Something for the weekend. Abraham’s Daughter. One hundred and fifty years ago the presidential election was in full swing. I doubt if this song was popular with either the Republicans or the Democrats since it mentions both Lincoln and McClellan, the two opposing candidates. The composer Septimus Winner, yep, that was really his name, was probably a partisan of McClellan. After McClellan was removed from command by Lincoln after Antietam, Winner was arrested for treason after he published “Give Us Back Our Old Commander: Little Mac, the People’s Pride”, a song which sold an astounding, for those days, 80,000 copies in its first two days on sale. He was held until he agreed to destroy the unsold copies. Nonetheless the song featured in McClellan’s campaign for president in 1864, and Grant’s campaign used it when Grant ran for president with the lyrics changed to be praising him. Here is that song:
Musical tastes change over time, but based on that song I sincerely hope that Septimus did not give up his day job.
