Extra Credit Questions

[RJNorton]

No googling, please.

What is the name of the person who noted the following about President Lincoln in 1862?

"There is no describing his lengthy awkwardness, nor the uncouthness of his movement. ... He was dressed in a rusty black frock-coat and pantaloons, unbrushed, and worn so faithfully that the suit had adapted itself to the curves and angularities of his figure, and had grown to be an outer skin of the man. He had shabby slippers on his feet. His hair was black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat bushy, and had apparently been acquainted with neither brush nor comb that morning, after the disarrangement of the pillow; and as to a nightcap, Uncle Abe probably knows nothing of such effeminancies. His complexion is dark and sallow, betokening, I fear, an insalubrious atmosphere around the White House; he has thick black eyebrows and an impending brow; his nose is large, and the lines about his mouth are very strongly defined."

[Anita]

A writer or reporter seeing Lincoln for the first time. Definitely a wordsmith based on the quote.
With that said, I have no idea of the author's name.

[RJNorton]

Yes, Anita, this description resulted from a first (and I believe only) visit to meet Abraham Lincoln.

[AussieMick]

I'm guessing it was a visitor to the US , then. Maybe a British diplomat?

[RJNorton]

Nope, Michael, he was an American. There is a page devoted to him in Wikipedia.

[AussieMick]

I would have thought they would have met more than once, but I'll guess Walt Whitman

[Anita]

I'll guess Herman Melville or Nathaniel Hawthorne.

[David Lockmiller]

(10-06-2020 12:51 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  No googling, please.

What is the name of the person who noted the following about President Lincoln in 1862?

"There is no describing his lengthy awkwardness, nor the uncouthness of his movement. ... He was dressed in a rusty black frock-coat and pantaloons, unbrushed, and worn so faithfully that the suit had adapted itself to the curves and angularities of his figure, and had grown to be an outer skin of the man. He had shabby slippers on his feet. His hair was black, still unmixed with gray, stiff, somewhat bushy, and had apparently been acquainted with neither brush nor comb that morning, after the disarrangement of the pillow; and as to a nightcap, Uncle Abe probably knows nothing of such effeminancies. His complexion is dark and sallow, betokening, I fear, an insalubrious atmosphere around the White House; he has thick black eyebrows and an impending brow; his nose is large, and the lines about his mouth are very strongly defined."

I wonder how this presently unidentified person would have described himself at the time.

The answer to that question reminds me of the following statement made by John Hay regarding President Abraham Lincoln:

"Miss Nancy Bancroft and the rest of that patent-leather glove set know no more of him than a owl does of a comet blazing into his blinking eyes."

In case the answer is Miss Nancy Bancroft, I want you to know, Roger, my Google search was for "John Hay, comet, and owl" first. I was looking for this specific John Hay quote to express my disapproval of the unknown author's assessment of President Abraham Lincoln and I knew that John Hay had expressed my sentiment the best. I then did a Google search in Google Books on "The patent leather glove set than an owl does of a comet." The first result from which I quoted was Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for ... - Page 233 by Joshua Zeitz · 2014. The second listed source in my second Google search is Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life - Volume 2 - Page 227 William Henry Herndon, ‎Jesse William Weik · 1923.

If you throw a flag on me for Googling the correct answer to your query, I am going to have to ask "for review in New York" as they say in the NFL. I was seeking an answer to the question of John Hay's story which I had vividly remembered, but could not recall the exact words. It just so happened that the answer to my question led me directly to the answer to your question (perhaps) and this was not the intention of my Google searches.

My bad. I see now at Roger's post #3662 that "he was an American." "Nancy" sounds a little too effeminate for the times. And, as Roseannadanna might have said in a similar situation: "Never mind."

[Susan Higginbotham]

I'm going to guess Ralph Waldo Emerson. I vaguely remember Tad having some interaction with him.

[RJNorton]

When I put up the question I was thinking someone would guess Walt Whitman, and indeed that happened. All the guesses are very good, and congratulations to Anita as it is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Anita, from the beginning you were on the right track as you had figured it was an author.

Kudos, Anita!

[David Lockmiller]

(10-07-2020 03:57 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  When I put up the question I was thinking someone would guess Walt Whitman, and indeed that happened. All the guesses are very good, and congratulations to Anita as it is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Anita, from the beginning you were on the right track as you had figured it was an author.

Kudos, Anita!

When the war erupted in 1861, Hawthorne sided with the Union but admitted in a letter to a friend that “I don’t quite understand what we are fighting for.” In February 1862, he was still baffled. “It would be too great an absurdity,” he wrote in another letter, “to spend all our Northern strength, for the next generation, in holding on to a people who insist on being let loose.”

[RJNorton]

No googling, please.

What is the name of the person who noted the following about President Lincoln?

"Of all the men I ever met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other."

[Gene C]

This is just a guess, but I've heard Joe Di Cola say something similiar to that

[RJNorton]

Me too; nevertheless Joe D. is not the correct answer.

[David Lockmiller]

(10-08-2020 08:22 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  No googling, please.

What is the name of the person who noted the following about President Lincoln?

"Of all the men I ever met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other."

Later that afternoon, Sherman left City Point to return to his troops and prepare for the expected battle. Saying goodbye to the president, he "was more than ever impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy with the afflictions of the whole people," and his "absolute faith in the courage, manliness, and integrity of the armies in the field." To be sure, "his face was care-worn and haggard; but, the moment he began to talk, his face lightened up, his tall form, as it were, unfolded, and he was the impersonation of good-humor and fellowship." A decade later, Sherman remained convinced of Lincoln's unparalleled leadership. "Of all the men I ever met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other." (Team of Rivals, page 713.)