I am an admirer of Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps the best biography of Lincoln is that by Carl Sandburg, titled Abraham Lincoln The War Years, in 4 volumes. I have a 1939 edition. Sandburg was born only a few years after the Civil War and met and conversed with many veterans and veteran’s family members, as well as politicians and dignitaries with first hand information about Lincoln. Sandburg was also a prolific researcher. In Chapter 40 of the second volume of his work, and over about 127 pages, Sandburg recites first-hand accounts from a wide cross section of Americans who had face-to-face interactions with Old Abe. It is one of my favorite portions of his book and one of my favorite sources of information about Lincoln the man, and Lincoln the President.
It is worthwhile to remember that Lincoln, in addition to his duties as commander in chief, and his duties as head of the Republican Party, and his duties as political leader, and his troubles within his cabinet, and his duties as a father raising minor children in the White House, and his duties as a grieving father having recently lost his son Tad, and his duties as husband to a needy, self-absorbed, and sometimes petulant wife, set aside time two days each week (roughly one hour) to entertain and listen to the wants and rantings of average Americans who would come to the White House to request an interview with him.
When asked why he should submit himself to this “incessant daily procession, this never-ending scramble, this series of faces, so many asking trifles that could be attended to elsewhere” Lincoln responded:
“Ah yes! such things do very well for you military people, with your arbitrary rule, and in your camps. But the office of President is essentially a civil one, and the affair is different. For myself, I feel, though the tax on my time is heavy, that no hours of my day are better employed than those which bring me again within the direct contact and atmosphere of the average of our whole people. Men moving only in an official circle are apt to become merely official-not to arbitrary-in their ideas, and are apter with each passing day, to forget that they only hold power in a representative capacity…I tell you that I call these receptions my public opinion baths-for I have little time to read the papers and gather public opinion that way; and though they may not be pleasant in all particulars, the effect, as a whole, is renovating and invigorating.”
We need men like Lincoln.
