Pubdate: Sat, 30 Jul 2016
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (CA)
Copyright: 2016 Anderson Valley Advertiser
Contact:  http://www.theava.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2667
Author: Fred Gardner

HONEST-ABE LINCOLN DIDN'T SMOKE HEMP

Abraham Lincoln said, according to many sources, including the 
Cannabis Card produced by Pebbles Trippet and drawn by Fred 
Sternkopf, "Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch 
smoking a pipe of sweet hemp and playing my Hohner harmonica." But no 
one ever provides a reference to when and where Honest Abe said or 
wrote the legendary line.

O'Shaughnessy's asked Sidney Blumenthal, who has just published 
volume one of a projected four-volume biography of Lincoln, if he 
came across the hemp/harmonica line in his research. "Apocryphal," 
Blumenthal replied. He elaborated:

Lincoln was unusually abstemious and devoid of personal vices such as 
drinking and smoking. Stephen A. Douglas in 1854 baited Lincoln at a 
meeting by offering him some whiskey, knowing Lincoln didn't touch 
the stuff. (Douglas died of complications wrought by alcoholism.) 
Lincoln's friend, Joe Gillespie, who served with him as a state 
representative, told William Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, in the 
oral history Herndon conducted after Lincoln's death: "He was a 
remarkably temperate man; eschewing every indulgence not so much as 
it seemed to me, from principle as from a want of appetites. I never 
heard him declaim against the use of tobacco or other stimulants 
although he never indulged in them." No contemporary has a different 
recollection. For Lincoln's views of temperance, see my book; he got 
himself in trouble attacking hellfire preachers.

In a follow-up email Blumenthal steered us to a letter in Lincoln's 
collected works, noting "Here's the closest you'll ever get to Lincoln & hemp:"

Hon: W. B. Preston Lexington, Ky.

Secretary of the Navy. Novr. 5. 1849

Dear Sir: Being here in Kentucky on private business, [2] I have 
learned that the name of Dr. John T. Parker [3] is before you as an 
applicant for the Hemp Agency of the State. I understand that his 
name has been presented in accordance with the wish of the 
hemp-growers, rather than his own. I personally know him to be a 
gentleman of high character, of excellent general information, and, 
withal, an experienced hemp grower himself. I disclaim all right of 
interference as to the offices out of my own state; still I suppose 
there is no impr[opr]iety in my stating the facts as above; and I 
will venture to add that I shall be much gratified, if Dr. Parker 
shall receive the appointment. Your Obt. Servt. A. LINCOLN

[2]  Lincoln's business was the lawsuit Todd v. Wickliffe.

[3]  An uncle of Mary Todd Lincoln.

Sorry, Pebbles. Sorry, Fred. Sorry, Mr. Hohner.

Blumenthal also sent this info:

You will find hemp in Moby Dick, and the reference is an allusion to 
Henry Clay. Clay's major business was hemp, used of course to make 
rope. (Clay inherited the hemp business from his wife's father.) 
Lincoln had a complicated relationship with Clay, his "beau ideal," 
who he did not support in 1840 and 1848 for the Whig presidential 
nomination, and was disillusioned when he met him personally, though 
his eulogy is praiseworthy but of interest for Lincoln's emphasis on 
Clay's antislavery sentiments.

Here's a conference held at Clay's Ashland estate at Lexington, 
Kentucky, just a few weeks ago: http://www.kyhempsters.com/blank

(Fred Gardner will be performing topical and off-topical ballads at 
the Cannabis Country Fair at the Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville on 
Friday, July 8, late afternoon. Thanks. "A boy's got to hustle," said T.C.)