Leidner Gordon - Lincolns gift: how humor shaped Lincolns life and legacy

Copyright 2015 by Gordon Leidner

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Leidner, Gordon

Lincolns gift : how humor shaped Lincolns life and legacy / Gordon Leidner.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

(hard cover : alk. paper) 1. Lincoln, Abraham, 18091865Humor. 2. Lincoln, Abraham, 18091865Anecdotes. 3. American wit and humor. I. Title.

E457.2.L45 2015

973.7092dc23

2014041682

eBook version 1.0

In memory of my brother:

Jeffrey David Leidner

Who walked on straight paths.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
LINCOLN THE STORYTELLER

They say I tell a great many stories; I reckon I do, but I have found in the course of a long experience that common people, take them as they run, are more easily informed through the medium of broad illustration than in any other way, and as to what the hypercritical few may think, I dont care.

Abraham Lincoln

Today we think of Abraham Lincoln as a great leaderperhaps our greatest. We recall his eloquent speeches, his fight for the preservation of the Union, and his emancipation of the slaves. We honor his devotion to duty, sacrifice, and honesty.

What we do not think of today in association with Abraham Lincoln is a good joke. In Lincolns day, however, he was a well-known storyteller, and more than one Lincoln joke book was published during his presidency. Although most of the jokes in them did not originate with Lincoln, like everyone else, he enjoyed reading them. One of them had a story Lincoln was particularly fond ofthe anecdote about two Quaker women discussing President Lincoln and Confederate president Jefferson Davis at the beginning of the Civil War. The first Quaker lady said, after some contemplation, that she believed the Confederacy would win the war because Jefferson Davis is a praying man. But Abraham Lincoln is a praying man too, the second Quaker lady protested. Yes, the first admitted, but the Lord will think Abraham is joking.

Mark Twain said that the secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow, and if this is true, we can understand why Lincoln told so many jokes. He endured many tragedies in his life, beginning with the loss of his mother when he was nine years old, his sister when he was nineteen, his first love when in his twenties, two young sons, and of course the terrible trials of an internecine war.

Lincoln always said that he cared little for the typical vices of the daydrinking, smoking, or gamblingbut that a good joke was like a tonic or medicine to him. It is well known that Lincoln had a melancholy personality and frequently suffered bouts of what may have been unipolar depression. He recognized this challenge and told many people that he used funny stories to help lift himself out of sessions of sadness.

Lincoln acquired his penchant for jokes and storytelling from his father, Thomas Lincoln. When Abe was a child, he loved to listen to his father and other men swap yarns and funny stories. As he grew older, he himself became increasingly adept at telling and retelling humorous stories, frequently modifying them to accommodate each situation. When Lincoln became a lawyer, he used his jokes and stories to gain the good will of juries, and more than once, the opposing counsel complained to the judge that Lincolns stories were irrelevant and distracting. The trouble for them, though, was that the portly Eighth Circuit judge, David Davis, loved Lincolns jokes more than anyone else in the courtroom.

As a politician, Lincoln used his humorous stories to ridicule opponents, such as the competing political party whose platform he said was like the pair of pantaloons advertised to be large enough for any man, small enough for any boy. More than once, Lincolns lifelong political opponent, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, saw his forceful arguments forgotten by the audience when Lincoln followed up his rivals speech with a joke or funny analogy. At the debate in Ottawa, Illinois, Lincoln compared one of Douglass statements to trying to make a chestnut horse into a horse chestnut. At the debate in Alton, Lincoln told a story that showed how he felt about a political feud that was currently raging between Douglas and the head of the Democratic Party, President James Buchanan. He said he felt like the old woman who, not knowing who was going to win a brawl between her husband and a bear, decided to cheer for both of them: Go it husband, go it bear!

When Lincoln became president, he used his jokes for various purposes. Sometimes his jokes put visitors at ease, such as the time he met a soldier who was three inches taller than him, and he asked the young man if he knew when his feet get cold. Sometimes his jokes were just for fun, like when he commented about the demise of a vain general, saying, if he had known how big his funeral would be, he would have died long ago. Often his jokes were simply familiar expressions, as with his comment to a sculptor who had been working on a bust of Lincoln, when he said that looks very much like the critter, or to a visitor that he would pitch in to his problem like a dog at a root.

Frequently Lincoln used jokes to illustrate political points he wanted to make, such as his comparison of General George B. McClellans continuous cry for reinforcements to the monkey named Jocko who wanted a longer tail. On another occasion, he compared the congressman who was taking both sides of a political issue to the farmer and son who had to search both sides of a branch at the same time for their old sow who they thought was on both sides of the creek. Sometimes he used jokes to get visitors who had taken up too much of his time to leave. While the listeners were laughing, he would ease them out the door.

Lincoln also used funny stories to break the ice in awkward moments. Frequently these jokes were simple ones that poked fun at his own appearance, like the story of meeting a stranger in a railroad car in Illinois. The stranger said, Excuse me, Sir, but I have an article in my possession which belongs to you.

How is that? Lincoln asked, considerably astonished.

The stranger took a jackknife from his pocket. This knife, he said, was placed in my hands some years ago, with the injunction that I was to keep it until I found a man uglier than myself. I have carried it from that time to this. Allow me now to say, Sir, that I think you are fairly entitled to the property.