The Anti-Lincoln Tradition

Fifty years ago, Herbert Hoover, campaigning for re-election in the midst of the Great Depression, took special care to associate himself with Abraham Lincoln, but then so did his opponent, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had remarked a few years earlier, 'I think it is time for us Democrats to claim Lincoln as one of our own.'1 Late in the campaign, both men came to speak in Springfield, and both paid ceremonial visits to the Lincoln tomb. By the 1930s, 'getting right with Lincoln' in this manner had become an almost universal custom among public figures.

Not only Republicans and Democrats, but also Communists, Socialists, and Prohibitionists, business executives and labor leaders, black Americans and members of the Ku Klux Klan—all seemed to want him on their side.2Yet, here and there, a few voices of dissent could always be heard. In 1932, an old Virginia gentleman named Lyon Gardiner Tyler, son of President John Tyler, continued his long personal war upon the heroic image of Lincoln. 'I think he was a bad man,' Tyler wrote, 'a man who forced the country into an unnecessary war and conducted it with great inhumanity.'3 Tyler was the most prominent spokesman of his time for an anti-Lincoln tradition, attenuated but persistent, that had its sturdy roots in the years of the Civil War. An examination of that tradition may cast some light upon Lincoln's place in the national consciousness—a place that is apparently secure but never precisely the same from one year to the next.There were three principal sources of hostility to Lincoln during the Civil War: first, the enemy-that is, the people of the Confederacy and a sizable part of the population in the Southern Border states; second, the political opposition-that is, primarily the Democratic party in the North and the Border states, but including a good many conservative Whigs as well; third, the antislavery radicals, including elements both within and outside the Republican party.

One might also designate as a fourth category the hostile critics watching and commenting on the war from Europe—most notably, a substantial portion of the English press.The Southern image of Lincoln began as a mere sectional stereotype, and Southern hostility to his presidential candidacy was largely impersonal. Secession, although undertaken in response to the outcome of the election of 1860, had nothing to do with the particular qualities and qualifications of the man elected. It was the 'Black Republican party' that Southerners hated and feared, whoever might happen to be the party's official leader.

But when the secession crisis erupted into civil war, Southerners laid the blame squarely on Lincoln. In the years of bloody struggle and withering hope that followed, they came increasingly to view him as the principal author of all the woe that had descended upon them. Of course Jefferson Davis at the same time became a detested figure in the North, but with a significant difference.

Davis, leading a rebellion, symbolized treason in the mold of Benedict Arnold, while Lincoln's role, in Southern eyes, was that of a military conqueror—a ruthless Attila bent upon the destruction of a superior civilization. In fact, the Confederate image of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s bears a striking resemblance to the American image of Adolf Hitler in the 1940s.The Southern indictment of Lincoln usually began with the assertion that he had made war unavoidable by opposing sectional compromise and then forcing the issue at Fort Sumter. After the first major battle of the war at Bull Run in July 1861, the Richmond Enquirer blamed him for all the deaths on both sides. 'Of these men Abraham Lincoln is the murderer,' it declared. 'We charge their blood upon him....

May the Heavens, which have rebuked his madness thus far, still battle his demon designs.'4Confederates called Lincoln a 'tyrant,' a 'fiend,' and a 'monster' for making war on civilians through the blockade, for authorizing the destruction of private property, for setting the likes of Ben Butler and William T. Sherman upon the Southern population, for suppressing civil liberties, for cruelly refusing to exchange prisoners, and, most of all, for emancipation, which they viewed as an incitement of slaves to rebellion and wholesale murder. In speeches, sermons, and songs, in books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, and broadsides, they also portrayed him as a simpleton, a buffoon, a drunkard, a libertine, a physical coward, and a pornographic story-teller.5Hatred of Lincoln sometimes crystallized into threats against his life.

