If you could ask President Lincoln any question, what would you ask him?
-5th grade students, Durham Academy, Durham, NC
I would ask him when and how he came to the decision to emancipate the Slaves.
Dr. Jean Baker
Goucher College
I would ask President Lincoln what plans he has for Reconstruction of the South and continued emancipation of the recently freed slaves
Stephen A. Brown
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park
Whose political advice did you value the most over the years and why?
Dr. Matthew Pinsker
Dickinson College
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Why is Abraham Lincoln on the Penny? When did that happen?
-Ms. Nachby's 4th grade class, Brooks Elem., Sheperdsville, KY
In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt was sitting in the studio of medalist Victor David Brenner, for a medal honoring him for the Panama Canal. T.R. spied a plaque by Brenner, showing a side view of Lincoln after the famous photo by Anthony Berger in Mathew Brady’s photographic gallery, February 9, 1864.
Roosevelt showed it to the Treasury Department, which was looking for a new image for either the nickel or the penny. They chose the latter because it was the “coin of the common man.”
Daniel Weinberg
Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Chicago, IL
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Hi there, how would you think that Abraham Lincoln, as a great leader from US history who did deal with great challenges of his day, would respond to the many challenges facing our country today? What might be his response to our economic challenges? How might his influences be felt in foreign diplomacy? How might his leadership have affected the way our country has taken on the war in Iraq and the conflict in Afghanistan?
-Frank
Is this fair, you get four questions in one! No, really, good for you! These are questions very worth pondering.
We historians tend to put our own opinions into what we think Lincoln would do, so you would get a variety of opinions about these questions. Lincoln was a brilliant thinker and fair man, so he would care about the hard-working people who were struggling financially. Back then, however, the federal government did not involve itself in personal welfare, so I do not think he would have called for a "stimulus package" as we would do today to help families.
On the international scene, he had respect for Mexico and opposed the Mexican War in 1845. He had respect for Haiti and insisted the U.S. recognize that country's independence.
I think he would be reluctant to go to war; he really tried to persuade the Confederates not to go to war. He told them that they just had to wait four more years to elect a different president. Lincoln’s ideal was Henry Clay, “the Great Compromiser,” and even in his law practice Lincoln attempted to get folks to settle out of court. I believe he would always attempted to find alternative ways instead of war.
Dr. Vernon Burton
Burroughs Professor of Southern History and Culture
Coastal Carolina University
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What do you think would have happened to the country and the African Americans had Lincoln lived longer?
-Brent
By the end of the Civil War, Lincoln had changed on issues of race. He became more willing to support civil rights after he met so many intelligent African Americans, like Frederick Douglass, SoJourner Truth, Robert Smalls, and many more. His last speech, and several of his private letters, show that he wanted to give African American men (women could not vote then) the right to vote. Although limited voting, it opened the door to the franchise. Just as Lincoln had done with the Emancipation Proclamation and his answer to Horace Greeley’s plea of twenty million, he was once again preparing the nation to accept African American citizenship. Lincoln concluded this speech by telling the gathered crowd to expect a further announcement.
One man in the audience understood perfectly what Lincoln intimated. John Wilkes Booth told his companion, “That means n----- citizenship. Now, by God, I’ll put him through. That is the last speech he will ever make.”
Lincoln proclaimed early in 1865 that the Emancipation Proclamation was “the central act of my administration and the great event of the nineteenth century.” A Maryland Civil War Trails brochure tells tourists in a section entitled “Escape of an Assassin” that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln “for what he perceived as Lincoln’s harsh wartime policies.” Abraham Lincoln was not killed for “harsh wartime policies,” which included Emancipation. He was killed for advocating African American voting, as limited as that was. Lincoln is part of a long list of martyrs who died for black voting rights, Medger Edgar, Viola Liuzzo, James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Martin Luther King, Jr., and tragically so many more.
So many people in the North respected Lincoln after the war, called him Father Abraham, that he might have been able to persuade the country to do the right thing about treating freed slaves fairly. I feel sure that he would not allow terrorist groups like the KKK, and there were many other similar groups, to harass American citizens, black or white. His belief in the rule of law would have made certain that southern whites could not have reinstituted the unfair policies that they did.
Dr. Vernon Burton
Burroughs Professor of Southern History and Culture
Coastal Carolina University
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What do you think Lincoln might have accomplished had he not been assassinated? How might that have changed his legacy?
-Kevin M., High School of American Studies at Lehman College, Bronx, NY
Historians are trained not to answer hypothetical questions … but I’ll try this one anyway. Lincoln might have been the only political figure in the country with the skills and vision to have managed Reconstruction in a way that would have reconciled the two sections while still promoting civil rights and equality for former slaves. However, that was a complicated problem that took generations to solve (and some say still hasn’ t been fully accomplished), so it is also possible that the dilemma would have been too great even for Lincoln. We just don’t know.
Dr. Matthew Pinsker
Dickinson College
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Why do you think Lincoln has become so popular today?
-6th grade students, Pine Street Elementary, Wayland, MI
He was a strong President who accomplished his vision.
Brooks Davis
Institute of Learning in Retirement
Northwestern University
