NOTES
277
53. Ibid., 56-65, 66-72.
54. Ibid., 64-65.
55. Ibid., 78-84. Cf. Howells,
letter to Theodore T. Frankenberg, September 27, 1914:
"I did not edit the Lincoln
speeches; I only wrote a campaign life of him." Martha
Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library, Columbus,
Ohio.
56. Life, 78-79.
57. Ibid., 79.
58. Ibid., 79-83.
59. Ibid., 41. Howells' footnote
explained: "Out West, a grocery is understood to be a
place where the chief article of
commerce is whisky. Lincoln's establishment was, in the
Western sense, a store; that is, he sold
tea, coffee, sugar, powder, lead, and other luxuries
and necessities of pioneer existence.
Very possibly his store was not without the 'elixir
of life,' with which nearly everybody
renewed the flower of youth in those days; though
this is not a matter of absolute
history, nor perhaps of vital consequence."
60. Debates, 69, 75.
61. Life, 74-75.
62. Thomas, "Editor's Preface to
1938 Edition," xvii-xviii.
63. Lincoln's marginal note on page 74:
"Not the resolution of that convention. See
debates at Ottawa, Freeport &
Galesburg." An errata slip was inserted between pages
74-75 in fresh bindings of the current
edition, and the text proper was corrected in the
second complete edition.
64. Life, 93-94.
65. Ibid., 94.
PUTTING AIRCRAFT
TO WORK: THE FIRST AIR FREIGHT
1. The diary notation is taken from
Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of
Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York, 1953), II, 1001. "Simms" refers to
Simms Station,
an interurban trolley stop northeast of
Dayton, Ohio. Simms Station was near Huffman
Prairie where the Wright brothers
conducted many flight experiments. Huffman Prairie
is now part of the Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base.
In November 1910, Wilbur was away from
home on business relating to law suits over
patent infringements, leaving Orville in
charge of the operation of the Wright Company.
See Fred C. Kelly, The Wright Brothers:
A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright
(New York, 1943), 280-281.
2. Kelly, Wright Brothers, 112,
120.
3. Wilbur Wright to Bishop Wright,
September 3, 1903. McFarland, Papers, I, ix.
4. Octave Chanute, "Aerial
Navigation," Independent, LII (April 26 and May 3,
1900), 1006-07, 1058-60. Wilbur Wright's
letter to Chanute referring to the article is in
McFarland, Papers (May 13, 1900),
I, 10. Other respected authorities continued to
debunk the notion of powered flight. See
Simon Newcomb, "Is the Airship Coming,"
McClure's Magazine, XVII (September 1901), 434-435; and George W. Melville,
"The
Engineer and the Problem of Aerial
Navigation," North American Review, CLXXIII
(December 1901), 820. A recognized
scientist and astronomer in America and abroad,
Newcomb taught at the U.S. Naval Academy
and Johns Hopkins University. Melville
was a Rear Admiral, Engineer-in-chief of
the U.S. Navy. Some doubts were apparently
confirmed by the debacle of an eminent
scientist, Samuel P. Langley of the Smithsonian
Institution, whose "Aerodrome"
failed twice in trials on the Potomac River, October 7
and December 8, 1903. The Wright
brothers succeeded at Kitty Hawk only nine days
later.
5. Kelly, Wright Brothers, 115-116.
Cabot's manufacturing interests included a carbon
black plant in West Virginia.
6. Godfrey Lowell Cabot to Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge, December 31, 1903. Fred C.
Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk:
The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York,
1951), 122.
7. Ibid., 122-123.
8. Wilbur Wright to Chanute, October 5,
1904. Ibid., 132-133.
9. Kelly, Wright Brothers, 120.
It appears that the Wrights hoped aircraft would
prevent wars because of its capacity to
threaten devastating aerial retaliation which
would deter any aggressor. As late as
1917, Orville still talked of the possibilities of aerial
surveillance which would preclude the
chance of sneak attack and eliminate future
armed conflict. See Kelly, Wright
Brothers, 204, fn. 1; Burton J. Hendrick, "The Safe
and Useful Airplane: An Interview with
Orville Wright," Harper's Magazine, CXXXIV
(April 1917), 609-616, 619.