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Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency
Adopting a new approach to an American icon, an award-winning scholar reexamines the life of Abraham Lincoln to demonstrate how his remarkable political acumen and leadership skills evolved during the intense partisan conflict in pre-Civil War Illinois. By describing Lincoln's rise from obscurity to the presidency, William Harris shows that Lincoln's road to political success was far from easy--and that his reaction to events wasn't always wise or his racial attitudes free of prejudice. Although most scholars have labeled Lincoln a moderate, Harris reveals that he was by his own admission a conservative who revered the Founders and advocated "adherence to the old and tried." By emphasizing the conservative bent that guided Lincoln's political evolution--his background as a Henry Clay Whig, his rural ties, his cautious nature, and the racial and political realities of central Illinois--Harris provides fresh insight into Lincoln's political ideas and activities and portrays him as morally opposed to slavery but fundamentally conservative in his political strategy against it. Interweaving aspects of Lincoln's life and character that were an integral part of his rise to prominence, Harris provides in-depth coverage of Lincoln's controversial term in Congress, his re-emergence as the leader of the antislavery coalition in Illinois, and his Senate campaign against Stephen A. Douglas. He particularly describes how Lincoln organized the antislavery coalition into the Republican Party while retaining the support of its diverse elements, and sheds new light on Lincoln's ongoing efforts to bring Know Nothing nativists into the coalition without alienating ethnic groups. He also provides newinformation and analysis regarding Lincoln's nomination and election to the presidency, the selection of his cabinet, and his important role as president-elect during the secession crisis of 1860-1861. Challenging prevailing views, Harris portrays Lincoln as increasingly driven not so much by his own ambitions as by his antislavery sentiments and his fear for the republic in the hands of Douglas Democrats, and he shows how the unique political skills Lincoln developed in Illinois shaped his wartime leadership abilities. By doing so, he opens a window on his political ideas and influences and offers a fresh understanding of this complex figure.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
424 pages, Hardcover
First published April 15, 2007
About the author
William C. Harris
33 books5 followersWilliam C. Harris is Professor Emeritus of History at North Carolina State University.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 14, 2022
In what is rapidly beginning to look like a futile quest to read just about everything ever written about Abraham Lincoln over the past 20 years or so, I turned to this book for some deeper insights, having grown somewhat tired of reading biographies that simply tell all the same stories over and over again and have little new to say in the process.
The deeper insights in this book are pretty incremental and esoteric, though. In tracing Lincoln’s rise to political prominence from his youth to his inauguration as president, Harris tells all the same stories all over again - but he offers enough new interpretations to make the read worthwhile, if not mind-blowing.
For instance, in the book’s introduction, Harris promises that he will provide fresh insights into topics such as "why Lincoln ran for the state House of Representatives in 1854, why he made the controversial house-divided statement in his June 16, 1858, speech, and when he believed that he was a viable presidential candidate." Exactly the burning questions you’ve always asked yourself about Lincoln, right?!
If the questions seem obscure, Harris’s answers are even more so: Lincoln ran for the state House out of a sense of obligation, to help retain the local congressional seat for the Whigs; he made his House Divided speech to draw a sharper distinction between himself and Stephen Douglas on the issue of slavery, and to prevent wavering Republicans from believing that Douglas's opposition to Kansas' proslavery constitution was a sign he could be worked with; and Lincoln believed he was a viable presidential candidate once Republican electoral setbacks in New York following John Brown's raid signaled that the frontrunner, the perceived radical William Seward, was vulnerable.
With insights like these, the book never promises to offer a radical reinterpretation of Lincoln that will rock your world. Judged for what it is and what it’s meant to be, though, the book succeeds in providing nuanced reanalyses of oft-told Lincoln tales.
Harris’s main thesis is that Lincoln was not a “moderate” as he’s often said to be. Harris largely dismisses that label as a wishy-washy term that doesn’t really mean anything. Instead, he argues, as Lincoln often did, that he was actually a conservative. From our vantage point, it’s hard to look back at a transformative president, who reshaped our country by ending slavery, saving the republic and advancing the cause of democracy, and consider him to be a conservative. But by emphasizing what they believed to be the Founders’ antislavery principles, Lincoln and his fellow Republicans aimed to show that they were the true constitutional conservatives, while the Democrats’ acceptance of slavery’s expansion exposed them as the true radicals.
