The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
I was visiting family last week and stumbled on a book in my father's library, Lincoln's Virtues, by William Lee Miller. I teach a course on Lincoln regularly, including this semester, so old Abe has been in my thoughts. I devoured this book. It is particularly good on Lincoln's early years. This passage is worth quoting at length.
In a society of hunters, Lincoln did not hunt; where many males shot rifles, Lincoln did not shoot; among fisherman, Lincoln did not fish; among many who were cruel to animals, Lincoln was kind; surrounded by farmers, Lincoln fled from farming; with a father who was a carpenter, Lincoln did not take up carpentry; in a frontier village preoccupied with physical tasks, Lincoln avoided manual labor; in a world in which men smoked and chewed, Lincoln never used tabacco; in a rough, profane world, Lincoln did not swear; in a social world in which fighting was a regular male activity, Lincoln became a peacemaker; in a hard drinking society, Lincoln did not drink; when a temperance movement condemned all drinking, Lincoln the non-drinker did not join it; in an environment soaked with hostility to Indians, Lincoln resisted it; in a time and place in which the great mass of common men in the West supported Andrew Jackson, Lincoln supported Henry Clay; surrounded by Democrats, Lincoln became a Whig; in a political party with a strong nativist undercurrent, Lincoln rejected that prejudice; in a southern-flavored setting soft on slavery, Lincoln always opposed it; in a white world with strong racial antipathies, Lincoln was generous to blacks; in an environment indifferent to education, Lincoln cared about it intensely; in a family active in a church, young Lincoln abstained; when evangelical Christianity permeated the western frontier, Lincoln raised questions--and gave different answers than his neighbors.
And of course we know Lincoln's love of books and vast powers of concentration. He steeped himself in the Bible, Shakespeare, Euclid. He read Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, Weem's Life of Washington. A book called William Scott's Lessons in Elocution exposed him in short bits to Hume, Gibbon, Pope, Samuel Johnson, Dryden, Milton,and others. And of course to teach himself to become a lawyer, he read and studied Blackstone. And glancing at speeches like his Peoria address (on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise) in 1854 and the Cooper Union address in 1860, Lincoln's study of the primary documents of the founding era was vast and deep.
Given all of this (Miller's passage comes in a section of the book called "Lincoln's Great Rejections"), one might expect--indeed, it would seem to follow--that Lincoln would be a kind of recluse, out of step with his people and his times, estranged in a sense from his fellows. For sure, Lincoln the book worm did retreat at times to engage in study and did apparently have bouts with melancholy. But Lincoln was also very much a social creature who enjoyed life with friends and neighbors. He told stories. He told jokes. He read to others. He was very well liked. A famous story has him becoming fast friends with a Jack Armstrong after pounding him in a wrestling match. He was an astute political operator and a party man through and through (more on this in another post). Later in life, people who had once held him in utter contempt, like Edwin Stanton, Lincoln would win over--decisively and profoundly. Despite his "great rejections," Lincoln seems to have had vast reserves sympathy for all that surrounded him. I don't mean sympathy in the sense it's often used today--akin to pity--but rather in Adam Smith's sense. The ability to step into the shoes of another, to see things from their perspective. As Lincoln would say about the southern people on more than one occasion, "They are just what we would be in their situation." He had a healthy respect for public opinion--as it was, and not as he wished it to be ("A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, can not be safely disregarded."). He believed the opinions and sentiments of his fellows to be the foundation of self government. "He who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed." And of course he thought a great deal about just how to go about moulding that sentiment: "If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend."
Perhaps it is from Lincoln the outsider, Lincoln of the "great rejections," that we get the principled core--the Lincoln who won't give an inch on the principles of the Declaration, on slavery extension, on the injustice of secession. But perhaps it is the Lincoln of sympathy, of friendship, from whom we get the modesty and majesty of the Second Inaugural.
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Jul '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
I cannot imagine a life without hunting, fishing, and farming but Lincoln certainly managed a wonderful existence without them. He was among our greatest and thank goodness there are those who teach of him in meaningful fashion so as to expel the leftist rot others have filled our youth's heads with.
Jun '10
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Some things that Abe Lincoln actually said, or that someone wished he'd said:
Edited on March 20, 2012 at 6:42amJan '12
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
I read Lincoln's Virtues last year as part of a graduate course on Lincoln. It was my favorite book that I read all semester. I highly recommend it!
May '10
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
He is a mystery and a wonder.
I'm ordering the book now.
Sep '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
katievs: He is a mystery and a wonder.
I'm ordering the book now. · 3 minutes ago
Katie,
I still can't believe you attended Solzhenitsyn's Liechtenstein address!!!
Jul '10
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
My favorite Lincoln quote was in his defense of Grant on accusations of drunkeness on the job. "Find out what whiskey that man drinks, and send a barrel of it to all my other generals!"
May '10
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Flagg Taylor
katievs: He is a mystery and a wonder.
I'm ordering the book now. · 3 minutes ago
Katie,
I still can't believe you attended Solzhenitsyn's Liechtenstein address!!! · 1 hour ago
I can't either. But it's true. I was really there. It was right down the street from the hospital in Vaduz where my first baby was born. Here's the little chapel in Triesen, where she was baptized.
Nov '10
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Another book I need to read...
Nov '10
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
katievs
Flagg Taylor
katievs: He is a mystery and a wonder.
I'm ordering the book now. · 3 minutes ago
Katie,
I still can't believe you attended Solzhenitsyn's Liechtenstein address!!! · 1 hour ago
I can't either. But it's true. I was really there. It was right down the street from the hospital in Vaduz where my first baby was born. Here's the little chapel in Triesen, where she was baptized. · 11 hours ago
Exquisite photo.
Sep '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Maybe this should be a post, but the best Lincoln books in my view:
Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided
John C. Briggs, Lincoln's Speeches Reconsidered
Allen Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America
Lord Charnwood, Abraham Lincoln
Richard Cawardine, Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power
Edited on March 22, 2012 at 4:04amSep '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
There's also a wonderful letter he wrote to General Hooker--I'll track down the date for you--need to get to my office.
Jul '10
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Carwardine's book is titled Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power. I think it's so good because it was written for a series on leaders and how they achieved and used their power. It gave the book a focus, but not a thesis statement. That said, the book transcended the series in which it was appeared because Carwardine is a sensitive and insightful historian.
I like Guelzo's Redeemer President very much, as well. It does such a wonderful job of teasing out the complexity of religious thought and belief in Lincoln, his milieu, and in the middle of the 19th century.
Jul '10
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
The letter to Hooker is, btw, dated January 26, 1863. It is a marvelous piece of writing, in just 350 words or so. It contains these among other marvelous sentences:
I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes, can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.
Feb '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Thank you for this.
Mar '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Lincoln knew how to lead. He wrote to Grant after the Vicksburg Campaign.
Sep '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Robert Barraud Taylor: The letter to Hooker is, btw, dated January 26, 1863. It is a marvelous piece of writing, in just 350 words or so. It contains these among other marvelous sentences:
I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes, can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.· 2 hours ago
Thank you Robert, that is indeed the letter I had in mind. It's an impressive display. Lincoln shows Hooker that he sees right through him. It must have sent a chill down Hooker's spine.
Jan '12
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Lincoln's capacity for (Smithian) sympathy showed brilliantly in his admonition that after the South was defeated and secession crushed, the North should "let 'em up easy," just as Lincoln himself did whenever he beat a foe in a wrasslin' match.
Sep '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
By the way, has anyone read Miller's sequel to Lincoln's Virtues, called President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman?
May '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
I'm not a big fan of Lincoln hagiographies. I wish more biographers could be more critical. He was no angel and believed in big government. He jailed the Maryland legislature and ruled fairly tyrannically. He was a politician and they always have ulterior motives and agendas, but few like to point his out. If he were in office today he would be denounced by conservatives and libertarians for his support of centralizing government power in him.
Mar '11
Re: The Mystery and Wonder of Lincoln
Although he wasn't a hunter, Lincoln did shoot. He was fascinated by mechanical gizmos and tested many Civil War era firearms himself.