Lincoln Before Washington: New Perspectives on the Illinois Years (review)

BOOK REVIEWS225 In sum, the book treats its subject so comprehensively and sympathetically that it commends itself to the serious attention of all Civil War audiences, professional and popular alike. Joseph P. Reidy Howard University Lincoln Before Washington: New Perspectives on the Illinois Years. By Douglas L. Wilson. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Pp. xiv, 190. $26.95.) In this collection of nine previously published essays, Douglas L. Wilson attempts to re-examine some aspects of Lincoln's life before i860, "through the back door," as Wilson says in his preface (ix). He is examining a relatively neglected period in Lincoln's life by recourse to some sources that have fallen into disuse, especially the mass ofinformation compiled byWilliam H. Herndon, Lincoln's law partner and biographer. In doing so, Wilson both challenges some old assumptions about Lincoln historiography and posits new directions for Lincoln research. Wilson attempts to refute the dismissal of Herndon as a reliable Lincoln historian by such noted scholars as James G. Randall and David Donald. Wilson claims that Herndon, in conducting personal interviews and correspondence about Lincoln's early Illinois life, carefully sifted through his evidence and tried to get his facts straight by double-checking them, as well as by understanding the limitations ofthe memories ofmost ofhis sources. Herndon, Wilson claims, believed that revealing correctly the details of Lincoln's life, even the unpalatable ones, would bring his greatness into sharperreUef. In "Abraham Lincoln,Ann Rutledge, and the Evidence of Herndon's Informants," Wilson shows, for example, that Herndon was on much firmer ground in asserting the basic truth of Lincoln's alleged love affair with Ann Rutledge than most latter-day historians have assumed . On the other hand, Wilson's chapter on Lincoln's temporary abandonment of his engagement to Mary Todd, "Abraham Lincoln and 'That Fatal First of January'" partially undermines his own thesis, as he shows that, in this case, Herndon gave credence to a version ofthe story for which he ought to have easily found refuting evidence. Still, Wilson succeeds in making his point that Herndon ought to be reconsidered as a Lincoln historian, if not completely rehabiUtated. Wilson also attempts to make some comparisons and contrasts between Jefferson and Lincoln. In the book's first chapter, from the starting point that the popular mind associates both presidents with "books and learning" (4), he draws some interesting parallels and contrasts between the learning and reading habits of Lincoln and Jefferson; basically saying that while they had great differences in reading habits and access to reading materials, reading played "an indispensable part" (14) in both men's intellectual development. This conclusion is certainly not unwarranted, but it is seemingly little more than a restatement of 226CIVIL WAR HISTORY conventional wisdom; it is difficult to see where Wilson is going. The last chapter in the book, "Lincoln's Declaration" suggests a destination. In this piece, Wilson traces the development of Lincoln's views about the Declaration of Independence , particularly the "all men are created equal" clause. These two chapters begin and end the book, but they might be better placed side-by-side. They suggest the question of whether common reading experiences had anything to do with Lincoln's "special affinity" ( 1 66) for Jefferson's document, but the question goes unanswered or, indeed, unasked. Of the remaining chapters, the most interesting is "The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: An Unfinished Text," in which Wilson argues, convincingly, that a new definitive version of Lincoln's speeches in these debates ought to be written by comparing the accounts of newspapers that supported and those that opposed Lincoln. This sums up the value of the volume as a whole: not as the last word on any aspect of Lincoln's life or development, but as a source of suggestions about new pathways in researching and writing about one of the most examined figures in American historiography. Deren E. Kellogg University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Inside Lincoln 's White House, The Complete Civil War Diary ofJohn Hay. Edited by Michael Burlingame, with John R. Turner Ettlingen (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997. Pp. xx, 393. $39-95·) The diary of John Hay, one of Abraham Lincoln...