LINCOLN, ABRAHAM

born February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, U.S. died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C. Abraham Lincoln, 1863. byname Honest Abe, The Rail-splitter, or The Great Emancipator 16th president of the United States (186165), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of the slaves. Among American heroes, Lincoln continues to have a unique appeal for his fellow countrymen and also for people of other lands. This charm derives from his remarkable life storythe rise from humble origins, the dramatic deathand from his distinctively human and humane personality as well as from his historical role as saviour of the Union and emancipator of the slaves. His relevance endures and grows especially because of his eloquence as a spokesman for democracy. In his view, the Union was worth saving not only for its own sake but because it embodied an ideal, the ideal of self-government. In recent years, the political side to Lincoln's character, and his racial views in particular, have come under close scrutiny, as scholars continue to find him a rich subject of research. born Feb. 12, 1809, Hodgenville, Ky., U.S. died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C. byname Honest Abe, The Railsplitter, or The Great Emancipator 16th president of the United States (186165), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of the slaves. A brief account of the life and works of Abraham Lincoln follows; for a full biography, see Lincoln. Of humble origins, Lincoln was a self-educated lawyer in frontier Illinois in the 1830s and '40s. In 1842 he married Mary Todd, who bore him four children (Robert Todd, Edward Baker, William Wallace, and Thomas ). Before he began to be prominent in national politics, Lincoln had made himself one of the most distinguished and successful lawyers in Illinois. He was noted not only for his shrewdness and practical common sense, which enabled him always to see to the nub of any legal case, but also for his invariable fairness and utter honesty. After serving a term in Congress (184749), Lincoln became a Republican in 1856. Two years later he engaged in a series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas in an attempt to gain Douglas' seat in the U.S. Senate. Despite his defeat at the polls, the debates made him a nationally known figure, and he was elected to the presidency in 1860. His period as president was wholly taken up with the war against the secessionist southern states. As a war measure, Lincoln proclaimed the slaves in the rebellious states free in 1863. Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth as he sat in Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., just days after the Union victory in 1865, he came to be regarded as a hero and martyr by later generations of Americans. Additional reading A guide for the general reader is Paul M. Angle, A Shelf of Lincoln Books: A Critical, Selective Bibliography of Lincolniana (1946, reissued 1972). Practically all the known writings of Lincoln himself are available in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. by Roy P. Basler, 9 vol. (195355), with two supplements (1974, 1990). A judicious selection from these volumes is reprinted in The Living Lincoln, ed. by Paul M. Angle and Earl Schenk Miers (1955, reissued 1992). Lincoln on Democracy, ed. by Mario M. Cuomo and Harold Holzer (1990), contains Lincoln's writings on this subject. Thomas S. Schwartz (ed.), For a Vast Future Also: Essays from the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association (1999), includes essays on emancipation and Lincoln's legacy.Classic multivolume biographies are John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, 10 vol. (1890, reissued 1917), also available in an abridged ed. edited by Paul M. Angle, 1 vol. (1966); Albert Beveridge, Abraham Lincoln, 18091858, 2 vol. (1928, reissued 1971); Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, 2 vol. (1926), and Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, 4 vol. (1939), both reissued together in 1 vol. (1984); and J.G. Randall, Lincoln, the President, 4 vol. (194555). Indispensable for the politics of the 1850s is Allan Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln, 2 vol. (1950). One-volume biographies include Benjamin P. Thomas, Abraham Lincoln (1952, reissued 1986); Stephen B. Oates, With Malice Toward None (1977, reissued 1985), and Abraham Lincoln, the Man Behind the Myths (1984); Oscar Handlin and Lilian Handlin, Abraham Lincoln and the Union (1980); Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt, Lincoln (1992), containing 900 pictures; Michael Burlingame, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln (1994), a psychobiography; David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (1995); and Allen C. Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (1999). Paul Horgan, Citizen of New Salem (also published as Abraham Lincoln, Citizen of New Salem, 1961), concentrates on Lincoln's early life; while Mark E. Neely, Jr., The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America (1993), traces Lincoln's later political life through his own speeches. A collection of valuable appreciations is found in Ralph G. Newman (ed.), Lincoln for the Ages (1960).Matters of controversy may be found in Lloyd Lewis, Myths after Lincoln (1929, reissued as The Assassination of Lincoln: History and Myth, 1994) Richard N. Current, The Lincoln Nobody Knows (1958, reprinted 1980); David Herbert Donald, Lincoln's Herndon (1948, reprinted 1988) and Lincoln Reconsidered, 2nd ed., enlarged (1961, reissued 1989); Don E. Fehrenbacher, Lincoln in Text and Context (1987), which compiles essays on prewar politics, the Civil War, and Lincoln's changing image; and Gabor S. Boritt and Norman O. Forness (eds.), The Historian's Lincoln: Pseudohistory, Psychohistory, and History (1988). Bruce Tap, Over Lincoln's Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War (1998), offers a revealing account of the Congressional committee's interference in Lincoln's handling of the war.Lincoln's administration is documented in Phillip Shaw Paludan, The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1994). Works dealing with aspects of Lincoln's statesmanship are Don E. Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850s (1962, reissued 1970); David M. Potter, Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis (1942, reprinted 1979), with emphasis on the period between Lincoln's election and the firing on Fort Sumter; William B. Hesseltine, Lincoln and the War Governors (1948, reissued 1972); Kenneth M. Stampp, And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis, 18601861 (1950, reprinted 1980); T. Harry Williams, Lincoln and the Radicals (1941, reissued 1969), and Lincoln and His Generals (1952, reprinted 1981); Hans L. Trefousse, The Radical Republicans: Lincoln's Vanguard for Racial Justice (1968); David A. Nichols, Lincoln and the Indians: Civil War Policy and Politics (1978); Gabor S. Boritt, Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream (1978); James M. McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution (1990); Robert W. Johannsen, Lincoln, the South, and Slavery: The Political Dimension (1991); and Michael Burlingame (ed.), Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks (1998), which provides a journalist's recollections of Lincoln.Books dealing with specific Lincoln issues are numerous. Ruth Painter Randall, Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage (1953, reissued 1961), and Lincoln's Sons (1955), examine Lincoln's family life. Randall effectively refutes the views of William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, Herndon's Life of Lincoln, ed. by Paul M. Angle (1930, reissued 1983). Two books about the president's wife are Jean H. Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography (1987); and Mark E. Neely, Jr., and R. Gerald McMurtry, The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln (1986, reissued 1993). An able and realistic treatment of Lincoln's legal career is John J. Duff, A. Lincoln, Prairie Lawyer (1960). Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., A New Birth of Freedom: Lincoln at Gettysburg (1983), focuses on aspects of his famous speech; as does Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (1992). Harold Holzer (compiler and ed.), Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President (1993), assembles letters written by ordinary citizens covering all topics. Harold Holzer, Gabor S. Boritt, and Mark E. Neely, Jr., The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print (1984), explores Lincoln's rise to fame through the medium of prints; and Mark S. Reinhart, Abraham Lincoln on Screen (1999), offers a history of films and television programs that feature portrayals of Lincoln. Merrill D. Peterson, Lincoln in American Memory (1994), examines the view each succeeding generation has had toward Lincoln.Comparisons between Lincoln and other historical figures include David Zarefsky, Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery (1990), which delves into the background of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and outlines each speaker's rhetorical methods; and William Catton and Bruce Catton, Two Roads to Sumter (1963, reissued 1971), which analyzes the dual roads taken by Lincoln and Jefferson Davis that led to the Civil War.An overall view of Lincoln's assassination may be found in William Hanchett, The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies (1983). More detailed accounts of the last hours of his life include Jim Bishop, The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1955, reprinted 1984); and W. Emerson Reck, A. Lincoln, His Last 24 Hours (1987). Richard N. Current The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica