Review of “Lincoln, The Man” by Edgar Lee Masters

 Via Tom

 

                                   53rd NC

“The political history of America has been written for the most part by those who were unfriendly to the theory of a confederated republic, or who did not understand it. It has been written by devotees of the protective principle [i.e. a tariff], by centralists, and to a large degree by New England.”
- Edgar Lee Masters

“The American people, North and South, went into the war as citizens of their respective states, they came out subjects of the United States.”
- H. L. Mencken

“No war ever raging in my time was to me more foolish looking.”
- Thomas Carlyle

Both the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party and the intellectual wing of the Republican Party (insert joke here) want you to love Abraham Lincoln. If you’re like me, this is enough to convince you that you almost certainly don’t love Abraham Lincoln. There is, perhaps, no better tour guide on an anti-Lincoln journey than Masters.

Masters’ Lincoln is the first truly modern statesman (that is to say a wonderful politician, but not an actual statesman in the sense that he’s not leader and doesn’t have a governing philosophy). Lincoln lacks vision, conviction and any philosophical foundation. He says what needs to be said to please the crowd he’s in front of and what he says changes to fit the crowd. He has no fixed principles and no view of how government should work. He seeks to achieve and retain power. Perhaps that’s why he’s worshipped by both American political parties today. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves . . .

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