For instance, soon after the firing on Fort Sumter, he received from Mississippi a newspaper clipping in which a reward of $100,000 was offered for his 'miserable traitorous head.'6 Spontaneous rejoicing at his death, though perhaps more the exception than the rule in the Confederacy, was nevertheless widespread. To a Georgia woman overcome with bewilderment and grief at Lee's surrender, the assassination came as 'one sweet drop among so much that is painful.'7 A Texas newspaper declared, 'The world is happily rid of a monster that disgraced the form of humanity.'8Such intensity of feeling was by no means confined to the rebellious South. The Civil War divided Northern and Border State Democrats into three factions: those who supported both the war and the Lincoln administration, thereby in effect changing their political allegiance; those who supported the war but opposed the administration, thus playing the classic role of 'loyal opposition'; and those who opposed both the war and the administration, in some cases to the verge of treason.

The latter two groups became the war and peace wings of the wartime Democratic party. Far apart in their basic attitudes toward the conflict itself, they could nevertheless agree in denouncing Lincoln for misuse of presidential power and subversion of the Constitution.9 They charged the administration with repressing civil liberties, with subverting the rights and powers of the states, and with transforming a war for defense of the Union into a revolutionary struggle for abolition and racial equality.It was the progress toward emancipation that most infuriated Democratic and other conservative leaders. In their view, the same puritanical spirit of New England abolitionism that had disrupted the Union was dictating administration policy.10 On January 1, 1863, the day of the final Emancipation Proclamation, Benjamin R.

Curtis, former Supreme Court justice, said that Lincoln had been terrified and completely subdued by the antislavery radicals. 'He is shattered, dazed and utterly foolish,' Curtis wrote. 'It would not surprise me if he were to destroy himself.'11 In 1864, that old Jacksonian Amos Kendall published a series of letters attacking the President. 'Our federal Union,' he declared, 'is in more danger this day from Abraham Lincoln and the unprincipled and fanatical faction to whom he has surrendered himself, soul and body, than from all other causes combined.'12Of course the rankest abuse came from the copperheads, among whom none was more inventive in his vituperation than a Wisconsin editor, Marcus M. Pomeroy. Lincoln, he wrote, was 'but the fungus from the corrupt womb of bigotry and fanaticism'—indeed a 'worse tyrant and more inhuman butcher than has existed since the days of Nero.' As the election of 1864 approached, Pomeroy editorialized: 'The man who votes for Lincoln now is a traitor and murderer....

And if he is elected to misgovern for another four years, we trust some bold hand will pierce his heart with dagger point for the public good.'13Among the antislavery radicals, in contrast, Lincoln seemed the embodiment of timorous, vacillating conservatism—too inhibited by constitutional qualms, too solicitous about Border State feeling, too obliging to Democrats, especially in the appointment of generals, and much too cautious in his approach to emancipation. One must distinguish, of course, between the outright abolitionists and the radical free soilers who made up the left wing of the Republican party. Once the war had begun, however, the two elements tended to merge in the sense that both were vehemently emancipationist.

Yet within both groups there was considerable difference of opinion about the man in the White House. For instance, William Lloyd Garrison, after much early abuse of Lincoln, came around to urging the President's renomination and re-election in 1864, but his fellow abolitionist Wendell Phillips refused to do likewise and gave his support instead to the abortive candidacy of John C. Fremont.14 Similarly, Charles Sumner, though often critical of Lincoln, a between and his Benjamin the President a the radical upon him in opposed his and his assassination as a political on the issue from as early as the of of emancipation in a of that was in May when he a by for and In a to another that nothing could be from a man of Southern and at the leading black in his that Lincoln had become the 'miserable of and and had himself to be 'a of American and Emancipation some antislavery to Lincoln's but many continued to him as a for a that he to be radical was the Davis, of the which charged the President with and while at the same time Lincoln was Davis to 'We must for four years more on the forcing of to from that old be for the The in for Lincoln, he had to the of a hostility to Lincoln to the so much of it came from the of his party and from his in the of of letters is a of on the President.

