Lincoln donated to Ireland during the Great Famine.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/...43606.html

From Bill Moyers:

Abraham Lincoln — who ran as a Republican during the era of Whigs and Democrats — was America’s last third-party candidate to successfully win the presidency.

There is something about this that really bothers me. The Whig Party in America was, for all practical purposes, dead in 1856 (it started the death rattle in 1852), a full four years before Lincoln was elected. Lincoln, for all practical purposes, ceased to be a Whig in 1852. If any party was a third party, it was likely to be Whigs, or the Constitutional Union Party which it became in the north in 1860.

So is Moyers right? Were the Whigs enough of a political force in the 1860s to justify his comment that the Republicans were, in reality, a third party? I don't think so.

Best
Rob

During the summer, I assume that Mr. Lincoln would wear white clothing instead of the typical black items.

I have seen only 1 photo of Abraham in white; is there other documentations that he wore lighter colored clothes?

Ladies and gents, Here is a letter that Abraham Lincoln wrote to his father Thomas while he was a member of congress in Washington. It is dated December 24, 1848.

Your letter of the 7th. was received night before last. I very cheerfully send you the twenty dollars, which sum you say is necessary to save your land from sale. It is singular that you should have forgotten a judgement against you; and it is more singular that the plaintiff should have let you forget it for so long, particularly as I suppose you have always had property enough to satisfy a judgement of that amount. Before you pay it, it would be well to be sure you have not paid it; or, at least, that you can not prove you have paid it. Give my love to mother, and all the connections. Affectionately your son

I am curious to get some opinions. Was Lincoln being reproachful here? To me, i can sense a sort of tension between the son and the father with this letter. Also, does anyone know if Thomas Lincoln's letter from the 7th has survived?

Craig

So, with the news that a new book on Lincoln and religion will soon be available, i would like to get member's opinions on where they place Lincoln in terms of his religious belief. Of course, Mary Todd Lincoln told William Herndon that Lincoln was not a technical Christian, but toward the end of his life, there can be no doubt that Lincoln was very spiritual, if not overly religious.

In full disclosure, I approach this with a worldview on my own part of agnosticism bordering on outright atheism. That said, I've never accepted that Lincoln was an outright atheist himself. There certainly is enough evidence to suggest that he was a skeptic in his early years, but I'm not sure that he fits the pattern of someone who doesn't accept that God exists. In my progression from skeptic to disbelief, I went through several different stages that at any point could have gone either way, and I imagine Lincoln's progression was much the same.

Once, during a presentation at the Conference on Illinois History on Lincoln and religion, I asked the presenter to ponder just what Lincoln's view of religion would have been if he had never been elected president and had died in his bed as an old man. The presenter could only say that such a question would be speculative and therefore he couldn't answer it. So I will. I sincerely believe that had Lincoln never been elected president, and had he not oversaw the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, I believe he would not have been as spiritual as he became, but I still don't believe he would have embraced outright atheism, although it would have been interesting to know what Lincoln thought of Robert Ingersoll, who will be the subject of a biography by Susan Jacoby in January 2013.

Best
Rob

Here is a site with a long interview about a new graphic novel featuring Lincoln during his Springfield days when he suffered from depression. Samples of the illustrations are included. I am not vouching for accuracy, but the project seems interesting.
The title of the book is "The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln.

http://comicsbulletin.com/reviews/4840/a...g-lincoln/

Another Lincoln themed movie is in the works, The Green Blade Rises, which will detail three years in the early life of Lincoln in Indiana and the influence of Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln:

http://news.yahoo.com/diane-kruger-cast-...34160.html

This is a short article about Diane Kruger who will play Sarah Bush Lincoln:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1208167/

The movie is scheduled for 2013 and will begin production this Fall. The writer/director is A. J. Edwards. The producers are Charley Beil, Nicholas Gonda, and Terrence Malick. Terrence Malick was the director of the movie "The Tree of Life."

Synopsis: Sarah Lincoln becomes Abraham Lincoln’s stepmother when he is 10 years old. The young Lincoln faces hardships which shape him and tragedy which marks him forever, but two women guide him to immortality. His stepmother becomes an influential figure for the future president.
Read more at http://www.movieinsider.com/m10560/the-g...OGy4E8y.99

The bio-pic will be filmed in black and white.

Joshua Speed told William Herndon in 1865 that Lincoln had written a poem about suicide that was published in the Sangamo Journal. Herndon searched for it, but he never found it.

Then, about 10-15 years ago, author Richard Lawrence Miller noticed an unsigned poem titled "The Suicide’s Soliloquy" in the August 25, 1838, edition of the Sangamo Journal. The paper explained that the note was found by the unidentified bones of an apparent suicide located near the Sangamon River.

Since then historians are divided - some think this is indeed the poem Speed told Herndon about. The poem is in Joshua Shenk's book about Lincoln and depression, and Shenk writes, "Without an original manuscript or a letter in which ownership is claimed, no unsigned piece can be attributed definitely to an author. But the context points strongly to Lincoln."

I am including the words here and wondering if any forum members have an opinion on Lincoln possibly being the author.

The Suicide's Soliloquy

Here, where the lonely hooting owl
Sends forth his midnight moans,
Fierce wolves shall o'er my carcase growl,
Or buzzards pick my bones.

No fellow-man shall learn my fate,
Or where my ashes lie;
Unless by beasts drawn round their bait,
Or by the ravens' cry.

Yes! I've resolved the deed to do,
And this the place to do it:
This heart I'll rush a dagger through,
Though I in hell should rue it!

Hell! What is hell to one like me
Who pleasures never know;
By friends consigned to misery,
By hope deserted too?

To ease me of this power to think,
That through my bosom raves,
I'll headlong leap from hell's high brink,
And wallow in its waves.

Though devils yell, and burning chains
May waken long regret;
Their frightful screams, and piercing pains,
Will help me to forget.

Yes! I'm prepared, through endless night,
To take that fiery berth!
Think not with tales of hell to fright
Me, who am damn'd on earth!

Sweet steel! come forth from out of your sheath,
And glist'ning, speak your powers;
Rip up the organs of my breath,
And draw my blood in showers!

I strike! It quivers in that heart
Which drives me to this end;
I draw and kiss the bloody dart,
My last-my only friend!

When young Abraham Lincoln arrived at New Salem it seemed to have such promise as an up and coming place. Within just a few years it died away. What happened? Why didn't it continue to grow and prosper?

The fraudulent Wilma Frances Minor letters between Ann Rutledge and Abraham Lincoln have been mentioned in a couple of threads. I decided to do a search for examples of these letters and came upon a few.

Here is a sample of Abraham writing to Ann:

My Beloved Ann:
...I am borrowing Jacks horse to ride over to see you this coming Saturday. cutting my foot prevents my walking. I will be at your pleasure to accompany you to the Sand Ridge taffy-pull. I will be glad to hear your Father's sermon on the Sabbath. I feel unusually lifted with hope of relieving your present worry at an early date and likewise doing myself the best turn of my life. with you my beloved all things are possible. now James kindly promises to deliver into your dear little hands this letter. may the good Lord speed Saturday afternoon.
affectionately A. Lincoln


Here is a sample of Ann writing to Abraham:

my hart runs over with hapynes when I think yore name. I do not beleave I can find time to rite you a leter every day. stil I no as you say it wood surely improve my spelling and all that... I dreem of yore ... words every nite and long for you by day. I mus git super now. all my hart is ever thine.