Extra Credit Questions

[Rob Wick]

Florida can only mean John Hay, who had property down there.

Best
Rob

[Eva Elisabeth]

Well done, Rob.

After Lincoln had announced his 10% reconstruction plan in December 1863, he sent Hay to Florida. He hoped Hay could enlist the requisite number of loyal signatures - 10% of 1860 voters - pledging to support the Union and accept emancipation.

[RJNorton]

Although Robert Lincoln apparently did not have musical inclinations, he did give one instrument a try when he was at Harvard. What instrument was it?

[BettyO]

I know Lincoln occasionally played the Jew's Harp when he was younger....didn't Robert give the Banjo a try?

[RJNorton]

Very good, Betty!! That's it - Robert gave the banjo a try while he was in college.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Who said:
"Go and see Mr. Lincoln and tell him about me and give him my best wishes. Tell him for me to quit his damned politics and go into some honest business like taming horses."

[Rogerm]

Alexander Stevens?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Good guess, Roger, but this man had known Abraham Lincoln even before Alexander Stevens did.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hint#1: The person "had not seen any one who knew Mr. Lincoln for about twenty-four years. He had heard something of Mr. Lincoln in politics during the Fremont campaign of the preceding year" and told this all to Judge Thompson Ware McNeeley in Mississippi in the late 1850s.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hint#2: It's a very well-known person from Lincoln's "New Salem days".

[RJNorton]

William Greene?

[Rogerm]

Was it Armstrong, the man he had wrestled with?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Good guesses both, but not correct, I'm afraid. It's really difficult to give more hints that don't instantly reveal the person.
Hint#3: He was one of the most important and one of the first people Abraham Lincoln met in New Salem.

[Rob Wick]

Denton Offutt?

Best
Rob

[Eva Elisabeth]

Very good, Rob! I've never seen any statement by Denton Offut but this one. He also said that after leaving Lincoln at New Salem he had gone South and taken up the business of treating wild and fractious horses and had followed it. The source is: Walter B. Stevens, Michael Burlingame, editor, A Reporter’s Lincoln, p. 190-191.

Rob, your prize is a flat boat trip to New Orleans.