King Abraham Africanus the First

John Hartwell

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The movie "Lincoln" had New York's Fernando Wood sarcastically referring to the President as "King Abraham Africanus the First," to ridicule Lincoln's fixation on the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. But the term first appeared a year earlier than that represented in the movie, with the publication of a 60-page copperhead political pamphlet written by Alexander del Mar.
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In verse, prose, and dialogue, the pamphlet satirically depicts Abraham Lincoln making a pact with the Devil to become the monarchical ruler of the United States. With characters such as Soo (Seward), Stentor (Stanton), Cheeze (Chase), and, of course, Nick (the Devil), whose comments are forever reminding Bram (Lincoln) of "a story I heard out West," it is a witty, and occasionally very funny piece of political satire.

An example: The Deal: Satan having written down what he promises to do for Bram, the latter says, "All right, my boy, I'll sign that, and then you'll please consider this interview at an end. For some of my generals have been advancing too quickly, and if I don't relieve them of their commands, the war will be over in a jiffy and good-bye to my plans!" "You forget!" said Beelzebub menacingly....
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With The Deal made, Lincoln becomes the clever one: regarding the 1864 Republican nomination:
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Online at: https://archive.org/details/abrahamafricanus00delm/page/n1
 
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I miss the good old days, when there was a little class in political discourse.
At least, some EFFORT went into this publication.
The author, Abraham del Mar (at least it is attributed to him) was no political hack, but a noted economist, and author of some important books on the history of money, of monetary policy, and finance. Andrew Johnson appointed him as the first director of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Statistics (1866-69). A strong supporter of free trade and fiat currency, both Seymour (1868) and Greeley (1872) designated him for their choice as Secretary of the Treasury.
 
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