Forgotten Abraham Lincoln

abraham lincoln was the nation's 16th president and his leadership during one of the most trying times in our nation's history his ability to preserve the union and his emancipation proclamation often lead him at the top of lists of polls of professional historians who tried to rank the nation's chief executives in fact a survey of 24 major polls of professional historians regarding presidential greatness conducted between 1948 and 2022 abraham lincoln finished top in 13 of those polls and in the top three in all of them he also tends to rank highly when the general public is polled regarding who was the greatest president and yet there still is a lot about the life of abraham lincoln of which the public seems to be mostly unaware among other things abraham lincoln was perhaps the most eccentric of our nation's presidents and there is a lot weird about abraham lincoln that deserves to be remembered born in hardin county kentucky on february 12 1809 lincoln was the second child of thomas lincoln a farmer and carpenter and nancy hanks having relocated to southern indiana at a place called little creek settlement in 1816 lincoln found himself working to help support his family it was there that his mother died her cause of death was milk sickness once a common cause of death in the american midwest milk sickness is caused by the poison trimmitol produced by the perennial herb white snake root in the midwest cattle were often left to forage in the wild and particularly in drought years where pasture was thin the cattle grazed on the snake root people who drank the milk from these cattle could receive a lethal dose of the poison that causes trembling vomiting and severe intestinal pain nancy hanks lincoln died on october 5th 1818 the cause of milk sickness was not determined until the 1830s it was a year later that another little-known event occurred that may have affected the famous president more than has been realized in a short campaign biography written in 1860 while running for president lincoln wrote speaking of himself in the third person in his 10th year he was kicked by a horse and apparently killed for a time the event he mentions occurred sometime in 1819 according to several lincoln biographies while leading his mayor on the wheel of a local corn mill lincoln was keeping the horse moving with a whip and saying get up you old hussy get up you old hussy just as he yelled the words get up again the unshot horse kicked backwards knocking the boy senseless ten-year-old lincoln was taken to his father's house where he remained unconscious so that some in the community thought him to be either dead or near death but he regained consciousness the next day a story possibly apocryphal says that he woke up quickly and shouted you old hussy while the event has rarely been mentioned psychiatrist edward kempf wrote in a november 2020 edition of the digital illinois history library journal that the two life masks made of lincoln in 1860 in 1865 show evidence that lincoln actually received a skull fracture on his left forehead dr kemp notes that while there seems to be no mention by doctors at the time of any lasting effects from the event this omission is not surprising for it was not until 1890 upon application of x-ray photography that neurophysiology learned how to explain some of the cerebral effects and nervous consequence of fractures of the skull the extent to which the injury may have affected the future president is hard to determine as the doctor explains modern neurology requires for diagnosis a far more complete examination of the living subject for positive or negative evidence of nervous impairment however the doctor speculates that the effects of the injury coupled with his childhood experiences may have significantly impacted lincoln's personality including his well-documented tendency towards melancholia from which dr kemp surmises he protected himself by cultivating a practical common sense philosophy of humanism and humor that is the abraham lincoln of whose wit and wisdom we are so familiar might substantially have been a product of being kicked by a horse but the event also represents an irony as lincoln was also notably fond of animals while in the white house looking kept many pets the family's two goats nanny and nanko would often ride in the presidential carriage a turkey named jack escaped from being the family dinner at the intervention of his son tad the family kept horses and rabbits for pets and perhaps most well-known two cats named tabby and dixie presented to him as kittens by secretary of state william seward he was quoted during his first term of having said dixie is smarter than my whole cabinet and furthermore she doesn't talk back and while his wife mary objected to him feeding tabby at the table with the gold presidential fork he said if the gold fork was good enough for former president james buchanan i think it's good enough for tabby whatever effect she got from old hussy in 1819 he seems not to have carried a grudge in the spring of 1831 at the age of 22 lincoln relocated to new salem illinois on the sangamon river by some accounts he was traveling to new orleans when his barge got stuck and he decided to stay it was here that another lincoln legend was born according to dr christian mcwirther the lincoln historian at the abraham lincoln presidential library and museum in springfield illinois quoted on chicago wgn 9 news last february lincoln was working as a store clerk when his boss denton offit bet that lincoln could out-wrestle the strongest member of a gang of local tufts the man he wrestled