The Eloquent President, and: Lincoln's Speeches Reconsidered (review)

In 2003 I published a review of approximately 15 books on Abraham Lincoln that had implications for rhetoric. Since that time, the output of Lincoln literature has continued apace. Included are David Herbert Donald's 2003 We are Lincoln Men and Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 Team of Rivals that address Lincoln's interpersonal persuasion with his friends and his cabinet, respectively. There also have been at least three new books devoted to specific rhetorical texts: one by James Tackach on the Second Inaugural Address (Lincoln's Moral Vision, 2002), one by Allen Guelzo on the Emancipation Proclamation (Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, 2004), and one by Harold Holzer on the Cooper Union address (Lincoln at Cooper Union, 2004). In addition, there have been books, such as Michael Lind's 2005 What Lincoln Believed, that draw heavily on Lincoln's speeches and writings for their evidence. This continued attention to Lincoln's discourse is welcome, since this body of texts captures his understanding of principled and prudent action. Lincoln articulated his views on the great issues of his time and he adapted those views to the constraints of audience and situation.

Scholars of rhetoric will find two books, published almost simultaneously, worthy of special attention because they examine a number of Lincoln's speeches and writings chronologically. John Channing Briggs's Lincoln's Speeches Reconsidered is devoted predominantly to the pre-presidential years (although it does include a chapter on the "canonical" addresses of Lincoln's presidency), and Ronald C. White's The Eloquent President begins with Lincoln's Farewell Address to the townspeople of Springfield and focuses entirely on the years 1861–1865. The orientations and apparent purposes of the two books are different, but they complement each other very well. Taken together, they offer analyses of several of the important but understudied Lincoln texts, as well as the obvious ones.

A central theme of Briggs's book is that Lincoln articulated his antislavery views throughout his rhetorical career. This stands at odds with the view that, at least publicly, he was not aroused by this issue until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. For Briggs, the consistent theme is Lincoln's defense of self-government against what he understood to be imminent dangers. Slavery was a threat because it denied the possibility of self-government and blurred the distinction between aristocratic and democratic rule. Briggs reads the 1838 Lyceum speech as Lincoln's defense of a free polity against itself. Having faith in self-government is not enough to protect the citizenry against the danger of tyranny; faith must be joined with passionate dedication to the rule of law. People who ignore or misunderstand this fact are preparing themselves for slavery.

Likewise, in his reading of the 1842 Temperance Society address, Briggs finds Lincoln arguing by analogy against slavery. Just as gentle persuasion is more likely to be effective with drunkards than is the bitter denunciation of most temperance preachers, so is gradual abolition more likely to work than immediate emancipation. Lincoln speaks about slavery "in code," as would be appropriate when abolitionism was not politically respectable and the slavery controversy did not yet dominate the public forum. A defense of moderate and prudent action against slavery is also a key feature of the 1852 eulogy for Lincoln's political hero, Henry Clay.

What is especially significant about the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in Briggs's reading, is that it motivated Lincoln to denounce Douglas's version of popular sovereignty as a sham, a denial of self-government rather than a manifestation of it. In his analyses of the 1854 Peoria speech and the 1858 "House Divided" speech, Briggs focuses on how Lincoln's opposition to Douglas allows him to stake out an antislavery position without taking on the political and rhetorical burdens of abolitionism. Because of his obligations under...