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Abraham Lincoln: The Man, The Myth, The Making of a President
JOHN HAY LIBRARY | BROwN UNIveRsItY
JANUARY 6, 2009 –
MARcH 6, 2009 –
A BIceNteNNIAL exHIBItION IN HONOR Of ABRAHAM LINcOLN (1809 –1865)
JOHN HAY LIBRARY | BROwN UNIveRsItY | JANUARY 6 – MARcH 6, 2009
Abraham Lincoln
The Man, The Myth, The Making of a President
left to right:
Lithograph version of a photograph of Abraham Lincoln made circa 1909 from an original negative created in 1864 by Matthew Brady
and then owned by Frederick Hill Meserve;
Bunker, “Great and Astonishing Trick of Old Abe, The Western Juggler,” published in Frank Leslie’s Budget of Fun, April 1861;
Sir John Tenniel, “The Federal Phoenix,” published in Punch, December 3, 1864.
At the beginning of the year 2009, we mark two anniversaries of note.
The first is the 146th anniversary of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation
(January 1). The second is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln
(February 12), the man who authored that document and signed it into law,
thus signaling the end of slavery. Between these two dates, Americans will pause
to celebrate the remarkable consequence of these two significant events: the
inauguration of the first president of the United States to be born of African heritage.
This historic moment seems a fitting time to reflect upon the long cultural journey
Americans have taken over the course of the past two centuries, since the cold winter
night when Abraham Lincoln came into the world in a ramshackle cabin deep in
the woods near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Born to an impoverished farm family in an
America that accepted slavery as a viable system of labor and social differentiation,
Lincoln could little have guessed at the turns his life would take, let alone that it
would be he who would preside over the demise of the slave system in the United
States and the preservation of its government under the banner of emancipation.
Dissected endlessly by scholars, Lincoln at 200 remains an enigma, his every
action open to multiple, even opposing interpretations. Lincoln’s complexities and
his reticence in speaking about personal matters have led successive generations
of authors to impute to him a wide range of qualities, beliefs and behaviors
with which he had no particular association in life. This propensity to employ
Lincoln’s persona to promote a variety of often conflicting social, political and
cultural agendas exploded after his assassination and the long period of public
mourning that followed. The first crescendo of interpretation, re-interpretation and
misrepresentation came in the decades just before and after the celebration of the
Lincoln Centennial in 1909, and a second in our own times, with the approach
of 2009.
This Bicentennial exhibition, in attempting to capture these threads of the American
experience, essentially tells three stories. First and foremost, it provides a set of
intimate glimpses from the life of Abraham Lincoln as he lived it, documenting his
rise from humble origins in the woodlands and prairies of the West to the presidency
of the United States.
Second, the exhibition retells the story of Lincoln from the public perspective,
gathering together some of the key themes of American mythology with which
Lincoln’s name and memory became entangled along with issues for which Lincoln
has been used as a principal icon since his assassination in April 1865.
Finally, by exploring both Lincoln myths and Lincoln’s reality in parallel display, the
exhibition aims to provoke questions about the varied intersections of life, politics
and race in American life, both in Lincoln’s day and in our own.
“Alw
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LINcOLN tHe MAN
Abraham Lincoln was unschooled, ill-mannered, inexperienced, and subject
to bouts of dour melancholy. He was also well-read, witty, honest, honorable,
a good speaker, a good listener and a quick study. Lincoln’s many seeming
contradictions inspired both praise and condemnation from Americans during
his lifetime as well as from subsequent generations. These competing views of
Lincoln have forced scholars to delve into deep and detailed examination of
the surviving record. Yet despite these efforts, the true character of the man
who served as 16th president of the United States remains as elusive as ever.
Little documentation survives from Lincoln’s early years, a period about which
he himself remained largely silent in later life. Lincoln’s studiousness and his
reading habits have been widely documented, and his evolution from farm work
to storekeeper to lawyer has been traced by every biographer. Still, his personal
relationships with family and friends remain mysterious and speculative. Materials
displayed in this section of the exhibition document Lincoln’s development, from his
early childhood in Kentucky and Indiana to his work as a flatboatman, militia leader,
surveyor, lawyer, and politician, showing his development as a man, as an advocate
for individual rights and liberties, as a maker of public policy and as a national leader.
One thing that we can say with authority about the times in which Lincoln
came of age is that it was an era when slavery permeated every aspect of
American life. Race was an issue that Lincoln could not fail to confront,
either in politics or in everyday life. During the past half-century, Lincoln’s
seemingly inconsistent approaches to the core issue of American race relations
have elicited heated debate from a variety of perspectives. Was Lincoln a weak
opponent or a strong advocate of emancipation as a governmental policy?
