Good morning. Executiveormer director for thank you for joining us today. Unlike in that post until 2016. He is the author of one of the nest modern incolns sense of humor. Ladies and gentlemen, professor richard carwardine. Morning. Im going to begin with a , familiar toory some of you. The occasion was an evening banquet in illinois. The month was february. The year was 1856. The setting was a convention of republican newspaper editors of decatur. Abraham lincoln was there, and he spoke. He apologized for being an interloper, as he put it, and cast himself as the subject of a story about a man, and i quote, with features the leaders could not call handsome. Writing through the woods he met a lady on horseback. He waited for her to pass but instead she stopped and scrutinized him before saying, well, you are the homeless man i ever saw. Yes, madam, but i cant help it. No, i suppose not, said the lady, but you might stay at. [laughter] and the editor stopped life stopped life in, he said with propriety, he might have stayed at home. I chose it because it is i wasularly apt. Scheduled to speak your last year, but when it came to it i stayed at home. Be theay possibly ugliest man you have ever seen, though i certainly hope not, but that wasnt why i stayed away. I simply wasnt well enough to travel. To johnecially grateful and the executive community of the institute for extending the invitation a second time. Michael, whonk while i was working on my book on lincolns you were, i was aware of those who questioned my choice of a subject lacking in gravitas and so marginal to the issues of wiccans time. Arelieve, however, people more revealing about themselves when being funny than when they are serious. Lato who reflected serious things cannot be grasped without ridiculous ones. Nobody indulged in humor more than abraham lincoln. Hat, it was an intrinsic element of the man. A way of life, a habit of man. It expressed his humanity and his sense of proportion and his understanding of humans. What prompted my research and by inquiry . It was a remark that lincoln made to david ross locke. Newspapermang ohio. Satire centered on a needs berotesque was a drunken, greedy, lying racist. Lockee called him a Nickel Plated son of a bitch. They were syndicated in union newspapers. To delighted lincoln. The papers were his constant companion. A pamphlet copy in the library of congress has marks made by the president s candle during his nighttime reading. Will. Ld quote passages at on the final afternoon of his life, he delayed dinner by reading him aloud to two old friends from illinois. The genius to write these things, i would gladly give up my office. Lockessure he took in prejudicechel speaks volumes about lincolns on humor. He admired the ethical force of lockes satire. A close associate said the president read him as much as he did the bible. Wordplay and delight in the plasticity and surprises of irony,e, quick wit, logical fallacy and notoriously dirty jokes and stories. B satiricals. Umor as my title indicates, i shall focus on the utility of the consumer. And the political danger that comes with being known as a humorist, particularly as a leader in the time of war. He derived more advantage from the pursuit of laughter and that his humor was an essential element in his statesmanship and his skill in public affairs. We should recognize that lincoln deployed humor as an act of leverett self conscience therapy. Releasetite for comic and is notorious of vulnerability to depression were two sides of the same coin. Laughter was a therapeutic antidote to the low spirits which he was prone. Like it explained if it were not for these stories and jokes, i would die. My moodsthe vents of and gloom. Unveiled the proclamation, he began by reading a short piece. Gentlemen, why dont you laugh . Ish the fearful strain that upon me night and day, if i did not laugh, i should die. Empowermentmeans of , of imposing himself on others. From an early age, like its comic storytelling made him entertaining company. Lad, nike experience nky appearance. His physical awkwardness did not trouble him. He had a strong sense of wonworth and enjoyed he for his stories. He won the respect of fellow congressmen in his washington boardinghouse. Was a magnet for attention. Lincoln would repeat with appreciative glee, the description of a type of he threw back his head, shined his eyes, open his mouth and left the consequences to god. Contrast, there was little in lincolns own speeches that was not planned and well calculated. His use of humor in public addresses and public conversation was rarely lacking in intent. The utility of his humor can be categorized under six headings. At times it was to crush an opponent. When used as a means of selfdeprecation and emphasizing his touch, humor could be a weapon. Sometimes it was a way of disingenuously planting a selfserving idea in someone elses head. It was a means of tactical diversion. All, he used his stories as parables, as a persuasive form of political explanation. The use of humor to crush aspiring whigan usedician, he occasionally cruel humor not to put his opponents on the defensive, but to humiliate them. The socalled roasting was one instance of winking using his power to hurt. The acacian was a meeting in front of a large crowd in springfield during his campaign for reelection to the state legislature in 1836. Lincolns impressive speech prompted a request from a prominent local democrat, that he be given a stand. Convert fromnt lincolns wake party and had party. Whig he had also built the best house in the city. Aer which, he had erected lightning rod. Lincolns senior, he declared the young man would have to be taken down. Lincoln resumed the stand. He acknowledged he was young but he said his critics remember i am older in years that i am in the tricks and trades of politicians. I desire to live and i desire a place of distinction but i would rather die now then, like the gentleman, live to see the day i would change my politics for an office worth 3000 a year then feel compelled to erect a lightning rod to protect a guilty conscience from an offended god. [laughter] life, the same phase of lincoln learned a painful lesson that selfindulgent, aggressive humor could injure its author as well as its target. In september of 1842, he wrote for a journal. Ridiculing 36yearold james shields, the state auditor. He was an impetuous man with a short fuse. He had good reason to freight at sexualult with its assault on his character. Lincoln reluctantly accepted the challenge of a duel. We cannot be sure how he intended the dark humor in his selection of weapons. Thelry broad swords with largest of size. Eight inches taller than shields, lincoln would have a huge advantage in reach. He did manage a joke on the way to the dueling grounds past the hundreds that turned out. He was reminded of a Young Kentuckian whose sweetheart who would leaving home to fight in 1812 presented him with a belt that she had embroidered with the motto victory or death. Isnt that rather too strong . Suppose you put victory or be crippled. [laughter] only at the last moment was the dual averted. , who again would lincoln was deeply embarrassed by the whole episode, never again would he write anonymous satire. He recognized when taken to extreme, ridicule could damage its author as well as its victim. Over time, lincoln learned to be more deft and subtle. As a maturing politician, he used gentler wit to put opponents on the back foot. Nobody was more aware of this event stephen douglas, who declared he did not fear lincoln in debating matters of substance but confessed that is one thing there is one thing in which i stand constantly in dread. When lincoln begins to tell a story, i begin to get apprehensive. Every one of his stories seems like an whack on my back. Else disturbs me. When he begins to tell a story, i feel that i am to be overmatched. Next, selfdeprecation and subtle attack. Engagementtoface with the public, lincolns use of the stories and jokes was designed to remind people of his lonely origins, coming from the backwoods of the prairie. It encouraged Common People to see him as a natural man able to engage with ordinary farmers and laborers on equal terms. Lincolns lifelong self identification with plain folks was aligned with his habit of selfdeprecation. As i noted at the outset, he made much of his appearance. Conscience of his unusual portions, his unusually long limbs and aware that people considered him ugly, he faced that head on. He found himself looking down the gun barrel of a passerby, explained he had promised to shoot the first man he met who was uglier than himself. Getting a good look at the mans face, lincoln remarked while bearing his chest, if i am uglier than you, then blaze away. [laughter] this selfmockery amounted to far more than means of securing a laugh by preempting comments about his strange looks, modest upbringing. It was also a means of enlisting the audience on the side of the underdog. He used this big manlittle man technique throughout his prepresident ial years against some of the biggest beasts in the illinois democracy. In his political wrestling with douglas throughout the 1850s, he assumed the identity of a modest provincial facing worldwide renowned of the democrats prime hope for the white house, who enjoyed the status of a very great man while he himself was a small man. The heavy irony of this language intensified by the sight of the diminutive little giant standing next to the elongated lincoln. Laughter for aed larger selfserving idea. As a lawyer, he wielded humor to plant the seed to shape deliberations of a jury. , he is saidch break to have told jurors the story of a small boy who ran to summon his father. Come quick. He is pulling down his pants and andis lifting up her skirt they are getting ready to pee all over the hay. [laughter] you have your facts all right but you have the story wrong. Humor also provided a means of diversion. He used anecdotes to smooth a conversation without giving offense. 