Authors: Stephen B. Oates
On Lincoln's personality, the quotation “many mooded man” is from Donald,
Lincoln's Herndon
, 305; the quotation “He was, take him all in all” from Holland,
Life of Lincoln
, 241, and also
The Southern Review
(Apr., 1873), 328; the quotation “Lincoln's nature” from Emanuel Hertz,
The Hidden Lincoln
(New York, 1938), 159; the quotation “He was the most reticent” from Reinhold H. Luthin,
The Real Abraham Lincoln
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1960), 122; the quotation “he was
not
, a demonstrative man” from Justin G. and Linda Levitt Turner,
Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters
(New York, 1972), 293.
For Lincoln and his parents and frontier background, see the excellent analysis in Charles B. Strozier,
Lincoln's Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings
(New York, 1982), 3-30, 50-65. The quotation “my mother is a bastard” is from Current,
Lincoln Nobody Knows
, 22, but see also Paul M. Angle (ed.),
Herndon's Life of Lincoln
(paperback ed., New York, 1961), 46-47; the quotation “never did more in the way of writing” from Abraham Lincoln,
Collected Works
(ed. Roy P. Basler and others, 9 vols., New Brunswick, N.J., 1953-55), 4:61, hereafter
CW
.
For Lincoln's reading, literary bent, and way with words, see Roy P. Basler, “Abraham Lincoln's Rhetoric,”
American Literature
, 11 (1939): 170-71; Edmund Wilson,
Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War
(New York, 1962), 120-23; Louis A. Warren,
Lincoln's Youth: Indiana Years
(Indianapolis, Ind., 1959), 10-14; and Paul M. Angle, “Lincoln's Power with Words,”
Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association
, 3 (Springfield, Ill., 1981): 9-25. The quotations
“the absence of all business
” and “Let reverence for the laws” are from Lincoln,
CW
, 1:265 and 112; the Wilson quotation in
Patriotic Gore
, 117; the quotation “By nature a literary artist” from Albert J. Beveridge,
Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858
(2 vols., Boston, 1928), 1:302; Lincoln's poem in
CW
, 1:378-79; the Stowe quotation in Herbert Mitgang (ed.),
Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait
(Chicago, 1971), 377; the quotation “moved by some great & good feeling” from Randall,
Mr. Lincoln
, 31; the quotation “he was given to raising” from Paul Simon,
Lincoln's Preparation for Greatness
(Norman, Okla., 1965), 213. The quotations about the frontier influences on Lincoln's manner of speech are from Beveridge,
Lincoln
, 1:53-54; George Templeton Strong,
Diary, 1835-1875
(ed. Allan Nevins and Milton H. Thomas, 4 vols., New York, 1952), 3:188, 204-5; and Benjamin P. Thomas, “Lincoln's Humor: An Analysis,”
Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association
, 3:33-34.
Lincoln and mathematics: the quotation “Their ambition” from Lincoln,
CW
, 1:113; the story about Lincoln and Euclid's geometry from Paul M. Angle, “Lincoln's Power with Words,”
Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association
, 3:12.
For Lincoln's depression and search for identity, see the sophisticated analysis in Strozier,
Lincoln's Quest for Union
, 35-88. The quotation “I have no other” is from Lincoln,
CW
, 1:8; the quotation “Well, I feel just like the boy” from P. M. Zall,
Abe Lincoln Laughing: Humorous Anecdotes from Original Sources by and about Abraham Lincoln
(Berkeley, Cal., 1982), 22. For Lincoln and Ann Rutledge, see my references above under “Man of the People.” Lincoln's letters to Mary Owens are in
CW
, 1:78-79, 94-95. The quotation “was deficient” is from Mary Owens Vineyard to Herndon, May 22 and June 22, 1866, Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress. The Speed quotation is from Angle,
Herndon's Life of Lincoln
, 170, but also see Hertz,
Hidden Lincoln
, 159.
For Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, see Ruth Painter Randall,
Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage
(Boston, 1953), 3-85, and Turners,
Mary Todd Lincoln
, 3-34, 475. The quotation “the most congenial mind” from Katherine Helm,
The True Story of Mary, Wife of Lincoln
(New York, 1928), 76; the quotation “he would listen” from Elizabeth Edwards's first statement [n.d.] and second statement, Sept. 27, 1898, Herndon-Weik Collection; the quotation “I am now, the most miserable man” from Lincoln,
CW
, 1:229; Lincoln's letters to Speed about their romantic troubles in ibid., 259-61, 265-66, 267-68, 269-70, 280-81, 282, 288-89; the quotation “except my marrying” from ibid., 305; the quotation “lover-husband” from Turners,
Mary Todd Lincoln
, 534; the quotation “probably ended sexual intercourse” from Strozier,
Lincoln's Quest for Union
, 88.
