Record Data
Source citation
“Old Abe’s Backbone,” New York Herald, April 7, 1861, p. 4: 4.
Newspaper: Publication
New York Herald
Newspaper: Headline
Old Abe’s Backbone
Newspaper: Page(s)
4
Newspaper: Column
4
Type
Newspaper
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Don Sailer, Dickinson College
Transcription date
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
OLD ABE’S BACKBONE. – Before poor Old Abe succeeded the amiable Buchanan, we were informed that the veteran railsplitter would prove to the world that there was still a government of the United States, and that his backbone was as rigid as Jackson’s. After Lincoln was inaugurated there were signs of spinal weakness in his constitution, and for fear that ossification might supervene electricity has been resorted to. The President, we are told, receives daily hundreds of despatches from the East and West, imploring him to look out for his backbone. As a general rule, however, the faculty fail to cure spinal diseases. We are afraid that even galvanism will not stiffen up old Abe’s backbone in the right direction.