21-year-old who publicly dressed down Abraham Lincoln in 1864

[David Lockmiller]

I read the New York Times online each morning. I also get a separate email from the New York Times called "Your Morning Briefing." Again, I came across a Lincoln story that was factually wrong and misleading. Accordingly, I sent the following email to these people in order to correct their factually wrong and misleading Lincoln characterization.

What we’re reading: The Daily Suffragist on Twitter. Our reporter Jennifer Schuessler says: “Love this account, which gives a concise daily snapshot from the history of the women’s suffrage movement.” And of notable women, too, like a 21-year-old who publicly dressed down Abraham Lincoln in 1864 for inadequately protecting former slaves.

I would suggest that you consider the other side of the story.

Notable Visitors to White House: Anna Dickinson

On January 16, 1864, the President received Dickinson at the White House. Congressman William D. Kelley arranged for her to speak in the House of Representatives and meet the president. Later that Saturday, Lincoln attended her speech at the Capitol. Vice President Hannibal Hamlin and House Speaker Schuyler Colfax escorted Dickinson to the dais. Historian Young wrote: “Anna was in the midst of a violent attack on Lincoln’s amnesty proclamation and his lenient plan of reconstruction announced the previous month, when the President and his wife entered the hall. Lincoln sat with bowed head as the self-possessed oratress finished her criticisms: ‘Let no man prate of compromise. Defeated by ballots, the South had appealed to bullet. Let it stand by the appeal. There was no arm of compromise long enough to stretch over the sea of blood, and the mound of fallen heroes, to shake hands with their murderers.’ The audience applauded Anna’s sentiment and the courage she exhibited in proclaiming it, while an enthusiast in the balcony wildly waved a flag over her head.” But Anna quickly went on to advocate Lincoln’s reelection: “Granted that we had much yet to do, we had to complete the grand and glorious work, and that work was left for his second term in office.” Again, the audience cheered.7

The anti-slavery, pro-Dickinson newspaper, the Independent, reported:

“Mr. Lincoln sat with his head bowed, rarely looking Miss Dickinson in the face, but evidently catching every word, and, I have not a doubt, admiring her courage and honesty. When she had criticized the terms of the last proclamation, Miss Dickinson as boldly avowed her belief that the people would insist that Mr. Lincoln should retain his office for another term.”8

Mr. Lincoln’s White House
Notable Visitors: Anna Dickinson
A Lehrman Institute Website

[Gene C]

Good going David.

[David Lockmiller]

(12-05-2019 02:51 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Good going David.

Thanks, Gene. I'll let you know if the New York Times acknowledges the important point about President Lincoln that I was trying to make: President Lincoln was the one trying to heal the nation after the Civil War.

The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses;for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

[David Lockmiller]

(12-05-2019 02:51 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Good going David.

The New York Times did not respond and I was unable to tweet my disgust.

---

(12-11-2019 10:44 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(12-05-2019 02:51 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Good going David.

The New York Times did not respond and I was unable to tweet my disgust.

I was going to make more of an effort to tweet my disgust with the characterization of President Lincoln. So, I went to the tweet thread and found the following posting regarding Anna Dickinson:


Daily Suffragist
@DailySuffragist

Dec 7
*Lastly, she died in obscurity.

She was an alcoholic, and may have struggled with mental illness. Her sister Susan, who had managed her career for years, had her committed at age 49. Anna found the headlines humiliating: "Anna Dickinson Insane" blared the NY papers.

[Gene C]

(12-11-2019 10:44 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  I was going to make more of an effort to tweet my disgust with the characterization of President Lincoln. So, I went to the tweet thread and found the following posting regarding Anna Dickinson:

Daily Suffragist
@DailySuffragist

Dec 7
*Lastly, she died in obscurity.

She was an alcoholic, and may have struggled with mental illness. Her sister Susan, who had managed her career for years, had her committed at age 49. Anna found the headlines humiliating: "Anna Dickinson Insane" blared the NY papers.

Thanks David.

Makes me wonder why the Times would print the first article in "Your Morning Briefing" (post #1) to begin with.
The Times seems to show a lack of responsibility with "Freedom Of The Press".
Unfortunately, they are not alone.

"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect." - Eleanor Roosevelt

[David Lockmiller]

(12-12-2019 08:31 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Thanks David.

Makes me wonder why the Times would print the first article in "Your Morning Briefing" (post #1) to begin with.
The Times seems to show a lack of responsibility with "Freedom Of The Press".
Unfortunately, they are not alone.

"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Gene, you and others, might be interested in the creation of the Federal Tort Claims Act and its treatment by the U. S. Supreme Court. The following is from an article in today's New York Times.

Paradoxically, the Feres doctrine has its legal roots in an effort by Congress to make it easier, not harder, to sue the government. The story started on a foggy morning in 1945, when an Army bomber crashed into the Empire State Building. The accident killed 14 people and injured dozens more, but the victims and their families were unable to sue because of a longstanding legal principle called sovereign immunity, which barred citizens from suing the federal government unless Congress passed a law specifically consenting to the suit.

In the public outcry that followed the crash, Congress passed the 1946 Federal Tort Claims Act, allowing a broad range of civil lawsuits against the government. But it included some exceptions, and one of them was for injuries to troops “arising out of the combatant activities.”

U.S. Troops Could Soon Be Able to Sue Over Medical Blunders