Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
Abraham Lincoln, by
G.P.A. Healy, 1887 - from the White
House
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that
war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those
who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow -
this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living,
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a
new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln, Speech at the Dedication of the National Cemetery at
Gettysburg, PA, November 19, 1863
At this second appearing to take the
oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an
extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement,
somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and
proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public
declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and
phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and
engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be
presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly
depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I
trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope
for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this
four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending
civil war. All dreaded it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugeral
[sic] address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether
to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city
seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissole [sic] the Union,
and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but
one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the
other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One eighth of the whole population were
colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but
localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a
peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was,
somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend
this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the
Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more
than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party
expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has
already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict
might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease.
Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and
astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and
each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any
men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread
from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be
not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither
has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe
unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences
come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we
shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in
the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives
to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by
whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from
those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always
ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this
mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that
it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the
sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said
"the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous
altogether"
With malice toward none; with charity
for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's
wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his
widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
Washington, DC, March 4, 1865
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This, too, shall pass away. |
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be
ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They
presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away."
How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of
affliction!
Abraham Lincoln, Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural
Society, Milwaukee, WI, September 30, 1859
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"Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Kearns Goodwin, hardcover (Simon & Schuster 2005).
"Goodwin makes the case for Lincoln's political genius by examining his relationships with three men he selected for his cabinet, all of whom were opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. These men, all accomplished, nationally known, and presidential, originally disdained Lincoln for his backwoods upbringing and lack of experience, and were shocked and humiliated at losing to this relatively obscure Illinois lawyer. Yet Lincoln not only convinced them to join his administration--Seward as secretary of state, Chase as secretary of the treasury, and Bates as attorney general--he ultimately gained their admiration and respect as well. How he soothed egos, turned rivals into allies, and dealt with many challenges to his leadership, all for the sake of the greater good, is largely what Goodwin's fine book is about. Had he not possessed the wisdom and confidence to select and work with the best people, she argues, he could not have led the nation through one of its darkest periods."
Also available in audio CD - ABRIDGED (Audioworks 2005).
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"Lincoln," by David Herbert Donald. "The phenomenal
national bestseller that is 'the Lincoln biography for this generation' (Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr.). Drawing on resources not available until recently--including Lincoln's
personal papers, archives, and newspaper reports--two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author
David Herbert Donald presents a masterful account of Lincoln's rise to the presidency and
the political and personal challenges he faced while in office." This title
is available for purchase in paperback (Touchstone Books, 1996), and audio cassette (Simon & Schuster, 1995). |
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"Lincoln's Greatest
Speech: The Second Inaugural," by Ronald White, Jr.,
hardcover (Simon & Schuster 2002).
"In the tradition of Garry Wills'
modern classic Lincoln
at Gettysburg, Ronald C. White Jr. offers a close reading of
the speech Abraham Lincoln gave in 1865 at his second inauguration
and declares it the man's finest and most important effort. It
contains one of Lincoln's best-known lines ('With malice toward
none; with charity for all'), which White admires as 'a
timeless promise of reconciliation.' At the same time, White
reminds readers that rather than yanking such brilliant rhetorical
nuggets from their context, 'We need to understand Lincoln's
strategy for the complete speech.' He provides this in some
detail, describing the political environment in which Lincoln found
himself, having recently won a presidential election that he nearly
lost and also seeing the Confederacy begin to collapse for good." |
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"Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America," by Garry Wills, paperback (Simon & Schuster 1993).
A former professor of Greek at Yale University, Wills painstakingly deconstructs Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and discovers heavy influence from the early Greeks (Pericles) and the 19th century Transcendentalists (Edward Everett). The author also probes Lincoln's decision to rely more on the Declaration of Independence than the U.S. Constitution, a decision Wills says represented a "revolution in thought." He speaks effusively of the 272-word address: "All modern political prose descends from [it]. The Address does what all great art accomplishes. [I]t tease[s] us out of thought."
--Amazon.com |
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"Selected Speeches and Writings: Abraham Lincoln," by Abraham Lincoln (Vintage 1992).
Ranging from finely honed legal argument to dry and sometimes savage humor to private correspondence and political rhetoric of unsurpassed grandeur, the writings collected in this volume are at once the literary testament of the greatest writer ever to occupy the White House and a documentary history of America in Abraham Lincoln's time. They record Lincoln's campaigns for public office; the evolution of his stand against slavery; his pyrotechnic debates with Stephen Douglas; his conduct of the Civil War; and the great public utterances of his presidency, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.
For the first time, the authoritative editions of works by major American novelists, poets, scholars, and essayists collected in the hardcover volumes of The Library of America are being published singly in a series of handsome paperback books. A distinguished writer has contributed an introduction for each volume, which also includes a chronology of the author's life and career, an essay on the text, and notes.
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"Lincoln's Virtues: An
Ethical Biography," by William Lee Miller, hardcover
(Knopf 2002).
"William Lee Miller's Lincoln's Virtues is less an 'event' chronology than the tracing of the moral and
ethical core of Abraham Lincoln's beliefs, what Miller calls the
man's 'unintended preparation for greatness.' Miller
posits that Lincoln rightly deserves his nonpareil place in American
history. But, he continues, Lincoln's greatness is best appreciated
only when we realize he was merely mortal and therefore free to
follow any number of courses of actions." |
(Title descriptions are from Amazon.com unless otherwise indicated.)
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Last updated:
June 29, 2008 |
