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Lincoln Emglish
Lincoln Emglish
A B R A H A M
A B R A H A M
LINCOLN
a legacy of freedom
09-20167 AbrahamLincoln_cov.indd 1
a legacy o f f r e e do m
2/6/09 11:51:30 AM
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Preface ............................................................................................................. 2
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I am a rm
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.
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Lincoln in Print
Every phrase that can be detached
from Lincolns most famous
utterances has been stamped on a
cover, from A New Birth of Freedom to
With Malice Toward None, from With
Charity for All to Of the People, By the
People, For the People. I looked further
and discovered a kind of verbal daisy
chain, as though all Lincoln authors
had been given a limited number of
words and were forced to arrange
them in a different order. There was
The Sword of Lincoln and Lincolns
Sword; Lincoln and the Generals and
Lincolns Generals; The Inner World
of Abraham Lincoln, The Intimate
World of Abraham Lincoln, Abraham
Lincolns World, and Abraham
Lincolns Intimate World; Lincolns
Virtues and the Virtuous Lincoln.
8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM
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14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM
Whenever
I hear any
one arguing
for slavery
I feel a strong
impulse to see
it tried on him
personally.
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM 15
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Early Politics
If Lincoln was not caught up in
the religious fervor and sectarian
disputes that characterized the
frontier culture he grew up in, he
did take an early interest in politics.
As with most things he set his mind
to, Lincoln soon proved himself a
Lincoln in Love
Lincolns friends and relatives seem
to agree that he was never much
interested in girls when growing up,
but when he got to New Salem he
fell in love with the tavern-keepers
daughter, Ann Rutledge. Not long
after they had become engaged,
she was stricken with what was
called brain fever and died within
a few weeks. Already Lincolns
mother had died quite suddenly
when he was nine years old. These
deaths may have contributed to the
emotional turmoil that Lincoln now
suffered. Alarmed friends feared
that his excessive bereavement and
despondency might end in suicide.
But slowly Lincoln recovered, and
slightly more than a year later he
was involved in another courtship,
this time with Mary Owens, a welleducated and refined woman from a
wealthy Kentucky family. We know
from surviving letters that, having
involved himself to the point of
engagement, Lincoln decided that he
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As a Member of Congress
At about the time of his marriage,
Lincoln declined to run for a fifth
term in the state legislature and
began angling for election to the U.S.
Congress. When he finally succeeded
and took his seat in the House of
Representatives in December 1847,
the Mexican War was coming to a
victorious conclusion, and Lincoln
lost no time in joining other Whig
members in attacking President
James K. Polk for unconstitutionally
provoking an unjust war for the
purpose of acquiring new territory.
This earned Lincoln considerable
criticism back home, where the war
was very popular.
Even as Lincoln contradicted his
pro-war Democratic constituents
on a matter of principle, he offended
some of his fellow Whigs with his
practicality. Even as many important
Whigs favored their partys
dominant figure, Henry Clay, for the
presidency in 1848, Lincoln instead
supported the war hero General
Zachary Taylor. Taylor had no
political record or party connection,
but Lincoln argued that the party
had lost too many elections and
needed, more than anything else,
to win. Ironically, when Lincolns
congressional term was over, the
victorious Taylor ignored his
recommendations for government
appointments and denied Lincoln the
one he sought for himself: head of
the General Land Office.
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&
y 1854, Abraham Lincoln could be forgiven for believing his political career
had reached an end. Lincoln had secured his partys congressional nomination
in part by pledging to serve only one term, thus allowing other members of
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.
Free Labor
Abraham Lincoln had always
championed free labor, the principle
that a man and in Lincolns day
this meant males only could work
how and where he wanted, could
accumulate property in his own
name, and, most importantly, could
rise freely as far as his talents and
abilities might take him. Lincoln
himself was a model of this self-made
man. As he wrote in 1854:
There is no permanent class of hired
laborers amongst us. Twenty-five
years ago, I was a hired laborer. The
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Compromise Fails
As the young nation grew westward,
the terms on which new states
would be admitted to the Union,
that is, as slave or free states,
thus assumed decisive importance.
