My Other Favorite W.W.

1.      The first couple of pages of the notebook seem to introduce an idea. I can make out the words "brochure", "two character as of a dialogue between A. L", and "Lessons for a president elect, dialogue between --- and 'President elect'" and I presume that A. L scribble is Abraham Lincoln based on the background you gave us and the time period.
          Past the first two pages the writing is smaller and less discernible, and frequently Walt crossing something out (I guess he makes more mistakes than his chemist counterpart). The words I can read are deep in nature, especially linked together, like conscience, philosophy, questioning and reason. They lead me to believe that the conversation he's writing about with Lincoln is more of a catalyst for a more complex idea that war politics. The way he crosses out words or phrases, along with the lack of organization and what seems to be a bit of a ramble makes me think that he would write quickly in his journal whenever he had an interesting thought, and that he was trying to write as fast as he could think. I get this impression because the crossing out indicates frenzied writing, and also how he scribbles the second half of some words which also makes it seem rushed.
           Whitman uses question marks throughout the notebook, but I'm unsure if it's to pose rhetorical questions in his poetry or to ask himself these questions later when he's writing the final drafts to help his thought process.
            I don't know the significance of the drawings, but I'm guessing they're of his and Lincoln, and they aren't doodles because they are all separated.
2.         I was right in a way that it was about something deeper than just the civil war, but he linked so much of it back that the war served as more than a catalyst to begin his ideas, and instead he developed his ideas in its context. I think the use of Spanish in Libertad and the significance of the interpretation given, that liberty extends beyond our borders, is very ahead of his time, where social Darwinism was just coming about and other races were still considered sub-human and less sophisticated.
            I didn't pick up on as much about liberty and the idea that freedom is a separate entity from democracy and government altogether, but I think it shows how Walt was concerned with the future of the nation, and of humanity. The idea that freedom transcends any regime is interesting, and very poetic in nature. Also describing the union as a ship allows several metaphors to be made, and might reflect something of his background (complete guess, he could have been a farmer).
           It's strange that experts think the drawing aren't by Walt, and it throws me a bit because I had assumed that his notebook would be private and guarded because it contained his raw thoughts.