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Smiths Speaks in Kentucky

By Dan Modlin

Bowling Green, KY – Noted historian and regular C-SPAN commentator Richard Norton Smith spoke in Bowling Green last night as a part of a series of lectures he's delivering about Abraham Lincoln. Norton served as the founder and former director of the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Illinois says the 16th president's relationship with the media wasn't always friendly.

"Anyone who thinks our generation invented negative politics aughta take a look at the newspapers of Lincoln's time. And it wasn't just Lincoln, but it was Mary as well who came in for some pretty biting commentary. So that's one of the things about Lincoln that comes as a surprise to a lot of folks."

Smith says Lincoln was criticized in particular by some newspapers for coming to Washington D. C. in disguise for security reasons. Smith speaks as part of Murray State University's Presidential Lecture Series April 14.