November 29, 2005
Long-Winded Lincoln Posted by Frederic D. Schwarz at 03:15 PM EST On Thanksgiving Day the New York Post published an editorial that quoted from Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation establishing the modern holiday of Thanksgiving. The newspaper characterized Lincoln as “notably a man of few words,” which prompted a reply in this morning’s paper from Harold Holzer, a longtime Lincoln scholar and friend of American Heritage. Holzer is certainly right to point out that Lincoln could wind stems with the best of them. But as our recent discussion of the Gettysburg Address shows, he at least was capable of being concise, something that is absent in many of our modern politicians. My favorite example came on April 8, 1861. With Fort Sumter in grave peril and a civil war seeming unavoidable, Lincoln sent a message to Gov. Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania that read, in its entirety, as follows: “I think the necessity of being ready increases. Look to it.”
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