Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography. By William Lee Miller. (New York: Knopf, 2002. xvi, 515 pp. $30.00, ISBN 0–375–40158–X.)

Abstract

Lincoln's Virtues is an ambitious and elegant intellectual biography of Abraham Lincoln that succeeds admirably in uncovering the “moral meaning” of his life while enhancing “our understanding of Lincoln as a real human being in a real world” (pp. xii–xiii). William Lee Miller challenges a rising tide of cynicism about Lincoln's motives and methods by dissecting the political, social, and intellectual foundations that underlay his key moral judgments. Miller applies Max Weber's distinction between an “ethics of responsibility,” which denies the existence of pure and absolute alternatives, and a contrasting “ethics of abstract purity,” devoted to idealism and even perfection (p. 197). In Miller's estimation, Lincoln was morally as well as intellectually self-educated and developed an intuitive “ethic of responsibility” that recognized the limitations of American society and government. Lincoln eschewed perfection as impossible, proposing “our most intelligent judgment of the consequences” (p. 212) as the best that society can achieve. He therefore framed—and defended—his moral judgments on a foundation of intellect rather than faith. In his youth, Miller demonstrates, Lincoln struggled with essential Christian doctrines, eventually accepting and even celebrating them on the basis of reason rather than belief. The same ethic led Lincoln to reject evangelical religion for assuming too much personal freedom independent of social institutions—the “real world.” Similarly, he never viewed his own moral judgments as absolutes nor imposed them on others.