The Shadows Rise

[Mike B.]

(10-26-2012 05:16 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  I have it, but haven't read it yet. It's one of the better books about the pair.

Best
Rob

Rob,
I love the book.

It really shoots down the far too influential "Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence" in "Lincoln the President" by James Randall. Randall's wife actually wrote it. (I am aware of your expertise in Randall, so I will defer to you.) In a letter James Randall calls the piece Ruth's work.

She really made it seem like half the people in New Salem thought nothing of the kind of any romantic relationship occurring and the other half that did were senile. Her most flagerant violation was a very selective quote of Uncle Jimmy Short that changed the meaning of what he said.

If you read the book it was basically unanimous among the people of New Salem that Lincoln and Ann had some kind of romantic relationship. There was some disagreement about the engagement, etc. But less than you would think.

I have often thought "Sifting the Ann Rutledge Evidence" from "Lincoln the President" was one of the worst things to ever happen to Lincoln scholarship. Burlingame once said, that because of it for decades historians treated all the valuable Herndon/Weik material like "high level toxic waste." It seems to me Doug Wilson and others brought it back in the 1990s and really started the renisance in Lincoln literature we have seen since then.

It still kind of irks me when I read facile generalizations of some in the media when they mention it as saying "There is no evidence" of this occurring.

Also, the late Dr. Tripp wrote an awful piece being critical of Ike Cogdal and using a statistical model to show Lincoln never remembered Ann Rutledge to him in 1860. Michael Burlingame took this apart pretty convincingly. You can't use a statistical model to show word correlation in someone giving a rememberace of a conversation 6 years earlier. They are of course not going to remember the exact wording. Of course Tripp had a strong motive to discredit Cogdal because his book argued Lincoln was a homosexual.

Also, Cogdal talked about religion with Lincoln about the same time. Herndon wrote in his notes. People have cast doubt on that because Lincoln would supposedly never open himself up on the subject. What is so silly about this is if you look at the interview. Herndon writes on it he was in the room at the time and the conversation was correct. I don't see what more you could ask for.

Okay...sorry for being very long winded...read the book and tell us what you think!