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Speeches and Writings 1859–1865
Abraham Lincoln, America’s heroic Civil War president, was also the greatest writer ever to occupy the White House. His addresses at Gettysburg and at his inaugurals, his presidential messages and public lectures, are an essential record of the war and have forever shaped the nation’s memories of it. This Library of America volume collects writings from 1859 to 1865 and contains 555 speeches, messages, proclamations, letters, memoranda, and fragments. They record the words and deeds—the order to resupply Fort Sumter, the emancipation of the slaves held in the Confederacy, and proposals to offer the South generous terms of reconstruction—by which he hoped to defend and preserve the Union.
The speeches and letters Lincoln wrote in 1859 and 1860 show his unyielding opposition to the spread of slavery and his canny appraisals of the upcoming election in which he was to win the presidency. His victory triggered the secession that he would oppose in his First Inaugural, with its appeal to logic, history, and “the better angels of our nature.”
Lincoln’s wartime writings record the nearly overwhelming burdens of office during a fratricidal war, and the added burden of self-seeking Cabinet members, military cliques, and a bitter political opposition. He was savagely criticized both for being too harsh and for being too mild. He ordered the blockade of ports, suspended habeas corpus, jailed dissenters, and applauded Sherman’s devastating march to the sea; at the same time he granted clemency to individual Union deserters and releases to Confederate prisoners. “I expect to maintain this contest until successful,” he declared, and toward that end he was prepared, not without his characteristic drolleries, to suffer the paradoxes of leadership in a nation at war with itself. His writings here include pleas to his own party to spare him their patronage feuds and to generals that they act more resolutely in the field. The struggles that taxed his physical endurance also tempered his prose style, as evidenced in the nobility of his state papers, his sparse words at Gettysburg, and his poignant letter to Mrs. Bixby, consoling her for the deaths of her sons in battle.
In a message to Congress in December 1862, Lincoln wrote of the fiery trial through which the nation was passing: “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.” By 1865, he was ready to offer the nation his view of the Almighty’s purposes and did so in his Second Inaugural Address with a beauty, clarity, and severity unsurpassed in American letters. Soon after, he fell to an assassin’s bullet, joining six hundred thousand of his countrymen killed in the war. He became part of what he called “the cherished memory of the loved and lost,” all those who had died that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”
The speeches and letters Lincoln wrote in 1859 and 1860 show his unyielding opposition to the spread of slavery and his canny appraisals of the upcoming election in which he was to win the presidency. His victory triggered the secession that he would oppose in his First Inaugural, with its appeal to logic, history, and “the better angels of our nature.”
Lincoln’s wartime writings record the nearly overwhelming burdens of office during a fratricidal war, and the added burden of self-seeking Cabinet members, military cliques, and a bitter political opposition. He was savagely criticized both for being too harsh and for being too mild. He ordered the blockade of ports, suspended habeas corpus, jailed dissenters, and applauded Sherman’s devastating march to the sea; at the same time he granted clemency to individual Union deserters and releases to Confederate prisoners. “I expect to maintain this contest until successful,” he declared, and toward that end he was prepared, not without his characteristic drolleries, to suffer the paradoxes of leadership in a nation at war with itself. His writings here include pleas to his own party to spare him their patronage feuds and to generals that they act more resolutely in the field. The struggles that taxed his physical endurance also tempered his prose style, as evidenced in the nobility of his state papers, his sparse words at Gettysburg, and his poignant letter to Mrs. Bixby, consoling her for the deaths of her sons in battle.
In a message to Congress in December 1862, Lincoln wrote of the fiery trial through which the nation was passing: “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.” By 1865, he was ready to offer the nation his view of the Almighty’s purposes and did so in his Second Inaugural Address with a beauty, clarity, and severity unsurpassed in American letters. Soon after, he fell to an assassin’s bullet, joining six hundred thousand of his countrymen killed in the war. He became part of what he called “the cherished memory of the loved and lost,” all those who had died that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”
800 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1989
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Abraham Lincoln
2,365 books1,968 followersAbraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States from 1861, led during the Civil War, and emancipated slaves in the south in 1863; shortly after the end, John Wilkes Booth assassinated him.
Abraham Lincoln, an American lawyer, politician, and man, served until 1865. Lincoln defended the American constitutional nation, defeated the insurgent Confederacy, abolished, expanded the power of the Federal government, and modernized the economy.
A mother bore him into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky, and parents reared on the frontier, primarily in Indiana. He educated as a lawyer in Whig party, joined legislature, and represented Illinois. In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in Springfield, Illinois.
The Kansas–Nebraska act in 1854 opened the territories, angered him, and caused him to re-enter politics. He quickly joined the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the campaign debates against Stephen Arnold Douglas for Senate in 1858. Lincoln ran in 1860 and swept the north to gain victory. Other elements viewed his election as a threat and from the nation began seceding. During this time, the newly formed Confederate of America began seizing Federal military bases. A little over one month after Lincoln assumed, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restored.
