Michael good evening and welcome. My name is michael bishop. The result of a collaboration between our society and the George Washington university, the library is the First Research facility in the Nations Capital devoted to the study of winston churchill. Here students have access to a vast range of primary and secondary materials and interactive touchscreen exhibits and soon displays of original manuscripts and artifacts. And let me take this opportunity to encourage you to join the National Churchill society by visiting our website, www. Winstonchurchill. Org. Him him a few programming notes. I hope youll return to the National ChurchillLibrary Center on march 1 when eliot cohen will discuss his new book, him and him the big stick, the limits of soft power and the necessity of military power. And on april 26, former british secretary david away, now lord owen, who will speak about his book, cabinets finest hour, the hidden agenda of may, 1940. Churchill is claimed as the biggest leader of the 20th century. We will not only explore his life and career, but the very nature of leadership itself. Just as churchill bestrode the last century as a colossus, so did Abraham Lincoln the 19th. The two men were different. One born in a palace and the other in a log cabin. Each was marked by magnanimity and a magnificent sense of humor, qualities that may be linked. Perhaps the ability to see the humor in things makes one more likely to forgive the foibles of others. Examples of churchills humor and wit abound often related to his famed, but sometimes exaggerated fondness for alcohol. With a temperance campaigner, warned strong drink stingeth like the serpent, churchill replied, i have been looking for a drink like that all my life. On another occasion when leasing the house of commons, churchill was scolded boy a female mp who declared, winston, you are drunk. He replied yes, and you are ugly , but tomorrow i shall be sober. [laughter] michael lincolns humor was tending more towards selfdeprecation. He really the tale of an encounter he had with a woman in exclaimed i that believe you are the ugliest man i ever saw. Lincoln apologized and then asked what she would like him to do about it. Him him him she thought for a moment and replied, well, you might stay home. During one of the famed Lincoln Douglas debates, a spectator shouted lincoln was being two faced. Lincoln said, if i had two faces, do you think i would wear this one . Humor was an essential component of his personality and persona. He was a personality and political persona but tonight our guest will explore whether his humor might have been a handicap. Richard carwardine was educated at Corpus Christi and Queens College in oxford and at university of california berkeley. For three decades he taught history at the university of sheffield before being appointed rose professor of American History and institutions at oxford university. And a fellow of Saint Catherines college. He was elected president of Corpus ChristiCollege Oxford in 2010 and served in that post until his retirement last year. He is the author of one of the finest modern by our biographies biographies of the 16th president , lincoln, a purpose of life and power which was awarded the lincoln prize in 2007 and wrote the upcoming lincolns sense of humor on which tonights lecture is based. This year marks the 500th anniversary of Corpus Christi, an occasion being marked in many ways including a new exhibition featuring the colleges manuscript treasures that just opened at the Folder Shakespeare Library on capitol hill. I encourage you all to visit it. Ladies and gentlemen, professor richard carwardine. [applause] richard thank you very much for that warm welcome, michael. Among the arresting displays at the chicago cemetery fair in 1864 was an exhibit labeled the two american humorists. One of the two busts was that of dan rice, the blackface minstrel. You see him in 1859. He appeared before the great union speech before the medical students in philadelphia. No idea of what he lectured on, but we have no idea how much benefit a medical student took from this talk. The other was Abraham Lincoln. You would have core world with world quarreled with the distinction of lincoln as the american humorists. Lincoln was a mood breaker, the first president to make storytelling and laughter tools of the office. No occupant has since matched his talent in this respect, not least because of reputation for too much jocularity has been deemed politically damaging. Roosevelt was judged even by his admirers to be undignified. John f. Kennedy, one of the most amusing men in the highest office and widely admired as a humorist, still held back in news conferences for fear of appearing nonstatesman like. Even ronald reagan, who came closest to lincoln in his skill as a raconteur, was open to the charge that his humor was a substitute for thought. And since he was willing to do anything for a laugh, risked becoming a vaudeville routine. Lincoln by contrast suffered few such inhibitions. Humor was central to lincolns being. And in this talk, i will analyze what made him laugh and the purpose is to which he put his purposes and uses to which he put his jokes and stories. Considering the political consequences, i should indicate as my title suggests that the story is not fully positive. Lincolns sense of humor was unusually capacious. He relished every form of the comic. At one end of the spectrum you he he drew pleasure from tall tales, from absurdity and larger than life characters. At the other, he took cerebral pleasure in the practice of surprises of language. There is no simple taxonomy of lincolns humor, but between these two poles of enjoyment, he appreciated a variety of other forms and happily enjoyed satire and notoriously dirty jokes and stories. Not least like many successful and effective humorists, he knew, as michael explained to you, how to win over an audience by laughing at himself. Lets begin with a few more examples of this habit of selfmockery. For lincoln possessed a very strong sense of selfworth. And as a result, he was able to take a joke at his own expense, joining in the jollity with the utmost innocence and