Identifier: biographiesstor00linc (find matches)
Title: Biographies and stories of Abraham Lincoln
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Presidents
Publisher:
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: Friends of The Lincoln Collection of Indiana, Inc.

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
■Hllil —If Ralph Waldo Emerson William Morrow) beganby describing GeorgeWashingtons mother asa very human, cantan-kerous old lady whosmoked a pipe in-cessantly and draggedhis pride into the dust byseeking a pension dur-ing his lifetime, bywheedlings and borrow-ings and complaintsamong the neighbors.Hughes hated Washing-tons first biographer, acanting sentimentalist,Parson Weems, andstressed that Wash-ington was not aman of piety. ChapterXXVIII ended with thischaracteristic passage: But George Wash-ington had left oldEngland to her owndevices. He was bentupon saving himselffirst. He was deep indebt. He was betrothedto a woman of greatwealth. He was goingto marry and settledown to the making ofmoney. Which, after all,is one of the most im-portant duties of anypatriot. Masters wrote in thesame debunking spirit. Inspired in part bythe success of AlbertBeveridges AbrahamLincoln, 1809-1858
Text Appearing After Image:
Walt Whitman From the Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum FIGURES 2, 3, 4. Masters thought that Lincolns fame unfairlyovershadowed the fame of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ThomasJefferson, and Walt Whitman. Lincoln himself thought Jeffersonthe most distinguished politician of our history. Emersonthought Lincoln was the true representative of this conti-nent. Whitman believed that Lincoln was the grandest figureyet, on all the crowded canvas of the Nineteenth Century. Theywould not have complained about the distribution of fame asMasters did. Thomas Jefferson (1928), Masters arguedthat As no new fact ofmoment about Lincolncan now be brought tolight, the time has arriv-ed when his apotheosiscan be touched with thehand of rationalanalysis. Masterss de-bunking spirit was es-pecially informed by theanti-war spirit which per-vaded intellectual cir-cles in America afterWorld War I. Heroic rep-utations and wars wenthand in hand. War,Masters wrote, makesbrutes of those who prac-tice it, and cow

Note About Images