Written during the
early years of World War II, James Daugherty’s biography describes a leader who was the epitome of a democratic
people. The book depicts the
life of a man, born into poverty and exposed to minimal formal schooling, who nevertheless was elected president of the United States.
Daugherty’s biography is divided into six sections, each dealing with a period of Lincoln’s life. Each section is, in turn, subdivided into episodes corresponding to each of these periods. The early
years include standard Lincoln material: his birth in a log cabin, the early death of his mother, and the influence of Sarah Bush Lincoln, Abe’s stepmother. Daugherty explains Lincoln’s developing independence, such as a visit to New Orleans while moving trade goods for an employer. Included is the story, perhaps apocryphal, of his first exposure to the slave trade. Regardless of the story’s veracity, by this time Lincoln had begun to develop a lifelong aversion to the practice.
Daugherty’s story then becomes a political narrative. Self-taught in the machinations of law, Lincoln was elected to the state legislature. He served a term and returned to a private law practice in Springfield, Illinois. With the slavery issue threatening to tear apart the country, however, Lincoln again returned to national politics in the mid-1850’s. Daugherty then depicts the famous debates with Stephen A. Douglas, a wily campaigner who bested Lincoln for a seat in the Senate in 1858. Lincoln, undaunted and by then a national figure, was nominated for president in 1860 and defeated Douglas in the election.
The last portion of the story is set with the background of the bloodiest war in American history. The Civil War is an epic unto itself and was the dominating feature of Lincoln’s presidency. Indeed, fully half of the book covers these four years of Lincoln’s life. Not least among Lincoln’s struggles was his attempt to find a general to lead the Union army competently. Daugherty narrates this period in agonizing detail. The author describes each of Lincoln’s commanders. Each, with the possible exception of Ambrose Burnside, was as concerned with his ego as with winning the war. Burnside, on the other hand, argued his incompetency, and in the battle at Fredericksburg, proceeded to prove it. Finally, Lincoln found Ulysses S. Grant, "a general who will fight." Grant did exactly that, ending the war in April, 1865. In the story’s climax, with the war won, Lincoln fell victim to an assassin.
Daugherty has included the full texts of two of Lincoln’s most famous speeches: the Gettysburg address and Lincoln’s second inaugural speech. Also included is Walt Whitman’s poem of grief, accurately depicting what was lost with Lincoln’s death.