Comments on: WTF? Author Edits Lincoln

By: Thomas Lowry’s Version of Events « Bull Runnings

Thomas Lowry’s Version of Events « Bull Runnings — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 03:13:15 +0000

[...] blogger Drew Wagenhoffer passed along the information that Dr. Thomas Lowry (see here and here) has started a WordPress site presenting his side of the whole National Archives [...]

By: Was AL More Like GBM Than HUG? « Bull Runnings

Was AL More Like GBM Than HUG? « Bull Runnings — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:36:34 +0000

[...] recent flood of posts on various blogs resulting from the Lowry controversy has been fascinating. Now there’s one out there that’s tangential but tantalizing [...]

By: Harold Holzer’s Excellent Diversion | Crossroads

Harold Holzer’s Excellent Diversion | Crossroads — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 08:37:11 +0000

[...] that Mr. Holzer calls Dr. Lowry “this gifted scholar.” Recall what Harry Smeltzer said on Bull Runnings: “While Dr. Lowry no doubt deserves the approbation sure to be heaped upon [...]

By: Brooks D. Simpson

Brooks D. Simpson — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 03:44:44 +0000

Craig, I would not say “nobody.” Never would have. Some people were apparently quite thrilled. Others simply never heard about it until this week.

By: Craig Swain

Craig Swain — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:28:51 +0000

And do you believe that every document “on record” or in the archives lays in an unaltered state?

Better still, to properly place this incident in perspective, do a web search for “Sandy Berger” and “9/11 Commission”. I’ll stop my comment at that because as the next logical points edge close to our host’s rules for behavior.

By: Chris Evans

Chris Evans — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:00:41 +0000

It should be important to the American people that some rascal is going into the National Archives and changing original Lincoln documents for his own self glory.
Chris

By: Dick Stanley

Dick Stanley — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 05:35:32 +0000

That’s just incredible, that anyone would change a date on a historical document. He must have snuck the pen in since all the archives I’ve ever been in refuse to let you have anything but a pencil and a few sheets of paper.

Of course they rely on your honor and if you have none, as Lowry apparently has none, then you could do anything. But what insolence, rewriting Lincoln.

By: Will Hickox

Will Hickox — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:25:54 +0000

Whether or not this document changes our view of Lincoln isn’t the issue. The issue is that it’s an original Lincoln document that was apparently modified by a trusted researcher in pursuit of kudos, increased publicity and possibly money.

Another issue lies in the fact that “the record was already set and published in a compilation of the Lincoln files some decades earlier,” as you point out, and yet nobody until very recently appears to have checked the original against that compilation.

By: The Lowry Kerfuffle « Bull Runnings

The Lowry Kerfuffle « Bull Runnings — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:48:16 +0000

[...] this post I linked to stories about Thomas P. Lowry and his apparent doctoring of an Abraham Lincoln [...]

By: Craig Swain

Craig Swain — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:40:42 +0000

How so? As pointed out here and elsewhere, the record was already set and published in a compilation of the Lincoln files some decades earlier. As several distinguished historians have pointed out at length in the last two days, nobody in academia even considered Lowry’s interpretation seriously (or at least that is the line they are using today).

What we have here is vandalism, to be sure, but nothing that shakes the foundation of the historical record. If you believe otherwise, please explain how this one little document somehow changes the way we view Lincoln, his last day, or anything that happened between 1861 and 1865. And I’m not asking for some high level generalization. Be specific. Why is this document important to anyone, save perhaps autograph collectors?