3: A
LL
C
ONQUERING
M
IND
Lincoln's preoccupations with death and insanity: Lincoln's recitation of “Mortality” and his poem on Matthew Gentry are in
CW
, 2:90, and 1:5-86. My version of “Mortality” is from
The Home Book of Verse
, Vol. II (ed. Burton Egbert Stevenson, New York, 1940), 3409. For Lincoln and liquor, see Beveridge,
Lincoln
, 1:82-83, 534. The quotation “all conquering mind” is from Lincoln,
CW
, 1:279.
For Lincoln's humor, Zall,
Abe Lincoln Laughing
, is the most scholarly and reliable collection of Lincoln stories; but also see Thomas, “Lincoln's Humor,”
Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association
, 3:-29-47. The quotations “whistle down sadness” and “I laugh because I must not weep” from Henry C. Whitney,
Life on the Circuit with Lincoln
(Boston, 1892), 171, 146-47; the quotation “I tell you the truth” from John F. Farnsworth's testimony in Sandburg,
Lincoln: The War Years
, 3:305; the quotation “seemed to diffuse” from Lamon,
Lincoln
, 478-79; the quotation “He can rake a sophism” from Thomas, “Lincoln's Humor,”
Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association
, 3:46; humor on the Mexican War and state sovereignty from Zall,
Abe Lincoln Laughing
, 144, 55-56; the quotation “Has it not got down” from Lincoln,
CW
, 3:279; the quotation “every one of his stories” from Zall,
Abe Lincoln Laughing
, 5; the quotation “he saw ludicrous elements” from Thomas, “Lincoln's Humor,”
Papers of the Abraham Lincoln Association
, 3:36; the quotations “the strongest example,” “This is an indictment,” and “burst of spontaneous storytelling” from Zall,
Abe Lincoln Laughing
, 69, 43, 5; the quotation “with their hands” from Basler,
Lincoln Legend
, 125; the story of an old Englishman, the Negro dialect joke, and the Swett joke from Zall,
Abe Lincoln Laughing
, 147, 42, 40; the quotation “akin to lunacy” from Charles Minor,
The Real Lincoln
(Richmond, 1904), 29-30; the quotation “on a certain
member
” from David C. Mearns,
The Lincoln Papers
(2 vols. in 1, reprint ed., New York, 1969), 169; Lincoln's story, “Bass-Ackwards,” in
CW
, 8:420; the joke on his looks from Zall,
Abe Lincoln Laughing
, 21. For Lincoln wrinkling his nose and scratching his elbows, see the
Letters of Horace H. Furnass
(2 vols., Boston, 1922), 1:126. Henry Villard, quoted in Randall,
Mr. Lincoln
, 213, said that Lincoln “shook all overâ¦and when he felt particularly good over his performance he followed his habit of drawing his knees with his arms about them, up to his very face.”
4: M
R
. L
INCOLN
The best studies of Lincoln's law career are John J. Duff,
A. Lincoln, Prairie Lawyer
(New York, 1960), and John P. Frank,
Lincoln as a Lawyer
(Urbana, Ill., 1961). The quotation “I have news” is from Lincoln,
CW
, 2: 106; Lincoln's finances in Harry E. Pratt,
The Personal Finances of Abraham Lincoln
(Springfield, Ill., 1943); the quotation “resolve to be honest” from Lincoln,
CW
, 2:82.
For Lincoln on alcoholics, see ibid., 1:271-79; on women's rights, ibid., 48. The quotation “In this statement” is from Roy P. Basler's essay in Cullom Davis and others (eds.),
The Public and the Private Lincoln: Contemporary Perspectives
(Carbondale, Ill., 1979), 42; Herndon's quotation on the Irish in his article in the New York
Tribune
, Feb. 15, 1867; Lincoln's remarks on the Know-Nothings in
CW
, 2:323.
Part Three: Advocate of the Dream
1: T
HE
B
EACON
L
IGHT OF
L
IBERTY
For Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence, see Lincoln,
CW
, 2:266 and 4:168-69, 235-36, 240, 266. The quotations “profitable lesson” and “got through the world” are from ibid, 2:124. The best study of Lincoln's economics is G. S. Boritt,
Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream
(Memphis, Tenn., 1978). The quotations “The legitimate object,” “better their conditions,” and “the liberty party” are from Lincoln,
CW
, 2:220-21, 3:312, and 2:276.
