Lincoln Forum - Part III - Lincoln President-Elect

Probably about 40 years ago I was looking at a book of essays about Lincoln by David Donald where he said that future writing about Lincoln would probably take the short essay form since there wasn't much more that could be written about Lincoln. Since then I have seen similar thoughts expressed at various times, but Lincoln books keep coming out, someone said almost at the rate of one a day which is probably an exaggeration.

One of the more cynical explanations for this is, of course, the fact that Lincoln books keep getting published because they sell. While there has to be some truth to that, it is not an explanation for books like "Lincoln President-Elect" or Mr. Holzer's book on Lincoln's "Right Makes Might" speech at Cooper Union. These book really do two things, they focus on very specific periods, events or issues in Lincoln's life and they present analysis.

There will be at some point a maximum number of topics even at this level of detail, but there will never be an end to analysis. In large measure this is because like anything or anyone important in the past, the way it is looked at can be, and probably is, different in each generation. An example of this is the way that one generation of African Americans almost deified Lincoln while at least some portion of subsequent generations consider him to be a racist.

I have now read both of these books by Harold Holzer and have enjoyed them a great deal. While clearly someone who likes Lincoln, Holzer works hard to be objective and analytical in his evaluation of Lincoln. This is especially true of the latest book which covers a period that has apparently been commonly seen as one where Lincoln's performance left much to be desired. Mr. Holzer looks at this period in great depth and while acknowledging some weak areas, believes that Lincoln's performance was at least equal to that as President.

My only criticism of this book is that 458 pages (not including Epilogue and appendices) seems excessive to cover a period of about four months. Specifically I felt there was a little too much detail on the time in Springfield and especially the accounts of how Lincoln was besieged by office seekers. But overall Mr. Holzer has obviously done detailed research and he tells the story well including looking beyond Lincoln to describe what is going on the rest of the country especially in the southern states.

As a New Jerseyan I was especially interested to read the section devoted to Lincoln's travels through New Jersey on February 21, 1861. While it was only one day, it apparently included 10 speeches (all relatively short), two of which were important, both in Trenton. In fact, the book has inspired me to do some of my own research on Lincoln's day in our state, specifically to look at local New Jersey newspapers accounts of the day - Mr. Holzer did not appear to use those to any great extent. I doubt very much that there is a book there, but who knows what could come out of it. In any event I highly recommend "Lincoln President-Elect"and look forward to Mr. Holzer's visit to the New Jersey Historical Society tentatively scheduled for June of 2009.