President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman
By William Lee Miller
(January 2009 Civil War News)

Notes, 497 pp., 2008. Alfred A. Knopf, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, $30 plus shipping.

Reviewer: James A. Percoco
James A. Percoco teaches U.S. and Applied History at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Va. He is author of A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching of U.S. History and Divided We Stand: Teaching About Conflict in U.S. History. Percoco is a USA TODAY All-USA teacher and is an adjunct professor in the School of Education at American University where he serves as History Educator-in-Residence.

Review:
“It may seem strange,” claimed Abraham Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address, “that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged.”

Thus Lincoln’s surprising and even-handed Second Inaugural Address followed the sentiment that the 16th President brought to bear during his four years of administering the most divisive war in American history; a sentiment argued most persuasively by William Lee Miller in the second volume of his ethical biography of Abraham Lincoln, President Lincoln: The Duty of A Statesman, rooted in Lincoln’s moral core.

With exceptional prose integrating anecdotes and Lincoln’s writings Miller asserts that Lincoln — a man who claimed he could not cut off the head of a chicken yet found himself leading the nation in a horrific fratricidal bloodletting — had the moral right stuff to wage a war against a foe he believed intended to end what Lincoln called “the last best hope of earth.”

Always guided by principle and duty, once Lincoln swore “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he had no choice but to do his utmost to carry out the “oath registered in heaven” even if that oath meant putting a vast military machine in motion.

Lincoln’s moral fiber guided him in all the decisions he made. Be it agreeing to send Fort Sumter relief supplies, pardoning “a simple minded soldier boy,” or navigating his relationships with a host of strong personalities, military and political, Lincoln shaped personal and national policy around a core set of beliefs he developed in his pre-presidential years and then honed while president.

Tracing Lincoln’s moral development, Miller uses several speeches and letters to demonstrate how Lincoln grew in this capacity. From his 1854 Peoria Speech, through his address at Cooper Union and letters to confidants Orville Browning and Albert Hodges, Lincoln consistently argued what was right and what was wrong, specifically slavery.

Despite what recent Lincoln debunkers claim, Miller challenges the idea that Lincoln was racist and uncaring about the four million Americans held in bondage.

Miller’s persuasive use of Lincoln’s texts and subsequent actions demonstrates that consistency of thought and feeling. In this way, Lincoln becomes the exception rather than the rule regarding wartime leaders, never acting or reacting out of expediency, but rather to always do what was right in his broadest view and never pass judgment on others.

Offering an insightful tale, Miller shows us Lincoln’s capacity for magnanimity by use of correspondence between the president and James Hackett. Peering deep into the sentence structure of Lincoln’s letter to Hackett one senses from where this moral core found its wellspring – deeply embedded in Lincoln’s life experience.

Dismissing a slight, Lincoln wrote Hackett, “I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it.” Would that all leaders utilize such humility.