posted January 20, 2011 05:25 PM            

University Unveils Lincoln Letters Online
By BEN DOBBIN, AP
Posted: 2008-03-02 13:18:39
Filed Under: Nation News

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (March 2) - Barely a year into the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suggested buying slaves for $400 apiece under a "gradual emancipation" plan that would bring peace at less cost than several months of hostilities.

Richard Baker, University of Rochester / AP
Abe Lincoln
Discoveries (1 of 18)
In one of Abraham Lincoln's letters unveiled to the public by the University of Rochester last month, the president laid out a plan to end the Civil War. He wanted the government to pay states about $400 for each slave and states in turn to set a 20-year deadline for abolishing slavery.

The proposal was outlined in one of 72 letters penned by Lincoln that ended up in the University of Rochester's archives. The correspondence was digitally scanned and posted online along with easier-to-read transcriptions.

Accompanying them are 215 letters sent to Lincoln by dozens of fellow political and military leaders. They include letters from Vice President Andrew Johnson and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who both succeeded Lincoln in the presidency in the 12 years after his assassination in 1865.

In a letter to Illinois Sen. James A. McDougall dated March 14, 1862, Lincoln laid out the estimated cost to the nation's coffers of his "emancipation with compensation" proposal. Paying slave-holders $400 for each of the 1,798 slaves in Delaware listed in the 1860 Census, he wrote, would come to $719,200 at a time when the war was soaking up $2 million a day.

Alexander Gardner, New York Public Library/AP
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Best Presidents (1 of 10)
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Abraham Lincoln
Ranking: 1
Years served: 1861-1865
Buying the freedom of an estimated 432,622 slaves in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Washington, D.C., would cost $173,048,800 - nearly equal to the estimated $174 million needed to wage war for 87 days, he added.

Lincoln suggested that each of the states, in return for payment, might set something like a 20-year deadline for abolishing slavery.

The payout "would not be half as onerous as would be an equal sum, raised now, for the indefinite prosecution of the war," he told McDougall.

The idea never took root. Six months later, Lincoln issued the first of two executive orders known as the Emancipation Proclamation that declared an end to slavery. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified after the collapse of the confederacy, ending two centuries of bondage in North America.

"To be given a document that plunks you right into a situation that Lincoln was facing, it's very compelling," said Brian Fleming, a University of Rochester librarian who is heading the online project which debuted Feb. 18 - Presidents Day.

The Lincoln letters addressing the war, slavery and other affairs of state, are part of a collection of papers once belonging to his Secretary of State, William H. Seward Sr.

They were bequeathed by Seward's grandson, William Henry Seward III, who lived in Auburn, 70 miles east of Rochester, and arrived at the University of Rochester between 1949 and 1987.

The digitally scanned letters appear on the school library's Web site along with transcriptions, contextual essays written by graduate students and lesson plans designed to help teachers.

posted February 24, 2011 06:11 PM            

National Geographic Channel is airing:

posted March 01, 2011 04:40 AM            

quote:

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If you look at Mark Zuckerberg’s Numerology chart, the founder of Facebook, you will see he has a number five life path–the number of the catalyst for change.

Just as the birth chart of the United States is the number five, so are most people and countries that change the world. Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D Roosevelt were both number five. These are the people who move us forward, get us unstuck and change us forever.

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posted March 06, 2011 03:19 AM            

"This is a chance to bring to life a marvelous relationship," said James Symington, a former U.S. congressman who heads the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation, which co-sponsored the exhibit.

Designed to coincide with the 150th anniversary last week of Alexander II's emancipation of the serfs, the exhibit features 200 items including the two liberators' clothing, bayonets, pictures and most importantly -- their writing tools.
Alexander II's ink-stained quill with which he scribed the 1861 emancipation sits in a glass box opposite the metal nib pen Lincoln used to free the slaves in 1863, both forever changing the political landscape of their countries.

"Here are two friends who never met personally but were together in spirit," Symington told reporters before a brass band clad in Russian imperial regalia opened the exhibit.

Nineteenth century prints of the Czar congregating with joyous serfs -- he emancipated 23 million of them -- hang on the pastel pink walls of the secretive State Archive next to whips and shackles American slaves were subjected to.

During the middle of the U.S. Civil War, Lincoln's Emancipation of Proclamation freed around 4 million slaves.

"This is about men sharing a dream, about a dream shared by two countries," said Alexander Bourganov, an award-winning Russian artist who designed a white sculpture of the two leaders in an embrace, which guards the door to the State Archive.
While Alexander II was killed 20 years after he freed the serfs -- a bomb blew him up in the imperial capital of Saint Petersburg -- Lincoln was gunned down in 1865 as the Civil War drew to a close.

The display is part of a series of conciliatory cultural gestures by the United States as part of the "reset" in relations with its Cold War foe, said U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle.

He added that a visiting U.S. dance troupe, sports collaborations and cultural exchanges with teenagers are also planned over the next few months.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has pledged to "reset" relations with Russia, which sank to a post-Cold War low during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, now Russia's Prime Minister.

Ties have warmed since Washington and Moscow wrestled out the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, which came into force this month.

But they continue to disagree on issues such as missile defense and NATO expansion.
(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman, editing by Paul Casciato)

posted April 05, 2011 06:12 AM            

In Theaters APRIL 15th...

The Conspirator -- [President Lincoln -- what REALLY happened!!!]

