Lincoln & Churchill: Statesmen at War

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Peterson, Merrill D. Lincoln in American Memory. Reprint ed. New York: Oxford University Press US, 1995. ISBN 0-19-509645-2

Sur­mis­ing that aLin­coln schol­ar would tell us appari­tions of Lin­coln have been sight­ed in the White House years before Churchill, Ireferred the ques­tion to Lewis Lehrman, author of Lin­coln ‘by lit­tles’ and his mas­ter­ful Lin­coln and Churchill: States­men at War. Mr. Lehrman offered three references: Lincoln Bedroom At the falls, the two Churchills were surrounded by journalists. “I saw them before you were born. I came here first in 1900,” Churchill told a reporter. “Do they look the same?” a journalist persisted. “Well, the principle seems the same. The water keeps falling over.” Alex Danchev, Daniel Todman, editors, Lord Alanbrooke: War Diaries, 1939-1945, p. 590-591 (September 10, 1944) Historian Lewis Lehrman compares the characteristics of two wartime leaders, Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, both of whom faced comparable challenges leading their countries through horrible conflagrations, and who both excelled at using language as a strategic weapon to mobilize and inspire their countries. His family felt its responsibility to take care of Churchill. On January 3, 1943, Clementine and daughter Mary went for a walk at Chequers: ”We talked entirely of the family – & especially of Papa,” Mary wrote. “I appears that might get a coronary thrombosis – it might be brought on by anything like a long &/or high flight – The question is whether he should be earned or not. Mummie thinks he should not – I agree with her.” They were right to worry, and arrangements were usually made for Churchill’s flights to be limited to a low altitude. 25Eleanor Roo­sevelt arranged for Churchill to stay in the Lin­coln Bed­room. It was “the favorite of most male guests,” recalled J.B. West, the chief ush­er. But upon his arrival on 22 Decem­ber [1941], the Prime Min­is­ter reject­ed the bed, so he wan­dered the sec­ond floor, “tried out all the beds and final­ly select­ed the Rose Suite,” where SDR [ Sara Delano Roo­sevelt] and the Queen [Eliz­a­beth the Queen Moth­er] had resided. —Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roo­sevelt,Vol­ume III, 409. *** With the world watching, Lincoln and Churchill would prevail, each in his own way, in their great wars of national survival. This is a wonderful book for me and almost 5 stars. The reason is I rate Lincoln as one of the two top humans who have ever lived, and Churchill pretty near that level as well. Lewis E. Lehrman was presented the National Humanities Medal at the White House in 2005 for his work in American history. He has been a member of the Advisory Committee of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and the Lincoln Forum. In 2013, Lehrman was named a Distinguished Director of the Abraham Lincoln Association.

