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Jon MeachamA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 1 discusses the earliest years of Lincoln’s life, starting with his birth on February 12, 1809 in rural central Kentucky. The chapter also traces Lincoln family history, beginning with the immigration from England to Massachusetts in the 17th century, followed by an account of Lincoln's grandfather’s move westward from Pennsylvania to Kentucky in the 18th century. Thomas Lincoln, the future president’s father, had his life upended by the sudden death of his father at the age of 36. Thomas Lincoln was then forced to make his own way in the world in the frontiers of Kentucky. He had no education and had poor luck as a carpenter and farmer. He eventually married Nancy Hanks, Lincoln’s mother.
Lincoln’s mother’s family was a sore spot for him. The Hanks had acquired a disreputable name in the local area and that extended to his mother. Both Lincoln’s parents, Jon Meacham reports, had tendencies to depression (9). This is something that would plague the future president throughout his adult life as well. On the whole, Lincoln thought little of his childhood and never got along well with his father. Lincoln is quoted as having reflected on his early years thusly: “the short and simple annals of the poor. That’s my life, and that’s all you or anyone else can make out of it” (10). He generally showed little inclination, throughout his life, to reflect on his past.
Meacham discusses the setting of Lincoln’s childhood: Kentucky, a place that at the time was still part of the western United States. It was a dangerous place. Meacham speculates that Lincoln would likely have been exposed to slavery since it was a legal institution in the state at the time. Meacham notes, though, that “the Lincolns appear to have been broadly antislavery in a time and place where slavery was a fact of life” (11). The Lincolns were members in an antislavery church. Meacham discusses the sermons and philosophies of abolitionist preachers in the milieu of Lincoln’s childhood that may have influenced his family. This introduces two of the fundamental themes of the book: Lincoln’s complicated relations with slavery and with religion. Meacham quotes Lincoln comparing himself to “doubting Thomas,” the apostle from the New Testament, at the end of the chapter.
Meacham also discusses the macro-political and cultural history of the slave trade and the revolutions in political thought and ideology that lead to the abolitionist criticisms of slavery but also the “scientific” defenses of slavery on white supremacist grounds (12). There is some historical disagreement whether the Lincolns left Kentucky because of their opposition to slavery, simply to increase their prospects of a better life, or both. When Lincoln was 7, his father moved the family north to Indiana.
Lincoln is described as a sociable boy who liked to read, charm, talk, and make others life, all of which would seem to be staples of his lifelong personality. Indiana would be Lincoln’s home through the end of his adolescence. During his early years in Kentucky, and the first two years in Indiana, Lincoln is said to have had a strong relationship with his mother. When he was just 9 years old, though, his mother died. Meacham describes the adult Lincoln as feeling ambivalent about his mother (24). “Lincoln,” he writes, “preferred to be seen a child of the frontier, not as the child of either of his parents” (24).
Some noticed that Lincoln was a unique and precocious child. Foremost among them was his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, who joined his family in Indiana a year after the passing of his mother. Sarah Bush “championed her stepson” and saw to it that he was able to receive the little education available to him. Lincoln’s father, who wanted him to perform manual work with him, was less excited about the prospect. Though Lincoln only received one year of formal, schoolhouse education, he was an avid reader. Besides the King James Bible and several other classics, Lincoln is to have had a particular fondness for The English Reader by Lindley Murray. Meacham provides a brief biographical sketch of Murray and shows how the book may have functioned as a moral guide for the young Lincoln. He does the same for another important author and book in Lincoln’s childhood, William Grimshaw’s History of the United States.
This moral and literary education was intermittent. Lincoln continuously worked as a farmhand for his father until the age of 22. During this time, Lincoln also traveled some while working as a ferryman on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. During a trip to New Orleans, at the delta of the Mississippi River, Lincoln was exposed to the central hub of the American slave trade. He was reportedly repulsed (31).
