Editor's note: The Lincoln
Forum (www.lincolnforum.org)
is an organization dedicated to enhancing "the
understanding and preserving the memory of Abraham Lincoln and
the Civil War." Founded in 1995, the Forum
meets each year in Gettysburg, PA, on the anniversary of
Lincoln's address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National
Cemetery. Several members of the Cleveland Civil War
Roundtable are also members of the Lincoln Forum and attend its
meeting each year. CCWRT past president and Lincoln Forum member
Mel Maurer once again agreed to provide a recap of this
year's event. (Read Mel's
reports on the 2007 &
2008 Forums.)
This 14th meeting of the Lincoln
Forum was held as usual in Gettysburg from November 16th to 18th.
However this year we met at a new location – The Wyndham Hotel east
of town off York Road just past Route 15. Our former location, The
Holiday Inn near the battlefield had become too small for the
popular Forum’s growing needs. (By the way, this once “Holiday Inn”
is now: “1863: The Gettysburg Inn.”) Our Roundtable was well
represented again this year - attending along with me were Lou Braman, Anne
Davis, Kirk Hinman, Gordon Doble, Dick Crews, Dave Edmonds, Maynard
Bauer and Betty Bauer. (Thanks to Forum Photographer, Hank Ballone
for the use of some of his great pix. Hank also received a well-deserved distinguished service award from the Forum this year.)
NOVEMBER 16th
The new location allowed at least
50 more people to attend – there were 294 of us there this year and
while some Forum veterans missed the old place (“just not the same,"
etc.) overall, the ambiance and spaciousness of the Wyndham served
us well for the meetings, luncheons and dinner, not to mention
cocktail gatherings.
FRANK WILLIAMS and TINA GRIM
Our session opened as usual with
cocktails and dinner the first night. Our co-chair, Frank Williams,
welcomed us to the Forum and our new location before dinner. After
dinner we were welcomed to Gettysburg by Tina Grim, from the Civil
War Institute Tina updated us on Gettysburg activities including a
promo for the Train Station which had on display the flag that
Lincoln’s head allegedly rested on after he was shot – with his
blood. She also told us that Gabor Borritt, who was once a speaker
for our Roundtable, had retired from Gettysburg College and had
received a new kidney this past summer. (We would later see Gabor at
one of the dinners – looking very healthy.) Tina also told us that
planning is underway for the 150th anniversary of the war
(1861-2015).
GEORGE BUSS
Our Roundtable’s old friend (and two-time speaker), George Buss performed excerpts from Lincoln’s
First Inaugural in his great Lincoln voice – a great way to begin
the real work of the forum.
JAMES McPHERSON: - “Lincoln and
the West"
Our speaker that first night was
James McPherson (Battle
Cry of Freedom and many other books) who
told us about Lincoln’s great interest in our country’s west – the
frontier states. McPherson began his talk by recalling that Mary
said that Lincoln, during their last carriage ride, the day he was
shot, had talked of going west once he was out of office. The west
was a “geography of hope” – a land of opportunity. Lincoln believed
that there was “no such thing as a free man who could not be mobile
– the territories would be the future of America.” He also said that
be wanted every man to have a chance, including blacks – to advance
through their labors and he thought that the nature of the west
would keep it free from slavery, although there were those who
wanted slaves to work in mines as the mining industry was
developing. There were slaves in California at one time.
He also discussed Lincoln’s role in
getting the trans-continental railroad started – even picking the
terminus point. He also attempted to pick the rail gage but was
overruled. McPherson also touched on the Vicksburg Campaign and the
brief uprising of the Dakota Indians in Minnesota. (Did you know
that Lincoln’s grandfather – Abraham Lincoln – was killed by an
Indian?) A trial there sentenced 303 Indians to death finding that
all were equally responsible for the killings there. Lincoln
reviewed the trial transcripts and found that only 28 were actually
guilty of murder – saving 265 from death. Lincoln knew that the
growing movement west doomed Indian Nations and he promised to
reform the Indian Management system – but did not live to do so.
In answering a question from Dick
Crews, McPherson said he did not think that Burnside was the worst
Union general but did think that McClellan (who, he pointed out,
disparaged Burnside after Antietam) was in the running for that
title.
In answering my question about
Lincoln’s being indentured to his father until his was 21, he agreed
that that experience did make him feel like a slave and did
influence his views.
Maynard asked McPherson if Grant
was demonstrating some political savvy in the process that resulted
in General McClernand being downgraded to a subordinate command at
Vicksburg. McPherson said that basically it was Lincoln’s decision
and it did not reflect any input from Grant.
