The Handwriting Style of Abraham Lincoln

[maharba]

In looking over examples of the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, it seems almost as if he could not write literately, at all. I wonder when he first began to try to write in longhand (which used to be called 'cursive')? He was born in 1809, so maybe that would have been about 1825? Lincoln appears to finally settled on signing with an "A.Lincoln". Then after he got into the White House, you more often will see it as
Abraham Lincoln. That would be 1861-1865. I see some biographers have described his penmanship as sweeping and elegant. In fact, Abraham Lincoln had terrible penmanship. It was jerky, broken, often appearing cramped. I know that several of his personal secretaries supposedly were in the habit of writing out letters and even
signatures 'in the style of Lincoln', and that these have confused historians. I wonder if the near total absence of formal education is to blame for the poor handwriting ability of Abraham Lincoln.