Documentos de Académico
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A B R A H A M
LINCOLN
A B R A H A M
LINCOLN
a legacy of freedom
a legacy o f f r e e do m
Bureau of International Information Programs
U.S. Department of State
http://www.america.gov
Preface ............................................................................................................. 2
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8
he year 2009 marks the In Lincoln’s biography, Obama of this country — the self‒made
200th anniversary of the continued, his “rise from poverty, his man. In “The Words That Moved a
birth of Abraham Lincoln, ultimate mastery of language and law, Nation,” Lincoln biographer Ronald
the U.S. president his capacity to overcome personal C. White limns another of Lincoln’s
often considered the greatest of loss and remain determined in the surpassing gifts — his eloquence, a
this country’s leaders. Americans’ face of repeated defeat … reminded mastery of words encompassing the
reverence for Lincoln began with me of a larger, fundamental element soaring biblical cadences that inspire
his tragic death by assassination of American life — the enduring a nation and, equally, the homespun
in 1865, at the end of a brutal civil belief that we can constantly remake wisdom of the common man.
war in which 623,000 men died, ourselves to fit our larger dreams.” Three essays examine Lincoln’s
the American Union withstood By bringing together leading role as leader through the great
its greatest test, and slavery was historians and asking them to national crisis of the Civil War. In
banished. And his hallowed place consider Lincoln from different “Path to the White House: Abraham
in the iconography of America angles, we hope to help people Lincoln from 1854” and “Lincoln
continues. More than 14,000 books around the world understand the as Emancipator,” this book’s editor,
have been published on Lincoln to sources of the man’s greatness as well Michael Jay Friedman, lays out the
date. Contemporary scholar Douglas as his place in Americans’ hearts. issues that led to the Civil War
L. Wilson calls Lincoln the “best This volume, then, presents a sort and the events that led Lincoln
known and most widely acclaimed of of pointillist portrait of Lincoln. Our to order the 1863 Emancipation
all Americans.” introduction presents a personal view Proclamation, which freed the
Why add one more volume of Lincoln, that of Eileen Mackevich, slaves of American South. Civil
to the massive mound of Lincoln executive director of the Abraham War historian Peter Cozzens, in
scholarship? Because we believe Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. “Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief,”
that Lincoln embodies fundamental In our opening essay, “What
American ideals that stretch from Lincoln Means to Americans
the founding of this nation down to Today,” journalist Andrew
the present. Ferguson considers the libraries
Among the Americans embracing of Lincoln books, the collectors
this vision of our 16th president is of Lincoln memorabilia, the
the 44th president, Barack Obama. actors who present a reenacted
Writing in 2005, as a newly minted Lincoln to the masses, and
U.S. senator, Obama declared it hard the Lincoln Memorial in
to imagine a less likely scenario than Washington, D.C., for what they
his own rise — “except, perhaps, for say about Lincoln’s enduring
the one that allowed a child born in appeal. Next, in “Groundwork
the backwoods of Kentucky with less for Greatness: Abraham Lincoln to 7jj^[^[Whje\j^[B_dYebdC[ceh_Wb
than a year of formal education to 1854,” historian Wilson recounts the WXel[":Wd_[b9^[ij[h<h[dY^Êi
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end up as Illinois’ greatest citizen and story of a boy born to humble parents B_dYebd\WY_d][WijmWhZ"jemWhZj^[
our nation’s greatest president.” in a frontier cabin who wills himself MWi^_d]jedCedkc[dj$
to become that great archetype
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mong history’s heroes, Abraham Lincoln stands out as THE American
original. Born to unaspiring parents on the hard-scrabble frontier, his
meteoric rise was never less than inspiring. Lincoln continued to grow
and remake himself anew throughout his lifetime. Even 200 years later,
we seek his guidance. In truth, we can do no better Only Lincoln could have steered us from the
than to emulate our 16th president: a man of dogged, tragic course of race relations that followed his death.
so very American, ambition, but also one whose As John Hope Franklin, the African-American
resolve was always tempered by an unswerving scholar often called the dean of American historians,
determination never to compromise his personal put it, “Of all the American presidents, only Lincoln
integrity. stayed up nights worried about the fate of my people.”
