Parents
Why Lincoln?–Part 1
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008The father of the Whig Party was dead. Henry Clay breathed his last on June 29, 1852. Seven days later, citizens in Springfield, Illinois held two memorial meetings for the perennial presidential candidate. The first was conducted at the Episcopal Church by the Reverend Charles Dresser, while the second was a decidedly secular affair. Business was suspended [...]
Abraham Lincoln Enloe, Part 2
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008A strange set of principles govern the news business. Take, for instance, the marvels of modern aviation. Thousands of airplanes will land today at airports all around the country. Aside from a little jet lag, travelers will arrive safely at their destinations. But those stories won’t make the nightly news. However, if, God forbid, one [...]
“More Painful than Pleasant”
Thursday, January 17th, 2008Abraham Lincoln and his father had a complicated relationship. Search Lincoln’s letters and try to find a “word of praise” for his father. You won’t succeed. Consider the final letter he sent to his father. Harriett Hanks Chapman, Dennis Hanks’ daughter, sent Lincoln a letter in early January 1851. She had just visited his father [...]
More Speculation on Lincoln’s Genetic Defect
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007Yesterday’s story about Abraham Lincoln and the rare genetic defect, Men 2B, is alive and well. The story has been picked up in newspapers across the country and around the world. The Seattle Times simply reprinted the original Washington Post story, as did the Contra Coast TImes in Walut Creek, California, but the story was [...]
A Doctor Speculates on Lincoln’s Genetic Defect
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007Move over Marfan’s Syndrome and make way for MEN 2B, short for “multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B.” That’s right. Dr. John G. Sotos, a California doctor and an armchair historian to boot, has just announced that Lincoln suffered from one of the rarest genetic abnormalities known to man. Let me be clear with this one. [...]
An Astonishing Legal Document
Thursday, November 15th, 2007I’ve never heard this story before and I’m hoping someone out there can give me some help. On February 6, 2006, Heritage Auction Galleries sold an astonishing legal document. No, Abraham Lincoln’s name does not appear on the document, nor did he write a word of it. In fact, he had nothing to do with [...]