The Forgotten Connections Between Abraham Lincoln and Robert Burns

It was a “thick and chunky volume,” he later recalled, “bound in leather and printed in very small type.” Gifted with a superb memory, Lincoln began to memorize the verses and even tried writing similar poetry himself.

In 1831, when Lincoln reached his twenty-first year, he moved to New Salem, Illinois, and there he became re-acquainted with Burns poetry through his contact with the Scottish-American Jack Kelso. We know precious little about Kelso. The surname suggests that he originally hailed from the Borders, and some rumors claim that Jack worked as a teacher in Scotland before emigrating from Glasgow to the states; other stories claim that he was born in Kentucky of immigrant parents. Still other maintain that he owned the largest library in New Salem (about 27 volumes, including Shakespeare and Burns). None of these tales can be verified. But there is abundant evidence that Jack Kelso re-introduced young Abraham to Burns’ verses and Lincoln soon memorized large parts of Tam O’Shanter, Holy Willie’s Prayer, The Cotter’s Saturday Night, Address to the Deil, Highland Mary, Bonnie Jean, and Dr. Hornbook. A number of his Illinois contemporaries recalled his mastery of Burns’ poetry. He “knew all of Burns by heart,” recalled Charles Maltby. “Burns seemed to be his favorite,” said N. W. Branson. He read, “Considerable of Burns’ poems,” recollected Abner Y. Ellis. He later “forsook Byron – never Shakespeare and Burns” said Joshua Speed. Milton Hay, who served as a clerk in Lincoln’s Springfield law office once told a reporter that Lincoln “could quote Burns by the hour. I have been with him in that little office and heard him recite with the greatest admiration and zest Burns’ Ballads and quaint things.”

Lincoln’s familiarity with Burns may be further inferred by his hand-written corrections – or rather the lack thereof – on the pages of his 1860 presidential biography written by William Dean Howells. Just before publication, Howells mailed a copy to Lincoln in Springfield for his final assessment. Lincoln made several changes to the manuscript, but he let stand without comment the following sentence: “When practicing law before his election to Congress, a copy of Burns was his inseparable companion on the circuit; and this he pursued so constantly, that it is said he now has by heart every line of his favorite poet.”

Visitors to the comfortable Lincoln home in Springfield during the 1850s might well be entertained by one of his son’s formal recitations of Burns’ verse. Whenever a few people were gathered in the White House during an evening, Lincoln would frequently read aloud to them from either Shakespeare or Burns.

Lincoln’s admiration for Burns never wavered. According to James Grant Wilson, editor of Chicago’s first literary magazine and an early Republican supporter, Lincoln once stopped by to see him in 1860. He noticed busts of Shakespeare and Burns in Wilson’s office and when Wilson told him that he had purchased them in Stratford-on-Avon and Ayr, Lincoln was dutifully impressed. Said he: “They are my two favorite authors, and I must manage to see their birthplaces some day if I can contrive to cross the Atlantic.” Earlier, when Wilson had written Lincoln to inform him that he has spent an entire day in Prestwick speaking with Burns’ youngest sister, Isabella Burns Begg, then eighty, Lincoln replied to express his admiration that Wilson had met Burns’ sister.

In 1859, Lincoln had attended the Springfield Centenary celebration of Burns’ birthday, and he gave a formal toast to his memory, although exactly what he said has not survived. During Lincoln’s years in the White House, the Philadelphia and Washington DC Scottish-American organizations similarly staged annual celebrations of the poet’s birth. In 1864, the Washington club invited Lincoln to join them and while there is persistent rumor that he attended at least one of these gatherings that has never been substantiated. Since Scotsman Alexander Williamson, who tutored young Tad and Willie Lincoln, also served as Secretary of the Washington club, he had special access to the president. On January 24, 1865, Williamson asked Lincoln for a “recognition of the genius of Scotland’s bard, by either a toast, a sentiment, or in any other way you may deem proper.” (Not precisely an invitation to attend the gathering, as is usually supposed.) Lincoln penned a hasty note that was dutifully read at the celebration. It read: “I cannot frame a toast to Burns. I can say nothing worthy of his generous heart and transcendent genius. Thinking of what he has said, I cannot say anything worth saying.”

Lincoln’s final reference to Burns came just days before his death. John Hay, Lincoln’s secretary, recalled that when he and Lincoln sailed down the Potomac River in early April, 1865, Lincoln recited from several Burns’ poems. Afterwards, he turned to Hay and remarked that Burns never touched sentiment without carrying it to its ultimate expression and leaving nothing further to be said.

Given this close connection, perhaps it is no accident that Scotland erected the first heroic statue outside of the United States to Lincoln in the Old Calton Hill Burial Ground in Edinburgh (1893).Nor is it an accident that about twelve American cities – including New York, Denver, and Cheyenne – today house heroic statues to Robert Burns. (It is somewhat rare for a nation to erect a statue to a foreign national who has never set foot on its soil.)

The National Park Service has officially recognized the Lincoln-Burns connection. When they refurbished the Lincoln family home in Springfield in 1988, they relied heavily on a woodcut of the family parlor – taken from a now-lost original photograph – that revealed the presence of several heroic busts in the room. Since it was not possible to determine precisely whom the busts depicted, the Park Service chose three: Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Burns. Tucked into the northeast corner of the Lincoln parlor, and one of the first objects that the 400,000 annual tourists to the Lincoln home see, is a heroic bust of Robert Burns. Given Lincoln’s heart-felt admiration for the poetry of Scotland’s Bard, this is eminently appropriate.