Extra Credit Questions

[LincolnMan]

The vessel S.S. Globe transported the Lincolns in 1848 to Chicago. Where was the S.S. Globe built?

[RJNorton]

I will guess it was built in Buffalo?

[LincolnMan]

Roger: that is a really good guess since the Lincolns boarded the ship there. However, that answer is not correct.

[RJNorton]

OK, Bill, then (since you are an inhabitant of the beautiful state of Michigan), I shall guess Detroit.

[LincolnMan]

You are correct! Detroit is the answer.

[RJNorton]

To show the degree in which Abraham Lincoln's life has been explored, a person once wrote a 400+ page book on something that is missing. What am I talking about?

[Gene C]

I think I have that book, it was on a shelf down in the basement.... but it seems to be missing.

[Steve]

The missing chapter in the life of Abraham Lincoln; a number of articles, episodes, photographs, pen and ink sketches concerning the life of Abraham Lincoln in Spencer County, Indiana, between 1816-1830 and 1844 by Bess Ehrmann

https://archive.org/details/missingchapterin00ehrm

[Eva Elisabeth]

https://books.google.de/books/about/Linc...edir_esc=y
This matches the question, too. 400+ pages.

[RJNorton]

Steve, that is a great guess, but Eva got what I was seeking. Kudos, Eva! Although the text of Lincoln's Lost Speech is missing, Elwell Crissey was still able to write a 400+ book on the topic. Crissey includes a lot of extra information such as many paragraphs of information on the people who attended the 1856 Bloomington Convention. Crissey's paternal grandfather was in the audience for Lincoln's speech.

Benjamin P. Thomas wrote, "The audience sat enthralled. Men listened as though transfixed. Reporters forgot to use the pencils in their hands, so that no complete and authentic record of what may have been his greatest speech has ever been found."

[Steve]

Steve, that is a great guess, but Eva got what I was seeking. Kudos, Eva! Although the text of Lincoln's Lost Speech is missing, Elwell Crissey was still able to write a 400+ book on the topic. Crissey includes a lot of extra information such as many paragraphs of information on the people who attended the 1856 Bloomington Convention. Crissey's paternal grandfather was in the audience for Lincoln's speech.

Benjamin P. Thomas wrote, "The audience sat enthralled. Men listened as though transfixed. Reporters forgot to use the pencils in their hands, so that no complete and authentic record of what may have been his greatest speech has ever been found."

The speech was that noteworthy? Did reporters/commentators note the effectiveness of the speech when it happened, or was it remembered that way years later?

[RJNorton]

Apparently the energy Lincoln put into this speech made it most noteworthy to the onlookers. Lincoln's passion rubbed off on the audience, and there were numerous interruptions when the folks in Major's Hall stopped him with thunderous applause. When this happened, Lincoln's enthusiasm grew even more, and his voice continued to rise as the interruptions grew even louder. Crissey writes, "The effect was electrical, almost frightening." Lincoln would retreat to the back of the stage and then slowly walk toward the front edge with his voice rising as he moved. When he was at the stage's edge his huge height and thundering voice seemed to have an overpowering effect on the people at the convention.

Writing in the Chicago Democrat, reporter John Wentworth said, "Abraham Lincoln for an hour and a half held the assemblage spellbound by the power of his argument, the intense irony of his invective, the brilliancy of his eloquence. I shall not mar any of its fine proportions by attempting even a synopsis of it."

William Herndon was present for the speech and concluded, "His speech was full of fire and energy and force. It was logic; it was pathos; it was enthusiasm; it was justice, equity, truth, and right set ablaze by the devine fires of a soul maddened by the wrong; it was hard, heavy, knotty, gnarly, backed with wrath."

Not every speech Lincoln gave during his life has a known text, but the overall "rousing nature" of both the speaker and the audience seems to put the Lost Speech in a special category. I have read that Thomas' explanation for the lost text is not really correct; rather Lincoln's anti-slavery oratory was so strong that he himself asked that it be kept off the record.

[David Lockmiller]

Apparently the energy Lincoln put into this speech made it most noteworthy to the onlookers. Lincoln's passion rubbed off on the audience, and there were numerous interruptions when the folks in Major's Hall stopped him with thunderous applause. When this happened, Lincoln's enthusiasm grew even more, and his voice continued to rise as the interruptions grew even louder. Crissey writes, "The effect was electrical, almost frightening." Lincoln would retreat to the back of the stage and then slowly walk toward the front edge with his voice rising as he moved. When he was at the stage's edge his huge height and thundering voice seemed to have an overpowering effect on the people at the convention.

Writing in the Chicago Democrat, reporter John Wentworth said, "Abraham Lincoln for an hour and a half held the assemblage spellbound by the power of his argument, the intense irony of his invective, the brilliancy of his eloquence. I shall not mar any of its fine proportions by attempting even a synopsis of it."

William Herndon was present for the speech and concluded, "His speech was full of fire and energy and force. It was logic; it was pathos; it was enthusiasm; it was justice, equity, truth, and right set ablaze by the devine fires of a soul maddened by the wrong; it was hard, heavy, knotty, gnarly, backed with wrath."

Not every speech Lincoln gave during his life has a known text, but the overall "rousing nature" of both the speaker and the audience seems to put the Lost Speech in a special category. I have read that Thomas' explanation for the lost text is not really correct; rather Lincoln's anti-slavery oratory was so strong that he himself asked that it be kept off the record.

I've never read this before now. Thanks, Roger

[RJNorton]

Please try to answer this question without looking up the answer.

157 years ago today (January 3, 1862) Abraham Lincoln attended a lecture at the Smithsonian. Who gave the lecture?

[Gene C]

Mary Lincoln?
They were both visiting the Smithsonian and he made a off hand comment about an exhibit.
She didn't like what he said and launched into a lecture.