Mind and Art of Abraham Lincoln, Philosopher Statesman

David Lowenthal is professor emeritus of political science at Boston College.

• PrefaceI. Early Speeches1. The Perpetuation Address, January 27, 1838TextInterpretation2. The Temperance Address February 22, 1842TextInterpretation3. The Handbill on Infidelity August 11, 1846TextInterpretation4. The War with Mexico January 12, 1848TextInterpretation5. The Eulogy on Henry Clay July 6, 1852TextInterpretationII. Pre-Civil War Speeches6. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise October 16, 1854TextInterpretation7. The Dred Scott Decision, June 26, 1857TextInterpretation8. The House Divided Speech, June 16, 1858TextInterpretation9. The First Lincoln-Douglas Debate, August 21, 1858TextInterpretation10.Second Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions, February 11, 1859TextInterpretation11. The Address on Agriculture, September 30, 1859TextInterpretation12. The Cooper Union Address, Feb. 27, 1860TextInterpretationIII.Civil War Speeches13. The First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861TextInterpretation14. Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862TextInterpretation15. The Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863TextInterpretation16. Letter to Erastus Corning, June 12, 1863TextInterpretation17. Letter to James C. Conkling, August 26, 1863TextInterpretation18. The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863TextInterpretation19. The Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865TextInterpretation20. The Last Public Address April 11, 1865TextInterpretationIndex

In David Lowenthal’s Lincoln, we encounter a statesman whose fierce intellectual independence was matched by a deep sympathy for political friends and foes alike. His Lincoln displays a strikingly free and agile mind long before he was elevated to the presidency. Lowenthal’s fresh interpretations of both familiar and obscure writings of Lincoln force us to pay attention to aspects of Lincoln’s political and philosophical thought, especially regarding religion, long overlooked or simply not noticed. He demonstrates that Lincoln’s insights about the American regime derived from a profound analysis of the premises of self-government and challenges of living as a free people. Along the way, the reader learns what is entailed in choosing to live as a self-governing people—what it takes to be free and to maintain that freedom from generation to generation.