abraham lincoln, a legacy of freedom (2009) 68p r20090617d

8/3/2019 Abraham Lincoln, A Legacy of Freedom (2009) 68p R20090617D

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A B R A H A M

LINCOLN

a legacy of f ree dom



“As I would not be a slave,

so I would not be a master.This expresses my idea of democracy.

Whatever differs from this,

to the extent of the difference,

is no democracy.”



Preace ............................................................................................................. 2

What Lincoln Means to Me ....................................................................... 4

What Abraham Lincoln Means to Americans oday ........................ 6

Groundwork or Greatness: Abraham Lincoln to 1854 .................... 14

Path to the White House: Abraham Lincoln From 1854 ................. 22

A New Look or Lincoln ........................................................................ 31

Lincoln as Commander-in-Chie .............................................................. 32

Lincoln as Diplomat ..................................................................................... 40

Lincoln as Emancipator .............................................................................. 46

Te Words Tat Moved a Nation ............................................................ 52

Words o Wisdom ................................................................................... 61

Additional Resources .................................................................................. 62


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abraham-lincoln-a-legacy-of-freedom-2009-68p-r20090617d 4/682 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM

he year 2009 marks the200th anniversary o thebirth o Abraham Lincoln,the U.S. president

oten considered the greatest o this country’s leaders. Americans’reverence or Lincoln began with

his tragic death by assassinationin 1865, at the end o a brutal civilwar in which 623,000 men died,the American Union withstoodits greatest test, and slavery wasbanished. And his hallowed placein the iconography o Americacontinues. More than 14,000 bookshave been published on Lincoln todate. Contemporary scholar DouglasL. Wilson calls Lincoln the “best

known and most widely acclaimed o all Americans.”

Why add one more volumeto the massive mound o Lincolnscholarship? Because we believethat Lincoln embodies undamentalAmerican ideals that stretch romthe ounding o this nation down tothe present.

Among the Americans embracingthis vision o our 16th president isthe 44th president, Barack Obama.Writing in 2005, as a newly mintedU.S. senator, Obama declared it hardto imagine a less likely scenario thanhis own rise — “except, perhaps, orthe one that allowed a child born inthe backwoods o Kentucky with lessthan a year o ormal education toend up as Illinois’ greatest citizen andour nation’s greatest president.”

In Lincoln’s biography, Obamacontinued, his “rise rom poverty, hisultimate mastery o language and law,his capacity to overcome personalloss and remain determined in theace o repeated deeat … remindedme o a larger, undamental element

o American lie — the enduringbelie that we can constantly remakeourselves to ft our larger dreams.”

By bringing together leadinghistorians and asking them toconsider Lincoln rom dierentangles, we hope to help peoplearound the world understand thesources o the man’s greatness as wellas his place in Americans’ hearts.

Tis volume, then, presents a sort

o pointillist portrait o Lincoln. Ourintroduction presents a personal viewo Lincoln, that o Eileen Mackevich,executive director o the AbrahamLincoln Bicentennial Commission.In our opening essay, “WhatLincoln Means to Americansoday,” journalist AndrewFerguson considers the librarieso Lincoln books, the collectorso Lincoln memorabilia, theactors who present a reenactedLincoln to the masses, andthe Lincoln Memorial inWashington, D.C., or what theysay about Lincoln’s enduringappeal. Next, in “Groundworkor Greatness: Abraham Lincoln to1854,” historian Wilson recounts thestory o a boy born to humble parentsin a rontier cabin who wills himsel

to become that great archetype

o this country — the sel‒mademan. In “Te Words Tat Moved aNation,” Lincoln biographer RonaldC. White limns another o Lincoln’ssurpassing gits — his eloquence, amastery o words encompassing thesoaring biblical cadences that inspire

a nation and, equally, the homespunwisdom o the common man.Tree essays examine Lincoln’s

role as leader through the greatnational crisis o the Civil War. In“Path to the White House: AbrahamLincoln rom 1854” and “Lincolnas Emancipator,” this book’s editor,Michael Jay Friedman, lays out theissues that led to the Civil Warand the events that led Lincoln

to order the 1863 EmancipationProclamation, which reed theslaves o American South. CivilWar historian Peter Cozzens, in“Lincoln as Commander-in-Chie,”


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considers the obstacles the presidenthad to overcome in developing aneective Union army and a cadreo generals to command it. Finally,diplomatic historian Howard Jones,in “Lincoln as Diplomat,” describesthe international pitalls that Lincolnas a war president needed to navigateand how he did it.

Despite all the Lincoln books,articles, tributes, and conerences,

a sense o a mystery remains. In theend the fgure o Lincoln seems sogrand, so varied, so susceptible tomeaning that Americans o all stripeshave oten enlisted him in theircauses. Perhaps Andrew Fergusonin a recent interview comes closestto getting at the power o the icon:“Lincoln also returns us to somethingessential in our national creed. Teiconic Lincoln reminds us o the

idea that the Union, by itsel, is

not enough. Te Union has to bededicated to a proposition: that allmen are created equal.”



we seek his guidance. In truth, we can do no better

than to emulate our 16th president: a man o dogged,

so very American, ambition, but also one whose

resolve was always tempered by an unswerving

determination never to compromise his personal

integrity.

Never boring, our Lincoln. He is a simple man,

a complex man, a roustabout, a jokester, a recluse,a man o action, a visionary. Just when we think we

understand him, he eludes us. He is not a man to be

pigeon-holed. Tere is a Lincoln or all seasons and

all reasons.

Scholars fnd rich soil in Lincoln’s many

maniestations. Tey debate the substance o his

lie and the larger meaning o his tragic death. How

did his views on race evolve? Why did he move so

cautiously on emancipation? Was he moved only

by the imperative o battlefeld success and theconsequent need to gather support rom abroad?

When did he embrace the idea o ull citizenship or

the ormer slaves? Would his Reconstruction plan

have successully reunited North and South while

ensuring the ormer slaves their ull legal equality?

Only Lincoln could have steered us rom the

tragic course o race relations that ollowed his death.

As John Hope Franklin, the Arican-American

scholar oten called the dean o American historians,

put it, “O all the American presidents, only Lincoln

stayed up nights worried about the ate o my people.”

While Lincoln today enjoys the near-universal

esteem o his countrymen, during his lietime he washardly a man or all seasons and all reasons. Many

southerners and abolitionists disliked him. Frederick

Douglass, the ormer slave turned abolitionist author,

editor, and political reormer (also the most admired

man in England), aulted Lincoln or ailing to act

switly on emancipation. Douglass elt that Lincoln

was too solicitous o the slave-holding border states

that rerained rom joining the southern rebellion.

Only later did Douglass perceive Lincoln’s political

artistry: Te president, he came to understand, was amasterully pragmatic politician who knew just how

ast and how ar he could push the American people

toward abolition.

Ever anxious to learn, Lincoln invited outspoken

people to the White House. He respected their

honesty. Douglass was one. Another was Anna

Dickinson, a Quaker activist abolitionist, women’s

rights advocate, and intense Lincoln admirer. But she

turned against Lincoln because he would not support

mong history’s heroes, Abraham Lincoln stands out as HE American

original. Born to unaspiring parents on the hard-scrabble rontier, his

meteoric rise was never less than inspiring. Lincoln continued to grow

and remake himsel anew throughout his lietime. Even 200 years later,



her charge o treason against the pompous, politically

scheming General George B. McClellan. Lincoln

listened respectully to Americans o dierent stripes,

rom Negro abolitionists to Quaker activists, to the

talented, high-powered individuals he included in his

cabinet, to his political rivals — but the importantdecisions always were Lincoln’s alone. As a leader,

Lincoln moved deliberately, always testing the

prevailing political winds. He changed his mind oten.

He was, in the modern jargon o the distinguished

historian James Horton, the ultimate “ip-opper.”

But the great social scientist W.E.B. Du Bois may

have reached the essential truth when he called

Lincoln “big enough to be inconsistent.”

My great attraction to Lincoln rests on his

nobility o character, his “sel-making” in the larger19th-century sense described by historian John

Stauer. Because his thought was deeply grounded

in a belie in equality and in the ideals o reedom,

we can imagine all things rom Lincoln. He might

have solved the race problem; he might have extended

emale surage. He is, more than any other, the

American hero.

On a sunny spring day shortly beore his

assassination, Abraham and his wie, Mary odd

Lincoln, took a carriage ride. Te war was over.

Optimism reigned. Abe contemplated the uture.

Ater his presidency, Lincoln told his wie, he hoped

they would travel to Europe and beyond. Tat was notto be. But in the larger sense, Abraham Lincoln has

traveled the world — his belie that the common

man can make himsel anew is inspiration enough

or us all.



Tere was truth behind it. He didn’tknow the numbers, but I did: Sincethat unortunate mishap at Ford’sTeatre, where an assassin’s bulletclaimed his lie, more than 14,000books have been written aboutAbraham Lincoln, placing himsecond only to Jesus and Napoleonas an obsession o the world’s book

writers. And the assembly line hasnever slowed, shows no signs o slowing even now — as the book youhold in your hand attests. I hadn’tbeen working on my own Lincolnbook or very long when the pointwas pressed upon me.

I was in Lincoln’s hometown o Springfeld, Illinois, one weekend,

at a Lincoln conerence. (It’s anodd weekend in Springfeld whensomeone isn’t holding a Lincolnconerence.) Te audience wasairly large — roughly 100 scholars,authors, amateur historians,hobbyists, bus, and, by the lookso it, a ew vagrants in rom thestreet. At one point, the moderator

interrupted the proceedings to askor a show o hands.“Just out o curiosity,” he said,

“how many people here are writing abook about Abraham Lincoln?”

And nearly hal o the audienceraised their hands.

I was unnerved but not deterred,and beore long I began bumping upagainst the practical diculties theLincoln glut creates or authors who

are oolish enough to try to add toit. Tey include, but go ar beyond,the problem o combing through ahistorical paper trail that has alreadybeen pulped or every conceivableact and revelation. We still learnnew things about Lincoln everyonce in a while, but the discoveries,tiny as they are, pique the interesto only proessionals and the mosthollow-eyed obsessives; the recentLincoln books that have caught thepublic’s attention consist in takingold acts and arranging them in newways. A more mundane and, orme, unoreseen problem involvedthe matter o a title. Let the writerbeware: Somewhere in that pileo 14,000 volumes, one author oranother has already given his or herLincoln book the same title you’d

chosen or yours.

“

I am a firm believer in the

people. If given the truth, they

can be depended upon to meet

any national crisis. The great

point is to bring

them the real facts.

h,” said a book-writing acquaintance, when I told him that I had signed up

to write a book o my own. “A book about Abraham Lincoln. Just what

America needs.” In airness (to me), my book wasn’t exactly about Lincoln, at

least not about Lincoln directly. Even so, my acquaintance’s sarcasm stung.



