WE ARE LINCOLN MEN by David Herbert Donald

WE ARE LINCOLN MEN By David Herbert Donald

I recently went through all of our household books and, true to my streamlining nature, decided to cull the flock, so to speak…Who needs 4 copies of do it yourself home wiring? During this process a pile of books stacked up that I decided to read, or re-read, as was the case with this book. I purchased this book a few years back as a gift for my wife, Christelle, who really enjoys studying history. The reason it stood out is that, like most of you, I am really trying to figure out what role I want Government to play in my life. I decided to read it with that in mind.

The book is about, of course, Honest Abe, but more importantly, the men he surrounded himself with, and what their relationships [might have] meant to him. The title, of course includes the by-line “Abraham Lincoln and his friends”.

In the Preface the author touches on Aristotle’s typology of friendship:

There are, Aristotle shows, three basic kinds of friendships. There are “enjoyable” friendships, in which people associate simply for the pleasure they derive from each other’s company; there are “useful” friendships, in which each party has something to gain by associating with the other; and there are “perfect” or “complete” friendships, in which there is free sharing of ideas, hopes, wishes, ambitions, fears. Such a complete friendship can exist only between good people similar in virtue, each of whom wishes for his friend good things—not because his friend is useful or even enjoyable but simply because he is good. It hardly needs saying that such friendships are rare.

This led me to start thinking of the friendships I have, and have had over the years, as a young boy, I had what I would consider a few close friends, as a teenager as well. Interestingly, I think using others to benefit oneself is a learned behavior. I would consider the childhood friendships the most “complete”. Another interesting note the author makes is that family friends, meet a completely different need, and therefore cannot fit the role of a friend. And I agree.

The book goes through quite a few of Abraham Lincoln’s friends. The ones he practiced law with, all of the way to the ones who served as his private secretaries as President of the United States.  There were a couple of things I found interesting:

In a passage about his partner Herndon. Lincoln: “If ever American society and the United States government are demoralized…it will come from the voracious desire of office—this struggle to live without toil—work and labor…” Then pausing for a minute, he added wryly: “…from which I am not free myself.” Herndon failed to see the humor.

Remember, the context with which I am reading the book, I would be interested to hear other thoughts on this. What insight.

I thought this was funny:

President Lincoln saw many, many people that came to the White House to speak with him (wouldn’t that be nice). His two personal secretaries, Hay and Nicolay, had the feat of handling these visitors.

Once when an obvious demented man demanded to see Lincoln because, as the Son of God, he was carrying a plan to end the war, Hay informed him that the President was busy a but that he could come back again the next day, adding–…that it would be a good idea to bring a letter of introduction from his Father.”

Relevant to today, the President had people around him spending money in inappropriate ways. When his wife spent $7,000 dollars on Parisian wallpaper for the White house Lincoln was furious:

How could Mary overrun an appropriation for $20,000 “for flub dubs for this damned old house,” especially at a time when soldiers did not have blankets? He exploded. “It was all wrong to spend one cent at such a time,” he went on, “and I never ought to have had a cent expended; the house was furnished well enough, better than any one we ever lived in.

-Is anyone in the Federal Government reading this?

In conclusion, Honest Abe is a well-deserved distinction, and a virtue I appreciate reading about considering he was President of the United States. A “penny for your thoughts” means a bit more than it did prior to reading this book.

I was surprised at my emotional reaction when reading the passage about Lincoln’s assassination and how he passed away on the night of April 14, 1865, his friends at his side:

On the night of April 14, 1865, Hay was in the White House with Robert Lincoln, studying Spanish, when he heard the President had been assassinated. Immediately they rushed to the President’s side. Hay stood at the head of Lincoln’s bed when he died. Nicolay was aboard the Santiago de Cuba headed for Havana, seeking rest and recovery, when he learned of Lincoln’s death. “It would seem that Providence had exacted from him the last and only additional service and sacrifice he could give his country,” he wrote his fiancée, “that of dying for her sake. Those of us who knew him will certainly interpret his death as a sign that Heaven deemed him worthy of martyrdom.

This book will be staying in the home library.

-Pete Skenandore