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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 6753ddb | all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It was on the meaning of the Declaration that battle lines were drawn. As" | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 01f9ee6 | The U.S. Senate presented the most powerful obstacle to any progressive reform. Because senators at the time were elected by state legislatures rather than by popular vote, the majority of senators owed their positions to their state machines. These organizations, William Allen White observed, were in thrall to the business interests that filled their coffers through campaign contributions or blatant bribery. In a number of states, the boss.. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| a455101 | Walt Whitman, who worked as a nurse in the hospital wards, that the harrowing experience made one's "little cares and difficulties" disappear "into nothing." | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 4cd9488 | It was Andrew Jackson's motto, he reminded, that "if you temporize, you are lost." | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 619f367 | Attempting to circumvent this declaration, Hunter recalled that Charles I of England had entered repeatedly into arrangements with his adversaries despite ongoing hostilities. "I do not profess to be posted in history," Lincoln answered. "On all such matters I will turn you over to Seward. All I distinctly recollect about the case of Charles I, is, that he lost his head in the end." | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 8829b9c | As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty--to Russia, for instance. | prejudice | Doris Kearns Goodwin | |
| 5332fa9 | The flames of a new economic evolution run around us, and we turn to find that competition has killed competition, that corporations are grown greater than the State . . . and that the naked issue of our time is with property becoming master, instead of servant. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 6cc6f45 | THE SUMMER OF 1863 marked a crucial transformation in the Union war effort--the organization and deployment of black regiments that would eventually amount to 180,000 soldiers, a substantial proportion of eligible black males. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| fa8f94a | This, then, is a story of Lincoln's political genius revealed through his extraordinary array of personal qualities that enabled him to form friendships with men who had previously opposed him; to repair injured feelings that, left untended, might have escalated into permanent hostility; to assume responsibility for the failures of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from mistakes. He possessed an acute understanding of th.. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 0a07c1e | I trust you will have the grace to go and hang yourself rather than attempt to belittle a nation by running for the presidency, | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| f56851f | To Lincoln's mind, the fundamental test of a democracy was its capacity to "elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all." -- | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| ee3addb | 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. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 5c1fa63 | It is seldom that persons who enjoy intervals of public life are happy in their periods of seclusion. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 584d237 | Tolstoy went on to observe, "This little incident proves how largely the name of Lincoln is worshipped throughout the world and how legendary his personality has become. Now, why was Lincoln so great that he overshadows all other national heroes? He really was not a great general like Napoleon or Washington; he was not such a skilful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the Great; but his supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar.. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 2c96169 | Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty--to Ru.. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| a552f85 | Frances, who also was feeling distant from her husband. Though still deeply in love after ten years of marriage, Frances worried that her husband's passion for politics and worldly achievement surpassed his love for his family. She mourned "losing my influence over a heart I once thought so entirely my own," increasingly apprehensive that she and her husband were "differently constituted." | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| b4418ef | On a hot summer night in July 1836, an organized mob broke into the shop where the abolitionist weekly was printed, dismantled the press, and tore up the edition that was about to be circulated. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 0c65858 | The Know Nothings fought to delay citizenship for the new immigrants and bar them from voting. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 6ddcddc | Still, slander against the president and first lady continued to fill the columns of opposition papers. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 9035e83 | This, then, is a story of Lincoln's political genius revealed through his extraordinary array of personal qualities that enabled him to form friendships with men who had previously opposed him; to repair injured feelings that, left untended, might have escalated into permanent hostility; to assume responsibility for the failures of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from mistakes. He possessed an acute understanding of th.. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 147bb92 | He called me "Bubbles," a pet name he had chosen, he told me, because I seemed to enjoy so many things. Anxious to confirm his description, I refused to let my enthusiasm wane, even when I grew tired or grumpy. Thus excitement about things became a habit, a part of my personality, and the expectation that I should enjoy new experiences often engendered the enjoyment itself." | passionate-living | Doris Kearns Goodwin | |
| 6b60489 | Ambition is a passion, at once strong and insidious, and is very apt to cheet a man out of his happiness and his true respectability of character. | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| efbf5f3 | After ministering each day to the hundreds of young men who had endured ghastly wounds, submitted to amputations without anesthesia, and often died without the comfort of family or friends, Whitman wrote, "nothing of ordinary misfortune seems as it used to." | Doris Kearns Goodwin | ||
| 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.. | forbearance humility kindness patience pragmatism self-restraint | 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 |