The office responded with a little “thank you” which was from John Quincy Adams’ son. That was all. Lincoln almost certainly did not read let alone vet each response to election congratulations. I have no idea why people keep saying they corresponded or are “pen pals”. If Lincoln read anything Marx wrote it would be his articles for Horace Greenly who Lincoln loved and read constantly, but that’s about it. it’s a small thing but how this one factoid has become an entrenched exaggeration bugs me
i think it’s because we learn much of history as regional vertical slices and stuff happening around the same time or figures being contemporary doesn’t come through to the casual student.
Oh my god, thank you. I’m also tired of how it gets phrased. Marx and Lincoln didn’t have correspondence. Marx sent him a congratulations letter because he admired Lincoln. The reply was generic and probably something sent to everyone who sent a congratulations. Lincoln probably got hundreds of thousands of similar letters and it’s highly unlikely he saw Marx’s letter or even knew about it.
You’re right, if he knew of Marx it would have been through the New-York Tribune. There’s a good chance that Lincoln read Marx’s coverage of the Crimean War, since it was basically the only coverage in English available to Americans.
The office responded with a little “thank you” which was from John Quincy Adams’ son. That was all. Lincoln almost certainly did not read let alone vet each response to election congratulations. I have no idea why people keep saying they corresponded or are “pen pals”. If Lincoln read anything Marx wrote it would be his articles for Horace Greenly who Lincoln loved and read constantly, but that’s about it. it’s a small thing but how this one factoid has become an entrenched exaggeration bugs me
i think it’s because we learn much of history as regional vertical slices and stuff happening around the same time or figures being contemporary doesn’t come through to the casual student.
Oh my god, thank you. I’m also tired of how it gets phrased. Marx and Lincoln didn’t have correspondence. Marx sent him a congratulations letter because he admired Lincoln. The reply was generic and probably something sent to everyone who sent a congratulations. Lincoln probably got hundreds of thousands of similar letters and it’s highly unlikely he saw Marx’s letter or even knew about it.
You’re right, if he knew of Marx it would have been through the New-York Tribune. There’s a good chance that Lincoln read Marx’s coverage of the Crimean War, since it was basically the only coverage in English available to Americans.