Lincoln Unbound (27 page)

He outraged abolitionists and radicals throughout the war by moving against slavery only very cautiously, countermanding orders by commanders on the ground for local emancipations when he thought they would outrage border-­state sentiment and jeopardize the larger war effort. Yet his wasn't the prudence of a mushy middle. He was adamant about maintaining the antislavery integrity of the Republicans when Stephen Douglas seemed alluring to party leaders in the East. During the secession winter of 1860–61, when the air in Washington was thick with proposals for compromise, he refused to give away the principle of nonextension of slavery (when push came to shove, he wasn't at bottom a compromiser like Henry Clay). And the war had to be won, despite the terrible human cost, despite the political pressure for a settlement. “I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me” is not the voice of split-­the-­difference moderation.

When a political leader has the right touch to know when to push and when to relent, when his ability is joined to a larger purpose, and when that purpose is just and true, well, then, that constitutes statesmanship of the highest order.

Most important for Republicans now is to commit themselves to that larger purpose, a society of equality of opportunity where all can rise. Limiting government, although as important as ever in an era of spiraling debt, can't just be an end in itself. It must be joined to a larger vision of a dynamic, fluid society. The party shouldn't only be the party of low taxes, but of affordable health care and education. It should identify with the economic interests of the middle class more than of its richest donors and make it clear that it doesn't believe that everyone is an entrepreneur or budding entrepreneur, that it knows most ­people are ordinary wage and salary earners and they, too, have a place in the party's imagination. It should speak to the poor, not because it will ever win many of their votes, but so there's no mistake that it wants them up and out of poverty and in the American mainstream.

An agenda of uplift is in the party's direct electoral interest. If it can forge a more pocketbook-­ and aspiration-­oriented economics, it will have a better chance of appealing to Latino voters. As a general matter, the better off ­people are, the more likely they are to vote Republican. If they are married, they are more likely to vote Republican. The party benefits if it can help create and sustain as many middle-­class families as possible.

I believe that the Republican Party of today would, still and all, be the best vehicle for Abraham Lincoln. I'm not disinterested, though. I confess to a love for Lincoln. I can sense the rigor of thought of my late, great boss William F. Buckley Jr.—not to mention the wit and the taste for rhetorical combat—in his ­slashing polemics. Any writer or editor should relish that the first step Lincoln took to improve himself was to pick up a book, and that he counted the printing press as one of the world's greatest inventions. No matter how often I delve into it, I don't tire of the story of his rise. It is so American it should be draped in red, white, and blue bunting. In its essence, it is about the achievement of human potential, and all the more inspiring because it enabled him, in time, to devote himself to making it possible for others, too, to reach for their potential.

I look to Lincoln and think, “I want my party—­his party—­to be like
that
,” to identify with workers and families, to propose a compelling agenda to advance their interests, to sell it with a winsome populist touch, to be pure in principle but wise as serpents in execution, to make the bedrock of it all the Declaration and the Founding and the truth of the equality of all men. This is asking a lot and perhaps it's more something to be “constantly labored for” than ever achieved. But it will never happen if Republicans don't value Lincoln and understand him as they should.

Whatever either or both parties do now, we shouldn't mistake the scale of our task. It is no longer the mid-­twentieth century, and there is no way to magically transplant ourselves back to it. We have to manage in a much less forgiving environment, where we aren't the last economy standing after a global cataclysm and where, even in the best case, some ­people are going to have a much harder time than they would have had fifty years ago. What we need, in a nutshell, is more rigor. We need it both from institutions and from individuals, and despite the formidable obstacles: Reforming the economy and government will mean overcoming the powerful pull of inertia; improving education will require besting entrenched interests deeply vested in the status quo; and restoring the national character will test the regenerative capacity of American culture.