Lincoln in Print

Every phrase that can be detachedrom Lincoln’s most amousutterances has been stamped on acover, rom A New Birth of Freedom toWith Malice Toward None, rom WithCharity or All to O the People, By thePeople, For the People. I looked urtherand discovered a kind o verbal daisychain, as though all Lincoln authorshad been given a limited number o words and were orced to arrangethem in a dierent order. Tere wasTe Sword o Lincoln and Lincoln’sSword; Lincoln and the Generals andLincoln’s Generals; Te Inner Worldo Abraham Lincoln, Te IntimateWorld o Abraham Lincoln, AbrahamLincoln’s World, and AbrahamLincoln’s Intimate World; Lincoln’s

Virtues and the Virtuous Lincoln.

Tere was In Lincoln’s Footsteps,In the Footsteps o the Lincolns, and— or variety’s sake — In Lincoln’sFootprints. By my count, there arethree books called Te Real Lincoln,each o which presents a real Lincolnutterly incompatible with the realLincoln described in the other two.

Tis surprised me less than itmight have, or the other thing thatstruck me as I researched my ownbook, Land o Lincoln — not to beconused with Te Living Land o Lincoln, by Tomas J. Fleming, whichwas published in 1980 — was justhow many Lincolns were runningaround. I had been a boy in theearly 1960s when Lincoln loomedlarge and inescapable, a commonpossession, a touchstone or thecountry at large. Now everyone

seemed to have his own Lincoln.

It was as i this great piece o ournational patrimony had been brokenup and privatized.

Again the books told the story. Just in recent years we’ve had a bookproving Lincoln was a undamentalistChristian — this was written by aundamentalist Christian. Anotherproved that Lincoln’s greatnessarose rom his struggle with clinicaldepression; the book was written bya journalist who has struggled withclinical depression. Most notoriously,a gay activist published a book in2005 asserting that Lincoln, thoughnot a gay activist himsel, was atleast actively gay. Conservatives

have written books about Lincoln’s



conservatism. Liberals have claimedhim in books describing the liberalLincoln. And in 2003, a book waspublished proving that i Lincolnwere alive today, his politicalopinions would be indistinguishablerom those o the ormer governor o New York State, Mario Cuomo. woguesses as to who wrote that one.

Understanding the LincolnInatuation

Agog at this exoliation o Lincolns,you might be tempted to answerour title question — Whatdoes Abraham Lincoln mean to

Americans today? — with a glibcounterquestion: What doesn’tLincoln mean to Americans today?He seems to mean all things all atonce, which might lead a cynic toconclude that Lincoln has ceased tohave any particular meaning at all.But that really is too glib. For thereis something peculiarly Americanin the sheer excess and exuberanceo our Lincoln inatuation.

Understanding the inatuation, Icame to believe, might be a way notonly o understanding Lincoln but o understanding the country itsel.

Te passion was undeniable, alsosurprising or a country supposedlyindierent to its own history. Noother American has been so swarmedby curiosity seekers, so coddled andpicked at and pawed; indeed — againwith the possible exception o Napoleon — no other human beingin modern history has shared a ateso implausibly extravagant.



Yet not even Napoleon has ever

inspired a group o men who makea living pretending to be him, asLincoln has. In some respects, theAssociation o Lincoln Presenters(known as the ALP) is merely atrade association like any other— the eamsters, or example,or the National Association o Manuacturers, or PetsittersInternational. Like them, the ALPholds an annual convention wheremembers gather to socialize, swapproessional tips, and hear expertspeakers give advice on how toimprove business. Unlike those othertrade conventions, however, everymember o the ALP is dressed in ablack rock coat and stovepipe hatand sports a coal-black beard, realor otherwise. Ater the conventionthey return home and, rereshed,

begin again the work o school

appearances, Kiwanis club talks,

Chautauqua presentations, walk-throughs at county airs — the worko evangelizing Lincoln to a countrythat they believe needs him morethan it needs anything. I asked theirounding president why they do it,why they bother. “Lincoln,” he toldme, “reminds us o what we need toknow but might have orgotten.”

It’s hard to describe the eect o seeing more than 100 men dressedlike Abraham Lincoln gatheredin a hotel ballroom, listening to apublic relations expert discourseon “Making Local Media Work orYou,” but I got used to such odditiesas I looked or Lincoln.

Tere are perhaps as many as15,000 Americans who are seriouscollectors o Lincoln memorabilia,even though in recent years the price

o Lincoln documents and other

frsthand artiacts — what onecollector called “the really good stu”— has soared into a stratosphereaccessible only to the wealthiestconnoisseurs.

But collectors o more modestmeans are undeterred. With typicalingenuity, they have defned qualitydownward, to cover commoditiesthat can be more reasonablypriced: the “good stu” now mightinclude, or example, matchbookcovers rom the old Lincoln LieInsurance Company, which sell orunder $10. Te online auction eBayhas proved that anything with aLincoln association can fnd a buyer.

Documents in Lincoln’s hand now go



or tens o thousands o dollars; sonon-rich Lincoln lovers have beguntrading in orged Lincoln documents,particularly those o such celebratedorgers as Joseph Cosey, a scamartist who prospered in the 1930s. ACosey-orged “Lincoln letter” mightsell or $2,500. “But you’ve got tomake sure it’s a real orgery, a realCosey,” one collector told me. “Temarket’s so hot now we’re seeing a loto akes.”

Expressing the AmericanExperiment

For nearly a century, historians andsociologists have tried to explainthe historical inatuation that couldresult in such endearing absurdities.Te reasons they’ve come up withare oten clever and sometimeseven plausible. Lincoln continuesto ascinate his countrymen like noother historical personage, we’vebeen told, because he was the frstsuch personage to be commonlyphotographed: He is thus more

real to us than great fgures romearlier times can be. And it’s truethat Lincoln was exquisitely sensitiveto the ways in which he presentedhimsel to the public, includingthrough the use o the then-newphotographic art. He seldom passedup a chance to have his likenessmade. Tanks to that cratiness, weseem to know him in a way we couldnever know George Washington orTomas Jeerson.

Even so, goes another argument,no matter how amiliar we arewith his ace, with the sad eyes andtousled hair, Lincoln is tantalizinglyand fnally unknowable; it’s this

mystery that draws us back to themelancholy, humorous, intelligent,reserved, distant, and kindly manthat his acquaintances described.Other historians have said ourinatuation with him is rooted in thedrama o his personal story: Born inabject poverty to become one o thegreat men o human history, Lincolnembodies the “right to rise” thatAmericans claim as their birthright.

Still others credit his enduring ameto his assassination on Good Friday,a shock rom which the countrynever quite recovered. Te mostsober-minded o our theorists saywe’re obsessed with Lincoln becausehe presided over, and somehowexemplifes, the greatest trauma o American history, a civil war thatreinvented the United States into thecountry we know today.

Tere’s truth in all theseexplanations, I suppose, but it’s thelast one, in my opinion, that comesclosest to being the comprehensivetruth. I live not ar rom the LincolnMemorial in Washington, D.C.,that grand, photogenic temple onthe banks o the Potomac Riverthat is home to the “iconic Lincoln.”Researching my Lincoln book,

spending time with scholars and



collectors and obsessives and beingintroduced by each o them to yetanother privatized Lincoln, a Lincolnpieced together rom their ownpreoccupations, I was always glad toreturn home and pay the memorial

a visit: to see this singular and solidLincoln, the enduring Lincoln thatevery American can lay claim to.

Te memorial is the most visitedo our presidential monuments. Testrangest thing about it, though,

is the quiet that descends over thetourists who climb the wide sweepingstairway and step into the cool o themarble chamber. Beore long theirattention is drawn to one or both o the two Lincoln speeches etched inthe walls on either side o the amousstatue. Ater all this time I am stillastonished at the number o visitorswho stand still to read, on one stonepanel, the Gettysburg Address,and, on the other, Lincoln’s secondinaugural address.

What they’re reading is a summaryo the American experiment,expressed in the fnest prose anyAmerican has been capable o writing.

One speech rearms that the countrywas ounded upon and dedicated to aproposition — a universal truth thatapplies to all men everywhere. Teother declares that the survival o thecountry is somehow bound up withthe survival o the proposition —that i the country hadn’t survived,the proposition itsel might have beenlost. Sometimes the tourists tear up asthey read; they tear up oten, actually.

And watching them you understand:Loving Lincoln, or Americans, is away o loving their country.

Tat’s what Lincoln means toAmericans today, and it’s why hemeans so much.



deeply ingrained in the Americanimagination. What Americansgenerally know about their 16thpresident is admittedly more legendthan biography, but the outlines o this amiliar story are, or the mostpart, historical.

Lincoln was born in 1809in a log cabin to very humble,

uneducated parents; he did growup in a backwoods settlement thatwas virtually a wilderness; there,beginning at the age o seven, hedid help his ather to hew a armout o that wilderness with anaxe; with the beneft o only a ewmonths o schooling, he did studydiligently on his own to acquire

basic skills in reading, writing, andarithmetic; as a young man out onhis own and working at menial jobs,he did teach himsel rom bookssuch subjects as English grammar,sucient mathematics to learnsurveying, and enough law to enterthe legal proession at the age o 27. And, o course, he did perorm

triumphantly in the United States’most severe crisis, saving his countryrom dissolution, presiding over thedestruction o slavery, and dying anauthentic American martyr.

While Lincoln’s worldwideame is a result o his decisive andstatesman-like conduct as presidentduring the great Civil War o 1861-

braham Lincoln is the best-known and most widely acclaimed o all

Americans, and the only American statesmen whose lie story is generally

amiliar. Lincoln’s status as the quintessential sel-made man and his

legendary rise rom obscure backwoods beginnings to the presidency are

Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery

I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.



1865, the legend that surrounds him,and that Americans know so well,is anchored in amiliar images romhis early years — the poor Indianarontiersman’s son with an axe inhis hands, the boy in the log cabinreading by the frelight, the honeststore clerk and village postmaster,the earless newcomer who stands up

to bullies, the sel-taught surveyor

with compass and chain, the diligentstudent preparing himsel or thepractice o law.

Not generally part o the popularlegend, although crucial aspects o his development, are such thingsas the rational and keenly skepticalcast o his mind and the very realdiculties he had to contend with in

his ormative years.

A Mind Ripe or Learning

From the very beginning, AbrahamLincoln was dierent, and in a waythat many o his neighbors — andespecially his ather — did notapprove. Unlike almost everyoneelse he grew up with, Lincoln wasintensely interested in words and

meanings. He learned to read and



write at a very early age, activelyseeking out books to borrow andtaking notes on what he read. o hisather and most o his peers, this wasregarded as little more than sloth, away o avoiding his arm chores.

But Lincoln was encouraged in hisstudies by his stepmother, who latertold Lincoln’s ormer law partner,William H. Herndon, that while

the boy “didn’t like physical labor,”

he was not lazy, but was “diligent orKnowledge — wished to Know andi pains and Labor would get it hewas sure to get it.”

While his youthul reading hasalways been a prominent eature o the Lincoln legend, it was probablynot as important in the long termas his writing. Ater Lincoln’sassassination, Herndon sought

out and interviewed the president’s

ormer Indiana neighbors, many o

whom remembered that the youngLincoln had distinguished himsel as a talented writer o essays andpoems. And in the end, his writingswould prove at least as importantas his deeds, or they are among themost amiliar, as well as the mostinuential, in all o American letters.

