Departing Springfield

It was on this date, February 11, 1861, that a tall, gangling man boarded a train in Illinois to head east. His spouse, an woman ever desirous of the current fashion, was shopping in St Louis, MO most likely to obtain new outfits to wear during their time out east.  She would meet up with him in Indiana. He had personally packed the belongings of his family as they prepared to leave the city in which his children were born and, as he says, he grew old. His luggage would bear a simple handwritten tag reading, "A. Lincoln, White House, Washington, D.C." The family would take up residence in a city that was, at the time, rather unforgiving and still in a pioneer stage, as most of its buildings were destroyed less than 60 years earlier during the war of 1812. By most accounts. it was a poor excuse for a capital city, to European diplomats they may well have been sent to Siberia. By his own account, and that of most historians, this man would face a task greater than that of Washington, or any other occupant of the office to which he was elected.

Lincoln Home, Springfield, IL (2003 photo)

Three months earlier, on November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln would win the election to the nation's highest office, besting three other candidates although earning less than 40% of the vote, but having obtained 180 electoral votes from seventeen states. Although it is speculated that if the three opponents had been combined into one, he likely would still have won the electoral college vote. The weather conditions not only well recognized the state of a disintegrating union, but it also would portend much in the circumstances of his presidency.  A sculptor who went to see Lincoln off, Thomas Jones, would say of the weather on that mid-winter morning  "It was a dark, gloomy, misty morning, boding rain." Lincoln would depart his Springfield home at 7:30 that morning, and head the three blocks to the Great Western Railroad Depot in Springfield, IL. Here he would board a two car train, whose locomotive was, curiously, named after a slave owner from Charleston, SC, L.M. Wiley. One of the two cars was for passengers, the other for baggage. Known as the Presidential Special, this train would carry the President-elect, a self-educated lawyer from the prairies, through six states. Due to the trials of the times, and a bounty on his head, he would leave the Presidential Special in Philadelphia and board a different train which would take him to Washington, DC on February 23. After leaving Springfield, its first stop for more fuel would be in Decauter, IL It is here where Lincoln earned the nickname "Railsplitter," given to him by the Republican state convention.

Building which housed Herndon and Lincoln Law Office,
Springfield, IL (2003 Photo)

We all know the basics of the civil war, and the states in rebellion. By the time of Lincoln's boarding the train to take him to his new position, seven states would have proclaimed secession from the United States of America. The first, of course would be South Carolina, ever beholden to its concept of a oligarchy of slave owners and the primacy of the individual state seceded in December 1860. By June of 1861 four more states would follow the first seven. What few know is that the first of three assassination attempts over the course of this journey was faced in his home state of Illinois, just a mile west of the Indiana border. If not located by an engineer a device on the track would likely have caused the train to derail, and Lincoln may have not seen the White House. History would have been changed as the politician from Maine, Hannibal Hamlin, the elected Vice President, would have ascended to the presidency.

But, back in Springfield on this gloomy morning, Lincoln made his way to the Depot, where, as his secretary John Hay would note, were "over a thousand persons of all classes." Lincoln was leaving the comfort zone of a small city in the prairies of Illinois. It was an emotional moment for the small town lawyer from the flat lands. He was visibly moved by the persons turning out to render a good bye, and as he shook the hands of friends and others, he was pale "quivered with emotion so deep as to render him almost unable to utter a single word." A local newspaper at the time reported that at five minutes before eight Lincoln would rise from a room in the station. Let us pick up the eloquence of the reporter for the Springfield Daily State Journal:

Mr. Lincoln, slowly made his way from his room in the station, through the expectant masses which respectfully parted right and left at his approach to the car provided for his use. At each step of his progress towards the car, friendly hands were extended for a last greeting. On reaching the platform of the car, Mr. Lincoln turned toward the people, removed his hat, paused for several seconds, till he could control his emotions, and then slowly, impressively and with profound emotion uttered the following words [here the reporter inserted his version of the address].

Great Western Railroad Depot, Springfield, IL (2003 photo)

It is then, as rain added to the tears of both Lincoln and the assembled crowd,  that he removed his hat and asked for silence.  He then gave a 150 word address that was short even by Lincoln's standards. While spoken extemporaneously, Lincoln had obviously given thought as to what he would say to the assemblage. And so this man given a set of circumstances unlike any other in the relatively brief history of this nation, stated a few words hereafter to be known as his Farewell Address.

My friends -- No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe every thing. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you and be every where for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

Farewell address written by Lincoln while on the train. 
Note the wobbly writing due to the movement of the train.
(Source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc05107x.jpg)

The above version was the one hand written by Lincoln after completing the speech, and is the one most reported. Looking closely one can see the wobbly nature of the handwriting, related more to the movement of the train than any nervousness on his part.  Like his more famous Gettysburg Address, there is variation in recordings, including the one given by the news reporter. The news report would conclude with the following:

It was an impressive scene. We have known Mr. Lincoln for many years; we have heard him speak upon a hundred different occasions; but we never saw him so profoundly affected, nor did he ever utter an address, which seemed to us as full of simple and touching eloquence, so exactly adopted to the occasion, so worthy of the man and the hour. Although it was raining fast when he began to speak, every hat was lifted and every head bent forward to catch the last words of the departing chief. -- When he said, with the earnestness of a sudden inspiration of feeling, that with God's help he should not fail, there was an uncontrollable burst of applause.
At precisely eight o'clock, city time, the train moved off, bearing our honored townsman, our noble chief, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, to the scenes of his future labors, and as we firmly believe of his glorious triumph. God bless honest ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

As eloquent, heartfelt and deserving to Springfield as was this speech, it would also show the start of a Lincoln style. Ted Widmer, a Brown University librarian and former Clinton speechwriter notes that "the speech was so much more than that. Already, he was showing the odd cadences that separate his speeches from nearly all others: the poetic repetition of the same word (“here”) to start sentences, the perfect comma-pauses, the balance between opposites like “with” and “without.”

No President has had the weight thrust upon as did Lincoln. On March 4, 1861 Lincoln would take an oath as prescribed by the United States Constitution. War would start within 60 days of this farewell address. Paradoxically, a war to preserve the union would leave scars which are still present in our social, moral and geographic landscape. But, without Lincoln, would a Hannibal Hamlin have had the character and strength to persevere, to express the moral clarity, and to provide the undivided purpose to put down a rebellion?  Or would the nation have remained fractured?  If the nation had remained fractured, could Florida State claim to be national collegiate football champion?  Could Alabama, or the schools of the SEC?  

It has often been said that history gives a person a chance for greatness, and it is how one handles the happenstance of history as to whether or not the person meets the challenge posed. Most poignantly, however, is that in this address Lincoln portended his own fate, as he would never see Springfield again. John Hay, would record in his notes, a line which now seems haunting-- “As he turned to enter the car three cheers were given, and a few seconds afterwards the train moved slowly out of the sight of the silent gathering.” After a roaring good bye, the crowd had become silent as the train pulled out of the station.  It is if they almost understood they had seen their friend, neighbor, for the last time.  One historian has noted, at the end of civil war, and Lincoln's death, the nation became known as "The United States," rather than its previous "These United States." A small but significant distinction in the life of a country where it changed from being collection of states which formed a nation to a nation formed of states. The civil ware would alter the course of US History, lead to the early end of the life of a humble man, change Washington DC, end slavery, and forever alter the relationship between the federal and state governments.