Lincoln's t-mails

摘要

IN THE VAULTS OF THE National Archives in Washington, D.C., sits a small book of glassine pages, each containing a handwritten telegram in the precise, forward-leaning cursive of Abraham Lincoln. These pages document the first time a national leader used telecommunications as a regular instrument of authority and command. Lincoln was the first figure of power to project himself virtually via electrical communications technology. These brief missives show the growth of his confidence and implicitly chronicle his evolution into a mature leader. His use of telegraphy mirrors aspects of the derivative technology of e-mail today. Lincoln's "t-mails" offer a chronicle of how one man, confronted by a civil war, applied new technology to help define a new kind of national leadership.