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Lincoln Unbound

Page 27

by Rich Lowry


  Martineau, Harriet, 67, 199–200

  Maryland, free blacks in, 169

  Mason, James, 178

  Masters, Edgar Lee, 113

  Mayer, Susan, 223

  McCardell, John, 145

  McClellan, Gen. George B., 43

  McDougall, James A., 173

  McDougall, Walter, 172, 181

  McNabb, Babb, 43

  Mead, Walter Russell, 209

  Meigs, Gen. Montgomery, 174

  Melville, Herman, 168

  Mexican War, 138–39

  Meyer, Frank, 10

  middle-­class: acculturation and, 226; American as greatest, 195; as American foundation, 15; economic evisceration of, 7; erosion of, 5, 204–5, 223; Lincoln and, 4–5, 30, 67–70, 214–15; post-­World War II solidity, 291; Republican Party and, 238; values, 4–5, 16, 222–23, 224, 225; Whig party and, 58–59

  Miller, Joaquin, 119

  Miller, William, 43

  Morrill, Justin, 175–76, 177

  Morris, Charles R., 191

  Murray, Charles, 200

  Murray, Lindley, 34, 226

  Neely, Mark, 113

  New Orleans, 37–41, 118–19

  New Salem, Illinois, 41, 46; Lincoln as postmaster, 42, 47–48; Lincoln leaves (1837), 52; Lincoln studying law in, 50–52; Sangamon River and, 43–44

  New York City, 185, 187

  Nicolay, John G., 78, 140

  Niles, Hezekiah, 199

  Nimmo, Joseph, 119

  Nott, Josiah, 145

  Obama, Barack, 9, 194, 209; 2011 Osawatomie speech, 217; claiming of Lincoln, 229–30

  Obama, Michelle, 222

  Offutt, Denton, 40–42, 46

  Olmsted, Frederick Law, 169–70

  opportunity, 3–4, 6, 58–59; Lincoln commitment to, 2, 3–4, 7, 14, 16, 22, 86, 114, 116, 148, 193, 198, 207

  “Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln” (Douglass), 1

  Owens, Mary, 71, 79

  Paul, Ron, 10, 234

  Pettit, John, 140, 142

  Phillips, Wendell, 171

  Pierce, Franklin, 135

  Piketty, Thomas, 202

  Pomeroy, Samuel, 183

  populism, 7–8, 18, 194

  Potter, John Fox, 179

  Principles of Political Economy (Carey), 90

  property rights, 7, 47, 90, 94, 193

  Putnam, Robert, 226

  railroads, 15, 21, 117, 118, 119, 121, 128, 137, 152, 185–87, 193; high-­speed rail, 231; in Illinois, 99, 100, 101–2, 110, 117, 120, 134; land-­grant railroads, 110; Lincoln and, 4, 9, 45, 68, 86, 100, 110–13, 119, 194, 215; manufacturing and, 21; Pacific Railroad Acts, 172; Southern vs. Northern, 150, 171, 181; subsidies, 12, 179; transcontinental, 128, 134, 172–73, 186, 215

  Randolph, John, 67

  Reagan, Ronald, 233–34, 237

  Reavis, Isham, 74–75

  Republican Party, 16, 59, 62, 238; as “Black Republicans,” 161; conservatives criticizing Lincoln, 10; defining principles, 90, 116; domestic agenda after Southern secession, 172–79; homestead bills and, 177–79; libertarian bent in, 233; Lincoln and, 18–19, 90, 115, 135–36; Lincoln and revitalization of the party today, 231–39; Lincoln-­inflected agenda for today, 235–39; Lincoln Senate run, 125–26; middle-­class and, 4, 238; as National Republicans, 60, 62; in the North, 120–21; opposed to centralization, 59; origins of, 135; platform of 1860, 178, 218–19; Reagan and Lincoln, 233–34; record on civil rights, 231–32; Southern voters and, 232–33; victory in 1860, 170

