A SELF-MADE MAN - The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849

[Richard Lawrence Miller]

In the past week I have read the first volume of Sidney Blumenthal’s four-volume Lincoln biography, and would like to share some thoughts about A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1809—1849 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016).

The book attracted my attention because it deals with my own particular interest in Lincoln, his pre-presidential years. Moreover, the author is an experienced politician and therefore can be expected to offer a slant promoting an understanding of Lincoln that is seldom found in products from academic writers. And, indeed, Blumenthal sees political angles throughout the Lincoln story. The chapter on Lincoln’s interactions with Joseph Smith and Smith’s Mormon followers is especially welcome. Blumenthal also pauses occasionally for a sentence or two about how one character has a family connection with another one. The relationship may be distant, but characters are aware of dealing with relatives.

Given Blumenthal’s continuing involvement with politics at the highest level, his ability to produce such a fine biography amazes me. He has stated that he spent about ten years working on the project. I cannot imagine how he found time to do it. His passion for the subject must be intense. Such dedication is evident in the current book.

Readers won’t go wrong by treating A Self-Made Man as authoritative. Blumenthal’s volume is quite accurate. On some topics his understanding differs from mine, but I detect only a handful of outright factual mistakes, and all are historical equivalents of typographical errors, such as describing Lincoln as a presidential elector instead of being a CANDIDATE for the Electoral College.

Having written a multi-volume biography of Lincoln myself, I appreciate the difficulty of avoiding an occasional factual misstep and have always considered it churlish to point where someone has stumbled. I give the above example simply because someone may wonder what I mean by trivial mistake. Blumenthal’s book is so sturdy that such a minor blemish should be disregarded.

He and I do, however, disagree on a more substantive point that wavers on the border between factual correctness and incorrectness. Blumenthal, like many other fine students of the Lincoln story, is struck by a searing quotation attributed to Lincoln: “I used to be a slave.” This presumably refers to long exploitation by his father who forced Lincoln to do heavy labor while confiscating the lad’s earnings. Interesting conclusions about Lincoln’s political motivations can be drawn from that statement. In important discussion at both the opening and ending of Blumenthal’s book he ponders the meaning of those words.

Although most Lincoln historians treat that quotation as authentic, I am not among them. My doubt is shared by Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher in their Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln. The quotation’s source is Lincoln’s New Salem associate John Roll, who says Lincoln interrupted his carefully prepared House Divided speech with an aside telling the audience that he and Roll had both been treated as slaves.

Give and take between speaker and hearers enlivened western stump speaking, but House Divided was no stump oration. Lincoln crafted that address for a national audience and was unlikely to interrupt the flow of his argument with a spontaneous reminiscence about New Salem’s good old days. Both the interruption and the passionate nature of the quotation would likely have been remembered by reporters or other auditors, but Roll is the sole source that I know of.

He may be a reliable witness for other parts of the Lincoln story, but I reject Roll’s testimony on this point. Paradoxically, however, I also find Blumenthal’s commentary on the quotation to be worthwhile even though I suspect the phrase he analyzes is spurious. Go figure.

Endnotes documenting the book’s narrative are plentiful, and secondary sources chosen for citation are reliable. I feel quiet satisfaction that books written by yours truly were useful to Blumenthal.

A Self-Made Man is a pleasure to read and deserves to rank high on the list of Lincoln biographies.