was named jack armstrong a much feared wrestler but lincoln was a six foot four inch tall rail splitter from the frontier from the start lincoln handed out a thrashing when armstrong began fouling lincoln picked up his opponent dashed him to the ground and knocked him out his success earned him the friendship and respect of the group and other males in his community locals later recalled that he could beat any of them in wrestling this led to a legend that lincoln was a prize wrestler who won many bouts at county fairs earning him a spot in the national wrestling hall of fame in stillwater oklahoma according to the hall of fame lincoln began wrestling at age 19 when he defended his stepbrothers river barge from natchez thugs by throwing the hijackers overboard while some accounts claim that lincoln only ever lost one match out of hundreds mcquarter notes there's not a lot of evidence for a lot of them still the wrestling bout with jack armstrong was well documented in the reputation that he earned there might have served young abraham lincoln a year later lincoln's career as a soldier is also little remembered in april 1832 a mixed group of native americans crossed the mississippi river into illinois apparently over a dispute regarding the 1804 treaty of st louis the blackhawk war lasted just over four months and the natives led by a leader of the sauk people named black hawk clashed with militia units regular army and other native americans lincoln volunteered with the illinois militia and perhaps because of his popularity earned by defeating jack armstrong was elected captain of a militia company while he was never involved in combat he was tasked with bearing the dead in the aftermath of two battles his service certainly impacted him in an autobiography he wrote in 1860 he mentioned that since becoming a captain during the war he had not since had any success in life which gave him so much satisfaction perhaps more importantly several lincoln biographers have concluded that his service allowed him to cultivate connections in illinois that would serve him in his later political career still he was always self-deprecating about his service saying in an 1848 speech before congress that while he saw no live fighting indians he had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes after the war lincoln partnered with a friend from new salem named william berry and the two opened a store called lincoln and berry the store sold liquor and was issued a liquor license on march 6 1833 this led to the claim that abraham lincoln was the only u.s president to have been a licensed bartender however there is some controversy regarding the claim historian dr neil gail writing in the 2020 edition of the digital research library of the illinois history journal notes the multiple experts have determined that the signature on the license is not that of abraham lincoln moreover the document seems to have been issued to william berry in the name of barry and lincoln and it is a license for the store not for lincoln personally in fact gail argues lincoln denied ever owning a grocery and the license might have been a forgery made after his death it's also possible that lincoln sold his interest in the store after barry made the decision to sell liquor in any case the website pro caffeination notes that lincoln later denied ever having sold liquor by the drink and thus was never an actual bartender lincoln left the business was appointed postmaster of new salem but in 1835 barry died and lincoln assumed the debts from the failed business these deaths were not fully paid off until 1848 during lincoln's career as a congressman lincoln was elected to congress in august of 1846 his election was notable because he was a member of the whig party and the whigs were struggling in illinois he was the only whig elected to congress that year but his time was limited it was according to a 1912 issue of the portland oregon sunday journal in his district a peculiar tradition to his party the whig that no member shall seek re-election that is when his term ended on march 4th 1849 lincoln was not on the ballot for another term this left him with limited prospects but one possibility that again is not well known was rather intriguing that year the taylor administration offered him the governorship of oregon territory in many ways oregon offered better electoral possibilities than illinois where candidates were still struggling the sunday journal explains friends of lincoln advised him to accept the oregon tender reasoning that the territory must in a few years achieve statehood and that a seat in the senate of the united states might be most reasonably expected at the hands of the oregonians however mary did not want to move that far nor live so far out on the frontier lincoln declined and his name was never submitted to the senate it is interesting to speculate how u.s and oregon history might have been different had lincoln accepted certainly there was political opportunity there the sunday journal speculated that he would still have ranked large as a factor in national affairs and would in some great way have come to be considered as one of the nation rather than one of any state there can be little question but the general continues the nation might have suffered for it it is difficult to imagine any combination of circumstances that would have made him president at the hour of national crisis lincoln returned to his law practice in springfield illinois but that was not his only interest lincoln had a knack for machinery and tinkering with mechanical appliances his law partner william