Lincoln on LincolnPaul M. Zall Though Abraham Lincoln has been the subject of numerous biographies, his personality remains an enigma. During his lifetime, Lincoln prepared two sketches of his life for the 1860 presidential race. These brief campaign portraits serve as the core around which Paul Zall weaves extracts from correspondence, speeches, and interviews to produce an in-depth biography. Lincoln's writing about himself offers a window into the soul and mind of one of America's greatest president. His words reveal an emotional evolution typically submerged in political biographies. Lincoln on Lincoln shows a man struggling to reconcile personal ambition and civic virtue, conscience and Constitution, and ultimately the will of God and the will of the people. Zall frames Lincoln's words with his own illuminating commentary, providing a continuous, compelling narrative. Beginning with Lincoln's thoughts on his parents, the story moves though his youth and early successes and failures in law and politics, and culminates in his clashes and conflicts—internal as well as external—as president of a divided country. Through his writings, Lincoln said much more about himself than is commonly recognized, and Zall uses this material to create a unique portrait of this pivotal figure. |
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... campaign, so with these as matrix I have interwoven extracts from correspondence, speeches, interviews, and reliable reports to provide a tapestry of his life in his own words. He was not the kind of person to bare his soul in public or ...
... . These are, or are supposed to be, the rails about which so much is being made just now, though they are far from being the first, or only rails ever made by A. 18 The allusion to “rails” jests about the campaign to popularize.
... campaign for “The Rail Lincoln.” He had indeed split rails, for cousin Nancy Hanks Miller recalled bartering “one yard of brown jeans (richly died with walnut bark) for every four hundred rails made, until he should have enough for a ...
... in 1860 (Drake 34-35; Lokken 136-38). Son Robert sold what Mary Todd Lincoln called “wild lands in Iowa” in 1892 for $13,000 (Beveridge l:553n; MTL 265). APRIL-JULY 1832 He went the campaign, served near three months, met the.
... campaign, and encouraged by his great popularity among his immediate neighbors, he, the same year, ran for the Legislature. 5 In his seven months at New Salem, his only job, other than clerking and postmastering, had been helping to ...
Contents
Making His Way with Wit and Wisdom | |
Stumping the State and the Nation | |
Preserving Protecting Defending | |
Making Peace All Passion Spent | |
Notes | |