1863, an infernal nuisance of a brooklyn postmaster with his eyes on the following years president ial election fastened himself to the tycoon and try to get into a conversation on the subject of the succession, would lincoln run again . The president put him off the story of his friend, who as a state auditor controlled the use of the Illinois State house in springfield. Preacher requested it as the venue for a religious lecture. What is it about . The Second Coming of christ. Nonsense, if christ had been to springfield once and got away, he would not come again. [laughter] mostf the president s stressful tasks in 1861 was dealing with the avalanche of requests for government posts. , a delegation called to urge the appointment of an acquaintance of theirs as commissioner of the sandwich isles. They emphasized not only is fitness for the post but his poor health, which would benefit from the climate. The president closed the interview with effective regret. Gentlemen, i am sorry to say that there are eight other applicants for that place and they are all sick or than your man. [laughter] above all else, lincolns stories served as a colorful and instructionans of and elucidation. They gave him the means of driving home political arguments and engaging the economy. He never seemed to talk without some definite aim in mind. The few stories i heard him relate told in each instance to illustrate some welldefined points. Lincoln said i tell many stories. I reckon i do but i have found in the course of a long experience that Common PeopleCommon People take them as they run, are more easily influenced and formed through the medium of broad illustration than any other way. As president , he used stories to drive home political arguments with engaging economy. When Major General john pope telegraphed he had caught 5000 confederates. That reminds me, he replied, of an old woman who was ill. Dr. K for medicine for her constipation. The next morning, he found her fresh and getting breakfast. She confirmed the medicine had worked. Movements, the physician inquired . 142, she replied. Madam, i am serious. How many . 142. I must know. You, 142. Them, wind. Lincoln closed the discussion, i captures, 140s are wind. [laughter] britton threatened war over the union navy seizure from a british ship. Therealled the drunk were lots of drunks and lincoln stories. He recalled the drunk that straight into Illinois Church and fell asleep in the front row. And someone on asked, who is on the lords side . The congregation responded by rising. When the preacher inquired, who are on the side of the devil . , but not fullyod grasping the inquiry, he stood up, i dont exactly understand the question, he said, but i will stand by you. It seems to me that we are in a hopeless minority. [laughter] the power of lincolns humor to enforce his argument was irresistible, always. Confirmed the president as the representative of americans. The womens rights activists rebuked those fine ladies who were repelled by the president s homely manners and jokes. As a nation, she wrote, we are unintelligent. Lincoln represents our average attainment and he has never written a letter that his constituents cannot understand. Wisdom has kept his name alive. He did knower how to tell a simple, instructive story. During his presidency, lincoln supporters seized on his use of humor to show how occupants of the white house could remain a man of the people. Proadministration newspapers readily drew attention to the president s latest story. Lincolns private secretary cultivated a warm relationship with several journalists and supplied them with examples of the president wit. Andial interests compilations of jokes and stories, supposedly but rarely originating with the president. Ofsetting up the moral value lincolns storytelling, his supporters sought to counter his opponents disdain for a chief magistrate whose taste in jokes made him unfit for his position. Theederates and critics in union seized on lincolns humor as a stick with which to beat him. His appetite for jokes revealed a lack of gravitas. He used humor to mask his deficiencies. His comic tales measured his cruel disregard for the victims of war. Buffoon,the heartless became a recurrent theme. Opposition presses were quick to , columbia a cartoon confronts the children, published after the union losses at fredericksburg. A cartoon that i think is available to you in your packs this morning. A female figure with her arm outstretched points at lincoln, stands outside the War Department between Edward Stanton and joe hooker and asks suns are my 15,000 murdered at fredericksburg . Joke from an of a outraged interruption. Go tell your joke at springfield. Democrats insinuated a critique of lincoln the joker into each and every one of their campaigning themes of 1864. None was more challenging then the charge of lincolns shocking levity and the face of numbing military slaughter. Lays the maker who nation across his knee and tickles her catastrophe with obscene jokes and little stories came a campaign staple. Nothing gave this attacked greater power than the bogus accusation that when visiting the blood drenched Antietam Battlefield in october 1862, lincoln had shattered its sanctity by asking to hear a vulgar comic song while touring the field with bodies yet warm in their graves. Mcclellan, by George Lincoln drove over the field as heavy details of men were burying the dead. Lincoln suddenly slapping marshall lemon upon the knee explained give us that song. George mcclellan has never heard it. The general protested, not now. I would prefer to hear it some other place and time. Gave politicalgn cartoonists unbridled opportunity to exploit this failure theme of lincolns compulsive jesting. In the cartoon columbia demands are children, and angrier columbia