Directed by Robert Redford....
website: www.ConspiratorTheMovie.com

posted January 14, 2012 07:12 AM            

Directed by Robert Redford....
website: www.ConspiratorTheMovie.com

Anyone watched this movie... I"m trying to find it on Netflex's to view...

posted January 15, 2012 03:51 AM            

BROOKLYN, Ohio — A personal check that Abraham Lincoln wrote the day before he was assassinated is among those that were rediscovered by an Ohio bank.

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reports that 70 checks were found in a vault at Huntington Bank's Columbus headquarters, including checks signed by George Washington, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Thomas Edison. Some are being displayed at branches throughout the state.

The Lincoln check had been made out to "self" for $800. [Note: That was alot of $$ in those days.]

posted January 15, 2012 08:44 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by BiBi DeAngelo:
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000453.html
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000455.html

Thanks Lexx for all the work on the above thread!

---

posted February 12, 2012 08:42 PM            

Second: RIP "Lincoln's Birthday" today

Hollywood News:

Warner Bros. Acquires 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' Scribe's Next Book www.hollywoodreporter.com

Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter author Seth Grahame-Smith's new book Unholy Night for aproximately $2 million.

posted February 12, 2012 08:52 PM            

Lincoln follows the life of Lincoln (hopefully this doesn’t get overly redundant) from his first inauguration throughout his Presidency during the Civil War until his death. This is a fairly ambitious undertaking considering Glory, which told the story of the all-black 54th Regiment of Massachusetts, has a run-time of two hours and Gettysburg, which followed that singular battle, has a run-time of over four hours. This ambition in addition to the writers’ desire to paint Lincoln as a hero of mythic proportions is the biggest weakness of a script that attempts to ride the fence between pop culture legend and historical accuracy. What do I mean by that? This is not a fictional story. The characters herein were not simply thought up by the writers to advance a plot. These are real people with lives and histories and families. There is a factual record of when and where the battles took place, who won and who lost and at what cost.

The U.S. Civil War was fought from 1861-1865 in a theater that stretched from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River. In order to condense all of that into a film that will run around two hours means *much* has been omitted, and what is presented is fragmented and filled with minor characters that come and go and are reduced to single dimensions. This seems to me to be a bit of a shame.

For example, George McClellan was a major general in the Union Army. He has been recognized as a great martial organizer and immensely popular with his troops, yet he is notorious for his recalcitrance to launch offensives against Confederate forces in Virginia in the early days of the war. There has been an ongoing debate for years amongst historians over McClellan’s character, courage, and reasons for not attacking, which some have argued had more to do with his fondness for the men under his command than any alleged Confederate sympathies he might have had. Yet all of this is cast aside in Lincoln as he is portrayed simply as a racist who is disagreeable with the notion that the war is being fought to free black slaves. As he informs President Lincoln in a private meeting, “I will tell you plainly, sir, - this army will not fight. . . for the negro.”
In contrast to all of these cardboard cut-outs that make brief appearances in the film, Lincoln is the only character given real attention (it’s his story, after all). But even here, as I said, complexity of character and insight into the man is tossed out the window in favor of advancing the myth. Lincoln is presented almost as some kind of superhero. True he was born and raised in poverty, struggled to educate himself, and eventually entered public service and won the highest office in the country. Maybe he had some of the following character traits, but in Lincoln he is a man of immense intelligence, compassion, humor, humility, emotional strength, physical strength, resolve, conviction, principles, etc, etc. This is a man who, when we are first introduced to him, is getting his photograph taken before venturing to Washington. He is holding a wooden log in one hand and an axe in the other. After the photo is taken, Lincoln lets go of the log, and chops it cleanly in two while it is in mid-air. Later while traveling on a steamboat Lincoln notices several young men having a friendly competition of a feat of strength – seeing who can hold an axe by the handle-tip out at arm’s length the longest. We see one especially stout fellow who bests all the others with a time of three minutes. Lincoln asks if he can give it a try, and not only does he beat that time, he holds the axe out for over four minutes. Obviously these scenes are in place to inform the audience in no uncertain terms that Lincoln was a bad ass.

Like I said, maybe Lincoln did have some of these character traits. I’ve read he worked hard labor as a young man, and there are witness accounts of his impressive physical stature. Maybe these are historically accurate. Maybe. And hey, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with presenting Lincoln as the myth, as the ideal of what a President should be, right? Even if that means omitting actions taken by Lincoln during the Civil War that our current President (one of the most derided in history) is quite fond of. True, the script makes no mention of Lincoln imprisoning close to twenty thousand suspected Confederate sympathizers without trial, or his suspending the right of habeas corpus, literally removing a person’s right to protest unlawful imprisonment, which was in direct defiance of a U.S. Circuit Court’s decision overturning his action. And while that’s questionable, at least they’re not just making sh** up and lying outright. OH WAIT, that’s exactly what they’re doing. To wit: at one point in the script Lincoln meets with abolitionist Frederick Douglass at the height of the Civil War and tells him, “I want to set up, as a matter of the greatest urgency, an underground railroad system that can bring people out of the furthest recesses of the South.”

The Underground Railroad, a loosely organized operation to transport black slaves out of the South, was in process as early as 1810 – when Lincoln was still a baby. It was ongoing from that time through 1850 (before Lincoln took office) and during the Civil War. The man who is credited with founding the Underground Railroad is Isaac T. Hopper. As far as I can tell, Lincoln had no direct involvement in this effort.