News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Local & Bistate

Related Photos

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.
comments powered by Disqus
February 22, 2009

The Off Season: Lincoln’s words rightfully called ‘American scripture’

By Mike Lunsford

Opal Ford and the graduating class of 1926 were more fortunate in their educations than many students today. I say that because I own one of Ford’s books; it passes its days on my desk near other favorite things.

The book is a copy of “Selections from the Writings of Abraham Lincoln,” printed in 1922 by Scott, Foresman and Co. of Chicago. Written in its inside jacket cover in pencil and in a neat cursive hand was Opal’s name and class (she was a senior) and school (I have no idea where H.J.H.S. was located). She also playfully included a typical ditty of her day:

“Kiss me sweet,

Kiss me cunning,

Kiss me quick

For Papa’s coming.”

I don’t know who Opal Ford was; one of the cast of my brothers-in-law, Phil Cox, found her book for me on a secondhand bookstore sale table, and knowing I revel in such things, promptly handed over a few dollars for it.

He had no idea that I would come to treasure it because of Lincoln’s words, not because it is rare, for books like it can be easily found at most auctions and library sales. As a writer and history teacher, I can do no better than to study what Lincoln has left for us, and I wish that more of my students could find him as fascinating as I do.

It is ironic that one of our most poorly educated presidents — I mean that in a conventional sense for our last president had a degree from Yale — was the very best writer among them. Lincoln had virtually no formal education, yet he voraciously read newspapers, read and re-read the works of Shakespeare and Robert Burns, taught himself the law through Blackstone, and soaked in the cadences and poetry of the King James version of the Bible. He taught himself well.

What Opal Ford was reading — in all probability for a civics course or a class in citizenship — is what more students today need to be reading, too. Lincoln’s words, and I mean those in his letters, as well as his famous speeches, are great lessons in humility and forgiveness and wit and compassion that no student can find in abundance in their sterile textbooks or among the passages of arid nonsense we hand them on standardized tests. Along with so much else, we have unwisely discarded the classes in which the Opal Fords of several generations ago read Lincoln’s words, and those of Washington, and Emerson, and a score of others, as well.

The more I read of Lincoln — a considerable amount since more has been written of him, I am told, than any historical figure with perhaps the exception of Napoleon — the more I come to admire him. Much has been said of him in this, his 200th birthday year — some of it not too flattering — but it is through his own words, not those of someone else, that I often choose to get to know this brilliant, ambitious, contradictory, and sad man.

An example of his writing craft comes very early in Opal’s book. It is Lincoln’s announcement of candidacy for the Illinois Legislature; he wrote it on or about March 1, 1832, when he was just 23 years old. In a masterfully spare paragraph, Lincoln shows us that at that early age, he already understood good writing often meant less writing.

“Fellow-Citizens: I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal improvements system, and a high protective tariff.

These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same.”

Fast-forward 30 years and some 300 pages in Opal’s book and Lincoln displays his determination to rescue the country from civil war in a private letter to Sen. Reverdy Johnson, long before any significant Union victory could give him much hope. In closing, he tells Johnson, “… I must save this government, if possible. What I cannot do, of course, I will not do, but it may as well be understood, once and for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available cards unplayed.”

Despite some who question its authenticity — credit, for instance, has been given to John Hay, one of Lincoln’s secretaries — one of Lincoln’s greatest pieces of writing comes to us in a letter to Lydia Bixby, who at the time had been told she had lost her five sons in the war. She and Lincoln did not know that three of them had been spared to other eventual fates, but his words are nonetheless as eloquent as any he ever wrote. Ironically, it is said that Bixby was a southern sympathizer and she destroyed Lincoln’s original letter.

Imagine, if you will, how Lincoln felt when he wrote, “I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine, which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”

Lincoln’s words comfort us, haunt us, teach us, and in these troubled times, may very well help us see that there is nothing we can’t overcome. They are also writing lessons for us. As schools struggle to help their students raise writing scores on assessment tests, perhaps each laboring student should be given copies of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address or Second Inaugural; they are masterfully brief, effectively edited, and powerfully conceived.

Abraham Lincoln’s writing may very well be what author Thomas Craughwell calls “American scripture.” Two hundred years after his birth, “Father Abraham” is still teaching us.

Contact Mike Lunsford at hickory913@aol.com, or by regular mail c/o the Tribune-Star, P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN 47808. Learn more about his book, “The Off Season, The Newspaper Stories of Mike Lunsford” at his Web site, www.mikelunsford.com. He will be speaking and signing books at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Westminster Village, and will be signing from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 6 at Book Nation.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Local & Bistate
Latest News
Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com
TribStar.com Poll
AP Video
James Gandolfini Dies at Age 51 Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On' Time Lapse: Rebuilding Bridge Post-collapse Fmr. TWA Flight 800 Investigators Want New Probe Raw: Baby White Rhino Debuts at Australian Zoo Raw: Heat, Spurs Back on Court Ahead of Game 7 Hunt for Ex-Teamster Boss Hoffa's Remains Ends Fans Cheer Dramatic Heat Comeback Rain Damages Brazil Soccer Stadium Ohio Woman Accuses 3 of Holding Her Captive Police at Patriots Tight End's Home for 2nd Day Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail Raw: Volcano Erupts Near Mexico City Falling Cable Hurts 10 NASCAR Fans In Berlin, Obama Channels Cold War Activism Family Tweets Say Kim Kardashian Gives Birth Dolce and Gabbana Convicted of Tax Evasion Paris, Prince Depositions Used in Jackson Trial Raw: Massive Protests Fill Brazilian Streets Obama Renews Call for Nuclear Reductions
NDN Video
James Gandolfini Dies at Age 51 Paula Deen Admits to Using N Word Rihanna Hits Fan With Microphone Men's Wearhouse Founder Fired Obama Renews Call for Nuclear Reductions Miss Utah Explains Rambling Response Exclusive: Locklear & Seymour Lock Lips Miami Heat Wins in Overtime Raw: Arizona Wildfire Scorches 8 Square Miles Fists, chairs fly in restaurant brawl Journalist Michael Hastings Dies in Fiery Hollywood Crash Hairy Leg Stockings Aim to Deflect Male Attention Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor Three Charged for Enslaving Mother and Daughter Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park Spurs' Popovich has no problem with Spurs' intensity RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
Parade
Magazine
Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.
  • -

     

    March 12, 2010

activity
Real Estate News