says mr. Lincoln, give me back my 5000 sons. Was the fact is, by the way, that reminds me of a story. Machineoon running the has lincoln laughing at his own jokes while the new secretary of the treasury turns out greenbacks. Antietam, the bogus episode offer the best target of attack. Especially potent was a poorly executed cartoon headed commanderinchief can ciliates the soldiers vote on the battlefield, which you also have in your papers. It places lincoln at the center in a long cloak and holding a cap, a reminder of disguise was said to have worn when cutting short a journey to washington as president elect. Several dead bodies are being carried from the field as an officer tends to a wounded soldier. Signals his figure distress by holding a hand to his eyes. He demonstrates as the president demands, sing us a song or Something Else that is funny. Routinely deployed this reading of lincoln yourvors you may call substitute your vulgar jokes for liberty and loss. Nold by the memory of our fathers and the graves, we will perish on a thousand fields and we become your slaves. The first verse is tribute to mcclellans victory at antietam, the second verse runs abe may crack his jokes le yet so petsguns grow cold may crack his stories. Your name is of the grantor mold and linked with all our brightest glories. It is impossible to determine precisely how lincolns reputation as a choker shaped the political Balance Sheet in 1864, the administrations supporters included many who found the president s levy distasteful. It indicates the matter was not decisive. It opponents believed created great opportunity. Lincoln well understood how his reputation for levity could expose him to misrepresentation and electoral damage. Only after careful reflection did he opt not to respond publicly to the antietam fiction. And time after his death, his reputation as the peerless president ial story spinner, joke teller and ready wit would come to take on a character of positivity. That was not the case during the dark and deadly days of war. My argument then is that lincolns sense of humor has to be taken seriously. Its mixedrecognize variety and complexity of purpose, understand its ethical dimension and remain aware of the Political Risk that lincoln ran in retaining jokes while the nation, a republic of suffering, was engaged and existential struggle, costing at least three quarters of one million lives. As the nation suffered, so did the president. Humor was his lifeline. Lincoln was a shining example of he proceed humor as proof of the capacity of the self to gain a Vantage Point from which it is able to look at itself. People with a sense of humor do not take themselves too seriously. They are able to stand off from themselves, to see themselves in perspective and recognize the ludicrous aspects of their pretensions. All of us ought to be ready to laugh at ourselves. Is we takeny ourselves to circe. We are rather insignificant little bundles of energy. Those were at the heart of what made lincoln left. His appreciation of the upsurge the of the human condition infused stories he told. Again, the sense of humor is in many respects a more adequate resource of the incongruities of life than the spirit of philosophy. To make the disappointments and frustrations of life, their rationalitys and contingencies with laughter, is a high form of wisdom. If man has some sense of the precarious nature of the human enterprise, we are looking at the whole drama of life not just at a point of view of their own interests, but from a further and higher Vantage Point. This was an aspect of the profound wisdom that underlie the american slaves astonishing capacity or laughter. He considered a sense of humor indispensable for men who had the duty of organizing their men in endeavors. It reduces the friction of life. Laughing at the absurdities of others as of ourselves, we mix mercy and judgment. Here was an indispensable ingredient of lincolns wise statesman she. In his strenuous nurturing of the republic, lincoln the statesman could call on clarity of principle, skill in Clinical Management and communication, grasp of human psychology and mental strength. To these ingredients, i believe we should add his remarkable and celebrated sense of humor, and expression of his essential humanity, his sense of proportion and understanding of humans. Served by an intellect, flawless memory, quick wit and mastery of language, lincoln used his tall tales and jokes to foster friendship, build support and arguments,pponents particularly when they reeked of injustice. Lincolns example leads us to ponder the question is it possible to exercise statesmanship without a sense of the ludicrous, of the absurdities of humankind . It seems that all political leaders would do well to reflect on this truism, for less we are able to laugh at ourselves, the more it becomes necessary and inevitable laugh at us. Thank you. [applause] you mentioned that lincoln had a story for everything or a joke and they always seemed to fit the situation perfectly. Memorizednk that he thousands or hundreds of stories or do you think he was really good at making them up . Former, not the latter. Formidable,mory was as i am sure you are well aware. He said once anything was scratched on the metal of his mind, it