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It’s time for another whimsical Tuesday Turnip search wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting factoids “turn-up.”
In honor of Lincoln’s birthday, today I typed in “Abraham Lincoln” + “little-known facts” unearthing the following from a couple different sites, but mostly this one.
Lincoln was the only President ever to obtain a patent. In 1849 he invented a complicated device for lifting ships over dangerous shoals by means of “buoyant air chambers.” Much to Lincoln’s disappointment, U.S. Patent No. 6,469 was never put into practical use.
The clutter in Lincoln’s law office was notorious, and a continual source of irritation to his partner, William Herndon. On his desk, Lincoln kept one envelope marked “When you can’t find it anywhere else, look into this.”
Lincoln was the 1st major leader in our history to favor extending the vote to women.
In 1836–a full 12 years before the 1st woman’s rights convention had even convened–State legislator Lincoln gave an Illinois paper a statement endorsing “female suffrage.”
In 1858, Lincoln was so concerned that the text of his “House divided” speech be reported accurately, that even after he had given a copy of the address to reporters, he insisted on going to the newspaper office himself and proofreading the galleys.
In 1842, Lincoln accepted a challenge to a duel from James Shields, the Democratic State auditor. Shields was furious over a satiric letter in a local paper. Actually, the letter had been written by Lincoln’s fiancee, Mary Todd, but Lincoln willingly took responsibility. Since he was given the choice of weapons, Lincoln, with typical cunning, selected broadswords–with his 6′4″ frame and his enormous arms, Lincoln had an insurmountable advantage over his disminutive opponent when it came to dueling with swords. Shields wisely decided to make up his differences with Lincoln and the scheduled duel failed to take place.
It is well known that Lincoln used to pace the White House long past midnight during the years of the Civil War; what is less celebrated is his habit of imposing his insomnia on his overworked aides. Often, he would keep his young personal secretary, John Hay, awake, listening to the funny stories that Lincoln loved to tell. (”Without these stories I would die,” he once said.) On one occasion, according to Hay, “he read Shakespeare to me, the end of Henry VIII and the beginning of Richard III, till my heavy eyelids caught his considerate notice and he sent me to bed.”
Frederick Douglass, the celebrated black abolitionist and former slave, was invited by Lincoln to the inaugural reception in 1865, but when Douglass tried to enter, policemen man-handled him and forced him back out. Making his way in again, he managed to catch Lincoln’s eye. “Here comes my friend Douglass,” the President exclaimed, and, leaving his circle of guests, he took Douglass by the hand and began to chat with him.
After the death of his son Willie, Lincoln was persuaded by his wife to participate in several seances held in the White House. The President was deeply interested in psychic phenomena and wanted to communicate with his dead son. Once Lincoln reported that he had attended a seance in which a piano was raised and moved around the room. It was the professional opinion of the mediums who had worked with him that Lincoln was definitely the possessor of extraordinary psychic powers.
Lincoln took his dreams seriously. On one occasion he wrote to his wife to be watchful with their son Tad because Lincoln had experienced an “unpleasant” dream. On the day of his assassination, April 14, 1865, he was so troubled by a dream that he actually discussed it at a Cabinet meeting. He told his colleagues that he had seen himself sailing “in an indescribable vessel and moving rapidly toward an indistinct shore.” Even more explicit was a dream that he discussed just a week before he was shot. In his dream, Lincoln awoke, and walked through the silent White House, following the sound of sobbing. When he came to the East Room, he saw a catafalque draped in black. “Who is dead?” Lincoln asked. A military guard replied that it was the President.
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Comments (30)
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the dreams prior to his death are kinda freaky.
I had one about my parent before she passed. Haunts me still.
How easy was it to get close to the white house back then? Was the fence there at that time?
posted by dan on 2-12-2008 at 6:46 am
For a long time the White House was just a house where the President lived. But you could come and knock on the door of it like any old house.