In the spirit of Lincoln, our project should be equal parts modernization (opening the vistas of the economic future) and recovery (of the American character and of bourgeois virtues). After all this time, Lincoln's intellectual and moral case for the inherent worth of individual initiative, and for our free institutions and free economy as the foundations for it, is as important as ever. Lincoln's enduring relevance is in his embodiment, expression, and realization of the American Dream. Nearly two centuries ago, a boy picked up an axe and imagined something better. Fired by ambition for himself and eventually for others, he made his way in the world, and then changed it. He saved the republic and did all he could to make it a bustling empire of commerce, the hotbed of millions of dreams, schemes, and aspirations.

Across all the decades and despite all the momentous changes, we still live in that republic. In 1861, Lincoln told Congress, “The struggle of today is not altogether for today—­it is for a vast future also.” That future was our windfall. We diminish and squander it at the risk of losing what it means to be American, and losing touch with the wellsprings of human accomplishment. It is up to us. In how we react to the new challenges to the American Dream, we shall nobly save, or meanly lose, what Lincoln and generations of patriots bequeathed to us.

 

Notes

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

A note on the notes: These endnotes are not exhaustive. This is not an academic book. But I wanted to be sure to give readers enough information so they know where to go to find out more, and also to be sure to fully acknowledge my debt to all those professional historians on whose work I depended.

I
NTRODUCTI
ON

3 “the hardest set of men he ever saw”: Benjamin P. Thomas,
Lincoln's New Salem
(Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988), 79.

3 “Go to the devil, sir!”: Michael Burlingame,
Abraham Lincoln: A Life
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 67.

6 a trend that holds across the Western world: Peter Wehner and Robert P. Beschel Jr., “How to Think about Inequality,”
National Affairs
11 (Spring 2012), 94-­114.

6 Men with only a high-­school diploma: Scott Winship, “Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz is All Sorts of Wrong on Inequality,”
The Empiricist Strikes Back
, April 9, 2011, http://www.scottwinship.com/1/post/2011/4/nobel-­laureate-­joseph-­stiglitz-­is-­all-­sorts-­of-­wrong-­on-­inequality.html.

6 not quite the highly mobile society: Scott Winship, “Mobility Impaired,”
National Revie
w
,
November 14, 2011, 30-­33.

7 Social capital: W. Bradford Wilcox and Elizabeth Marquardt, eds., “When Marriage Disappears: The New Middle America,”
The State of Our Unions: 2010
(Charlottesville, VA: National Marriage Project and Institute for American Values, 2010).

8 “Well, Governor”: Merrill D. Peterson,
Lincoln in American Memory
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 10.

9 One of the more egregious examples: Mario Cuomo,
Why Lincoln Matters: Today More Than Ever
(Orlando: Harcourt, 2004).

10 “Lincoln's legitimate offspring”: Willmoore Kendall, “Source of American Caesarism,”
National Review
, November 7, 1959, 461-­62.

10 Lincoln inflicted: Frank S. Meyer, “Lincoln without Rhetoric,”
National Review
, August 24, 1965, 725-­27.

10 why Lincoln didn't forestall: John Hawkins, “An Interview with Ron Paul,”
Right Wing News
, March 31, 2010, http://www.right­wingnews.com/interviews/an-­interview-­with-­ron-­paul/.

11 to protect human bondage: Thomas L. Krannawitter,
Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 292, 230-31. He has a good discussion of all the issues, and pushes back against the conservative critics in his chapters “Was the Civil War Caused by Slavery or Economics?” and “Was Lincoln the Father of Big Government?”

12 gigantic privatization: I draw on the arguments Guelzo makes in an informative Heritage Foundation paper called “Abraham Lincoln or the Progressives: Who was the
real
father of big government?”
The Heritage Foundation
, February 10, 2012, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/02/abraham-lincoln-was-not-the-father-of-big-government.

15 unstoppable dynamo of economic development: Kevin Phillips in
The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, Civil Warfare, and the Triumph of Anglo-­America
(New York: Basic Books, 1999), 470, and Paul Kennedy in
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
(New York: Random House, 1987), 200-­01, 423, both have useful discussions of the growth of post-­Civil War America.

C
HAPTER 1

18 “more hopeful and confident”: F.B. Carpenter,
Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln
(New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1866), 97-­98.

