Union First, Slavery Second
26. Abraham Lincoln replied to a critic who questioned emancipation by writing: “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”
27. Abraham Lincoln had dual citizenship. His second citizenship was given to him by the San Marino government at the start of the American Civil War.
28. President Lincoln’s blockade of Confederate cotton led to famine in English mill towns. Even so, suffering Manchester workers sent Lincoln a letter of support, and he answered with thanks and a gift of food. A statue of Lincoln in Manchester shows excerpts from both letters.
29. Abraham Lincoln received very little formal education and was mostly self-educated.
30. Whenever Abraham Lincoln felt the urge to tell someone off, he would write a “hot letter.” He would put all of his anger into a note and set it aside until his feelings cooled down. He would then write: ‘Never sent. Never signed.’
31. Abraham Lincoln suffered from a lifelong “melancholy,” a condition we now call clinical depression. His suffering was so severe, that his community had to put him under a “suicide watch.” He also refused to carry a knife, because he feared he would harm himself.
32. Abraham Lincoln created the secret service just hours before he was assassinated.
33. Abraham Lincoln once named a town after himself (Lincoln, Illinois) and christened it with watermelon juice.
34. Abraham Lincoln did not instantly die from being shot in the head. He stayed alive until 7:22 am the next morning.
35. Abraham Lincoln suffered from many visual problems, including strabismus, which made it difficult for him to look people in the eye. He also switched between multiple pairs of glasses for various uses due to farsightedness.
Cats at Dinner Table
36. Lincoln loved cats so much that he once fed them from the table during a formal White House dinner. When his wife told him that it was “shameful in front of their guests,” he replied, “If the gold fork was good enough for former President James Buchanan, I think it is good enough for Tabby.”
37. Abraham Lincoln arrested pro-confederate members of Maryland’s legislature as they were headed to a vote on whether Maryland would secede from the Union, in order to prevent Maryland from seceding.
38. Abraham Lincoln once pranked his stepmother (Sarah Bush Lincoln) by leaving muddy footprints on the ceiling.
39. Abraham Lincoln used to tell a long joke about a man carving a turkey at a fancy party who puts so much force into the effort that he rips a huge fart in front of everyone.
40. Abraham Lincoln, prior to becoming President, was an avid boater and traveled on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers where his boat often got stuck on sandbars. In 1849, Lincoln invented a method for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals, making him the first and only U.S. President to receive a patent.
41. Abraham Lincoln had a voice that was high-pitched and described as shrill, sharp, and like a whistle. Even though it was unpleasant, those traits also allowed his voice to travel long distances. This was beneficial in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, when everyone in the crowd could hear him speaking.
42. Abraham Lincoln successfully defended a criminal defendant by using an almanac to dispute a man’s claim that he saw the murderer “By the light of the moon.”
43. Abraham Lincoln’s religious views remain highly ambiguous and are still debated. He never joined any Church, was a skeptic as a young man, and sometimes mocked revivalists. Many of Lincoln’s friends and family denied that he was a believing Christian.
44. Abraham Lincoln’s interest in law began at the bottom of a barrel. While Lincoln was operating a store, he bought a barrel of rubbish from a traveler. After emptying it, Lincoln discovered a complete set of ‘Blackstone’s Commentaries’ and spent more time reading it than tending the store.
45. Abraham Lincoln donated $10 to Ireland during the Great Famine.
Speech Left Unrecorded
46. Abraham Lincoln once delivered a speech that was so captivating that the reporters present stopped writing notes, and now we do not know what he said.
47. Abraham Lincoln had a nightmare in which mourners were grieving over a corpse in the White House. He asked “Who is dead in the White House?” and a soldier replied “The President. He was killed by an assassin.” 10 days later, Lincoln was assassinated.
48. In August 1864, a sniper attempted to shoot Abraham Lincoln as he left the White House. They missed by inches and fired through Lincoln’s hat, knocking it off his head. Lincoln had departed without guards. He was simply riding out to an evening retreat.
49. Lincoln was well known for his self-deprecating humor. When someone accused him of being two-faced, Lincoln answered, “Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one?”
50. In 1863, President Lincoln signed the “Order of Retaliation”. For every US soldier killed or enslaved in violation of the laws of war, a Confederate prisoner was to be killed or enslaved.
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