Lincoln Record Changed At National Archives

According to a January 24, 2011 press release from The National Archives in Washington, D.C., a pardon signed by President Abraham Lincoln has been discovered to have been altered by a Lincoln researcher. Thomas Lowry has now admitted to this unbelievable deed during an investigation by the Archives and has forever been banned from using any research facility operated by that institution.

The pardon in question was for a Union soldier put to court-martial for desertion. Patrick Murphy, the soldier in question, was pardoned by President Lincoln on April 14, 1864 and spared punishment execution, due to Murphy's "insanity." But that date wasn't good enough for Lowry, who wrote a "5" over the "4" in "1864" to make it look like this act by Lincoln might have been the very last official act of his life on April 14, 1865. He did this in order to achieve notoriety and fame as having been the "discoverer" of perhaps the last thing Lincoln ever wrote. According to the press release and accompanying video, Lowry was also immediately "raised" to the "upper echelons" of Lincoln researchers and historians with this supposed discovery.

Lowry then parlayed this "discovery" into a book titled "Don't Shoot That Boy: Abraham Lincoln and Military Justice" which was published in 1999. He also went on to write other books, all resulting from this "fame."

Words fail me in trying to describe the damage Lowry has perpetrated here. Obviously he has physically altered, perhaps forever, a document written in Lincoln's hand. Specialists at the Archives are trying now to determine if this "5" can be removed without further damaging the pardon.

More importantly, Lowry actually rewrote history for at least the past 12 years. By claiming Lincoln wrote something on April 14, 1865 when that was not true, Lowry misled the public, other researchers, and news organizations.

Lowry, through this act of greed and selfishness, has obliterated his reputation. If he was willing to do such a terrible thing to one document, then who knows what else he did in producing "research" for his own gain? Please don't think that I feel sorry for him, because I don't. What he did was utterly reprehensible.

The National Archives itself has to accept some of the responsibility for not catching this alteration far earlier. The video provided in the press release specifically mentions the The Collected Works Of Abraham Lincoln as the reference which was used to prove that this pardon was written in 1864, and not 1865. That set of 9 volumes has been in existence since 1953 and is the best reference for everything which Lincoln ever wrote. Why did no National Archives historian consult this resource immediately to confirm what Lowry claimed back in the 1990's? This pardon had not been "lost" to history. It was documented in the Collected Works when the reference set was published. I just found it in my own copy of the reference set in a manner of seconds. Had some care been taken, this alteration of an historic document could have been found immediately.

Unfortunately, Lowry cannot be prosecuted for his crime(s). According to the press release, the statute of limitations has expired, and all the National Archives can do is take the action I mentioned earlier in this post.

Historians, professional and amateur alike, must always strive for accuracy. This lone "researcher," Thomas Lowry, was permitted to alter history for more than a decade. What he did was unconscionable. But it is also unthinkable that he got away with this act of deception for so long. Hopefully, the National Archives will learn to have better controls in the future on researchers so nothing like this ever happens again.

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Join Abraham Lincoln On Facebook

Greetings and Happy New Year from The Abraham Lincoln Blog. As this blog enters its fourth year, I am grateful to all of my readers for their continued support of this endeavor. Without your readership, questions, and comments, there would be no purpose for this blog to continue.

This new year of 2011 of course marks the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the American Civil War. Already events are being scheduled throughout the United States, North and South, to remember the bloodiest war in our nation's history. Re-enactments, parades, symposia, and a flood of books will be just some of the ways we Americans will remember this critical part of our history.

Becoming somewhat overlooked by the hoopla surrounding the war's commemorations is the fact that 2011 is also the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as the 16th President Of The United States. The National Park Service is going to stage a re-creation of Lincoln's Inaugural Journey from Springfield to Washington next month, but most of the focus seems to be on the war anniversary. For example, my own hometown of Canton, OH has established a committee to stage events commemorating the war itself, but thus far, no one in town seems to have an interest in Lincoln's role in the events leading up to and including the Civil War.

