The Cambridge Companion to Abraham Lincoln

240 Pages·2012·3.322 MB·English

by  Shirley Samuels (editor)

The Cambridge Companion to
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln’s stature as an American cultural fi gure grows from his political
legacy. In today’s milieu, the speeches he delivered as the sixteenth president of
the United States have become synonymous with American progress, values,
and exceptionalism. What makes Lincoln’s language so effective? Highlighting
matters of style, affect, nationalism, and history in nineteenth-century America,
this collection examines the rhetorical power of Lincoln’s prose – from the
earliest legal decisions, stump speeches, anecdotes, and letters to the Gettysburg
Address and the lingering power of the Second Inaugural Address. Through
careful analysis of his correspondence with Civil War generals and his early
poetry, the contributors, all literary and cultural critics, give readers a unique
look into Lincoln’s private life. Their essays also examine Lincoln’s language in
a larger sphere, including that of the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as
Europe. Such a collection enables teachers, students, and readers of American
history to assess the impact of this extraordinary writer – and rare politician –
on the world’s stage.
Shirley Samuels works with the American Studies program and the Feminist,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Cornell University. She has taught at
Princeton, Brandeis, and the University of Delaware. She has had fellowships
from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Huntington Library,
and the Library Company of Philadelphia. In addition to journal articles and
chapters in books, she is author of Reading the American Novel: 1780–1865
(2012); F acing America: Iconography and the Civil War (2004); and Romances
of the Republic: Women, the Family, and Violence in the Literature of the
Early American Nation (1996). She is editor of the C ompanion to American
Fiction, 1780–1865 (2004) and T he Culture of Sentiment: Race, Gender, and
Sentimentality in Nineteenth-Century America (1992).

CAMBRIDGE
COMPANIONS TO
AMERICAN STUDIES
This series of Companions to key fi gures in American history and culture is aimed at students of
American studies, history, and literature. Each volume features newly commissioned essays by experts
in the fi eld, with a chronology and guide to further reading.
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The Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X edited by Robert Terrill

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO
A B R A H A M L I N C O L N
EDITED BY
SHIRLEY SAMUELS
Cornell University
cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town,
Singapore, S ã o Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
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www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521145732
© Cambridge University Press 2012
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2012
Printed in the United States of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data
The Cambridge companion to Abraham Lincoln / [edited by] Shirley Samuels.
p. cm. – (Cambridge companions to American studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-521-19316-0 (hardback : alk. paper) –
ISBN 978-0-521-14573-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865 – Language. 2. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865 –
Oratory. 3. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809–1865 – Correspondence. 4. Presidents – United
States – Biography. 5. Rhetoric – Political aspects – United States – Case studies.
6. United States – Politics and government – 1861–1865. I. Samuels, Shirley.
II. Title: Abraham Lincoln.
E457.2.C245 2012
973.7092–dc23 2012009107
ISBN 9 78-0-521-19316-0 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-14573-2 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in
this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations page ix
List of Contributors x i
Chronology of Lincoln’s Life x iii
Introduction 1
1. Rhetorically Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln and Oratorical Culture 8
Ivy G. Wilson
2. Abraham Lincoln and Poetry 2 2
Faith Barrett
3. Seeing Lincoln: Visual Encounters 4 0
Carol Payne
4. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address 5 9
Stephen Cushman
5. Lincoln and the Natural Nation 7 2
Timothy Sweet
6. Abraham Lincoln and the American Indians 9 1
Bethany Schneider
7. Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Governing Constitution 1 08
Deak Nabers
8. Abraham Lincoln and Spiritual Crisis 1 26
Harold K. Bush, Jr.
vii
Contents
9 . America and Britain during the Civil War 1 41
Paul Giles
10. Lincoln in International Memory 1 55
Betsy Erkkila
11. Lincoln’s Hemispheric Relations 1 83
Robert Fanuzzi
12. Lincoln on Hallowed Ground 195
Anne Norton
Guide to Further Reading 2 09
Index 215
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS
1 . D ennis Brack, Obama at the Lincoln Memorial,
January 18, 2009 page 41
2. T he Railsplitter (October 27, 1860): 1 43
3. M athew Brady, Abraham Lincoln on the day of his
speech at the Cooper Union, February, 27, 1860 4 5
4. M athew Brady, presidential campaign button with portraits
of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin 4 8
5 . A lexander Gardner, President Lincoln on battlefi eld
of Antietam, October 1862 4 9
6 . F rancis Bicknell Carpenter, First Reading of the Emancipation
Proclamation by President Lincoln (1864) 5 0
7 . M athew Brady, Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President. Seated
portrait, facing front, January 8, 1864 51
8 . “ Abraham Lincoln. Portrait, Character, and Biography,”
in American Phrenological Journal and Life Illustrated
(October 1864): 97 5 3
ix