The Mormon factor
For many, he was the greatest US president. Others think less well of him. Kentucky-born and resident of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer. He was ambitious, yet failed to be elected to every office he was a candidate for. However, his court case wins kept him in the public eye.
Lincoln spoke well, but it was noted that he hadn’t the courage of his convictions. In 1848, he unequivocally stated that a state feeling unbearably treated had the right to secede. A dozen years later, he went to the opposite extreme. Capturing the White House after out-debating his opponent, he went to war to keep the Confederacy in the Union.
Numerous biographies and historical novels have been penned about the 16th president. Any and all secrets about him have been revealed. What isn’t generally known about Old Abe, as he is reverentially called, is that he was the only president to abrogate habeas corpus (a legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from unlawful imprisonment) during the Civil War.
Also that his Emancipation Proclamation of Jan 1, 1863, freeing the slaves didn’t free all the slaves, only those in the South. Slaves in the northern states remained in chains. The Lincoln Myth by Yank Steve berry is by no means a hatchet job, while denting the halo of Honest Abe.
A family man, Lincoln grieved over offspring who died in childhood and bore the burden of an insanely jealous wife, who spent her later years in an institution. The author devotes chapters to the country’s original religion: the Mormons.
It was founded during Lincoln’s lifetime. Their practice of having multiple wives gave them a bad name among the majority of God-fearing Christians. Good people otherwise, Lincoln explained the sacrifice they had to make before Utah was admitted to the Union. This was done. Well respected today, there are millions of Mormons worldwide.
He had problems with his generals, firing several. They didn’t forgive him and took him on in the political field, but the electorate wanted their man back in 1864. Sadly, it cost 600,000 lives to put Humpty Dumpty together again. Slavery was a side issue, not the main one.
Lincoln aficionados will appreciate The Lincoln Myth. To really get to know him there are other, better books. Still, there’s some good material on the early Mormons.