It first arose during 1820 and 1821,
with the application of Missouri
for statehood. Thomas Jefferson
likened the sectional tension to a
firebell in the night. It eased only
through a grand compromise in
which Congress admitted Missouri
as a slave state, Maine as a free state,
and barred slavery from all Louisiana
Purchase territories north of 36 30,
Missouris southern border. With the
acquisition of new, formerly Mexican
territories, a carefully crafted
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A House Divided
In March 1857, the U.S. Supreme
Courts much-criticized Dred Scott
decision further enflamed sectional
tensions. Scott, an African-American
slave whose master had taken him
to the free Wisconsin territory then
back to Missouri, had sued for his
freedom, arguing that residence in
Wisconsin had made him a free man.
The Court ruled otherwise, and its
broad (unnecessarily broad, many
felt) decision increased northern
fears. Congress, a majority of justices
held, lacked the constitutional
authority to prohibit slavery in
the territories. The 36 30 line
(still in force when the case began)
was thus unconstitutional, and
slavery was permissible in all the
territories, the Kansas-Nebraska Act
notwithstanding. Chief Justice Roger
B. Taney also held that African
Americans were not U.S. citizens,
were excluded from the protections
of both the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution,
and possessed no rights which any
white man was bound to respect.
Dred Scott, accordingly, could not
even sue in federal court.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM 25
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Utah
Territory
New Mexico
Territory
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California
Oregon
Territory
Washington
Territory
Kansas
Territory
Iowa
Missouri
Mississippi
Louisiana
Arkansas
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Texas
Indian
Territory
Kentucky
Indiana
Alabama
Georgia
Ohio
Michigan
Tennessee
Illinois
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Territory
Minnesota
Territory
Delaware
Maryland
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New Jersey
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Maine
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South
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North Carolina
Virginia
Pennsylvania
New York
Vermont
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32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM
ne day toward the end of the Civil War, a high-ranking military visitor
to the White House told President Lincoln that two of his fellow generals
had been captured while visiting lady friends 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.
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM 33
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34
ABR
ABRAHAM
ABRA
AHA M LINC
L
LINCOLN:
INCO
OLN: A L
LEGACY
EGA
EG
ACY OF FRE
FREEDO
FREEDOM
EDOM
M
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A Shift in Sentiment
Road to Reunion
In the first week of April 1865, final
victory was at last in sight. After
smashing much of what remained
of Lees once seemingly unbeatable
Army of Northern Virginia,
Major General Philip H. Sheridan
telegraphed Grant: If the thing be
pressed I think Lee will surrender.
Grant passed Sheridans dispatch
to Lincoln. The president told Grant:
Let the thing be pressed. It was
Lincolns last important order, and
like most of his orders a good one.
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character, give
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM 47
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48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM
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A Promise Kept
On September 22, 1862, Lincoln
issued what became known as
the Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation. It announced his
intent on January 1, 1863, to issue
another order that all persons
50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM
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52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM
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 of Abraham Lincolns 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.
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break
bonds
battlefield
broad
better
Lincoln used powerful images
to remind the nation of its past and
announce his political vision for
the future.
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56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM
an uncharacteristically spontaneous
revision for a speaker who did
not trust extemporaneous speech.
Lincoln had added impromptu words
in several earlier speeches, but always
offered a subsequent apology for the
change. In this instance, he did not.
And Lincoln included under God
in all three copies of the address he
prepared at later dates.
Under God pointed backward
and forward: back to this nation,
which drew its breath from both
political and religious sources, but
also forward to a new birth. Lincoln
had come to see the Civil War as a
ritual of purification. The old Union
had to die. The old man had to die.
Death became a transition to a new
Union and a new humanity.
As Lincoln approached the climax
of his unexpectedly short address,
he uttered the words that would be
most remembered:
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I claim not to have controlled events,
but confess plainly that events have
controlled me.
Public sentiment is everything. With
public sentiment, nothing can fail;
without it nothing can succeed.
Discourage litigation. Persuade your
neighbors to compromise whenever
you can. Point out to them how the
nominal winner is often a real loser
in fees, expenses, and waste of
time. As a peacemaker the lawyer
has a superior opportunity of being a
good man. There will still be business
enough.
