Extra Credit Questions

[David Lockmiller]

I, for one, am now glad that we had this online conversation (although not initially) and reached the correct conclusion when all was said and done. I did my research and got the correct answers to questions that were raised.

I am not a great reader, even of Lincoln books. And, although I purchased Professor Burlingame's two volume set of Abraham Lincoln: A Life at full price ($125, as I recall) at a fancy bookstore on Union Square in San Francisco, I did not read much of the first volume and concentrated my reading on the Presidential years for the most part and then usually on specific subject matter such as the "Dakota 38." This became a hot topic in San Francisco when a "progressive" elected school board decided they were going to make "corrections" to history by renaming specific schools for bad character considerations, including President Lincoln authorizing the execution of 38 Dakota Sioux. Native Americans had been universally wronged by the "manifest destiny" policy of white Americans, with thousand-year cultures destroyed and lands permanently taken and countless lives destroyed in the process.

I knew vaguely that Lincoln's step-mother had played a significant role in Abraham Lincoln's early life. But Rob forced me to research the details. I was rewarded for doing so. What a magnificent writer and historical researcher is Professor Michael Burlingame. In one page and one paragraph he documented the relative importance that Lincoln's step-mother played in Lincoln's immediate and future life.

See the post that I made yesterday in order to refresh your mind and thoughts to the argument made by Professor Burlingame. One line stood out for me: "When her new husband insisted that she sell some of her furniture, “saying it was too fine for them to keep,” she refused to do so." This was big, permanent change in living for the family. The result of this change: "After replacing the crude puncheon tables and stools, she swiftly effected other improvements: a floor was laid down, doors and windows were installed." A second example portending great benefit for Lincoln's life was when his step-mother overcame his father's previous objections: "Reading for the young Abraham was not only permitted, it was encouraged."

An example of Professor Burlingame's detailed scholarship is the following: She was a good cook, though her culinary skill was wasted on Abe, whom she described as “a moderate Eater” who obediently “ate what was set before him, making no complaint: he seemed Careless about this.” [Such gustatory indifference persisted into adulthood. According to a White House secretary, Lincoln during his presidency “was one of the most abstemious of men; the pleasures of the table had few attractions for him.”]

And, "hats off" to the writing of Doris Kearns Goodwin in previous post that same day: "Lincoln’s early intimacy with tragic loss reinforced a melancholy temperament. Yet his familiarity with pain and personal disappointment imbued him with a strength and understanding of human frailty. Moreover, Lincoln possessed a life-affirming humor and profound resilience that lightened his despair and fortified his will."

In short, I am glad I went through this experience, although at times it was distasteful to me.