In fact, on New Year’s day, any regular joe could go up and greet the President at the White House. Teddy Roosevelt insisted on seeing every citizen who showed up on New Years, as long as they were sober, washed, and clean. He was shaking hands for hours.
posted by Julia on 2-12-2008 at 7:45 am
My freshman year of college I had an American History teacher that turned every story, regardless of the date it took place, into a story about Lincoln. He was absolutely obsessed. He even said there are more than one book a month that gets published and he tries to keep up with all of them. I don’t think I learned anything in that class except for obscure Lincoln facts.
posted by Holly on 2-12-2008 at 9:14 am
I assume that it was pretty easy to gain access to the President back then. I remember hearing about Pres Grant w/entourage (so post Lincoln assassination) who used to take an almost daily walk from the White House and folks regularly fell in step to talk.
posted by marshall on 2-12-2008 at 5:12 pm
I would have very much likeed to meet Mr. Lincoln.
posted by John P on 2-12-2008 at 5:21 pm
was lincoln gay? wikipedia says he slept with a man in his bed fer years JIMINY!
posted by shane connolly on 2-12-2008 at 5:46 pm
Did you know that Lincoln was also a Catch wrestler, and a very good one at that?
For more information, search wikipedia on catch wrestling.
MMA is basically a modern form of catch wrestling.
joshbarnett.tv
posted by g on 2-12-2008 at 6:02 pm
Forgot that the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free a single slave.
In fact, he was the only president to sign into law an amendment which would guarantee the existence of slavery.
But alas, you chose to put dreams on instead:-(.
posted by peter on 2-12-2008 at 6:08 pm
Lincoln wasn’t gay (not that there is anything wrong with that) — for a good discussion of the fact that he slept in the same bed with another man see “Team of Rivals”. One must be careful not to impose our modern view of the world on the past.
posted by Tim J on 2-12-2008 at 6:42 pm
Lincoln may have fought for the freedom of slaves but He did not support equal rights.
posted by TheTrutrh on 2-12-2008 at 6:42 pm
Lincoln also DESTROYED the Constitution of the United States. Before Lincoln’s presidency, it was assumed among the states that SECESSION was legal. Lincoln sacrificed over 600,000 American lives for an American unified government.
posted by Lisa Thurmond on 2-12-2008 at 6:50 pm
Lincoln once said, “If I were two faced, why would I have chosen this face.”
posted by michael connors on 2-12-2008 at 7:15 pm
it is said that lincoln would not be able to pass a standard iq test given to him today if he was alive and would be considered mentally challenged
posted by stupid on 2-12-2008 at 7:18 pm
My favoite Lincoln saying was when he was cornered by two of his officers who were arguing about a political situation. One of the officers asked “Mr.Lincoln who’s side are you on, my side or his side”? Mr. Lincoln reply: “I.m on God’s side”.
posted by bob mesiti on 2-12-2008 at 7:45 pm
Lincoln did not destroy the constitution. He was a constitutional lawyer who (correctly, I think) considered it a contract between the states, one that could only be broken with the agreement of all parties.
Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis led a rebellion that eventually sacrificed 600,000 lives so that some people could continue to own others. Call it states’ rights if you like; the core right those states wanted to retain was the right for some people to own others. That was made clear by those states before Lincoln was elected, because they considered him an abolitionist.
It is NOT true that the emancipation proclamation did not free any slaves. However, it’s reach was limited, by necessity. Lincoln did not consider himself empowered to make any law he wished, thus the reach of the proclamation was limited to those additional powers he believed he held in areas already lost to rebellion.
Lincoln allowed large number of regular citizens to speak to him in the White House.
posted by American on 2-12-2008 at 10:16 pm
Here’s a little known fact about Lincoln: Lincoln was a racist tyrant who thought Black people were animals. He said that even if slaves were freed, that blacks should not have any political or civil rights..and was worried that one day they might begin to marry white daughters. Instead, he wanted them deported to Africa. He supported Illinois legislation to curtail the rights of even freed slaves. He also deported a sitting congressman, jailed hundreds of newspaper editors, journalists, and other lawmakers for disagreeing with him.