The of is perhaps than the and with which Lincoln was by much of the The portion of the public became in the American Civil War for both and The war had a effect upon the as it was to But also the struggle from its as a of the of that which the English feared, which the the and which Lincoln in and of conservative to a from the of the 'It is only by so as said the men be of the with which is The principal against Lincoln were that he in a war of and that in the he was a on the the while making bad as he his his the election of 1864 the called him a and who was also the tyrant of The at about the same time him as of that in the most form of that and The of the was more the Emancipation as an to it that Lincoln might be that of the wholesale and of their viewed Lincoln's re-election in 1864 as the of a military The it had on that so to the of through which on their from to than a year the same newspaper its Lincoln was as of a tyrant as man who had of course, was and the of the great Lincoln is the between the and his would agree with the by that made all the difference between a and a But few would that the and manner of his the Lincoln The first of that was the of grief from the American It men in public and some of them. Wendell Phillips a few days after the had trust from the people that it was to against of Lincoln thus began as soon as he of the of a on in most since he was to the universal of the and the of his critics at and to their of his and as it the was in for instance, and there was who had called the President and now the principal in New radical and soon an they had in the Lincoln, and long they had into a day for party Northern Democrats, for the most in and in the of Lincoln. For of had good to about the President during the war, but years he called Lincoln of the and men of whom a and other Democrats were to with Lincoln by his and his toward the Confederacy, thus him from the of Southerners came to with the Lincoln image this same Jefferson Davis, while to Lincoln for the war, that his had been a great for the Southerners could also from some of Lincoln's about that seemed with the of And for of a as the Georgia newspaper an of Lincoln was part of the sectional that their for Southerners who the of the Confederacy and with to their Lincoln a one whom the was still in as a not and Southerners to the were the principal of the anti-Lincoln tradition in the and early They in their more and more as a of the Yet their against Lincoln so it seemed to as with the the of the and about Lincoln was by a of and from men who had him with of the of this often was the personal of some William and for the but of they upon that Lincoln, among other had at in his with to that his was and that a and were as good as a anti-Lincoln tradition to have a during the from the great of to the of the but then it made a in the a time when Lincoln in were upon their most One of the was a to of Southern that the Confederate in a which that the Civil War and and its made by Abraham there were from the and the of the of the was of the Southern who that Southern must be the about Abraham Lincoln. the in a series of were that Lincoln was a that as a in the War he to American that he to the support of John on and that as of the in a on all newspapers, abuse of this however, the more and Lyon Gardiner Tyler had himself at the of the anti-Lincoln in from the of the of William and he and and it his of all was the issue of the that did not some of upon he as an and Lincoln was to in his and in his of in with he instead be to that the said Tyler, was a Tyler did not to his On the one Lincoln was the most most in American who took four years to a war that have been in On the other Lincoln was a in by his the old the and one and of Lincoln in the though still by and was into of the were the of the Abraham Lincoln into a and the of first Lincoln. had the effect of Lincoln into the of American so that of Lincoln became from of the Civil at that as it the of was about to become a major in Civil War To the the war was an on by the of and the of and other antislavery were the of the while the were those and John who so to the Union The was and to a One its in a toward of Lincoln's first by and by and especially of one that also the of the was the in Lincoln the Lincoln, a forced the war and upon the it and in the the of free The has with good been called a most in of their were in their of Lincoln. one of the leading was also one of the great Lincoln and an this by Lincoln to the Democrats and as as from the abolitionists and radical 'The is almost to the abuse of Lincoln by the wartime which had much in with the by and other Northern Democrats during the Civil nevertheless in the to to with the heroic image of however, a more to that image did from another is, from to a of the radical wing of the anti-Lincoln The including and Communists, had Lincoln to its and But the New and the black power of the in him to with a Wendell Phillips a Charles Sumner, he seemed and by of the he might be called the said a of the racial of most of his On issue to he was of the with good came to emancipation radical and, to some may have 'is the to more by is, his may have been to their of to support radical were and often they paid to the of within which Lincoln had to and the of his as the that emancipation would have been a of time military But then the of the were in than in making the causes to which they had And there was nothing corrupt in that point of The is not an of It may be to Lincoln himself did and Jefferson with in the of The when as and that was sometimes the in New of the Southern of the anti-Lincoln tradition had continued to One of it in private as as in and For in the of the of Virginia to Lincoln of with want of and As for emancipation, of the of the has been the political of the country and the of the Charles a at the of the classic of the that Lincoln the into firing the first at Fort so that they would the blame for a war that he himself A of the in more was published four years by an John a few Southerners who had in of the to the of Jefferson Davis, to a on the called 'a It was by the Charles at Lincoln as a in peace and in him of by the into their on Sumter.