Was the Emancipation Proclamation a happy accident of circumstance, or
the result of a deliberate course of action grounded in moral principle?
left:
Advertisement for the
Lincoln & Lamon partnership
(Danville, Illinois: 1852).
top:
“Single Rule of Three,” leaf from Abraham Lincoln’s manuscript
Sum Book, created 1824 to 1826.
left:
Survey map of Albany, Illinois, made and certified by Abraham
Lincoln, Deputy Surveyor of Sangamon County, June 16, 1836.
bottom:
A. Lincoln, “Manner of Buoying Vessels” (Washington, D.C.: U.
S. Patent Office, 1849). These illustrations formed part of U.S.
Patent 6,469, issued on May 22, 1849.
Recent historical interpretation points to nuances in Lincoln’s perspective
on slavery and abolition. At the most fundamental level of individual rights,
Lincoln firmly believed that people of color had God-given, or natural,
rights that were guaranteed to them under the Constitution of the United
States — rights that included, as he put it, the right to enjoy the bread earned
by their own labor. This, of course, made slavery a moral wrong. Beyond that,
as President, Lincoln acted on the belief that African Americans were entitled
to the same basic privileges and immunities of citizenship in the United States
that were accorded to white citizens. However, when it came to the question
of social and political equality among black and white Americans, Lincoln
equivocated. Recognizing that local sentiment was strongly opposed to racial
equality, he thus deferred to the states and localities to regulate such areas as
voting privileges, eligibility for elective office and jury service, access to public
education, and marriage laws.
Lincoln’s thinking on race was heavily influenced by the writings of Thomas
Jefferson and the speeches of his fellow Kentuckian, Henry Clay, both of whom
believed that blacks and whites could not live together in an America where
slavery had been abolished because the very fact of slavery had created too
much bitterness between the races. To both men, and — at least initially — to
Lincoln himself, colonizing freed people in other
locations — possibly Africa, where colonies of
ex-slaves had been established in Liberia and Sierra
Leone, or perhaps in the Caribbean where Haiti
had become an independent republic under Black
leadership — seemed the best option for resolving
racial frictions. Lincoln, however, abandoned
colonization as a post-emancipation option once
persuaded that African American soldiers had
demonstrated their viability for full citizenship
through personal sacrifice on the battlefield.
left top: President Lincoln’s instructions to Treasury Secretary
Salmon P. Chase, regarding Maj. Gen. David Hunter’s
unauthorized order emancipating slaves in Florida, Georgia
and South Carolina under the rubric of martial law.
left bottom: “Battle of Olustee, Florida” (Chicago: Kurz
& Allison, 1894). This print depicts the battle of February
20, 1864, one of the earliest in which soldiers of color were
deployed on the battle lines and proved their valor.
right: Working draft of the Emancipation Proclamation in the hand
of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, dated September 2, 1862.
Although Lincoln famously claimed emancipation was not his central purpose
for going to war with the South, in a letter to newspaper editor Horace Greeley,
in the end emancipation both helped him achieve the goal of winning the
war to preserve the Union and sealed his own fate, as a group of disgruntled
Southerners conspired to end his life. Indeed, emancipation looms as the largest
and most significant element of Lincoln’s legacy in our own times.
LINcOLN tHe MYtH
The same ambiguous qualities that have provoked so much speculation by
scholars have also prompted the exploitation of Lincoln’s life story in a wide
variety of genres. Self-improvement groups have embraced Lincoln as the
iconic figurehead for the self-made man. Lincoln’s sole speech before an Illinois
temperance group in 1842 continues to animate the advocates of anti-addiction
programs. The story of Lincoln’s early years in a rude cabin inspired several
generations of poor school children, both white and Black, to pull themselves
up from humble origins.
From the moment it became news, Lincoln’s tragic death sparked a massive
outpouring of sentiment that forged a wholesale re-imagining of Lincoln’s
actions as President. He quickly became the martyr who died to preserve
the nation, the saint who ended an immoral and inhumane institution and
abolished oppression, the prophet who envisioned an America greater than
Americans had yet known. Public hunger to learn more about Lincoln was
fed by a range of writers who researched and penned biographies of the late
president. Admiration for Lincoln’s rise to greatness grew widely with the
dissemination of each new tome, and sparked emulation by many. The details
of Lincoln’s early life on the Western frontier became the iconography of
America itself, while Lincoln’s actions as president to free the slaves made him
the voice of moral authority in the Northern states and for African Americans.
By the turn of the twentieth century, no politician could hope to position
himself in public life without taking a position on Lincoln and many attempted
to sport Lincoln’s mantle.
As new generations of Americans have succeeded Lincoln and his generation,
the sense of Lincoln’s importance in American life has diminished. Today
Lincoln’s image is as often as not employed to market goods and services,
rather than to suggest moral character. This portion of the exhibition explores
a number of the ways in which Lincoln’s image has been used to promote
particular agendas for the popular audience since 1865, from defining national
identity to marketing consumer wares.
left:
Anonymous, “Truth and Justice
Shall Not Fail” (undated
broadside, likely produced at the
Tuskeegee Institute, circa 1900).
left:
Jay N. Darling, “Lives of Great
Men Remind Us All” (February
10, 1923), published in Collier’s;
reproduced courtesy of the
“Ding” Darling Wildlife Society.
right:
William Newman, “House
Cleaning at Washington,”
published in Frank Leslie’s
Budget of Fun, 1864.
tHe sIxteeNtH PResIdeNt:
ABRAHAM LINcOLN ANd NAtIONAL LeAdeRsHIP
Lincoln’s greatness rests on his astute vision of the nation and its future. His
foresight, articulated in 1858 during the Illinois Senate campaign in the famous
“House Divided” speech, animated his presidency. As commander-in-chief,
Lincoln thus successfully used both military and political strategies to advance
national goals, including emancipation, often without the support of his
military commanders and other leaders.
