American History PRIOR to 1877

Founding Father Abraham Publication info: The Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]28 Jan 2013: 2.

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ABSTRACT  

[...]the reason that Lincoln still counts is provided in the main plot line of Lincoln.

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The report the following day in The Times was less than complimentary: "The ceremony was rendered ludicrous by

some of the sallies of that poor President Lincoln. Anything more dull and commonplace it would not be easy to

produce." The Chicago Times was even more forthright: "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as

he reads the silly flat and dishwatery remarks of the man who has to be pointed out as the President of the United

States."

The Gettysburg Address was not exactly an instant classic and Abraham Lincoln was known more in his own time

as a country bumpkin who delivered bad speeches at a comically high pitch than he was for serious thought. Yet,

as Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln opens to fine reviews, the 16th President of the United States continues to hold the

popular imagination.

Lincoln is one of those American heroes whose enduring appeal might owe something to the fact that he died

young and also that, in Lincoln's case, he was shot. But then so was William McKinley and nobody has made $150

million at the box office by writing a film about him.

There is some truth in the idea that Lincoln is a man who is difficult to place politically. Certainly, both the main

parties now claim him as their own. Lincoln was a Republican but held views, according to modern Democrats, a

long way from those of the Republican Party today. Every aspect of Lincoln is the subject of both scholarly and

popular dispute. Is he a liberal or a conservative, a great war strategist or essentially a man of peace? Is he a

believer who harnessed the power of prayer or a patron saint of no church at all? In fact, the reason that Lincoln

still counts is provided in the main plot line of Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis portrays the President as cunning and

principled in the negotiations to amend the American constitution to end slavery. Lincoln's continuing appeal is

not based on studied vagueness but on its opposite -- the fact that he insisted on keeping the United States

together and, by doing so, defined the meaning of the Civil War.

Lincoln solved a problem that had been bequeathed to America by its founding fathers. The constitutional

convention had decided that it could only unite the nation by ignoring the issue of slavery. The great stain on the

reputation of Thomas Jefferson is that he was a slave owner himself. The sonorous words of the Declaration of

Independence, which declares all men to be created equal, were not an expression of daily reality. Lincoln

understood that the issue had to be faced and, for that reason, deserves to be ranked as the last of the founding

fathers.

This brought denunciation for Lincoln in his own time. Both sides of the debate about abolition assailed him. He

was routinely dismissed as a backwoodsman from Kentucky who cut a shambolic figure in public. Yet Lincoln's

reputation has flourished long after all his critics have been forgotten and the reason is that he abolished slavery

at the same time as he saved the Union.

It is no accident that Barack Obama, another young senator from Illinois, swore the presidential oath on Lincoln's

Bible, nor that he has said that Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team Of Rivals, on which Lincoln is based, is essential

reading for any occupant of the White House. The achievement of Abraham Lincoln made Barack Obama's term as

President possible.

DETAILS

Subject: Slavery; American history

Location: United States--US

People: Obama, Barack

Publication title: The Times; London (UK)

First page: 2

Publication year: 2013

Publication date: Jan 28, 2013

Section: News

Publisher: News International Trading Limited.

Place of publication: London (UK)

Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)

Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Great Britain

ISSN: 01400460

Source type: Newspapers

Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 1282029867

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1282029867?accountid=8289

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Last updated: 2017-11-20

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