Part One: Lincoln’s New Jersey Ancestry

It is not commonly appreciated that President Lincoln has direct ancestry that lived in New Jersey.  His great-grandfather, John Lincoln, was born in Freehold (then called Monmouth Court House) in 1711, the son of Mordecai Lincoln and Hannah Salter. (Mordecai Lincoln was born in Massachusetts in 1686 and died in Pennsylvania in 1736.) John Lincoln moved to Pennsylvania by 1740, and the President’s grandfather, also named Abraham Lincoln, was born in the Keystone State in 1744. Abraham Lincoln the grandfather moved to Virginia, where the President’s father, Thomas Lincoln, was born in 1780. Thomas Lincoln moved to Kentucky, where he married Nancy Hanks in 1806. President Abraham Lincoln, as you know well, was born in Kentucky on February 12, 1809.

The President’s great-great-grandmother, Hannah Salter, had an even closer connection to our state. She was born in 1692 in Freehold (Monmouth Court House). Her father, Richard Salter (the President’s great-great-great grandfather), owned and operated Salter’s Mill, which was located on Route 526 in Imlaystown. (Richard Salter was born around 1662, probably on Long Island, and his wife Sarah Bowne was born in 1669 on Long Island.) Hannah Salter married Mordecai Lincoln, the President’s great-great-grandfather, in Freehold in 1714. Mordecai is reported to worked at Hannah’s father’s mill in Imlaystown from about 1715 to 1720, prior to when the family moved to Pennsylvania.
Salter’s Mill in Imlaystown is now a National Historic Site. It was originally built in 1695, though the surviving mill dates to a later date. This is the text of the historical marker at the site: “Richard Salter owned this mill and an ironworks. Son-in-law, Mordecai Lincoln, was great-great grandfather of A. Lincoln.”

Some of President Lincoln’s ancestors lived in New Jersey from the late 1600s to around 1740. His only direct ancestors to be born in New Jersey were Hannah Salter, his great-great-grandmother, who was born in Freehold in 1692, and John Lincoln, his great-grandfather, was born in Freehold in 1711.  His only ancestral relative to be buried in New Jersey is Deborah Lincoln, who was a daughter of Mordecai Lincoln and Hannah Salter. She was born in 1717 and died about 1720, and is buried in a small cemetery on Route 524 in Imlaystown. She was the President’s great aunt, being the sister of his great-grandfather John Lincoln.

Part Two: President Lincoln’s Visits to New Jersey

Abraham Lincoln never spent a night in New Jersey. Nor did he ever campaign here, either while seeking the Republican nomination nor during either of his two presidential campaigns. He did, though, pass through the state several times while on his way between New York and Philadelphia. Twice, on February 21, 1861 and June 24, 1862, he consented to stop in Jersey to give brief speeches to our citizens. His wife, Mary, on the other hand, was a more frequent visitor and used to spend vacation time at the Jersey shore.

President Lincoln reviewing the 1st New Jersey Militia in Washington DC, May 1861 -A Waud

Following his famous speech at the Cooper Union in New York City on February 27, 1860, Lincoln received invitations to speak in Paterson, Orange, and Newark, but he declined them all, claiming that he was too worn out from his campaign swing in New England and New York. He returned to Illinois, where he received the Republican Party’s nomination for president on May 18, 1860 at their convention held in Chicago.         

After Lincoln won the Presidential election held on November 6, 1860, New Jersey’s Governor Charles Olden invited the President-elect to speak in Trenton while on his way to his inauguration in Washington, which was to be held on March 4, 1861. Lincoln agreed to the Governor’s request, though he declined a request to stop and give a speech in Newark.

After spending two nights in New York City, Lincoln took the ferry to Jersey City on the morning of Thursday, February 21, 1861. Upon arrival he was greeted by numerous state and local dignitaries and by thousands of common citizens. After speaking a few words to them all, he ended with a light hearted joke saying, “There appears to be a great desire to see more of me, and I can only say that from my position, especially when I look at the ladies in the gallery, I feel that I decidedly have the best of the bargain.” This was a variation of a joke he regularly used to compliment the ladies in the audience and win over everyone by his disparaging remarks on his own comely looks.

Lincoln traveled on to Newark, where the mayor spoke a few words, and a procession followed down Broad Street. Lincoln spoke a few sentences and returned to the depot.

His train route took him next to Elizabeth, where the trained stopped and he spoke a few words to the assembled multitude. He then continued on to a similar scene at Rahway and then New Brunswick. At the Princeton stop he was serenaded by college songs sung by a large group of Princeton students.
Lincoln’s train was greeted by a thirty-four gun salute when it arrived in Trenton shortly after 12 noon. He then took a short carriage ride from the station to the state capitol, where he was greeted by Governor Olden. The coach he rode in, which belonged to Jamesburg businessman James Buckelew, was on display for many years in Trenton’s City Museum. It was later returned to Jamesburg and has been fully restored by the Jamesburg Historical Association.

While the New Jersey Senate was awaiting Lincoln’s arrival, it passed the following humorous resolution: “Resolved: That we trust that this legislature may always have a democratic member that shall exceed the President-elect by two and a half inches in height.”

Upon arrival at the Senate, Lincoln was received courteously and delivered a short prepared speech. After alluding to New Jersey’s important role in the Revolution, he reaffirmed his determination to preserve the Union. He then crossed over to the Assembly chamber and delivered another speech, in which he stated that he was devoted to peace but would put his foot down firmly if necessary, to which there was much applause.

Lincoln next had a short lunch, after which he made a few remarks to the crowd and then returned to the train station. He departed for Philadelphia at 2:30 P.M. after spending just two and one-half hours in the state.