The most prominent in the John of left as soon as he that the had and that it was time to the of all soon after of had the there a Lincoln and Jefferson Davis by the son of a Confederate from was almost in his for Lincoln, whom he called the first and in his to that that was 'The to the Great he wrote, 'is the of the and the upon the of a that the on Lincoln has been by of the of William and in a series of and on one of Lyon Gardiner that the great of the Civil War is not the but the North, with its and took so long to is the of Northern from the and the political of Northern Lincoln, to was a and a man for whom were when that at and Lincoln's major was a political the Republican party 'a in the this political and the of the an the Union and Confederate Davis to Lincoln as a war leader. was more more and more to made had a a his with was more as a and his military free from the of Davis, to was one of the most Americans of all time and has been his place in he to be on the more than The between Lincoln and Davis would have if the had its he the had not to the of the and the had the American for would be The is in those would have been to with a as as that of than Davis, is the Civil War of never the of have had a effect upon as a political but not upon Lee's as a military leader. to be For if we all of his at then the of the Civil War is could Jefferson Davis and his have been so as to in a war to they had not the of against an that was and to with than in his hostility to Lincoln is M. a of English at the of not only his Southern but also his in the tradition of and The Lincoln portrayed by in a series of is a a a and in his in his and in his of man who civil war, it to it by political of the and of his and his re-election by military of Lincoln's and has the effect of his a figure of who the course of American Lincoln was the of a that the of New England upon American thereby about destruction of the old Union of and setting the on the to Lincoln, in is the and the national into a all the while up his in the of within the of his and an that would never have been if in other from his in this and a for never his to but in the intensity of his he is a and of the anti-Lincoln must that it has become increasingly in the to the tradition from more and of Lincoln, from the of Lincoln Of course the of the Lincoln from and from Not for Lincoln the his upon he Lincoln a who only in a at the of his no of around by the which of the In his of the Lincoln, then and one of Lincoln, it as a man and his who to but not three of their of whom as a all of which may he into of much for the of Lincoln has been by the of as a and by the progress of as The of Lincoln has and in the of his and at of Lincoln's is by the of and from other especially and The is a of a of and and It has become a and heroic but perhaps a more one in our the effect to Lincoln, some of the support to the anti-Lincoln usually also it For a in Civil War that Lincoln, in the of the was by political and no about of the in the same that in the presidential of 1860, Lincoln would have been to an upon his and that an if the Democrats had only been to might have him the another in point is in the it is that Lincoln and the crisis of the Union as his only from the of the while at the same time their of the to Similarly, in a a Lincoln on his of against constitutional for the of became the tyrant against whom had in his a tyrant who would the destruction of the in to his and have both the of but with a significant difference. some years first that Lincoln, when he the danger of in his was himself into the role of the for might one day a to the political by the in a that Lincoln and cast as the with himself as the of the By thus a and up an he the for of the more to the Lincoln as a man by about and for the of but by the of his Lincoln, by and a for to the role of revolutionary and the of to the of Lincoln's were in the Fort when he the into striking the first to himself powers as he also began to a civil with himself as for the In this manner he the the in the would its to become to the of Lincoln, which to for in the anti-Lincoln tradition, is not so much a of as it is a of and a of the with which Americans view and their often than the great and major of our have tended to Lincoln as a national The civil rights the of his about the of and the of his for the of emancipation. The War and the the and of the which could be to his of The toward with its upon rights and its of bears to the with which he the of And the of war in our time a of his to war and it as an to in Lincoln's has become more as a of C. of the American is, the of a sense of about the for an sense of and Lincoln is still as the American of his time and perhaps of all but the that he is now often portrayed as a with and in of all Lincoln the of most Americans and his place of in the national a of him there perhaps the will view him much But in the he still One presidential special Of him one called him a none him as but one him a the anti-Lincoln tradition in and the of that tradition us though from about Lincoln's upon the and of his In a he has never into his For to its he is a to be In the of an is one of the few of the who