In all the commemorative and even demonizing books written about 16th president Abraham Lincoln since his assassination 157 years ago, none show us his towering, 6-foot-4-inch frame squatting. But John Cribb’s 2020 novel, “Old Abe,” opens with, “He squatted, … whittling on a pine stick.”
It is a picture of an average American man passing time. Only Lincoln wasn’t just passing time. On May 9, 1860, he was waiting outside a makeshift convention hall in Decatur, Illinois, to hear if he would be named the Illinois Republican Party candidate for president of the United States. Suddenly he heard cheers, and a crowd hoisted him into the air and demanded a speech….