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When our parent company was founded
in 1905, Abraham Lincoln’s son granted us
permission to use his father’s name and
likeness.
We strive to run our business in the
spirit of Abraham Lincoln, upholding his principles of
honesty and integrity.
It’s easy to see why so many
find Abe Lincoln fascinating to study. Much has been, and
continues to be, written about our country’s
beloved 16th president. We offer the following tidbits
courtesy of The Lincoln Museum and
invite you to learn more by visiting their site.
Did Lincoln ever own slaves?
No. "I have always hated slavery," he
wrote in 1858. He lived his entire adult life to the time
he was elected president in Indiana or Illinois, both
free states.
Did Lincoln write the Gettysburg Address on
the back of an envelope?
No. Lincoln worked on the address
both before and after his trip to Gettysburg from
Washington, D.C. using official stationery for part of
the speech. The train ride would have been too bumpy to
do any writing.
Do the hands on the Lincoln Memorial spell
out a message?
Not intentionally, although the hands
do appear to be forming the signs for "A" and "L" in
American Sign Language. According to the daughter of
sculptor Daniel Chester French, this was a coincidence
and not French's intent. French modeled the hands from
Leonard Volk's casts of Lincoln's hands, as well as casts
of his own hands. While French did not intend to use the
hands to form letters, he was at least familiar with the
concept of sign language, having previously sculpted a
memorial to Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, the founder of
the nation's first permanent public school for deaf
students. Gallaudet's son Edward Miner Gallaudet founded
the college for deaf students now called Gallaudet
University, for which President Lincoln signed the
charter in 1864.
Did Lincoln ever walk miles to return change
to a store customer?
Probably. Most of what is known about
Lincoln's early life, including the brief time when he
kept a store in New Salem, Illinois, is based on
unreliable reminiscences written down many years later.
Lincoln's scrupulous honesty is beyond question, however,
and if he ever accidentally overcharged one of his few
customers, he would certainly have made every effort to
pay the money back.
Did the young Lincoln do his homework writing
with coal on the back of a shovel?
Yes, but not often. He usually had
paper and pen for his schoolwork.
Was Lincoln's corpse ever
stolen?
Almost. From 1865 to 1871, his body
lay first in a public receiving vault and then in a
temporary vault in Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery.
After the construction of the Lincoln Tomb in 1871, his
remains were transferred there. In 1876, however, an
attempt was made to steal the body and hold it for
ransom. The plot was not successful, and when the tomb
was rebuilt thirty years later Lincoln's body was buried
under many feet of concrete, where it rests today.
Did Lincoln ever fight a duel?
Almost. In 1842, Lincoln wrote a
series of anonymous letters published in the Sangamo
Journal, mocking prominent Democrat James Shields, the
Illinois State Auditor. After Mary Todd (to whom Lincoln
had been engaged the year before) and Julia Payne wrote a
similar letter, Shields demanded that the editor reveal
the identity of the author. Upon learning that Lincoln
had written the letters, Shields challenged him to a
duel. Lincoln, who was always awkward with women,
mustered a rare show of gallantry and made no mention of
Mary's involvement in writing one of the letters.
Since Shields was the challenger,
Lincoln had the privilege of naming the conditions for
the contest. He proposed the ludicrous spectacle of a
fight with "Cavalry broad swords of the largest size"
while standing in a square ten feet wide and about twelve
feet deep, which would put the much shorter Shields at a
serious disadvantage. Lincoln may have hoped that the
silliness (as well as the danger) of the proposed contest
would bring Shields to his senses, but both men went
ahead with their preparations for the duel until their
seconds managed to arrange a peaceable settlement.
Lincoln afterwards was embarrassed by the incident and
rarely spoke of it.
Was "Dixie" really his favorite
song?
Lincoln was not particularly musical,
but when a band serenaded him in the White House at the
end of the Civil War, he asked it to play "Dixie,"
saying, "I have always thought 'Dixie' one of the best
tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way
attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday
that we fairly captured it... I now request the band to
favor me with its performance." (April 10, 1865)
Reprinted with permission of The
Lincoln Museum, 200 E. Berry Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana
46801, www.TheLincolnMuseum.org.
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