Dick and I had once questioned
McPherson for over an hour on the bus that was taking us back from a
tour of Antietam – so when he and his wife got on the elevator Dick
and I were on the next morning – we happily told him that: “We had a
few more questions.” He is now retired as a professor but still
living in Princeton. (We resisted the temptation to ride him up and
down in the elevator so we could ask more questions.)
NOVEMBER 17th
After a report on the work of the
Lincoln Bicentennial Commission during the year by a member of the
commission, briefly touching on the many events held throughout the
country to honor our 16th president, Harold Holzer introduced our
first speaker of the day.
RONALD WHITE JR. - “Abraham
Lincoln: Wisdom for Today”
Professor White, author of this
year’s A. Lincoln: A Biography is one of our favorite speakers – he’s
also an excellent writer (thoughts and words) and a great guy. Dick
and I often sit next to him in the front row – this year we sat
further back at tables. Here are some words from my notes: He said
as he speaks around the world on Lincoln, one question he always
gets is: “What would Lincoln do?" - on any number of issues. While
pointing out that we’ll never know, he recalled that scholar David
Herbert Donald when asked what Lincoln would have said about racial
bussing, answered simply: “He probably would have said, ‘What is bussing?" The times are just too different to know (although, I
would add that doesn’t stop people from thinking they know what he
would do.)
Why new books on Lincoln?
Scholarship has advanced and more and more material is available. He
pointed out how many so called “fragments” of Lincoln’s words are
being found and collected. These are brief notes Lincoln made of his
thoughts and ideas on many things such as this one: “I can’t think
of one reason for slavery.” Ron pointed out that there was no such
thing as good writing – there is only good rewriting. Lincoln worked
on his words using his notes to frame his arguments and to reach
conclusions. He said that Lincoln’s words live on like no other,
saying that moral integrity was the trunk “from which his talents
grew."
ORVILLE VERNON BURTON – “Age of
Lincoln”
Professor Burton, author of The Age of Lincoln tried to cover a lot of ground in his talk and had
to go too fast to do it. The topic was good but between his mellow
southern accent and speaking too fast, much of it was lost on me and
some others. He quoted Lincoln as saying that, “There is no more
important subject than education.” And that, “Free labor insists on
education,” – in a way echoing McPherson’s comments on Lincoln’s
belief in the ability of free men being able to work to live and to
advance in life. Burton said that Lincoln’s legacy is all about us –
who we are – universal freedom and personal liberty. “The evil of
slavery had to be eradicated.” There were two visions back then he
said, Lincoln’s and Douglas’s: freedom vs. white supremacy and
Lincoln won.
I asked Burton during the question
period, if Lincoln made the age or did the age make Lincoln? He gave
a considered reply and ended it by saying that he believed that
Lincoln made the age.
Dick and I were able to spend a
little informal time with Burton that night in our friend Mike
Marlow’s “Scotch Parlor.” He’s a good guy and he’s now back in his
native south after many years with us Yankees.
CATHERINE CLINTON – “Mary
Lincoln Reconsidered”
Catherine, a professor and author
of Mrs. Lincoln: A Life , came back to this country
from her present position in Ireland to speak to us and, I think, to
do a book tour. She’s a good speaker but when I saw her title, my
first thought was – “Reconsidered again?” It seems to me that Mary
has received a lot of attention in recent years and those who want
to write a damning book on her can find the evidence to do it and
those who want to write a more positive book on her can do that.
I’m not an expert on Mary but I
found little in Clinton’s talk that I didn’t already know – Mary’s
background, her scratchy personality, the attacks on her, her
spending, not at Lincoln’s side when he died and what that meant to
her. I did learn that Tad developed into a well rounded, well
educated young man before his death. Clinton believes that overall
Mary stepped outside the boundaries of her time for women, implying
she paid a price for doing so. Let’s just give Mary her due for
seeing the potential in Abe and enduring those war years with him –
neither saint nor witch (at least most of the time) – may she rest in
peace without further reconsiderations.
JOHN MARSZALEK – A Brief Update
on the Grant Papers
The Forum has a special
relationship to the Grant Papers: John Y. Simon, the papers’ long
time editor and curator before his death last year was member of the
Forum’s Advisory Board and frequent speaker; John Marszalek (a
friend and speaker to our Roundtable), a Forum member and speaker,
has replaced Simon with the move of the papers to Mississippi State;
and Frank Williams is the president of the U.S. Grant Association
which oversees the papers.
