Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln: A Life by Michael Burlingame

Tier: 1

Finally, we are through the wilderness. There will be other less-than-enthralling biographies and presidents to come, but that was the difficult bit. That stretch, from Jackson to Lincoln, is the part of this project where you question your sanity.  But here we are. Safely through the darkness and into the light that is Abraham Lincoln. Our greatest President and the man who shepherded this nation through her darkest hour.

Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to adequately discuss Lincoln here. I don’t have the space to fully encompass the man’s life or Burlingame’s brilliant two-part biography on him. Do I talk about his early years in poverty on the Kentucky and Indiana frontier? How he taught himself and rose to first be a prominent attorney before turning to the Illinois state legislator and later a U.S. Congressman? Or do I talk about his debates with Stephen A. Douglas while they were both running for Senate in 1858 and how those debates served as a national discussion regarding slavery and the future of the nation? Perhaps I could delve into how those debates vaulted Lincoln to national prominence while also serving as a harbinger for the future of American electoral politics. Or maybe it’s best to discuss the Civil War, the defining moment in American history, which he led us through. I could discuss the perils and failures that he faced during that war. The cowardly generals and the resilience to keep going. Or would it be best to discuss his famous cabinet of rivals or even his tragic assassination? Or, given the closeness to Juneteenth and the ongoing fight for racial justice in this nation, should I discuss Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and his legacy in that area?

It’s too much for one post. Even Burlingame couldn’t fit it into one book, and let me assure you, they are not short books. So, as I have done in the past and will have to do in the future, I will instead focus on one or two specific aspects to focus on.

Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president and perhaps the greatest American, struggled throughout his life with depression. He had a litany of causes for his often-debilitating depression. He lost an infant brother and his mother when he was just a boy. He watched the latter die in a small, one-room cabin. A pain and trauma that I think most of us cannot even comprehend. He had one remaining sister, Sarah, with whom he grew very close after she took the mantle of running the Lincoln home. Then, ten years after his mother died, Sarah died during childbirth.

What a childhood to have to endure. The idea that he rose from those early years, moved on his own to Illinois without a penny to his name, and went on to achieve anything is remarkable. The fact that he reached the heights he did is simply staggering.

But even at those heights, the depression lived in him. It lingered and reared its head from time to time. When he would have failures, say a bill not passing or a military defeat, he would sink into the lonely quicksand that is depression. He would see the world as hopeless and wish to withdraw. He frequently contemplated suicide and once wrote, “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one happy face upon the earth.” Friends even went so far as to remove razors from his rooms and keep an eye on him in case the worst was to come. This was in his thirties, twenty years before he became president and led the nation through its darkest days.

I think it’s hard to view his life and its trajectory and not feel these bouts of depression influenced his leadership style. Was he able to handle more failure than your average man because of his experience with the depths of depression? Had he, in his difficult years, learned coping mechanisms that would later serve him well? Or was it merely that a man accustomed to depression was the right man to shepherd us through a national depression?

There is a different, perhaps related, aspect of Lincoln’s personality that I was struck by when reading Burlingame’s excellent biography, his shameless love of learning. Burlingame tells a story of Lincoln, as president, asking a fellow guest what a word meant and how to spell it. Lincoln, one of the greatest minds our nation has ever produced, a man who rose from nothing and could easily have been guarded or embarrassed by his lack of formal education, was so desperate and shameless in his quest for learning that he opened himself up for ridicule.

It's funny when you’re reading one of these massive, multi-volume biographies, it’s often the little things that stick with you. And I could just picture Lincoln, tall, lanky, beaten down by the pressure of the Civil War and his lifelong battle with depression, leaning over the table to ask someone to tell him what a word means and how to spell it. I could see the light in his eyes that never went out. The one that was there to learn new things, to embrace the wonders of an often-crushing world. It’s a wonderful image I always think of when contemplating Lincoln.

Burlingame’s biography is unimpeachable. It is, at times, funny and sad. It’s comprehensive and yet moves. As you know, I’m not a historian, so some of the information in it may be now debated or debunked, but I can’t speak to that. Even if there is a more current biography of the man, this one is a must-read. I know it's long, but these multi-volume works are the best. They take their time, stretch their long arms out, and show you the people, places, and events that shape a person. I loved these books and highly recommend them.

As for Lincoln, I know he had his faults, but I think they only enhanced the man he was. No one of us is perfect. No one of us walks through life without stumbling. No one avoids regret. But it is those failures (real or imagined) that define us. Lincoln was the president and the man he was in no short part because of his battles with depression. I know I’ve struggled with depression in the past, and many of you reading this likely have as well. I hope you have taken from this short post that depression is not the end. It is not final, and it shapes the person you become.

It is important to, like Lincoln, find things that bring us joy. For him, it was learning and storytelling and reading that brought him pleasure. And the short anecdote of him at that Presidential dinner, completely willing to be made the butt of a joke so that he could learn a new word, inspires me. Never let your ego or the potential for others to shame you get in the way of something that brings you joy.