What did Mr. Lincoln enjoy doing?

[LincolnMan]

Roger: nice reference from Twenty Days-a book that form any of us was part of our "early education" on Lincoln's assassination. I pulled my copy that that oversized gem off the shelf and recollected that time. The pictures are still neat even though the format of the book seems outdated.

[RJNorton]

Bill, over the past 40 years or so, I think I have pulled Twenty Days off the shelves for perusal more than any other book I have ever owned. That book is indeed a special one!

Regarding Willie's passing...
Here is a letter Franklin Pierce wrote to Lincoln after Willie died:

From Franklin Pierce to Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1862

Concord N. H.

March 4 1862

My dear Sir,

The impulse to write you, the moment I heard of your great domestic affliction was very strong, but it brought back the crushing sorrow which befel me just before I went to Washington in 1853, with such power that I felt your grief, to be too sacred for intrusion.

Even in this hour, so full of danger to our Country, and of trial and anxiety to all good men, your thoughts, will be, of your cherished boy, who will nestle at your heart, until you meet him in that new life, when tears and toils and conflict will be unknown.

I realize fully how vain it would be, to suggest sources of consolation.

There can be but one refuge in such an hour, -- but one remedy for smitten hearts, which, is to trust in Him "who doeth all things well", and leave the rest to --

"Time comforter & only healer

When the heart hath broke"

With Mrs Pierce's and my own best wishes -- and truest sympathy for Mrs Lincoln and yourself

I am, very truly,

Yr. friend

Franklin Pierce

[LincolnMan]

Roger: even today the letter exudes tenderness and true sympathy. It must have been such a comfort for him. And to think-it wasn't Lincoln's first child that he lost but the second! Unfortunately, in those days when medicine hadn't the "miracle" drugs we have today like penicillin-children often died.

[RJNorton]

Bill, I wonder how many Americans even know that President Franklin Pierce's family lost an 11-year-old son in a tragic train accident only months before he assumed the presidency? Lincoln could certainly write wonderful letters of condolence, but it is my humble opinion that Pierce could, too.

[LincolnMan]

Roger: I'm of the belief that many Americans would not know we had a President named Franklin Pierce. Sad to think... Since we're talking about such letters-I love reading Lincoln's letter to Fanny McCullough-and I think it was written by him after Willie had died. It contains much tenderness as well.

[J. Beckert]

The Pierce story is a horrible one. He actually saw his son decapitated by a door on a train he was travelling on. I think it was him who said - "What else is there to do after the Presidency but drink?"

[LincolnMan]

How awful!

[mbgross]

I think he liked to work.

[L Verge]

I would agree that work was probably cathartic for him. Even though he was faced with such turmoil around him, the pressure of work would take his thoughts off of the war's horrors, perhaps.

[ninabeth13]

Hello all, I am the screenwriter of a new movie, "Saving Lincoln," coming to theaters soon. It's about Lincoln's fiery trial as commander-in-chief, as told by his close friend and bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon.

In my extensive research for the screenplay (over the course of 10 years), I learned that Lincoln's favorite hobbies included handball, listening to music, telling & hearing jokes, and, of course, going to the theater. In "Saving Lincoln" we have a scene of Lincoln playing handball with Edward D. Baker in Springfield in the late 1850's. We also have scenes of Lincoln listening to Lamon play the guitar and sing, as well as Lincoln attending a Shakespeare play.

[LincolnMan]

The scene of Lincoln playing handball will be priceless!

[L Verge]

Interesting. I would never have thought about handball. For some reason, I put it closer to the end of the Victorian era.

However, Dr. Richard Mudd (Dr. Sam's grandfather) played handball almost every day up into his 90s, I've been told. He lived to be 101, so maybe we should all take up that sport.

[LincolnMan]

And speaking of Lincoln the lawyer making his rounds on the circuit, here is a little story from the book The Wit And Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln by Anthony Gross:

While walking along a dusty road in Illinois in his circuit days Lincoln was overtaken by a stranger driving to town. "Will you have the goodness to take my overcoat to town for me?" asked Lincoln. "With pleasure; but how will you get it again?" "Oh, very readily. I intend to remain in it," was Lincoln's prompt reply.

[LincolnMan]

Per Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln frequently participated in an early form of baseball during his Springfield years. I wonder what the ball was made of. Was it more the size of a hardball or a softball?

[RJNorton]

I wonder if he's referring to a form of handball the Springfield attorneys used to play in an alley. I once saw this referenced as an early form of baseball, but it seems more like handball. Of course Dr. Guelzo may be referring to something else, Bill. I do not know.