Lincoln Reshapes the Presidency

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Charles M. Hubbard
Mercer University Press, 2003 - Biography & Autobiography - 236 pages
How Abraham Lincoln redefined the presidency

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Contents

Abraham Lincoln and the Changing Role of Commander in Chief
9
Abraham Lincoln and the Parole System in the Civil War
30
The Public Career of John G Nicolay
52
Lincoln Spins the Press
65
An Exposition
79
Lincolns Pardons and What They Mean
99
Lincolns Legacy of Political Transcendence
120
Lincoln Leadership and the Thirteenth Amendment
153
Lincolns Role in the Presidential Election of 1864
173
Mary Lincoln and PostAssassination Memory
199
Lincolns Legacy for Our Time
214
Contributors by Order of Appearance
234
Copyright

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Page 81 - If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.
Page 81 - What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.
Page 136 - This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men...
Page 229 - The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word "liberty...
Page 79 - As a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.
Page 81 - seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be the Union as it was.
Page 81 - My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.
Page 136 - Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism.
Page 225 - Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
Page 136 - By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.