Never boring, our Lincoln. He is a simple man, While Lincoln today enjoys the near-universal
a complex man, a roustabout, a jokester, a recluse, esteem of his countrymen, during his lifetime he was
a man of action, a visionary. Just when we think we hardly a man for all seasons and all reasons. Many
understand him, he eludes us. He is not a man to be southerners and abolitionists disliked him. Frederick
pigeon-holed. There is a Lincoln for all seasons and Douglass, the former slave turned abolitionist author,
all reasons. editor, and political reformer (also the most admired
Scholars find rich soil in Lincoln’s many man in England), faulted Lincoln for failing to act
manifestations. They debate the substance of his swiftly on emancipation. Douglass felt that Lincoln
life and the larger meaning of his tragic death. How was too solicitous of the slave-holding border states
did his views on race evolve? Why did he move so that refrained from joining the southern rebellion.
cautiously on emancipation? Was he moved only Only later did Douglass perceive Lincoln’s political
by the imperative of battlefield success and the artistry: The president, he came to understand, was a
consequent need to gather support from abroad? masterfully pragmatic politician who knew just how
When did he embrace the idea of full citizenship for fast and how far he could push the American people
the former slaves? Would his Reconstruction plan toward abolition.
have successfully reunited North and South while Ever anxious to learn, Lincoln invited outspoken
ensuring the former slaves their full legal equality? people to the White House. He respected their
honesty. Douglass was one. Another was Anna
Dickinson, a Quaker activist abolitionist, women’s
rights advocate, and intense Lincoln admirer. But she
turned against Lincoln because he would not support
her charge of treason against the pompous, politically On a sunny spring day shortly before his
scheming General George B. McClellan. Lincoln assassination, Abraham and his wife, Mary Todd
listened respectfully to Americans of different stripes, Lincoln, took a carriage ride. The war was over.
from Negro abolitionists to Quaker activists, to the Optimism reigned. Abe contemplated the future.
talented, high-powered individuals he included in his After his presidency, Lincoln told his wife, he hoped
cabinet, to his political rivals — but the important they would travel to Europe and beyond. That was not
decisions always were Lincoln’s alone. As a leader, to be. But in the larger sense, Abraham Lincoln has
Lincoln moved deliberately, always testing the traveled the world — his belief that the common
prevailing political winds. He changed his mind often. man can make himself anew is inspiration enough
He was, in the modern jargon of the distinguished for us all.
historian James Horton, the ultimate “flip-flopper.”
But the great social scientist W.E.B. Du Bois may
have reached the essential truth when he called
Lincoln “big enough to be inconsistent.”
My great attraction to Lincoln rests on his ;_b[[dCWYa[l_Y^_ij^[[n[Ykj_l[Z_h[Yjehe\j^[
nobility of character, his “self-making” in the larger 7XhW^WcB_dYebd8_Y[dj[dd_Wb9ecc_ii_ed$I^[_i
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in a belief in equality and in the ideals of freedom,
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we can imagine all things from Lincoln. He might j^[?bb_de_i>kcWd_j_[i9ekdY_b$
have solved the race problem; he might have extended
female suffrage. He is, more than any other, the
American hero.
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14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LEGACY OF FREEDOM
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braham Lincoln is the best-known and most widely acclaimed of all
Americans, and the only American statesmen whose life story is generally
familiar. Lincoln’s status as the quintessential self-made man and his
legendary rise from obscure backwoods beginnings to the presidency are
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1865, the legend that surrounds him, with compass and chain, the diligent A Mind Ripe for Learning
and that Americans know so well, student preparing himself for the
is anchored in familiar images from practice of law. From the very beginning, Abraham
his early years — the poor Indiana Not generally part of the popular Lincoln was different, and in a way
frontiersman’s son with an axe in legend, although crucial aspects of that many of his neighbors — and
his hands, the boy in the log cabin his development, are such things especially his father — did not
reading by the firelight, the honest as the rational and keenly skeptical approve. Unlike almost everyone
store clerk and village postmaster, cast of his mind and the very real else he grew up with, Lincoln was
the fearless newcomer who stands up difficulties he had to contend with in intensely interested in words and
to bullies, the self-taught surveyor his formative years. meanings. He learned to read and
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advising his law partner, William events or they instead propelled him
µI happen Herndon, “If it should so happen
that nobody else wishes to be
forward, there can be little doubt
over the nation’s good fortune: In its
temporarily to elected, I could not refuse the people
the right of sending me again.”
time of greatest need, America found
its greatest leader.