This is decidedly a political history, and not a biography - Lincoln’s family life, for instance, is not discussed in any detail. But it’s a very good, well-written, direct and succinct political history. Harris ably describes the progression of Lincoln’s political skills, and traces his antislavery coalition-building efforts, as he helped develop the Republican party that he came to lead into essentially a single-issue party, abandoning and discouraging the promotion of the Whig economic policies he once championed, in order to focus solely on opposing the expansion of slavery.
Throughout, Harris shows how Lincoln carefully and methodically stuck to his conservative message as he grew in renown. Even his Cooper Union speech, Harris argues, was not so much a watershed event as it was one more incremental step toward convincing others of the righteousness of his conservative cause.
Several other strong sections include Harris’s analysis of Lincoln’s House Divided speech, which Harris argues was consistent with Lincoln’s long-held beliefs, but may have been a step too far too soon, as it put him on the defensive when Democrats used it to paint him as a radical. Harris’s descriptions of the Lincoln-Douglas debates are thorough, as he focuses not only on what was said by the candidates, as most writers do, but on all of the electioneering that accompanied the debates.
And his analysis of the political calculations that went into Lincoln’s Cabinet selections is excellent. There is no simplistic “Lincoln confidently and magnanimously chose his strongest political foes to be part of his ‘Team of Rivals’” analysis here. Instead, Harris shows the shrewd and artful forethought that went into Lincoln’s choices - Seward was a no-brainer, as “his administration could not succeed without the active support of Seward and his friends." Edward Bates from Missouri was a geographic pick to show that Lincoln "did not intend to be a sectional president." And Salmon Chase was in recognition of his "important leadership in organizing the antislavery coalition" and for being "the only prominent Republican from another state to campaign for him in the 1858 Senatorial contest," not to mention that he was a former Democrat.
Harris even analyzes the ill-fated Cabinet selection of former rival Simon Cameron, who is largely left out of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s more idealized account. The choice of Cameron was a nod to the importance of Pennsylvania, which "arguably had made the difference in Lincoln's nomination," and state Republicans convinced Lincoln that Cameron was the only choice acceptable to them, while also convincing him that corruption allegations against Cameron were exaggerated by his political opponents. As it turned out, choosing Cameron for his Cabinet may have been Lincoln’s first mistake as president-elect.
In the end, the larger story that Harris tells is a familiar one if you’ve read anything at all about Lincoln before. But if you’re willing to pay close attention to how he tells it, you may learn a little more about how and why Lincoln did what he did. Nothing in the book is going to drastically transform your thinking about Lincoln. But by providing detailed, thoughtful, subtle, specific insights, Harris proves that just when you think you know all there is to know about Lincoln, there will always be something new to learn.
The deeper insights in this book are pretty incremental and esoteric, though. In tracing Lincoln’s rise to political prominence from his youth to his inauguration as president, Harris tells all the same stories all over again - but he offers enough new interpretations to make the read worthwhile, if not mind-blowing.
For instance, in the book’s introduction, Harris promises that he will provide fresh insights into topics such as "why Lincoln ran for the state House of Representatives in 1854, why he made the controversial house-divided statement in his June 16, 1858, speech, and when he believed that he was a viable presidential candidate." Exactly the burning questions you’ve always asked yourself about Lincoln, right?!
If the questions seem obscure, Harris’s answers are even more so: Lincoln ran for the state House out of a sense of obligation, to help retain the local congressional seat for the Whigs; he made his House Divided speech to draw a sharper distinction between himself and Stephen Douglas on the issue of slavery, and to prevent wavering Republicans from believing that Douglas's opposition to Kansas' proslavery constitution was a sign he could be worked with; and Lincoln believed he was a viable presidential candidate once Republican electoral setbacks in New York following John Brown's raid signaled that the frontrunner, the perceived radical William Seward, was vulnerable.
