The Legend of Lincoln's Fence Rail

Even Honest Abe needed a symbol to sum up his humble origins

  • By Owen Edwards
  • Smithsonian magazine, February 2011, Subscribe
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A rail fragment, believed to have been hewn by Abraham Lincoln is an early example of "political theater." (Chicago Historical Society)

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After the state convention threw its support to Lincoln, Hanks returned to the farm and collected more of the hallowed rails. “During the Civil War,” says Rubenstein, “lengths of the rails were sold at what were called ‘Sanitary Fairs’ that raised funds to improve hygiene in the Union Army camps. They were touchstones of a myth.”

The piece of rail now at the Smithsonian had been given to Leverett Saltonstall in 1941, when he was governor of Massachusetts (he later served 22 years in the U.S. Senate). In 1984, five years after Saltonstall’s death, his children donated the artifact, in his memory, to the NMAH. The unprepossessing piece of wood was accompanied by a letter of provenance: “This is to certify that this is one of the genuine rails split by A. Lincoln and myself in 1829 and 30.” The letter is signed by John Hanks.

“If you disassociate this piece of rail from its history,” says Rubenstein, “it’s just a block of wood. But the note by Hanks ties it to the frontier, and to the legend of Lincoln the rail splitter. Actually, he wasn’t much of a rail splitter, but certain artifacts take you back into another time. This one takes you to the days when political theater was just beginning.”

Owen Edwards in a freelance writer and author of the book Elegant Solutions.

Editor's Note, February 8, 2011: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Lincoln family farm was in New Salem, Ill. It is in Decatur, Ill.


Every modern president aspires to emulate Abraham Lincoln, but few have wanted to be measured against him—a leader whose stature grew with the enormousness of the challenges he overcame, and whose violent death added the resonance of Greek tragedy to a historic life.

Remarkably, most of the stories that underlie Lincoln’s legacy seem grounded in fact (in contrast, for example, to the apocryphal tale of George Washington and his cherry tree, invented by biographer Parson Weems). Lincoln, arguably more than Washington, embodies the American dream: an up-from-poverty hero who became a giant not only to Americans but to much of the world. “Washington is very unapproachable,” says Harry Rubenstein, chair of Politics and Reform at the National Museum of American History (NMAH). “His mythic stories are all about perfection. But Lincoln is very human. He is the president who moves us to the ideal that all men are created equal. The many tragedies of his life make him approachable.”

With Lincoln, we can be forgiven for losing sight of the fact that he was also a politician, and in politics, legends rarely emerge spontaneously. A nine-inch, rough-hewn piece of wood, one of 60 artifacts on view through May 30 in the NMAH exhibition “Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life,” serves as an evocative footnote to an epic biography. The object offers a reminder that there was a time when Abe Lincoln, a newcomer to politics, needed a prop that might underscore his humble roots and resonate with voters.

He had no need, however, to invent his back story. Lincoln’s rustic childhood on the frontier, replete with the legendary hours spent studying by firelight, was entirely authentic. And Abe had indeed been as lanky and strong as he was said to have been as a young man in the backwoods. Those who knew him in his youth testified that once when Lincoln arrived in a new town, local rowdies challenged him to a wrestling match—which he won handily.

This was a background that might have carried the day as the Republicans sought their presidential candidate in 1860. But Abe had long since exchanged the rigors of his father’s farm to become a Springfield lawyer. And lawyers were hardly more beloved then than now.

In 1840, presidential candidate William Henry Harrison, emphasizing what he claimed were long-standing ties to the common man (although he came from a family of Virginia aristocrats), had orchestrated what came to be known as the “log cabin campaign.” Harrison’s down-home strategy undoubtedly contributed to his successful run for the presidency. It was a lesson not lost on those advising Lincoln.

In 1860, Lincoln was eager to win the support of the Illinois delegates who would later attend the Republican National Convention in Chicago. Abe’s backers looked for a way to reconnect their man with his genuinely humble roots. They ended up taking a cue from Harrison and staging a nice bit of political theater at the state-level convention in Decatur.

According to Rubenstein, Richard J. Oglesby, a canny Illinois politician and Lincoln supporter, came up with the idea of sending Lincoln’s cousin, John Hanks, back to the family farm in Decatur, Illinois, to collect a couple of the wooden fence rails that he and Abe had split years before. “At a key moment of the state convention,” Rubenstein says, “Hanks marches into the hall carrying two pieces of the fence rail, under which a banner is suspended that reads ‘Abe Lincoln the Rail Splitter,’ and the place goes wild.”

