Letter to the Editor: Do Not Rename Lincoln High School

[David Lockmiller]

A local free newspaper in San Francisco, the Richmond Review, has just published online my Letter to the Editor: "Do Not Rename Lincoln High School."

[Gene C]

Good for you David

[Mylye2222]

Who are they to judge6, by today's standard . PC culture is killing our world.

They keep blaming him out of context with that comment during the debates with Douglas about the "inferiority of the Negro people".
They focus on it and forget all the rest.
The Emancipation proclamation. The authorization of black soldiers to serve. The fact he let the freedmen and their families seek refuge in Washington. The last speech at the White House when he proposed limited suffrage to black men... Pretty good for a man to whom black lives didn't matter.
They should read the stories from the black White House staff. When Lincoln took office , it was the first time they were treated with dignity.

[David Lockmiller]

(12-17-2020 09:08 AM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  Who are they to judge6, by today's standard . PC culture is killing our world.

They keep blaming him out of context with that comment during the debates with Douglas about the "inferiority of the Negro people".
They focus on it and forget all the rest.
The Emancipation proclamation. The authorization of black soldiers to serve. The fact he let the freedmen and their families seek refuge in Washington. The last speech at the White House when he proposed limited suffrage to black men... Pretty good for a man to whom black lives didn't matter.
They should read the stories from the black White House staff. When Lincoln took office , it was the first time they were treated with dignity.

Don't forget the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the "king's cure" (in President Lincoln's words) to the end of slavery in the United States. It is the Constitution that is King in a democracy.

[David Lockmiller]

(12-17-2020 09:08 AM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  Who are they to judge, by today's standard . PC culture is killing our world.

They keep blaming him out of context with that comment during the debates with Douglas about the "inferiority of the Negro people".
They focus on it and forget all the rest.
The Emancipation proclamation. The authorization of black soldiers to serve. The fact he let the freedmen and their families seek refuge in Washington. The last speech at the White House when he proposed limited suffrage to black men... Pretty good for a man to whom black lives didn't matter.
They should read the stories from the black White House staff. When Lincoln took office , it was the first time they were treated with dignity.

Sometime back, I was reading someplace about a young man that worked in a hotel where the lawyers would stay while traveling the Eighth Circuit.

Your statement made me think of it: "They should read the stories from the black White House staff. When Lincoln took office , it was the first time they were treated with dignity."

The young man who worked in the hotel made special note of the kind and dignified treatment he received from Mr. Lincoln, unlike the somewhat condescending treatment he had received from some other attorneys.

Later, this young man campaigned for Lincoln in the state. And, he went to Chicago for the Republican National Convention. He also claimed to have helped pack the Wig Wam Auditorium with Lincoln supporters on a crucial night while the Republican Seward supporters were out marching in the streets. So, in a manner of speaking, he was somewhat important to the election of Lincoln as President.

And, it was all because how the lawyer Abraham Lincoln treated him when he was a lad working his first job.

I thought about making a post of this at the time . . . .

[Mylye2222]

(12-17-2020 11:24 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(12-17-2020 09:08 AM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  Who are they to judge, by today's standard . PC culture is killing our world.

They keep blaming him out of context with that comment during the debates with Douglas about the "inferiority of the Negro people".
They focus on it and forget all the rest.
The Emancipation proclamation. The authorization of black soldiers to serve. The fact he let the freedmen and their families seek refuge in Washington. The last speech at the White House when he proposed limited suffrage to black men... Pretty good for a man to whom black lives didn't matter.
They should read the stories from the black White House staff. When Lincoln took office , it was the first time they were treated with dignity.

Sometime back, I was reading someplace about a young man that worked in a hotel where the lawyers would stay while traveling the Eighth Circuit.

Your statement made me think of it: "They should read the stories from the black White House staff. When Lincoln took office , it was the first time they were treated with dignity."

The young man who worked in the hotel made special note of the kind and dignified treatment he received from Mr. Lincoln, unlike the somewhat condescending treatment he had received from some other attorneys.

Later, this young man campaigned for Lincoln in the state. And, he went to Chicago for the Republican National Convention. He also claimed to have helped pack the Wig Wam Auditorium with Lincoln supporters on a crucial night while the Republican Seward supporters were out marching in the streets. So, in a manner of speaking, he was somewhat important to the election of Lincoln as President.

And, it was all because how the lawyer Abraham Lincoln treated him when he was a lad working his first job.

I thought about making a post of this at the time . . . .

Where can I find this story?

[David Lockmiller]

(12-18-2020 08:27 AM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  Where can I find this story?

I wish I knew. I am not a very orderly person. I believe I made a Word document at the time as I usually do (either screenshots or copy/paste). I could not think how to find easily the Word document and so I made the post that I did using my infallible (or fallible) memory.

I will try to find it later today.The author's exact words were brought into memory when I read the "same" words that you had written about President Lincoln's treatment of Negro staff in the White House.

[David Lockmiller]

(12-18-2020 09:14 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(12-18-2020 08:27 AM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  Where can I find this story?