John told us that the 31st - and last – volume will soon be finished,
finally completing Simon's work. All
of the volumes are now in the process of being digitized and will
one day be available on-line. John told us of one interesting item in the
collection: General Buckner was one of the last people to see Grant
before he died. Grant, unable to speak, wrote a brief note to
Buckner telling him
that, “the war was worth the cost…”
Dick visited John at Mississippi
last summer and was very impressed with what he was able to see as
John showed him around. John told us he would be glad to see any Roundtable members there
and would personally show them the
collection. I hope to take him up on the offer. (January
debaters please note: John, who wrote the definitive book on
Sherman, resisted all of Dick’s efforts to get him to serve as his
coach for the upcoming debate on Sherman.)
LEWIS LEHRMAN – “Lincoln at the
Turning Point: From Peoria to the Presidency”
Lehrman is the co-founder of the
Gilder-Lehrman Institute and author of Lincoln at Peoria . After
leading off with some background – Kansas-Nebraska Act etc. to set
the stage, Lehrman focused on the October 16, 1884 Lincoln Douglas debate
in Peoria. He believes that it was this debate that publicly
established Lincoln’s beliefs on slavery – “a moral wrong, slaves
are human beings.” The racist Douglas of course had opposite views –
Illinois, Lehrman said, was the most racist state in the North
at that time. While Douglas argued for the Kansas-Nebraska Act he
more than anyone had enacted, Lincoln argued that it must be
repealed – it may spread slavery across the nation, “We can’t be an
example of freedom with slavery.”
Lehrman pointed out that slaves
were the second largest source of wealth in the nation at that time
and that cotton was our largest export. Lincoln emphasized the value
of work – the right of men to work and to be paid for it. “Work,
work, work, that is the main thing,” he said. Lincoln stood on the
beliefs he stated at Peoria again in his debates with Douglas in
1854 and in his campaigns.
PANEL DISCUSSION – The State of
Lincoln Collecting
The panel: Moderator Dan Weinburg.
Panelists: Frank Williams, Norman Boas, Don McCue and Lewis Lehrman.
Moderator Dan Weinburg is the
owner/operator of The Lincoln Book Store in Chicago – very well
known dealer in books and artifacts. Dan also co-authored Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution
with James L. Swanson (author
of
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer.) Norman Boas, a student of Lincoln and avid
collector/dealer in artifacts. Lewis Lehrman and Frank Williams each
have large collections of Lincolniana. Don McCue is the curator of
The Redlands Museum in California.
A few notes from their discussion
and Q&A: They described something to be collected as “Something that
gets to you in a special way.” Each started in their own way.
Lehrman who grew up not far from Gettysburg found artifacts on the
battlefield but began his serious collecting with documents. Boas
started with letters and then moved on to add other documents. Frank
pointed out that collecting is really an addiction – he started with
some paperbacks.
We were advised not to try to
collect everything (types of items). Good stuff is still “out there”
to be found and can be found in many places – also use of the
Internet for auctions, etc. can be productive. The future of
collecting – with e-mails and people in public life now owning their
papers will be more challenging. Not everything collectible is
extremely expensive – one suggested someone could start with
historical pamphlets etc. And another suggested keeping visuals with
collected items to enhance their meanings and their values.
(My attempt to corner the market on Bicentennial Lincoln pennies did
not quite work out – falling short by several millions of each - but
I did manage to collect a few hundred of each of the four special
pennies issued this year.)
JIM GETTY –“Lincoln’s War Speech
to his Springfield Neighbors” (His letter to James Conkling August
26, 1863)
Our old friend Jim Getty did a
great job performing the Lincoln’s words in this often overlooked
speech written as a letter. Hearing these words rather than just
reading them emphasized the point made by one of our speakers that
Lincoln’s words are meant to be read out loud and that he would read
them out loud as part of his writing process.
RICHARD CARWARDINE – “Just
Laughter: The Moral Springs of Lincoln’s Humor”
Professor Carwardine came to the
Forum from Great Briton. In January he will become the president of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The professor is the first British
scholar to win The Lincoln Prize for his book: Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power .
He opened by reminding us of
Lincoln telling friends that “If I did not laugh I should die.” And
how Lincoln once said of someone who never laughed at his jokes: ‘It
would take an operation to get a joke in him.” Lincoln loved to
laugh and to tell jokes – he enjoyed reading humorous material out
loud to friends and others, and was often criticized for his humor
while fighting a war. His reply: “I laugh because I cannot cry” and
he said that a joke to him was like a strong drink of whiskey to
someone else.”
