Lincoln Research

[L Verge]

"I think that this is an excellent point that Eva Elisabeth makes with her "elephant" cartoon. One must consider the "whole" animal to make the requisite sense of it. I think that Abraham Lincoln is much more complex than any other elephant, figuratively speaking."

I agree with you completely on that point, David. And I think that is the point that Dani was making in the small portion of her thoughts that we saw. People need to realize that Lincoln (the man and the President) has many complex angles to his personality and his politics. The romanticized version of him that has been passed down for generations does not tell the real story.

Thank you also for this quote: "In the first place, I insist that our fathers did not make this nation half slave and half free, or part slave and part free. I insist that they found the institution of slavery existing here. They did not make it so, but they left it so because they knew of no way to get rid of it at that time." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Quincy" (October 13, 1858), p. 276.

If this doesn't define our nation's history, as well as Lincoln's, up to our bloody civil war nothing does. Did Lincoln solve the problem of the institution of slavery, or was he in a quandary - making feeble attempts and political speeches -- just like a century of Americans before him?