MYTHS ABOUT LINCOLN: PEELING THE ONION

Abstract

Waldo W. Braden, ed. Building the Myth: Selected Speeches Memorializing Abraham Lincoln. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990. vii + 259 pp. Mario M. Cuomo and Harold Holzer, eds. Lincoln on Democracy. New York, Harper Collins Publishers, 1990. xlvii + 416 pp. Robert W. Johannsen. Lincoln, the South, and Slavery. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991. xiii + 128 pp. James M. McPherson. Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. xiii + 173 pp. Mark E. Neely Jr. The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. xvii + 278 pp. Louis A. Warren. Lincoln's Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-one [1959]. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1991. xxii + 298 pp. David Zarefsky. Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. xiv + 309 pp. In his inaugural address in 1861, Abraham Lincoln appealed to Southerners to abandon secession, pointing out that even if the North and the South were to separate politically, they still would be joined geographically: Physically speaking we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence, and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible then to make that intercourse more advantageous, or more satisfactory, after separation than before?Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends?