Reflections on 150 commemorations

[RJNorton]

Hi Sally. Just guessing, but I think it might have been a combination of your suggestions. Your question reminded me of the final paragraph of William Hanchett's Lincoln Murder Conspiracies. Dr. Hanchett wrote, "A generation after Lincoln's death, the newspaperman and former Civil War correspondent, John Russell Young, imagined Lincoln imploring his old friends to save him from the public's unrealistic and unrestrained idolatry. "Save me," Young thought Lincoln might say, "save me, friends, from this slush called history."....Lincoln would not have enjoyed the extravagant and pseudoreligious praise being offered in his name by so many Americans."

My best guess is that he would have tried to "deflect" all the attention he was receiving in the commemorations by telling a story.