At the time of his death, on April 15, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was 56 years
old. He had written only a brief memoir about his early life, and shared
little of a personal nature with even his closest friends. We do not have from
Lincoln the benefit of an extended late-in-life presidential autobiography, such
as that written by his successor, Ulysses S. Grant. Lincoln’s early biographers,
particularly his law partner William Herndon, made assiduous efforts to collect
memoirs about him from those who had known or encountered him before
they too passed on. Yet, the record they have left us sheds no definitive light on
the man many regard as our greatest president.
We cannot know what Lincoln himself would have written about his
presidency had he lived to a ripe old age and chosen to reflect back on his
time in office and his achievements as president. Nor can we project with any
authority what he would have thought of the nation’s peregrinations on the
question of race since 1865.
After 200 years, is Lincoln still relevant to American life in the 21st century?
No exhibition can answer that question. But through this display of documents,
images and artifacts, we hope to stimulate viewers to think deeply about the life
of Abraham Lincoln, the nature of the presidency, and the ongoing significance
of racial questions in shaping American history and culture.
right:
Unsigned Lincoln manuscript called
“Meditation on the Divine Will,” circa
September 1862. The themes expressed
in this manuscript formed the basis for
much of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
Address in March 1865.
bottom:
Anonymous, “Assassination of President
Lincoln” (undated chromolithograph).
left:
U. S. War Department
broadside, April 1865 (detail).
fOLLOw IN LINcOLN’s fOOtstePs: ReAd MORe
In Print:
Brian R. Dirck (ed.), Lincoln Emancipated:
The President and the Politics of Race
(DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007)
Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1926)
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals:
The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005)
Douglas Wilson, Lincoln’s Sword:
The Presidency and the Power of Words
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006)
Frank J. Williams, Judging Lincoln
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002)
Harold Holzer, Lincoln President-Elect:
Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008)
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)
Richard Carwardine, Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006)
Ronald C. White, Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002)
Online:
Lincolniana at Brown
http://dl.lib.brown.edu/lincoln/index.html
The Lincoln Institute
http://www.abrahamlincoln.org/
Mr. Lincoln’s Virtual Library
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html
background image:
“Abraham Lincoln with his Son” (undated lithograph made from February 1864 photograph by Mathew Brady)
[I]n the case of this ungainly boy there was no necessity of any external
incentive. A thirst for knowledge as a means of rising in the world was innate
in him. . . . All the little learning he ever acquired he seized as a tool to better
his condition. He learned his letters that he might read books and see how
men in the great world outside of his woods had borne themselves in the
fight for which he longed. . . . In all the intervals of his work — in which he
never took delight, knowing well enough that he was born for something
better than that — he read, wrote and ciphered incessantly. His reading
was naturally limited by his opportunities, for books were among the rarest
luxuries in that region and time. But he read everything he could lay his
hands upon, and he was certainly fortunate in the few books of which he
became the possessor.
— John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History
(New York: The Century Company, 1890), Volume I, pp. 33–35
Abraham Lincoln: The Man, The Myth, The Making of a President
A Bicentennial Exhibition at the John Hay Library, Brown University
January 6 – March 6, 2009
Curated by Holly Snyder, with the assistance of Robyn Schroeder
Brochure text by Holly Snyder
Brochure design by Ben Tyler
1,000 copies printed by Brown University Graphic Services, January 2009
We would like to acknowledge, with gratitude, the ongoing support of the following persons
for the Brown University Library’s Lincoln Bicentennial project:
Hon. Frank J. Williams
Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and
Chair, Rhode Island Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
Sue A. Stenhouse
Director of Community Relations, Office of the Governor and
Vice-Chair, Rhode Island Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
Harriette Hemmasi
Joukowsky Family University Librarian, Brown University Library
Samuel Allen Streit
Director of Special Collections, Brown University Library
Patrick Yott
Co-Leader of Integrated Technology Services, Brown University Library
We also thank the following staff members of the Brown University Library
for their contributions to the success of this project:
Kathleen Brooks
Alison Bundy
Jane Cabral
E. Ann Caldwell
Rosemary Cullen
Ann Morgan Dodge
Peter Harrington
Brent Lang
James Andrew Moul
Robin Ness
Patricia E. Putney
Ned Quist
Jean Rainwater
Erica Saladino
Barbara Schulz
Tom Stieve
Virginia Twomey