Lincoln’s Last Tweet
How our 16th president mastered the Twitter of his day and saved the nation
Sadly, we can only speculate regarding the specifics of Lincoln’s 1868 Farewell Address — but undoubtedly it would have shared the same high impact telegraphic style and precision of the Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural. In fact, right until the final days before his assassination, Lincoln was using his communication skills to shape the postwar reconstruction.
These communications skills had been shaped over the course of entire lifetime — and were honed to perfection for “viral impact” in the mass communications channels of the day.
I. A Newspaper Education
As a young man, Lincoln’s thirst for knowledge and learning is well-known — but it turns out he wasn’t just dreamily reading Shakespeare and the classics. Rather, as Harold Holzer describes in Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion, Lincoln was obsessed with newspapers and politics from his earliest years:
“I think newspapers were had in Indiana as early as 1824,” his stepmother later recalled. “Abe was a constant reader of them — I am sure of this for the years of 1827–28–29–30. The name of the Louisville Journal seems to sound like one.” The boy often read them “very late at night” after he completed his chores, testified a cousin, who remembered Abe habitually turning a chair upside down near the hearth, then placing a pillow on the underside of the seat to support his head while he unfolded his newspaper. He would “lie there for hours,” she remembered, “and read” these papers, sometimes out loud. Young Lincoln was mad for them. The more political their content the better. As his future law partner once asserted: “Mr. Lincoln’s education was almost entirely a newspaper one.”
This “newspaper education” was a critical foundation for any 19th-century politician, as the press was unabashedly biased in those days and editors often moved freely between editorial meetings and legislative sessions. But Lincoln was not merely passively reading the news — by the age of 19 he managed to get two articles published — one on the evils of drink and the other on the need for national education in order to promote a strong democracy.
Later, as he started his political career in the Illinois legislature, historians believe that Lincoln actively participated in a common political tactic of the time — writing fake news stories and scathing political attacks against rivals in anonymous newspaper articles. Yes, Honest Abe may have been an active purveyor of fake news! In fact, scholars believe Lincoln posted numerous such articles in the Sangamo Journal during the years he served in the Illinois legislature from 1834 to 1842.
During the 1850s, as Lincoln became a noted speaker for the growing anti-slavery movement, his speeches were closely followed by abolitionist newspaper publishers. In 1854, following the passage of Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas’s controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act, George Schneider, who published the German anti-slavery newspaper, Illinois Staats-Zeitung, invited Lincoln to Chicago to speak. Following the speech, Schneider had Lincoln sit for a portrait holding a copy of the Staats-Zeitung.
Newspaper coverage would prove to be pivotal for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, as both the Democratic leaning Chicago Times and Republican leaning Chicago Tribune sent stenographers to capture the series of debates. This “gavel to gavel” coverage was a new development, and transcripts of the debates were quickly distributed to publishers across the country, including the influential New York papers.
Not only did the debates themselves rouse public opinion on a national scale, but given the often poor speaking conditions and temptation for editorial bias — both sides accused the other of incorrectly transcribing the speeches as given. For example, according to the Times, “no orator in America is more correct in rhetoric, more clear in ideas, more direct in purpose, in all his public addresses, than Stephen A. Douglas”, while “anyone who has ever heard Lincoln speak must know that he cannot speak five grammatical sentences in a row.”
While the Lincoln-Douglas debates are a well known milestone in the run up to the Civil War, less recognized is Lincoln’s own role in popularizing the debates. In the fall of 1859, it was Lincoln himself who organized and secured a publisher for the collected newspaper transcripts. It proved to be a brilliant publicity move on Lincoln’s part, and helped to cast him as a leading contender for the 1860 presidential election. According to Holzer:
In masterminding their republication, Lincoln emerged from the project — and from his failed quest for the Senate — as a national leader willing to be judged by his words, even in what had turned out to be a losing cause.
It was an inspired strategic move, showcasing Lincoln’s genius for both politics and public relations. “Our government rests in public opinion,” Lincoln had declared a few years earlier. “Whoever can change public opinion can change the government.”
II. Lightning on the Wire
When Lincoln took office in the spring of 1861, he used his first inaugural address to call for peace. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Unfortunately, events quickly began to take on a life of their own. Within the first 100 days of Lincoln’s administration, Fort Sumter had fallen to the Confederates, and Union forces were badly beaten at the First Battle of Bull Run. As Lincoln adapted to the unfolding crisis, he quickly moved to ratchet up the Union military forces which were woefully unprepared for any type of conflict, much less ready to wage a large sustained war.
Initially, Lincoln made use of traditional communication channels, and as the war began to escalate he ceded much of the strategic and tactical war making authority to his generals. However, gradually Lincoln began to question the strategy and tactics of his military command, especially the endless stalling of General George McClellan. Eventually, upon discovering that McClellan was deliberately withholding telegraphs from him — Lincoln, with support from Secretary of War Stanton, put the growing telegraph operations under War Department control and moved the telegraph office directly across the street from the White House. It would prove to be a pivotal moment for how Lincoln guided the fate of the Union.
Lincoln now had “direct access” to the fastest and most far reaching communications platform in the nation, and he wasted little time putting it to work.
Tom Wheeler, the author of Mr. Lincoln’s T-mails, carefully examines Lincoln’s use of the telegraph during the war:
“Up until May 1862 Lincoln had sent, on average, a little over one telegram a month. But things changed when a telegraph office was opened next door to the White House, in the War Department. On May 24 the president had his online breakout, sending nine telegrams. That week he would send more than all his previous messages, combined. From May 24–18 years to the day since Morse had first tapped out “What hath God wrought” — forward, Lincoln and the telegraph were inseparable.
The new telegraph office became the first Situation Room. Several times a day the president would walk into the telegraph office, sit down at the desk of its manager and begin going through the copies of all telegrams received, whether addressed to him or not. During great battles the president would even sleep in the telegraph office, just to be close to his oracle.”
While it might be hard for us to imagine that citizens did not have smartphones during the Civil War, it turns out that the telegraph — combined with a vibrant newspaper culture — provided near instantaneous reporting. Union troops would even carry telegraph equipment onto the battlefield to quickly relay information up the chain of command to Washington.
As the war progressed, not only did Lincoln begin to master the telegraphic style as he communicated with his generals, but it shaped his public communications as well.
Lincoln’s telegraphic style is nowhere better on display than in the Gettysburg Address, which remains a masterpiece of timeless vision delivered with telegraphic intensity. Not only did the audience at Gettysburg probably appreciate Lincoln’s brevity after listening to Evert for more than two hours, but his address at was brief enough to be sent by AP telegraph to newspapers all across the country. Because of its brevity, the Address fit neatly onto the front page of newspapers, and as you can see below — the Gettysburg address was also made to be tweeted!
By flowing the Gettysburg Address across Twitter, we can better appreciate the precise and telegraphic directness of Lincoln’s thinking:
Despite the Union victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863, and Lincoln’s powerful speech there in November of 1863, the Confederate army under Robert E. Lee remained a powerful force at the beginning of 1864. The prospect of a negotiated peace grew stronger as the war dragged on and Lincoln understood that military victory would need to be total and unequivocal. In March of 1864, Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as commander of the Union forces. It turned out to be one of the most decisive decisions of the war.
In his book Lincoln at Gettysburg, Northwestern University Professor Garry Wills pays special attention to Lincoln’s fascination with the telegraph, America’s original short form messaging platform:
“As president, Lincoln worked intimately with the developer of telegraph in America, Joseph Henry, the president of the Smithsonian Institution. He had praised the lightning ‘harnessed to take his man’s tidings in a trifle less than no time’. Lincoln spent long hours in the telegraph center at the War Department, and was impatient with the fumbling and imprecise language still being used on this instrument, which demands clarity as well as concision.”
Wills goes on to describe how former West Point mathematics professor Ulysses S. Grant, and now commander of the Union Army, shared with Lincoln an affinity for the new medium and suggests that their effective communications via short form messages likely helped to hasten the Union victory.
Executive Mansion
Washington, August 17, 1864
Lieut. Gen. Grant
City Point, VA
I have seen your dispatch expressing your
unwillingness to break your hold where you are.
Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog’s
grip and chew and chop, as much as possible.
A. Lincoln
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address on March 4th, 1865 in many ways rivals his brief address at Gettysburg. At that point in the war, there was increasing hope that a Union victory might be at hand, and Lincoln began looking forward to a period of reconstruction and reconciliation. Once again, his telegraphic style and cadence flows across Twitter with timeless impact.
III. Let ’em up easy
The events of April 1865 unfolded with a speed and finality that no one could have imagined. On April 1st, Union and Confederate armies met at the Battle of Five Forks. The battle was a decisive victory for the Union as the Confederates were reduced by over 10,000 men killed, wounded, taken prisoner or in flight. The Union also gained control of the Southside Railroad, a key Confederate supply line. The next day — early in the morning of April 2nd, General Grant ordered a full assault on Confederate forces at the Third Battle of Petersburg. Confederate forces held just long enough for their key leadership to retreat out of Petersburg and nearby Richmond.
On the night of April 2nd, Confederate forces set fire to Richmond as they retreated, and on the morning of April 3rd, Union troops entered the Confederate capital for the first time. They were led by Major General Godfrey Weitzel and the all black XXV Corps. Needing to restore order, Weitzel ordered the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry, which he described as “a very fine regiment about 900 strong,” to move in a disciplined march through the streets. The regiment was commanded Colonel Charles F. Adams, Jr., the great-grandson of President John Adams and the grandson of John Quincy Adams.
A German-American from Cincinnati, Weitzel was an 1851 West Point graduate who had seen considerable action throughout the war. During the Union occupation of New Orleans, he was appointed acting mayor, and later he commanded a brigade during the siege of Port Hudson, a conflict which eventually helped the Union to gain control of the Mississippi River.
