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Abraham Lincoln

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February 11, 2009, 20:37
wordcrafter
Abraham Lincoln
Who was the most important person of the 19th century? Of all the persons whose lifework took place in that hundred years, who had had the most impact on our world of today?

Interesting question. To my way of thinking, two men stand out above all others, no one else even coming close, and it is impossible to set either of them above the other.

Those two are Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. By the oddest of coincidences, those two great men were born on the same day. February 12 of this year marks the 200th anniversary of their births. And in their honor we will take our words and our quotations from Lincoln – he being more suitable for quotation –it being understood that no disrespect to Darwin is intended.

From a very early Lincoln address, shortly after a St. Louis mob burned a negro to death:mobocracy – a condition in which the lower classes of a nation control public affairs without respect to law, precedents, or vested rights
February 12, 2009, 05:59
zmježd
There's a goodly and relevant article in the current issue of the Smithsonian Magazine, one of the few print periodicals which I still receive. Online version: (link).


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
February 12, 2009, 06:37
arnie
I'm not so sure about Lincoln... Wordcrafter might be a little US-centric here.

While there is little doubt that he helped make the US what it is today, it is entirely possible that a USA not torn apart by the civil war might have become a superpower even earlier. If the Southrons had won, Ward Locke's world might have come into being.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
February 12, 2009, 09:31
Robert Arvanitis
Speaking of "-cracy," we've have "mobocracy" above, and we all know "aristocracy," but it's not too often we the antonym, as below:



"More good news for Dems: only 58% agree that 'no matter how bad things are, Congress can always find a way to make them worse.'

Maybe the rulers of our kakistocracy don't need to worry about infuriated crowds closing in on their castle with torches and pitchforks — for another month or so."


RJA
February 12, 2009, 19:48
wordcrafter
From a Lincoln speech, closing his criticism of his opponent, Stephen Douglas.adventitious – acquired or added externally, often by accident or chance; accidental

The quote is from Lincoln's famous "House Divided" speech of June 16, 1858. For his bicentennial, I offer crucial, stirring passage.
February 12, 2009, 20:30
Kalleh
And in nursing/medicine we talk about "adventitious" breath sounds.

Of course we in Illinois are very excited about the 200th birthday of Lincoln. This editorial in the Tribune reprints 3 editorials from Lincoln's day: February 16, 1860, May 23, 1860, and when he died, April 17, 1865. For a word board, it is interesting to read those old columns; they were written much differently than we'd see today. Times seemed a lot tamer, too. This is from one of the articles:
quote:
He never drinks intoxicating liquors of any sort, not even a glass of wine. He is not addicted to tobacco, in any of its shapes. He never was accused of a licentious act in all his life. He never uses profane language. A friend says that once, when in a towering rage in consequence of the efforts of certain parties to perpetrate a fraud on the State, he was heard to say "They shan't do it, d-n'em!" but beyond an expression of that kind, his bitterest feelings never carry him.

February 13, 2009, 10:05
<Proofreader>
RI's Judge Frank Williams holds himself out as one of, if not "the", leading historians on Lincoln. Dkruing a Washington tribute to Abe, Williams was to recite the Gettysburg Address. Unfortunately, the wind blew away one of his cards and apparently he, the expert, couldn't recite it from memory which I, the clown, can do.

I was very surprised to learn that not one Chicago paper mentioned that Lincoln was our first Jewish president.
February 14, 2009, 08:40
BobHale
This is pretty good.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
February 14, 2009, 08:51
wordcrafter
On February 22, 1842 Lincoln, just turned 33, spoke on the 110th anniversary of George Washington's birth. He analyzed why the tactics of older temperance reformers, opposing alcohol, had little success.quiescent – in a state or period of inactivity
February 15, 2009, 08:25
wordcrafter
Lincoln used today's word in a discussion of language, which seem appropriate for this forum.

fogy – a disrespectful name for a man advanced in life; esp. one with antiquated notions, an old-fashioned fellow, one ‘behind the times’

This definition is from OED. But note that in Lincoln's usage it has nothing to do with being 'behind the times', and is in no way 'disrespectful'. It simply means, "a man from long ago".
February 15, 2009, 20:00
Kalleh
I've always spelled it "fogey," which I see is a variant. I suppose one might call me an "old fogy." If so, I'll just call him a "young whippersnapper," which we have discussed before.
February 16, 2009, 08:06
wordcrafter
Lincoln's "House Divided" speech notes how effectively various recent laws, favoring slavery, "fit" together:preconcert – a previous agreement to a common plan (transitive verb: to make such an agreement)
mortise; mortice – a cavity designed to receive a corresponding projection on another piece, to form a joint between the two pieces
tenon – the projection made to fit into a mortise [French tenir to hold]
February 16, 2009, 20:45
wordcrafter
proselyte – (usually used in the religious sense:)
noun: a convert; a person who has changed from his/her religion, opinion, party, etc.
verb: intrans.: to become a religious convert, or, to make (or seek to make) such converts, or intrans.: to convert (or seek to convert) someone

The use as a noun is much more common, but Lincoln used this word as a verb in his last public address (ellipses omitted), delivered April 11, 1865.This was the first time Lincoln publicly supported black suffrage. John Wilkes Booth was in the audience, and commented to his companion, "That means nigger citizenship. Now, by God, Ill put him through. That is the last speech he will ever make."

Three days later Lincoln lay dead by Booth's bullet.