26Abe’s Emancipation View
Abraham Lincoln replied to a critic questioning 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. Someone tried and failed to save President Abraham Lincoln. His name was Major Henry Rathbone. After Booth fired the shot, Rathbone tried to tackle him to the ground, but Booth was able to get free by slicing Rathbone in the arm with a dagger. Rathbone was never free of the guilt till his death.
28. Early in his life, when Abraham Lincoln used to wrestle, a local gang leader named Jack Armstrong heard of him. He challenged ‘The Honest One’ to a match. It ended with Abe grabbing him by the throat, hoisting him up, giving a little shake, then throwing him to the dirt. It was the first chokeslam used in wrestling.
29. In August 1864, a sniper tried to shoot Abraham Lincoln as he left the White House. They had missed by inches and shot through Lincoln’s hat, knocking it off his head. Lincoln had left without guards. He was just riding out to an evening retreat.
30. A few weeks before Abraham Lincoln was elected president, 11-year-old Grace Bedell sent Lincoln a letter encouraging him to grow a beard, writing, "All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you..." By the time of his inauguration, Lincoln had a full beard.
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31Lincoln's Defence
Abraham Lincoln successfully defended a criminal defendant by using an almanac to challenge a man's assertion that he saw the murderer "By the light of the moon."
32. Abraham Lincoln had a nightmare in which mourners grieved a corpse in the White House. He asked "Who is dead in the White House?" and a soldier answered "The President. He was killed by an assassin." 10 days later, Lincoln was assassinated.
33. A few days before delivering the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln saw John Wilkes Booth perform as a villain in a play at Ford's Theatre. Someone told Lincoln, "He almost seems to be reciting these lines to you." To which Lincoln replied, "He does talk very sharp at me, doesn't he?"
34. Abraham Lincoln wrote poems throughout his life, including this one at the age of seventeen: Abraham Lincoln is my nam[e], And with my pen I wrote the same, I wrote in both hast and speed and left it here for fools to read.
35. 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.
