The great Lincoln mystery - a speech lost

I thought I knew a lot about Abraham Lincoln - that was until I moved to McLean County, Illinois, often lauded as Lincoln's home away from home. His ties to the Bloomington area are far stronger than the casual Lincoln enthusiast could ever imagine. Though I can't share them all in this article, I can tell you that today is the anniversary of Lincoln's most infamous - and most curious - Bloomington connection, his "Lost Speech."

Lincoln delivered a speech at Major's Hall in Bloomington on May 29, 1856 at a gathering in which the Illinois Republican party was formed. Legend has it the speech was so mesmerizing those there to report upon it set their writing instruments aside and forgot to record what may have been one of history's most powerful speeches. That may be true. The great orator surely spoke of slavery that day, and many contend Lincoln likely echoed many of the same sentiments a week or so later in a speech at Peoria, Illinois.

Or could it be, as one of my Lincoln friends speculates, that it was intentionally "lost," so as to avoid leaking the "trade secrets" of the new party?

Learn more
To read more about the Lost Speech, see:

• "Bloomington was the scene for Lincoln's famous 'Lost Speech'" by Bill Kemp, archivist/librarian at the McLean County Museum of History
• "Abraham Lincoln's Lost speech" by Roger Norton, author of Abraham Lincoln Research Site.

The power of the written word
If you come to Bloomington today, you won't be able to stand in Major's Hall, where Lincoln delivered the speech. That building is long gone, and in its place is a parking garage. You'll find a plaque to mark the spot, though - a simple, but powerful, reminder of the importance of the written word in keeping moments in history from slipping into oblivion.

Coincidentally, Lincoln himself spoke of the power of the written word in "Discoveries and Inventions," a speech he presented just two years later a couple of blocks from Major's Hall. The site of that speech still stands, and Rhoda and Lowell Sneller have made the text of the speech available to all through their Abraham Lincoln Online website. In that speech, Lincoln said, "Writing -- the art of communicating thoughts to the mind, through the eye -- is the great invention of the world."

© Copyright 2009 Ann Tracy Mueller. All rights reserved.

Learn about Lincoln's funeral train in Bloomington May 3

If you're in Central Illinois Sunday, you'll want to see a great exhibit commemorating Lincoln's funeral train. My friend, Jeff Woodard, of the McLean County Museum of History asked me to pass this information along to you, but I was busy with a couple non-blog Lincoln stories and didn't get it done until now. My apologies for the late notice.

Here's the info from Jeff's press release, and I've added a bonus at the end - places where you can learn more about Lincoln's trip back home to Illinois.

Reflections: The American Funeral
During Abraham Lincoln’s historic funeral train journey to Springfield, IL, in 1865, it passed through Bloomington, IL. To commemorate this event more then 140 years later to the day, the McLean County Museum of History is bringing Reflections: The American Funeral to the community on Sunday, May 3.

This mobile museum depicts Lincoln’s final farewell and features sections honoring other U.S. Presidents, fallen public safety officers and military veterans as it traces the history of funeral customs in America. The exhibit is sponsored by Calvert & Metzler Memorials Homes.

From the cross-country funeral procession for Abraham Lincoln to the national outpouring of grief for Elvis Presley, America has a rich history of mourning the dead.

Reflections: The American Funeral explores these traditions, beginning with Native American burial mounds and ending with the diverse rituals practiced across the country today. Produced by Michigan-based MRA, it’s earning high praise from visitors who sign the Guest Book: “Awesome!” “Great educational tool!” “Amazing! Brings out a lot of things we don’t think about.” “Very, very moving.”

The Bloomington stop
The McLean County Museum of History will host Reflections on May 3rd at the Jefferson St entrance, located at 200 N. Main St., Bloomington, IL. The exhibit is open to the public, free and handicap-accessible. Hours are 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 3, with special presentations beginning at 1:00 PM.

Please join us to honor one of our greatest presidents; there will be presentations on the Funeral Train and Period Morning Quilts beginning at 1:00 pm. The Mourning Quilts talk will be presented by Kyle Ciani an Associate Professor in the History Department and affiliated faculty for Women and Gender Studies at Illinois State University.

The exhibits
Spread out across 1,000 sq. ft., thoughtful display areas reveal how we mourn the dead.

• The Lincoln exhibit features a reproduction of Lincoln’s casket and traces the near 3-week funeral procession.
• “Arlington National Cemetery” honors our country’s veterans and the more than three million Americans buried in our national cemeteries.
• “Glory, Glory Hallelujah” showcases President John F. Kennedy’s rider-less horse – empty boots reversed in the saddle – trotting briskly in his funeral procession and Rosa Parks, who was the first woman to lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda.
• “The Lord is My Shepherd” is a poignant tribute to fallen public safety officers killed in the line of duty. “
• The Final Curtain” pays homage to celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Dale Earnhardt, and Elvis.

