Born in czarist Russia in 1899, Marcus Feinstein attended a high school where he read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. He was forced to enlist in the army during the Russian Revolution and fled Russia to immigrate to America in 1921. In later years, he inscribed this book to his daughter with the explanation “He is why […]

When the English traveler George Borrett met the president in 1864, he recorded that Lincoln was “a great admirer of Pope, especially of his ‘Essay on Man;’ going so far as to say that he thought it contained all the religious instruction which it was necessary for a man to know.” Lincoln began reading Pope’s […]

These notes were composed for Lincoln’s 1858 debates with his Democratic rival, Stephen Douglas, in the race for the United States Senate. In this fragment, Lincoln forcefully asserts a politician’s obligation to provide moral leadership: “In this age, and this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. […]

This letter reveals Lincoln’s determination to retain the original meaning of his Cooper Union Address. While accepting grammatical correction, Lincoln had been deliberate in his choice of words and so told Nott: “I do not wish the sense changed, or modified, to a hair’s breadth.” Even the smallest change in text would diminish the power […]

Lincoln encouraged Americans to look beyond politics and persevere in a good fight for a noble cause. With this speech he positioned himself within the international struggle over slavery, citing the example of British abolitionists William Wilberforce and Granville Sharpe. Lincoln’s stark imagery subliminally links supporters of slavery with darkness and historical oblivion. But I […]

In what is believed to be Lincoln’s earliest formulation of his “House Divided” doctrine, Lincoln identifies slavery as a moral and political issue that threatens the survival of the United States. Invoking the famous biblical phrase from Mark 3:25, “A house divided against itself can not stand,” he declares, “I believe this government can not […]

The Emancipation Proclamation was shaped by both pragmatic considerations and Lincoln’s lifelong disdain for slavery. As a legal document, it aspires to precision rather than eloquence. Lincoln’s use of county-specific terminology identified areas in rebellion, securing his proclamation as a wartime measure that would not be subject to judicial overthrow.

Viewed by many as Lincoln’s greatest speech, this address declared that slavery was the war’s essential cause and that the war was an expiation of the national sin of slavery. Speaking transcendently to history, President Lincoln explained the Civil War—its cause, its character, and its immediate consequences. Though he wanted to be clear that slavery […]

Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of Tennessee in March 1862, when much of the eastern part of the state remained under the control of rebel forces. Although Johnson was initially reluctant to recruit former slaves for the Union army—believing that they should continue to perform menial tasks, thus allowing white men to fight—Lincoln was aware […]

Frustrated for years with the inaction and delays of his generals, Lincoln at last found a like-minded commander in Ulysses S. Grant. Writing tersely to avoid divulging details that could be intercepted, Lincoln telegraphed Grant to praise his strategy of total war: “I begin to see it. You will succeed.”