Land of Lincoln

James Korn is a longtime reader of my blog, and a frequent contributor of intelligent and savvy comments on various posts. He recently attended a talk by Andrew Ferguson, author of the new book Land of Lincoln, and I asked him to offer his comments and observations:

"Brian,

Thanks for wanting to hear my reaction. Mr. Ferguson is a very humorous man. His objective was to look at the country's perception of present day Lincoln in an off-beat, humorous slant. He visited shrines, statues, cabins, and museums. He is a self-described Lincoln buff and when he was introduced, we were informed that his grandfather was in the same firm as Robert Todd Lincoln. He spoke of a couple of his visits. One visit was to a Thai restaurant that kept a shrine to Lincoln. A small statue. Everyday they would serve it a full meal because of not only what Lincoln stood for, but that ever since the shrine went up, business was getting better. What was interesting was that the owners never served pork. After all, they said, he is "Abraham" Lincoln, the Jewish President. Mr. Ferguson described some other incidents. One was a convention of people who impersonate Lincoln. These folks come in all shapes and sizes. Short and bald was no hindrance. He also spoke of his desire to see the Lincoln Heritage Trail. Mr. Ferguson spoke to the person who started it and it turns out it was to encourage people to get in their cars and drive. They invented the Washington Heritage Trail and even a Hiawatha Heritage Trail, even though Hiawatha is only a character in a poem. He also described what inspired him to write the book. He wanted to see what these iconic Lincoln meant to present day folks. He said there was many books out there with very similar names. Such as the "Footsteps of Lincoln" and "Lincoln's Footsteps" All were a play on this variation. Mr. Ferguson has been interested in Lincoln for about 35 years and thought this theme would be interesting.

It was an enjoyable talk. It only lasted about 15 minutes or so. The floor opened up for questions. Interesting most of the questions dealt with what Lincoln would have thought of today's political world. Most of the people in the room had an interest in history but I don't think their knowledge was very deep regarding Lincoln

One of the impressions I got from Mr Ferguson as he related his discussion with folks around the country was that they believed Lincoln thought all men being created equal. They believed that Lincoln thought all men are equal and none was better then the other. It seemed like, as Mr Ferguson related this and my impression, that these folks got the Great Emancipator teaching as given in 4th grade. I don't think any of these people, and why should they, understood the "real" Lincoln. Mr. Ferguson in response to one of the questions from the crowd, addressed Lincolns feelings regarding slavery and blacks. I think Mr Ferguson is extremely knowledgeable about Lincoln. He doesn't try to stand in the way of the subject matter in the book or interject his thoughts, feelings, or partisan leanings. He understood quite a bit of Lincoln's background."