Leadership

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

  “No element . . . melancholy”: Henry C. Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln (Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1892), p. 146.

  “necessary to his very existence”: Robert Rutledge, HI, p. 409.

  “to whistle off sadness”: David Davis, HI, pp. 348, 350.

  “that he was going to be something”: Burlingame, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, p. 237.

  “a vision of an alternative future”: John Kotter, “What Leaders Really Do,” Harvard Business Review (May–June 1990), p. 47.

  “intend to delve . . . will come”: Burlingame, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, p. 237.

  “Seeing no prospect . . . the broad world”: AL to Joshua Speed, Aug. 24, 1855, HI, p. 52.

  “supplied a large . . . flour and lumber”: Rutledge, HI, p. 382.

  Description of New Salem: Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, pp. 59–60.

  “Gawky and rough-looking”: Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, Vol. 1 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943), p. 161.

  “the most ludicrous . . . a pair of socks”: Clipping from Menard Axis (Illinois), Feb. 15, 1862, HI, p. 24.

  “open—candid . . . loved him”: Henry McHenry, HI, p. 14.

  “spontaneous, unobtrusive”: Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, p. 108.

  “filled a unique place . . . intellectual and social center”: Ida M. Tarbell, Assisted by J. McCan Davis, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln (New York: S. S. McClure, 1896), p. 119.

  general store as meeting place: Ibid.

  farmers traveling: Sandburg, The Prairie Years, Vol. 1, p. 134.

  “a Center of attraction”: Mentor Graham, HI, p. 9.

  “among the best clerks . . . great tenderness”: William G. Greene, HI, p. 18.

  “unabashed eagerness to learn”: Donald, Lincoln, p. 41.

  “a fire of shavings sufficiently bright”: Tarbell, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 125.

  “When he was ignorant . . . to acknowledge it”: Speed, HI, p. 499.

  Kirkham’s English Grammar: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln, p. 65.

  “understood by all classes”: Joseph Gillespie, HI, p. 508.

  “If elected . . . my support”: AL, “Communication to the People of Sangamon County,” March 9, 1832, CW, 1:7.

  “I can only say . . . free institutions”: Ibid., 1:8.

  “the humble walks of life”: Burlingame, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, p. 238.

  “ready to renounce them”: AL, “Communication to the People of Sangamon County,” March 9, 1832, CW, 1:8.

  “too familiar with . . . never to try it again”: J. Rowan Herndon, HI, p. 7.

  “success in life . . . much satisfaction”: AL, “Autobiography Written for John L. Scripps,” CW, 4:64.

  “vandoos . . . get the news”: Tarbell, The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 155.

  “did not follow . . . other Speakers”: Robert L. Wilson, HI, p. 204.

  “drawn from all classes of Society”: William L. Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography (New York: Vintage, 2003), p. 8.

  “either the argument . . . or the author”: Wilson, HI, pp. 204–5.

  “did not dampen . . . his ambition”: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, p. 76.

  “body and soul together”: AL, “Autobiography Written for John L. Scripps,” CW, 4:65.

  “men and boys . . . and jokes”: Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, p. 132.

  “with perfect ease”: J. Rowan Herndon, HI, p. 8.

  “Can’t the party . . . put together”: Ibid.

  “suitable clothing . . . maintain his new dignity”: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, p. 104.

  “anything but . . . in the background”: Ibid., pp. 110–11.

  (including two future . . . State Supreme Court justices): Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, p. 132.

  “studied with nobody”: AL, “Autobiography Written for John L. Scripps,” CW, 4:65.

  After finishing each book . . . another loaner: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, p. 91.

  “Get the books . . . any other one thing”: AL to Isham Reavis, Nov. 5, 1855, CW, 2:327.

  “They say I tell . . . than any other way”: Donald Phillips, Lincoln on Leadership (New York: Warner Books, 1992), p. 155.

  “crowning gift . . . diagnosis”: Helen Nicolay, Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln, p. 77.

  “From your talk . . . that way themselves”: Ibid., p. 78.

  “his thorough knowledge . . . have ever known”: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, p. 118.

