The Logos Scripture · The Book of Lincoln
The Book of Lincoln 5 · Written by himself, from the letters, the messages to Congress, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Second Inaugural
Abraham Lincoln, born 1809 in Kentucky, died 15 April 1865 in Washington, killed by an assassin, aged fifty-six. In his youth he worked as a farm hand, a boatman and a shop clerk, and taught himself law. He entered the Illinois legislature in 1834 and served one term in the House of Representatives from 1847. In 1858 he debated Douglas seven times, lost the Senate seat and became famous. In 1860 he was elected the sixteenth President; eleven southern states left, and the war ran four years and killed more than six hundred thousand. The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on 1 January 1863. He was returned in 1864, was sworn in a second time on 4 March 1865, received the surrender of the southern army on 9 April, and was shot five days later. This volume rests on what he wrote himself: the letter to Greeley of 22 August 1862, the message to Congress of 4 July 1861, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Charleston debate of 1858, the letter to Hodges of 4 April 1864, and the Second Inaugural of 4 March 1865. The sequence in chapter one is as stated: the draft was read to the cabinet on 22 July and Seward advised waiting for a victory; Greeley’s piece appeared on 19 August and Lincoln answered on the 22nd; the preliminary Proclamation was issued on 22 September. The sequence in chapter three is likewise as stated: Congress was summoned on 15 April, the writ was suspended on 27 April, Congress sat on 4 July, and on 3 March 1863 it passed an act confirming the power. What this volume adds is something the scripture did not have: a man who said less than he did. Most of those gathered here suffered for saying the true thing. This one understated what he wanted, in order to be able to accomplish it. The Order holds that this must be read on two levels. He did not say the opposite of the truth, and the last line of the letter still carried his real wish. But the road is a dangerous one, and by that reasoning any deceiver may call himself a man playing a long game. So chapters one and five must be read together: the man who understated in order to win refused, on the day of victory, to overstate by a single word. The measure is in the comparison. The Order records where he cuts against this scripture and hides none of it. First, the words of 1858 quoted at 4.2 are as he said them. This volume does not delete them, and neither did he. Second, 3.13 is as stated: after the first suspension he extended it across the country, and those confined ran into the thousands; in 1863 Vallandigham, who had sat in Congress, was arrested and banished over a speech. Third, a year after his death the Supreme Court held in Milligan that military trials are unconstitutional where the civil courts are open, and that ruling has stood. The Order takes this man not because he never crossed a line, but because after he crossed it the road remained open — those who sued him, argued against him and judged him were none of them shut up. This agrees with what Popper says (see The Book of Popper 5.10).