By 1865, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate forces were in retreat, and Ulysses Grant named Weitzel to command all Union troops north of the Appomattox River, many of whom were black volunteers and former slaves. Speaking to his men on February 20, 1865, Wietzel told them:
Let history record that on the banks of the James 30,000 freemen not only gained their own liberty, but shattered the prejudice of the world, and gave to the land of their birth peace, union and glory.
On April 3rd, the telegram arrived around noon in Washington. “Richmond has fallen!” — and the news spread quickly. “In four minutes there were thousands of people around the Department,” reported the 16-year-old youth who took down the telegram. “The streets filled from every direction. Horse cars had no show; steam fire-engines came out on the avenue, bunched themselves, and commenced whistling; cannon planted in the park close by began firing; and men, women, and children yelled themselves hoarse and acted ridiculous.”
Meanwhile in Richmond, Weitzel — a German born immigrant to the United States, established his headquarters in the home of Jefferson Davis. His aide, Lieutenant Johnston de Peyster, is credited with raising the first U.S. flag over the city after its capture by the Union. The next day, President Lincoln visited Weitzel in Richmond with his son Tad.
Lincoln’s visit to Richmond essentially marked the beginning of reconstruction, and just as the future had been uncertain in the spring of 1861 when he first took office, Lincoln’s path forward in April of 1865 was also completely without precedent. Lincoln’s hope for the nation’s future remained strong though, even if he did not exactly know how the story would end.
According to Weitzel, during his long meetings with Lincoln during the president’s visit to Richmond:
“I had considerable conversation with him in regard to the
treatment of the conquered people. The pith of his answers was that he did not wish to give me any orders on that subject, but as he expressed it: “If I were in your place, I’d let ’em up easy — let ’em up easy.”
Lincoln and Tad returned to Washington, and just a few days later the war came to an exhausted close at Appomattox. Unfortunately, Lincoln would not live long enough to guide the reconstruction efforts. Instead of an eloquent farewell address from Lincoln at the end of his term in 1868, we are left with a brief telegram to Major General Weitzel on April 12th, 1865. It would be his last.
Lincoln commended Weitzel for acting with lenience even as others in the War Department agitated for harsh measures and forced prayers. Lincoln was even hopeful that the Virginia legislature would quickly assemble and vote to rejoin the Union.
Office U.S. Military Telegraph,
War Department,
Washington, D.C., April 12. 1865
Major General Weitzel
Richmond, Va.
I have seen your despatch to Col. Hardie about the matter of prayers. I do not remember hearing prayers spoken of while I was in Richmond; but I have no doubt you have acted in what appeared to you to be the spirit and temper manifested by me while there. Is there any sign of the rebel Legislature coming together on the understanding of my letter to you? If there is any such sign, inform me what it is; if there is no such sign you may as [well] withdraw the offer.
A. Lincoln
Following Lincoln’s assassination, the War Department — unhappy with the “too lenient” decisions Weitzel made while in Richmond, quickly reassigned him and his XXV Corps to Texas to guard the border between Texas and Mexico (where the French had been waging war against Liberal president President Benito Juárez). Finally in 1866 Weitzel mustered out. Reflecting back on the service of African American soldiers in the Union Army, Weitzel stated:
Its organization was an experiment which has proven a perfect success. The conduct of its soldiers has been such to draw praise from persons most prejudiced against color, and there is no record which should give the colored race more pride than that left by the 25th Army Corps.
IV. The Binding Up
Like the Civil War itself, the task of reconstruction proved to be much more complicated and daunting than anyone first imagined. The binding up of the nation’s wounds took not just years — but the story has in many ways has stretched on for generations.
In 2003, the city of Richmond placed a statue to commemorate Lincoln’s visit to Richmond 138 years earlier in April of 1865. Unveiled at Richmond National Battlefield Park the sculpture by New York Academy of Art instructor David Frech shows Lincoln sitting on a bench, an arm draped around the shoulder of Tad. Behind father and son, engraved in granite, are Lincoln’s words: “To Bind Up the Nation’s Wounds.”
In addition to about 850 friendly supporters, reporter Greg Lamm found that “scores of Lincoln haters also showed up for the unveiling, forcing viewers and dignitaries to endure a gauntlet of Rebel yells and Confederate battle flags. Some protestors praised John Wilkes Booth. Others proclaimed Lincoln a tyrant and war criminal. And others waved placards comparing the 16th president to Adolph Hitler and Saddam Hussein.”
We can only speculate, but perhaps Lincoln would be pleased to see those protesters, and feel right at home with all of our negative media and personal attacks — knowing that his mighty Republic, the last great hope on earth — was still as vital and as spirited and as thriving like never before. One thing is certain though — he would definitely enjoy tweeting about it!
Jim Walker is a writer and marketing consultant from Philadelphia. His latest book, The Magic of Thinking Tiny, is available on Amazon.
@ThinkingTiny
