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1 Introduction: Interpreting Lincoln the Man and His Times Joseph R. Fornieri For it is only in an atmosphere of freedom that the qualities of mind indispensable to true statesmanship can mature and fructify. When great perils threaten the state, one often sees the people fortunately choose the most appropriate citizens to save it. —Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Do the times make the man, or does the man make the times? Is history begotten by the conscious actions of heroic leaders, or are human agents the product of historical forces beyond their control? Though it may be something of a cliché (like asking, “what comes first, the chicken or the egg?”), the question is nonetheless worth pursuing as we celebrate the life, times, and legacy of Abraham Lincoln on the occasion of the bicentennial of his birth in 2009. Because Lincoln epitomizes our idea of democracy, being at once its greatest teacher and practitioner, his bicentennial provides us with a unique opportunity to reflect upon our democratic experiment. Indeed, Lincoln is at the very center of our national myth, the sustaining narrative or story that defines us as a common people.1 He provides the clearest articulation of what it means to be an American, reminding us that our national identity is not based upon a common race, religion, or color but upon our shared fidelity to an idea—the equal dignity and freedom of all human beings.2 The effort to comprehend Lincoln and his time is therefore an exercise in civic self-understanding. 2 Joseph R. Fornieri This volume, which consists of new and original essays from some of the leading Lincoln scholars of our generation, explores the interplay between the man and his time. It considers such diverse topics as religion, education , middle-class family life, the antislavery movement, and the wider intellectual, political, and legal milieu of mid-nineteenth-century America that shaped the character and leadership of our greatest president. Though Lincoln’s greatness is of enduring significance and cannot simply be reduced to the flux of history or to the vicissitudes of time and place, he was nonetheless a product of the nineteenth-century America that formed him. This is not to deny the importance of either timeless truths or historical context in studying our sixteenth president. Rather, it is to recognize the combination of both, much like the complex roles that both nature and nurture play in explaining human behavior. It is to recognize both the universal import of Lincoln’s thought and its particular embodiment in life and history. In chapter 1, Allen C. Guelzo explores Lincoln’s place in nineteenth-century intellectual history by tracing the influence of liberal political economists of the Enlightenment like Francis Wayland upon his political outlook. In chapter 2, I compare Lincoln and Tocqueville on the contribution of religion to American public life. It is my contention that Lincoln’s view of religion and politics embodies Tocqueville’s description of the compatibility between the spirit of religion and liberty in America. Myron Marty provides an overview of the educational context of nineteenth-century America in chapter 3 and reveals Lincoln’s pedagogical influences and his extraordinary self-schooling. In chapter 4, Mark Noll examines the religious context of the Civil War era, pointing out the continuities and discontinuities between Lincoln’s personal piety and nineteenth-century belief. In chapters 5 and 6, Kenneth J. Winkle and Frank J. Williams take the reader to central Illinois during Lincoln’s lifetime. Winkle reports on life in Springfield, the growth of that region’s middle class, and the nineteenth-century ideal of Victorian marriage as it applied to Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Williams first describes the development of Lincoln’s legal career as a circuit-riding prairie lawyer and then notes how this experience prepared the sixteenth president for his subsequent role as “Attorney-in-Chief” during the Civil War. Chapters 7 and 8 concentrate on Lincoln and the slavery question. James Oakes focuses specifically on the debate over the right to property in a slave and the political origins of Lincoln’s case against this alleged right. Meanwhile, historian Richard Striner examines more broadly Lincoln’s pivotal role in the antislavery movement of the nineteenth century. In chapter 9, Harold Holzer discusses the growth of the visual arts in nineteenth-century America and Introduction 3 demonstrates their effect upon Lincoln and his times. Finally, in chapter 10, constitutional scholar and historian Herman Belz places Lincoln within...

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