good nature. He made much of his unprepossessing appearance, conscious of his very unusual physical proportions, his height and unusually long limbs, is long legs and very long arms. They considered him an ugly man and he faced that head on, counting himself as the subject of the story, he had an encounter with a stranger in a railroad car. He said excuse me sir, i have an article in my position which belongs to you. Taking a jackknife from his pocket, the man explained this was placed in my hand some years ago with the injunction of i was to keep it until i found a man uglier than myself. I think you are fairly entitled to the property. Lincoln also gave rise, as he was splitting rails, he found himself looking down the gun barrel of a passerby who explained promised to shoot the first man he met who was uglier than himself. Getting a good look at the mans face, lincoln bared his chest, if i am uglier than you, please give way. Blaze away. Lincoln loved the absurd and he loved tall tales. According to noah brooks, he thought the chief characteristic of american humor was its grotesqueness and extravagance. He loved the story of the village drunkard. A lot of drunks in lincolns stories. He got catastrophically intoxicated on a day of heavy rain, staggered down an alley and fell asleep in a bed of mud. Waking as it was getting dark, he sought out the public pump to wash himself. On his way he saw another drunk , leaning over a horse post which he mistook for the pump and took the arm of this man for the handle, which set the occupant to throwing up. He gave himself a thorough washing and made his way to the grocery. As he ended, one of the comrades, horrified by the extreme, what is the matter . He replied, you want to have seen me before i was washed. There may be no surprise lincoln celebrated craftsmanship, economy, energy and color of prose should have loved humorists possibilities of the english language. He discovered particular usages and meanings of words. He smiled at the, as he put it, at the dutchmans expression of somebody tying his dog loose. He took delight in puns. He said in the telegraph office, since it was a fast day, he was pleased to see them working so fast. He memorized phrases, his head, unlike his books, is read. In court proceedings, he knew how to use a pun to his advantage. Lawyer trying to prove an alibi had lincoln shooting back, i have no doubt you have a man to bring a lie by. Puns are designed to elicit groans, and this may have been lincolns aim when he said to seward in washington, a sign for tr strong. Tr strong, but coffee are stronger. A groan. As a selftaught euclidian, lincoln took pleasure in the application of logic and misapplication of logic. He relished the story of the Illinois State treasurer returning home one night inebriated, drawn by red steers. One of the carts wheels came loose. The three steers ran away leaving the man asleep. Early in the morning he roused , himself and looking over the side of the cart and around in the woods, he said if my name is john moore, ive lost a pair of steers. If may name aint john moore, i have found a cart. In a similar vein, lincoln talked about a meeting at the illinois lunatic asylum. It was a chilly building and lincoln wore a hat. As he made his way along, a little lunatic ran out and said, sir, i am surprised you will presume to wear your hat in front of christopher columbus. I am sorry, lincoln replied, removing his hat and moved on. Later on after the meeting with the hat back on his head, lincoln once more met with the man again who approached him, sir, i am astonished you would dare to wear your hat in the presence of general washington. Pray excuse me, general, lincoln said. Less than an hour ago you said you were christopher columbus. That is correct, but that was by another mother. [laughter] Richard Lincoln is alleged to have said wit laughs at everybody and humor laughs with everybody. Because of that, sharp wit was not his most representative mode of humor, but noah brooks was far too sweeping when he said lincoln was witty but not brimful of humor. Lincoln had the capacity for a quick wit. It was observed attorney general edward baits had black hair and a white beard, lincoln thought they could hardly be otherwise. He uses his jaws more than his brain. And one day a delegation called on lincoln. This was after he takes office in 1861. He is bombarded by office seekers. A delegation urged the appointment of a friend of theirs to the post of commissioner of the sandwich islands in hawaii. They emphasized not only his fitness for the post and his poor health, which they said would benefit from the balmy climate of hawaii. The president closed the interview with affected regret. Gentleman, i am sorry to say there are eight other applicants and that place, and they are all sicker than your man. Lincoln enjoyed the dry, ironic and the public wit that he heard in others. Oblique wit that he heard in others. This was the case with the father who said i aint greedy about land. I only want what joins mine. He used a dry wit to deflate arrogance in a german nobleman who desiring a military appointment made much of his distinguished lineage. Lincoln said, that need not trouble you. That will not be in your way if you behave yourself as a soldier. More gentle was the formula he used more than once for a job, the lady says she has two sons who want to work. It is possible. Wanting to work is so rare a merit, it should be encouraged. Most of the stories lincoln told as acquaintances put it politely, would not do exactly for the drawing room. The vulgar and the earthy were a mainstay of his humor, remarked upon by his family, his friends, and his colleagues. Lincoln himself, when asked why dont you write out your stories and put them in a book . He said as if 1000 dead carcasses and a man will shoot everything into his nostrils and said such a book would stink like 1000 privies. Several colleagues emphasized it wasnt the crudity lincoln loved so much as the storys pertinence and wit. This is probably true. We should remember his immodest stories were more effective to victorian sensibilities than to ours. This is true of the tail he told to a