Legends That Libel Lincoln

[L Verge]

The Lincoln Herald, Summer 2017 issue (publishing is always late) arrived this week and has a similar unique theme in a short article by Jason Silverman, who comments on a 1943 publication. William F. Petersen was the author of Lincoln-Douglas: The Weather as Destiny, and the theme is focused on weather affecting human beings to the point where it shapes their future and the course of history -- for good or ill.

Petersen theorized that humans must adjust to heat and cold, wet and dry, wind and calm conditions that demand an ever-changing adjustment of heart, nerves, and blood vessels according to their body type. This proclivity can actually start in the wound.

He then compares the short and stocky Stephen Douglas with the tall and gaunt Abraham Lincoln. Douglas was born to a calm, comfortable mother, and was conceived in a gentle Vermont summer. He weighed 12 pounds or more at birth. He was raised in a peaceful environment with a warm and cozy home, plentiful food, friendly neighbors, and plenty of stimulating books, and a church background. Such people are not as affected by harsh weather, have a smaller body so less buffeting by elements, but therefore not toughened to life. They die younger than others - Douglas was 48.

Lincoln, on the other hand, was conceived during an especially cold and rainy season at the end of a hard Kentucky winter. His mother was exhausted from the weather, from nursing her young daughter, and enduring the hardships of her meager home. As he grew up in the wilderness of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, Abraham became hardened, moody, and mercurial and prone to bouts of depression. However, the harsh conditions led to his greatness. Had he not died at 56, the doctors' comments at his "autopsy" would indicate that he was strong enough to live more years.

Just the four pages of this article is intriguing in its theory. Has anyone ever read the original 1943 publication by Petersen? It seems to be another example of how authors have used and abused Mr. Lincoln over the years in order to advance their theories.

P.S. February 12, 1809, was also the birthday of Charles Darwin; and Tennyson and Gladstone were born that same year.