Reflections: The American Funeral has been touring across the United States since summer 2008, stopping at state capitols, universities, veteran events, and mortuary schools, funeral homes and industry conventions. During January Inauguration celebrations, both Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore, MD, hosted it. February saw it displayed at Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery to commemorate the Lincoln Bicentennial.

Learn more

For more on the funeral train:

• Bob Burleigh penned a great children's book, Abraham Lincoln Comes Home. It's illustrated beautifully by renowned childrens' artist Wendell Minor.
• Chris Vallillo sings of "Lincoln's Funeral Train" on his CD, Abraham Lincoln in Song.
• Roger Norton chronicles the funeral train's journey on Abraham Lincoln's Assassination Site.
• I just discovered a book by Scott Trostel: The Lincoln Funeral Train: The Final Journey and National Funeral for Abraham Lincoln. I'll have to add this to my "must read" list.
• Fellow Lincoln blogger Geoff Elliott, author of The Abraham Lincoln Blog, also reminded a couple of us this evening that there's fine coverage of the funeral train in Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt and Philip B Kunhardt's beautiful volume, Twenty Days.

Please, will you help tell the story?
I may not make it to the exhibit, due to other obligations, and I'm bummed! If you see it and wish to share your observations of the Bloomington event, please send it as a comment to my blog. I'd be glad to share it.

© Copyright 2009 Ann Tracy Mueller. All rights reserved.

Hear Lincoln scholars in Central Illinois

Lincoln Buff 2 is excited that today is the long-awaited lecture by Lincoln scholar James Oakes at the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington (Ill.) Oakes was first scheduled to come a few months ago, on what turned out to be a horrific airline backup day. He couldn't make it out of New York to get here.

Oakes's talk, "Measure Him by the Sentiment of His Country: Fredrick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Anti-Slavery Politics," will be this evening, Thursday, April 2, 2009, from 7-8 p.m. I can't wait to meet him or to read his book, "The Radical and the Republican: Fredrick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Anti-Slavery Politics", which was awarded a Lincoln Prize in 2008.

Besides, my Lincoln friend, Lincoln Bicentennial co-chair Harold Holzer told me last year, "You'll like Oakes. He's fun." Holzers's stamp of approval is all any Lincoln scholar needs in my book. The event is free and open to the public.

On Monday, April 13, 2009, from 7-8 p.m., a British Lincoln scholar I met and got to visit with will be at the museum. Richard Carwardine, Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University. Dr. Carwardine will be presenting a lecture entitled "Abraham Lincoln, God and the American Civil War" in the historic gov Fifer Courtroom of the Museum. Carwardine is a delightful speaker who spent as much time asking me about my Lincoln interests as I did trying to learn more about him. I'll be sharing more about him in a future blog post, once I complete some coursework I'm taking for my job.

Hope to see some fellow Lincoln buffs here in McLean County for the Lincoln events. This county, where Lincoln spent so much time, continues to spark interest and educate about the 16th president's time and this area's important role in his life and legacy.

Both events are sponsored by the McLean County Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Long days and short nights pay dividends

There are some days when you go, "Wow! Maybe what I'm doing is worth it." This was one of them.

The Journal is my friend
When I read my favorite newspaper, The State Journal-Register, this morning and visited fellow Lincoln blogger Mike Kienzler's Abraham Lincoln Observer blog on the paper's website, I learned Mike had included mine in a list of blogs and websites in his early morning post today. The day was off to a good start. I was pretty excited to be mentioned in the paper of which Lincoln said in 1864, "The Journal paper was always my friend; and of course its editors the same."

Thanks, Mike. You and the SJ-R are my friends, too. Not as impressive as having Lincoln as a friend, though, huh?

So is 21st Century Abe
Later in the day, I learned Kathy Haas of the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia had mentioned my blog in her post on the museum's 21st Century Abe blog. I didn't even know this one existed. Watch the list of blogs I follow (at the bottom of the home page). I'll be adding 21st Century Abe there. Thanks to you, too, Kathy.

Found online
This was plenty of recognition for one day, and more than this blogger felt she deserved. It would have been enough to keep me beaming for weeks, but the day got even better. I went to the McLean County Museum of History to hear Dan Guillory read from his great little book, "Lincoln Poems." I was reminding my friend, Jeff, at the museum to be sure to watch the blog for information about the bicentennial. He asked me to show him the blog on his computer. When I did, he said, "Wait, someone sent us a link to this today. It was Dan."

It was pretty exciting to know that the speaker had found my blog post. That's what it's all about - promoting the legacy of Lincoln, recognizing those who do the same and promoting events and others who share the passion.