  Richardson, Heather Cox, 173

  Robertson, George, 198

  Rockefeller, John D., 188

  Roksa, Josipa, 212

  Roll, John, 52

  Romine, John, 35

  Roosevelt, Franklin D., 10, 11, 12, 180, 194

  Roosevelt, Theodore, 12, 13, 192–93, 194

  Ross, Frederick A., 147

  Rutledge, Robert B., 49

  Saez, Emmanuel, 202

  Sangamo Journal, 44, 82, 114, 131

  Sangamon River, 40–41, 43–44

  Sawhill, Isabel, 223

  Scott, Winfield, 80, 168

  Scripps, John, 31, 133

  Sellers, Charles, 223, 226–27

  Seward, William, 8, 49, 182, 195

  Sherman, William Tecumseh, 186

  Shields, James, 83–84

  Short, Bradford William, 143–45

  Simmons, Pollard, 53–54

  slavery: anti-­abolitionism, 72–73; “bloody Kansas,” 135; Britain and, 139; compensated emancipation proposed, 10, 138; as cornerstone of the South, 136–37, 147–51; Declaration and, 140; in Delaware, 10; Dred Scott decision, 160, 169; expansion of, 158–59; Jackson and, 60; Kansas-­Nebraska Act, 133–35, 139, 178; liberation of, cost, 181; Lincoln-­Douglas Debates and, 151–64; Lincoln letter to Robertson on, 127; Lincoln on natural rights vs. political-­social rights, 162–63; Lincoln’s antislavery stance, 3, 5, 37, 135–36, 137–40, 151–64, 237–38; Lincoln’s House Divided speech, 126–27, 155, 157; Missouri Compromise, 133, 134, 160; “nonextension” position, 139; as political issue, 123, 151–64; population in South, 169; proslavery arguments, 145–46; Thirteenth Amendment, 229; voluntary colonization of blacks, 139; Wilmot Proviso, 138–39

  Slavery Justified (Fitzhugh), 146

  Slavery Ordained by God (Ross), 147

  Smith, Adam, 96

  Smoot, Coleman, 47, 48

  social capital, 7

  social democracies, 198–99, 214

  Speed, Joshua, 71, 98–99, 122, 131

  Lincoln letter in 1855, 135, 219

  Springfield, Illinois, 51; Lincoln as lawyer in, 52, 78, 93–94, 97, 108–15, 133; Lincoln’s in-­laws in, 80; as state capital, 100; Temperance Society, 68; Whig newspaper, 82; Whig rally, 81

  Stanton, Edwin, 197

  Stephens, Alexander, 136

  Stevens, Thaddeus, 160, 183

  Stuart, John, 51, 54, 78, 80, 82, 85, 100, 101, 131

  Taney, Roger, 63, 160, 161

  tariffs: Lincoln and, 106–7, 143, 193, 221; Morrill Tariff, 175–76; Tariff of Abominations, 106–7; Whigs and, 91

  taxes: Civil War taxes liquidated, 184; Confederacy’s income tax, 12, 180; current U.S. system, as progressive, 203; Lincoln’s income tax, 11–12, 176, 184; reformation of system, 210, 222; regressive payroll tax, 221

  Taylor, George Rogers, 37, 117–18

  Taylor, James, 38

  Taylor, Zachary, 80, 93, 122–23

  telegraph, 186–87

  telephone, 191

  Thomas, Benjamin, 42

  Thomas, Jesse B., Jr., 82

  Thomas, Richard, 108

  Thoreau, Henry David, 119

  Tocqueville, Alexis de, 197, 200

  Toombs, Robert, 169

  transportation: in American South, 150, 181; canal-­building, 116–17, 118; federalism and, 96; of goods and resources, 117–18; high-­speed rail, 231; Jackson, Hamilton, and Jefferson on infrastructure improvements, 96; Lincoln and infrastructure improvements, 45, 95–102, 111–13, 215; opening of the West, 173–74, 186; revolution in, 21, 121; rivers as highways, 37, 40–41, 43–44, 97, 118; roads of the frontier, 37, 97; steamboats, 37–38, 112–13. See also railroads

  Trollope, Frances, 199, 200

  Troy, Indiana, 38

  Types of Mankind (Nott), 145

  Union Pacific Railroad, 172–73

  United States: alcohol use on the frontier, 67–68, 223; Bank War, 103, 105; capitalism and, 87–123; class divide in, 7, 16, 207; closing of the Western frontier, 187; contemporary, Lincoln’s vision and, 5; contemporary, loss of vitality, 198–99; as country of “self-­made” men, 57, 114–15; economic mobility in, 2, 3, 5, 6–7, 14, 16, 116, 148, 189, 191, 199–200, 204,
225; flag with 34 stars, 165; free West, 169, 170; global economy, share of, 209; government activism, 12, 13, 179; government dependence (welfare state), 5, 12, 16, 198–99, 213–15, 221, 224, 230–31; government growth, 11, 12, 184, 214; health insurance, 221; industrialization of, 15–16, 21, 107, 120, 121, 149, 168, 171–72, 191, 193; inequality in cultural capital, 204; inequality of income, 6–7, 202–3; as “an inestimable jewel,” 3; infrastructure, 9, 95–102; international influence, 15–16; as land of “promise to all the ­people of the world,” 165; Lincolnian plan to revitalize, 208–230; of Lincoln’s boyhood, 20; Lincoln’s formula for today’s economic ills, 207; Lincoln’s vision for, 167–68, 172, 183–84, 193, 198; middle-­class values, erosion of, 5, 204–5; Midwestern political power, 182–83; national currency, 105; as nation of aspiration and opportunity, 3, 164, 199–202, 210–11, 224; nullification crisis, 62, 106; oil-­and-­gas revival, 220–21; Panic of 1819, 59; Panic of 1837, 100; Panic of 1893, 186; politics and campaigns, as rowdy, 80–82; population growth, 20, 120, 167, 185; post-­bellum America as richest nation, 191; post-­World War II, 201–2; presidential campaigns of 1824 and 1828, 59–61; rudimentary cultural norms and, 222–23; rural isolation in, 5, 20, 21, 29, 30; social and cultural revival in, 223–25; temperance movement, 223; urban growth and, 15, 21, 39, 118–19, 120, 149; Westward expansion, 21, 133–35, 173–74, 177–79, 185, 186; as world power, 182, 184, 195