Lincoln had enjoyed his two years in
occupy this big Washington and had begun to make Free Labor
a name for himself as an opponent of
White House. the Mexican War, but there was no Abraham Lincoln had always
great public clamor for his continued championed “free labor,” the principle
I am living service. Disappointed, he returned to that a man — and in Lincoln’s day
Springfield and began rebuilding his this meant males only — could work
witness that legal practice.
But 1854 also saw new fissures in
how and where he wanted, could
accumulate property in his own
any one of your the delicate sectional compromises
over slavery. Increasingly the free
name, and, most importantly, could
rise freely as far as his talents and
children may North and slaveholding South each
saw the other’s customs and practices
abilities might take him. Lincoln
himself was a model of this self-made
as a lethal threat to its own way man. As he wrote in 1854:
look to come of life. Lincoln was drawn to this
There is no permanent class of hired
debate, and thus gradually back to
here as my public life. Whether Lincoln seized
laborers amongst us. Twenty-five
years ago, I was a hired laborer. The
father ’s child
has.¶
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Minnesota
Oregon Territory New Hampshire
Territory Nebraska Massachusetts
Territory Wisconsin New York
Michigan Rhode Island
Iowa Pennsylvania Connecticut
Utah New Jersey
Ohio
Territory Delaware
Illinois Indiana
Kansas Maryland
California Virginia
Territory
Missouri Kentucky
North Carolina
Missouri Compromise Line (36° 30’N) Tennessee
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Territory Arkansas South
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Alabama Georgia
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8
he billions of U.S. pennies that will be a merit badge. But he never pictured himself as a coin
produced in 2009 are getting a makeover. designer, much less a master designer with the Artistic
The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Infusion Program, which he is today.
Commission (ALBC) and the U.S. Mint Nor as a child did Masters think about the design
recently unveiled four new designs for the reverse side of process, figuring the renderings on the coins just
the one-cent coin to celebrate Lincoln’s 200th birthday. magically appeared. “Someone, somewhere decides what
The new pennies will be released periodically to put on these,” he remembers thinking.
throughout the year. The obverse side, or “heads,” will Decades later, he is that someone. Masters used the
remain the same: Victor David Brenner’s profile of historical narrative provided by the Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln has been on the front of the penny since the Bicentennial Commission as a starting point to craft his
1909 centennial of Lincoln’s birth. The reverse side, or image illustrating Lincoln’s birth and early childhood
“tails,” has been redesigned twice since that time. But in in Kentucky. “I thought it [the log cabin] would be an
2009 the design will change four times to represent four image most Americans recognized,” says Masters, who
periods in Lincoln’s life: his early childhood in Kentucky, is also an associate professor of art at the University of
his young adulthood in Indiana, his career as a lawyer Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
and legislator in Illinois, and his time as president in One of the most difficult parts of the design was
Washington, D.C. the scale. An artist’s vision may have to be shrunk to
The U.S. Congress, which is the only body that fit within a coin’s small diameter. “The challenge here
can authorize changes to coins, passed legislation for was really to stay focused on the primary element,” says
the redesign in 2005. Designs for the pennies were Masters.
submitted by sculptor-engravers at the U.S. Mint and Still other changes are to come. Congress has
through the Artistic Infusion Program, a group of mandated that, beginning in 2010, the reverse side of the
outside artists under contract to the Mint. The designs penny feature a yet-to-be-determined image of Lincoln’s
were reviewed by the ALBC, the Citizen Coin Advisory “preservation of the United States of America as a single
Committee, and the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts. and united country.”
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson reviewed their
recommendations and selected the final designs.
Richard Masters’ depiction of a log cabin was one of
the designs selected by Secretary Paulson for the series. C[]^WdBe\jki_iWd_dj[hdWjj^[8kh[Wke\
Masters had been a coin enthusiast as a boy and had also ?dj[hdWj_edWb?d\ehcWj_edFhe]hWci$
collected coins for the Cub Scouts while working for
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Lincoln replied: “I don’t care so much Abraham Lincoln had entered the
µAmerica for brigadiers; I can make them. But
horses and mules cost money.”
