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of the Whig Party, both in the state the difficulty of boats trying to navigate brought into the office one volume
legislature and later during his single the Sangamon River, Lincoln’s inven- in a series edited by David A. Wells
term in the Thirtieth Congress (1847- tion was intended to keep vessels from entitled Annual of Scientific Discovery.
1849), Lincoln supported a vigorous running aground. Equipped with what These books featured brief articles
program of “internal improvements,” he called “buoyant chambers,” the on new developments in science and
and became a strong proponent for the apparatus was designed to float a vessel technology. Herndon wrote that after
construction of railroads and canals. over dangerous shoals. Nothing came examining the book, Lincoln rose from
of it, and Lincoln returned to his law his chair and said that he was going
Robert V. Bruce, in his prize-winning
history of American science, writes that practice, but to this day he remains the to immediately purchase the entire
Lincoln’s rise to prominence coincided only president ever to hold a patent. set. After doing so, he told Herndon,
with the era that saw the beginning In Lincoln’s time, frontier lawyers rode “I have wanted such a book for years,
of modern scientific practice in the the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit, because I sometimes make experiments
United States. In addition to rapid pop- traveling from town to town to hold and have thoughts about the physical
ulation growth, the three decades after court each spring and fall. John T. world that I do not know to be true or
1846 witnessed geographic and eco- Stuart, the future president’s mentor false. I may, by this book, correct my
nomic expansion resulting in scientific and first law partner, said that Lincoln errors and save time and expense.”
improvements to both agriculture and knew nothing about history, had no Another book that Lincoln found
industry. This period also saw increased faith in biography, and knew only a lit- interesting was Charles Darwin’s On
the Origin of Species, published in 1859.
This was not Lincoln’s first foray into
In a world that often seemed the subject of evolution. Both Robert
V. Bruce, and more recently James
random and capricious, Lincoln Lander, have written that he had earlier
read Robert Chambers’ Vestiges of the
found comfort and a degree Natural History of Creation, published
in 1844. Based on his partner’s inter-
of certainty in the empirical, est in the subject and also upon many

disciplined domain of science. discussions with him, Herndon stated
unequivocally that Lincoln was a well-
informed evolutionist.

His election to the presidency in
November 1860 gave Lincoln the
specialization in science; more formal tle geography. Nevertheless, said Stuart, opportunity not only to meet practic-
education in scientific subjects and Lincoln “read hard works,” remember- ing scientists, but also to influence
more fulltime work in the field. In ing that as early as 1844 and continu- federal policy toward the adoption
1846, the year in which Lincoln was ing after his return from Congress, and implementation of new technol-
elected to Congress, the Smithsonian he carried a volume of Euclid in his ogy. During this period he also forged
Institution was founded and the first saddlebags while traveling the circuit. an important relationship with the
issue of Scientific American was pub- Indeed during the campaign of 1860, Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Joseph
lished. While living in Washington, the candidate himself thought it impor- Henry, its first secretary. The president
it is likely that the young congress- tant enough to state that he had “nearly and his cabinet were ex-officio regents
man visited the National Observatory, mastered” the six books of Euclid. of the Smithsonian, and though they
which had opened in 1844 with a While many of Lincoln’s friends agreed never attended a meeting, Lincoln
state of the art telescope. The planet that he read only to gain specific took an active interest in its welfare.
Neptune had been discovered shortly knowledge and not for pleasure, it was In addition to attending lectures and
before Lincoln’s arrival in the capital not because there was a shortage of witnessing the signaling experiments
and considering his interest in astron- books available to him. Herndon had conducted there, he occasionally asked
omy the Illinoisan was almost certainly an extensive library, Lincoln had full Henry for clarification or informa-
a regular at the observatory.
access to it, and he occasionally availed tion on scientific matters that might
In March 1849, at the end of his con- himself of the privilege. For example, affect the war effort. Lincoln also
gressional term, Lincoln applied for and Herndon remembered that he once provided critical help in bypassing the
was granted a patent. Remembering

26 Bridgewater Review