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A view of

Abraham Lincoln

from his frustrated vice president.

A true story

Russ Woody is currently writing an eight-part limited series of half-hour episodes about Abraham Lincoln's first vice president, Hannibal Hamlin. Though Hamlin is now a man forgotten by history, a man thought insignificant -- many times, he came very close to actual significancce . 

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In the summer of 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, while he was still vice president of the United States, Hannibal Hamlin joined the army and became a cook at Fort McClary, Maine.

Hamlin hated his job as vice president. His position as Chairman of the Senate bored him to tears, his efforts to appoint his friends to high offices were thwarted, Mary Lincoln hated him and Abraham Lincoln ignored him--especially when it came to the issue of slavery. Hamlin was an ardent advocate of abolishing slavery. Lincoln (The Great Emancipator), not so much. At least not in the beginning:

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The Nation's Capitol

1860

 “A Union without slavery would be fine. However, a Union with slavery, or a Union with a little slavery, will do just as well"    Abraham Lincoln 

Charles Forbes

Mary and Abe's* Footman/Driver.

Bit of a drinker (though impossible to tell from the picture).

On the night Lincoln was killed, Forbes went to the bar next door for a drink, instead of watching Lincoln's theatre box.

 

*  Lincoln hated the name Abe.

 

 Old Abe

Lincoln's Horse

Lincoln was riding Old Bob when someone shot the hat off his head.

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