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Abraham Lincoln, the first steam-powered President in American History, was sworn into office. His steam-pipe/exhaust hat was the origin of the phrase, "Blowing Smoke".
While his inauguration speech stressed the need for the country to remain as one, cynics have suggested his real reasoning was that he didn't want to lose the supply of surplus cotton plants that the South had taken to selling as fuel.
Lincoln's term as President ended when the actor John Wilkes Booth shoved 5 pounds of sand down Lincoln's steampipe, thus locking up his gears and causing a fatal steam pressure explosion. Booth leaped from the Presidential block crying, "Sic Temper Tyrannis" - loosely translated as "Thus overheat tyrants."
Cute pun at the end!
ReplyDeleteThe second paragraph is the weakest. It makes more sense to talk about President Lincoln's usage of cottonseed oil -- rather than cotton plants.
Finally, you have a good idea -- the first steam-powered President -- without enough background. How did Lincoln overcome resistance to having a mechanical President? Wouldn't a steam-powered President be a strong symbol of the northern states' mechanical advantage over the South -- and cause the CSA to form even more rapidly?