An "out-of-character" moment for Lincoln?

[Gene C]

From "The Young Eagle" by Kenneth Winkle (chpt 15, p179)

Writing about life in early Springfield...
"Justice was a routine, everyday affair until 1826, when a blacksmith killed his wife in a drunken rage. Two days later, a jury, headed by Bowling Green as foreman, found him guilty. The execution was public, and "almost the entire community" turned out to watch the condemned man hang."

Even though this occurred several years before the incident mention in the post below, do you think it could have had an impact on this event that followed years later?

---

The following story was gleaned from the book Lincoln Shot: A President's Life Remembered by Barry Denenberg concerning an episode in Lincoln's life about a "wife beating." I had made a post about it on my Lincoln blog some time ago. See what you think-does it sound like something lincoln would do? Or is it more of a tale?

A “wife beating?,” you say? Well, it was not exactly what you might have been thinking. It wasn’t the wife being “beat”- it was the wife beating her husband. Her husband, you see, was tied to the town square whipping post. It happened in early Springfield. She was using a limb and, apparently, gave her man a thrashing. He was a shoemaker by trade. He was also said to be an alcoholic who physically abused his wife on more than one occasion. He had been warned that if he ever beat her again-he would be whipped himself. So when the news came that he did it again, he was dragged to the courthouse, stripped of his shirt, and tied to the post out in back of the building. That could not have been pretty. There were several men involved in the ”capture” of the abuser. Then his wife was sent for. She was up to the task. As she began her whipping of her husband, the men in the party of the vengeful episode sat down and watched. Finally, when the “leader of the pack” felt that the husband had received enough punishment- he was released. The men helped him put his shirt back on and he walked away from the scene cursing and promising vengence himself. The “leader of the pack” of the “rowdies” that aided the battered wife? You know him. His name was ABRAHAM LINCOLN. As far as is known, the husband stopped his physical abuse of his wife. He also didn’t perform the vengence on the men he swore he’d do.

[RJNorton]

I have been thinking about this since Gene posted it, and I am still not sure what I think. It's possible if what Matheny said is true. I wish we had more than Matheny's word concerning the incident involving the wife beater. I am surprised that other accounts of this are apparently not in Herndon's Informants, etc. Unless there is a corroborating account I am somewhat suspicious of Matheny's description and think it may be embellished. Maybe someone knows of a second source.

[Lewis Gannett]

Roger, I'm like you-not sure it was true-probably not. Think about it for a second: Lincoln was wearing new clothing-which for him in those days must have been expensive. He then rode on past the pig two miles. Two miles is a long way in those days-on horseback. Then it is said he turned around and rode back the two miles to rescue the creature. I have my doubts!

Mary Owens told Herndon that Lincoln himself had told her the "hog mired down" story: "In many things he was sensitive almost to a fault. He told me of an incident; that he was crossing a prairie one day, and saw before him a hog mired down, to use his own language; he was rather fixed up [dressed well] and he resolved that he would pass on without looking towards the shoat, after he had gone by, he said, the feeling was so eresistable and he had to look back, and the poor thing seemed to say so wistfully--There now! my last hope is gone; that he deliberately got down and relieved it from its difficulty." Herndon's Informants, 262. It's a judgment made without hard proof, but I very much doubt that Mrs. Mary (Owens) Vineyard invented this story, or that she would have repeated it had she heard it from someone other than Lincoln.

[RJNorton]

Thank you, Lewis (and welcome to the forum, too)! Personally I do want to believe the story is true, and what you cite adds more evidence that it is!

[Lewis Gannett]

Thanks RJ! Doubtless everyone's heard the story--Speed told it--that Lincoln was out riding with friends one day and espied baby birds on the ground. He picked them up and climbed a tree to return them to their nest. His companions laughed at him. Speed quoted Lincoln replying, "I could not have slept tonight if I had not given those two little birds to their mother" (HI 590). Caleb Carman, sometime roommate in New Salem, recalled that Lincoln loved his pet cats, Jane and Susan. When Lincoln left town to serve his first term in Vandalia, "Jane & Susan he would not alow them hurt the winter he went to Vandalia to the Legislator he Left very strict orders for the cats to be well taken care of" (HI 504). Caleb Carman, by the way, is quite an interesting & fun New Salem source on his friend Abe. Of course, there are a bunch of Lincoln-kind-to-animals stories. The one about the mired-down hog is thoroughly credible.

[RJNorton]

Roger, I'm like you-not sure it was true-probably not. Think about it for a second: Lincoln was wearing new clothing-which for him in those days must have been expensive. He then rode on past the pig two miles. Two miles is a long way in those days-on horseback. Then it is said he turned around and rode back the two miles to rescue the creature. I have my doubts!