With insights like these, the book never promises to offer a radical reinterpretation of Lincoln that will rock your world. Judged for what it is and what it’s meant to be, though, the book succeeds in providing nuanced reanalyses of oft-told Lincoln tales.
Harris’s main thesis is that Lincoln was not a “moderate” as he’s often said to be. Harris largely dismisses that label as a wishy-washy term that doesn’t really mean anything. Instead, he argues, as Lincoln often did, that he was actually a conservative. From our vantage point, it’s hard to look back at a transformative president, who reshaped our country by ending slavery, saving the republic and advancing the cause of democracy, and consider him to be a conservative. But by emphasizing what they believed to be the Founders’ antislavery principles, Lincoln and his fellow Republicans aimed to show that they were the true constitutional conservatives, while the Democrats’ acceptance of slavery’s expansion exposed them as the true radicals.
This is decidedly a political history, and not a biography - Lincoln’s family life, for instance, is not discussed in any detail. But it’s a very good, well-written, direct and succinct political history. Harris ably describes the progression of Lincoln’s political skills, and traces his antislavery coalition-building efforts, as he helped develop the Republican party that he came to lead into essentially a single-issue party, abandoning and discouraging the promotion of the Whig economic policies he once championed, in order to focus solely on opposing the expansion of slavery.
Throughout, Harris shows how Lincoln carefully and methodically stuck to his conservative message as he grew in renown. Even his Cooper Union speech, Harris argues, was not so much a watershed event as it was one more incremental step toward convincing others of the righteousness of his conservative cause.
Several other strong sections include Harris’s analysis of Lincoln’s House Divided speech, which Harris argues was consistent with Lincoln’s long-held beliefs, but may have been a step too far too soon, as it put him on the defensive when Democrats used it to paint him as a radical. Harris’s descriptions of the Lincoln-Douglas debates are thorough, as he focuses not only on what was said by the candidates, as most writers do, but on all of the electioneering that accompanied the debates.
And his analysis of the political calculations that went into Lincoln’s Cabinet selections is excellent. There is no simplistic “Lincoln confidently and magnanimously chose his strongest political foes to be part of his ‘Team of Rivals’” analysis here. Instead, Harris shows the shrewd and artful forethought that went into Lincoln’s choices - Seward was a no-brainer, as “his administration could not succeed without the active support of Seward and his friends." Edward Bates from Missouri was a geographic pick to show that Lincoln "did not intend to be a sectional president." And Salmon Chase was in recognition of his "important leadership in organizing the antislavery coalition" and for being "the only prominent Republican from another state to campaign for him in the 1858 Senatorial contest," not to mention that he was a former Democrat.
Harris even analyzes the ill-fated Cabinet selection of former rival Simon Cameron, who is largely left out of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s more idealized account. The choice of Cameron was a nod to the importance of Pennsylvania, which "arguably had made the difference in Lincoln's nomination," and state Republicans convinced Lincoln that Cameron was the only choice acceptable to them, while also convincing him that corruption allegations against Cameron were exaggerated by his political opponents. As it turned out, choosing Cameron for his Cabinet may have been Lincoln’s first mistake as president-elect.
In the end, the larger story that Harris tells is a familiar one if you’ve read anything at all about Lincoln before. But if you’re willing to pay close attention to how he tells it, you may learn a little more about how and why Lincoln did what he did. Nothing in the book is going to drastically transform your thinking about Lincoln. But by providing detailed, thoughtful, subtle, specific insights, Harris proves that just when you think you know all there is to know about Lincoln, there will always be something new to learn.
February 16, 2015
Harris, a Lincoln scholar second to none, examines Lincoln's rise to political power and explores how Whig ideology shaped but did not contain Lincoln. Harris traces Lincoln's passionate commitment to the Union. Lincoln's political aspirations, his triumphs and failures, are placed in context and explained in straightforward prose. Harris is at his best rendering complex ideas into straighforward writing. Its a must read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews