Lincoln would mandate covid-19 vaccine for all adults

Europe is having the surge of its 4^th wave of the covid-19 pandemic, and US is bracing to follow suit as it did on several occasions. The longer this thing drags on, the more difficult for us to get out of it. Each surge can potentially breed more deadly new variants. And pandemic fatigue is the human nature.

protest against vaccine mandate in Austria

Austrian Chancellor

Look at what is happening in Germany, the exemplary country serving as the model of the world in handling the pandemic. There are evidences in Germany and Austria that the unvaccinated are driving the current surge. Austria Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg mandated covid-19 vaccine for entire adult population, and this was met with large scale protests by anti-vaxxers.

Protest against vaccine mandate in Vienna

Mandate covid-19 vaccine is the surest way to success                                             The best way, and may be the only way to get out of this pandemic is through herd immunity by vaccination. Vaccine is backed by solid science. Vaccine works, but not 100% effective, nor is it long lasting. This is the very reason why nearly everyone needs to be vaccianted to ensure success. Though not 100% effective, most of the vaccines are highly effective, and herd immunity can be obtained by vaccinating all. It may be a cliché to say that we can do it if we do it together.

Lincoln rose to the occasion to save the Union. Were he around he would mandate covid-vaccine for the entire adult population. There is no doubt about it, why?

Lincoln loved and believed in science                                                       Lincoln loved science and always applied it to improve society and life of people. He once said, “I hold the value of life is to improve one’s condition.”

Lincoln studied the Six Books of Euclid, learning geometry and trigonometry, the basic rules of logic and reason. He read Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species when it came out in 1859. His law partner, William Herndon, reported that Lincoln “was deeply impressed with the notion of evolution and seemed to grow into a warm advocate of the new doctrine.” It was during his administration that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was established in1863.

Lincoln was fascinated with engineering and new technology. Upon taking the office at White House he installed telegraph service at War Department. He gave a series of lectures titling “Discoveries and Inventions” in 1858-1859. He is the only president that ever held a patent (No. 6469).

So Lincoln would embrace and advocate vaccine in a heartbeat. Knowing it is the best way to get us out of this pandemic, he would mandate covid-19 vaccine for the entire adult population even though it may curtail individual freedom and liberty.

Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and denied individual right to save the Union 

Lincoln is the only President ever suspended the writ of habeas corpus (for one to be arrested and confined has to be brought to the court to ensure the arrest is legal). On April 27, 1861 he sent a dispatch to General Winfield Scott, “. . . you find resistance which renders it necessary to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus for the public safety, you . . . are authorized to suspend that writ. ABRAHAM LINCOLN”

Lincoln defended his action by pointing out Article I, Section 9, of the U.S. Constitution: “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion and invasion the public safety may require it.”

Lincoln would deny individual liberty and freedom for the greater collective good of the country                                                                                                    Lincoln strategically deny individual rights in order to preserve the Union. He would also deny individual liberty and freedom in order to fight the pandemic to protect the collect good and benefits of the society and of the country.  Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus for what he called "public safety", he would curtail individual liberty for public health safety.

Many world leaders would like to emulate Lincoln, but few, if any, would have courage or political capital to mandate covid-19 vaccine to all adults and carry it out. Let us hope my assessment is wrong and that this scourge can end one way or another without the vaccine mandate. God helps us.

Washington, DC, a besieged city: “Why don’t they come! Why don’t they come!” Lincoln exclaimed

I thought Washington DC is preparing for a presidential inauguration, but it looks more like preparing for a major attack.  Vice President Pence just came to inspect the troops just like a general did before the imminent battle.  If Lincoln could see the 21,000 (expects to be 26,000) troops (National Guard) amassed in Washington on April 23, 1861, he would be very pleased and relieved.

At the outset of the Civil War, Lincoln first called for troops to defend the Capital on April 15, 1861.  The following excerpts are from Carl Sandburg’s monumental work, Abraham Lincoln, from which one can see how anxious Lincolns were in those days.

On the afternoon of April 23 [1861] Lincoln was alone in his office in the White House—or believed he was alone, though John Hay, [Lincoln’s secretary] quiet and unobtrusive, was there.  And Hay saw Lincoln “after walking the floor alone in silent thought for nearly half an hour,” stop at a window and gaze long and wistfully down the Potomac in the direction of the expected ships.  And as he gazed he broke out with irrepressible anguish in the repeated exclamation “Why don’t they come!  Why don’t they come!”

The day of the President’s call for 75,000 troops had passed, and not a troop arrived in Washington.  And the next day and the next passed, and not a regiment nor a company came—not a corporal’s squad.

Mrs. Lincoln, a few nights since, heard whispering in the hall in front of her room; she rose from bed, dressed, and sat up the remainder of the night, watching for the Southern army to blow up the White House, as they are confidently expecting it.”

Our daughter bought me this four-volume set of Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln: War Years some years ago.

Lincoln sent Ward Lamon to South Carolina as Trump would Jared and Ivanka

This political cartoon was seen in today’s Observer Reporter; it showed the artist knows the Civil War history.  Lincoln did send his close friend, Ward Hill Lamon, to South Carolina before the war came.

Lamon was almost 20 years Lincoln’s junior.  They met while riding the court circuits and became very close friends.  Lincoln asked him to go to Washington D.C. with him; after the election Lincoln wrote him, “Dear Hill, I need you.  I want you to go to Washington with me and be prepared for a long stay.”

He was a self-proclaimed body guard of Lincoln; it was said on certain nights before Lincoln was assassinated he slept in the room nearby Lincoln’s.  On that fateful night of April 14, 1865, he was not in Ford Theater as Lincoln sent him to Richmond, Virginia.

This photo shows Lincoln in Gettysburg.  Lincoln was seated in center; Lamon was seated to Lincoln’s right.

This is why the author of the cartoon said Trump will send his close family members (Jared and Ivanka) to South Carolina. 

The following is from Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln.

Lincoln had called his Cabinet for its first meeting March 9 [1861] . . . Lamon had arrived from a trip to Charleston.  From the Governor of South Carolina he brought the message to Lincoln: “Nothing can prevent war except the acquiescence of the President of the United States in secession . . . Let your President attempt to reinforce Sumter, and the tocsin of war will be sounded from every hilltop and valley in the South.”

Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg on Nov. 19, 1863, still reverberates today

Reading Lincoln and Churchill led me to discover the beauty of the English language.  Churchill was a Nobel literature laureate, Lincoln would have been one were the Nobel Prize available in his time.

Lincoln is a great man, but what made him great?  His moral courage and gift for words would be among the many characteristics.

Without Lincoln speaking to consecrate Gettysburg battlefield ground on November 19, 1863, Gettysburg Battle wouldn’t be so well known to the whole world.  One can be ignorant to the Civil War, but one always knows Gettysburg Address.

How wrong Lincoln was when he said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”  What he said here had since belonged to the ages, like Edwin Stanton (Lincoln’s War Secretary) said of Lincoln when he drew his last breath, “Now he belongs to the ages.”

Great writers are skilled in using plain simple words; Churchill and Lincoln are no exceptions. A November 17, 2013 NY Times Editorial pointed out Lincoln used “here” eight times in the “270 words or so” (there are several versions of the speech); seven of them in the last paragraph and one in the second paragraph.  Of some 270 words about two-thirds are single syllable, only a half-dozen four-syllable.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

Yet these 270 some words are “woven into 10 complicated sentences” that only a man of letter can master.  One also noticed the repetitive triplets: “we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.”

Everett [the key note speaker of the consecrated dedication, a great orator of his days] wrote Lincoln a day after, “I shall be glad, if I could flatter myself, that I came close to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” To which Lincoln replied, “In our respective parts yesterday, you could not have been excused to make a short address, nor I a long one. I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little did I say was not entirely a failure. . . . Our sick boy [Tad], for whom you kindly inquire, we hope is past the worst.”

The day before Lincoln left for Gettysburg (by train), Tad (their son) was sick and doctors had no idea what ailed him.  Mary was still mourned for Willie [another son, Willie, who died at White House not too long ago].  Many historians were not nice to Mary; some even made up the story saying Mary threw herself on the floor in an outburst of tantrum, trying to prevent Lincoln from leaving.

Nothing is further from the truth.  Mary sent her husband a telegram the same afternoon when Lincoln left saying “The doctor has just left.  We hope dear Taddie is slightly better.  Will send you a telegram in the morning.”  Mary was apparently trying to comfort and alleviate Lincoln’s anxiety so he could do a good job; a good job indeed.  The second telegram arrived at ten o’clock Nov. 19, just before Lincoln left Wills house [where Lincoln stayed the night before.  Prof. Pan also drove us to see the house], as Stanton [Lincoln’s War Secretary] told Lincoln that “Grant was staring a big battle at Chattanooga.  Mrs. Lincoln reports your son’s health as a great deal better and he will be out today.”

Lincoln apparently also told Everett that their son, Tad, was sick when he left White House and that’s why Everett “kindly inquire” in his letter to Lincoln.

I took every chance to defend for Mary Lincoln, even on the occasion of Gettysburg Address.  Mary often time traveled with her husband.  She missed the chance of hearing the greatest speech of all time simply because she was a loving mother.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the photo of his delivering of the speech at Gettysburg.  The great orator, Edward Everett, was to blame.  After hearing Everett spoke for two hours, the photographer took it easy slowly preparing his equipment (dry plates, black box on a tripod, etc.) when Lincoln began to speak. Bending and hiding his head under the hood, he heard Lincoln said, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from Earth”

William Safire once wrote of a “speech made on May 29, 1850—thirteen years before the Gettysburg Address—by Theodore Parker at an antislavery convention in Boston, calling for ‘a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people. . .’ ”

Everett’s 13000-word oration is classical as Lincoln’s 270 some-word sermon is biblical. Some point out that “Four score and seven years ago” is coming from Genesis 16:16, “Abram was four score and six years old when his son Ishmael was born.”

(Those who believe in predestination also point out that Lincoln is the 16^th President, who lived in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And his first name is Abraham—Genesis 16:16 “Abram was . . .”)

We do not see words like “Union”, “slavery” or “Constitution”, but “nation” was mentioned four times.  We also see many religious words, such as “conceived in liberty”, “hallow”, “consecrated”, and “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom”.

I still have much to say, but this post is already too long for Lincoln’s compact, poetic prose; a timeless work that made America of what she is today.  It may not be just a coincidence that Gettysburg Battle ended on July 4 as America was born again with “a new birth of freedom”.

Religious Lincoln: Inauguration ceremony is a religious service

You may or may not notice that the entire Presidential Inauguration Ceremony is a religious service and that is the way it should be. To take the religion away from such a solemn service is like taking the soul out of a man. 

The National Prayer (Interfaith) Service at the National Cathedral is about to begin as I am writing, and this service went back to George Washington.  No politicians, including President Trump, will speak here; here we’ll only hear the God’s words.

Lincoln in 1865

Lincoln’s Second Inauguration Address is the sermon of the inauguration ceremony.  It is inscribed on the Walls of majestic Lincoln Memorial.  Among the 702 words there are 266 words quoted from the Scripture; God was mentioned 14 times, quoted the Bible 4 times and invoked prayer 3 times.  No wonder Frederick Douglas said to Lincoln, “that was a sacred effort,” “the best sermon that America ever had.”  I will mention a few examples here:

“Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.  It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other’s men’s face;”

Genesis: 3:19

“In the sweat of the face shalt those eat bread. . .” which means you labor and sweat thus having bread to eat.  Lincoln was talking to the White in the South implying that they eat on the labor and sweat of the slaves.

“but let us judge not that we be not judged.”

Matthew 7:1

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Jesus’s sermon on Mount).  Lincoln quickly followed that we shouldn’t judge others lest we will be judged.

“The Almighty has His purpose. “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!”

Matthew 18:7

This one is entirely quoted from Matthew 18:7

“. . . as was said three thousand years ago, so it must be said, “The Judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”

Psalm 19:9

“The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Lincoln once told a White House nurse, “They [Psalms] are the best, for I find in them something for every day of the week.”

Trump said he is just a “messenger” in his Inauguration Speech. Lincoln also said, “I am but God’s humble instrument,.” Days before his assassination.

On his way to Washington, D.C. to take his Presidency, Lincoln spoke at N.J. Senate on February 21, 1861,

“I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people.”

A black minister of Baltimore presented an elegant Bible to Lincoln in September 1864, to which Lincoln commented, “In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.  But for it we could not know right from wrong.”

Lincoln's Bible

Trump swore in as the President, using the Bible his mother gave to him and the Bible Lincoln used.  Obama also twice used the Bible that Lincoln used.  I am hoping Obama started the trend.

Both Jesus and Lincoln died on Good Friday, this was not more than a coincidence; God’s only son died for us to clean our sin.  God sent Lincoln to save the Union, thus all Americans.  Walt Whitman used ‘He’ in referring to Lincoln, and Leo Tolstoy said, ‘Lincoln is a Christ in miniature.’  We tend to perceive that Lincoln freed the black from slavery, but in the bigger scheme of things, He saved the Union.  Can nowadays Americans enjoy the prestige and prosperity of this magnitude if the country was divided into two back in 1861?

Moses brought his people to the Promised Land, and he himself did not enter the Promised Land.  Lincoln died five days after Robert Lee’s surrender to Grant, signaling the beginning of the end of the Civil War.  Lincoln didn’t live to see the peace and tranquility.  Once the war ended, the Union saved, his job was done; God called him home!

On the way to Ford Theater on that fateful day—a Good Friday—Lincoln told his wife that after the second term, they should visit Jerusalem to tread the roads trodden by Jesus. 

Some books mentioned this conversation occurred in the carriage ride that afternoon, and one book said it occurred in the theater moments before John Booth’s bullet struck his head.

March 4, 1861 saw no first dance of the First Couple

The first dance of the First Couple (with the First Lady) didn’t occur until after 9:30 pm tonight.  At least there was one; we never saw it on the Union Ball (Lincoln’s Inauguration Ball) March 4, 1861, as Lincoln normally avoided waltz and square dance, his heavy heart was far away at the Fort Sumter, South Carolina.  The Confederate gun fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, marked the beginning of the Civil War.  Mary Lincoln was whirling in the arms of Senator Stephen Douglas, having a ball in the Union Ball.

Carl Sandburg wrote in his “Abraham Lincoln: The War Years”,

“The Marine Band played ‘Hail to the Chief’ at eleven o’clock.  Lincoln entered leading the grand march, arm in arm with Mayor Berret, followed by Mr. Lincoln arm in arm with Senator Stephen A. Douglas.  Lincoln avoided waltz and square dance, but Mrs. Lincoln and Douglas were partners in a quadrille.  Hundreds of women in crinoline trod the waltz, schottische, polka, mazurka.  Reporters wrote, ‘It was an animated scene.’ Mrs. Lincoln wore a new blue gown, a large blue feather in her hair.  Many said it must be her happiest night of life, the realization of dreams long waited.”

We no longer know who was the designer of Mary Lincoln’s gown (The press seemed to be obsessed with who is the designer nowadays), but I know she got it during her two-week frenzy shopping spree at New York City shortly before they left Springfield, Illinois for Washington, D.C.  She returned to Springfield two days late.  The poor Abe went to the train station and came home alone two days in a row.

In her Team of Rivals (I recall Obama had this book on his desk when first moved into White House), Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote,

“Entranced by her experience in New York, Mary stayed three [some said two] extra days without notifying her husband, who plunged vainly through sleet and snow three nights running to meet her train.”

Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861

In a moment we’ll no longer have President-Elect, but President Donald Trump. There is no doubt Lincoln is the President that most of the modern Presidents, Republicans or Democrats, want to emulate.  So it is not entirely irrelevant to talk about Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861.

The NY Times reported that the largest crowd that Washington had ever seen for President Lincoln’s first inauguration in 1861; it was estimated that 7,350 people are in the view of this photo.

“many thousand citizens assembled in the grounds, filling the square and open space, and perching on every tree, fence or stone affording a convenient point from which to see or hear.”

However, Carl Sandburg wrote in “Abraham Lincoln: The War Years” that it was not a big crowd.

“Senator Douglas took a seat, and as he looked over the crowd could have said that he and Lincoln had spoken to larger audiences on the prairies of Illinois. This, however, was a more genteel crowd, and one comment ran that rather than a sea of upturned faces it was a sea of silk hats and white bosoms.”

We just saw that President Obama and First Lady, Michelle, waiting outside for the incoming President and First Lady to have a tea at White House.  In Lincoln’s days, it was President Buchanan went to pick up Lincoln who was staying at Willard’s Hotel (now InterContinental Hotel), two blocks from the White House.

I do not know what Obama said to Trump at the “tea party”; I do know what Buchana, with the Civil War looming, said to Lincoln, when they rode back to the Executive Mansion (President Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901) after the inauguration,

“If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country.”

Tragic school bus accident at Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Battle of Chattanooga

There was a terrible school bus accident at Chattanooga, Tennessee two days ago; my heart go out to the victims, and my mind go back to today (November 23) in 1863 when the last battle began in Chattanooga, Tennessee (two battles took place here previously).  Many Union generals participated here, the likes of Grant, Thomas and Sherman.  About 100,000 soldiers involved.

Falling sick after returning from Gettysburg, Lincoln, lay in bed, received the victory telegraph.  The Union Army victory set the stage for the Atlanta Campaign (one should at least know the “Atlanta burning” scene in the move Gone with the Wind, and the Gate Way to the Deep South opened up) and Sherman’s March to the Sea.

General Thomas is also from Virginia, unlike Robert Lee, he decided to stay and fight for the Union.  There is a Thomas Circle in Washington, D.C.  I always thought about him wherever I drove through this circle.

Lincoln asked Francis Blair Sr. to talk to Lee, asking him to take the command of the army; Lee declined. Lee wrote to General Scott, “Save in the defense of my native States I never again desire to draw my sword. . . . If Virginia stands by the old Union, so will I. But if she secedes (though I do not believe in secession as a constitutional right, nor that there is sufficient cause for revolution) then I will still follow my native State with my sword, and, if need be, with my life.” Lee basically said, “Regardless, if Virginia goes, I go!”

Jefferson David, returning to Richmond, proclaiming his faith in Bragg and his army, “Bragg is to bag Grant at Chattannooga as Grant had bagged Pemberton at Vicksburg.”

Carl Sandburg wrote, “Ten thousand animals in a few weeks had perished hauling rations overland to Chattanooga before a river route was opened”

We tend to forget the animals are as much the victims of the war as humans are.

President-elect Donald Trump used Lincoln’s language

President Donald Trump’s victory speech this morning (around 3 AM) was very conciliatory and said everything a President-elect should say.  He even used Lincoln’s language.  He said,

“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division; have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”

Lincoln ended his Second Inaugural Address [March 4, 1865, forty some days before the assassination] with,

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Oh My God! Obama omitted “Under God”!

Some may say “Oh My God! Obama omitted ‘Under God’!” But this is Much Ado About Nothing, to say it or not, either one is correct.

I always go to Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln for authoritative writing.  The page I scanned here is Page 471 of the The War Years Volume II.  These are Lincoln’s own hand writings.

The top one is the copy that was in Lincoln’s hand when he made the speech; “under God” was not on the page.  Lincoln wrote the speech on the train to Gettysburg and had a final touch at the Wills residence the night before the speech.