The speaker focused on Lincoln’s
love of a writer named Locke who wrote of a character named
“Petroleum Nasby.” He said that, “Nasby is funny, of course,
satirically racist – often using the 'N' word while Locke used him for
what was morally right." The speaker described him as “a devastating
satirical voice, telling political truth backwards.” Lincoln thought
that Locke had a genius for writing, saying “he would give up his
office to have it.”
What did Lincoln admire in the
writing? Verbal inventiveness, mangling of Shakespeare, exaggerated
situations, simple jokes and their satirical savagery. I got the
impression from what was described that Lincoln would have also
loved Monte Python in our time.
In the question period, I asked the
British Carwardine to compare Lincoln with Churchill. He seemed to
struggle a bit with his answer saying, that you really can’t compare
them although they did have some common traits – mentioning war,
some depression and a love of language. During answers to other
questions, he quoted Lloyd George who said that” Lincoln ceased to
be an American when he died - he now belonged to the world.” The
speaker also said that American History is widely taught in the UK
at universities and at high schools – mostly 20th Century, Civil
Rights etc.
NOVEMBER 18th
FRED KAPLAN – “Lincoln’s Genius
with Language”
Professor Kaplan is a noted
biographer with highly praised biographies of Mark Twain, Gore
Vidal, Henry James, Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle (a finalist
for the Pulitzer Prize.) His most recent book is:
Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer. My notes for this talk and the following
panel discussion were somehow lost so this will be very sketchy.
(Could Dick have taken them to begin a collection of Maurer
Memorabilia?) Kaplan focused on two examples of Lincoln’s writing –
actually one since time ran out before he got to the second example.
He showed us the care that Lincoln used in selecting his words and
reminded us that he was not a good extemporaneous speaker – (or
maybe he just chose not to be once he was president – after all, he
had to be extemporaneous in court.)
PANEL DISCUSSION – “Family
Matters: Looking at the Lincolns”
Co-chair, Harold Holzer, was the
moderator for this panel. It’s panelists were: Catherine Clinton,
Jason Emerson (author of The Madness of Mary Lincoln), and Charles Lachman
(author of The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family .) It may have been my imagination but it seemed to
me that, when we were told that Lachman’s day job was executive
producer of “The Insider” TV expose show, Maynard and Betty looked a
little nervous.
This is another sketchy report without my notes, but from memory
most of this discussion focused on Mary with some on Robert. We
learned that the Todd Family was involved in how Mary was perceived
after her death (adding the "Todd” to her name with "Lincoln") in an
attempt to see her treated well by history.
Robert, as we know, had a
distinguished career as an attorney and in government service and
business. Tad, who spent much time in Europe with his mother,
receiving a good education, including a fluency in German (also a
slight German accent when speaking English) died at age 17. (All too
often Tad is just portrayed a slow learner with a speech defect who
died young.)
Emerson is working on a biography of
Robert. Lachman’s book - the rest of the story - sounds interesting.
There are no more “Mary-Abe” descendants left.
When I got in line to ask a question, there was a short, mostly bald
guy with short white hair just ahead of me. Harold introduced him,
saying we would hear from him that evening – he was the actor,
Richard Dreyfess. Harold told how they met some years back after
Dreyfess, who is a student of the Civil War, attended one of
Harold’s talks. (Our scheduled speaker. Sandra Day O’Conner had to
cancel her talk following the death of her husband the previous week. Dreyfess was this year’s scheduled speaker at the annual ceremony on
the 19th at the National Cemetery – a friend of Harold’s, he agreed
to fill in at our last dinner.)
My question, or attempted question
since I was shot down before I completed it, was: “I read that
Lincoln once said that Robert was more of a Todd than a Lincoln”…
and before I could say, “Do you think he was?” Emerson stopped me
and said that it wasn’t true that Lincoln said that. But then he did
eventually answer the rest of my question, saying that he thought
Robert was a good mix of both parents, reminding us that Lincoln, in
establishing his law practice in his early days of marriage, did not
spend as much time with Robert as he would later with the other
sons. (Robert and Mary had a very close relationship for most of
their lives – but there’s nothing like putting someone in an asylum
to ruin a relationship.)
FIELD TRIP: The Wills House on
the Square in Gettysburg
Our field trip this year was to the
newly restored David Wills House. This, as you know, was where
Lincoln spent the night before gave his Gettysburg Address on
November 19, 1863. (The Forum set up a rotating bus line to take
attendees into town and to return them allowing them the time to
also experience the shops etc. in town.)