Lincoln was the worst President in USA history.
posted by Jason on 2-12-2008 at 11:02 pm
I absolutely love learning things about Lincoln- I find him incredibly admirable and fascinating. Mary Todd is also very interesting- I’ve read that she was a bit ‘off’ and went way off after her sons’ and Lincoln’s death and was especially obsessed with seances. I recall a famous fake photograph of her and Lincoln’s ‘ghost’ resting his hand on her shoulder behind her.
posted by Stefanie on 2-12-2008 at 11:45 pm
I had this old book that had a whole lot of different creepy things, and one of the stories was about Lincoln and his dream. It’s definately real, it was documented – but it’s probably less about ghosts or visions of the future and more about him realizing that their was great tension.
posted by Watch_Television on 2-13-2008 at 1:15 am
Not a single citation to backup your slander. Cool.
posted by And on 2-13-2008 at 1:31 am
It sure would have been weird if Lincoln had sketched the “indescribable vessel and moving rapidly toward an indistinct shore” from his dream, and it appeared to be a sketch of a 1963 Lincoln Continental convertible automobile. (JFK’s car)
I heard this story:
A woman once approached Lincoln and said, “Sir, if I was as ugly as you I would never leave the house.” Lincoln replied, “Madam, if I was a woman who looked like me I would never leave the house.”
posted by Tdave on 2-13-2008 at 2:47 am
@Jason
“Lincoln was the worst President in USA history.”
I don’t know whether you’ve been keeping up with current events, but the servant of Sauron who dwells in the White House today isn’t exactly a prize for the American people and the world.
Lincoln may not have been an ideal president but somebody is going to have to work long and hard to equal the record of the guy who’s driving the Resolute desk these days.
@stupid: maybe he wasn’t the sharpest pencil in the box, but the Ghettysburg address is one of the great pieces of literature in American political history. A moron doesn’t write that kind of speech.
A real idiot puts food on his family.
posted by hank on 2-13-2008 at 4:31 am
why hasn’t the bush who has tanked the U.S had a similar dream?
posted by mosey on 2-13-2008 at 9:01 am
Our current tyrant took a page from old lincoln, as lincoln was the first president in our history to suspend habeas corpus.
posted by rob on 2-13-2008 at 10:47 am
Lincoln used to take daily walks from the White House to temporary hospitals set up for injured civil war soldiers.
It was there that Walt Whitman became an admirer of him as a man and a President. So much that he wrote “O Captain! My Captain” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” about Lincoln’s Presidency and the procession of his body from D.C. to Illinois following his assassination.
posted by petal on 2-13-2008 at 4:16 pm
@hank,
As bad as Bush may be, neither he nor anyone else will most likely ever achieve the wanten fraud and disgrace of the Grant Presidency.
posted by Nate on 2-13-2008 at 4:34 pm
I have read all your comments and I say to all of you the following:
“My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington.
Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I can not fail. Trusting in him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To his care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”
posted by Abe on 2-18-2008 at 8:10 pm
Jason’s comment that Lincoln was the worst President ever is totally & absolutely idiotic. His other remarks about Lincoln being a racist are equally flawed and the unfounded rantings of someone who is so out of touch with reality that it’s difficult to put into words.
I’ll put before Jason some other names he should have mentioned. James Earl Carter. Calvin Coolidge. Warren G. Harding. William Jefferson Clinton.
How in the world could Jason actually think such a thing?
Lincoln, as did other Presidents, had his flaws. He was given to periods of melancholy; he worried constantly over the war’s effect on his beloved nation; he mourned the death of his son the remainder of his office. And on an intellectual level, I’m thoroughly convinced he’d be able to run circles around virtually any president before or after him – with the exceptions of, perhaps, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ronald Reagan.
Given the historical implications of the Civil War, slavery, the state of the nation both before and after Lincoln, he was, in my opinion, the greatest President this nation has ever seen.
posted by Walter S. on 2-19-2008 at 7:34 am
One day while on the computer I decided to type in Abraham Lincoln. A website had a tab of “writings” or “letters”. In one of these letters Abraham Lincoln writes that Jesus is his savior. Flaws, we all have them, but salvation doesn’t depend on our character or effort, but on the character and sacrifice of Jesus.
posted by bmiller on 3-8-2008 at 2:14 pm
For the time, Lincoln was not racist, he was a moderate. Very much so. If you are looking for people from that era that were in favor of blacks being complete legal equals to whites, you are only talking about a small number of Abolitionists in the northeast. A fringe element of society, essentially. Many more people did not want blacks as slaves but were not at all in favor of really having them as equals. So I don’t think it’s fair to pin that label of “racism” on Lincoln.
posted by gryphon50 on 3-18-2008 at 10:03 pm
Anyone aware of Lincoln as a Tory?
posted by ran knox on 6-7-2008 at 3:39 am