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“We Are Lincoln Men” Abraham Lincoln and His Friends

by David Herbert Donald.

Illustrated, notes, 268 pp., 2003. Simon and Schuster, Rockefeller Center, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, $25 plus shipping.

Every so often along comes a book that is so totally sublime that it moves readers and gives them pause to consider the totality of its depth and subject matter. Such is the case with David Herbert Donald’s new Lincoln book “We Are Lincoln Men” Abraham Lincoln and His Friends.

The title comes from correspondence regarding the 1880s collaboration between Lincoln secretaries John Hay and John G. Nicolay who were then crafting a Lincoln biography. Hay wrote Nicolay asserting that their task was “to write the history of those times like two everlasting angels—who know everything, judge everything, tell the truth about everything and don’t care a twang of their harps about one side or the other. There will be one exception. We are Lincoln men all the way through.”

Donald’s new work, part of an ever-growing collection of Lincoln micro-histories, adds an important dimension to the study of our16th president, namely that of the place and role of friendships in his life. As such, readers will encounter at great depth the significance of six male acquaintances who interacted with Lincoln at various stages of his life and presidency.

The six are Joshua F. Speed, Lincoln’s best friend in his early adult life; William H. Herndon, Lincoln’s mercurial law partner from Springfield, Ill.; Orville H. Browning, U.S. Senator from Illinois; Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William H. Seward; John Hay and John G. Nicolay. All of them left extensive recollections of their experiences with Lincoln that proved to be a gold mine to the author.

Set within the context of mid-19th century America and its prevailing conventions, Donald infuses current psychology with Aristotelian tenets to paint a unique and often empathetic portrait of Lincoln. According to Aristotle, the human condition employs three kinds of friendships: the “enjoyable” friendship where one simply enjoys another person for his company; the “useful” friendship where each party gains something from the other; and the “perfect” or “complete” friendship that elicits empathy, trust, and a sharing of the hearts and desires and ambitions.

Donald argues persuasively that Lincoln really never developed in totality a true “perfect” friend during his life, though at one time or another these six men came close. This is due, in part perhaps, to the loss of his mother when he was only 10 years old. Within such a context Lincoln may have shied away from intimate friendships, feeling that perhaps he would rather not become too close to anyone for fear that he might lose them.

The six associates of Lincoln that Donald writes about reflect a combination of the three Aristotelian traits of friendships at various points of Lincoln’s life. With Speed we see life on the Illinois frontier and how both men confided with each other over issues of women in their lives. The friendship with “Billy” Herndon provided Lincoln with a sense of leadership, albeit a Springfield law firm. Orville Browning comforted the Lincoln’s during the crisis of his son Willie’s death in early 1862.

William Seward is seen moving from indignation, to grudging respect, to pure admiration for his once political rival, while Hay and Nicolay encounter the President with his day-to-day interactions with friendly and hostile politicians, office seekers, and military personnel among others.

Because all six men interacted differently with Lincoln their writings contribute a multi-faceted view of the man. And overall, Donald’s book is a kaleidoscope of these men and their affections for Lincoln as well as his for them.

What is of real interest is Donald’s conjecture at the end of the book as to how the Civil War, and indeed American history, might have been played out had Lincoln developed a “perfect” friendship with someone who during critical days of the war might have steered Lincoln and his thinking in another direction. Generally this kind of counter-factual history is of little use, but here it makes for compelling reading given the implications of America’s greatest crisis. This reflection places Lincoln and the war in a new kind of light heretofore not discussed and helps one to see the place of friendship within a larger understanding of the role of the American Presidency be it Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Jackson, or Nixon.

Donald’s empathetic understanding of Lincoln and his struggles is moving and brings Lincoln down to a human level, moving him off of the pedestal of venerated statuary. As with his previous works, Donald’s writing remains lucid and reader friendly, the key to any successful history or biography.

Within the vast growing and seemingly never-ending literature of one of America’s most essential personalities David Herbert Donald opens a window and lets in fresh air so that Lincoln becomes more accessible to those of us who marvel at his greatness and humanity. But on another level the author offers a testament to the meaning, purpose, and value of friendships in one’s life. It’s a human dynamic that we all too often take for granted.

James Percoco

James Percoco was the 1993 Walt Disney Co. American Teacher Awards Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year and has twice been named Outstanding State Educator of the Year by the Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He teaches U.S. and applied history in Springfield, Va.

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