Lincoln in the World (50 page)

19
. Harold Holzer argues that “Lincoln was the first campaigner and President to be aware of the potential of mass communications” (Holzer, “If I Had Another Face, Do You Think I’d Wear This One?” p. 57). David Herbert Donald notes that “[t]he effectiveness of the President’s personal propaganda warfare could not be measured, for it was not so much public statements or popular rallies as the internal dynamics of British and French politics, plus fears of ultimate American reprisal, that determined a course of neutrality for the two major European powers. But for Lincoln the opportunity to use the White House as a pulpit, to speak out over the dissonant voices of foreign leaders to the common people, daringly broadened the powers of the Presidency.” See Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 416. Michael Burlingame writes that Lincoln also likely used his personal secretaries as propagandists (Burlingame, “Lincoln Spins the Press,” p. 65). See also Jones,
Blue and Gray Diplomacy
, p. 322; Monaghan, pp. 274–94.

20
. John Bigelow to Hippolyte Taine, Oct. 19, 1864, in Bigelow,
Retrospections
, v. 2, pp. 222–23. See also Crook,
The North, the South, and the Powers
, pp. 29–30; Crook,
Diplomacy During the American Civil War
, p. 18 (PR value).

21
. William H. Herndon to [?], Nov. 24, 1882, printed in the
Washington Post
, Feb. 4, 1883 (copy in the Barbee Papers, Georgetown University); Harper,
Lincoln and the Press
, p. 97 (“escape of gas”); Nye,
Soft Power
, p. 30 (“less coercive”); Paludan, p. xvi (“everything in this country”).

22
. For an insightful and thorough comprehensive history of Union and Confederate foreign relations, see Jones,
Blue and Gray Diplomacy
(Chapel Hill, 2010). For a panoramic and vivid recent account of the British role in the war, see Foreman,
A World on Fire
(New York, 2011).

23
. Randall,
Lincoln the President
, v. 2, p. 29, quoted in Current, “Comment,” p. 47.

24
. McKee,
Story
(New York, 1997), p. 101.

25
. Kennedy,
Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
, p. 17. Kennedy adds that “[i]ndividuals still counted” as late as the twentieth century, “but they counted in power politics only because they were able to control and reorganize the productive forces of a great state.” See p. 197. On America’s rising economic strength in the Civil War era see also pp. 149 and 179.

26
. LaFeber,
The New Empire
, pp. 1, 60; and Sexton,
Debtor Diplomacy
, p. 3; Davis and Wilson, eds.,
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
, p. 47 (“not generally opposed”). Gabor Boritt argues that this statement is “meaningless,” because there was no more territory that could be honestly had. See Boritt,
Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream
, p. 140. See also McDougall,
Promised Land, Crusader State
, p. 97 (expansionist measures); Foner,
Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men
, pp. 27, 312, 316. Mark Neely Jr. writes that Lincoln “did not share … the Whig party’s concerns about expansion” and “did not oppose expansion properly achieved” (Neely, “Lincoln and the Mexican War,” pp. 13–15). Boritt, on the other hand, contends that Lincoln’s economic outlook “sharply clashed with expansionism” but then adds, “Perhaps he was not as much against territorial expansion
per se
, as he was in favor of concentrating the people’s energies
within the country
, to make
it
flower, to build
it
up.” See Boritt,
Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream
, pp. 138–39. See also Herring, p. 238;
CWL, Supplement 1832–1865
, p. 45; Foner,
Fiery Trial
, p. 117 (“go to escape”); Lincoln, “Speech in the U.S. House of Representatives on Internal Improvements,” June 20, 1848,
CWL
, v. 1, p. 483 (“nothing else”).

27
. Hay to John G. Nicolay, Sept. 11, 1863, in Burlingame, ed.,
At Lincoln’s Side
, p. 54 (“backwoods Jupiter”); Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 310; and Donald, “
We Are Lincoln Men,”
p. 187 (shoguns); Hay, “Life in the White House in the Time of Lincoln,” in Burlingame, ed.,
At Lincoln’s Side
, pp. 139–40 (“great rapidity”).

28
. On Lincoln’s guilt see, for example, the analysis of Richard Hofstadter in
The American Political Tradition
, pp. 171–73, and cf. Burlingame,
Inner World
, pp. 254–55; Hay,
Diary
, pp. 75–76, entry for Aug. 23, 1863 (drifted off to sleep); Lincoln to James H. Hackett, Aug. 17, 1863, in
CWL
, v. 6, p. 392; Hay, “Life in the White House,” in
At Lincoln’s Side
, p. 137 (“death of kings”); Chambrun, “Personal Recollections,”
Scribner’s
, p. 35 (“envy the sleep”). See also Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 569; Guelzo,
Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President
, pp. 317–18, 329; and Carwardine and Sexton, eds.,
Global Lincoln
, pp. 35–36.