collector of relics. Address aith dress she had worn during the revolutionary war. A braided his hair and asked if she would produce address. She did so and he said i did not say, were you addressed this one lady once more in the time of washington . No doubt she kissed you as i do now. As he did so heartily, the unimpressed owner remarked stranger, if you want to kiss something old, you better kiss ass, its older than my dress. Lincoln is known to joke about anatomy and sexual relations. Persistently asked by cates chase, who had seen him standing next to a wall in an alley what he had been doing, he caved in and said, to tell the truth, i went up the alley to shake hands with a fellow i used to know who stood up for me at my wedding. And when married, lincoln tied in an evening gown, taken in new york, the copies were stamped on the back with an act of congress. She sent one to her husband. They open to the letter, considered the inscription and remarked that is a lie. She never was entered by acts of congress. [laughter] Richard Lincoln took great pleasure in satire. As a young man, he engaged in occasionally reckless or small attacks through anonymous or psedonymous attacks. What was his position . A state office which led to a dual which was aborted at the last minute. After that, lincoln exercised much more control as a satirist. In private amongst his lawyer friends, he would put something on a sarcastic lamps and lost none of his appetite for raising the satirical pieces of others including richard the third or the genius of assault on copperheadism. But the prevailing tone of the humor was that he elected cruelty and malice. His satirical thrusts were restricted to carefully constructed passages in longer speeches, noted in his speeches with douglas area several of those sallies rebuked the little giant for appealing to the douglas. Several of those sallies rebuked the little giant for appealing to the racial antipathies of white illinoisans. The quality of the races, lincoln mocked douglas fallacious logic. He said, i dont understand because i dont want a negro woman for a slave i must want her as a wife. I never had the intention i and my friends would marry negrose if there was no law to keep them from it. As for as the range of his humor, what of its utility . Lincolns irreversible sense of humor was so central to his being and so frequently deployed it naturally prompts the question, what was its purpose . It provided a means of empowerment of imposing himself on others. It also acted as a Health Giving salve. Put simply, lincolns appetite for humor and vulnerability to depression were two sides of the same coin. Laughter was a therapeutic antidote to the grievous low spirits he was prone. Lincoln explained it for not these jokes, i should die. They give vent to my doom and gloom. E was evangelistic on the 22nd of september, 1862, where he unveiled the preliminary emancipation proclamation, the president began reading a short piece by artemis ward. Gentleman, why didnt you laugh . The people were irritated begetting the meeting with this way. Why didnt you laugh . With the strain upon me night and day, if i didnt laugh, i should die. Here the picture is complicated among the least because purpose and function, intent and affect were not one in the same. Lincoln used humor with deliberation, to supply particular outcomes. His levity has been regarded as a productive source of strength, but there were unintended consequences. In the hands of his opponents, lincolns reputation functioned as a weapon that could be turned against him. Humor could be a doubleedged sword. From an early age, his comic stories and mimicry made him welcome and entertaining company. His odd, lanky appearance and bookish appetites might in another young man have been a recipe for social residence but his physical awkwardness seemed not to have troubled him. Rather, he had a strong sense of his self wealth. This social empowerment helped to secure his election as a military captain in the black hawk war. Winning him the respect of fellow congressmen in his washington boardinghouse in the 1850s and make him the smiling target of attention in the illinois eighth circuit. Lincoln relished the role of entertainer and was invigorated by it. Hearing his debates in 1858 with Stephen Douglas, he grew stronger in spirit and body over the course of the campaign in contrast to his opponent. He didnt possess the active ease of movement but had a gift for squeezing the most humor out of his material and building to the climax of a story. Particularly fond of james hacketts rendition of falstaff, he advised on how to deliver a line so if he heard the laugh he knew lincoln was there. Later in life, lincoln would repeat with appreciative glee the description of a type of southwestern orator who mounted the rostrum, threw back his head, shined his eyes, opened his mouth and left the consequences to god. [laughter] richard in sharp contrast, there was little in lincolns own speeches that was not planned and well calculated. His private conversations were rarely lacking in broader intent but designed to cover up and to thwart. Empty thought. His humor at times led in crushing his opponents. More commonly and kindly when used as a means of exercise his common touch and the selfdeprecation, humor could be a weapon of subtle attack. In other ways it was a way of disingenuously planting a selfserving idea into the minds of his heroes. It provided a means of tactical diversion or frustration and had a role in relation to public morale. Above all, however, he used his stories as parables and pointed, accessible and persuasive form of political explanation. Speaking of his crushing of opponents, lincoln occasionally resorted to cruel and aggressive humor, not simply to put his opponents on the defensive, but to eviscerate them and humiliate them. The roasting of forker, as it was called, was one instance of lincoln using his power to hurt, a power which he used to withering effect. This was in his campaign for reelection to the state legislature in 1836 when he spoke before a large crowd in springfield. And his impressive speech, it prompted a response from george fork