Lincoln's views on slavery before 1854: the quotation “founded both” from ibid., 1:75; the quotations “continual torment” and “had the power” from ibid., 2:320; the quotation “sort of Negro livery stable” from ibid., 2:253, 237-38; the quotation “noblest political system” from ibid., 276; the quotation “there should be nothing” from ibid., 3:3-7, also 2:492, 513-14; the quotations “just what we would be” and “human sympathies” from ibid., 2:255, 264; the quotation “a captive people” from ibid., 132. See also Don E. Fehrenbacher,
Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850s
(Stanford, Cal., 1962), 24-25, 85.
2: T
HIS
V
AST
M
ORAL
E
VIL
For Lincoln's reactions to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, see the speeches in Lincoln,
CW
, 2:247-83, 398-410, which include his Peoria address. My description of the great southern reaction draws from the
Illinois Daily State Register
, July 30, Aug. 19, Oct. 15, 1856; Muscogee (Alabama)
Herald
as quoted in ibid., Oct. 15, 1856; George Fitzhugh,
Cannibals All! or Slaves without Masters
(ed. C. Vann Woodward, Cambridge, Mass., 1960), 252; Lincoln,
CW
, 2:341 and 3:53-54, 205; Beveridge,
Lincoln
, 2:436-39. Lincoln's remarks about slave traders are in
CW
, 2:322.
Lincoln's “House Divided” speech, ibid., 461-69, outlines the stages of the slave-power conspiracy as Lincoln saw it. But see also ibid., 2:341 and 3:53-54, 204-5; Beveridge,
Lincoln
, 2:563-64; Fehrenbacher,
Prelude
, 79-95; and Eric Foner,
Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War
(New York, 1970), 73-102. Whether or not there was a southern conspiracy isn't so significant as the fact that Lincoln and the Republicans
thought
there was, for that is what shaped their actions. I am trying to stress the point that people respond to events according to their perception of reality. Therefore, what people
believe
is true is quite as important as what
is
true when it comes to reconstructing the past or understanding the present.
Lincoln's quotations “vast moral evil,” “
central idea
,” “the bread that his own hands have earned,” and “stripes, and unrewarded toils” are from his
CW
, 2:494, 385, 520, 320. My own work
With Malice Toward None
narrates the Lincoln-Douglas debates from Lincoln's point of view, whereas Robert W. Johannsen,
Stephen A. Douglas
(New York, 1973), 641-79, relates them from Douglas's perspective. The speeches of both men are gathered in Lincoln,
CW
, vols. 2 and 3, and in Paul M. Angle (ed.),
Created Equal: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858
(Chicago, 1958). Douglas's remarks about Lincoln and Negroes are from his speeches at Chicago and Ottawa.
Lincoln had touched on racial equality and intermarriage in earlier stump battles with Douglas (see, for example,
CW
, 2:266, 405, 407-8). My discussion of Lincoln's views on the subject derives from the following sources: Lincoln's position on legally enforced discrimination in Illinois from Mark E. Neely, Jr.,
The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia
(New York, 1982), 217; the quotation “Lincoln of history” from Don E. Fehrenbacher, “Only His Stepchildren: Lincoln and the Negro,”
Civil War History
, 20 (Dec., 1974), 303; Lincoln's quotations on Negroes in
CW
, 2: 501, 3:16, 145-46, 301, and 5:372-73; Current's observations in Davis and others,
Public and Private Lincoln
, 144. For Lincoln and Springfield and Sangamon County in 1858, see Christopher N. Breiseth's excellent analysis in ibid., 101-20.
Some white historians agree with Bennett and Harding that Lincoln was a white supremacist. See George M. Fredrickson, “A Man but Not a Brother: Abraham Lincoln and Racial Equality,”
Journal of Southern History
, 41 (Feb., 1975), 39-58; Strozier,
Lincoln's Quest for Union
, 173-75, 178-79; and Kenneth M. Stampp,
The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War
(New York, 1980), 128. Other Lincoln scholars, including the present author, disagree with this argument and have been at great pains to place Lincoln's public utterances of the 1850s in historical context and to show how much he grew and changed in the war years. See Fehrenbacher, “Only His Stepchildren,”
Civil War History
, 20, 293-310; the essays of Breiseth and Current in Davis and others,
Public and Private Lincoln
, 101-20, 137-46; Current,
Lincoln Nobody Knows
, 214-36; Quarles,
Lincoln and the Negro
; and Franklin,
Emancipation Proclamation
.