What were the people's first reactions to the Gettysburg Address?
-6th Grade Students, Pine Street Elementary School, Wayland, MI
Few at the time had any idea of the significance of those few words.
Dr. James H. Madison
Indiana University Bloomington
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Why did Abraham Lincoln pick his "rivals" for the cabinet?
-6th grade students, Pine Street Elementary School, Wayland, MI
Partly to hear what they had to say, partly to keep a watch on them and under his authority. But mostly to make them less rivals than allies.
Professor Jennifer Fleischner
Adelphi University
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How did Lincoln like being president?
-Ivey Biffle, 5th grader, Fargo Public School, Fargo, OK
President Abraham Lincoln liked being president, but the stresses of the office took their toll on him and his family. He always carried with him the mental burden that because of his election, the South claimed they could secede; thus, he believed it was his task to preserve the nation and bring the wayward South back into the Union. The stresses of the office also nibbled away at Lincoln from the daily visitors seeking favors and federal jobs both in the military and in the bureaucracy, to the stresses of running a Civil War with large casualty rates. Some of Lincoln personal friends and family members through marriage died during the war and the death of his son William sent both Mary Todd Lincoln, his wife, and Abraham Lincoln into “melancholy,” deep sadness.
Yet, Lincoln managed. He used humor to brighten his moods and the moods of those around him. He used his life-long passion for reading as a mechanism for dealing with the daily stresses of the presidency, and he enjoyed the politics of being president. The office and the job fascinated him, and he grew into the presidency just as the presidency grew in power and prestige during his administration. That Lincoln liked being president can be demonstrated because in 1864 he sought, earned, and won a second term as president; he surely would not have run for a second term if he did not enjoy the office and the duties of the president of the United States.
Dr. Thomas C. Mackey and Kirk A. Laughlin, student
University of Louisville
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Did Lincoln break any laws (i.e., place people under arrest who were suspected of acts against the Union) to make sure that the Northern troops could safely get through the Border States in order to reach Washington, D.C.?
-D. Wasserbach
Contrary to what some people argued at the time and a few people since, President Abraham Lincoln did not break any laws to ensure that troops traveling across the Border State of Maryland to defend the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia. In April 1861, with the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln issued a call for volunteers, ordered a naval blockade of the South, and suspended the writ of habeas corpus in order to maintain law and order in the Border State of Maryland that surrounded Washington on three sides. In a time of national emergency, the president can take of these actions in order to defend the national against attacks whether they be from domestic insurrectionists like the southerners or from external attack.
On April 22, 1861, a delegation of fifty men from Baltimore, Maryland visited Lincoln and asked him not to allow federal troops to cross over Maryland territory to defend Washington, D.C. Lincoln responded to them saying, “You, gentlemen, come here to me and ask for peace on any terms, and yet have no word of condemnation for those who are making war on us . . . you would have me break my oath and surrender the Government with out a blow.” And that Lincoln would not do. He castigated this delegation saying, “There is no Washington in that – no Jackson in that – no manhood nor honor in that . . . I must have troops to defend this Capital.” Lincoln then reminded the delegation that Maryland surrounded the District and, thus, troops would have to pass over Maryland to defend Washington, D.C.. “Our men are not moles, and can’t dig under the earth,” Lincoln said in his folksy manner, “they are not birds, and can’t fly through the air. There is no way but to march across [Maryland], and that they must do.” Lincoln simply explained the obvious to this group of Baltimorians that the federal capital would be defended in spite of their pro-southern sympathies. Lincoln finished warning them to “Keep your rowdies in Baltimore, and there will be no bloodshed. Go home and tell your people that if they will not attack us, we will not attack them; but if they do attack us, we will return it, and that severely.” Protecting Washington, D.C., from invasion by either southern forces from Virginia or from pro-southern forces in Maryland constituted one of Lincoln first needs of the war effort, and in protecting Washington, Lincoln violated no laws.
Dr. Thomas C. Mackey and Patrick Smith, student
University of Louisville
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Did Lincoln add anything to the White House?
-K. Rooker
Not directly. It was Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, who took up the task of repairing and fixing up the White House. After receiving twenty thousand dollars from Congress for the repairs, Mary Todd Lincoln went on a shopping spree buying foreign carpets, drapery, furniture, vases, and whatever she believed would transform the White House (at the time called the Executive Mansion) into the most eloquent home in the country. Some of her more expensive and exquisite purchases included a seven hundred piece set of Bohemian cut glass and a set of china with the national emblem upon it. Although she ran over budget and friends had to undertake some creative accounting to cover-up her over-spending, she succeed in transforming the White House into the nation’s show place for which people drew comparisons between Mary Todd Lincoln and Dolley Madison.
Dr. Thomas C. Mackey and James F. Osbourne, student
University of Louisville
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Did Lincoln have any women in his administration?
-K. Rooker
No, Lincoln did not have women in his administration. Women were not allowed to vote or participate in politics during this period. If they had been allowed to participate in politics, Mary Lincoln probably would have run for public office herself. She loved politics as much as Lincoln did (perhaps moreso).
Dr. Edna Greene Medford
Howard University
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How did Lincoln justify suspending Habeas Corpus?
-8th grade student, Marlboro Memorial Middle School
As a lawyer by training, President Abraham Lincoln knew both the 1787 Constitution and the laws and rules governing the use of the writ of habeas corpus (meaning “deliver the body”). The “Great Writ” of liberty provides that the incarceration or holding of anyone can be reviewed by a judge. Suspending the writ is strong medicine for maintaining law and order in areas of the country that may or may not have been loyal. In his July 4, 1861, “Message to Congress in Special Session,” spoke about both the need to suspend the writ and why he believed he, as president, had the power to suspend the writ. Lincoln reviewed his actions in the wake of the surrender at Fort Sumter and recognized that some people had questioned the “legality and propriety” of his actions including suspending the writ. Lincoln pointed out that his oath as president required him to faithfully execute the law, but that in one-third of the states, those states that claimed to secede, that they had resisted the execution of the laws. As Lincoln put the issue, ”To state the question more directly, are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?” In fact, Lincoln argued, “Even in such case, would not the official oath be broken, if the government should be overthrown, when it was believed that disregarding the single law, would tend to preserve it?”
In this section of this important speech, Lincoln employed a means/ends test. He argued that then end, the preserving of the laws and the Union, was more important than the issue of suspending and ignoring one law, suspending the writ by presidential decree. In crisis times, choices have to me made, and Lincoln argues that the larger goal of preserving the Union could withstand the suspension of the writ. Lincoln then pointed out that the public safety required the suspension of the writ and “as the provision was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it can not be believed the framers of the instrument [the Constitution] intended, that in every case, the danger should run its course, until Congress could be called together; the very assembling of which might be prevented, as was intended in this case, by the rebellion.” Thus, the president could suspend the writ in a time of emergency and crisis such as the outbreak of a domestic insurrection, and that the end of preserving the Union required that the president suspend the writ in order to maintain the Union. With these persuasive arguments and an appreciation of the unique historical context in which Lincoln operated, the reasons for President Lincoln’s suspension of the writ can understood.
Dr. Thomas C. Mackey and Eric Curtsinger, student
University of Louisville
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During the recreation of the Lincoln-Douglas debates on T.V. years ago, Chief Shabbona was on the platform during the Ottawa, Il. debate. Why was he so honored when the Native American's opinion was not considered, and the old chief had no civil liberties?
I realize that Chief Shabbona had save many lives by warning the white settlers of danger during the BlackHawk War. However, when his fellow tribesmen were sent west of the Mississippi, he went for a while and the settlers took his land. Other settlers then purchased land near Morris (I think) for the Chief to have a home.
-Martha K.
This is a good question that is difficult to answer. There is certainly a long tradition that Chief Shabbonna was on the platform at the Ottawa debate, apparently at the request of Perry A. Armstrong, a local political official. However, I looked into this quickly and the story seems to have cropped up in recollections and doesn’t appear in contemporary accounts of the debates, or at least the ones that I examined. But if the chief was present, the reason was surely just as you suggested --that he was known as a friend to whites and celebrated for his role as a mediator during the Black Hawk War. And the truth is that by 1858, the Indians were curiosities in Illinois and not threats, and an aging chieftain (Shabbona would have been in his eighties) on the platform would have been perceived as a spectacle and not any kind of gesture toward respect for civil rights for Native Americans.
Dr. Matthew Pinsker
Dickinson College
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How did Lincoln get elected president?
-L.D K., 5th grader from Fargo Public School, Fargo, OK
He talked to larger and larger groups in the Midwest and then the East about his visions for our country’s future.
Brooks Davis
Institute of Learning in Retirement
Northwestern University
