"Lincoln's Virtures: An Ethical Biography"

This is the first of what will probably be three posts about a book I just finished reading, "Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography" by William Lee Miller. It was published back in 2002, but I just read it both because I have more time and Carol and I are going to attend the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg in November. Held each year around November 19th, the anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, this year's forum has an especially impressive group of speakers including Mr. Miller. The quality of the speakers this year is due to the Lincoln Bicentennial in 2009.

I had read two books by William Miller before "Lincoln's Virtues," "The Business of May Next" about the Constitutional Convention and "Arguing About Slavery." Both are good books, but "Arguing About Slavery" is one of the best books I have ever read - I will probably write about it another time. By this point, Mr. Miller has written a second book about Lincoln, "President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman." The focus of both books is on Lincoln's ethical and moral views, how they developed, how they stood out in his time and how they made him a great person and a great President. The book that I just finished ends right around the 1860 inauguration, the second covers the presidential years.

Early in the first book, Miller goes into a lengthy description about Lincoln differed from his western contemporaries. Almost everybody hunted, fished, farmed, smoked and drank whiskey, Lincoln either didn't do these things or didn't like them. At the same time almost everyone belonged to a church, once he was an adult Lincoln never belonged to a church even in the White House. That's especially interesting given that Lincoln had a better understanding of Christian beliefs than many regular church goers then and now. In addition Lincoln's contemporaries had little use for native Americans and definitely not blacks, here again Lincoln's outlook was the direct opposite. Miller's conclusion is that Lincoln was comfortable enough with his own decision making abilities to decide things for himself and not be swayed by the common habits of those around him.

In the next post, I am going to write about what Miller says about Lincoln's approach on slavery and how it differed from other opponents to slavery. Another speaker at the Lincoln Forum is Harold Holzer who is a Lincoln scholar and co-chair of the Lincoln Bicentennial. Mr. Holzer has a book coming out this fall on Lincoln and what is called the secession winter, the period between the 1860 election and his inauguration. In what is really exciting news, Mr. Holzer has accepted an invitation to speak about his book at the New Jersey Historical Society most likely in June of 2009. There is a real connection to New Jersey in all of this as Lincoln spoke several times in New Jersey on his way to Washington in 1860.