20 “My how he could chop”: Louis A. Warren,
Lincoln's Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-­One, 1816-­1830
(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1959), 142-­43. Facts drawn from this book are sprinkled throughout the chapter.

20 “back side of this world”: Burlingame,
A Life
, 17.

21 “from the days of the Phoenicians”: George Rogers Taylor,
The Transportation Revolution, 1815-­1860
(White Plains, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1951), 5. The beginning of Taylor, 3-­6, has a rundown of conditions in the early 19th century. So does Bruce Levine,
Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2005), 51-­56.

23 “a marvel of learning”: Warren,
Youth
, 25.

24 “when a mere child”: Burlingame,
A Life
, 37.

25 a restless and seeking mind: Burlingame,
A Life
, 45, and Daniel Walker Howe,
Making the American Self: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 138. They both recount memories of Lincoln's early ambition.

25 “Honest Thomas”: David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln
(New York: Touchstone, 1996), 21-­26, 33, and William Lee Miller,
Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography
(New York: Knopf, 2002), 68-­71. They both have details about Thomas. So do Warren's
Youth
, 10-­19, 193, and Burlingame's
A Life
, 2-­26.

28 Lincoln's great-grandfather: Facts about Lincoln's ancestors are drawn from Mark E. Neely Jr.'s
The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and The Promise of America
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 2-­3, and Donald's
Lincoln,
21.

28 Despite much adversity: Donald's
Lincoln
, 22, and Warren's
Youth
, 86, 115, 121.

29 rural isolation: Warren's
Youth
, 23, 41, and Burlingame's
A Life
, 23, describe just how isolated.

30 “no market for nothing”: Michael Burlingame,
The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln
(Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 41.

30 The “rusticity”: Jean H. Baker,
“ ‘Not Much of Me' ”: Abraham Lincoln as a Typical American
(Fort Wayne, IN: Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum, 1988), 7.

30 “The son's ambitions juxtaposed”: Howe,
Making
, 138-­39.

31 a tiny schoolhouse: Burlingame's
A Life
, 18-­19, 30-­34, has a detailed description of the schools and Lincoln's early diligence. So does Warren,
Youth
, 83.

34 He read the Bible: Warren's
Youth
, 21-­31, 76-­80, 105, 212, provides an exhaustive account of his reading. Burlingame's
A Life
, 36-­45, does as well. Douglas L. Wilson,
Honor's Voice
:
The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln
(New York: Vintage Books, 1998), 57, and Donald's
Lincoln
, 33, describe opposition to Lincoln's reading from those around him.

36 hire Lincoln out: Donald's
Lincoln
, 32, 43, and Burlingame's
A Life
, 42-­44, recount his youthful working life.

37 “we were all slaves”: Burlingame,
Inner
, 36.

37 maximum height for a stump: Taylor's
Transportation
, 15, 56-­64, 143, 158, authoritatively describes the changes wrought by the coming of the steamboat.

38 the riverine commercial current: Warren's
Youth
, 144-­49, is especially good on Lincoln and the rivers. He tells the story of Lincoln's flatboat trip with Gentry, 182-­86.

39 Two yoke of oxen: Ibid, 207.

40 “He never once”: Burlingame,
A Life
, 10.

40 the merchant Denton Offutt: Ibid, 52-­57. I draw on Burlingame's account of Lincoln and Offutt.

41 ­People moved into Illinois: Thomas,
New Salem
, 12-­41. His book on Lincoln's new home is a little gem.

42 running strongman contest on the frontier: Wilson's
Voice
, 142-­43, 67, describes his physicality and his humor. Burlingame's
A Life
, 78, has the story about Johnson Elmore. Thomas's
New Salem
, 67, has the story of Babb McNabb's rooster.

43 “
only plenty of friends
”: Donald,
Lincoln
, 42.

43 “how rapidly his life opens”: Miller,
Virtues
, 24.

43 convinced him to run: Donald,
Lincoln
, 41. Burlingame's
A Life
, 71, has the uncouth quote.

43 become a viable throughway: Allen C. Guelzo,
Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 43-­48. Donald's
Lincoln
, 41-­42, Burlingame's
A Life
, 66, Thomas's
New Salem
, 72-­76, and Wilson's
Voice
, 87-­88, also take up the saga of the Sangamon.

45 revolutionary economic potential: Levine's
Half
, 54, explains why.

46 eighth out of thirteen: Donald's
Lincoln
, 42-­46, and Neely,
Best Hope
, 8, describe his first campaign.

46 the local postmaster: Thomas's
New Salem
, 94-­112, has many of the charming details in this passage about Lincoln's early employment.

47 ran again for the legislature: Donald's
Lincoln
, 52-­55, and Wilson's
Voice
, 151-­71, report many of the facts and incidents in this passage.

49 “Grammar is divided into four parts”: Wilson's
Voice
, 63-­67, is good on Lincoln's study of grammar.

50 “all the teaching of grammar”: Thomas,
New Salem
, 69-­70.

50 “bustle, business, energy”: Brian R. Dirck,
Lincoln the Lawyer
(Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008), 15-­17. He explains well the culture of the law at this time and what drew Lincoln to the profession. Wilson's
Voice
, 101, and Burlingame's
A Life
tell the story of Bowling Green. Donald's
Lincoln
, 45-­54, describes how Lincoln began to take up the study of the law.

52 for hewing timbers: Burlingame,
A Life
, 6.

52 “He used to be a slave”: Burlingame,
Inner
, 36.

C
HAPTER 2

54 never elected a governor or senator: Eric Foner's
The Fiery Trial
:
Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2010), 33-­34, describes the Whig struggles in Illinois.

55 lampooned another party-switcher: Burlingame,
A Life
, 157-­58.

56 Whig during the entire existence of the party: Miller,
Virtues
, 106.

57 gentleman farmer from Kentucky: Daniel Walker Howe,
The Political Culture of the American Whigs
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 2-­18, 123-­37, Gabor S. Boritt's
Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream
(Memphis, Tenn: Memphis State University Press, 1978), 99, and Guelzo's
Redeemer
, 53-­57, discuss Clay and the broader Whig attitude.

57 “self-­made man”: “Mr. Clay's Speech,”
Niles' Weekly Register
, vol. XLII (March 3, 1832), 11.

59 within the dominant Jeffersonian Republicans: Michael F. Holt,
The Rise and Fall of the
American Whig
Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 2-­3. His book is encyclopedic. I rely on its opening sections for the story of the emergence of the Whigs, as well as Daniel Walker Howe's
What God Hath Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-­1848
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

64 “refusals, rejections, and disengagements”: Miller,
Virtues
, 26.

65 couldn't work for days: Burlingame,
A Life
, 36.

65 “Throughout the nation”: Holt,
American Whig
, 83.

66 “the vast majority of wealthy businessmen”: Ibid.

66 the slave owner and gambler: For the contrasting depictions of Jackson and Clay, I draw on Howe's
Hath Wrought
, 248-­49, 329-­30, and Howe's
Political Culture
, 125-­27.

67 “more civilized way of life”: Howe,
Political Culture
, 266.

68 an aid to labor: Thomas,
New Salem
, 48-­49.

68 “Those who have no vices”: Burlingame,
A Life
, 301.

69 “By jings”: Burlingame,
A Life
, 5.

69 a matter of honor: Wilson,
Voice
, 295. He is particularly instructive on the culture of fighting.

73 it is a
temperate
temperance address: Harry V. Jaffa,
Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-­Douglas Debates
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1959), 247-­48.

74 “self-­control, order, rationality”: Howe,
Political Culture
, 269.

78 “old” when he was still: Burlingame,
A Life
, 249.

78 At his law office: Donald,
Lincoln
, 101.

78 “Women are the only things”: Burlingame,
A Life
, 97.

79 who had learned French: Burlingame,
A Life
, 176.

80 impressive catalogue: Miller,
Virtues
, 95.

81 “then commenced the drinking”: Thomas Ford,
A History of Illinois: From Its Commencement as a State in 1814 to 1847
(Carlisle, MA: Applewood Books, 1854), 104-­05.