When he let home and struck outon his own at the age o 22, Lincolnsettled in the small village o NewSalem, Illinois, where he spent sixeventul years. Unprepossessingin appearance, he was requentlydescribed as gawky and ill-dressed,but the other residents soondiscovered he had many assets. Inaddition to being intelligent andsurprisingly well inormed, hewas unusually good-natured andriendly. He excelled in popular

athletic contests such as running,



jumping, and throwing weights; hewas unusually strong and a nearlyunbeatable wrestler; and though hedid not drink, he was convivial andhad great ability as a storyteller. Hewas thus well liked, and when the

militia was called out to fght Indiansduring his frst year in New Salem,he was elected captain o the localcompany. In recalling this honormany years later, he allowed thathe had “not since had any successin lie which gave him so muchsatisaction.”

Supporting himsel with a varietyo jobs, Lincoln studied assiduouslyduring his New Salem years to makeup or his lack o ormal education,o which he remained painullyconscious all his lie. Borrowingbooks wherever he could, hestudied history and biography, andhe displayed an eager appetite orliterature, being particularly ond o Shakespeare and o the Scottish poetRobert Burns.

Tough raised in a Baptist andchurch-going amily, he resistedmaking a religious commitment,and under the inuence o such18th-century rationalists as theComte de Volney and Tomas

Paine, Lincoln developed a skepticalview o basic Christian doctrines.I his childhood church-going didnot implant religious belie, it didstimulate an early interest that wouldhave lielong consequences, namely,public speaking. Having entertainedhis playmates in backwoods Indianawith imitations o sermons andstump speeches, he now joined aNew Salem debating society todevelop his abilities as a speaker.

Early Politics

I Lincoln was not caught up inthe religious ervor and sectariandisputes that characterized therontier culture he grew up in, hedid take an early interest in politics.As with most things he set his mind

to, Lincoln soon proved himsel a

notably eective speaker, a talentdirectly related to his subsequentpolitical success. Beore his frst yearin New Salem was out, he declaredhimsel a candidate or the statelegislature, and this was to be, as helater said, “the only time I ever havebeen beaten by the people.”

When he ran again at the nextelection, he won handily, andserved our successive terms. In hissecond term, in spite o being oneo the youngest legislators, he waschosen as his Whig Party’s oorleader, an honor that reected hiseectiveness as a speaker, his energy,and his organizational and leadership

abilities.Te character o Lincoln’s earlypolitics is quite instructive. Comingo age at a time and place whereenthusiastic supporters o the populistAndrew Jackson and his DemocraticParty were an overwhelming majority,Lincoln here again proved to bedierent, or he very early identifedhimsel as “anti-Jackson” in politics.Clearly, he was attracted by the

economic development measuresavored by Jackson’s Whig opponents,such as government-sponsoredbanks and internal improvements. I Lincoln’s only aim in politics was toget elected to oce, he had chosenthe wrong party.

When he moved to New Salem,Lincoln continued to be surroundedby Jacksonian Democrats, though theissues dominating state legislaturecampaigns tended to be local ratherthan national. Nonetheless, it saysmuch about the budding politicianthat Lincoln could get himsel elected, and by a good margin, by astrongly Jacksonian electorate.

While campaigning or thelegislature, Lincoln was encouragedby John odd Stuart, a lawyer in theIllinois state capital o Springfeld, to

study or the bar. Lincoln, writing in



the third person, later described howthis was managed: “He borrowedbooks o Stuart, took them homewith him, and went at it in goodearnest. He studied with nobody. Hestill mixed in the surveying to pay

board and clothing bills. When thelegislature met, the law books weredropped, but were taken up again atthe end o the session.”

Ater receiving his law license twoyears later, Lincoln joined Stuart as a

junior partner, moving to Springfeldin 1837. Soon aterward, Stuart waselected to the U.S. Congress and sentto Washington, D.C., leaving Lincolnto manage the frm and learn howto practice law on his own. A ewyears later, Lincoln joined the frm o Stephen . Logan, the leader o theSpringfeld bar. Lincoln’s preparationin the law was limited, Logan laterrecalled, “but he would get a case andtry to know all there was connectedwith it; and in that way beore helet this country, he got to be quite aormidable lawyer.”

Lincoln in Love

Lincoln’s riends and relatives seemto agree that he was never muchinterested in girls when growing up,but when he got to New Salem he

ell in love with the tavern-keeper’sdaughter, Ann Rutledge. Not longater they had become engaged,she was stricken with what wascalled “brain ever” and died withina ew weeks. Already Lincoln’smother had died quite suddenlywhen he was nine years old. Tesedeaths may have contributed to theemotional turmoil that Lincoln nowsuered. Alarmed riends earedthat his excessive bereavement anddespondency might end in suicide.

But slowly Lincoln recovered, andslightly more than a year later hewas involved in another courtship,this time with Mary Owens, a well-educated and refned woman rom awealthy Kentucky amily. We knowrom surviving letters that, havinginvolved himsel to the point o

engagement, Lincoln decided that he

did not love Mary Owens and hopedto avoid marriage by convincing herthat he was unworthy. When sheproved noncommittal, he fnally elthonor-bound to propose, and muchto his astonishment and chagrin, sheturned him down. He conessed to aconfdante: “Others have been madeools o by the girls; but this cannever be with truth said o me. I mostemphatically, in this instance, made aool o mysel.”

Less than a year later, he oundhimsel involved with anotherKentucky belle, this one even bettereducated, more refned, and rom an

even wealthier amily — Mary odd



o Lexington. She had many suitors,but or reasons that are unclear, sheset her sights on Lincoln. Again hedecided in due course that he didnot love Mary odd and, attractedto someone else, wanted to end theirrelationship, but again, things werenot so simple.

Another episode o melancholyollowed. Lincoln wrote to his lawpartner in Washington: “I am nowthe most miserable man living. I what I eel were equally distributedto the whole human amily, therewould not be one cheerul ace on theearth.” Lincoln told his roommate,

Joshua Speed, that he was not araid

o death, but “that he had donenothing to make any human beingremember that he had lived.” Lincolnrecalled this remark 23 years laterin the White House when he toldSpeed that, having authored theEmancipation Proclamation (reeingthe Arican-American slaves in therebellious Conederacy), he hoped hehad fnally done something or whichhe would be remembered.

Lincoln eventually recovered, andhe and Mary odd got back together.On November 4, 1842, to thesurprise o their closest riends andrelatives, they announced they wereto be married the same day. Tatthey were not a perectly matchedcouple was well understood by theirassociates beore the marriage, andtheir dierences in upbringing andexpectations soon made themselveselt. Lincoln did not know or carevery much about appearances andproprieties, but his new wie did,and she had diculty controllingher volatile temper when theydisagreed. Raised in an aristocraticsouthern household, where slavesperormed the menial tasks, thenew Mrs. Lincoln was ill-suited tomiddle-class housekeeping. Lincoln’s

political and legal careers required

much travel. His time away romhome — sometimes or weeks at atime — only deepened the domesticchallenges. But the couple’s sharedadoration o their children helped tocreate a lasting bond that groundedtheir growing amily.

As a Member o Congress

At about the time o his marriage,Lincoln declined to run or a fthterm in the state legislature andbegan angling or election to the U.S.Congress. When he fnally succeededand took his seat in the House o Representatives in December 1847,

the Mexican War was coming to avictorious conclusion, and Lincolnlost no time in joining other Whigmembers in attacking President

James K. Polk or unconstitutionallyprovoking an unjust war or thepurpose o acquiring new territory.Tis earned Lincoln considerablecriticism back home, where the warwas very popular.

Even as Lincoln contradicted his

pro-war Democratic constituentson a matter o principle, he oendedsome o his ellow Whigs with hispracticality. Even as many importantWhigs avored their party’sdominant fgure, Henry Clay, or thepresidency in 1848, Lincoln insteadsupported the war hero GeneralZachary aylor. aylor had nopolitical record or party connection,but Lincoln argued that the partyhad lost too many elections andneeded, more than anything else,to win. Ironically, when Lincoln’scongressional term was over, thevictorious aylor ignored hisrecommendations or governmentappointments and denied Lincoln theone he sought or himsel: head o the General Land Oce.

As his brie congressional careerended, Lincoln returned to Illinois,his political ambitions rustrated andhis energetic perormance on behal o his party unrewarded.

“Upon his return rom Congress,”Lincoln would later write in a third-person narrative, “he went to thepractice o the law with greaterearnestness than ever beore.”With this greater attention to hislegal proession, Lincoln’s skil l andreputation as a lawyer rose, and hisfrm gained a prominent positionin the Illinois bar. He was “losinginterest in politics,” he said o thisperiod, and was interesting himsel

in other intellectual pursuits, such asthe mastery o Euclid’s geometry.But as the slavery issue heated up

in the 1850s, Lincoln’s long-standinganity or political controversyunexpectedly revived. “In 1854,”he wrote in his narrative, “hisproession had almost supersededthe thought o politics in his mind,when the repeal o the Missouricompromise aroused him as he had

never been beore.”



y 1854, Abraham Lincoln could be orgiven or believing his political career

had reached an end. Lincoln had secured his party’s congressional nomination

in part by pledging to serve only one term, thus allowing other members o

the local Whig Party the chance to serve. Lincoln came to regret this pledge,

I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House.

I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come

here as my father ’s child has.

advising his law partner, WilliamHerndon, “I it should so happenthat nobody else wishes to beelected, I could not reuse the peoplethe right o sending me again.”Lincoln had enjoyed his two years inWashington and had begun to makea name or himsel as an opponent o the Mexican War, but there was no

great public clamor or his continuedservice. Disappointed, he returned toSpringfeld and began rebuilding hislegal practice.

But 1854 also saw new fssures inthe delicate sectional compromisesover slavery. Increasingly the reeNorth and slaveholding South eachsaw the other’s customs and practicesas a lethal threat to its own wayo lie. Lincoln was drawn to this

debate, and thus gradually back topublic lie. Whether Lincoln seized

events or they instead propelled himorward, there can be little doubtover the nation’s good ortune: In itstime o greatest need, America oundits greatest leader.

Free Labor

Abraham Lincoln had always

championed “ree labor,” the principlethat a man — and in Lincoln’s daythis meant males only — could workhow and where he wanted, couldaccumulate property in his ownname, and, most importantly, couldrise reely as ar as his talents andabilities might take him. Lincolnhimsel was a model o this sel-mademan. As he wrote in 1854:

Tere is no permanent class o hiredlaborers amongst us. wenty-fve years ago, I was a hired laborer. Te



hired laborer o yesterday, labors onhis own account today; and will hireothers to labor or him tomorrow.Advancement — improvement incondition — is the order o things ina society o equals.

Along with many northerners,Lincoln believed that ree laborwas both economically and morallysuperior to the slave-based southernalternative. Free labor, he asserted,

has the inspiration o hope; pureslavery has no hope. Te power o hope upon human exertion andhappiness is wonderul. Te slave-master himsel has a conception o it.… Te slave whom you cannot drivewith the lash to break seventy-fve pounds o hemp in a day, i you will

task him to break a hundred, and promise him pay or all he does over,he will break you a hundred and fty. You have substituted hope orthe rod.

