President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman » (Bargain)

William Lee Miller, Scholar in Ethics and Institutions at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, has also taught at Yale, Smith College, and Indiana University. He is a member of the board of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, of the Lincoln Studies Group, and of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission's advisory committee. His previous books include "Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the American Congress" and" Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography." He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The American president has come to be the most powerful figure in the world—-and back in the nineteenth century, a great man held that office. William Lee Millers new book closely examines that great man in that hugely important office: Abraham Lincoln as president.

The Barnes & Noble Review

Abraham Lincoln s performance as president earned him immortality, so it s easy to forget how ill suited the uneducated backcountry politician initially seemed for the job. William Lee Miller s reverential biography, which follows 2002 s Lincoln s Virtues and covers Lincoln s years in the White House, argues that our 16th president s inexperience was never a liability, for his greatness resided in the uncommon moral conviction with which he steered the Union through the Civil War and brought an end to slavery. Lincoln felt certain that the secession of the Southern states would not just diminish the nation but would destroy it altogether, and he was always mindful of the significance that the success of the United States, as a popular, republican government, would have to the rest of the world. Through a wealth of fascinating examples, Miller establishes that the leader s reputation for kindness and charity was well earned, but he reveals another side of Lincoln, a relentless commander-in-chief willing to suffer inconceivable losses in a devastating war precisely because he saw it as a righteous undertaking. He was also willing to risk his political future: in a display of principle difficult to imagine today, Lincoln refused to sacrifice emancipation or otherwise compromise his beliefs on prosecuting the war in order to rescue his flailing 1864 reelection bid ( What is the presidency to me if I have no country? he responded when urged by his party to postpone a military draft until after the election). We of course know from the outset how this insightful, compelling book will end, but by the time Miller reaches that April 1865 night at Ford s Theater, the loss feels more crushing than ever. --Barbara Spindel

About this Book     ix
Introduction: Honest Abe Among the Rulers     3
A Solemn Oath Registered in Heaven     7
Act Well Your Part, There All the Honor Lies     31
On Mastering the Situation: The Drama of Sumter     48
On Not Mastering the Situation: The Comedy of the Powhatan     72
Days of Choices: Two April Sundays     91
Realism Right at the Border     110
The Moral Meaning of the Union and the War     140
Bull Run and Other Defeats: Lincoln's Resolve     155
On Holding McClellan's Horse     169
The Trent and a Decent Respect for the Opinions of Mankind     193
Too Vast for Malicious Dealing     212
A Second Introduction: Lincoln's Nation Among the Nations     231
I Felt It My Duty to Refuse     235
In Giving Freedom to the Slave, We Assure Freedom to the Free     254
The Prompt Vindication of His Honor     273
And the Promise Being Made, Must Be Kept     289
The Benign Prerogative to Pardon Unfortunate Guilt     314
Must I Shoot a Simple Soldier Boy?     327
A Hard War Without Hatred     351
Temptation in August     370
The Almighty Has His Own Purposes     396
A Conclusion: Abraham Lincoln Among the Immortals     417
Notes     425
Acknowledgments     471
Index     473