What is your best one-word description of President Abraham Lincoln's character?

[David Lockmiller]

(10-05-2023 06:00 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  Who wrote the following words on page 1 of his Lincoln book and what was the title of the book?

"In the construction of his official family Lincoln displayed the qualities that were to distinguish his administration. Independence of opinion, absolute reliance on his own judgment, a willingness to listen to advice, a readiness to compromise, so long as the main object was achieved, and a logically thought out scheme of action -

On pages 352-53 of Lincoln's War Cabinet, Burton Hendrick wrote:

The precise moment when Lincoln's decision to issue the Proclamation had been made is something, of course, that cannot be determined. On the general conviction that the time must come when the slave should be liberated he had from the first completely agreed with the most ardent radical. In a theoretical sense, he knew when the moment for action would arrive. That would be the time when such an extreme measure would most effectively promote the cause to which, above all, Lincoln had dedicated himself -- the preservation of the Union. He had resisted all the exhortations of radicals and humanitarians for a year and more, knowing that the action they proposed was premature and premature emancipation, Lincoln had always insisted, would have defeated the purpose at which he aimed. Had the Proclamation been issued six months before it was actually given to the world, Lincoln told the artist Carpenter, it would have worked great injury to the cause. In early July 1862, however, the President concluded that the moment had come to deprive the South of its most powerful instrument of warfare.