29
. On the Romantic era, see Winger,
Lincoln, Religion, and Romantic Cultural Politics
, passim; Donald,
Lincoln’s Herndon
, p. 185; and McDougall,
Throes of Democracy
, pp. 167–71. Robert W. Johannsen deftly analyzes the Mexican War in the context of the
Romantic era; see Johannsen,
To the Halls of the Montezumas
, passim, but esp. pp. 31, 57–78, 108–11. On Lincoln and Byron, see William Henry Herndon interview with Joshua F. Speed,
HI
, p. 30; Joshua F. Speed to William Henry Herndon, Jan. 12, 1866, in ibid., p. 156; Henry C. Whitney to William Henry Herndon, Nov. 20, 1866, in ibid., pp. 403–4; Henry C. Whitney to William Henry Herndon, Aug. 27, 1887, in ibid., p. 632; Wilson,
Honor’s Voice
, pp. 190–97; Shenk,
Lincoln’s Melancholy
, pp. 27–31;
ALAL
, v. 1, p. 353 (kick feet up); Byron, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” in McGann,
Lord Byron
, pp. 10, 21, 40, 47. Doris Kearns Goodwin, noting Lincoln’s affection for Byron and other writers, observes that “[i]t was through literature that he was able to transcend his surroundings.… Lincoln, this acolyte of pure reason and remorseless logic, was also a romantic” (Goodwin, pp. 51–53).

30
. Jon Meacham writes particularly skillfully about the intersection of the “personal” and the “political.” See, for example, Meacham,
American Lion
, p. xvii, and passim. Allen Guelzo, citing an observation by Mark Neely Jr., observes that Lincoln biographies tend to “travel either the road of personality-history (as blazed by William Henry Herndon) in which Lincoln’s achievements are explained in terms of temperament or genealogy; or else the road of public-history (the model for this being the ten-volume biography by Lincoln’s White House secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay) in which Lincoln is lauded mostly for his public management skills as a president, a politician, or a commander-in-chief.” Guelzo offers his brilliant “intellectual biography” of Lincoln as a “model” for other writers who aim to integrate “the old political Lincoln with the revived subjective Lincoln.” See Guelzo,
Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President
, pp. 19 and 472.

31
. Adams,
The Education of Henry Adams
, pp. 147 (“victim’s sympathies”), 418 (“Power is poison” and “society at large”), 421 (“struggle … of forces”); Adams,
Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres
, p. 276 (“door of escape”). See also Niebuhr,
Moral Man and Immoral Society
, p. 6.

32
. Tocqueville quoted in Schlesinger,
Imperial Presidency
, pp. 125–26. George Herring, noting the “distinctive cast” of foreign policy in a democratic system that divides power between the executive and legislative branches, quotes another passage from Tocqueville arguing that democracies “obey the impulse of passion rather than the suggestions of prudence” and “abandon a mature design for the gratification of a momentary caprice” (Herring, pp. 7–8).

33
. Russell,
My Diary North and South
, p. 43, entry for Mar. 28, 1861; Carpenter,
Inner Life
, p. 150.

34
. For a trenchant analysis of Lincoln’s innovations in executive power, see Schlesinger,
Imperial Presidency
, pp. 58–69. Schlesinger draws in part on the work of historians Edward Corwin and Quincy Wright. See, for example, Corwin,
The President
, pp. 263–69; and Wright,
Control of American Foreign Relations
, pp. 33 and 280. The Lincoln quote is in Oates, “Abraham Lincoln:
Republican
in the White House,” p. 99. For a study of Union and Confederate state building
during the Civil War, see Bensel,
Yankee Leviathan
(Cambridge, 1990), ch. 3.

35
. Howard Jones sees Lincoln as “a born diplomat” with “a calm and patient demeanor, a trusting yet careful and genteel temperament, unquestioned integrity, an interest in listening to advice and learning from those who disagreed with him, and a willingness to compromise on issues requiring no sacrifice of principles.” (Jones,
Blue and Gray Diplomacy
, p. 21.) Dean Mahin finds that Lincoln’s “experience as a lawyer, politician, legislator, and debater had honed his skills in communication, negotiation, and compromise” (Mahin, p. 9).