a turndon expressed how he advised a decent bent towards machinery or mechanical appliances a trait he doubtlessly inherited from his father who was himself something of a mechanic and therefore skilled in the use of tools this became apparent when lincoln found himself on a boat stranded on a sand bar in 1848 those on board were ordered to use empty cages and planks of wood to buoy the boat of the sand after witnessing this lincoln worked tirelessly between sessions of congress to develop a device to help boats when they come across sandbars and shallow areas he applied for a patent the application described his device invented a new and improved manner of combining adjustable buoyant air chambers with a steam boat or other vessel for the purpose of enabling their draft of water to be readily lessened enable them to pass over bars or through shallow water on may 22nd 1849 patent number 6469 was approved while his invention was never implemented on steam boats lincoln is the only u.s president to have earned a patent himself lincoln's term in office was of course famous and included notable eccentricities including holding seances in the white house a practice that was not only quite a common fad at the time but not at all surprising for a family that had lost two children at an early age one willie died at age 11 of typhoid fever during lincoln's term of office in february 1862. according to the white house historical association after attending sciences in washington mary started hosting her own seances in the red room of the white house there's evidence to suggest that she hosted as many as eight seances in the white house and that her husband was even in attendance for a few of them of his many accomplishments and travails while in office one part that is often forgotten was his role on the creation of the thanksgiving holiday the holiday had originally been proclaimed by george washington on november 26 1789. while presidents made their own proclamations about the holiday lincoln's significant contribution was to proclaim that it should occur regularly on the last thursday in november i do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of this united states and also those who are at sea and those who are so adjourning in foreign lands to set apart and observe the last thursday of november next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the heavens and i recommend to them that while offering up the inscriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also with humble pendants for our national perversiveness and disobedience commend to his tender care all those who become widows orphans mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and restore it as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace harmony tranquility and union according to history art and archives a collaborative project between the office of the historian and the clerk of the house office of art and archives of the u.s house of representatives the third thursday remained the tradition although thanksgiving was not made an official national holiday until 1870 but the president could still set the date and in 1938 president franklin delano roosevelt moved the holiday up to the third thursday in order to history art and archives notes extend the christmas shopping season in order to help businesses still suffering from the lingering effects of the great depression when fdr again moved up to date in 1940 congress finally acted in the direct confrontation between the will of abraham lincoln and fdr two presidents who regularly figure in the top three when ranked by historians lincoln's will won out new york congressman alexander treadwell explained i feel the example which massachusetts and new england offer in the retention of long-standing custom should be given very careful consideration before ruthlessly permitting it to be sacrificed for mercenary considerations on october 6 1941 congress passed a bill standardizing the holiday on the last thursday in november to the eternal admiration of traditionalists who like abraham lincoln think the christmas season is long enough already and of course abraham lincoln is associated with another celebration in 1926 a group called the association for the study of negro life and history or asnh founded by harvard university history professor carter woodson sponsored a national negro history week the second week in february so timed because that represented the birthdays of both abraham lincoln and frederick douglass and of course that celebration eventually became black history month officially recognized by president gerald ford in 1976. given all his accomplishments it's not surprising that there are many place names in america named after abraham lincoln no less than 17 states have lincoln counties named after abraham lincoln but that can be confusing because five states georgia missouri kentucky north carolina and tennessee have lincoln counties that are not named after abraham lincoln but after revolutionary war general benjamin lincoln there are so many reasons to appreciate abraham lincoln for what he did as the nation's 16th president but he was more than a president he was a singular personality perhaps the most unique of the 45 men who have led this nation i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history god check out our community on the historyguyguild.local.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 102,321

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, Abraham Lincoln

Id: nyHYSUGAvTM

Length: 17min 4sec (1024 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 08 2022