I wish I knew. I am not a very orderly person. I believe I made a Word document at the time as I usually do (either screenshots or copy/paste). I could not think how to find easily the Word document and so I made the post that I did using my infallible (or fallible) memory.

I will try to find it later today.The author's exact words were brought into memory when I read the "same" words that you had written about President Lincoln's treatment of Negro staff in the White House.

I did find my Word file with two screen shots. My file name is "Mr. Lincoln’s first game of billiards in Urbana, Illinois led to his nomination as president”

The internet address is long:

http://usd116.org/ProfDev/AHTC/lessons/C...dsGame.jpg

The relevant text reads as follows:

Games of cards had little attraction for him. This first game of billiards at Urbana was an hilarious affair for the spectators. H.M. Russell, who came to Urbana in 1847, remembered well the game and described the entertainment that it afforded.

“An uncle of mine, James S. Gore, was keeping the old Champaign House, then the stage house, and was local agent for the stage lines,” Mr. Russell said. In May, 1848, Judge Samuel H. Treat, Abraham Lincoln and David Davis came to hold the term of the Champaign County Circuit Court and stopped at the hotel. I was working for my uncle, looking after the wants of the judge and of the attorneys, attending the fires in their rooms, carrying water and cigars as needed. I also assisted in waiting on the table. I at once took a liking to Mr. Lincoln, because of his gentleness and friendliness – so different from most of the other attorneys. Mr. Lincoln was always pleasant in asking for things he wished and in thanking for them when they were brought to him.

Another section of which I did a screenshot had a heading that reads: "Helped Nominate Lincoln."

It reads just below the heading: Mr. Russell was an active Lincoln man in the campaign of 1860. He repaid kind words which had been given to him in the days when he was helper in the Stage House. Going to Decatur as the head of the delegation of his county, he helped make the Lincoln delegation to the National Convention at Chicago, which nominated Mr. Lincoln.

“I went to Chicago with the delegates,” Mr. Russell said, “and was in the confidence of David Davis, O.H. Browning, Leonard Swett, and the other friends of Mr. Lincoln. I had the honor of securing the two votes for Mr. Lincoln in the Pennsylvania delegation on the first ballot. I also helped organize the coup which got about 300 Illinois rooters into the wigwam on 75 or 100 visitors’ tickets, and surely kept out 300 New Yorkers when they came. I got our rooters in while the New York folks were parading.”

[Mylye2222]

(12-18-2020 04:56 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(12-18-2020 09:14 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(12-18-2020 08:27 AM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  Where can I find this story?

I wish I knew. I am not a very orderly person. I believe I made a Word document at the time as I usually do (either screenshots or copy/paste). I could not think how to find easily the Word document and so I made the post that I did using my infallible (or fallible) memory.

I will try to find it later today.The author's exact words were brought into memory when I read the "same" words that you had written about President Lincoln's treatment of Negro staff in the White House.

I did find my Word file with two screen shots. My file name is "Mr. Lincoln’s first game of billiards in Urbana, Illinois led to his nomination as president”

The internet address is long:

http://usd116.org/ProfDev/AHTC/lessons/C...dsGame.jpg

The relevant text reads as follows:

Games of cards had little attraction for him. This first game of billiards at Urbana was an hilarious affair for the spectators. H.M. Russell, who came to Urbana in 1847, remembered well the game and described the entertainment that it afforded.

“An uncle of mine, James S. Gore, was keeping the old Champaign House, then the stage house, and was local agent for the stage lines,” Mr. Russell said. In May, 1848, Judge Samuel H. Treat, Abraham Lincoln and David Davis came to hold the term of the Champaign County Circuit Court and stopped at the hotel. I was working for my uncle, looking after the wants of the judge and of the attorneys, attending the fires in their rooms, carrying water and cigars as needed. I also assisted in waiting on the table. I at once took a liking to Mr. Lincoln, because of his gentleness and friendliness – so different from most of the other attorneys. Mr. Lincoln was always pleasant in asking for things he wished and in thanking for them when they were brought to him.

Another section of which I did a screenshot had a heading that reads: "Helped Nominate Lincoln."

It reads just below the heading: Mr. Russell was an active Lincoln man in the campaign of 1860. He repaid kind words which had been given to him in the days when he was helper in the Stage House. Going to Decatur as the head of the delegation of his county, he helped make the Lincoln delegation to the National Convention at Chicago, which nominated Mr. Lincoln.

“I went to Chicago with the delegates,” Mr. Russell said, “and was in the confidence of David Davis, O.H. Browning, Leonard Swett, and the other friends of Mr. Lincoln. I had the honor of securing the two votes for Mr. Lincoln in the Pennsylvania delegation on the first ballot. I also helped organize the coup which got about 300 Illinois rooters into the wigwam on 75 or 100 visitors’ tickets, and surely kept out 300 New Yorkers when they came. I got our rooters in while the New York folks were parading.”

Thank you so much for finding out and posting it below.