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!
Ballots are the rightful and peaceful
successors to bullets.
Character is like a tree and reputation
like its shadow. The shadow is what we
think of 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 for one that I have no other
so great as that of being truly esteemed
of my fellow men, by rendering myself
worthy of their esteem.
Every one desires to live long, but no
one would be old.
I dont like that man. I must get to
know him better.
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8EEAI
Carwardine, Richard. Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and
Power. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Cozzens, Peter. Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jacksons
Valley Campaign. Chapel Hill, NC : University of North
Carolina Press, 2008.
Donald, David H., and Harold Holzer. Lincoln in
The Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, as Originally
Reported in the New York Times. New York: St.
Martins Press, 2005.
Donald, David H. Lincoln. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1995.
Ferguson, Andrew. Land of Lincoln: Adventures in
Abes America. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press;
distributed by Publishers Group West, 2007.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political
Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 2005.
Herndon, William H., and Jesse W. Weik. Herndons
Lincoln; edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O.
Davis. Galesburg, IL: Knox College Lincoln Studies
Center; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
(Published in association with the Abraham Lincoln
Bicentennial Commission.)
Holzer, Harold and Sara V. Gabbard, eds. Lincoln and
Freedom: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Thirteenth
Amendment. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois
University Press, 2007. (Published in conjunction with
the Lincoln Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana.)
797:;C?97D:FH?L7J;
OEKD=7:KBJ
Herbert, Janis. Abraham Lincoln for Kids: His Life and
Times With 21 Activities. Chicago: Chicago Review
Press, 2007.
Mayer, Cassie. Abraham Lincoln. Chicago: Heinemann
Library, 2008.
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Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
^jjf0%%mmm$b_dYebdX_Y[dj[dd_Wb$]el
Abraham Lincoln Papers
Library of Congress
The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of
Congress consists of approximately 20,000 documents,
organized into three General Correspondence series
that include incoming and outgoing correspondence and
enclosures, drafts of speeches, and notes and printed
material. Most of the 20,000 items are from the 1850s
through Lincolns presidential years, 1860-1965. The
collection encompasses approximately 61,000 images
and 10,000 transcriptions.
^jjf0%%c[ceho$beY$]el%Wcc[c%Wb^jcb%cWb^ec[$^jcb
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
2008
http://www.america.gov
Photo credits:
Picture credits for illustrations appearing from top to bottom
are separated by dashes and from left to right by semicolons.
Cover: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.
Inside Front Cover: PhotoSpin. Page 2: AP Images.
3, 6: PhotoSpin. 7: Jupiterimages. 8-9: Library of Congress,
Prints & Photographs Division; Layne Kennedy/CORBIS
Seth Perlman/AP Images; PhotoSpin. 10: Seth Perlman/AP
Images. 11: Tina Fineberg/AP Images. 12: James Mann/AP
Images John Lovretta/The Hawk Eye/AP Images; David
Manley/News Tribune/AP Images Robin Loznak/Daily Inter
Lake/AP Images. 13: Bob Gomel/Time Life Pictures/Getty
Images Bettmann/CORBIS. 14: Library of Congress,
Prints & Photographs Division. 15: Courtesy Abraham Lincoln
Birthplace National Historic Site, National Park Service.
16: Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division; Courtesy
Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc. Chicago, IL. Library of
Congress, Prints & Photographs Division; North Wind Picture
Archives. 17: Library of Congress, Map Division The Granger
Collection, New York. 18: Picture History (2); CORBIS
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
19, 20: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
(3). 22: AP Images. 23: Picture History. 24-5: Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library and Museum. 26: Picture History; Library
of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. 28: AP Images;
Chicago Historical Museum The Granger Collection, New
York; Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.
29: Picture History. 30: Library of Congress, Prints &
Photographs Division. 31: AP Images. 32: Library of Congress,
Prints & Photographs Division. 33: Courtesy Fenimore Art
LINCOLN
A B R A H A M
A B R A H A M
LINCOLN
a legacy of freedom
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a legacy o f f r e e do m
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