Lincoln, a moderate, navigated a contentious array of factions with friends and opponents from the Democratic Party and Republican Party. His allies, the Democrats, and the radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment of the Confederates. He exploited mutual enmity of the factions, carefully distributing political patronage, and appealed to the American people. Democrats, called "Copperheads," despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to plot. People came to see his greatest address at Gettysburg as a most influential statement of American national purpose. Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of the trade. He suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and elsewhere, and averted British intervention by defusing the Trent Affair. He issued the proclamation, which declared free those "in rebellion." It also directed the Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons" and to receive them "into the armed service." Lincoln pressured border to outlaw, and he promoted the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished, except as punishment for a crime.
Lincoln managed his own successful re-election campaign. He sought to heal the torn nation through reconciliation. On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he attended a play at theater of Ford in Washington, District of Columbia, with Mary Todd Lincoln, his wife, when Confederate sympathizer fatally shot him. People remember Lincoln as a martyr and a national hero for his time and for his efforts to preserve and abolish. Popular and scholarly polls often rank Lincoln as the greatest president in American history.
Abraham Lincoln, an American lawyer, politician, and man, served until 1865. Lincoln defended the American constitutional nation, defeated the insurgent Confederacy, abolished, expanded the power of the Federal government, and modernized the economy.
A mother bore him into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky, and parents reared on the frontier, primarily in Indiana. He educated as a lawyer in Whig party, joined legislature, and represented Illinois. In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in Springfield, Illinois.
The Kansas–Nebraska act in 1854 opened the territories, angered him, and caused him to re-enter politics. He quickly joined the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the campaign debates against Stephen Arnold Douglas for Senate in 1858. Lincoln ran in 1860 and swept the north to gain victory. Other elements viewed his election as a threat and from the nation began seceding. During this time, the newly formed Confederate of America began seizing Federal military bases. A little over one month after Lincoln assumed, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restored.
Lincoln, a moderate, navigated a contentious array of factions with friends and opponents from the Democratic Party and Republican Party. His allies, the Democrats, and the radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment of the Confederates. He exploited mutual enmity of the factions, carefully distributing political patronage, and appealed to the American people. Democrats, called "Copperheads," despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to plot. People came to see his greatest address at Gettysburg as a most influential statement of American national purpose. Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of the trade. He suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and elsewhere, and averted British intervention by defusing the Trent Affair. He issued the proclamation, which declared free those "in rebellion." It also directed the Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons" and to receive them "into the armed service." Lincoln pressured border to outlaw, and he promoted the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished, except as punishment for a crime.
Lincoln managed his own successful re-election campaign. He sought to heal the torn nation through reconciliation. On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he attended a play at theater of Ford in Washington, District of Columbia, with Mary Todd Lincoln, his wife, when Confederate sympathizer fatally shot him. People remember Lincoln as a martyr and a national hero for his time and for his efforts to preserve and abolish. Popular and scholarly polls often rank Lincoln as the greatest president in American history.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 15, 2025
Leadership And Eloquence
This is the second volume of the Library of America Project devoted to the works of Abraham Lincoln. It covers the period after the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and includes many of the records of the Lincoln Presidency and the Civil War. The standard Lincoln materials are included, of course, such as the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Inaugural Addresses. But there is immeasurably more. We see Lincoln writing to his Generals, Cabinet members, and other national leaders in his attempt to hold the Union together. We see Lincoln agonizing over military discipline and frequently pardoning deserting soldiers. We see Lincoln dealing with Indian issues in his day; and we see him supporting the use of black troops in the War effort. This volume is highly useful in understanding the Civil War. Equally important it teaches the nature of leadership and fortitude. Finally, Lincoln is one of our Nation's great prose writers and the book deserves reading for that reason alone. The Library of America is to be commended for this volume and for its ongoing series.
Robin Friedman
This is the second volume of the Library of America Project devoted to the works of Abraham Lincoln. It covers the period after the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and includes many of the records of the Lincoln Presidency and the Civil War. The standard Lincoln materials are included, of course, such as the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Inaugural Addresses. But there is immeasurably more. We see Lincoln writing to his Generals, Cabinet members, and other national leaders in his attempt to hold the Union together. We see Lincoln agonizing over military discipline and frequently pardoning deserting soldiers. We see Lincoln dealing with Indian issues in his day; and we see him supporting the use of black troops in the War effort. This volume is highly useful in understanding the Civil War. Equally important it teaches the nature of leadership and fortitude. Finally, Lincoln is one of our Nation's great prose writers and the book deserves reading for that reason alone. The Library of America is to be commended for this volume and for its ongoing series.
Robin Friedman
January 28, 2018
My favourite American 🇺🇸 President
January 15, 2014
Lincoln couldn't write a bad letter. I kept my Ipad handy throughout this book so I could look up people and events I knew a little about but wanted to know more about because of Lincoln's letters (and the skimpy notes). I loved this book.
