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The Lincoln Room
US Capitol, Room H-226
On December 21, 2018, Congress named this space in honor of Abraham Lincoln, who represented the state of Illinois as a member of the Whig party in the United States House of Representatives for a term, 1847-1849.
The spaces now included in Room H-226 existed as early as 1807 but were destroyed in 1814 by the invading British army. When the House re-occupied its Chamber, which is now Statuary Hall, in 1819, the configuration had changed, creating curved lobbies and windowed rooms.
From 1819 until 1836, this room was assigned to the Doorkeeper of the House. In 1837, it was assigned to the Postmaster. Mail operations were critical for Members to communicate with their districts and their families. Future President Abraham Lincoln used this room to write home to his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and his supporters in Springfield, Illinois.
After the House moved to its new wing in 1857, the Lincoln Room was assigned to the Clerk of the House. Over a century later, in the 1990s, it was renovated to accommodate members of the majority party's leadership> It is currently occupied by the Majority Whip.
The Influence of Robert Smalls and Frederick Douglass on President Abraham Lincoln
These portraits of Robert Smalls and Frederick Douglass hang in this room to honor the important role they played in influencing President Abraham Lincoln to change the course of our country's history.
Robert Smalls became a Civil War hero and a free man when he led a crew of other slaves to commandeer a Confederate steam ship, the Planter, in Charleston, South Carolina, on an early May morning in 1862. In August of that year, Smalls accompanied the Reverend Mansfield French to Washington and met with President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to urge them to allow blacks to join the Union cause.
At the time, President Lincoln was being urged to allow black soldiers into the Union army by abolitionists, most notably Frederick Douglass, who had escaped from slavery in 1838. Robert Smalls returned to South Carolina with an authorization for the enlistment of 5,000 black soldiers -- the first federally mandated unit of black troops.
With Douglass recruiting and advocating in the North, and Smalls doing the same in the South, the authorization would be the tipping point for the inclusion of some 170,000 black soldiers into the fight for their freedom. The ingenuity of Douglass and Smalls brought them into prominence both as advocates and symbols of the utility of black soldiers in the Union cause.
Smalls continued to serve with the Union Navy until the end of the war, helping the reveal the location of Confederate mines. He would go on to serve in both branches of the South Carolina legislature and was elected to five terms in the United States House of Representatives. |