States. Both men were pragmatic, and both waged war "more with an eye to solving practical problems than to obeying scruples of constitutional conscience." 166
      Touchstone Books has published Garry Wills's Lincoln at Gettysburg in paperback, which, for nine weeks, appeared on the New York Times Book Review of paperback best sellers. 167
      McFarland and Company (Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640) has [End Page 72] published Washington and Lincoln Portrayed: National Icons in Popular Prints by Harold Holzer. With Washington portrayed as the ideal hero and Lincoln depicted as the Great Emancipator, Holzer describes their differences in the evolution of our political culture and how this affected the way America looked at itself. Holzer is also the author of Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President (Addison-Wesley). The letters contain advice and instruction, compliments and congratulations, complaints and criticism. 168
      Papers from the sixth annual Lincoln Colloquium (1991), sponsored by the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Eastern National Park and Monument Association, Sangamon County Historical Society, and Lincoln Group of Illinois, were published as Abraham Lincoln and the Crucible of War. The illustrated monograph is available from the Lincoln National Home Historic Site, Springfield. Included are the papers delivered by John Y. Simon ("Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Fort Sumter"), James M. McPherson ("Who Freed the Slaves?"), Paul Findley ("Legislating the Authorization of Lincoln Home National Historic Site: A Twenty-Year Perspective"), Richard N. Current ("Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy"), and my "Lincoln and His Contemporaries: The World's Statesmen Compared and Contrasted." 169
      Papers presented at the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin in Madison (1990) have been published as the fellowship's Historical Bulletin No. 46: Lloyd Ostendorf's "A. Lincoln—Riverman," Mark E. Neely, Jr.'s "Lincoln and the Ideal of Total War," and John K. Lattimer's "The Danger in Claiming That Abraham Lincoln Had the Marfan Syndrome." 170
      Themes in honor of T. Harry Williams, Leadership during the Civil War (1989 Deep Delta Civil War Symposium), edited by Roman J. Heleniak and Lawrence L. Hewitt, have been published by White Mane. The volume contains Richard N. Current's "Lincoln, the War, and the Constitution." 171
      Eric Foner's "'The Tocsin of Freedom': The Black Leadership of Radical Reconstruction" has been published as the thirty-first annual Fortenbaugh Lecture. 172