Abraham Lincoln: The Enigmatic President

The following memorandum explains how Lincoln's lecture on "Discoveries and Inventions" was preserved for posterity. I found a couple of things interesting about this memo. I have read accounts claiming that Mary and Lincoln argued on the morning of his departure from Springfield and, needing to be on time, he left without her. This argument was cited as the reason she had to catch up with his train a couple of days later. This memo, however, says that Mary's late arrival on the train was planned well in advance. It is also interesting to read a first-hand confirmation that Lincoln had a premonition that he would never return home. Memorandum of Certain Facts for Those Who Follow After (Emphasis mine.)   In the month of February 1861, being at that time a resident of Springfield, Illinois, I called one evening at the residence of my friend, Dr. John Todd. The doctor was an uncle of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. While there Mr. Lincoln came in, bringing with him a well-fille...

  On April 6, 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered his lecture on “Discoveries and Inventions” before the Young Men's Association of Bloomington, Illinois. Throughout the year, he gave the lecture four more times in Illinois towns. His law partner, William H. Herndon, explained, “He began preparation in the usual way by noting down ideas on stray pieces of paper, which found a lodgment inside his hat, and finally brought forth in connected form a lecture.” Lincoln was highly interested in inventions. Ten years earlier, he received a patent for an invention that lifted boats over shoals. Herdon claimed that Lincoln stopped giving the lecture because it was not well received. Five presentations in a fairly short time call that notion into question. Lincoln last presented “Discoveries and Inventions” just five days before his memorable Cooper Union address. It seems more likely that the celebrated New York City speech provided a robust launch for Lincoln’s presidential campaign, and that h...

Abraham Lincoln had a great interest in innovation and technology. He even presented a lecture entitled “Discoveries and Inventions.” In fact, he is the only president to be awarded a patent. The diagram above is part of his patent application.  His invention was a system of inflatable buoys designed to help boats to navigate shallow waters and cross sandbars. Lincoln's experiences with rivers and his interest in technology inspired his invention. Although Lincoln received a patent in May 1849, when he was a congressman, his device was never manufactured. The Smithsonian has a replica model of the device (below). While serving in Washington, Lincoln visited the patent office often to view “Discoveries and Inventions.” The next post will address his lecture on "Discoveries and Inventions." Read all about it!

"Bestselling Author, James D. Best just wrote what will quickly be considered one of the BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR (Maybe the BEST!). Entitled Maelstrom , he understands me, perhaps better  than I understand myself. James D. Best explains it all, and better than ever before! GET HIS HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT BOOK, NOW. Thank you!!! President Abraham Lincoln." The greatest rivalry in American history. P.S. Thank you for using a younger photograph for your cover.

"Best’s attention to how Lincoln was forced to navigate political posturing and public opinion demonstrates the genius of the president’s decision-making ... The novel also shines in highlighting how the American Civil War foreshadowed modern warfare and how challenging it was for both sides to adapt to the era’s increasingly devastating technological advances in weaponry. The tensions and promises of a time reshaped by modern technology are palpable on the page." Kirkus Reviews

  Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln  by Edward Achorn “Every drop of blood” is a melancholy line from Lincoln’s second inaugural address. It is an appropriate title for Achorn's book. What should have been a glorious occasion was marred by the ongoing Civil War. As the subtitle states, the book focuses on Lincoln’s second inaugural and is filled with contemporary perspectives and quotations. Supposedly, Every Drop of Blood covers twenty-four hours around the inauguration, but Achorn cheats a bit, occasionally using flashbacks to put the narration in perspective. As I mentioned in previous book reviews, I like single-issue books on the Civil War era. So much happened that any attempt to cover the entire time period must be a summary, leaving much detail on the cutting room floor. Achorn fulfills the mission of single-issue history, providing trivia, facts, and insights for enthusiasts. This is a must-read for those who seek to unders...

  The story of the greatest rivalry in American History Read all about it! Read the full review here .

Writing my previous post on Fiction’s Role in History, I ran across an Inside Higher Ed article titled Why Historical Fiction Matters . The author, Steven Mintz, lost me in the third paragraph when he wrote, The fact that many of the genre’s best-known practitioners—like Howard Fast, James Michener, Margaret Mitchell, Leon Uris, Gore Vidal and Herman Wouk—wrote for a popular audience didn’t help the classification’s reputation. The sentence displayed academic elitism, as if anything popular was common and base. I'll bet Mr. Mintz likes Shakespeare without realizing that he was the equivalent of a primetime television scriptwriter. He wrote plays that would draw an audience, the bigger the better. Shakespeare had about forty people's livelihoods in his ink-stained hands. If he wrote a flop, his cast and crew didn't eat. The comment reminded me of Raymond Chandler's quote above. Read all about it!

History is something you don’t mess with. Or, at least, you shouldn’t. Something happened. Whatever it was, it was in the past and cannot be changed. People living in the present need to know what happened in the past, so historians document and teach history. If what a person communicates did not happen as told, then it is fiction. If historic events happened precisely as told, but the narrator depicts undisclosed motives, thoughts, or words of the participants, then it remains fiction. History is an attributed description of what happened; fiction is storytelling. Storytelling is powerful. Philip Pullman said, “Thou shall not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.” War and Peace , Uncle Tom's Cabin , Gone with the Wind , Animal Farm , Les Misérables , The Pillars of the Earth and many more attest to Pullman’s wisdom. Presenting history as a story leaves an enduring impression on the reader's mind. It should be the correct impression. This is why the historic...