Lincoln believed that slaverywould over time prove economicallyuntenable, but he also understoodthat, in the short-term, individualwage-earners could not — indeedwould not — compete with slavelaborers. Along with many otherAmericans, Lincoln drew twopolitical conclusions: Confned to itsexisting southern redoubt, slaverywould wither away; but i slaveryexpanded into new territories, itcould displace ree laborers and gaina new lease on lie.

Compromise Fails

As the young nation grew westward,the terms on which new stateswould be admitted to the Union,that is, as “slave” or “ree” states,thus assumed decisive importance.It frst arose during 1820 and 1821,with the application o Missourior statehood. Tomas Jeersonlikened the sectional tension to “afrebell in the night.” It eased onlythrough a grand compromise inwhich Congress admitted Missourias a slave state, Maine as a ree state,and barred slavery rom all LouisianaPurchase territories north o 36° 30 ,́Missouri’s southern border. With theacquisition o new, ormerly Mexican

territories, a careully crated



“Compromise o 1850” mated theadmission o a ree Caliornia witha new Fugitive Slave Law, one thatobliged northern courts to enorcethe seizure and return o slaves whohad escaped northward to reedom.

Meanwhile, Stephen A. Douglas,a Democrat and a United StatesSenator rom Lincoln’s Illinois,oered a new ormula to bridgethe sectional gap. Under Douglas’s“popular sovereignty” doctrine,western territories would jointhe Union as ree or slave statesaccording to the wishes o their

residents. In 1854, the Kansas-

Nebraska Act repealed the MissouriCompromise 36° 30´ line andmandated the organization o theNebraska and Kansas territoriesunder popular sovereignty rules.

Many northerners met thesedevelopments with a combination o anger and ear. It was one thing toexpect that slavery would be limitedto the South, another entirely towatch as a pro-slavery mob killedan abolitionist publisher in Alton,Illinois — ree territory — anddestroyed his printing press; towitness pro- and antislavery orcesbattling openly in what soon becameknown as Bloody Kansas; to stand

aside as slave owners enorced theirFugitive Slave Law rights in the veryheart o the North. Not only werenortherners orced to conront evermore squarely the immorality o slavery; the ree labor belies thatunderlie much o northern lie nowseemed under direct attack.

Lincoln declared himsel “thunderstruck” and “stunned”by the Kansas-Nebraska Act’s

passage. With powerul October1854 addresses at Springfeld andPeoria, Illinois, he emerged as aleading opponent o that law and o Douglas: He understood that the“revolutionary athers” had oundit politically necessary to acceptslavery in the southern states, butthey “hedged and hemmed it in tothe narrowest limits o necessity.”Indeed, the Constitution’s authorsused every euphemism they coulddevise to avoid even the word ‘slavery’:“Te thing is hid away, … just as anaicted man hides away a wen or acancer, which he dares not cut outat once, lest he bleed to death; withthe promise, nevertheless, that thecutting may begin at the end o agiven time.”

During the next two-and-a-hal years, Lincoln helped establishthe new Republican Party inIllinois. With sectional dierencesdeepening, Lincoln’s Whig Partyhad collapsed, unable to paper overdierences between its northern andsouthern wings. Te Republicans,by contrast, were more orthrightlysectional and antislavery. Somenorthern Democrats, but notStephen Douglas, joined up withthe Republicans. Lincoln’s eorts orhis new party earned him valuablepolitical capital or the uture, butor now he concentrated on hislegal practice.

A House Divided

In March 1857, the U.S. SupremeCourt’s much-criticized Dred Scott decision urther enamed sectionaltensions. Scott, an Arican-Americanslave whose master had taken himto the ree Wisconsin territory thenback to Missouri, had sued or hisreedom, arguing that residence in

Wisconsin had made him a ree man.Te Court ruled otherwise, and itsbroad (unnecessarily broad, manyelt) decision increased northernears. Congress, a majority o justicesheld, lacked the constitutionalauthority to prohibit slavery inthe territories. Te 36° 30´ line(still in orce when the case began)was thus unconstitutional, andslavery was permissible in all theterritories, the Kansas-Nebraska Actnotwithstanding. Chie Justice RogerB. aney also held that AricanAmericans were not U.S. citizens,were excluded rom the protectionso both the Declaration o Independence and the Constitution,and possessed “no rights which anywhite man was bound to respect.”Dred Scott, accordingly, could not

even sue in ederal court.



Much o the North reacted withury. Te Chicago ribune atlypredicted that it would orce theree states to accept slavery, andthat Chicago, Illinois’ largest city,would against its will become aslave market. Lincoln eared thatthe Court next would bar stateprohibitions o slavery. He decidedto run against Senator Douglas, whohad endorsed the Dred Scott decision,in the 1858 election. Lincolnaccepted the Republican nominationwith his amous “House Divided”address:

A house divided against itsel cannotstand.

I believe this government cannotendure, permanently hal slave andhal ree.

I do not expect the Union to bedissolved — I do not expect thehouse to all — but I do expect itwill cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or allthe other.

Either the opponents o slavery, will… place it where the public mindshall rust in the belie that it is in thecourse o ultimate extinction; or its

advocates will put it orward, till itshall become alike lawul in all theStates, old as well as new — Northas well as South.

Te New York imes switlypronounced the Lincoln-Douglascontest “the most interesting politicalbattle-ground in the Union.”

Lincoln challenged Douglas to aseries o seven debates in dierent

parts o Illinois. ogether theseLincoln-Douglas debates emergedas an iconic moment in Americandemocracy. Citizens converged intowns large and small, rom Freeportto Jonesboro, Galesburg to Alton.Tey arrived on horseback, by canalboat, or simply walked or miles towitness the two champions addressthe greatest divide in their nation’s

history. Te contrast betweenthe candidates was apparent.Douglas was smartly dressed andowery o speech — the picture o sophistication. Lincoln was gangly,ar less polished in appearance andmannerism. But the country lawyerscored real blows, holding Douglasto the contradiction between popularsovereignty and the Dred Scott decision, which orbade antislaverysettlers rom prohibiting slaveryin their territories. In the very lastdebate, Lincoln memorably ramedthe dispute as a conict

on the part o one class that looksupon the institution o slavery as a

wrong, and o another class that doesnot look upon it as a wrong. … Tatis the issue that will continue in thiscountry when these poor tongueso Judge Douglas and mysel shallbe silent. It is the eternal strugglebetween these two principles — rightand wrong — throughout the world.Tey are the two principles that havestood ace to ace rom the beginning

o time; and will ever continue tostruggle. Te one is the commonright o humanity and the other thedivine right o kings.

In this era, United States senatorswere not directly elected but ratherchosen by the state legislatures. Whenthat vote was counted, it was Douglasswho prevailed, by 54 votes to 46 orLincoln. But Lincoln’s eort againstone o the Senate’s leading fgureshad been noticed by many. Nor wasLincoln willing to abandon the feld.As he told a riend: “Te fght must goon. Te cause o civil liberty must notbe surrendered at the end o one oreven one hundred deeats.”



A l a b a m a

W a s h i n g t o n

T e r r i t o r y

V i r g i n i a

V e r m o n t

U t a h

T e r r i t o r y

T e x a s

T e n n e s s e e

S o u t h

C a r o l i n a

R h o d e I s l a n d

A r k a n s a s

C a l i f o r n i a

C o n n e c t i c u t

D e l a w a r e

F l o r i d a

G e o r g i a

O r e g o n

T e r r i t o r y

I l l i n o i s

W i s c o n s i n

I n d i a n a

I o w a

K a n s a s

T e r r i t o r y

K e n t u c k y

L o u i s i a n a

M a i n e

M a s s a c h u s e t t s

M i c h i g a n

M i s s i s s i p p

i

M i s s o u r i

N e b r a s k a

T e r r i t o r y

N e w H a m p s h i r e

N e w J e r s e y

N e w M e x i c o

T e r r i t o r y

N e w Y o r k

N o r t h C a r o l i n a

O h i o

I n d i a n

P e n n s y l v a n i a

M a r y l a n d

M i n n e s o t a

T e r r i t o r y

T e r r i t o r y

M i s s o u r i C

o m p r o m i s e L i n e ( 3 6 ° 3 0 ’ N )

T H E T H R E A T T O

F R E E L A B O

R ( 1 8 5 7 )



28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM



o the White House

Troughout 1859, Lincoln toureda number o midwestern states,speaking against Douglas’s popularsovereignty doctrine and warningagainst slavery’s urther spread.Probably he already was thinkingabout a long-shot run or thepresidency: He authorized thecompilation and publication o his debates with Douglas and, inDecember 1859, began to prepare hisautobiography.

In February 1860, Lincolntraveled to New York, the nation’sleading city, not least to meet and

address the civic and fnancial leaders

who would have a large say in namingthe Republican Party’s presidentialnominee. Many who gathered at theCooper Union expected to witnessa rough, uncultivated midwesterner.At frst, they were not disappointed.One recalled Lincoln’s

long, ungainly fgure, upon whichhung clothes that, while new or thetrip, were evidently the work o anunskilled tailor; the large eet; theclumsy hands … the long, gaunthead capped by a shock o hair thatseemed not to have been thoroughlybrushed out, made a picture whichdid not ft in with New York’sconception o a fnished statesman.

But then Lincoln spoke. Inmeasured words calibrated to assurethe audience he was no radical,Lincoln demonstrated defnitivelythat a majority o the signers o theU.S. Constitution had believed theederal government could indeedprohibit slavery in the territories.Te true radicals were insteadthe southerners who threatenedsecession i their interpretationwas not accepted: “Your purpose,then, plainly stated, is that you will

destroy the government, unless you



be allowed to construe and enorcethe Constitution as you please, on allpoints in dispute between you andus. You will rule or ruin in all events.”Lincoln called or northerners toconfne slavery to the states whereit already existed, and to opposeervently its extension to the nationalterritories.

Te Cooper Union address wasextremely well received. SeveralNew York newspapers published theentire text. One reporter proclaimedLincoln “the greatest man since St.Paul.” Horace Greeley, editor o the inuential New York ribune,deemed Lincoln “one o Nature’s

orators.” And Lincoln himsel,

discussing with a riend a possiblepresidential candidacy, admitted that“the taste is in my mouth a little.”

Many Republicans assumedthat the powerul William Sewardo New York would capture theirparty’s presidential nomination. ButSeward was weak in Pennsylvania,Indiana, and Illinois, crucial stateswhere a midwesterner might havemore appeal. Were Seward unable tocapture the nomination on the frstballot, Republicans might well seeka candidate rom one o those states.“My name is new in the feld, and Isuppose I am not the frst choice o avery great many,” Lincoln explained.

“Our policy, then, is to give no

oence to others — leave them in amood to come to us, i they shall becompelled to give up their frst love.”Tis proved a sound analysis. Sewardell short on the frst ballot, thenaded as midwestern states shitedtheir votes to Lincoln, securing himthe nomination on the third ballot.

Te Republican candidatepossessed real advantages in the1860 general election. Like the nowdissolved Whigs, the DemocraticParty was crippled by its ownsectional divisions. Its northern andsouthern wings nominated rivalcandidates, allowing Lincoln, whowon less than 40 percent o the

popular vote in a our-way race, tocapture a majority o the electoralvotes and the presidency.

