Sarah Josepha Hale

As I was doing some research on Lincoln and Thanksgiving, I came across some interesting information about Sarah Josepha Hale, a women who wrote Lincoln letters urging him to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Apparently she also authored "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

In addition to campaigning for Thanksgiving as a national holiday and writing famous nursery rhymes, she held some interesting political views. She was opposed to women's suffrage because she believed women could influence male voters in their own ways. From what I read, it seems like she believed women's place was in the home, but that they could be powerful and important there. She was, however, a big proponent of higher education for women. I just did some quick internet research on this figure but I found her really interesting. Does anyone know anything about Sarah Josepha Hale?

Sophrosyne as a Virtue

I don't know if I consider sophrosyne to be a virtue. "Healthy-mindedness" sounds nice, but why should health be considered a virtue? Most of the time, health is due to luck and privilege. This obviously goes for physical health but I think it can go for "healthy mindedness" too. What do you think?

Nobody is Self-Made

Of course nobody is truly self-made. We have all had help and that is clear. But why do we choose to remember all that Lincoln didn't have? Everybody knows about the log cabin and the rail-splitting. But why don't as many people know about his step-mother? I am fascinated by that relationship but you never hear about it the way you hear about the bad parts of Lincoln's life. I understand that it is more interesting to hear a rags to riches type of story, but I wonder why as many people aren't interested in Lincoln's relationship with his step-mother. Not many people have had a parent who was as encouraging and inspiring as it sounds like she was. I think this played a big role in Lincoln's self-education and success. I wonder how successful Lincoln would have been if his step-mother never came into his life.

What If Lincoln Was Depressed?

Some people think Lincoln may have suffered from depression. If he truly was depressed, how would he have acheived all that he did? I don't think a "self-made man" really can be depressed. Since depression typically affects people's motivation, it seems really unlikely to me that Lincoln was actually depressed. I guess that's another way Lincoln got lucky- he had motivation to work hard and educate himself.

Sophrosyne and Meat-Eating

Today, when I was in the cafeteria, I was thinking about veganism/vegetarianism. They have a lot of fake meat in the cafeteria (imitation chicken, etc). If eating meat is inherently wrong, is it sophrosynic to eat this imitation meat? My initial thought was no because, if you are naturally inclined to do the right thing, then you wont need to trick yourself with fake meat. What do you all think?

Lincoln as a Self-Made Man

I was interested in our discussion the other day about whether Lincoln would have been elected President today, having no formal education. I agree that America would not elect someone without a college education to be President. However, if Lincoln had existed today, I think maybe he would have a college degree. Today, the idea of a "self-made man" often involves working really hard in school to get a scholarship to college. Lincoln probably would have been able to go to college today, maybe through scholarships and loans. I thought Jamie made a good point in class when she said that it was contradictory how although we idealize the "self-made man", we probably wouldn't elect somebody who was self-educated the way Lincoln was. I think we only appreciate self-made men if they follow a certain path. We want self-made men to choose to go to college and get a good job. If somebody else's idea of a self-made man is living off the grid, or working a minimum wage job, we don't celebrate that, even though it may have been "self-made" (they came to it on their own, didn't get help achieving it from anybody else).

1st Inaugural Address

A passage in Lincoln's first Inaugural Address stuck out to me, and I wanted to see what you all thought of it. "Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassible wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence, and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this."
Lincoln is right that physically, the South cannot separate from the North. But most continents make up many different countries, unlike North America. I think the United States is way too big a country to work together cohesively, and the Civil War is an example of this. Why can't the South and the North split up? They would still need some sort of working relationship as separate countries, but I don't understand why Lincoln thought that just because they couldn't physically separate, they wouldn't be able to be two distinct countries.