Characterization is a crucial element of fiction. Novelists must know the people they write about, or they may behave in ways contradictory to their personality. Historians don’t generally try to get inside a subject’s head, while a novelist thrives in invading others’ privacy. A novelist makes personality and motivations central to the story.  Before I write the first word of a historical novel, I read several biographies of the major characters to get a perspective on their distinctiveness. I read positive and negative perspectives to get a grasp of who these people were. Where do you find these personal descriptions of historical figures? First, I go to history books. Historians do not normally try to portray their subject’s thoughts and feelings, but they don’t ignore personality. Good ones dutifully quote contemporary descriptions of the subject to satisfy documentation requirements. The second place I go to is to the historical figures’ own writing. A person’s writing always ...

While a work of deftly crafted fiction, Maelstrom is based on historical events and personalities and brings the reader into the center of the what would become the American Civil War. As a novelist, James Best has an extraordinary and genuine flair for the kind of character and narrative driven storytelling style that is ideal for an historical novel. A riveting read from start to finish, Maelstrom is unreservedly recommended for the personal reading lists of readers with an interest in the Civil War era and the roles played by Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, as well as community library Historical Fiction collections. Jim Cox Midwest Book Review

The South Was Right by James Ronald Kennedy and Walther Donald Kennedy I am not an advocate of Lost Cause, but in writing Maelstrom , I needed to understand it. One of the books I read was The South Was Right. The authors claim the Civil War was not about slavery, and the Southern states had a right to secede from the oppressive North. The three points in the preceding sentence encapsulate the Lost Cause and this book. Anyone who has read 1860 campaign platforms, pre-war congressional speeches, or the proceedings at the state secession conventions doubts that the conflict was about slavery. The Confederate Constitution also makes it clear. If more evidence is needed, read Confederate political and newspaper reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation. Jefferson Davis, before the Confederate Congress, protested the Emancipation Proclamation: “Our own detestation of those who have attempted the most execrable measure recorded in the history of guilty man.” Freeing slaves was the worst ac...

The Historical Novel Society judged Maelstrom as "polished, authoritative historical fiction with clear thematic ambition and solid craft." Complete Comments This is a confident and historically grounded opening that immediately signals seriousness of intent. Beginning with the photographic sitting at Abraham Lincoln’s appointment with Mathew Brady is a smart choice: it frames image-making, reputation, and political self-fashioning as thematic pillars before moving into the Cooper Union speech. The recreation of the address is strong, and the rhythm of the quoted passages carries authentic moral weight. The historical detail—gaslight counts, architectural layout, political context—feels well researched without becoming pedantic. Characterisation of Lincoln is respectful yet human. His physical awkwardness contrasted with intellectual command works well, and the moment where he anticipates shifting from legal to moral argument adds welcome internal tension. Where the chapter c...

  The story of the greatest rivalry in American History. Buy at Amazon

  At the time of the Constitutional Convention, slaveholding states were far stronger than their northern counterparts. After sixty years, the free states’ explosive growth had left the South far behind. It was as if the South was in a footrace wearing concrete boots. Hinton Helper, a mid-19th-century southerner, identifies that concrete as slavery.  The political implications are interesting. During this massive economic transition and with slavery under moral attack, slaveholders managed to retain dominating political power. How did they accomplish this feat? Slaves were treasured assets in the antebellum South. Slaves defined social status. Slaves made plantation owners wealthy. Slaves made life easy. Slavery made everyone who was not a slave feel freer and privileged. Slavery wasn’t just property; it was a way of life and the linchpin of an aristocratic society. How do you protect an asset that can walk away? How do you counter altruists who want to banish that asset? Huma...

Bruce Chadwick's Two American Presidents should have been a perfect reference book for Maelstrom . Maelstrom  chapters alternate between the two presidents to show how each dealt with the same issues, countered the other’s moves, led their respective governments, and used their political powers to sway the outcome. Unfortunately, Chardwick's book was infested with so many errors that I discarded it less than halfway through. Two American Presidents is haphazardly  written  and poorly edited. It is hard to follow the chronology and is occasionally outright wrong in the sequence of events. There are too many good books out there to recommend this one. 

  The photo on the left could be considered the kick-off image for Lincoln's presidential campaign. The photo on the right was taken about two months before his assassination. The presidency ages people, but a war ravages the soul. The photo on the left was taken by Mathew Brady in his New York studio on February 27, 1860, before Lincoln publicly acknowledged that he was a candidate for the presidency. Lincoln was in New York to deliver an address at Cooper Union. Tradition has it that the Cooper Union Address and the Brady photograph taken on the same day propelled Lincoln into the White House. The photo on the right was taken by Alexander Gardner   on February 5, 1865, which was after Lincoln's reelection but before his inauguration. By this time, Gardner had left Brady to run his own studio. (Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1865; Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865; and Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865.) The contrast between the two photographs is dramatic a...