Mary Owens told Herndon that Lincoln himself had told her the "hog mired down" story: "In many things he was sensitive almost to a fault. He told me of an incident; that he was crossing a prairie one day, and saw before him a hog mired down, to use his own language; he was rather fixed up [dressed well] and he resolved that he would pass on without looking towards the shoat, after he had gone by, he said, the feeling was so eresistable and he had to look back, and the poor thing seemed to say so wistfully--There now! my last hope is gone; that he deliberately got down and relieved it from its difficulty." Herndon's Informants, 262. It's a judgment made without hard proof, but I very much doubt that Mrs. Mary (Owens) Vineyard invented this story, or that she would have repeated it had she heard it from someone other than Lincoln.

In searching for more accounts of the hog story I came across a statement from Charles S. Zane, a legal associate of Abraham Lincoln and later the Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court. Anita mentioned Zane many months ago. Zane wrote that Lincoln had told him this story:

"One afternoon I (Lincoln) was traveling in my buggy on my way to fill an appointment for a political speech in the evening, when I came to a very muddy place in the road, by careful driving to one side I got through, but I saw a hog stuck fast with his head still out of the stiff mud, and I knew that he would never get out without help, but my boots were polished and I was dressed for the meeting and drove on; but thinking of the loss to the owner and the cruelty to the animal, I did not feel satisfied and thought it would be wrong to leave the hog there to perish, and turned back and got out and pulled the animal from the mire to solid ground, then found some water nearby and washed my hands and drove on. My action seemed disinterested, but on further reflection I found that the act was done to regain my peace of mind, my own happiness, and was not entirely disinterested on my part."

[LincolnToddFan]

As a lifelong animal lover...I am a card carrying, dues paying member of the ASPCA and the doting mama of two adopted feral cats... I am especially touched by Lincoln animal stories.

It's very endearing that this gigantic, strong, rough man was also so gentle in so many ways.

[Liz Rosenthal]

As a lifelong animal lover...I am a card carrying, dues paying member of the ASPCA and the doting mama of two adopted feral cats... I am especially touched by Lincoln animal stories.

It's very endearing that this gigantic, strong, rough man was also so gentle in so many ways.

I would say that Lincoln's gentleness was the rule rather than the exception.

[Gene C]

I'll agree to that !

Fido

[L Verge]

My father spent nearly thirty years in the military and was a great judge of character. One of his criteria was based on how a person treated an animal, and he was very rarely wrong. He could make friends with almost any four-footed creature - maybe from being raised on a farm. He was so good at forming those friendships that, while serving in Korea, he was asked to stay away from the compound that held the military K-9s because they loved him. I suspect that Mr. Lincoln had the same trait.

[Lewis Gannett]

How did the warmly empathetic Lincoln fight the Civil War? I've never understood it.

[L Verge]

Even with my Southern leanings, I would answer by quoting something that I read a long time ago and have no idea the source: Unusual means are required to right unusual wrongs (or something like that). It's just a pity that cool heads and diplomatic principles couldn't do the trick.

[LincolnToddFan]

My father spent nearly thirty years in the military and was a great judge of character. One of his criteria was based on how a person treated an animal, and he was very rarely wrong. He could make friends with almost any four-footed creature - maybe from being raised on a farm. He was so good at forming those friendships that, while serving in Korea, he was asked to stay away from the compound that held the military K-9s because they loved him. I suspect that Mr. Lincoln had the same trait.

Your father sounds like a guy I would have liked to have known. I am the same way.

I very much would like to volunteer at a shelter, but emotionally I would be a basket case. I would want to save each and every homeless critter.

There are a couple of criteria I use to select friends, and one of them is their attitude toward animals. I can't bring myself to be friends with or even like or trust people that aren't animal friendly

As for AL and the Civil War, for all his warmth and empathy there had to be some steel deep inside. He was a politician and a successful corporate lawyer after all.But I do believe that by the end of the war the toll on him physically, spiritually and psychologically was profound. I sincerely do not believe he would have survived a full 2nd term in office, he was depleted.

[Eva Elisabeth]

(I agree with Liz and Fido.)

How did the warmly empathetic Lincoln fight the Civil War? I've never understood it.

I think he relied on that the end justifies the means, and he saw no other way.

"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history... No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this...We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."
(Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862)

[LincolnToddFan]

Thanks Eva Elisabeth, that is one of my favorite Lincoln quotes. Quite sums it up!