Did Abraham Lincoln say “That’s cool!”

He did. On the evening of February 27, 1860, Lincoln gave a famous speech at Cooper Union. This was a political speech made before New York City powerbrokers. The purpose was to help secure his nomination to run for president. Here's a snippet.

“We hear that you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that event, you say you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you and then you will be a murderer!”

I used this speech in a prologue for The Shut Mouth Society. Many readers have questioned whether Lincoln actually used modern slang. Luckily, there’s documentation aplenty.

This phrase brings up a point about writing historical fiction. I have an exceptional editor who highlights words or phrases not appropriate to my time period. (For example, she informed me that Winston Churchill invented the word underbelly.) But “That’s cool” taught me something additional: historical writers shouldn't use phrases readers believe are modern, even if they're historically accurate. When a word or phrase strikes the reader as incongruous, it takes them out of the story--a mortal sin for fiction writers. So my advice is to rephrase anything that even appears unfit the period of your story.

There are exceptions, of course. If I were writing The Shut Mouth Society today, I would include Lincoln’s use of the ubiquitously cool slang phrase. Why? Because it revealed one of his personality characteristics and dialogue should always be character revealing.

Just for fun, here's some old, old slang that sounds modern.

Trip the light fantastic – 1632

High jinks – 17th century

In the dumps – 1534

Elbow grease – 17th century

Nose out of joint – 1581

Plain as the nose on your face – Shakespeare

Sing a different tune – 1390

Play fast and loose – 16th century cheating game

Give short shrift – Shakespeare

Fish out of water – 1380

Hocus-pocus –1656

Hair of the dog that bit me – 1546

Shirt off your back  - Chaucer

Cutting off your nose to spite your face – 1658

Lift oneself by the bootstraps – Shakespeare

Without rhyme or reason – 16th century

Proud as hell – 1711

Break the ice – 18th century or older

Add insult to injury – 1st century

Bite the dust – Homer

Mountain out of a molehill – 1570

In one ear and out the other – 1583

Hem and haw – 1580

Win one’s spurs – 1425

Other fish to fry – 1712

Unable to see the woods for the trees – 1546

By hook or by crook  – 12th century

Lock the barn after the horse is stolen – 1390

Donnybrook -  1204, riotous fair in city of same name

Philadelphia lawyer – 1735

Now, that's cool!