But he clearly said ‘that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom . . .” It was speculated that Lincoln inserted “under God” impromptu, looking out over battlefield.  Charles Hale, a Boston Advertiser reporter took down the slow-spoken words of Lincoln and “under God” was there; the same is true on many other newspaper reports.

Lincoln later re-wrote several copies (one for Everett, the other George Bancroft) and “under god” was clearly there, further proving that Lincoln did say it.

Obama simply read the text provided for him; the White House staff might think leaving “under God” out may be the best policy and will generate less controversy.  If Lincoln were to live long enough to write his memoir; I would bet he would say he meant to say it and he did say it.  And President Obama should, too.

Lincoln made a speech today 150 years ago

Today (November 19) in 1863, 150 years ago, Lincoln made a short speech that has since been known as Gettysburg Address.  Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War (our fellow Pittsburgher) suggested Lincoln might take a train leaving Washington D.C. in the early morning of November 19 and he should arrive at Gettysburg in time for the dedication ceremony.  Lincoln insisted going the day earlier lest some unexpected mishap may happen.  Lincoln knew he was destined to make history for the greatest speech in all time.

The political philosophy of Dr. Sun Yat Sen (孫逸仙), the founding father (國父) of modern China is “The Principle of Three People” (三民主義); he was most likely inspired by Gettysburg Speech.

Today is the occasion to read two of my previous posts: one is the meaning of Gettysburg Battle; the other is what I wrote three years ago today.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-meaning-of-battle-of-gettysburg.html

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2010/11/lincoln-spoke-at-gettysburg-today-nov.html

How can you not be moved by reading Lincoln?

There are numerous touching stories of Lincoln’s reading Shakespeare in Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln; here is another one (Carl Sandburg's Lincoln, Book II, p 314).

Lincoln's son, Willie

“On a Fortress Monroe trip, not long after the boy Willie had died [Willie died about one year after Lincolns moved into White House], he took up a volume of Shakespeare and read aloud to General Wool's aide several passages from Hamlet and Macbeth; then after reading from the third act of King John, he closed the book and repeated from memory the lament of Constance for her boy— ”
Constance:
And father cardinal, I have heard you say

That we shall see and know our friends in heaven.

If that be true, I shall see my boy again.

                   King John Act 3 Scene 4

Lincoln mourned the death of her son just like Constance did her son’s (Arthur); Shakespeare made Constance a character best known as the mother lamenting the loss of her son,

O Lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son!

My life, my joy, my food, my all the world!

My widow-comfort, and my sorrows’ cure!

(Constance’s husband is the second son of Henry II, who had died, thus “My widow-comfort”; King John is the third son.  If you see The Lion in Winter or read T.S. Eliot’s The murder in the cathedral, you should know a bit about Henry II)

Macbeth and Henry VI and Lincoln

There are four productions of Shakespeare’s Macbeth going on in NYC.  No wonder we read articles of “How much Macbeth is too much for New York City?” and “The year of Macbeth overload” in the Wall Street Journal.  The photo is Kenneth Branagh playing Macbeth.

Kenneth Branagh playing Macbeth: photo credit (WSJ)

Lincoln would go to see all of them as Macbeth was his favorite.  After visiting Grant at City Point, Virginia, Lincoln sailed up the Potomac back to Washington on April 9, 1865. He read aloud from Shakespeare’s to entertain his entourage, concentrating on Macbeth, expounding several lines on the murder of Duncan.

Lincoln told an audience in Philadelphia in June 1864, saying this war “has carried mourning to almost every home, until it can almost be said ‘heavens are hung in black’”.

Lincoln slightly misquoted Henry VI ; Part I opens with the funeral of Henry V.  Or Lincoln might not misquote; he just said it with modern translation version

Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
Comets, importing change of times and states,
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky,
And with them scourge the bad revolting stars
That have consented unto Henry's death!
King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er lost a king of so much worth.

       1 King Henry VI, Act I, Sc. I