Abraham Lincoln

An Uncommon, Common Man

Preface

A narrative, by definition, is the presentation of a story; or the telling of a story in detail representing events or actions; or, a story told by a narrator.

This is a narrative of the life of Abraham Lincoln told from my perspective. I envisioned it as a story for which I would be the narrator and the reader would be the audience. I sincerely hope that my presentation of his life story fairly represents the man, his personal philosophy, his path to leadership, and his reactions to the events that influenced him.

I have been an admirer of Lincoln since I was first introduced to his legacy as a third grader in Zeigler, a small coal mining town in Southern Illinois. For the next seven years I enjoyed reading from the modest collection of Lincoln books in our town’s library. Fortunately, the six volume set of Carl Sandburg’s “Prairie Years” and “War Years” written from 1926 to 1939 was available, and I read those over a two year span in the eighth and ninth grades. Southern Illinois, unlike the area around Springfield 150 miles north, was heavily Democratic and, during the Civil War, a majority of the population did not support Lincoln’s policies. As a result, the town’s library contained a few articles and books critical of Lincoln, the reconstruction period, and Federal treatment of Southern states in general.

Many residents of Southern Illinois before and after the Civil War migrated from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi and, even in my childhood, those allegiances were evident. I recall writing a report about Lincoln in the eighth grade, which I hoped would be published in the “Weekly Reader” national newsletter for schools. I actually heard a few classmates and one teacher remark that Lincoln was not a “great President” and that my report was not correct. I sent it in anyway, but it was not published, which was probably more an indication of the quality of my writing than interest in my subject.

For many years that followed, my focus was on education, career and family. However, my interest in Lincoln was renewed after reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals” published in 2005. Her book focused on his political, managerial and executive abilities, which was insightful to me as I had been mainly interested in his more broad life story. With the “Team of Rivals” as new inspiration, I then returned to the Carl Sandburg Lincoln biographies, which had captured my attention as a young boy. I was reminded again that Sandburg was a poet first and a historian second; which caused some later scholars to criticize his works. But, to me, he captured the heart of Lincoln, not just the events of his life. Then I read three books, “Lincoln” by David Donald, “The Civil War” by Goeffry Ward and Ken Burns, and “A. Lincoln” by Ronald C. White, which were each carefully researched and offered fascinating details of his life and times that I had not read before. In some instances, these authors corrected some of my earlier misconceptions. I then revisited “Herndon’s Lincoln,” an 1889 biography by his law partner, William Herndon.

Those books then sent me to many others, with each author offering their own glimpse of Lincoln, some with very different, even opposing, perspectives. I have listed some of these books, which formed the basis for this narrative, in Supplemental Report (A) - Sources and Acknowledgements. If I had reason to believe a quote by Lincoln or another person, or the facts surrounding an event, had been adequately researched and verified by multiple respected sources, I accepted it as historically valid. Occasionally, however, authors described the same event or conversation differently and I usually include both versions or I name the source I use. It is important to me that I give credit to these historians and scholars whose efforts are reflected in this narrative. I urge readers to review the Supplemental Report (A) to help understand the motivations of these authors/historians, the valuable research they conducted, and their unique perspectives about Lincoln. Then, I hope the readers will select and read some of the listed books.

Lincoln was always reluctant to discuss his past, in part because he felt his life story was not compelling, and in part because he was without hubris. Unfortunately, he wrote only three brief personal histories that we know of, and those hardly comprise an autobiography. Therefore, much of what we know came from others of his day and later research by historians. Even the “Lincoln Papers” in the Library of Congress, compiled by his secretaries, were available only on a limited basis until 1890; and then sealed from public view until 1947. Sandburg, for example, did not have full access to these thousands of documents and correspondence. Lincoln’s personal narratives are included here, in full. (See Supplemental Report (B) - Lincoln’s Three Autobiographies)

This narrative is divided into 34 chapters identified as either a period of time in Lincoln’s life or a significant event that shaped his focus, his views, his decisions, and/or the direction of his life. Therefore it is somewhat chronological but in any chapter there may be time lines that overlap with another section. This type of literary organization leads to some duplication of information which I attempt to keep to a minimum.

The 34 chapters are then followed by several Supplemental Reports which focus on specific subjects that did not seem to fit within a chapter, or which cover events that occurred after his death, or contain modern observations about Lincoln. Each Supplemental Report is narrated to “stand alone” as a presentation. In addition to the Reports (A) -Sources and Acknowledgements and (B) - Lincoln’s Three Autobiographies mentioned above, there are Supplemental Reports on biographies of key individuals, Lincoln’s religious beliefs, his honesty, his humor, slavery populations, the “Lost Cause” movement, Lincoln’s melancholia, rumors about him in his time, some 20th century publications that attempted to re-invent him, a list of children’s books, and commentary on Lincoln in the movies, including Steven Spielberg’s 2012 movie “Lincoln” and others. With this format, I may add other Supplemental Reports over time without revising the basic text.

In this narrative I use subjective words such as most, many, some and few when assessing the collective opinions of recognized and reputable Lincoln scholars and historians, or public perceptions, to give a sense of the level of support that I have observed for the topic. These are my honest assessments but certainly are subject to challenge by the reader.