And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the 16th president of the United States, the first Republican president, and the leader of the Union during the American Civil War. He is now revered in the history of American politics as a strong defender of the principles of the American Republic and opponent to institutionalized slavery. He issued an executive order in 1863, the so-called “Emancipation Proclamation,” which formally ended legalized slavery in the United States. Shortly after accepting a second term as president and leading the Union to victory against the Confederacy Lincoln was assassinated.

Born in rural Kentucky in 1809 to a poor frontier family, Lincoln was raised in the American Midwest, moving from Kentucky to Indiana to Illinois as a child. His mother died while he was a young boy, and he was intellectually encouraged by his stepmother. As a young man in Illinois, Lincoln worked a number of jobs before finding his vocation in politics and law. He served four terms as a state legislator in Illinois and one term as a US representative. In the interim periods, he worked as a practicing attorney in Illinois and raised his children with his wife, Mary Todd. Though he was defeated in an 1858 senatorial campaign against Stephen Douglas, Lincoln became a prominent voice in the progressive and emergent Republican Party. In 1860, Lincoln won the presidency in a four-way election after winning all the northern states.

His tenure as president was extraordinarily embattled. It begins with the secession of states in the deep south and ends in his assassination. In between, Lincoln lost a child, managed a civil war, underwent serious domestic disputes with his wife, and fought to maintain fragile political alliances across the Union. Though support for the president was fractured throughout, confidence in his abilities grew over the years and by the time he was assassinated he was revered. His death led many to consider him a martyr in the cause of the Union and equality amongst the races.

Among other things, Lincoln was famed for his rhetorical and oratorical skills. His Gettysburg Address, delivered in November 1863 in the aftermath of a bloody Union victory, is now acclaimed as one of the few great American speeches. His second inaugural address is also frequently cited as such. The Lincoln Memorial, constructed in 1922, is now often considered the greatest of all presidential memorials. Scholars often rank Lincoln amongst the greatest, if not the greatest, American president. Meacham remembers him largely as a man of democratic principle and antislavery conscience.

After his assassination, Lincoln’s remains (along with those of his son William) were moved across the country to Springfield, Illinois, where he was buried. He was father to four sons, two of whom survived his death.

Henry Clay was a Whig and Republican politician now remembered as the “Great Compromiser” for his role in the development of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In Chapter 4, Meacham describes Lincoln’s admiration for Clay and his work on the Compromise. Clay represented the state of Kentucky in the Senate and House, and unsuccessfully ran for president as a Whig on three occasions; in Chapter 3, Meacham recounts that Lincoln stumped for Clay. For Lincoln, he was an admirable man and a political hero, and Chapter 8 informs the reader that Lincoln delivered a eulogy for Clay when he died in 1852. According to one of Lincoln’s friends, “Henry Clay was his favorite of all the great men of the Nation. he all but worshiped his name” (62).

Mary Todd Lincoln was Abraham Lincoln’s wife and First Lady of the United States during the American Civil War. She was born in 1818 to a well-to-do politically connected family in Lexington, Kentucky. She exhibited a lifelong interest in politics and is said to have been a major influence in the advancement of her husband’s political ambitions. Chapter 5 describes their meeting and early relationship. She was the mother of their four children. Along with the assassination of her husband, these deaths left the indelible mark of grief on her and severely colored her late life, discussed in part in Chapter 22. She died in 1882 in Springfield, Illinois.

One of the great abolitionist leaders of the Union North in the decades preceding the Civil War, Frederick Douglass was a Black American born into slavery in Maryland. In Chapter 8, Meacham discusses Douglass’s role in the abolition movement, and in Chapter 22 he describes a meeting between Douglass and Lincoln. As a young man, Douglass escaped slavery and fled North. He was a leader of progressive causes in Massachusetts and New York. Over the course of his life he wrote three autobiographies, most notably Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave, which was influential in promoting the abolitionist cause. He expressed mixed views of Lincoln, lamenting his slowness to act and his gradual, incremental change. Douglass was also the first African American to receive a nomination for the vice presidency. This nomination came from the Equal Rights Party, notable in the post-Civil War years for its dedication to women’s suffrage. Near the end of his life, he served as a diplomat to Haiti in the Harrison administration.

Stephen Douglas was the Democratic Senator from Illinois from 1847 until his death in 1861. He was Lincoln’s opponent in senatorial races in 1854 and 1858. He ran against Lincoln again in the 1860 presidential election and was also at one time a suitor of Mary Todd Lincoln’s. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of the 1850s established an ongoing political rivalry and brought national attention to the stark divisions between the two on the questions of race and slavery. These debates are discussed at some length in Chapters 5 and 10. Though Douglas had helped develop the Compromise of 1850, he also introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which effectively ended the compromise. At the onset of the Civil War Douglas supported the Union cause, but he died from illness in 1861.

Charles Sumner was the Senator from Massachusetts from 1851 until his death in 1874. He was a more radically progressive Republican than was Lincoln and he often pushed Lincoln further toward the abolitionist cause. He believed all enslaved people should have been immediately emancipated during the war. During the Lincoln presidency he was a friend and companion of both the president and First Lady Mary Todd. The Lincolns both frequently expressed their admiration for him. In one of the key events that precipitated the war, Sumner was viciously assaulted on the Senate floor by Representative Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, an event discussed in Chapter 11. He died of a heart attack in 1874.

Jefferson Davis is best remembered as the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, from 1861-1865. Prior to the war, he was a Democratic Senator and Representative from Mississippi, as well as the Secretary of War during the Pierce Administration. His life is discussed at length in Chapter 13. He originally argued against secession, but believed in the right of states to do so if they pleased. He thought that Lincoln acted like a despot and that the Union invasion of the Confederacy was tyrannical. Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808, less than a year before Lincoln. Chapter 27 describes Lincoln arriving personally at Davis’s abandoned house in Richmond, Virginia, once Richmond was captured, and sitting at Davis’s desk. Davis served two years in prison for treason after the war. He lived to old age as a free citizen, dying of illness in 1889.

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president of the United States, elected for two terms, starting in 1869 following Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson. Grant rose to fame during the Civil War for his success in the western theater. Lincoln eventually made him the commanding general of the Union Army and he led the Union to victory in 1865. Prior to this he had graduated from West Point and served in the Mexican-American War. During his presidency he worked to reverse the policies of former President Johnson, extend reconstruction, and ratify the 15th Amendment, which ensured suffrage throughout the Union for all citizens regardless of race. Grant appears in several chapters on the Civil War, including Chapters 22 and 27. He died in 1885 of cancer.

George B. McClellan was a revered Union general. As did many of his peers in both the Union and Confederacy, he distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War. He served as commanding general for a short time during the Civil War, and his role is described in Chapters 18-21. His record during the Civil War was mixed. He was known for his brazen ambition. He was often at odds with Lincoln and was avowedly proslavery. During the presidential election of 1864, McClellan ran as the Democratic nominee for president against Lincoln, described in Chapters 23 and 24. He went on to serve as the governor of New Jersey. He wrote memoirs late in life meant to (among other things) defend his war record.

John Bright was a British politician and orator, known for his progressive views. He continuously served in the House of Commons (in the United Kingdom) from 1843 till his death in 1889. Lincoln greatly admired Bright and kept Bright’s portrait in his office in the White House, one of only two Lincoln displayed. Bright spoke out in support of Lincoln and the Union cause. Meacham discusses Bright in Chapter 20.