Question of the Week: What would you tell Abe Lincoln?
If you could go back in time and give Abraham Lincoln one piece of advice of factual information, what would it be and when would you want to tell him?
If you could go back in time and give Abraham Lincoln one piece of advice of factual information, what would it be and when would you want to tell him?
Don’t attend Ford’s Theater tonight!
Avoid all theaters!
“Beware the Ides of Ford’s!”
Think thoroughly about reconstruction, how you want it to go and what is realistic.
How did you think it was going to go after you got stood up by the Army of the Potomac’s CO in November 1861?
Andrew Johnson will ruin reconstruction and oppose civil rights for the Freedmen. Find someone else to take the VP spot (assuming you plan to ignore all the other anti-theater advice).
Skip the theater.
this
In April ’61, I would tell him “There’s a guy named Grant you should check out!”
Lincoln may not have survived his second term regardless of assassination so I would have asked him to keep Hamlin as his vp
Don’t go out to the theater.
Get Robert Todd a train set with sleeper cars for Christmas
In March 1862 President Lincoln made arguably the worst decision of the war by replacing Major General George McClellan, the General-in-Chief of the Army… with nobody. Supposedly, the team of Lincoln & Stanton assumed the duties of “General-in-Chief” from March until July 1862; but if “proof be in the pudding,” then the General-in-Chief “team” experiment was a failure. The advice for President Lincoln: Do not replace McClellan until you have some military professional earmarked to step immediately into the role.
Agree with Mike. This military command “interregnum” is a fascinating period of the war.
Stanton did create a committee – a “War Board” – to advise him. The members included staff officers, plus a man Stanton had recently recalled into service as his military advisor with the rank of Major General. Ethan Allen Hitchcock (USMA 1817), grandson of the Revolutionary War hero, was nearly 64. He chaired the War Board at some point [seehttps://libguides.wofford.edu/c.php?g=891384&p=6409735], so in essence Hitchcock was the general in chief, albeit a reluctant one. Stanton even offered him command of the Army of the Potomac. Hitchcock, horrified, turned him down. (Short weeks later Stanton floated the name of Napoleon Bonaparte Buford – John’s half-brother – for that role. Great judge of military talent, Stanton). See William Marvel, Lincoln’s Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton, pp. 172-177).
Both Hitchcock and Buford would later be selected by Stanton to sit on the Court Martial of Fitz John Porter.
Kevin C. Donovan, Thanks for providing the link of Edwin Stanton to Ethan Allen Hitchcock. When Henry Halleck became dissatisfied with U.S. Grant’s performance late February 1862, it was Hitchcock’s name that Halleck floated as one of two possible replacements for Grant (the other being Charles F. Smith, who briefly replaced Grant in the field, until 17/18 March 1862.)
Just before he left Springfield for Washington City I would buy a ticket on his train, and sit down and have a long talk with him. To wit:
1. Ignore the war hawks, the press, and the Radical Republicans who want you to tempt South Carolina into firing on Fort Sumter so the South can be blamed for starting war. If by the time you take office Buchanan has not evacuated the fort, then do so immediately – and inform the Governor of South Carolina you are doing so.
2. Continuing, if more states secede and a Southern government is formed, ignore the pressure to make war on the South in order to keep raking her for unconstitutional tariffs and taxes, or to end slavery. Let her be, let the matter sit, send reasonable negotiators to her government to attempt to evoke a peaceful solution. Include in it the end of unfair treatment of the South, and a huge, multi-decade Federal investment to develop the South’s economy – infrastructure – roads, railroads, clearing rivers, building ports, harbors and factories; build schools, universities, and hospitals. Do all this on the condition that a solid plan be worked out for ending slavery within 20 years, with all kinds of other incentives for the states, including the Federal government compensating owners for their slaves, as well as a resettlement program that genuinely takes care of the freed slaves.
Costly? Undoubtedly far less costly than the $1 million per day, every day for four years, that the Federal government spent, in 1860 dollars, to subdue a dozen states and turn them into vassals. The cost was almost unbelievable. $1.461 billion by the Federal government, probably half that again by the South, the near total destruction of probably half a billion dollars’ worth of Southern infrastructure, industry and agriculture, and the forced loss of their slaves – all while slavery remained legal in the U. S. Constitution until December 8, 1865. No, the 4 million slaves were not worth more than all the railroads and industry in the country; that is a dishonest figure put together by a dishonest CRT scholar, figuring that every slave in America was worth what only top quality slaves fetched, $1,000. In truth, taking all things into consideration, they average $100 each, for a total of $400 million. In total, a four-year waste of about $2.6 billion.
Add to this the human cost of close to 700,000 soldiers and civilians, a shocking 3% of the population, and political and economic imbalance and discord for over a century, and my plan would have been far far less expensive and painful.
3. If it comes to war, choose proven officers to be your generals, rather than appointing Republican party powermongers to lead the Federal armies. The best ones come from Pennsylvania. Beware of men like Ulysses Grant, Phil Sheridan, William Sherman and his politically-connected family – a brother who was a Federal judge, another was a founder of the Republican party and a U. S. Congressman, Senator and cabinet secretary. Together these men and their cronies were incompetent officers, did not care for their men or civilians, committed numerous war crimes, lied in after action reports, and vaulted themselves into unlimited power following the war. Incidentally, Sherman also had a niece who was a physician with the alarming name of Euthanasia.
Fairly warned, Lincoln would almost certainly have avoided war, ended slavery peacefully, greatly benefitted the South, avoided most of the problems of Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights struggles, and been regarded along with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump as one of our five greatest Presidents. As compensation, I would have asked only to be named Commissioner for Life of Major League Baseball, and immediately set about building that spectacular enterprise.
I would say two things. First, immediately following Fort Donelson and Fort Henry make Grant General-in-Chief of the Army with orders to clean house of all insubordinate commanding officers – starting with McClellan. Second, get rid of Andrew Johnson.
Immediately after Henry and Donelson, Grant was nowhere to be found, off on a bender – and Andrew Johnson was a Democrat Senator from Tennessee who never left Washington, even though his state had seceded. It is doubtful that the President could have gotten rid of him – and doubtful he wanted too.
It wasn’t until March 1865 that Johnson because Vice President, then President a month later, and spent four years valiantly fighting off attempts by the Radical Republicans to trash the Constitution and take over the country.
My pithiness and overall point was only to point out that the signs of Grants abilities and resolve were evident and that Johnson should never been in the conversation for Vice President, politics notwithstanding. For accuracy I will be clearer next time.
And meanwhile, NOBODY seems to care about poor Hannibal Hamlin!
Andrew Johnson left Washington in 1861 to urge his fellow Tennesseans not to secede. After Tennessee voted for secession he had to be hurriedly secreted out of East Tennessee back to Washington. Of course he returned to Tennessee as military governor in 1862 after Lincoln happily appointed him to that post.
Yes, though politically he never left, which is the point. He never accepted secession, and in fact tried to convince his fellow Southern senators to remain as well, because they, as Democrats, were in the majority, and could pretty much block anything Lincoln might do. They should have listened.
Trump? TRUMP? A great President? Oh, boy….
Wake up, Rip; you’ve missed years.
I would tell him to fear not and be sanguine about winning the war.
Difficult to be sanguine about such a sanguinary affair…