Therefore, I have decided to create a project which will hopefully give insight into Lincoln's actions, thoughts, and activities as he entered the remaining months prior to becoming President during a time of national crisis.

Using the social network Facebook, I have created a page where people can receive status updates from "Abraham Lincoln" as he deals with the stress of seceding states, office seekers, preparing for the move to Washington, and relates his concerns. These updates will be written as if they are coming from Lincoln himself in 1861. I will be the sole writer of the updates and I will remain in character as "Lincoln." The updates will be "real time" in that "Lincoln" will not realize that there will be a Civil War in just a few months. "He" can comment about his past, but not about his future or about the events of our time.

This Facebook page is titled "HonestAbraham Lincoln". The name is a bit hokey, but Facebook wouldn't permit me to simply use his name. The link or URL for this page is quite simple:

http://facebook.com/HonestAbrahamLincoln

The Facebook page is NOT replacing this blog, nor am I ending the blog. It's simply meant to be another way I can help others to have a deeper understanding of and appreciation for Abraham Lincoln and his legacy. The Facebook page actually will complement the blog.

Please consider giving this new Facebook page of "HonestAbraham Lincoln" a try. Already 111 people are "liking" it and receiving updates from Mr. Lincoln. Why not join us in this new endeavor?

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Merry Christmas From The Abraham Lincoln Blog

I want to take a few moments today, Christmas Eve 2010, to wish all of my readers a very blessed Christmas and best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous New Year. The holiday season can be stressful with so much to do; presents to wrap, trips to take, and parties to attend. Sometimes it's easy to get so buried with the work of the season that we don't often experience the love and wonder of it. My hope for each of you is that you feel the joy far more than the stress.

The most significant Christmas fact I've ever been able to find associated with Abraham Lincoln comes from his final Christmas in 1864. On December 22, General William Tecumseh Sherman wrote to President Lincoln the following message:

"I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah with 150 heavy guns, plenty of ammunition, and about 25,000 bales of cotton."

The photo above is the original transcription of the telegraph which Sherman sent to the president. The capture of Savannah by Union forces marked the end of Sherman's "March To The Sea" when his forces cut a swath of destruction across Georgia, effectively demoralizing the heart of the Confederacy.

Lincoln's reply was heartfelt, expressing "many, many thanks" for the gift. He also admitted that he had been fearful of Sherman's success, especially when Sherman proposed to divide his army during the campaign. He sent the letter to Sherman on December 26, 1864.

That Christmas of 1864 saw hundreds of thousands of soldiers, Union and Confederate, away from their loved ones and families as they continued the struggle for the direction of the United States. As we celebrate Christmas 2010, let us not forget the brave soldiers of today who are far away from their families as they are stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other foreign lands.

We are forever in their debt.

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Spielberg Selects Daniel-Day Lewis for "Lincoln"

The major news out of Hollywood today is that director Steven Spielberg has selected two-time Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis to star in his long-delayed film about Abraham Lincoln. The story has been announced on several sites, but I'm getting the information from this site courtesy of several Twitter followers of mine.

The actor Liam Neeson had long been the favorite to portray the nation's Civil War president, but he finally withdrew from the project earlier this summer, claiming he was too old at 58 to do the role. Day-Lewis is 53, which is closer to Lincoln's age of 56 at the time of his assassination in 1865.

The movie will apparently not be a biography after all as some have long assumed, but instead will be based on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team Of Rivals, her best-selling account of Lincoln's clashes with his cabinet.

Today's news is apparently a huge surprise to Hollywood insiders, who figured Spielberg's "Lincoln" film was on the back burner with the withdrawal of Neeson. Additionally, Day-Lewis is considered to be one of the choosiest actors in Hollywood, frequently turning down scripts and going for years between acting roles.

