Lincoln, Curry and Donald

Writing a biography of someone is not an easy undertaking. For one thing, it is nearly impossible to create a “complete” biography of someone, for as time passes, details and events become less vivid in our minds, and we may forget certain details or entire events. Also, there can be no such thing as a truly impartial biography. When an author sets out to write a biography of someone, there is some message they’re trying to get across, or some image of the person they are trying to perpetuate or discredit. Personal biases, opinionated interpretations, even the leaving out of events that don’t paint a certain picture of a person all come into play. Writing a biography of such an important figure in American history as Abraham Lincoln can be extremely difficult. But that doesn’t stop people from trying. A search on Amazon.com for books about Abraham Lincoln yields over 4,000 results. Everyone has their own ideas of what kind of a person Lincoln was like, and each biography sets out to confirm or deny all or parts of those ideas. Out of those 4,000+ books on Lincoln, it is likely that, although most present a positive view on Lincoln, no two present exactly the same ideas in the same way.

When most people think of Abraham Lincoln, they think of a man who was a great unifier of the people, a preserver of the nation, and “The Great Emancipator.” The kind of person who set out with a plan, stuck to it, and got the job no matter what. Harvard professor David Herbert Donald has a different view on Abraham Lincoln. He sees Lincoln as a person with a fairly passive-aggressive personality, preferring to react to events rather than take an official position and stick with it. Donald originally stated that Lincoln had a “passive” personality, but he has said in several interviews that that term has come back to haunt him. He did not mean “passive” as in lazy, unambitious, or inactive, because Lincoln certainly was none of those. In using the word “passive”, Donald meant that Lincoln was not one to come up with bold programs, go beyond public opinion, or take daring risks. Donald’s portrayal of Lincoln seems to coincide with Lincoln’s statement of, “My policy is to have no policy.” Donald uses a quote from Lincoln describing himself as like one of the men out in the rivers in the West, who steered their boats from point to point so that there was a zig-zag as they went, just taking things as they came, but moving ahead all the while. He was firm in his opinions, but he paid close attention to public opinion, and always acted to preserve the union. For example, Lincoln was against slavery, but originally he never said that he wanted to completely abolish slavery in all the states. He tried everything he could to avoid all out emancipation, and only after they all failed did he issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Even in the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln makes note of how he didn’t really want to have to do this, but it needed to be done (“Events have controlled me…”)

In the book Blueprint for Modern America, author Leonard P. Curry discusses Lincoln in a way not usually done by most authors of the subject. Curry talks about how

One of the most significant federal legislative developments of the period 1861-1863 was the continuing attempt by congressional leaders to establish the dominance of Congress over the executive and judicial branches of government. By the end of the last session of the