  “We followed . . . ordinary argument”: Henry C. Whitney, Lincoln, the Citizen (New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1908), p. 140.

  “roused the lion within him”: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, p. 115.

  “The gentleman . . . offended God”: AL, quoted in ibid., pp. 115–16.

  “indulged in some fun . . . with the deepest chagrin”: Ibid., p. 130.

  “we highly disapprove . . . property in slaves”: Resolutions by the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, quoted in note 2 of “Protest in Illinois Legislature on Slavery,” March 3, 1837, CW, 1:75.

  “the institution of slavery . . . and bad policy”: “Protest in Illinois Legislature on Slavery,” March 3, 1837, CW, 1:75.

  “if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong”: AL to Albert Hodges, April 4, 1864, CW, 7:281.

  “pruned of any offensive allusions”: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, p. 145.

  “a bold thing . . . political pariah”: William O. Stoddard, Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life (New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1884), p. 116.

  “DeWitt Clinton of Illinois”: Burlingame, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, p. 239.

  promise of the American dream: This point is developed by Gabor S. Boritt, Economics of the American Dream (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).

  “in the middle of a river . . . it would go down”: AL, “Remarks in the Illinois Legislature Concerning the Illinois and Michigan Canal,” Jan. 22, 1840, CW, 1:196.

  “If you make a bad bargain, hug it the tighter”: AL to Joshua F. Speed, Feb. 25, 1842, CW, 1:280.

  “peculiar ambition”: AL, “Communication to the People of Sangamon County,” March 9, 1932, CW, 1: 8.

  “something of ill-omen . . . the bible shall be read”: AL, “Address before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois,” Jan. 27, 1838, CW, 1:109–14.

  “proud fabric of freedom”: Ibid., p. 108.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Theodore: “I rose like a rocket”

  “run on his own hook”: John T. Stuart, HI, p. 77.

  “Having been nominated . . . Election Day”: TR, “To the Voters of the 21st Assembly District,” Nov. 1, 1881, in LTR, 1:55.

  “picked me . . . for myself”: TR, An Autobiography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925), pp. 59–60.

  “one of the most . . . honored name”: New York Daily Tribune, Nov. 6, 1881.

  “no wealthy or popular relations”: AL, “Communication to the People of Sangamon County,” March 9, 1832, CW, 1:8.

  “the element of chance . . . to take advantage”: TR, “The Conditions of Success,” May 26, 1910, WTR, 13:575.

  “I put myself . . . and they happened”: James M. Strock, Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership (Roseville, Calif.: Prima, 2001), p. 43.

  “no simple thing . . . any other club”: TR, An Autobiography, pp. 55–56.

  “men of cultivated . . . rough and tumble”: Ibid., p. 56.

  “who has in him . . . success himself”: TR, An Autobiography, pp. 51–52.

  “the gospel of will”: Jacob Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen (New York: Outlook Co., 1904), p. 15.

  “I like to believe that . . . to Americans”: Eugene Thwing, The Life and Meaning of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Current Literature, 1919), p. 1.

  “Nobody seem
ed to think I would live”: The World (New York), Nov. 16, 1902.

  “My father . . . lungs, strength—life”: Lincoln Steffens, The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens, 2 vols. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1931), Vol. 1, p. 350.

  “From the very fact . . . power of concentration”: William Draper Lewis, The Life of Theodore Roosevelt (Chicago: John C. Winston, 1919), p. 36.

  “Do I know them? . . . and weaknesses”: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen, p. 19.

  “need more than . . . prose or of poetry”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 334.

  “the greatest of companions”: Edward Wagenknecht, The Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt (Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2009), p. 50.

  prodigious memory: H. W. Brands, T.R.: The Last Romantic (New York: Basic Books, 1997), p. 62.

  “a piece of steel . . . to rub it out”: Speed, HI, p. 499.

  “wax to receive . . . everything he read”: William Wingate Sewall, Bill Sewall’s Story of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1919), p. 39.

  TR at center of play group: Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, quoted in Lewis, The Life of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 35.

  “unreconstructed” southerner: TR, An Autobiography, p. 11.

