Despite the Steven Spielberg movie, despite all the books about a figure supposedly written about more than anyone besides Jesus Christ, yes, there are things you probably don’t know about him. Here are a few from Rich Lowry’s new book , Lincoln Unbound .
He hated the name "Abe."
We reflexively call Lincoln "Abe," in keeping with the familiarity we feel for our beloved 16th president. But we wouldn't have called him that to his face. He had wanted to escape rural poverty to achieve respectability, and had a formidable sense of his own dignity. So he didn't like the diminutive Abe. At his law office, according to historian David Herbert Donald, he called his younger partner William Herndon "Billy"; Herndon called him "Mr. Lincoln." His wife, too, called him "Mr. Lincoln"; before they had children and he began calling her "Mother," he addressed her as "Puss," "little woman," or "child wife."
Source: cdn.theatlantic.com
He was afraid of women.
Especially when he first showed up in Springfield, Illinois, as a young man, Lincoln lacked social graces. One girl declared him as "thin as a beanpole and as ugly as a scarecrow!" His eventual sister-in-law Elizabeth Edwards said he "Could not hold a lengthy Conversation with a lady—was not sufficiently Educated & intelligent in the female line to do so." Mary Owens, who rejected his offer of marriage in the 1830s, later explained that he "was deficient in those little links which make up the great chain of woman's happiness." Lincoln himself attested, "Women are the only things that cannot hurt me that I am afraid of."
Source: media.hamptonroads.com
He made people cry.
As a young politician, Lincoln hadn't yet taken "with malice toward none" to heart. He was a harsh and cutting polemicist. At a political event in Springfield, he took after one Jesse Thomas. "He imitated Thomas in gesture and voice," according to one account, "at times caricaturing his walk and the very motion of his body. Thomas, like everybody else, had some peculiarities of expression and gesture, and these Lincoln succeeded in rendering more prominent than ever. The crowd yelled and cheered as he continued. Encouraged by these demonstrations, the ludicrous features of the speaker's performance gave way to intense and scathing ridicule." Thomas left the platform in tears, and Lincoln eventually apologized.
He almost fought a duel with cavalry broadswords.
One target of Lincoln's ridicule, a Democrat named James Shields, challenged him to a duel. As the challenged party, Lincoln had the choice of weapons and picked "Cavalry broad swords of the largest size, precisely equal in all respects." Notably, Shields was five-eight or nine, and Lincoln was about half a foot taller, with extraordinarily long arms. Asked afterward why he choose these weapons, he said, "I didn't want the d—d fellow to kill me, which I rather think he would have done if we had selected pistols." Once the parties arrived at the designated dueling ground, the dispute was "adjusted" and the swordplay avoided. Embarrassed by the episode, Lincoln never liked to talk about it afterward.