was there forever. About lincolns use of stories in every setting was his extraordinary capacity to recall an appropriate recall. The storiesome of several times over in different settings, but they often made the same point. He did not make them up. He was a retail dealer. He was telling other people stories but he adapted the stories that he had read. Was joeis stories millers just a book, first compiled in the 1730s in london by a british jester joe miller. It went through many additions and was circulating in the American West and early 19th century. New jests another joke book was one lincoln used. Lincoln remembered all of the stories that he was told by others. His father it is often said lincoln had a poor relationship with his father. It was a difficult relationship that was one of the most important thinks he got from his father was the capacity to tell stories. His father was a very good joke and storyteller. As a young man, certainly on the circuit with other lawyers, he acquired stories. I dont think he kept a joke book. It some that he had apologetics and johnson down. He was waiting in the line of being introduced at the white house. I dont think it was a written file. Said, he did adept those stories. He said just send a barrel of whiskey to my generals. That is straight from joe miller. It is not original to lincoln. Life his humor benefited. Would you say that the greatest person to benefit was his own psychology . I believe so. Quantifyingway of who benefited most from lincolns humor. What one can say is that he himself regarded it as essential to his wellbeing. He said to the white house painter that if it were not for , it is important to my wellbeing. Stage, he said speaking ita member of his cabinet was so difficult to get a joke into his head that it would take a surgical operation to implanted. [laughter] it is actually not lincoln. From an english clergyman reverend cindys sydney smith. Smith suffered from depression. A table a recipe for preventing the worst effects of depression. Theteps to avoiding depression. At the center of these was humor. Finding humor. Being able to find humor in whatever circumstance. Im sure lincoln would have taken that lesson to heart. He saw its importance. Marriage . Affect his i think someone else can answer that question better than i. Unlikely that lincoln told many of these stories to marry. [laughter] was meant forng mail company. [laughter] the smutty jokes that he told. Not strikely would as back then but they were intended for male company. How does it affect his marriage . I dont know how far he used humor within his marriage. I think certainly a sense of wit, capacity for dry capacity toward any situation that was troubling in a way that might have turned it to his that probably would have been true of his marriage but i dont think its marriage would have been the exchanging of stories. Is there any allegory our anecdote that you did not include this morning and is there an equivalent in terms of sense of humor of any british politicians that come to mind . I have given only a small smattering of the many jokes. A larger list is published in a book. [laughter] i benefited enormously from reading it. [laughter] tip of thet the iceberg i have given you. I thought you were going to say and how does it compare with other american residents . That is a topic in its own. Whole, like the bishop who kindly introduced me and has been the head of the National Churchill center here in washington would probably want to say that churchill was the most obvious parallel. We were talking before i came on about churchills humor. Lincoln, churchill was very funny in his own right. Probably was more naturally witty although lincoln had a capacity for immediate wit. Case of churchill, there are many apocryphal tales. Telegram froma George Bernard shaw. Said i am sending you two tickets for the first night of my new play. Come and bring a friend. If you have one. [laughter] churchill allegedly replied thank you for your i cannot get along on the first night but i will come along on the second night if you have one. [laughter] i want to make a couple of points to stir some thoughts. That there is a difference between lincolns use of humor in public and private and his concern and difficulties with intimacy. Would you comment on that . A personemains unknowable in many ways. The distinction between his public use of humor and . Lincoln used stories and humor to deflect. Would you comment on that . A veryink that is important point. Although lincoln was the life and soul of company and conversation whether oneonone or a larger gatherings. He remained unknowable. Two most of them. , probably to all of them. Innerey really know the man . How forthcoming was he . Often, it very understand the nature of your question. Joke telling, being witty and deflectingway of discussion of matters of personal substance. You are the psychiatrist. I find that entirely possible. I wonder if you would go along with that. Yes i do. Andas said about lincoln anyone who believes they know they areoln believed, delusional. Man. S the most shut mouth he wrote wonderful speeches. He was wonderful company. Personally andng emotionally forthcoming, i think he was right. That was the last question. [laughter] [applause]