First among Equals

"One hundred and forty years after his assassination on April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln towers more than ever above the landscape of American politics. In myth and memory, he is always the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union, second in stature only to George Washington. But was Lincoln always so exalted? Was he, as some historians argue, in reality a poor chief executive who was deeply disliked? Was Lincoln's legacy ennobled only by John Wilkes Booth's bullet?" "In this book, a leading historian finally takes the full measure of Lincoln's reputation. Drawing on a range of primary documents - speeches, newspaper accounts and editorials, private letters, memoirs, and other sources - Hans L. Trefousse gives us the voices of Lincoln's own time. From citizens North and South, at home and abroad, here are politicians and ordinary people, soldiers and statesmen, abolitionists and slaveholders alike, in a rich chorus of American opinion. Trefousse carefully crafts a clear picture of how his contemporaries measured Lincoln's great strengths - and shortcomings."--Jacket.