 I had visited the Wills House in
September so I knew what to expect when I went there with Maynard,
Betty and Dick. My second visit didn’t impress me anymore than the
first. While it’s neat to be in the room where Lincoln slept (and
the bed he slept in) and where he may have polished his talk, the
rest of the experience: a short film, some exhibits, Wills' office
etc. adds little or nothing to the knowledge of folks like us.
However for those casually
interested in the war and the Gettysburg Battle etc. it may be worth
a visit. It’s always been possible to see the Lincoln room – even in
the run-down building – but while the added features may not help us
much they may be helpful to tourists. (I can hear one asking – “Is that the
elevator Lincoln took to his room?”)
After our visit, we did a quick tour of the battlefield to pay our respects and see
what further changes have been made in trees, etc. While on
Little Round Top, we were joined by two buses of students from
Medina High School. Maynard and Betty are graduates of Medina High
and spent some time talking to students and teachers.
FRANK WILLIAMS – Presentation of
the Annual Richard Current Award
This year's award was made to
retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner and was accepted
on her behalf by noted Lincoln sculptor John McClarey.
RICHARD DREYFESS – A Reading of
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
Dreyfess, while not trying to
portray Lincoln in any way, gave a very good and very moving
presentation of these words of Lincoln as he began his second term
as president. He then talked about what he is calling, “The Dreyfess
Initiative,” intended to be a national program to encourage the
teaching of Civics and History in schools. He then took our
questions.
Dick – after reminding him of Lee’s
chagrin in the movie Gettysburg when he learned he had to rely on an
intelligence report from an actor (and having Dreyfess look at him
as if he were a Great White Shark) asked him if the Founding Fathers
created public education so we would have an educated electorate to
manage our democracy. Dreyfess, using a lot of words basically
agreed and said that Civics was being neglected for high test scores
in math and science. (In the course of the questioning, some
teachers in our group took exception to his overall premise, saying
their schools did teach Civics and History.
Many of the questioners seemed to
think this was some kind of Town Hall event, making long statements
rather than simply asking their questions. Dreyfess, saying that
he prided himself on not being glib answered most questions with
extended replies to the point of rambling at times.
I took pride, as I told Dick (a
long questioner), in asking the shortest question when, knowing that
he had done programs with Holzer (“U.S. Grant Seen and Heard”)
reading Grant’s words if he would like to play Grant in a movie. He
said he would “give his right arm” to play Grant in a movie about
Appomattox, going on to describe how the movie would play out on the
screen. (I knew, being a liberal, that Dreyfess would not have given
his left arm for anything.)
NOVEMBER 19th
Ceremony at the National
Cemetery
The Bauers and I did not attend
the closing ceremony this year – mostly because it was raining that morning. Dick also
planned to miss it but when he, a former Marine, saw the Marine Band
there he stayed for the event and then sent me this report:
“It was a great event. The rain
slowed and was not a factor. The Governor of Pennsylvania was
there with the usual officials from town. Jim Getty was good as
always doing the Gettysburg Address as Lincoln. Dreyfess was
excellent in his talk. There was a lot more coverage - TV cameras
etc. - than in prior years. A special feature this year was swearing
in of 15 new citizens who then received a standing ovation. The
Marine Band then played, ‘My Country 'tis of Thee’ which was
played by a Marine Band for Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863.”
“See you next year!”
I hope the above gave you some
information on our program and speakers, and the information they
gave us – along with a laugh or two. Next year we’ll celebrate the
15th Anniversary of the Forum. It’s sure to be a special one.
The Lincoln Forum website
Books referenced in this article:
Roll-over a book title to bring up more information on that
book; click the book title to purchase from Amazon.com. Part of the proceeds from any book purchased from Amazon
through the CCWRT website are returned to the CCWRT to support its
education and preservation programs.
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States)
by James M. McPherson A. Lincoln: A Biography
by Ronald C. White Jr. The Age of Lincoln
by Orville Vernon Burton Mrs. Lincoln: A Life
by Catherine Clinton Lincoln at Peoria
by Lewis E. Lehrman Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution
by Daniel Weinberg and James L. Swanson
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
by James L. Swanson Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power
by Richard Carwardine
Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
by Fred Kaplan The Madness of Mary Lincoln
by Jason Emerson The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family
by Charles Lachman More
Civil War titles at the Roundtable Bookstore |