  “a purposeful . . . were concerned”: Carleton Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt: The Formative Years, 1858–1886 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958), p. 99.

  “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 14.

  Elliott to beg for a separate room: Hermann Hagedorn, The Boy’s Life of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941), p. 45.

  “And of course . . . in our lives”: CRR, My Brother, Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1921), p. 80.

  “Theodore, you have . . . I’ll make my body”: Ibid., p. 50.

  “They found that . . . helpless position”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 52.

  “The young man . . . natural history in his hands”: Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 127.

  “the house . . . not be diverted”: Charles Grenfell Washburn, Theodore Roosevelt: The Logic of His Career (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916), p. 3.

  “The story . . . to be like them”: Hagedorn, The Boy’s Life of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 1.

  “My father was the best . . . than did my father”: TR, An Autobiography, pp. 7, 9.

  “his best and most intimate friend”: TR to TR Sr., Oct. 22, 1876, LTR, 1:18.

  “It seems perfectly . . . my own fault”: Ibid., p. 19.

  “studious, ambitious . . . appeal at first”: Henry Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1931), p. 33.

  “never conquered asthma completely”: CRR in Kathleen Mary Dalton, Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life (New York: Vintage, 2004), p. 420.

  “just as you’d expect . . . he hopped”: Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 106.

  “broadened every interest . . . his own age”: Ibid.

  “I fear for your future . . . any length of time”: Kathleen Mary Dalton, “The Early Life of Theodore Roosevelt.,” PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1979, p. 282.

  “I felt as if I . . . taken away”: Theodore Roosevelt Private Diary, Feb. 12, 1878, Series 8, Reel 429, TRP.

  “If it were not . . . almost perish”: Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 148.

  “Every now . . . companion, friend”: TR, Private Diary, March 29, 1878, Series 8, Reel 429, TRP.

  “The death . . . him to the grave”: NYT, Feb. 13, 1878.

  “Oh, how little worthy . . . keep up his name”: TR, Private Diary, Feb. 22, 1878, Series 8, Reel 429, TRP.

  “leading the most . . . a bit of an optimist”: Ibid., March 29, 1879.

  “No one but my wife . . . [my father’s] place”: Dalton, “The Early Life of Theodore Roosevelt,” p. 300.

  “It was a real case . . . my first love too”: TR, Private Diary, Jan. 30, 1880, TRP.

  “everything subordinate to winning her”: TR to Henry Davis Minot, Feb. 13, 1880, LTR, 1:43.

  “nearly crazy . . . my own happiness”: TR, Private Diary, Jan. 25, 1880, TRP.

  “I do not believe . . . than I love her”: Ibid., March 11, 1880.

  “that he had made . . . the microscope”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 24.

  “I want you to take . . . unless by his demerit”: Sewall, Bill Sewall’s Story of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 2.

  “I tried faithfully . . . to work in his own way”: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen, pp. 36–37.

  “I’m going to try . . . I don’t know exactly how”: William Roscoe Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1919), p. 21.

  “what law is, not what it ought to be”: Robert Charles, “Legal Education in the Late Nineteenth Century, through the Eyes of Theodore Roosevelt,” American Journal of Legal History (July 1993), p. 247.

  “talk glibly”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 23.

  “When I went into politics . . . with other people”: Ibid., p. 61.

  “lack of interest . . . young men especially”: James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn, The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America (New York: Grove, 2001), p. 25.

  “greenhorn”: Caleb Carman, HI, p. 429.

  “Who’s the dude? . . . tailor could make them”: Recollections of John Walsh, quoted in Kansas City Star, Feb. 12, 1922.

  “I went around . . . ‘being a stranger’ ”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 57.

  “a paternal interest”: Ibid., p. 60.

  “a personal canvass” . . . Valentine Young’s bar: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen, p. 51.

  “not high enough”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 60.

  “owned by no man”: Paul Grondahl, I Rose Like a Rocket: The Political Education of Theodore Roosevelt (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), p. 65.

  “untrammeled and unpledged . . . serve no clique”: Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 248.

  “We take much . . . honesty and integrity”: Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 30.

  “Men worth millions . . . glad to get them”: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen, p. 51.

  “brownstone vote”: Ibid.

