|
6eec26b
|
Presidents and Kings are not apt to see flaws in their own arguments," he wrote, "but fortunately for the Union, it had a President, at this critical juncture, who combined a logical intellect with an unselfish heart."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
c0de0d9
|
I opened the curtain and entered the confessional, a dark wooden booth built into the side wall of the church. As I knelt on the small worn bench, I could hear a boy's halting confession through the wall, his prescribed penance inaudible as the panel slid open on my side and the priest directed his attention to me. "Yes, my child," he inquired softly. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. This is my First Confession." "Yes, my child, and ..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
5ee3709
|
Before any outcome was made public, the radicals had worked themselves into "a fury of rage," certain that the president "was about to give up the political fruits which had been already gathered"
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
b1f62dc
|
On Wednesday night, November 13, (1861), Lincoln went with Seward and Hay to McClellan's house. Told that the general was at a wedding, the three waited in the parlor for an hour. When McClellan arrived home, the porter told him the president was waiting, but McClellan passed by the parlor room and climbed the stairs to his private quarters. After another half hour, Lincoln again sent word that he was waiting, only to be informed that the g..
|
|
kindness
forbearance
self-restraint
humility
pragmatism
patience
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
5e09f18
|
Taft's mother's) losing her firstborn had convinced her that children are treasures lent not given and that they may be recalled at any time. Parents, she firmly believed, could never love their children too much.
|
|
parenting
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
e3cdc42
|
Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country--bigger than all the Presidents together.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
e099e04
|
Get the books, and read and study them," he told a law student seeking advice in 1855. It did not matter, he continued, whether the reading be done in a small town or a large city, by oneself or in the company of others. "The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places. . . . Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
dbcec84
|
Douglas understood what the Republicans failed to see--that Southerners were serious in their threats to secede from the Union if Lincoln won the election.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
d4c8d42
|
Such scathing criticisms moved Southern leaders to equally fierce defenses. They proclaimed slavery a "positive good" rather than a mere necessity, of immense benefit to whites and blacks alike."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
8fededf
|
There was never any doubt that the local jury would return a guilty verdict. "In due time, gentlemen of the jury," Seward concluded, "when I shall have paid the debt of nature, my remains will rest here in your midst, with those of my kindred and neighbors. It is very possible they may be unhonored, neglected, spurned! But, perhaps years hence, when the passion and excitement which now agitate this community shall have passed away, some wan..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
09cc240
|
A prominent Chicago politician, Justin Butterfield, asked if he was against the Mexican War, replied: "no, I opposed one War [the War of 1812]. That was enough for me. I am now perpetually in favor of war, pestilence and famine."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
f52f893
|
Indeed, several months later, when Lincoln became convinced that Schofield was actually leaning toward the conservatives instead of using "his influence to harmonize the conflicting elements," he decided to replace him with Rosecrans, a man long favored by the radicals. But even then, he engineered the transfer in a manner that protected Schofield's good name, while preserving his own presidential authority to determine when and where to ch..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
94f206b
|
She could be affectionate, generous, and optimistic one day; vengeful, depressed, and irritable the next. In the colloquial language of her friends, she was "either in the garret or cellar." In either mood, she needed attention, something the self-contained Lincoln was not always able to provide."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
151de69
|
Everything," a journalist observed, "tended to represent the home of a man who has battled hard with the fortunes of life, and whose hard experience had taught him to enjoy whatever of success belongs to him, rather in solid substance than in showy display."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
f4ab512
|
By privately endorsing Seward's spirit of compromise while projecting an unyielding public image, President-elect Lincoln retained an astonishing degree of control over an increasingly chaotic and potentially devastating situation.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
20beace
|
The mossy marbles rest On lips that he has prest In their bloom, And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb. Yet, beyond sharing
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
187f537
|
Democratic periodicals in the North warned that the governor's stance would compromise highly profitable New York trade connections with Virginia and other slave states. Seward was branded "a bigoted New England fanatic." This only emboldened Seward's resolve to press the issue. He spurred the Whig-dominated state legislature to pass a series of antislavery laws affirming the rights of black citizens against seizure by Southern agents, guar..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
fa523b7
|
Abraham Lincoln would maintain that he had never been in favor "of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
12cadb3
|
No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog, than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure ..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
caf0266
|
A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
038b268
|
Chase has fallen into two bad habits... . He thinks he has become indispensable to the country... . He also thinks he ought to be President; he has no doubt whatever about that." These two unfortunate tendencies, Lincoln explained, had made Chase "irritable, uncomfortable, so that he is never perfectly happy unless he is thoroughly miserable."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
2cb37ab
|
became postmaster general, and Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's "Mars," eventually became secretary"
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
dd74be0
|
When Prince Napoleon, the cousin of Napoleon Bonaparte III, visited Washington in early August, Mary organized an elaborate dinner party. She found the task of entertaining much simpler than it had been in Springfield days. "We only have to give our orders for the dinner, and dress in proper season," she wrote her friend Hannah Shearer. Having learned French when she was young, she conversed easily with the prince. It was a "beautiful dinne..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
