Sunday

12 February 2017

— Abe Lincoln upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “So, you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.”

Good Morning All, 

In junior high, I read everything I could get my hands on about Abe Lincoln. He was then, it seemed to me, one of the dozen greatest people in history. I still hold that opinion, but it was not just his courageous leadership I admired; it was also his sadly hopeful and forgivingly humorous take on life, himself, and his fellow humans. The French playwright Racine observes: The world is a tragedy to those who feel, a comedy to those who think.  Lincoln, I believe, saw the world both ways at the same time, not easy to do!

At our final American history lecture at Rutgers before we went home for Christmas, our professor, S. W. Polshak (possibly spelled wrong!), was discoursing on the Civil War. He was the darling of the history department for he had in his doctoral thesis found hitherto lost letters to and from President Grover Cleveland. These helped clear up a lot of unanswered questions about Cleveland’s administration. 

Professor Polshak was a gifted speaker who could bring history to life alá Ken Burns decades later.  In good old Scott Hall, he had the 150 or so of us sophomores listening with full attention and taking notes on Bull Run, Gettysburg and the rest. Then, with five minutes left, he gave us Lincoln’s last day, concluding with his wife Mary Todd and he dressing and going to Ford’s Theater. By now we were all leaning forward to get every word.

“And then, after the fatal ball had done its damage, as Lincoln lay dying, Mary Todd saw her husband’s lips moving and leaned close to hear what he might be saying.” At this point, Professor Polshak paused and calmly regarded us all holding our breaths, for we had never known Lincoln had uttered any last words. “And then,” said Professor Polshak, “and then President Lincoln, the great emancipator, somehow found the strength and breath to whisper to his wife, to say to her as he hovered between this world and the next, he did whisper to her with his last dying breaths, “You and your goddamn theater tickets.” 

After which, Professor Polshak raised his hand to us, undoubtedly enjoying surveying 150 kids turned to stone, waved, wished us all a merry Christmas, and walked off the stage.

My guess: Lincoln would have enjoyed it. I confess I did, much as I love Lincoln.

Anyway, here are 12 Lincoln quotes to honor his birthday here on the 12th of February.

1. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

2. If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
3. If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
4. You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.
5. It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
6. Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
7. We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
8.With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.
9.The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.
10. How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.
11. There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, “Truth is the daughter of Time.”

12. When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

Go Well and Stay Well,

Bhekaron

P.S. The old poet was Aulus Gellius, born in Rome around 125 AD and educated in Athens.

P.P:S. Not long after Professor Polshak's memorable lecture, not long after two of my friends had the great foresight to buy his book on Cleveland, a student at some other university was doing a doctorate on Cleveland, using Professor Polshak’s references. Unfortunately, when she went to the Library of Congress to view the lost letters, she made the discovery that they did not actually exist. Professor Polshak had concocted them whole cloth.