presidency with no military training
or experience except as a militia
will never be That jest had a bitter undertone,
borne of Lincoln’s long frustration
captain in a minor Indian war three
decades earlier. The standing army
with mediocre generals and the Lincoln inherited in March 1861
destroyed from burden of having had to run the war numbered just 16,000 men who were
effort almost single-handedly for dispersed in small garrisons from the
the outside. three years. Atlantic Coast to California. Lincoln
The American Civil War was the had no modern military command
If we falter first modern total war — a conflict system on which to rely for advice
waged not only between armies, or to communicate his instructions
and lose our as had long been the tradition in
Western warfare, but also between
effectively to field commanders. Not
only was there no general staff when
freedoms, it societies, their economic resources,
and their very ways of life.
war broke out a month later, but
only two regular army generals had
will be because
we destroyed
ourselves.¶
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34
ABR
ABRAHAM
ABRAAHA M LINC
L
LINCOLN:
INCO
OLN: A L
LEGACY
EGA
EG ACY OF FRE
FREEDO
FREEDOM
EDOM
M
While later presidents possessed
the luxury of appointing talented
but usually pliant subordinates,
then-existing custom and political
reality required that Lincoln fill his
cabinet with willful politicians of
national prominence. Among them
were Secretary of State William H.
Seward, whom Lincoln had defeated
for the Republican presidential
nomination in a stunning upset;
Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P.
Chase, a founder of the Republican
Party who fancied himself a future
president; and Secretary of War
Edwin M. Stanton, a Democrat
who had bested Lincoln in a major
court case when both were lawyers.
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these men all considered themselves something his generals proved
intellectually superior to Lincoln, singularly incapable of doing until
equally if not more capable of General Grant assumed the role of idolized by his men — because he
steering the ship of state through the general-in-chief in February 1864. suffered from what Lincoln termed
treacherous waters of civil war. To Lincoln’s constant frustration, his “the slows.” He showed similar, and
generals consistently failed fully to proper, impatience with generals who
A Challenge From the press the North’s large advantages in were too timid to follow up battlefield
Incompetents manpower and industrial capacity. victories decisively. Unfortunately for
Lincoln knew there could be no the North, every army commander
Despite these liabilities, by the power half measures, that the issues of in the war’s first three years displayed
of his mind and force of character national union and emancipation this shortcoming.
Lincoln became a brilliant strategist, could be settled only in such a way Lincoln also faced an internal
with a better grasp on the nature and that they could never be reopened. challenge to his commander-in-chief
objectives of civil war than any of the This required both the total authority. Today, of course, the
long line of generals who commanded destruction of the Confederate army principle of absolute civilian control
Union armies, Ulysses S. Grant not and of the capacity of the South to over the military is universally
excepted. From the start, Lincoln wage war. accepted. It had not been when
recognized the value of the North’s As the war dragged on, Lincoln Lincoln took office. Since the nation’s
overwhelming naval power, and he rid the army of scores of incompetent founding it had been acceptable
employed it relentlessly to choke political generals at great risk to for army commanders to pass
the Confederacy, closing southern his reelection. He asked only for judgment on political questions — a
ports to prevent the export of its commanders who would fight, and brand of insubordination that was
only commodity of international he willingly discarded his strategic comparatively harmless during the
value — cotton — and to prevent judgments when he thought he war with Mexico, but that could
the import of badly needed arms and had found an able general. But all threaten the fabric of the nation in a
other war supplies from Europe. He too often he instead encountered struggle for national survival as did
also understood the importance of inaction, delay, and excuses. the Civil War.
seizing the Mississippi River to cut He relieved the most popular When Lincoln relieved
the South in half, as well as the need commander of the first year and a McClellan of command, a number of
to maintain pressure on the whole half of the war — Major General McClellan’s subordinate generals in
strategic line of the Confederacy, George B. McClellan, a man fiercely the Army of the Potomac discussed
A Shift in Sentiment
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Which is it? A fair answer requires wife.” And shortly before signing the
µNearly all that we evaluate Lincoln in the
context of his times and of his role in
Emancipation Proclamation freeing
slaves in the Confederate South,
men can stand public life.