Lincoln’s second and final visit to the state was even shorter. It happened on Tuesday, June 24, 1862, when he was returning from West Point after consulting with Winfield Scott, the country’s former General-in-Chief who had retired in October 1861.

During the train ride back from New York City, the President stopped briefly to give a short speech in Jersey City.

President Lincoln laying in state

President Lincoln’s body passed through the state when his funeral train made its sad course from Philadelphia to New York on Monday, April 24, 1865. The train followed in reverse essentially the same route that Lincoln had followed on his way to Washington in 1861. It left Philadelphia about 4 A.M. and proceeded slowly, without stopping, through Trenton, Dean’s Pond, Princeton, New Brunswick, Rahway, Elizabeth, and Newark. It arrived in Jersey City at 10 A.M., where his coffin was conveyed to the ferry for its trip across the Hudson to Manhattan. Public viewings were held in Philadelphia and New York City, but not in New Jersey. This trip through Jersey lasted a little less than six hours. In death, just as in life, Lincoln never spent a night in our state. 

Mrs. Lincoln spent considerably more time in our state than did her husband. In August 1861 she and her two youngest sons, Willie and Tad, vacationed on the shore at Long Branch. Lincoln’s personal secretary, John Hay, was with them and found Long Branch to be “hideously dull.” Returning in the summer of 1863, Hay wrote that there was “disgusting bathing, pretty women.” Mrs. Lincoln also reportedly vacationed later at Cape May.

Part Three: The Presidential Elections of 1860 and 1864 Summarized

In the 1860 Presidential election, Lincoln lost the popular vote in New Jersey with only 58,346 votes out of 121,215 cast, though he ended up carrying four of the state’s seven electoral votes due to a lack of coordination between his opponents, who tried at the last minute to run a “fusion” ticket” to defeat Lincoln (electoral votes were assigned by congressional district, not “winner take all”). In the 1864 Presidential election New Jersey was one of only three states (the others were Delaware and Kentucky) to vote against Lincoln and in favor of the Democratic candidate, General George B. McClellan. The final popular vote was 68,020 for McClellan and 60,724 for Lincoln (who was actually running on the National Union ticket, not as a Republican). This time Lincoln lost all seven of the state’s electoral votes.

Part Four: Two New Jersey Jokes

Last portrait taken of Abraham Lincoln taken on March 8, 1865, a little more than a month before he was assassinated

Lincoln apparently never cared much for New Jersey. We were then a small state whose politics didn’t agree totally with his. He had a few friends from Jersey, most notably former William Newell, the state’s governor from 1857-1860, whom he had served in the U.S. Congress with in the late 1840’s. New Jerseyan William L. Dayton defeated Lincoln for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination in 1856. Joel Parker, the state’s Democratic governor from 1863 to 1866, was a severe critic of the President, though he still generally supported Lincoln’s war aims. Lincoln never appointed anyone from New Jersey to his cabinet.

As is well known, Lincoln greatly enjoyed telling jokes for a number of reasons, sometimes to convey a message, sometimes just for the fun of it. Here are two he is reported to have told about New Jersey.

During his administration five important New Jersey “big wigs” were visiting the President’s office.  He reportedly whispered to a friend, “The State of New Jersey is a long, narrow state. These men come from the north end. I should think, that when they left, it would have tipped the state up.” The joke is typical of Lincoln’s off-the cuff-humor.

This second joke is more difficult to decode. It goes as follows.

One stormy night in December, a boat was wrecked off the coast of Jersey, and every one aboard went down with the craft except one poor fellow. This one survivor grabbed a floating spar and was washed toward the shore, where a large number of laborers from the Camden and Amboy Railroad gathered on the beach with ropes and boats. As he slowly drifted ashore, the Jerseyans shouted out, “You are saved! You are saved and must show the conductor your ticket!” The drowning stranger, however, resisted their efforts to haul him ashore and cried out in a weak voice, “Stop! Tell me where I am. What country is this?” When he heard the reply, “New Jersey!," the wretched stranger let go of the rope, exclaiming, “I guess I’ll float on a little farther.” And he was never seen again.

The joke would seem to be a dig at New Jersey, claiming that not even a drowning man would deign to land and be saved there. However, the joke’s intent is obfuscated because of the fact that Lincoln’s friend, former New Jersey Governor William Newell, was the person responsible for the creation of the United States Life-Saving Service through the so-called “Newell Act” of 1848. In fact, Lincoln appointed Newell to the Life-Saving Service of New Jersey for a time during the Civil War. Perhaps the joke is meant to reflect some kind of falling out between the two men.

Part Five: Lincoln Statues in New Jersey

Abraham Lincoln Statue at the entrance of Lincoln Park, Jersey City, Hudson County Parks System, NJ

Among the more notable statues of President Lincoln now on display in New Jersey are the following.

Seated Lincoln, by Gutzon Borglum (1911). Old County Court House, Newark.

Seated Lincoln, by James Earle Fraser (1930). Lincoln Park, Jersey City.

“Lincoln the Rail Splitter,” by Archimedes Giacomantonio (1987). Sparta Public Library.

“Lincoln the Reader.” Sparta Public Library.

Copy of statue from the Lincoln Memorial. New Jersey Statehouse, Trenton.

Part Six: Odds and Ends about Lincoln and New Jersey

In 1861 the Merchants Bank in Trenton was the first to issue currency bearing Lincoln’s likeness.

The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) awarded Lincoln an honorary doctoral degree in law in December 1864.

- By Dr. David Martin, President, NJCWHA - 2009