b65e602
|
When asked years later why Lincoln had won, he said: "The leader of a political party in a country like ours is so exposed that his enemies become as numerous and formidable as his friends."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
900e807
|
The history of governments," John Hay later observed, "affords few instances of an official connection hallowed by a friendship so absolute and sincere as that which existed between these two magnanimous spirits. Lincoln had snatched away from Seward at Chicago the prize of a laborious life-time, when it seemed within his grasp. Yet Seward was the first man named in his Cabinet and the first who acknowledged his personal preeminence. . . . ..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
5597b2f
|
If the spirited crowd expected a speech exalting recent Union victories, they were disappointed. In keeping with his lifelong tendency to consider all sides of a troubled situation, Lincoln urged a more sympathetic understanding of the nation's alienated citizens in the South.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
2694f4f
|
No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
c39416b
|
What had become of the singular ascending ambition that had driven young Roosevelt from his earliest days? What explains his willingness, against the counsel of his most trusted friends, to accept seemingly low-level jobs that traced neither a clear-cut nor a reliably ascending career path? The answer lies in probing what Roosevelt gleaned from his crucible experience. His expectation of and belief in a smooth, upward trajectory, either in ..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
70088f3
|
Lincoln revealed early on a quality that would characterize his leadership for the rest of his life--a willingness to acknowledge errors and learn from his mistakes.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
0dd96f0
|
The art of communication, Lincoln advised newcomers to the bar, "is the lawyer's avenue to the public." Yet, Lincoln warned, the lawyer must not rely on rhetorical glibness or persuasiveness alone. What is well-spoken must be yoked to what is well-thought. And such thought is the product of great labor, "the drudgery of the law." Without that labor, without that drudgery, the most eloquent words lack gravity and power. Even "extemporaneous ..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
e81294a
|
It soon became clear, however, that Abraham Lincoln would emerge the undisputed captain of this most unusual cabinet, truly a team of rivals. The powerful competitors who had originally disdained Lincoln became colleagues who helped him steer the country through its darkest days. Seward
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
5c45aab
|
Admiral Dahlgren's twenty-one-year-old son, Ulric, had lost a leg at Gettysburg. When he appeared at a Washington party, he was surrounded by pretty girls. They stayed by his side all night, refusing to dance, in tribute to the handsome colonel who had been known as an expert waltzer.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
4c08f00
|
Lincoln's liberal use of his pardoning power created the greatest tension between the two men (Lincoln and Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War). Stanton felt compelled to protect military discipline by exacting proper punishment for desertions or derelictions of duty, while Lincoln looked for any "good excuse for saving a man's life." When he found one, he said, "I go to bed happy as I think how joyous the signing of my name will make him and h..
|
|
edwin-stanton
lincoln
duty
mercy
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
c705b0a
|
I hope to stand firm enough not to go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.
|
|
history
civil-war
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
7d3f931
|
More accustomed to relying upon himself to shape events, he took the greatest control of the process leading up to the nomination, displaying a fierce ambition, an exceptional political acumen, and a wide range of emotional strengths, forged in the crucible of personal hardship, that took his unsuspecting rivals by surprise.
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
b4c933a
|
Shortly before she left for New York, she received an unwelcome present from South Carolina--a painting depicting Lincoln "with a rope around his neck, his feet chained and his body adorned with tar and feathers."
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
cf964e0
|
The histories and tragedies of Shakespeare that Lincoln loved most dealt with themes that would resonate to a president in the midst of civil war: political intrigue, the burdens of power, the nature of ambition, the relationship of leaders to those they governed. The plays illuminated with stark beauty the dire consequences of civil strife, the evils wrought by jealousy and disloyalty, the emotions evoked by the death of a child, the sunde..
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
6196279
|
Valliant. "Humor can be marvelously therapeutic,"
|
|
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
feae4ac
|
One journalist complemented another that his article on a dispute, "had made both sides see themselves as they are."
|
|
writing
objectivity
communication
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
3452d5b
|
When Taft gives way to his (anger), one reporter observed, it is to inflict a merciless thrashing upon its victim, for whom thereafter he has no use whatsoever. With Roosevelt is a case of powder and spark; there is a vivid flash and a deafening roar, but when the smoke is blown away, it is the end.
|
|
resentment
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
ddb69c5
|
Theodore Roosevelt's father wrote him, "I fear for your future. We cannot stand so corrupt a government for any great length of time."
|
|
social-conscience
parenthood
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
6a923f4
|
Go ahead, and fear not. You will have a full library at your service.
|
|
reading
learning
confidence
curiosity
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
4dfdda2
|
Their lifelong love of learning, their remarkable wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, was fostered primarily by their father. He read aloud to them at night, eliciting their responses to works of history and literature. He organized amateur plays for them, encourage pursuit of special interests, prompted them to write essays on their readings, and urge them to recite poetry.
|
|
fatherhood
parenthood
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |
|
40959d9
|
As soon as (Teddy Roosevelt) received an assignment for a paper or project, he would set to work, never leaving anything to the last minute. Prepared so far ahead "freed his mind" from worry and facilitated fresh, lucid thought."
|
|
education
discipleship
maturation
procrastination
|
Doris Kearns Goodwin |