36
. Palmerston quoted in Bourne,
Palmerston: The Early Years
, p. 308 (“occult science”). On Washington’s farewell, evidence suggests that Lincoln likely read more than one biography of Washington that included the full text of the document. See Bray, “What Abraham Lincoln Read,” for a careful analysis of Lincoln’s reading habits. Bray considers Washington’s farewell to be “of obvious importance in the formation of Lincoln’s mature thought.” See also Lincoln, “Proclamation for Celebration of Washington’s Birthday,” Feb. 19, 1862,
CWL
, v. 5, p. 136; and Edward Haight to Lincoln, Feb. 17, 1862, ALP, LOC. Walter Lippmann, in his 1943 classic,
U.S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic
, makes much of Washington’s advice, and takes the famous phrase about “our interest guided by justice” as his epigraph. (Lippmann,
U.S. Foreign Policy
, epigraph and p. 177.)

37
. Lincoln to George Robertson, Aug, 15, 1855, CWL, v. 2, p. 318.

38
. Allen Guelzo, himself a top-notch Lincoln scholar, sees the past 15 years as the “golden age of Lincoln studies.” For a more thorough discussion of the methods used by Burlingame and other modern Lincoln biographers, see Guelzo, “The Bicentennial Lincolns,”
Claremont Review of Books
, v. 10, no. 1 (winter 2009–2010), pp. 45–46.

39
. Frederic S. Cozzens to Manton Marble, Oct. 12, 1867, Manton Marble Papers, LOC. A transcript of this letter is in the Ruth Randall Papers, LOC. Cozzens recalls in this letter that the Polish Count Adam Gurowski, who worked as a translator at the State Department for nearly two years, used to refer to Mary as “that ‘Sprinkfieldt B—ch,’ ” imitating the count’s accent. Since this is a recollection of a spoken phrase, I have regularized the spelling in the text. In 1862 Gurowski published a candid diary that was critical of many administration figures (including the president, who he wrote possessed a “rather slow intellect”). He was eventually fired from the State Department—which may account for some of his animosity toward Mary Lincoln. President Lincoln himself worried to his bodyguard that Gurowski might try to assassinate him. “It would be just like him to do such a thing,” Lincoln mused. See Lamon,
Recollections
, p. 274; and “Gurowski,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds.,
Encyclopedia of the American Civil War
, pp. 902–3.

40
. Plumb to Thomas Corwin, Jan. 29, 1862, Plumb Papers, LOC; Pike to William Pitt Fessenden, Sept. 3, 1863, Pike Papers, LOC. In a letter to Pike in a separate collection of the diplomat’s personal papers, Adam Gurowski
gripes about “pighead Lincoln”—another example of such intra-department grumbling. See Gurowski to Pike, Aug. 30, 1861, Pike Papers, University of Maine. Thomas Schoonover, in
Dollars Over Dominion
(Baton Rouge, 1978), makes good use of much of the Plumb and Pike correspondence, though he does not include Plumb’s account of the White House reception or the Pike material from Maine.

41
. See Magness and Page,
Colonization After Emancipation
(Columbia, Mo., 2011), for intriguing new evidence that Lincoln was more committed to colonization than previously understood. Eric Foner’s recent Pulitzer Prize winner,
The Fiery Trial
, offers much thoughtful discussion of Lincoln and colonization. Gary Dillard Joiner uses the Sherman quote in his study
One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864
(Lanham, Md., 2003). The quote about “great blunders” is from Bigelow to Edward L. Pierce, Oct. 6, 1892, in Bigelow,
Retrospections
, v. 3, p. 628. Lippmann is quoted in Robert A. Divine,
Second Chance
(New York, 1967), p. 181; and McDougall,
Promised Land
,
Crusader State
, p. 152. McDougall emphasizes the human element throughout his 1997 study of U.S. foreign policy. “Americans,” he writes, “are at once typically flawed human beings, unique individualists obsessed with both justice
and
money, and citizens of the most powerful, hence potentially the most corruptible, country on earth. That observation may be less than profound, but it is the beginning of wisdom about American behavior in the state of nature called world politics.… Much of the time we have simply been human, pursuing our short-term self-interest more or less skillfully, and the rest of the world be damned” (McDougall,
Promised Land, Crusader State
, pp. 1–2). When it comes to Lincoln, the president’s law partner, William Herndon, was one of the earliest Lincoln biographers to challenge the apotheosis. “No man is absolutely perfect,” Herndon told a lecture audience in Dec. 1865. “We are not gods—nor goddesses, just yet” (Herndon, “Analysis of the Character of Abraham Lincoln,” p. 347). More recently, Jon Meacham has admired this quality in the best Lincoln biographies. See Meacham, “ ‘The Lincoln Anthology’ edited by Harold Holzer, ‘The Best American History Essays on Lincoln’ edited by Sean Wilentz, Ronald C. White’s biography ‘A. Lincoln’ and others,”
The Los Angeles Times
, Feb. 1, 2009.