I think Daniel Day-Lewis is a superb choice. His facial structure resembles that of Lincoln's, and his height (around 6'1") is close enough to Lincoln's. More importantly, is that Day-Lewis is a brilliant actor who does a great deal of research and preparation for his roles. He is a "method" actor who is known to stay in character even off camera while working on a film.

Spielberg is of course one of the greatest movie directors of all time. Let's hope, though, that he doesn't imbue this film with sentimentality or sappiness. One site I read has it that Disney's Touchstone label will be the distributor. Tony Kushner (Angels In America) will author the script.

With these three men teaming up for this film, there might be at long last an excellent film made about Abraham Lincoln. Filming is scheduled to get under way next year, with release in the final quarter of 2012. Let's hope it comes to fruition.

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The New Battle Of Gettysburg

Seven score and seven years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln gave a brief two minute speech at the occasion of the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The 271 words he spoke in barely two minutes redefined our nation when it declared that all people are created equal, and that it stands as a symbol for freedom and democracy to the world. His Gettysburg Address is in my opinion his greatest speech, and is perhaps the single greatest speech in the English language. The story behind this speech is a poignant one, which you may read here.

Now we are engaged in another Battle of Gettysburg, only this time the fight is not between armies. Instead, the battle is between commercial interests who want to build a casino only 1/2 mile from the edge of the Gettysburg National Military Park, and those who consider such a project to be an insult to the memory of those who there gave their lives that our nation might live.

I was contacted this week by Mr. Jeff Griffith, a filmmaker who has produced and directed several videos to fight the proposed casino project. Mr. Griffith asked me to help publicize one video in particular, which enlists the talents of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, esteemed historian David McCullough, actors Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick, and Stephen Lang, and Medal Of Honor recipient Paul W. Bucha as they recite the Gettysburg Address. The music for this moving video was contributed by multiple-Oscar winner John Williams.

Please take the brief two minutes to watch the video and help the fight against a casino coming to the edge of the battlefield where so many men who fought for freedom are buried. The organization leading this fight is nocasinogettysburg.org. Go and register your support!

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Radio Interview About Lincoln

Earlier today I was contacted by a radio program host from Atlantic City, New Jersey, asking if I'd be interested in being a guest on his show to discuss Abraham Lincoln. After thinking it over, I've agreed to be on his show on Saturday November 13, 2010 at approximately 2:05 p.m. for most of an hour.

The host, Mr. Jesse Kurtz, hosts a weekly show on station WIBG 1020-AM in Atlantic City, where he discusses a wide range of topics. The focus of his show this week will be Abraham Lincoln in the first hour, and President Andrew Jackson in the second hour. He would like to talk about how the GOP of the 1860's compares with the party as it exists today. He's also planning on examining the Democratic Party in the same manner.

Although I've spoken in person about Abraham Lincoln to various groups, this will be my first time on radio. I'm both excited and a bit nervous. It will be a discussion between Mr. Kurtz and me, with unfortunately no call-in segment.

If any readers of this blog would like to listen to the show, here is a link for listening via the Internet. http://www.wibg.com/listen5.html

Once again, the date is this Saturday November 13, 2010. It's going to get underway at around 2:05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. If you'd like to hear my voice and maybe learn a little bit about why I write about Abraham Lincoln, it would be great to have you "drop by."

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Book Review: "A Renegade History Of The United States"

In a first for The Abraham Lincoln Blog, this post departs from the usual subject matter in order to review a new, controversial book about general American history. While Abraham Lincoln obviously holds a particular fascination for me, I am also deeply interested in nearly all eras which make up the American story.

I was recently contacted by a publicist from Free Press (a division of publisher Simon & Schuster, Inc.) to gauge my interest in reviewing A Renegade History Of The United States authored by Thaddeus Russell. The title alone intrigued me and when I received the press release, I knew I had to read this book.

Russell teaches American history at Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA) and has previously taught at Columbia University and Barnard College. He was raised in Berkeley, California. After graduating from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, he achieved his PhD in History from Columbia.