May 21, 2024
Read extended selections from this book as part of a greater investigation into historical precedents regarding moral injustice, particularly in light of today's abortion, IVF, and surrogacy debates. While time and context ensure that no two political eras are identical, this well-organized compilation of Lincoln's writings leading up to, during, and after the Civil War provides a striking insight into the mind of one of mankind's greatest statesmen. Of particular note is Lincoln's argument that certain rights are derived from human nature, not written law... and that as such, it is not sufficient to merely ascertain morality or right judgment by popular consensus, sovereignty, or individual identity. In our (supposedly) democracy-obsessed age, Lincoln's writings in response to slavery and division paint a different picture: that government's role is not merely to represent the people, but to defend the objective good as deigned by the Divine. Yet aggressive as it may seem at points, Lincoln's statesmanship is also staunchly defensive of the American system, mindful that his actions at all times preserve the republican self-government that is intrinsically linked to the American view of human nature and dignity. Definitely a book I will be returning to for guidance in the years to come.
Read
September 26, 2019If the Gettysburg Address is the pinnacle of Abraham Lincoln’s oratorical achievement in terms of expressiveness and influence, it is still but one exhibit from our sixteenth president’s considerable legacy as speaker and author. Any collection of his speeches, letters, proclamations, and miscellaneous writings—the best is the two-volume set published by the Library of America, which includes complete transcripts of his celebrated 1858 debates with Stephen A. Douglas during their Illinois senate race—reveals his keen political mind, his capacity for embracing and/or deflecting opposition, and his talent for pragmatic leadership, to say nothing of his wit and insight into human behavior. No other president has had such a spare, strong, inspired way with words: His felicity of expression is both personal and timeless.
December 27, 2022
6 stars out of 5
I wish I could find a word to fully express my feelings about this Library of America volume. But I can’t, it’s that good (oh, wait, I guess that is a word 😂😂😂)
If only the U.S. could find and elect a President with at least 1/4th the moral, literary, and principled brilliance of Lincoln. Alas, we have an octogenarian with incipient dementia and a predecessor who was the Chief Tweet.
I wish I could find a word to fully express my feelings about this Library of America volume. But I can’t, it’s that good (oh, wait, I guess that is a word 😂😂😂)
If only the U.S. could find and elect a President with at least 1/4th the moral, literary, and principled brilliance of Lincoln. Alas, we have an octogenarian with incipient dementia and a predecessor who was the Chief Tweet.
December 31, 2017
It's solid for research and primary source work, but there's so many speeches in here that are relatively mundane that it's not much for a source of inspiration or a page turner. Still, great speeches are in this book though.
October 4, 2025
Despite the harmful aspects of American mythology surrounding the self-made man, it is truly remarkable that we did, for a brief moment, elect a genuine laboring-philosopher-statesman who demonstrated that our Dream could be maintained & brought nearer to reality.
February 4, 2020
Fascinating read! Though I had rad most of the major speeches the book had quite a few minor speeches that were very enlightening about Lincoln that I had never knew.
February 23, 2020
GREAT BOOK.
April 2, 2020
Pretty cool. If you know the history, because of the chronology, you can follow along with what is going on in the country and in the war.
October 24, 2020
Magnificent
October 24, 2023
The Great Communicator completed.
October 9, 2024
I enjoyed this volume more than the first book. Both are pretty heavy reading, thus they appear to be well researched.
January 11, 2018
Moving writings that illuminate Lincoln’s thoughts and methods. Reading these many letters and speeches shows a consistent pattern to Lincoln’s beliefs.
September 17, 2008
not much can go wrong when compiling a book of Lincolns Speeches, writings, and letters. It was only hard to follow because all the notes were at the end, and nothing pointed that way. If you wanted to know something more, you had to look in the end notes, and hope there might be a note on it. A little more organization would've been good. I did enjoy reading things he wrote, and I have gained even greater respect for the man, if that is possible!
August 18, 2012
We use this book for all the basic Lincoln biography classes at Lincoln Memorial University. It has all the main speeches and big letter of importance. It is a good collection to understand the public face and beliefs of Lincoln.
April 26, 2013
Lincoln is an amazing writer, when he wants to be, as some of his letters and written speeches prove. This & the companion volume are perfect for my needs, as far as being able to sample large parts of Lincoln's writings.
January 29, 2018
Reading his letters is seeing a precise, gentle, slyly humorous, wise mind at work. I love his heart. I'm grateful to Library of America and the team who worked on these books because now I understand why he was great.
July 11, 2008
The speeches are a tad long, but I love his letters, which are succinct and witty. They don't sound like anything written by a politician.
September 21, 2014
When You Get Discouraged Read Lincoln!
March 6, 2023
1 - 235 - finished 02.01.21
236 - 475 - finished 05.20.22
476 - 702 - finished 03.05.23
236 - 475 - finished 05.20.22
476 - 702 - finished 03.05.23
June 19, 2013
ditto from volume I
Read
January 8, 2019Clothbound edition in a box.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews