You can call me "Al"...

[Rob Wick]

Eva,

I can think of a couple of reasons that Lincoln would have disliked the name "Abe."

First, many Democrats used it in a pejorative sense. For example, in the Collected Works, there are 14 references found that relate to "Abe." Of those, a number were taken from Democratic newspapers. In the fourth debate in Charleston, Stephan A. Douglas said:

Quote:Lincoln knows that when we were at Freeport in joint discussion, there was a distinguished colored friend of his there then who was on the stump for him, (shouts of laughter,) and who made a speech there the night before we spoke, and another the night after, a short distance from Freeport, in favor of Lincoln, and in order to show how much interest the colored brethren felt in the success of their brother Abe. (Renewed laughter.)

The New York World constantly alleged that Lincoln had asked Ward Hill Lamon to sing "Picayune Butler" while Lincoln, Lamon and General George B. McClellan (who not coincidentally was running for president in 1864 when the story appeared) were in the midst of dead soldiers after the battle of Antietam. Someone even wrote a poem about it:

Quote:`Abe may crack his jolly jokes

O'er bloody fields of stricken battle, While yet the ebbing life-tide smokes From men that die like butchered cattle; He, ere yet the guns grow cold, To pimps and pets may crack his stories,' etc.

Lincoln was so upset by the allegation that he wrote a memorandum that Lamon signed that confirmed that while Lamon sang the song, it was 16 days after the battle and there were no dead bodies in sight (and that McClellan never objected to the singing).

The second reason I think Lincoln would have disliked the name "Abe" is that it suggests a familiarity with Lincoln that I think he personally found abhorrent. All those who knew Lincoln the best adamantly agreed that he was difficult to know fully and for someone to use that name would suggest a friendship that was unlikely. I think, in connection to John Y. Simon's quote that Roger referenced, while Lincoln relished the friendships he made during his time in New Salem, that young, wet-behind-the-ears boy was "Abe" but the successful Springfield lawyer and skilled political operative was either "A. Lincoln" or simply "Lincoln."

Of course, not all uses of "Abe" were negative, as the following letter from Lincoln to Leonard Swett in 1860 shows:

Quote:Dear Swett: Springfield, Ills. July 16. 1860

Herewith I return the letters of Messrs: Putnam & Casey. [2] I thank you for sending them---in the main, they bring good news. And yet that matter, mentioned by Mr. Casey, about want of confidence in their Centrl. Com. pains me. I am afraid there is a germ of difficulty in it. Will not the men thus suspected, and treated as proposed, rebel, and make a dangerous explosion? [3] When you write Mr. Casey, suggest to him that great caution and delicacy of action, is necessary in that matter.

I would like to see you & the Judge, [4] one or both, about that matter of your going to Pa. Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN.


Annotation


[1] ALS, IHi.


[2] James O. Putnam of Buffalo, New York, and Joseph Casey, representative in congress from Pennsylvania, 1849-1851, appointed by Lincoln, Judge of the Court of Claims, 1861. Putnam's letter pleased Lincoln so much that he copied the following extract and filed it in the envelope of Swett's letter: ``They have had large meetings; and they begin to feel that `Old Abe' is a great fellow. This opinion I share, as you see. Do you know, Swett, I think him one of the most remarkable speakers of English, living? In all that constitutes logical eloquence, straight-forwardness, clearness of statement, sincerity that commands your admiration and assent, and a compact stren[g]th of argument, he is infinitely superior to Douglas, I think. The truth is, I have read every thing I have been able to find he has written or said, and the ring of the best metal is in them all. I dont wonder at your admiration.'' (DLC-RTL).


[3] The Pennsylvania State Central Committee was controlled by followers of Andrew G. Curtin, Republican candidate for governor, and the faction supporting Simon Cameron were suspicious of their loyalty. See Lincoln to John M. Pomeroy, August 31, infra.


[4] Judge David Davis.

It seems to me, although my memory is far from reliable, that in one of her letters, Ida Tarbell mentioned Lincoln's dislike of "Abe" although I couldn't begin to remember when (and more importantly, if) I saw it. To the best of my knowledge, I don't know of a direct quote from Lincoln used by a contemporary (as I doubt Lincoln, especially after 1860, would have made such a comment) that is provable, or would rate high on the Fehrenbacher scale.

I wonder if Robert Todd Lincoln ever talked about it?

Best
Rob

[Eva Elisabeth]

Great post, Rob - thank you!

[RJNorton]

In Jason Emerson's Robert Lincoln bio the author writes:

"The Lincolns' son Abraham Lincoln II was born on August 14, 1873. He was promptly nicknamed "Jack" by his father, apparently because Robert felt "Abraham" too long and formal a name for a young boy, and he disliked the moniker "Abe," just as his father had."

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks, Roger - I don't have that book but saw in Google books the passage you quoted is footnoted (#40). Would you (or someone who has the book) perhaps and kindly check out what J. Emerson's source is? Thanks much!

[RJNorton]

Eva, Jason Emerson's sources for this are Robert's law partners, Edward Isham and William Beale. Another source was Jack's teacher, C.N. Fessenden.

Emerson says that the more common explanation seen in books is that "Robert told his son the name 'Abraham Lincoln' was too reverential a name to be bestowed until the boy had earned the right to wear it, which his father would decide at age 21." Emerson regards this explanation as apocryphal.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thank you so much, Roger!!!