5 Things You Didn't Know: Abraham Lincoln

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More has been written about Abraham Lincoln than any other U.S. president, which isn't all that surprising given his pivotal role in American history. His death alone commands far more attention than is paid to the combined lives of countless forgettable presidents (that would be you, William Henry Harrison). Lincoln presided over the most devastating war in U.S. history, and the decisions he made in office forever altered the course of American politics.

So yes, he was a political beast, but how many people know he threw around huge guys as easily as he did habeas corpus, and survived as many broadsword duels as he did assassination attempts?

Well, you will, once you've read these five things you didn't know about Abraham Lincoln.



1- Lincoln was challenged to a sword duel at Bloody Island

In 1842, Lincoln wrote a series of letters criticizing a Democrat named James Shields. Unfortunately, this act became the 19th-century equivalent of an internet meme as other people started writing letters too, insulting Shields and hinting at his sexual inadequacies. Shields responded in the most reasonable manner available in 1842: He challenged Lincoln to a duel.

Lincoln accepted, but with an intentionally frightening stipulation: that the duel be fought on Bloody Island, a small island in the Mississippi River in Illinois. Shields arrived to find he'd be fighting with broadswords, at the bottom of a pit. His titanically huge opponent was chopping stuff apart and generally looking fearsome. Faced with Abraham Lincoln's death pit, Shields suddenly found himself open to compromise and accepted a pseudo-apology. All was forgiven, and Shields even went on to serve under Lincoln as a brigadier general in the Civil War.



2- Lincoln was the "moderate" antislavery candidate

It's a little shocking to quote Lincoln's letter toeditor Horace Greeley wherein the president says: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it." But the rest of that sentence goes: "…and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." So Lincoln's "personal wish that all men everywhere could be free" never superseded his goal to preserve the Union, and when he was nominated for the 1860 election, that nomination came in part because he was less dramatically antislavery — and, therefore, more of a unifying figure — than his Republican opponents.

There's more things you didn't know about Abraham Lincoln after the break...