Te South would not accept aLincoln presidency. As Lincoln laterwould put it, “the war came.” Onlythen would the nation truly witnessthe wisdom, the strength, and,ultimately, the magnanimity o the man it had chosen during itsgreatest trial.



he billions o U.S. pennies that will be

produced in 2009 are getting a makeover.

Te Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial

Commission (ALBC) and the U.S. Mint

recently unveiled our new designs or the reverse side o

the one-cent coin to celebrate Lincoln’s 200th birthday.

Te new pennies will be released periodically

throughout the year. Te obverse side, or “heads,” will

remain the same: Victor David Brenner’s profle o Lincoln has been on the ront o the penny since the

1909 centennial o Lincoln’s birth. Te reverse side, or

“tails,” has been redesigned twice since that time. But in

2009 the design will change our times to represent our

periods in Lincoln’s lie: his early childhood in Kentucky,

his young adulthood in Indiana, his career as a lawyer

and legislator in Illinois, and his time as president in

Washington, D.C.

Te U.S. Congress, which is the only body that

can authorize changes to coins, passed legislation orthe redesign in 2005. Designs or the pennies were

submitted by sculptor-engravers at the U.S. Mint and

through the Artistic Inusion Program, a group o

outside artists under contract to the Mint. Te designs

were reviewed by the ALBC, the Citizen Coin Advisory

Committee, and the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts.

reasury Secretary Henry Paulson reviewed their

recommendations and selected the fnal designs.

Richard Masters’ depiction o a log cabin was one o

the designs selected by Secretary Paulson or the series.Masters had been a coin enthusiast as a boy and had also

collected coins or the Cub Scouts while working or

a merit badge. But he never pictured himsel as a coin

designer, much less a master designer with the Artistic

Inusion Program, which he is today.

Nor as a child did Masters think about the design

process, fguring the renderings on the coins just

magically appeared. “Someone, somewhere decides what

to put on these,” he remembers thinking.

Decades later, he is that someone. Masters used the

historical narrative provided by the Abraham LincolnBicentennial Commission as a starting point to crat his

image illustrating Lincoln’s birth and early childhood

in Kentucky. “I thought it [the log cabin] would be an

image most Americans recognized,” says Masters, who

is also an associate proessor o art at the University o

Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

One o the most dicult parts o the design was

the scale. An artist’s vision may have to be shrunk to

ft within a coin’s small diameter. “Te challenge here

was really to stay ocused on the primary element,” saysMasters.

Still other changes are to come. Congress has

mandated that, beginning in 2010, the reverse side o the

penny eature a yet-to-be-determined image o Lincoln’s

“preservation o the United States o America as a single

and united country.”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM 31



Lincoln replied: “I don’t care so muchor brigadiers; I can make them. Buthorses and mules cost money.”

Tat jest had a bitter undertone,borne o Lincoln’s long rustrationwith mediocre generals and theburden o having had to run the wareort almost single-handedly orthree years.

Te American Civil War was thefrst modern total war — a conictwaged not only between armies,as had long been the tradition inWestern warare, but also betweensocieties, their economic resources,and their very ways o lie.

Abraham Lincoln had entered thepresidency with no military trainingor experience except as a militiacaptain in a minor Indian war threedecades earlier. Te standing armyLincoln inherited in March 1861numbered just 16,000 men who weredispersed in small garrisons rom theAtlantic Coast to Caliornia. Lincoln

had no modern military commandsystem on which to rely or adviceor to communicate his instructionseectively to feld commanders. Notonly was there no general sta whenwar broke out a month later, butonly two regular army generals had

ne day toward the end o the Civil War, a high-ranking military visitor

to the White House told President Lincoln that two o his ellow generals

had been captured while visiting lady riends outside their camps.

Along with them, several hundred horses and mules had been swept up.

America will never be destroyed from the outside.

If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed

ourselves.



ever commanded units larger thana brigade — one was so corpulentthat he could not walk across a roomwithout exhausting himsel; theother so senile that he needed help

putting on his hat. Subordinateocers knew little o

the higher art o warbecause the United

States MilitaryAcademy taught

engineering,

mathematics, and horsemanship atthe expense o strategy.

Te Union army’s swit wartimeexpansion did not solve thisleadership crisis. In less than ayear, the northern army swelled to600,000 men, and by the war’s endit had climbed to a million. Regulararmy captains became generals

overnight. In order to uniy theNorth and rally its large Europeanimmigrant population, Lincolnwas compelled to appoint volunteergenerals rom civilian lie. Most“earned” their stars because o theirpolitical inuence or their standingamong their ethnic community(Germans and Irish in particular),rather than or any military potentialthey might possess.

Te crisis extended to the nation’spolitical leadership. Lincoln lackedthe support o a united cabinet.

ever commanded units larger thana brigade — one was so corpulentthat he could not walk across a roomwithout exhausting himsel; theother so senile that he needed help

putting on his hat. Subordinateocers knew little o

the higher art o warbecause the United

States MilitaryAcademy taught

engineering,

3 ABRA LI C L :: LEGA Y FR EDOM



While later presidents possessedthe luxury o appointing talentedbut usually pliant subordinates,then-existing custom and politicalreality required that Lincoln fll hiscabinet with willul politicians o national prominence. Among themwere Secretary o State William H.Seward, whom Lincoln had deeatedor the Republican presidentialnomination in a stunning upset;Secretary o the reasury Salmon P.Chase, a ounder o the RepublicanParty who ancied himsel a uturepresident; and Secretary o WarEdwin M. Stanton, a Democratwho had bested Lincoln in a major

court case when both were lawyers.In the early months o the conict,these men all considered themselvesintellectually superior to Lincoln,equally i not more capable o steering the ship o state through thetreacherous waters o civil war.

A Challenge From theIncompetents

Despite these liabilities, by the powero his mind and orce o characterLincoln became a brilliant strategist,with a better grasp on the nature andobjectives o civil war than any o thelong line o generals who commandedUnion armies, Ulysses S. Grant notexcepted. From the start, Lincolnrecognized the value o the North’soverwhelming naval power, and heemployed it relentlessly to chokethe Conederacy, closing southernports to prevent the export o itsonly commodity o internationalvalue — cotton — and to preventthe import o badly needed arms andother war supplies rom Europe. Healso understood the importance o seizing the Mississippi River to cutthe South in hal, as well as the needto maintain pressure on the whole

strategic line o the Conederacy,

something his generals provedsingularly incapable o doing untilGeneral Grant assumed the role o general-in-chie in February 1864.o Lincoln’s constant rustration, hisgenerals consistently ailed ully topress the North’s large advantages inmanpower and industrial capacity.

Lincoln knew there could be no

hal measures, that the issues o national union and emancipationcould be settled only in such a waythat they could never be reopened.Tis required both the totaldestruction o the Conederate armyand o the capacity o the South towage war.

As the war dragged on, Lincolnrid the army o scores o incompetentpolitical generals at great risk tohis reelection. He asked only orcommanders who would fght, andhe willingly discarded his strategic

judgments when he thought hehad ound an able general. But alltoo oten he instead encounteredinaction, delay, and excuses.He relieved the most popularcommander o the frst year and ahal o the war — Major General

George B. McClellan, a man fercely

idolized by his men — because hesuered rom what Lincoln termed“the slows.” He showed similar, andproper, impatience with generals whowere too timid to ollow up battlefeldvictories decisively. Unortunately orthe North, every army commander

in the war’s frst three years displayedthis shortcoming.

Lincoln also aced an internalchallenge to his commander-in-chie authority. oday, o course, theprinciple o absolute civilian controlover the military is universallyaccepted. It had not been whenLincoln took oce. Since the nation’sounding it had been acceptableor army commanders to pass

judgment on political questions — abrand o insubordination that wascomparatively harmless during thewar with Mexico, but that couldthreaten the abric o the nation in astruggle or national survival as didthe Civil War.

When Lincoln relievedMcClellan o command, a number o McClellan’s subordinate generals in

the Army o the Potomac discussed



abandoning the battle against theConederacy and instead marchingon Washington to unseat thepresident. As late as April 1863,Major General Joseph Hooker, thecommander o that critical army,advocated replacing the presidencywith a military dictatorship. Lincolnresponded in a measured but frmmanner. Ater he was removed romcommand or losing the battle o Chancellorsville against an enemy

whom he had outnumbered more

than two to one, Hooker recognizedhow restrained had been thepresident’s reaction to Hooker’spolitical blustering and how prudenthad been Lincoln’s counsel inmilitary matters. earully he toldellow generals that Lincoln hadtreated him as a caring ather wouldan errant son.

A Shit in Sentiment

By the time o the 1864 presidentialcampaign, the common soldiers alsohad come to recognize the greatnesso Lincoln’s strategic leadership.Teir votes went overwhelmingly toLincoln, ensuring his victory overGeorge B. McClellan. Ater beingsacked by Lincoln, the ormer generalhad emerged as the president’sDemocratic opponent and, as aproponent o sectional reconciliation,the most prominent challenger to hispolitical vision.

Te signifcance o this shit inmilitary sentiment rom McClellanto Lincoln cannot be overstated.Lincoln had at last ound hisfghting general, Ulysses S. Grant,a rough-hewn commander who

shared his chie’s determination to



press the North’s real advantages inmanpower and resources. Te Armyo the Potomac had suered nearly55,000 casualties during the frstmonth and a hal o Grant’s tenureas general-in-chie. Decisive victoriesin the Shenandoah Valley and the

capture o Atlanta, Georgia, ruits o Lincoln’s vision o relentless pressureon the entire military ront, oeredhope or ultimate victory.

But the South showed no signso surrendering. Grant’s superiorgeneralship and Lincoln’s policyo simultaneous oensives werebeing sorely tested in a bitter andstalemated siege o General RobertE. Lee’s army at Petersburg, Virginia.In the Western Teater (as the areabetween the Appalachian Mountainsand the Mississippi River was called),a weakened but still ormidableConederate army roamed, andwest o the Mississippi, a large andvirtually untested enemy orce heldLouisiana and exas. Lincoln’s 1864electoral triumph thus represented anational consensus to wage the war

to its fnish.

Politically secure as a second-term president, Lincoln persistedwith the same frmness o purposehe had shown during an unpopularfrst term. His appointment o thedependable Grant as general-in-chie had eased much o the daily pressure

on Lincoln, who ound he couldsaely yield to Grant the day-to-daymanagement o the war. But evenGrant aced hard questions romLincoln when the president doubtedthe wisdom o his decisions.

Road to Reunion

In the frst week o April 1865, fnalvictory was at last in sight. Atersmashing much o what remainedo Lee’s once seemingly unbeatableArmy o Northern Virginia,Major General Philip H. Sheridantelegraphed Grant: “I the thing bepressed I think Lee will surrender.”

Grant passed Sheridan’s dispatchto Lincoln. Te president told Grant:“Let the thing be pressed.” It wasLincoln’s last important order, and

like most o his orders a good one.