  “My first days . . . wealthiest district in New York”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 63.

  “How do you do . . . ninety percent”: Hermann Hagedorn, Isaac Hunt, and George Spinney, “Memo of Conversation at Dinner at the Harvard Club,” Sept. 20, 1923, p. 41, TRC.

  “very good men . . . nor very bad”: TR, “Phases of State Legislation” (Jan. 1885), WTR, 13:47.

  “the most talked . . . in fitting terms”: NYT, April 8, 1882.

  “so corrupt a government”: Dalton, “The Early Life of Theodore Roosevelt,” p. 282.

  “black horse cavalry”: Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Modern Library, 2001), p. 179.

  “There is nothing . . . thing, I act”: Grondahl, I Rose Like a Rocket, p. 61.

  “a dreadful misfortune . . . holding office”: TR, An Autobiography, p. 56.

  “I rose like a rocket”: TR to TR Jr., Oct. 20, 1903, LTR, 3:635.

  “if they do shoot . . . down like sticks”: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen, p. 54.

  “was swelled”: Ibid., p. 58.

  “There is an increasing . . . on his person”: Quoted in Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 288.

  “a perfect nuisance”: Hagedorn, Hunt, and Spinney, “Memo of Conversation at Dinner at the Harvard Club,” p. 26.

  “He was just like . . . of a box”: Ibid., p. 16.

  “rotten”: TR, “True Americanism,” April 1894, WTR, 13:16–17.

  “to sit on his coat-tails”: O’Neill, quoted in Putnam, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 255.

  “everybody else . . . indiscreet”: Hagedorn, Hunt, and Spinney, “Memo of Conversation at Dinner at the Harvard Club,” p. 19.

  “would listen . . . no advice”: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen, p. 58.

  “was absolutely deserted . . . was not all-important”: Putnam, Theodo
re Roosevelt, p. 290.

  “that cooperation . . . all he could”: Hagedorn, Hunt, and Spinney, “Memo of Conversation at Dinner at the Harvard Club,” p. 19.

  He turned to help others . . . gave him a hand: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen, p. 59.

  “biased . . . laborers”: TR, “A Judicial Experience,” The Outlook, March 13, 1909, p. 563.

  “beyond a shadow . . . and hygienic”: Ibid.

  “The real things of life . . . more and more”: Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen, p. 60.

  “A man who conscientiously . . . point of view”: TR, “Fellow-Feeling as a Political Factor” (Jan. 1900), WTR, 13:368, p. 355.

  “had the reins”: TR to Alice Lee Roosevelt, Jan. 22, 1884, LTR, 1:64.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Franklin: “No, call me Franklin”

  Springwood: Geoffrey C. Ward, Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882–1905 (New York: Vintage, 2014), p. 90.

  “the right person for the job”: John Mack Interview, Feb. 1, 1949, Oral History Collection, FDRL.

  “Nothing would please . . . to seek out”: Ibid.

  “with class lines . . . hands outside”: James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (Old Saybrook, Conn.: Konecky & Konecky, 1970), p. 9.

  “tipped their hats”: Ward, Before the Trumpet, p. 121.

  “There’s a Mr. Franklin . . . topic of politics”: Tom Leonard Interview, Jan. 11, 1949, Oral History Collection, FDRL.

  “On that joyous . . . ever since”: FDR, “The Golden Rule in Government—An Extemporaneous Address at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.,” Aug. 26, 1933, PPA, 2:338.

  “I’m dee-lighted . . . all my relatives”: Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, Sept. 12, 1910.

  “Temperament . . . great separator”: Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents (New York: Free Press, 1980), p. 153.

  “A second-class . . . temperament”: Geoffrey C. Ward, A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, 1905–1928 (New York: Vintage, 2014), p. xv.

  “All that is in me . . . to the Hudson”: Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship (New York: W. W. Norton, 1971), p. 116.

  “a very nice child . . . and happy”: Ward, Before the Trumpet, p. 145.

  “Never . . . with itself”: Sara Delano Roosevelt, My Boy Franklin (New York: Ray Long & Richard R. Smith, 1933), pp. 19–20.