In 1830 the Lincolns moved again, this time to Illinois. Eventually he moved by himself to New Salem, Illinois, where he worked as a clerk for a year. Meacham describes that American life was extremely political at the time. This was the presidency of Andrew Jackson and a rising populist wave for poor white men. This was also a time when Lincoln would have first been exposed to the legal system and the possibility of becoming a lawyer.
In 1832, at the age of 23, Lincoln offered himself as a candidate to the Illinois State Legislature. He was a member of the Whig Party, and stumped for the Whig candidate for president, Henry Clay. Clay was running in opposition to Andrew Jackson, the Democrat, and eventual victor.
Shortly after announcing this candidacy, Lincoln was unanimously elected the captain of a militia army. At the time, Meacham reports, there was a “frontier war” between the Sac and Fox tribes and white frontiersmen (35). On May 15, 1832, Lincoln and his militia found and buried the remains of 11 scalped militiamen who had be killed in battle. Meacham tells a story of Lincoln restraining his militiamen from killing an unarmed elderly Native American man in a fit of vengeance.
Meacham then discusses the major tenets of the Whig Party platform at the time, which Lincoln supported. Broadly speaking, the Whigs took a liberal interpretation of the Constitution and hoped to expand the power of the Federal government to improve conditions amongst the states. Meacham writes, “As an aspiring Whig politician, Lincoln said that he believed ‘the legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they cannot, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves’” (38). The Whigs were defeated in the national election, though, and so was Lincoln in his local, state election.
By this point, Lincoln had also failed to make it as a storekeeper. He became the postmaster of New Salem and a local surveyor. He continued to read widely and seems to have been influenced by the deism of Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason. Lincoln reportedly wrote a deist manuscript criticizing literalist interpretations of the Bible, but a “protective friend,” Samuel Hill, destroyed it (40). Still, Lincoln is said to have espoused a faith in the Golden Rule and a commitment to conscientious moral behavior. Meacham continuously portrays Lincoln’s religious sentiments as centered on moral conscience above all else.
In 1834 Lincoln ran again for the same office, but this time he prevailed. Meacham notes that he would go on to win this seat four times in total and served in the Illinois Senate from 1834 to 1842. He also became a licensed attorney in 1836 and his life was largely dedicated to work. In 1837 he moved to Springfield, a larger city.
Meacham also tells the story of Lincoln’s first serious love affair and engagement. This was with one Ann Rutledge, the daughter of a tavernkeeper that Lincoln had boarded with. According to Meacham “testimony was unanimous” that Ann was an excellent match for Lincoln. Abe had a rival suitor for Ann’s hand in marriage, but eventually Ann decided to engage herself to Lincoln. During their engagement period in 1835, though, Ann fell ill and died. According to those who knew Lincoln at the time, he grieved terribly and fought protracted bouts of depression.
After her death, Lincoln fell headfirst into his work. Notably, he expressed his sentiment for universal suffrage among whites, including women. Meacham points to a tension in Lincoln’s political philosophy that would remain with him: between following the democratic will of the people and the duties prescribed on his heart by his own conscience. Meacham also provides examples of Lincoln’s keen political wit and prowess.
Chapter 4 opens not with Lincoln but with a discussion of the history of sentiment about the slave trade in the early days of the American Republic. Meacham notes that though Illinois was technically a slavery-free state, the practice certainly persisted therein anyway. Anti-Black racism was prevalent even amongst most people who were against slavery, and Lincoln was no exception to this rule. Meacham discusses the history of the abolitionist movement, including the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in 1808. He notes that abolitionists, like William Lloyd Garrison, were treated as radicals, disruptive to civil society and somewhat outside the political mainstream. Meacham writes that one of the major stumbling blocks to the full-scale abolition of slavery in the United States is the view, held by many prominent anti-slavery politicians, that the federal government did not have the authority to infringe on the individual sovereignty of the states. (The moral argument against slavery in the North was often met with an argument for the independent sovereignty of each state in the South.) Because of this, many anti-slavery advocates, including Lincoln and the emerging Republican Party, worked toward policies that would curb the expansion of slavery to any newly acquired territories of the United States. They did not envision a war for the end of slavery. The hope was to eliminate its westward expansion and choke it out over time, much like the British had done.