Tree days ater writing it, Lincoln

was dead, the victim o an assassin’sbullet. Te United States had lostits greatest war president and a greatnatural strategist. But more thanany other actor, his strategic visionand frmness o purpose had won theCivil War and started the nation onthe road to reunion.



the president himsel — thesematters draw the most interest whenone studies the nation at war withitsel rom 1861 to 1865.

Yet when Lincoln declared thathe waged the war to preserve theUnion, he necessarily also acceptedchallenges rom beyond the nation’sborders. Had the rebellious South

won diplomatic recognition romEngland and other Europeannations, especially during thewar’s crucial frst 18 months, theConederate States o America mighthave won its independence. Lincoln’sleadership on this diplomatic rontproved as important as his commando the armed orces in securing theUnion’s ultimate victory.

Lincoln was the very prototypeo a diplomatist. Although headmitted to knowing little or nothingabout oreign aairs, he possessedthe characteristics common to thebest statesmen: humility, integrity,wisdom combined with commonsense, a calm demeanor in thehardest times, and a willingness

to learn. Furthermore, he hadthe courage to appoint adviserso stature: His secretary o state,William H. Seward, earlier had beenone o Lincoln’s most bitter politicalrivals, but more importantly, Sewardwas knowledgeable and experiencedin oreign aairs. Teir relationshipdid not start out well. Seward anciedhimsel a prime minister or head

resident Abraham Lincoln as diplomatist? Hardly a subject at the top o the

list in examining a presidency that spanned the U.S. Civil War. His search or

military leaders, his quest or victory on the battlefeld, his personal trials, his

diculties with advisers who vied or inuence with each other and even with

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to

test a man ’s character, give him power.



o government and Lincoln a meresymbolic leader, i not a buoon. Butwhen Seward rashly proposed to

unite North and South by instigatinga war with oreign powers, Lincolnquietly killed the idea, established hisprimacy, and soon won his secretary’srespect and admiration.

A wo-Front War Averted

Te outbreak o war in April 1861presented the new president with hisfrst oreign aairs crisis. From theperspective o the Union (the North),the conict was not a war betweennations but rather an internalrebellion to be suppressed withoutintererence rom other nations. Butto Britain and France, each o whichhoped to continue trading with theConederacy (the South), Lincoln’sdecision to blockade southern portsallowed them under international

law to acknowledge that a state o

war existed, proclaim their neutrality,and recognize the Conederacy asa belligerent. ogether these moves

bestowed a legitimacy on the Souththat was one step short o outrightrecognition as a nation.

Lincoln’s diplomacy thus ocusedon preventing outside powers romrecognizing southern independence.He continued to oppose any oreigninvolvement, whether by a nation’smaking its good oces available topromote peace talks or by proposinga mediation, an arbitration, or anarmistice. Yet Lincoln also toneddown (but never renounced)Seward’s warnings that the UnitedStates would go to war with anynation that interered. Te presidentalso moderated the secretary’sdispatches and relied on his mild-mannered yet stern minister toEngland, Charles Francis Adams, toresolve other problems.

Te recognition issue ared up

repeatedly during the course o theCivil War. Te Union’s humiliationat the battle o Bull Run in July 1861convinced some Europeans thatConederate independence was a ait accompli . How could the Unionorce reconciliation onto 11 statesand mill ions o people? Te ollowingNovember, a U.S. naval vessel seizeda British mail ship, the rent, andillegally removed two southerncommissioners, James Mason and

John Slidell, who had run the Unionblockade and were en route toEngland. Lincoln wisely reed thecaptives and authorized a looselyworded admission o error thatsalvaged American ace and narrowlyaverted a two-ront war pitting theUnited States against Great Britainas well as the South.



An Act o Military Necessity

One tool Lincoln employed inhis quest to orestall diplomatic

recognition o the Conederacywas antislavery sentiment amongEuropeans. Soon ater the Union’srazor-thin victory at Antietam inthe all o 1862, Lincoln exercisedhis military powers as commander-in-chie to declare that as o January1, 1863, all slaves in states still inrebellion were ree. He characterizedthis landmark EmancipationProclamation as an act o “militarynecessity,” intended to encourageslaves to abandon the plantationsand band with the advancingUnion armies.

As always, Lincoln had careullybalanced competing objectives whileadvancing toward a greater purpose.Te Emancipation Proclamationremained silent on slaves in borderstates such as Kentucky, Missouri,

Maryland, and Delaware that had

not joined the Conederacy (as wellas parts o ennessee already underUnion occupation). Lincoln thusretained the support o those crucialstates, and he avoided alienatingconservative northerners and possibleUnion loyalists in the South. Even so,Lincoln knew that his EmancipationProclamation was morally just. Healso recognized that it would lit

Union morale by elevating the war

into a humanitarian crusade. And, o course, he counted on emancipationpreventing the British and French,both opposed to slavery, romentering the war on the South’s side.

Te president’s diplomaticinstincts proved sound. A numbero British and French leaders hadcalculated that the division o theUnited States into two rival nationswould best serve their own nations’objectives. Te EmancipationProclamation was a potent tool inovercoming this sentiment. At frst,some British statesmen considered

the document a hypocritical Union



eort to snatch victory rom certaindeeat by inciting slave rebellions. I the war concerned slavery, why had

Lincoln declared its purpose was topreserve the Union?

Indeed, in the ollowingNovember, the British cabinet underPrime Minister Lord Palmerstonconsidered an interventionistproposal to recognize theConederacy and thus orce theUnion to discuss peace. Te cabinetoverwhelmingly voted against this,not least because it did not wishBritain to be seen on the side o slaveholders against Lincoln andemancipation. ogether with theRussians, Britain then rejectedthe proposal by French EmperorNapoleon III or an armisticedemand backed by multilateral orceshould either American belligerentreject the demand (in reality thiswas a threat aimed at the North,

since an armistice eectively would

ratiy southern independence). Bythe close o 1862, the Palmerstonministry came to realize that

whatever blend o realpolitik andmoral instinct drove Lincoln’sproclamation, however less than 100percent pure his motives, the resultswould be desirable and just.

A New Birth o Freedom

And so it was. When northernvictory fnally came in April 1865,it was clear that the president hadsaved the Union, but not the Uniono 1861. As the postwar amendmentsto the U.S. Constitution assuredthat Americans would never againpermit slavery in their land, the truebreadth o Lincoln’s vision becameclear. Lincoln had midwived a newbirth o reedom based on the naturalrights underlying the Declarationo Independence. He had destroyed

slavery and the Old South, and he

emerged with a better Union. AndLincoln’s role as skillul diplomatistwas an indispensable ingredient inorestalling European interventionand prevailing in one o the oten-orgotten yet crucially decisive battleso the Civil War.



Which is it? A air answer requiresthat we evaluate Lincoln in thecontext o his times and o his role inpublic lie.

“I have always hated slavery asmuch as any abolitionist,” Lincolnsaid in 1858. But when politicalopponent Stephen A. Douglascharged that Lincoln avored racial

equality, he responded that “I amnot, nor have ever been, in avoro bringing about in any way thesocial and political equality o thewhite and black races.” Lincolnalso attacked “that countereit logicwhich presumes that, because I donot want a Negro woman or a slave,I must necessarily want her or a

wie.” And shortly beore signing theEmancipation Proclamation reeingslaves in the Conederate South,President Lincoln invited a visitingree black delegation to consideremigrating to Haiti or CentralAmerica, saying, “It is better or usboth … to be separated.”

Many o Lincoln’s actions are

best understood by recalling that hischosen career was not moral prophetbut instead, as the leading historian

James M. McPherson has written,

a politician, a practitioner o the arto the possible, a pragmatist whosubscribed to [abolitionist] principlesbut recognized that they could onlybe achieved in gradual, step-by-step

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to

test a man’s character, give him power.

or some Americans, Abraham Lincoln remains the Great Emancipator,

the man who reed the Arican-American slaves. For others, Lincoln was an

opportunist who lagged behind the abolitionist movement, an advocate o

black Americans’ voluntary emigration, and even a white supremacist.



ashion through compromise andnegotiation, in pace with progressivechanges in public opinion and political realities.

However much Lincoln bowedto public opinion, he always heldast to a core belie that, under theDeclaration o Independence, all menpossessed equally the inalienablerights o lie, liberty, and the pursuito happiness. Lincoln also remained,or a man o the early- and mid-19thcentury, ree o social prejudice.Frederick Douglass, the greatArican-American thinker, publisher,and abolitionist, met with Lincoln

at the White House in 1864 andreported that “in his company I wasnever in any way reminded o myhumble origin, or o my unpopularcolor.” Te president had receivedDouglass “just as you have seen onegentleman receive another.” Lincoln,Douglass concluded, was “one o the very ew Americans who couldentertain a Negro and converse withhim without in anywise reminding

him o the unpopularity o his color.”

Te Real Issue Defned

Beore attaining the presidency,Abraham Lincoln’s signature politicalissue was a determined oppositionto the extension o slavery into thewestern territories. Te issue was orLincoln a moral one, and in his fnal1858 Senate campaign debate withStephen A. Douglas, he made thatpoint with stunning clarity, defning“the real issue” as a conict

on the part o one class that looksupon the institution o slavery asa wrong, and o another class thatdoes not look upon it as a wrong.… It is the eternal struggle between

these two principles — right andwrong — throughout the world.Tey are the two principles that havestood ace to ace rom the beginning o time; and will ever continue tostruggle. Te one is the commonright o humanity, and the other thedivine right o kings.

But Lincoln’s ultimate politicalloyalty was to the Union. As the Civil

War raged, Lincoln wrote HoraceGreeley, inuential editor o the NewYork ribune: “My paramount objectin this struggle is to save the Union,

and is not either to save or destroyslavery. [I] I could save the Unionwithout reeing any slave I would doit; and i I could save it by reeingall the slaves I would do it; and i I could save it by reeing some andleaving others alone I would also dothat.” o that end, Lincoln allowedthe slaveholding border states thatsided with the Union to retain theirslaves until the war’s end. When aUnion general took it upon himsel to declare slavery abolished in partso the South, the president switlyrescinded the order, reserving tohimsel the authority or such an act.

Te problem, rom the perspective

o Abraham Lincoln the wartimepolitical leader, was that northernpublic opinion still was not ready oremancipation. But as the historian

James Oakes has documented,Lincoln’s rhetoric during the war’searly years prepared the nationor that step. Even as he rescindedGeneral David Hunter’s May 1862liberation order, Lincoln careullyincluded a paragraph asserting his

authority to issue a similar order.In June, he began quietly to dratthat order.

In July, with Union armiesstalled, the president quietlyinormed leading cabinet membersthat he now viewed emancipationas a military necessity. Tis wasarguably quite true, and it also waspolitically shrewd. Enslaved blacksnow comprised a majority o theConederacy’s labor orce. Drawingthem to the Union cause wouldsimultaneously strengthen theNorth’s war eort and weaken thato its Conederate opponent. Even asa growing number o northern whitescame to support abolition, manywho opposed it and ought only topreserve the Union could see howreeing the slaves might prove decisive

on the battlefeld.



A Promise Kept

On September 22, 1862, Lincolnissued what became known asthe Preliminary EmancipationProclamation. It announced hisintent on January 1, 1863, to issue

another order that “all persons

held as slaves within any state ordesignated part o a state, the peoplewhereo shall then be in rebellionagainst the United States, shallbe then, thenceorward, andorever ree.”

With the new year, Lincoln kept

his promise. Te Emancipation

Proclamation declared that all slaveswithin the Conederacy “are, andhenceorward shall be ree; and thatthe Executive government o theUnited States, including the militaryand naval authorities thereo, willrecognize and maintain the reedomo said persons.” It also announcedthe Union’s intent to recruit and feldblack soldiers.



Te uture Arican-Americanleader Booker . Washington wasabout seven years old when theEmancipation Proclamation wasread on his plantation. As he recalledin his 1901 memoir Up From Slavery:

As the great day grew nearer,there was more singing in the slavequarters than usual. It was bolder,had more ring, and lasted later

into the night. Most o the verseso the plantation songs had somereerence to reedom. … Someman who seemed to be a stranger(a U.S. ocer, I presume) made alittle speech and then read a ratherlong paper — the Emancipation

Proclamation, I think. Ater thereading we were told that we were all ree, and could go when and wherewe pleased. My mother, who wasstanding by my side, leaned over and

kissed her children, while tears o joyran down her cheeks. She explainedto us what it all meant, that thiswas the day or which she had beenso long praying, but earing that shewould never live to see.

On the political ront, Lincolncontinued to deend emancipation onmilitary grounds. “No human powercan subdue this rebellion withoutusing the Emancipation lever as Ihave done,” he wrote.

I they [Arican Americans] staketheir lives or us they must be prompted by the strongest motive.… And the promise being made,

must be kept. … Why should they give their lives or us with ull noticeo our purpose to betray them? ... I should be damned in time and ineternity or so doing. Te world shallknow that I will keep my aith to riends and enemies, come what will.

More than a decade ater Lincoln’sdeath, Frederick Douglass tried toexplain Lincoln’s relation to the cause

o emancipation. Compared to theabolitionists, “Lincoln seemed tardy,cold, dull, and indierent,” he wrote.But “measure him by the sentimento his country, a sentiment he wasbound as a statesman to consult,”and Lincoln “was swit, zealous,radical, and determined.” Perhaps nostatesman could accomplish more.




Fascinated by the sound o words, Lincoln wrote or the ear. Hewhispered or spoke a word out loudbeore putting his pencil to paper.Lincoln’s pattern then was to speakor read his addresses slowly.

Let us examine three speechesLincoln oered as president o theUnited States between 1861 and

1865. I encourage you to speakLincoln’s words aloud, an exercisethat will help you enter more ullyinto the meaning o the words thatmoved a nation.

First Inaugural Address (1861)

March 4, 1861, dawned windyand cool. A crowd o more than

25,000 arrived early at the U.S.Capitol, hoping or places romwhich they could hear AbrahamLincoln’s inaugural address. Nopresident had ever been inauguratedin such turbulent times. Lincoln’selection had raised the all too realpossibility o southern secession romthe Union. Rumors o threats to

Lincoln’s lie were racing through thecapital city.In his inaugural address Lincoln

sought to balance conciliation withstrength. Ater speaking or nearly30 minutes, the president reached hisconcluding paragraph. Lincoln’s earlydrats ended with a question: “Shallit be peace or a sword?” Secretaryo State William Seward urged

rom all around the world, people come to see the Lincoln Memorial in

Washington, D.C. In this sacred space, visitors stand in awe as they read

the eloquent words o Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and

his second inaugural address.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend

one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say

and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.



Lincoln instead to conclude with“some words o aection — someo calm and cheerul confdence.” Acomparison illustrates how Lincolntransormed Seward’s words into hisown remarkable prose poetry.

I close.

Lincoln: I am loath to close.

We are not, we must notbe, aliens or enemies, but ellowcountrymen and brethren.

Lincoln: We are not enemies, but riends. We must not be enemies.

Although passion hasstrained our bonds o aection toohardly, they must not, I am sure theywill not, be broken.

Lincoln: Tough passion may havestrained, it must not break our bondso aection.

Te mystic chords which, proceeding rom so many battlefeldsand so many patriot graves, passthrough all the hearts and all thehearths in this broad continent o ours, will yet again harmonize intheir ancient music when breathedupon by the guardian angel o the nation.

Lincoln: Te mystic chords o memory, stretching rom everybattlefeld, and patriot grave, toevery living heart and hearthstone,all over this broad land, will yet swell

the chorus o the Union, when againtouched, as surely they will be, by thebetter angels o our nature.

Lincoln pared away extraneouswords. He brought together wordsor syllables with related sounds.He employed alliteration, placingtogether the same consonant andsound fve times in the fnal twosentences, encouraging the listener to

link those words:



breakbonds

battlefeldbroad

betterLincoln used powerul images

to remind the nation o its past andannounce his political vision orthe uture.

Gettysburg Address (1863)

On July 1-3, 1863, Union andConederate orces ought a greatbattle in the small Pennsylvaniavillage o Gettysburg. Ater threedays, nearly 50,000 dead, wounded,

and missing lay among the peachorchards and arm pastures.On November 19, nearly 15,000

people gathered at Gettysburg todedicate the nation’s frst nationalmilitary cemetery. Edward Everett,ormer president o HarvardUniversity, was invited to be theeatured speaker or the event.President Lincoln, at the lastmoment, was asked to oer “a ew

appropriate words.” Ater Everetthad spoken or two hours and sevenminutes, President Lincoln wouldaddress the ceremony or two-and-a-hal minutes, a mere 272 words.

Four score and seven years agoour athers brought orth, upon thiscontinent, a new nation: conceivedin Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are

created equal.

“Four score and seven” was nota simple way to say eighty-seven.Lincoln asked his audience tocalculate backwards to discover thatthe United States began not with the1787 Constitution that establishedits ederal government, but insteadin 1776, with the signing o theDeclaration o Independence, a

proclamation o the universal truths

to which its ounders subscribed.Lincoln also chose his words withconfdence that biblically literateAmericans would link his “ourscore” passage to Psalm 90, in whicha dying man looks back over his lie

and hopes that the short time spentin this world has been meaningul:

Te days o our years are threescore years and ten;And i by reason o strength they be ourscore years.

Lincoln built his GettysburgAddress on a structure o past,present, and uture time. He startedin the past by placing the dedicationo the battlefeld within the largerstory o American history. Inspeaking o “our athers,” Lincolninvoked a heritage common to bothNorth and South, that o the nation’sFounding Fathers.

Lincoln’s frst sentence concludedwith another reerence to theDeclaration o Independence: thetruth that “all men are created equal.”

By arming this truth, Lincoln

defned the Civil War as a contestboth to secure liberty — or the slaves

— and to preserve a united nation.

Now we are engaged in a great civilwar, testing whether that nation,or any nation so conceived, and sodedicated, can long endure. We aremet on a great battle-feld o thatwar. We have come to dedicatea portion o that feld, as a fnalresting-place or those who here gave their lives, that that nation

might live.

Ater his long introductorysentence, Lincoln led his audiencerapidly orward rom the AmericanRevolution to the Civil War. Withquick brushstrokes he summarizedthe war’s meaning. Unlike EdwardEverett, Lincoln spent none o hiswords on the details o the recentbattle. Rather, he transcended it,

linking the dedication to the larger



purpose o the “nation,” a word hewould use fve times in his address.Te Civil War was a “testing” o thenation’s ounding ideals, one thatwould determine whether they could“endure.”

It is altogether ftting and properthat we should do this. But, in alarger sense, we cannot dedicate —we cannot consecrate — we cannothallow — this ground. Te bravemen, living and dead, who struggled

here, have consecrated it ar aboveour poor power to add or detract.

Tese words signaled Lincoln’stransition rom the events on thebattlefeld to the events o the uture.But beore he lited their eyes beyondthat battlefeld, Lincoln told hisaudience what they could not do.

we cannot dedicatewe cannot consecrate

we cannot hallow

In the last three sentences o theaddress Lincoln shited his ocus afnal time.

Te world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but itcannot orget what they did here.It is or us the living, rather, to bededicated here to the unfnishedwork which they who ought herehave thus ar so nobly advanced. Itis rather or us to be here dedicatedto the great task remaining beore



us—that rom these honored deadwe take increased devotion to thatcause or which they gave the last ull measure o devotion—that wehere highly resolve that these deadshall not have died in vain—thatthis nation, under God, shall have

a new birth o reedom—and that government o the people, by the people, or the people, shall not perish rom the earth.

Lincoln now laid out his vision o the uture and o the responsibilityo his listeners — and by extensionthe responsibility o every American— to bring that vision to ruition.

Lincoln pointed away rom wordsand toward deeds. He contrasted“what we say here” with “what theydid here.”

At this point Lincoln uttered hisonly addition to his written text. Headded the words “under God.” It was

an uncharacteristically spontaneousrevision or a speaker who didnot trust extemporaneous speech.Lincoln had added impromptu wordsin several earlier speeches, but alwaysoered a subsequent apology or thechange. In this instance, he did not.And Lincoln included “under God”in all three copies o the address heprepared at later dates.

“Under God” pointed backwardand orward: back to “this nation,”which drew its breath rom bothpolitical and religious sources, butalso orward to a “new birth.” Lincolnhad come to see the Civil War as aritual o purifcation. Te old Union

had to die. Te old man had to die.Death became a transition to a newUnion and a new humanity.

As Lincoln approached the climaxo his unexpectedly short address,he uttered the words that would bemost remembered:

and that governmento the people,

by the people, or the people,

shall not perish rom theearth.

Lincoln was fnished. He hadnot spoken the word “I” even once.It was as i Lincoln disappeared soAmericans could ocus unhinderedupon his transcendent truths.

Second Inaugural Address(1865)

President Abraham Lincoln hadevery reason to be hopeul as

Inauguration Day, March 4, 1865,approached. Ater our years o war,the Conederacy was splintered i not yet shattered. Yet apprehensionintruded upon this hopeul spirit.Rumors ew about the capital thatdesperate Conederates, realizing



that deeat was imminent, wouldattempt to abduct or assassinatethe president.

Lincoln’s second inauguraladdress is 701 words long, 505 o only one syllable. Lincoln began in asubdued tone. In the highly chargedatmosphere o wartime Washington,with soldiers everywhere, it is as i hewanted to lower anticipations.

In his second paragraph, Lincolnemployed the image o war in everysentence. Te tension mountsthroughout the paragraph, buildingto a crescendo in the fnal sentence:“And the war came.” In our words,our syllables, Lincoln acknowledged

that the war came in spite o thebest intentions o political leaders.Lincoln wants his listeners tounderstand that this war cannot beunderstood simply as the ulfllmento human plans.

“Both read the same Bibleand pray to the same God.” Tisintroduction o the Bible marksnew territory. Te Bible had beenquoted only once in the previous 18

inaugurals. Lincoln thus signaledhis intent to examine the war romboth a theological and a politicalperspective.