According to Russell, "college students are normally taught a history that is the story of struggles between capitalists and workers, whites and blacks, men and women." Text books and traditional professors teach that our "freedoms" were achieved by the Founding Fathers, handed down by the U.S. Constitution, further fought for in the Civil War, and finally guaranteed by WWII and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.

A Renegade History turns this traditional story on its ear. In this book, Russell claims that most of our true freedoms come from the "renegades," the people who lived on the fringes of American society. He states that slaves, immigrants, gangsters, prostitutes, pirates, drunks and "flamboyant gays" (or "drag queens") challenged the conventions of their day with the way they lived. They were the ones, claims this compelling book, that implemented real change in America and created the country that we know today. If it weren’t for them, we’d have no jazz, legal alcohol, weekends, birth control, Hollywood, and civil rights. In short, the struggle for freedom really occurs between these "renegades" and those who try to control society through laws, unwritten rules, social norms, and "polite behavior."

I wrote earlier that this book is controversial. For example, Russell claims in this book that white Americans envied enslaved blacks. He presents statistics which show that white farmers worked longer and harder hours than slaves. Whereas white Americans wore simple "homespun" clothing which reflected "sensibility," it was the slaves who wore bright colors. White America was told through societal pressures that dancing was evil and even a mortal sin, while slaves performed their traditional dances, while singing joyously. In Russell's view, this "freedom" that slaves had was the main reason why minstrel shows were immensely popular during the days of slavery. The minstrel shows allowed whites to experience, even briefly, the "freedom" that slaves had to "let go." And yes, Lincoln supposedly enjoyed the shows at times, too.

According to Russell, many of our sexual freedoms, including birth control, come directly from prostitutes from the earliest days of America. I won't delve into most of the facts concerning this topic he presents in that chapter of the book since this is a site used by many students. But a family-friendly example I will use is the fact that more than 100 years ago, only prostitutes wore red dresses. Now, even First Ladies such as Nancy Reagan and Michelle Obama were that color as a fashion statement.

Still another section of A Renegade History which is controversial points how out closely related the New Deal era under the (Franklin) Roosevelt administrations was to the Nazi and fascist regimes in Europe. He points out that even posters urging Americans to work for the collective good of society were very similar to those used in Nazi Germany. Russell writes that its absurd to fail to recognize the similarities between America and socialist/fascist Europe in the 1930's, but is also careful to point out that it's equally ridiculous to state that they were identical. After all, the United States did not round up millions of people in death camps in order to exterminate them. Of course, the U.S. did round up thousands of Japanese-Americans for fear that they supported Japan, and put them into "relocation camps."

Closer to our own era, Russell has yet another contentious point of view about the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's. In his view, it wasn't the non-violent approach of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. which achieved most of the rights eventually granted to African-Americans. Russell uses ample evidence to show that it was the more violent actions, such as riots, which achieved the freedoms.

Russell is quick to point out that he is not advocating a "renegade revolution." In the foreword to the book, he writes "Were the heroes of this book to take control of society, it would be a living hell. No one would be safe on the streets, chaos would reign, and garbage would never be collected. The social guardians are enemies of freedom, but there is no claim here that they are morally wrong."

Not only is A Renegade History controversial, Thaddeus Russell himself is as well. In a recent article on the Huffington Post internet site, Russell tells the story of why he was fired by Barnard College, a sister institution of Columbia University. Apparently, his very ideas challenged the "status quo" of the history department, and he was let go. His students call him "Bad Thad" due to his demeanor, use of language, and indeed, his "radical" approach to American history.

I loved this book. It is absorbing, well written, and thought-provoking. Above all, it is never boring, as far too many books about American history can be. The reader may not agree completely with some of Russell's points, but he presents them in a manner which forces the reader to rethink all he or she has learned about American history. That is the hallmark of an excellent, intelligent book. Very highly recommended.

"Bad Thad"? The history field needs more like him. And the history book genre desperately needs more works ike A Renegade History Of The United States.

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