[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Beowolf wrote:
Mick28 wrote:
Beowolf wrote:
Lincoln had more substance, that is obvious, but his experience was still relatively similar to Obama’s level.
…
Lincoln was a high-priced railroad lawyer, never a senator. His gang lost to Douglas’ gang in 1858. He was put up by the railroad to push ‘internal improvements’ (a scam for free land). His payoff as POTUS was advance info on where the railhead would be — Council Bluffs, Iowa. He made a bundle.
Lincoln is, IMO, a far smarter crook than Obama. Of course, Lincoln is probably the smartest of the bunch, after James Madison.
[/quote]
Thread hijack, but some distortions should not stand. HH’s assertion is not quite true. Here is a short history, from a review of the history of Council Bluffs.:
[i]
"Lincoln’s Blackhawk War service also resulted in him claiming 160 acres of land about seven miles northwest of what is now Dennison, in Crawford County. It is listed as Land Warrant 68,465 as a reward for serving as a captain of the Illinois militia during the Sac and Fox skirmish of 1832.
But that wasn’t the only southwest Iowa land in which Lincoln had an interest. On February 1, 1859, he wrote a letter from Springfield, Illinois to then Kansas resident M. W. Delahay that he, Lincoln, intended to visit Council Bluffs sometime during the year.
Lincoln and O. M. Hatch, Illinois Secretary of State, left Springfield on August 9, 1859, for Council Bluffs. Lincoln planned to look over property being offered by Norman B. Judd as security for a $3,000 debt.
While in town, Lincoln found railroad civil engineer, Grenville M. Dodge, relaxing on the porch of the Pacific House. Having been told by Pusey that Dodge had been looking for a practical rail route to the Pacific Ocean, Lincoln skillfully questioned Dodge for two hours.
Years later, Dodge wrote: “This interview was of the greatest importance to me. It was a milestone in my life and Lincoln never forgot it.”
Much later, midway through the Civil War, Lincoln persuaded Congress to fund a transcontinental railroad through Iowa. Dodge purchased 1,000 acres of land in Council Bluffs for the Union Pacific.
[b}Lincoln said if he designated Council Bluffs as the starting point for the Union Pacific Railroad, he would be accused of doing it for personal gain, because of the Judd lots, but he was going to go ahead and do it anyway.[/b]
Although Lincoln was killed by an assassin’s bullet, his interview with Dodge on the porch of the Pacific House in Council Bluffs set the stage for the later construction of the first transcontinental railroad across America - through Council Bluffs."
[/i]
I do not see where “the Railroads” paid off Lincoln, and this is not mentioned in DK Goodwin’s biography. Further, this story is consonant with the Dodge story in McCullough’s book on the building of the transcontinental railroad. Further, the railroad was not started until the Grant Administration, and Lincoln could not have profited in it as HH describes.
Next, was Lincoln “a high-priced railroad lawyer.” A principal interest of the Whig party, to which he belonged was support for "internal improvements,’ which were of particular interest to common folks of the West, and not to railroads alone. And no, he had a few railroad cases. From our friends at Wikipedia:
“Lincoln was involved in more than 5,100 cases in Illinois alone during his 23-year legal career. Though many of these cases involved little more than filing a writ, others were more substantial and quite involved. Lincoln and his partners appeared before the Illinois State Supreme Court more than 400 times.”
Recall that Hillary was acclaimed as a brilliant jurist, and yet had argued only a single case in court in her entire career.
So, HH, while I share your respect for Madison, site a source for your Lincoln contentions, since your take on history does not match mine.
And Beowulf, once you read the Cooper Union Speech, as suggested by tb23, come back and tell us whether Lincoln had experience comparable to Obama, who serves often as a blank screen onto which a generation has projected its fashions and hopes.