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  • Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home
  • Peter S. Carmichael
Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home. By Matthew Pinsker. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xiv; 256. Cloth, $30.00.)

Each summer from 1862 to 1864 the Lincoln family escaped the oppressive heat and equally oppressive public scrutiny of Washington. They packed their White House belongings, moved to the outskirts of the city, and took up residence in a cottage located on the grounds of the Old Soldiers' Home. The promise of solace, however, was never fully realized at this presidential retreat. The Soldiers' Home did not become a nineteenth-century Camp David for Abraham Lincoln, but, as Matthew Pinsker brilliantly illustrates, it represented a unique space that allowed Lincoln to bring harmony to his public and private worlds. It was a place where the president could interact with ordinary people or take long solitary walks. It was a place where he could read poetry under a shady tree or discuss critical wartime issues inside the cottage's walls. It was the place where Lincoln found himself as a father, a husband, a politician, and a statesman.

Lincoln spent almost one-quarter of his presidency at the Old Soldiers' Home, and Pinsker carefully outlines the major political and military issues that confronted Lincoln during his "sabbaticals" at the cottage. He does not claim that the Old Soldiers' Home was the place where the Illinoisan rendered some of the most important decisions of the war. Pinsker is more concerned with understanding the evolution of Lincoln's wartime thinking within the specific context of the president's routine at the cottage and his daily commute to the White House. Although this approach yields few new interpretations, it reveals how Lincoln's daily life shaped a range of decisions including his endorsements of emancipation and conscription. Pinsker believes that the informal setting of the cottage, in contrast to the White House, allowed Lincoln to reconnect with the people. Wounded soldiers at nearby hospitals, the guards stationed at the cottage, and contrabands who camped near the Soldiers' Home provided the president with meaningful opportunities to access the country's mood. To Pinsker's credit, he is careful [End Page 320] not to exaggerate the importance of these chance encounters, but it is clear that such meetings, however fleeting, grounded the president, restored his sense of equilibrium, and fortified his determination to make tough decisions. Interacting with the people must have also reminded him of the old days in Springfield where he enjoyed the companionship and conversation of ordinary folks going about their everyday lives.

Even within the more relaxed setting of the Soldiers' Home Lincoln did not suddenly turn into a homespun joker who recited humorous stories on the cottage's front porch. Lincoln could rarely escape his duties, and the unrelenting pressure resulted in frequent and often radical mood swings. Pinsker not only shows all of Lincoln's faces, but he also does an impressive job of connecting the emotional side of the president to his political experience. During the summer of 1864, when moderate and Radical members of his own party wanted to cast him aside, Lincoln struggled to contain his anger as well as to keep his commitment to ending slavery. Rather than publicly lash out at his critics or retreat from the Emancipation Proclamation, he clarified his thinking about the issues of black freedom for himself and his political enemies. Destroying slavery, Lincoln concluded, must remain a Union war aim. Pinsker believes the president was able to reach this monumental decision at the Soldiers' Home because he found the environment to be intellectually and emotionally liberating.

By showing the complex interplay of Lincoln's private and public lives, Pinsker has beautifully recreated the inner life of the Soldiers' Home. This volume is a fitting tribute to the preservation efforts of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Richard Moe of the National Trust who have ensured that the Soldiers' Home, probably one of the most neglected yet important Lincoln sites in the country, will be protected forever as a National Historic Monument.

Peter S. Carmichael
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

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