“I have always hated slavery as
President Lincoln invited a visiting
free black delegation to consider
much as any abolitionist,” Lincoln emigrating to Haiti or Central
adversity, but said in 1858. But when political America, saying, “It is better for us
opponent Stephen A. Douglas both … to be separated.”
if you want to charged that Lincoln favored racial Many of Lincoln’s actions are
equality, he responded that “I am best understood by recalling that his
test a man’s not, nor have ever been, in favor chosen career was not moral prophet
of bringing about in any way the but instead, as the leading historian
character, give social and political equality of the
white and black races.” Lincoln
James M. McPherson has written,
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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 Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and
his second inaugural address.
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“I claim not to have controlled events, “If you look for the bad in people “You cannot build character and
but confess plainly that events have expecting to find it, you surely will.” courage by taking away a man’s
controlled me.” initiative and independence.”
“It has been my experience that
“Public sentiment is everything. With folks who have no vices have very “You cannot escape the responsibility of
public sentiment, nothing can fail; few virtues.” tomorrow by evading it today.”
without it nothing can succeed.”
“Most folks are about as happy as they “If I were to try to read, much less
“Discourage litigation. Persuade your make their minds up to be.” answer, all the attacks made on me,
neighbors to compromise whenever this shop might as well be closed for any
you can. Point out to them how the “The assertion that ‘all men are created other business. I do the very best I know
nominal winner is often a real loser equal’ was of no practical use in how — the very best I can; and I mean
— in fees, expenses, and waste of effecting our separation from Great to keep doing so until the end. If the
time. As a peacemaker the lawyer Britain and it was placed in end brings me out all right, what’s said
has a superior opportunity of being a the Declaration not for that, but for against me won’t amount to anything.
good man. There will still be business future use.” If the end brings me out wrong, ten
enough.” angels swearing I was right would make
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” no difference.”
“It is said an Eastern monarch once
charged his wise men to invent him “The best way to destroy an enemy is to “Those who deny freedom to others,
a sentence to be ever in view, and make him a friend.” deserve it not for themselves; and,
which should be true and appropriate under a just God, can not long
“The best way to get a bad law repealed
in all times and situations. They retain it.”
is to enforce it strictly.”
presented him the words: ‘And this,
too, shall pass away.’ How much it “Common looking people are the best in
“The probability that we may fail in the
expresses! How chastening in the hour the world: that is the reason the Lord
struggle ought not to deter us from the
of pride! How consoling in the depths makes so many of them.”
support of a cause we believe to
of affliction!” be just.”
“Ballots are the rightful and peaceful “To stand in silence when they should
successors to bullets.” be protesting makes cowards out
of men.”
“Character is like a tree and reputation
like its shadow. The shadow is what we “What kills a skunk is the publicity it
think of it; the tree is the real thing.” gives itself.”
“Every man is said to have his peculiar “Whatever you are, be a good one.”
ambition. Whether it be true or not,
I can say for one that I have no other “With Malice toward none, with
so great as that of being truly esteemed charity for all, with firmness in the
of my fellow men, by rendering myself right, as God gives us to see the right,
worthy of their esteem.” let us strive on to finish the work we
are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
“Every one desires to live long, but no “You can fool all the people some of the
one would be old. ” time, and some of the people all the
time, but you cannot fool all the people
“I don’t like that man. I must get to
all the time.”
know him better.”
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Schuster, 1995. by Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson. Urbana,
IL: Knox College Lincoln Studies Center, University of
Ferguson, Andrew. Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Illinois Press, 2008.
Abe’s America. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press;
distributed by Publishers Group West, 2007. Lincoln, Abraham. Selected Speeches and Writings. 1st
Vintage Books, Library of America ed. New York:
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Vintage Books, 1992.
Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Simon and [The texts are selected from The Collected Works of
Schuster, 2005. Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy Basler (1953), and
its supplement (1974), and annotated by Don E.
Herndon, William H., and Jesse W. Weik. Herndon’s Fehrenbacher.]
Lincoln; edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O.
Davis. Galesburg, IL: Knox College Lincoln Studies Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and
Center; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006. the War Years. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich,
(Published in association with the Abraham Lincoln c1982.
Bicentennial Commission.)
White, Ronald C. The Eloquent President: A Portrait
Holzer, Harold and Sara V. Gabbard, eds. Lincoln and of Lincoln Through His Words. New York: Random
Freedom: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Thirteenth House, 2005.
Amendment. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois
University Press, 2007. (Published in conjunction with Wilson, Douglas L. Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and
the Lincoln Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana.) the Power of Words. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
a legacy of freedom
a legacy o f f r e e do m
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