Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 369

If you and I didn’t have all the bases covered it’s comforting to know that Lincoln didn’t either.
Consider this: there is no such thing as a photograph or a statue or a painting of Abraham Lincoln in which his tie is straight and more than85% of his hair is in place. [He apparently combed his hair with his fingers – which were invented long before pocket combs.] Think of the $5 bill, the Lincoln Memorial statue, Mount Rushmore. Photogenic, he wasn’t!

Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 368

The main speaker at the dedication ceremony of the cemetery at Gettysburg, Edward Everett, sent this note about what came to be called the Gettysburg Address to President Lincoln: 'I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.'
- Edward Everett

Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 367

Compassion in action.
The terms of surrender Grant presented to Lee at Appomattox were uncommonly lenient. Confederate officers, after relinquishing their arms and artillery were allowed ’to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authority’ on the condition they never again ‘take up arms’ against the Union. They were also allowed to take their private horses as well as their side arms [‘their horses to plow with and the guns to shoot crows with’]. This provision, Lee observed, ‘would have a happy effect upon my army.’ As the brief meeting between the two commanders drew to a close Lee mentioned that ‘his army was in a very bad condition for want of food.’ Grant gave orders that 100,000 rations be provided for Lee’s scare-crow army of 25,000 men.

Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 366

The principal speaker at the November 19, 1863 ceremony dedicating the Gettysburg cemetery was Edward Everett from Massachusetts. As an afterthought the organizers invited Lincoln ‘to make a few appropriate remarks.’ From Lincoln’s perspective, the dedication of this cemetery offered him the opportunity to lay out succinctly the North’s war aims – to explain why all these dead had not died in vain. This opportunity was particularly appealing in that virtually every Northern governor would be in attendance, and such a grouping, at that time, was a rarity indeed.

Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 365

‘As a general rule I abstain from reading reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.’

- Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 364

At one point during the war Lincoln was forced by his cabinet to confront the realization that many people who were thought to be Unionists were actually spies providing key information to the Confederacy. After presenting the evidence, Secretary of War Stanton asked for direction. Lincoln, who had been silent and visibly disturbed, expressed his feelings with a story about the dilemma of an old farmer who had a very large shade tree towering over his house. 'It was a majestic-looking tree and apparently perfect in every part – tall, straight and of immense size - the grand old sentinel of his forest home. One morning while at work in his garden he saw a squirrel run up the tree into a hole and thought the tree might be hollow. He proceeded to examine it carefully and - much to his surprise - he found that the stately tree that he had valued for its beauty and grandeur to be the pride and protection of his little farm was hollow from top to bottom. Only a rim of sound wood remained barely sufficient to support its weight. What was he to do? If he cut it down it would do immense damage with its great length and spreading branches. If he let it remain his family was in constant danger; in a storm it might fall or the wind might blow it down and his house and children be crushed by it. What should he do? As he turned away he said sadly, “I wish I had never seen that squirrel.”’

- Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 363

Domestic reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation seemed as furious as it was remarkably shortsighted. The Republican press in giving the proclamation strong editorial support assured their readers that liberated slaves would not stampede into the North and steal their jobs. Even so, this decision cost the Lincoln administration a huge price: by-partisan support for the war disappeared like snow in spring. ‘It is impudent and insulting to God as to man,’ cried one Democrat, ‘for it declares those equal whom God created unequal.’ There was trouble in the army as well with white soldiers cursing liberated slaves with an ‘unreasoning hatred.’ But Lincoln was immovable as stone. He was determined to strike at the rebellion at its very core. He also estimated that making this an overt fight against slavery would doom any hopes the South had of foreign recognition. Finally, he anticipated great advantage not only from depleting the South of slave labor but also in swelling Union ranks with black soldiers [in the end an estimated 186,000 blacks joined the Union war effort].