  United States Constitution, 11, 95, 96, 228; slavery and, 155–56, 228, 229

  United States Supreme Court, 160

  Van Buren, Martin, 63, 85, 105, 106, 132

  Vandalia, Illinois, 48, 100

  Wallace, George, 161, 232

  War of 1812, 57–58

  Warren, Louis, 38

  Washington, George, 96, 142, 155, 227–28

  Wayland, Francis, 90–91

  Weik, Jesse, 23n, 152, 153

  Wentworth, John, 133

  What Money Can’t Buy (Mayer), 223

  Whig party, 56, 56n, 235; “American System,” 58; Clay and, 56–57; Colton as polemicist, 114–15; demise of, 135; Hamiltonian economics, 116; Harrison as candidate, 81, 85–86; infrastructure improvements and, 107; Lincoln and, 52, 53–57, 63–67, 86, 90–92, 114–15; Mary Todd Lincoln and, 80; origins of, 62–63; as “party of the rich,” 58; political ideas, 58, 90–92, 222; tariffs and, 106–7

  White, Adam J., 96

  White, Richard, 186

  Whitman, Walt, 167

  Whitney, Henry, 109, 164

  Why Lincoln Matters (Cuomo), 9

  Wilmot, David, 138–39

  Wilson, Douglas L., 23n

  Wilson, Henry, 169

  Wilson, Robert L., 83, 84

  Wilson, Woodrow, 12, 180

  Winship, Scott, 202–3

  Wood, William, 35, 39

  work ethic, 16, 59, 200, 224; Lincoln’s, 4–5, 18, 20, 33, 74, 75, 76–77, 200; welfare state vs., 214–15

  World War II, 15, 16, 180; U.S. economy and, 194–95, 201–2

  Yancey, William Lowndes, 146, 170

  Yankee Leviathan (Bensel), 174

  About the Author

  Rich Lowry was named editor of National Review in 1997. He is a syndicated columnist and a commentator for the Fox News Channel. He writes for Politico and Time magazine, and often appears on such public affairs programs as Meet the Press and Face the Nation. His previous book, Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years, was a New York Times bestseller. He lives in New York City.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Also by Rich Lowry

  FICTION

  Banquo’s Ghosts (with Keith Korman)

  NONFICTION

  Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years

  Copyright

  LINCOLN UNBOUND. Copyright © 2013 by Rich Lowry. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Cover design by Richard Ljeones

  Cover image © Library of Congress

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  FIRST EDITION

  EPub Edition JUNE 2011 ISBN: 9780062123800

  Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data has been applied for.

  ISBN: 978-­0-­06-­212378-­7 (Hardcover)

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  Footnotes

  * Almost all direct quotes from Lincoln are drawn from the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, a project of the Abraham Lincoln Association and edited by Roy P. Basler. It is searchable online and a stupendous resource. I have preserved mis­spellings, strange punctuation, and other idiosyncrasies, including all of the italics.

  * Guelzo is an extraordinary and prolific historian. The first sections of his biography Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President place Lincoln in a political-­economic context that deeply enriched my understanding of him, and is reflected in the major arguments of this book.

  * For details of Lincoln’s life, I rely heavily throughout on Michael Burlingame’s magisterial two-­volume Abraham Lincoln: A Life, as definitive a biographical work as will ever be written on Lincoln. It is not only exhaustive, it is original. Burlingame has scoured the archives to come up with every last scrap related to the sixteenth president. Everyone with an interest in Lincoln is in his debt, and that includes me more than most.

  * Herndon (together with his collaborator Jesse Weik) conducted interviews and engaged in correspondence with hundreds of ­people who knew Lincoln after his death for his biography of his former law partner. All references here to someone telling Herndon something or writing to him come from Herndon’s Informants, the indispensable collection of Herndon’s raw materials edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis and published by the University of Illinois Press. Many of the accounts of old friends and neighbors also come from this work. It is a wonderful book, with an incredibly convenient searchable online version. The quotes are all as they originally appear in Herndon’s letters and notes, except for the addition of some periods and some cleaned-­up spacing. They often are ungrammatical or have other imperfections, idiosyncrasies, or anachronisms that reflect Herndon’s method of note-­taking or the shaky literacy of his correspondents or the writing style of the day. At times this makes the quotes harder to follow than if they had been fixed, but rend
ering them in the original preserves their distinctive flavor.

  * Howe’s work on the Whigs is brilliant and endlessly interesting. It informs my discussion of Whig politics and culture throughout.

  * What we call the Midwest. For the sake of clarity I occasionally use the term “Midwest,” although it wasn’t a contemporary usage.

  * I want to be clear: I don’t necessarily agree with everything I believe Lincoln would think about our current predicament, and I’m sure he wouldn’t agree with everything that I do.

 

 

 


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