Meacham discusses the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which put limits on the westward expansion of slavery. The compromise did little to nothing to stem the tensions between proponents of slavery and abolitionists. In the 1830s, many southern states reported slave rebellions; many also outlawed educating enslaved people in reading and writing. Meacham notes the theological exercises southern lawmakers and preachers used to justify their support for slavery.
Henry Clay, one of the architects of the Missouri Compromise, was staunchly anti-slavery, and a political hero for Lincoln. Clay seems to have had an early influence on Lincoln’s political will to challenge slavery. Meacham quotes an older Lincoln claiming that, as far back as the 1830s, when he was still a young man and in the Illinois legislature, he was “naturally anti-slavery” (61). As he says in 1864, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think, and feel” (61). In 1837, for instance, Lincoln voted against a popular measure in Illinois that functioned as a show of support for the slave states. Meacham, quoting Lincoln from an anecdotal conversation, shows that he was able to attach his anti-slavery position to keen wit and political cunning. Lincoln says that he is not an abolitionist, but that he is “mighty near one” (since he is sitting next to an abolitionist friend) (63).
After Lincoln passed the bar and became a licensed attorney, he moved from New Salem to Springfield, which would eventually become the state capital of Illinois. According to Lincoln’s close friend, Joshua Speed, he entered a period of depression. Lincoln paid close attention to national politics. Lynching and violent racial bigotry were on the rise. Meacham writes: “As the 1830s ended, the proslavery forces were engaged, energized, and hypersensitive. Their world was under assault, and they hated it” (68). In the presidential race of 1840, a particularly contentious affair, Lincoln supported William Henry Harrison against Martin Van Buren. Harrison defeated Van Buren, and Lincoln made a name for himself in his support of Harrison. Lincoln was reelected to a fourth term in the state legislature. It should not be overlooked that, during this race, Lincoln argued against voting rights for free Black individuals.
According to Meacham, after the death of Ann Rutledge, Lincoln had several more unsuccessful attempts at marriage. Eventually, though, he would marry Mary Todd, a member of a well-to-do and politically connected family in Lexington, Kentucky. This chapter focuses on the tangled and troubled early love affair between Lincoln and Mary Todd.
Mary Todd was born in Kentucky in 1818. She did not have fond memories of her childhood, but was noted as being a far more advanced learner than her peers in school. She is consistently noted for her intelligence and judgment. After her sister moved to Springfield, Illinois, Mary came for a visit. It was during this time that she first met Lincoln. She returned to Springfield again two years later in 1839, at a time when both her and Lincoln were deeply invested in the Harrison campaign for president. Lincoln and Mary Todd bonded over their shared love for politics. As Meacham writes, “[s]he brought something else, too, beyond a pleasing countenance, the most talkative of dispositions, and important family connections: a love of politics. Vote getting, speechmaking, editorial writing, and governing had long been familiar to her” (76). It would not hurt either, according to Meacham, that Henry Clay was a Todd family friend. Mary Todd is said to have claimed since childhood that she would marry an American president.
Mary Todd had other suitors (among them Stephen Douglas), and she and Lincoln both had difficulty fully committing to one another. Mary Todd supposedly dominated her conversations with Lincoln, who was not her intellectual match, and who spent more time listening than speaking. At the outset of 1841, Lincoln broke off his engagement with Mary Todd. According to his friends, Lincoln entered another period of heavy depression. In 1842, Lincoln and Mary Todd were thrust together at a party. They became friends once more, and by November of the same year they would be engaged to be married. Shortly less than nine months after their marriage, their first child, Robert Todd, was born, which led to subsequent but unsubstantiated claims that the marriage was brought about by the pregnancy. In 1846 their second son, Edward, was born.
According to Meacham, Lincoln’s friends and political acquaintances experienced Lincoln’s domestic life secondhand as a kind of hell. Despite Mary Todd’s fierce anger, both she and Lincoln shared a thorough devotion to their children. Their married life had a humble beginning where they resided as tenants of a Springfield boarding house. Still early in their marriage, in 1843, Lincoln ran (against Edward Baker) for the United States House of Representatives. Lincoln lost this race. After Harrison died a month into his presidency, John Tyler became the president. Tyler failed to win Whig support for reelection, and instead the Whigs nominated Henry Clay who would go on to battle James K. Polk, a Democrat, for the presidency. “To observers” Meacham writes, “the contest came down to ‘Polk, slavery, and Texas’ or ‘Clay, union, and liberty” (87). In the end, Polk won by a narrow margin.
Far more than the rest of the book, Part 1 concerns itself with the broad scope of Lincoln’s life. First, it covers the largest expanse of time—the first 37 years of Lincoln’s life. Second, it discusses his personal development and private affairs far more than later parts do. Relying largely on recorded testimony from Lincoln and his friends and family, alongside political documents and newspaper clippings, Meacham paints a picture of an intelligent, autodidactic, ambitious, and grief-stricken young man. Meacham’s account adheres to the traditional depiction of Lincoln’s childhood with its near-mythic resonances—the impoverished and independent young man on the American frontier—even as he humanizes Lincoln along the way through the use of testimonial accounts and speculation.
The central aspect of Lincoln’s character Meacham thematizes is Lincoln’s conscience, which is its own kind of character, one that grows and develops over the course of the text. There are two aspects of fundamental moral dedication that become ever more reified in Lincoln’s conflicted conscience as he ages: dedication to the founding ideals of the United States and moral repugnance at slavery. The former is reflected by Lincoln’s views on The Political Religion of the United States, which he believed should be a thoroughly disciplined dedication of all members of the country to the preservation, maintenance, and advancement of the ideals in the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Lincoln’s Evolving Views on Slavery are also expressed in these chapters describing his formative years. Though Lincoln claims that there was never a time when he wasn’t anti-slavery, his early years in the Illinois state legislature, as well as his time campaigning for Whig candidates, show that he was somewhat inconsistent in his defense of abolitionist principles. For instance, while in the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln voted on the losing side of a 77-6 vote, which, amongst other things, expressed support for slaveholding states and defended the rights of slaveholders in Washington, DC. Meacham wants to show that Lincoln, though inconsistent, was not a simple political opportunist who cynically adopted views because they would help him get elected. At the same time, though, Lincoln fought against Van Buren’s platform to give free Black Americans the right to vote. Lincoln’s conscience may have always directed him away from slavery, but his personal racism took a lifetime of progress to overcome. Lincoln’s resolve, ambition, and political savvy are all part and parcel of this developmental story fundamentally oriented around these two guiding principles of his conscience. As we will see in later parts of the book, as Lincoln aged the appeals of conscience would become akin to religious imperatives.
Meacham oscillates between describing the larger American political climate and describing Lincoln’s personal and political feelings and thoughts. This is a strategy pursued throughout the book. Given that Lincoln was an extremely public-minded person, this works on a biographical level insofar as it shows that Lincoln’s private life was often a mirror of the fraught political situation. It also works on an historical level, showing the political and religious climate of the country and advancing tensions. The climax of Lincoln’s life is his presidency, which coincides with the climax of decades of cultural and political strife the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Consistently providing Lincoln’s biographical background in tandem with the American historical situation provides the narrative climax with both a macrocosmic and microcosmic perspective on the events of the early 1860s.
Note that the subtitle of the book is Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. Lincoln and America are nearly equal protagonists in his book, and Meacham wants to show how and why their histories became deeply entangled with one another.
By Jon Meacham