After the state convention threw its support to Lincoln, Hanks returned to the farm and collected more of the hallowed rails. “During the Civil War,” says Rubenstein, “lengths of the rails were sold at what were called ‘Sanitary Fairs’ that raised funds to improve hygiene in the Union Army camps. They were touchstones of a myth.”

The piece of rail now at the Smithsonian had been given to Leverett Saltonstall in 1941, when he was governor of Massachusetts (he later served 22 years in the U.S. Senate). In 1984, five years after Saltonstall’s death, his children donated the artifact, in his memory, to the NMAH. The unprepossessing piece of wood was accompanied by a letter of provenance: “This is to certify that this is one of the genuine rails split by A. Lincoln and myself in 1829 and 30.” The letter is signed by John Hanks.

“If you disassociate this piece of rail from its history,” says Rubenstein, “it’s just a block of wood. But the note by Hanks ties it to the frontier, and to the legend of Lincoln the rail splitter. Actually, he wasn’t much of a rail splitter, but certain artifacts take you back into another time. This one takes you to the days when political theater was just beginning.”

Owen Edwards in a freelance writer and author of the book Elegant Solutions.

Editor's Note, February 8, 2011: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Lincoln family farm was in New Salem, Ill. It is in Decatur, Ill.


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Comments (8)

I had to google to find out what a split fence rail is. The article in one section used the term: split rail. Leaving that notion, let me imagine it could also have something to do with rail road ties. The picture from the magazine seems to be out of size perspective. Is that really true about movie actor Tom Hanks.

Posted by Bill Welborn on May 10,2011 | 01:22 PM

"They didn't find the shriveled stump of a cherry tree, much less a rusty old hatchet, but archaeologists have finally discovered and excavated the remains of George Washington's boyhood home, the site of the apocryphal story of young George chopping down the cherry tree and of throwing a stone (or was it a silver dollar?) across the Rappahannock River. "We have the building that was the first home of the nation's first president," historical archeologist Philip Levy, of the University of South Florida—who oversees USF's field school at Ferry Farm, the Washington family homestead near Fredericksburg, Va.—said at a press conference this morning announcing the discovery."

http://www.newsweek.com/2008/07/01/george-washington-s-first-home.html

Posted by Rance Mohanitz on March 13,2011 | 11:13 PM

Subject: Lincoln's Rail

Authentication of the fence rails also comes from a very good source-—Abraham Lincoln himself. In his authorized campaign biography of 1860, for which I recently served as the new editor, Mr. Lincoln relates making the rails with his family during the summer of 1830, his first year in the then frontier state of Illinois. The number of rails was substantial—-enough to fence in 10 acres of prairie.

Humorously, in his original manuscript for his campaign biography, Mr. Lincoln describes his cousin Hanks efforts to publicize his early frontier life as the “rail enterprise.” This sly editorial comment did not appear in the published edition of 1860. (As the new editor, I included his manuscript in a new appendix. His restored campaign biography is now entitled ”Vote Lincoln!”)

Readers may find John Hanks's surname familiar; he is the first cousin of Nancy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln's mother. Mr. Hanks accompanied young Mr. Lincoln on one of his famous, 700-mile rafting, or flatboat, voyages to New Orleans, where they had another memorable adventure.

The modern actor Tom Hanks is a relative of John Hanks and, of course, Abraham Lincoln and his mother. “Tom” or “Thomas” has been a common name in the Hanks-Lincoln families for centuries. (Wouldn't Tom Hanks be the ideal actor to portray young Lincoln in a movie?)

Posted by D. Bradford on March 4,2011 | 08:43 PM

diana,
I can't add much more than to point to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-rail_fence

Posted by anomdebus on February 18,2011 | 08:47 AM

Gerat article. It's neat to see there's veracity to the rail-splitting legend. I've linked this article to my post about family-friendly destinations for Presidents' Day at http://travelingmom.com/destinations/northeast/2729-happy-birthday-mr-president.html.

Posted by Justine Ickes on February 17,2011 | 11:47 AM

i´m from peru, and we speak spanish, but i understand english. the bad thing is that i don´t know what splittling is, can you explain me, please?
thanks in advanced.
very interesting your article by the way.

Posted by diana on February 16,2011 | 02:01 PM

I grew up a couple of miles from the (near) Decatur Lincoln homestead where Abe split his rails. The cabin site was privatly owned and had little or no remaining artifacts but as I recall it was roughly fenced to protect it.

Posted by Robert C Culp on February 9,2011 | 08:13 PM

I'm not sure the article is entirely correct about George Washington's cherry tree story. I thought I read recently that archeologists who were digging at the Washington homestead found a cherry tree stump. It might not mean that he cut it down, but it makes you wonder...

Posted by Keith Wellman on February 9,2011 | 01:05 PM



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