Ater recognizing that soldierson both sides o the conict readthe Bible and prayed similarprayers, Lincoln probed the Bible’sappropriate use. Lincoln suggeststhat some wielded the Bible andprayer almost as weapons to curryGod’s avor or one side or the other.But this only produced contraryreadings o the same book. Onone side stood those who read aBible that they steadastly believedsanctioned slavery. On the otherwere those who understood it toencourage the abolition o slavery.(“Both read the same Bible and prayto the same God, and each invokes

His aid against the other.”) Lincoln

instead builds a case or an inclusiveGod, one who does not take the sideo a particular section or party.

As the address builds towardits fnal paragraph, it takes an

unexpected turn. When manyexpected Lincoln to celebrate thesuccesses o the Union, he insteadpointed courageously to the maladythat long had resided at the verycenter o the American nationalamily, with the acquiescence o artoo many Americans. I God nowwilled slavery’s end, “this terrible war”appeared as “the woe due to those bywhom the oense came.”

Lincoln had come to believe thatwhere there was evil, judgment wouldsurely ollow. He saw this judgmentin the death o 623,000 Unionand Conederate soldiers, and heaccepted this judgment:

Fondly do we hope, ervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge o war may speedily pass away. Yet, i God wills that it continue … until

every drop o blood drawn with thelash, shall be paid by another drawn

with the sword, as was said threethousand years ago, so still it must besaid ‘the judgments o the Lord, aretrue and righteous altogether.’

Lincoln invited his countrymen toweigh their own history on the scaleso justice. He did this knowing thatno nation is comortable acing up toits own misdeeds.

With malice toward none, withcharity or all …

Lincoln closed by asking thenation to enter a new era, armed notwith enmity but with orgiveness.Tese words immediately became themost memorable expressions o thesecond inaugural. Well aware thatthe nation was nearing the close o its most destructive armed conict,



one that pitted brother againstbrother, the president was about toask Americans or acts o incrediblecompassion. He would summonthem to overcome the boundaries o sectionalism and come together againin reconciliation.

Lincoln ends his second inauguraladdress with a coda o healing:

to bind up …

to care or …

to do all which may achieve andcherish a just and a lasting peace,among ourselves, and withall nations.

Lincoln had defned winning thepeace as achieving reconciliation.In this fnal paragraph he declaresthat the true test o the aims o war would be how Americans thentreated the deeated.

Sometimes the modern shibboleth“it’s only words” seems to win theday. Tis portrait o AbrahamLincoln is based instead in thepremise that words matter. Lincolnled America through the Civil Warwith words that galvanized hisnation’s courage.



“ I claim not to have controlled events,but coness plainly that events havecontrolled me.”

“ Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can ail;without it nothing can succeed.”

“ Discourage litigation. Persuade yourneighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how thenominal winner is oten a real loser— in ees, expenses, and waste o time. As a peacemaker the lawyerhas a superior opportunity o being a

good man. Tere will still be businessenough.”

“ It is said an Eastern monarch oncecharged his wise men to invent hima sentence to be ever in view, andwhich should be true and appropriatein all times and situations. Tey presented him the words: ‘And this,too, shall pass away.’ How much itexpresses! How chastening in the hour

o pride! How consoling in the depthso aiction!”

“ Ballots are the rightul and peaceulsuccessors to bullets.”

“ Character is like a tree and reputationlike its shadow. Te shadow is what wethink o it; the tree is the real thing.”

“ Every man is said to have his peculiar

ambition. Whether it be true or not,I can say or one that I have no otherso great as that o being truly esteemedo my ellow men, by rendering mysel worthy o their esteem.”

“ Every one desires to live long, but noone would be old. ”

“ I don’t like that man. I must get toknow him better.”

“ I you look or the bad in peopleexpecting to fnd it, you surely will.”

“ It has been my experience that

olks who have no vices have very ew virtues.”

“ Most olks are about as happy as theymake their minds up to be.”

“ Te assertion that ‘all men are createdequal’ was o no practical use ineecting our separation rom GreatBritain and it was placed inthe Declaration not or that, but or

uture use.”

“ Te ballot is stronger than the bullet.”

“ Te best way to destroy an enemy is tomake him a riend.”

“ Te best way to get a bad law repealedis to enorce it strictly.”

“ Te probability that we may ail in thestruggle ought not to deter us rom thesupport o a cause we believe tobe just.”

“ o stand in silence when they shouldbe protesting makes cowards outo men.”

“ What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itsel.”

“ Whatever you are, be a good one.”

“ With Malice toward none, withcharity or all, with frmness in theright, as God gives us to see the right,let us strive on to fnish the work weare in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

“ You can ool all the people some o thetime, and some o the people all thetime, but you cannot ool all the peopleall the time.”

“ You cannot build character andcourage by taking away a man’sinitiative and independence.”

“ You cannot escape the responsibility o tomorrow by evading it today.”

“I I were to try to read, much lessanswer, all the attacks made on me,this shop might as well be closed or anyother business. I do the very best I knowhow — the very best I can; and I meanto keep doing so until the end. I theend brings me out all right, what’s saidagainst me won’t amount to anything.

I the end brings me out wrong, tenangels swearing I was right would makeno dierence.”

“ Tose who deny reedom to others,deserve it not or themselves; and,under a just God, can not long retain it.”

“ Common looking people are the best inthe world: that is the reason the Lord

makes so many o them.”




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Library, 2008.

Pascal, Janet B. Who Was Abraham Lincoln? New York:

Grosset and Dunlap, 2008.

rumbauer, Lisa. Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

Chicago, IL: Heinemann Library, 2008.

Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission

Abraham Lincoln Papers

Library o Congress

Te complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library o

Congress consists o approximately 20,000 documents,organized into three “General Correspondence” series

that include incoming and outgoing correspondence and

enclosures, drats o speeches, and notes and printed

material. Most o the 20,000 items are rom the 1850s

through Lincoln’s presidential years, 1860-1965. Te

collection encompasses approximately 61,000 images

and 10,000 transcriptions.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Te Presidential Library is a public, non-circulating

research library specializing in Abraham Lincoln and

Illinois history. Collections include books, pamphlets,

maps, and periodicals; photographs, flms, tapes, and

broadsides; manuscripts; and Illinois newspapers on

microflm. Te library contains extensive resources

on the Civil War and many publications useul or

genealogical research, as well as the renowned Henry

Horner Lincoln collection.

Abraham Lincoln Association

Te Abraham Lincoln Association has made

signifcant contributions to keeping alive his uniquestory and ideals. Tose contributions have taken many

orms, including the publication o scholarly works,

providing teaching materials to students, and providing

preservation assistance or Lincoln sites.

Abraham Lincoln Book Shop

Established in 1938, the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop

serves the needs o collectors and scholars, proessional

historians and independent writers, dedicated frstedition hunters, and casual history enthusiasts.

Lincoln Institute

Te Lincoln Institute concentrates on providing support

and assistance to scholars and groups involved in the

study o the lie o America’s 16th president and the

impact he had on the preservation o the Union, the

emancipation o black slaves, and the developmento democratic principles that have ound worldwide

application.



Miller Center o Public Afairs: Abraham Lincoln

(1809-1865)

University o Virginia

Te Miller Center o Public Aairs is a national

nonpartisan center to research, reect, and report on

American government, with special attention to the

central role and history o the presidency.

Northern Illinois University

Lincoln Digitalization Project

Beore Abraham Lincoln became the nation’s chie

executive, he led a ascinating lie that sheds considerable

light upon signifcant themes in American history. Tis

World Wide Web site presents materials rom Lincoln’s

Illinois years (1830-1861), supplemented by resources

rom Illinois’ early years o statehood (1818-1829). Tecollection provides a record o Lincoln’s early career and

helps readers fx his experiences within Lincoln’s social

and political milieu.

Presidential Papers o Abraham Lincoln

A collaborative project o the Abraham Lincoln

Association, the Lincoln Studies Center, the Library

o Congress, the Lehrman Institute, and the Lincoln

Institute, this eort supplements and coordinates anumber o other eorts to create an authoritative,

comprehensive, on-line version o Lincoln’s words and his

incoming correspondence.

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P S P r i n t e d b y G l o b a l P u b l i s h i n g S o l u t i o n s ( A / I S S / G P S ) ©

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Photo credits:

Picture credits fr illustratis appearig frm tp t bttm

are separated by dashes ad frm left t right by semicls.

Cver: Library f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi.

Iside Frt Cver: PhtSpi. Page 2: AP Images.

3, 6: PhtSpi. 7: Jupiterimages. 8-9: Library f Cgress,Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi; © Laye keedy/CoRBIS

Seth Perlma/AP Images; PhtSpi. 10: Seth Perlma/AP

Images. 11: Tia Fieberg/AP Images. 12: James Ma/AP

Images — Jh Lvretta/The Haw Eye/AP Images; David

Maley/news Tribue/AP Images — Rbi Lza/Daily Iter

Lae/AP Images. 13: Bb Gmel/Time Life Pictures/Getty

Images — © Bettma/CoRBIS. 14: Library f Cgress,

Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi. 15: Curtesy Abraham Licl

Birthplace natial Histric Site, natial Par Service.

16: Library f Cgress, Mauscripts Divisi; Curtesy

Abraham Licl B Shp, Ic. Chicag, IL. — Library f

Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi; nrth Wid PictureArchives. 17: Library f Cgress, Map Divisi — The Grager

Cllecti, new Yr. 18: Picture Histry (2); © CoRBIS —

Abraham Licl Presidetial Library ad Museum.

19, 20: Library f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi

(3). 22: AP Images. 23: Picture Histry. 24-5: Abraham Licl

Presidetial Library ad Museum. 26: Picture Histry; Library

f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi. 28: AP Images;

Chicag Histrical Museum — The Grager Cllecti, new

Yr; Library f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi.

29: Picture Histry. 30: Library f Cgress, Prits &

Phtgraphs Divisi. 31: AP Images. 32: Library f Cgress,

Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi. 33: Curtesy Feimre Art

Museum, Cperstw, new Yr. 34: Library f Cgress,

Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi(2). 35: Picture Histry.

36-38: Library f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi;

natial Archives ad Recrds Admiistrati (2); Library f

Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi(5). 39: Appmattx

Curt Huse natial Histric Par. 40: Picture Histry.

41: Library f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi.42: © Illustrated Ld news Ltd./Mary Evas Picture

Library. 43: Library f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs

Divisi. 44: © Bettma/CoRBIS — The Grager Cllecti,

new Yr. 45: © Bettma/CoRBIS. 46, 47: Library f

Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi (2). 48: © CoRBIS.

49: The Grager Cllecti — Illiis State Histrical Library;

Military ad Histrical Image Ba www.histricalimageba

.cm. 50: The Grager Cllecti, new Yr — Chicag

Histrical Museum. 51, 52, 53, 54: Library f Cgress, Prits

& Phtgraphs Divisi (4). 55: © Bettma/CoRBIS.

56: Library f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs Divisi (2);

nrth Wid Picture Archives. 58: Curtesy Gettysburg

natial Military Par, natial Par Service.59, 60, 61: Library f Cgress, Prits & Phtgraphs

Divisi (3).

excutiv eito: George Clack

managing eito: Michael Jay Friedman

At dicto/dsign: Min-Chih Yao

Photo rsach: Maggie Johnson Sliker

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Bureau of International Information Programs

2008

http://www.america.gov



A B R A H A M

LINCOLN

a legacy of freedom