Abraham Lincoln

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Best-selling author James M. McPherson follows the son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks from his early years in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, to his highly successful law career, his marriage to Mary Todd, and his one term in Congress. We witness his leadership of the Republican anti-slavery movement, his famous debates with Stephen A. Douglas (a long acquaintance and former rival for the hand of Mary Todd), and his emergence as a candidate for president in 1860. Following Lincoln’s election to the presidency, McPherson describes his masterful role as Commander in Chief all over the Civil War, the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. The book also discusses his lasting legacy and why he remains a quintessential American hero two hundred years after his birth, at the same time as an annotated bibliography permits easy access to further scholarship. With his ideal short account of Lincoln, McPherson provides a compelling biography of a man of humble origins who preserved our nation all over its greatest catastrophe and ended the scourge of slavery.
Marking the two-hundredth anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, this marvelous short biography by a leading historian offers an illuminating portrait of one of the most giants in the American story. It is the best concise introduction to Lincoln in print, a must-have volume for anyone interested in American history or in our greatest president. In the discussion below, noted historian and author of Lincoln and His Admirals, Craig L. Symonds, talks to James M. McPherson about Lincoln’s relationships with his generals, beginning with the controversial commander of the northern army, George McClellan, whose soldiers referred to him as the “the young Napoleon.” Both historians share the prestigious 2009 Lincoln Prize for the year’s best books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. McPherson’s Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief and Symonds’s Lincoln and His Admirals were the winning books.

A Conversation Between Two Lincoln Historians: James M. McPherson and Craig L. Symonds

Symonds: George McClellan is clearly a central character in this story. In your view, was Lincoln too patient with Little Mac, not patient enough, or just about right? Would the Lincoln of 1864 have tolerated McClellan as long as the Lincoln of 1862 did?

McPherson: In one sense, he was too patient. McClellan deserved to be fired after his failure to make stronger [General] Pope at Second Bull Run, as a majority of the Cabinet wanted Lincoln to do. But in another sense, Lincoln was absolutely right that only McClellan could reorganize the army and restore its morale, and if the president had fired him then, the army might have broken down. In spite of everything, Lincoln’s timing on removing Mac from command–just after the fall elections in 1862–was just right.

Symonds: What about the so-called political generals: did Lincoln appoint and tolerate them out of perceived political necessity or because he believed that some of them, at least, had genuine merit? And, for that matter, did any of them have genuine merit?

McPherson: Lincoln appointed the political generals in order to mobilize their constituencies for the war effort. Northern mobilization for the war in 1861-62 was a from-the-bottom-up process, with important local and state political leaders playing a key part in persuading men to enlist in this all-volunteer army, and political generals were a key part in this process, which increased an army of 16,000 men in April 1861 to an army of 637,000 men in April 1862. And at the same time as we are all familiar with the military incompetents among the political generals, some of them were in reality pretty good–John Logan and Frank Blair, for example.

Symonds: Why did Lincoln put up with [his chief war advisor] Henry Halleck?

McPherson: Lincoln used Halleck to translate presidential orders and wishes into language that military commanders could understand, and to translate their reports and requests and explanations into language that Lincoln understood. That was what Lincoln meant when he called Halleck a “first-rate clerk.” Of course he had wanted him to be more than a clerk, and that is why Lincoln in the end appointed Grant as General in Chief and booted Halleck upstairs into the new office of “chief of staff,” where his clerkly qualities were needed.

Symonds: Lincoln was clearly relieved to turn over military operations to Grant in 1864, but did he also fear Grant as a potential political rival?

McPherson: He had been concerned about Grant as a potential political rival, until Grant let it be known right through intermediaries that he unequivocally and absolutely had no political ambitions in 1864 and strongly supported Lincoln’s reelection. After that, Lincoln had no more concerns.

Symonds: Now that you’re going to be the owner of two busts of Lincoln by Augustus St. Gaudens, at the side of your many other prizes, isn’t your house getting pretty full?

McPherson: There is still room in the house, but since my grandchildren are interested in Mr. Lincoln in bronze, I may deposit this bust in their house, where I will visit it whenever I want (they live ten miles away). Read more

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