Doing what I do - because...
If I've done that, I'm achieving my goal. What does it take to do this blog? It’s late nights, early mornings and Lincoln spinning endlessly through my head. It’s attending lectures, taking classes, reading books and newspapers and online articles. It’s writing research papers in the second half-century of my life. It’s spending the entire week of Lincoln’s birthday in Springfield savoring every event I can attend – and even doing some volunteering. It’s spending nearly all of my vacation time this year attending Lincoln symposiums – and even dragging my husband and best friends along for the ride. It’s driving my family, co-workers and friends nuts as I talk Lincoln incessantly.

And, it’s all worth it. (Except maybe the part about driving all my loved ones nuts . You'll have to ask them about that.) I hope you’re enjoying visiting the blog as much as I’m enjoying writing it. I’m still trying to determine how best to share the excitement of the bicentennial events. I’ve got some ideas, but they’re still percolating. I should have some news for you on that in about a week.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to get to some Lincoln events near you, okay?

Ann

Bloomington area: Come hear a Lincoln poet

Those of us who are history buffs usually have people, places or organizations which nuture and inspire our love of the past and the people who left their marks. For me, one of these places is the McLean County Museum of History and many of those people serve on The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission of McLean County.

These two groups have joined forces once again, as they have several times in the past year or so, to bring us another program dedicated to honoring the Lincoln legacy.

An evening with Dan Guillory
The museum and commission are hosting an evening with Dr. Dan Guillory, who will be reading his new poetry inspired by Abraham Lincoln. A book signing will follow the program.

Who: Dr. Dan Guillory, emeritus professor of English, Millikin University, Decatur
What: The Lincoln Poems poetry reading and book signing
When: Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009 at 7 p.m.
Where: McLean County Museum of History, 200 North Main Street, Bloomington (Ill.)

All about Guillory
Guillory's new book, "The Lincoln Poems," was written in the form of 61 poems told in the imagined voice of Lincoln himself. Lincoln was a lover of poetry, and for most of his adult life he regaled his friends and companions with impromptu recitations of his favorite poetry.

Dr. Guillory is an Emeritus Professor of English at Millikin University in Decatur (Ill.) He has won awards or grants from the Academy of American Poets, the American Library Association, the Illinois Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has published over 500 articles, poems, and book reviews, as well as chapters of books.

More McLean County Lincoln at mclincoln.org
This event is sponsored free of charge as part of the McLean County celebration of the Lincoln Bicentennial. For more information on local events, please visit www.mclincoln.org.

Thanks to the folks at the McLean County Museum of History for their email message with many of the details I’ve shared with you here.

Davis through Ecelbarger's enthusiastic eyes

Lincoln buffs in Bloomington, Ill. had a real treat earlier this year when Gary Ecelbarger, author of The Great Comeback: How Abraham Lincoln Beat the Odds to Win the 1860 Republican Nomination, spoke at the McLean County Museum of History (Sept. 11). The event was jointly sponsored by The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission of McLean County and the David Davis Mansion Foundation.

Ecelbarger talked about “The role of David Davis in Lincoln’s nomination.” Anyone who lives in McLean County long enough and gets involved in its history circles will learn that the David Davis connection to Lincoln was long-lived and strong. They’ll learn early on that Davis was a big man and always had his own bed when he rode the circuit with Lincoln. They’ll learn a lot more about the connection between the two as time goes on. I know. I have.

Ecelbarger shared information I’d never heard before, though, and he’d be proud to know that I took one important number away with me – 233 – the number of votes it took for Lincoln to cinch the 1860 Republican presidential nomination. The speaker made sure to drive those digits home throughout his lecture.

I was impressed by two things – Ecelbarger’s energetic enthusiasm and his vast knowledge of names, dates, and the politicking that had to happen for Lincoln’s destiny as our president to come to be.

Ecelbarger is a magnificent storyteller, entertaining as only one passionate about his subject can. He takes his listeners on a journey through the Lincoln/Davis relationship and keeps them spellbound as he moves through the process which led to the crucial number of votes in the Chicago convention wigwam.

In Lincoln lore, one January date always stands out – that fatal first when the courtship with Mary Todd went awry and Lincoln slipped into his great melancholy.

After hearing Ecelbarger, I’ll now always have another January image etched in my mind, one in 1859 which I’ll dub the snowy sixth. I’ll see the picture Ecelbarger painted of Lincoln and the others holed up in the then State Library in the basement of the Old State Capitol. Lincoln, fresh on the heels of defeat after losing his second senate race, is not afraid to speak up and say “I can do it” when his name is overlooked as a candidate for the presidency.

Ecelbarger’s lecture was suspense-filled, entertaining and informative. Though I have not yet read the book I bought and had autographed that night, I’m sure it’s more of the same. I’m looking forward to reading it, and I feel confident in telling my readers you’ll want to read it, too. And if you want a great way to spend an hour or two, watch for an opportunity to hear him speak in a community near you.

© Copyright 2008 Ann Tracy Mueller. All rights reserved.