Roy P. Basler, editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (CWAL), Volume V, p. 436 (September 22, 1862) John Colville, The Fringes of Power: The Incredible Inside Story of Winston Churchill During World War II, p. 537 (December 21, 1944). Mr. Lehrman received his B.A. from Yale and his M.A. in History from Harvard. He was a Carnegie Teaching Fellow in History at Yale and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in History at Harvard. Mr. Lehrman is widely known for his run for Governor of New York in 1982. In 1983, Mr. Lehrman was the Cardinal Cooke honoree of the Archdiocese of New York for his early work developing scholarships for New York inner-city schools. He has been a trustee of the American Enterprise Institute, the Morgan Library, the Manhattan Institute and the Heritage Foundation. He is a former Chairman of the Committee on Humanities of the Yale University Council.Deeply researched and elegantly written. . . . a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the past. By expertly conjoining two great leaders in a single volume, he has enhanced our understanding of both.” ― The Wall Street Journal A comic song in the theatre always restored Mr. Lincoln’s cheerful good-humor. But while he had a great fondness for witty and mirth-provoking ballads, our grand old patriotic airs and songs of the tender and sentimental kind afforded him the deepest pleasure. “Ben Bolt” was one of his favorite ballads; so was “The Sword of Bunker Hill; ” and he was always deeply moved by “The Lament of the Irish Emigrant”…. 9 Over the next eight decades, the United States and Great Britain often cooperated, but underlying doubts and suspicions remained. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s early image of Prime Minister Winston Churchill was formed second hand – although the two leaders had met briefly at the end of World War I. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins observed that “originally Roosevelt was so uncertain about him that when Churchill was asked to form a government in 1940 the President asked several associates what kind of a man he really was.” 19 However, noted historian David Dilks, FDR said in early 1940 “that he thought [Neville] Chamberlain and Churchill were the only two in the British government who really saw the magnitude of the problem ahead and that ‘Churchill was tight most of the time’.” 20 That view of a supposedly inebriated Churchill was an opinion that FDR apparently shared with Adolph Hitler, who nurtured a rabid hatred of Churchill. FDR’s early British “emissary, Sumner Welles, reported in February 1940 that he had been to see Churchill at the Admiralty and found him drunk at 5 p.m. On learning of his appointment as Prime Minister Roosevelt commented that he ‘supposed Churchill was the best man England had, even if he was drunk half of his time.’” FDR had the foresight, however, to use two men – Averell Harriman and Harry Hopkins – as his eyes and ears in Britain during 1941. Churchill knew how to appeal to their hearts and minds. Historian Paul Addison wrote: “When he was entertaining important American visitors, Churchill was the most generous and flattering of hosts and one of the most persuasive of propagandists – but he too was susceptible to charm offensives.” 21 Abraham Lincoln himself was a teetotaler. As a shopkeeper in New Salem in his twenties, Lincoln had been a purveyor of liquor. Lincoln’s early contemporary Philip Clark wrote: “Lincoln was a friend of temperance also. We were together one night in a country neighborhood when some one proposed that we all go to the church close by to hear Rev. John Berry preach a sermon on temperance. After listening attentively ‘Abe’ remarked to me that the subject would some time be one of the greatest in this country.” 51 Of the several stories about the ghosts of former presidents of the United States revisiting the White House, Lincoln's ghost is perhaps the most common and popular. First Lady Grace Coolidge, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and President Theodore Roosevelt are among those who claimed to have seen Lincoln's ghost in the White House.

Winston Churchill in the Second World War began with far greater knowledge of military affairs than Lincoln would ever possess. A graduate of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Dr. Zacharie has operated on my feet with great success, and considerable addition to my comfort,” wrote President Lincoln in 1862 to endorse the podiatric skills of Dr. Isachar Zacharie.” 2 Sarcastically, the New York Herald observed “that many of the haps and mishaps of the nation, during this war, may be traced to a matter no greater than the corns and bunions which have afflicted the feet of our leaders…The President has been greatly blamed for not resisting the demands of the radicals, but how could the President put his foot down firmly when he was troubled with corns.” 3 Mr. Lincoln would always laugh immoderately when I sang this jingling nonsense to him. It reminded him of the rude and often witty ballads that had amused him in his boyhood days. He was fond of negro melodies, and “The Blue-Tailed Fly” was a favorite. He often called for that buzzing ballad when we were alone, and he wanted to throw off the weight of public and private cares. The lodge blends traditional features, such as the beautiful stained-glass windows, with modern facilities in each room. It shows every bit of luxury with the added wow factor to the rooms.

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This reminds me of one or two little rhythmic shots I often fired at him in his melancholy moods, and it was a kind of nonsense that he always keenly relished. One was a parody on “Life on the Ocean Wave.” President Dwight Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty, [8] and Liz Carpenter, press secretary to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, [7] both said they felt Lincoln's presence many times. By then, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had undermined Confederate sympathies in the British government. Throughout the Civil War, President Lincoln was concerned about public opinion in Great Britain – and how to use that public opinion to keep the country’s leaders from aiding the Confederacy. In January 1863, Lincoln wrote the Working-Men of Manchester: “I have understood well that the duty of self-preservation rests solely with the American people.” 13 In late May 1861, Seward sent instructions which Lincoln had diplomatically altered. Meanwhile, Seward worked to separate European diplomats so that they could not gang up on the embattled American government.