Lincoln, the South, and Slavery: The Political Dimension (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History) [Paperback]

Robert Walter Johannsen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History | Publication Date: September 1, 1993

Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History In 1858, Abraham Lincoln declared his hatred for the institution of slavery, likening his feelings of opposition to those of the abolitionists. Although the fact that Lincoln always disliked slavery is indisputable, the idea that he always opposed it with the zeal and fervor of the abolitionists remains questionable. Only four years prior to his bold declaration, Lincoln admittedly paid little attention to slavery, viewing it as only a minor issue. But in the six years preceding his presidency, his antislavery stance underwent dramatic change. Fueled by political ambition, Lincoln's argument against slavery and his prescription for dealing with it moved from what he initially labeled a middle-ground stance to a more radical position. Robert W. Johannsen's Lincoln, the South, and Slavery traces the political dimension of Lincoln's antislavery stance as it evolved from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 to his election as president in 1860. Whereas previous scholars have largely ignored the political character of Lincoln's antislavery argument, Johannsen sees Lincoln as an astute and ambitious politician whose statements where shaped and directed by the time's ever-changing political exigencies and considerations. Johannsen does not demean the quality of Lincoln's sincerity or downgrade the importance of his moral convictions on the slavery issue, but he does suggest that politics played a larger role than previously acknowledged in the form these convictions took. The four chapters that compose this work connect Lincoln's position with his attitude toward the South and Southerners, from his initial appeal to Southerners at a time when he sought to revitalize the dying Whig party, through his deepening involvement in the Republican party, to his final belief that the South and Southern interests no longer needed to be considered as factors determining his national political success. Johannsen focuses on Lincoln's debut in 1854 as an antislavery speaker, on the development of his stand for the ultimate extinction of slavery, on his espression of the doctrine of the irrepressible conflict, and finally on Lincoln's and the South's perceptions of each other in 1860. As no other work has done, Lincoln, the South, and Slavery shows how Lincoln, in response to the demands of politics, became increasingly anti-slavery and anti-Southern during the 1850s. It will be a welcome contribution to the ongoing debate about the enigma of Lincoln and about his role in the coming of the Civil War.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press (September 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807118877
• ISBN-13: 978-0807118870
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,330,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It ought to be worth 5 stars, but . . ., October 9, 2006

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Dennis Brandt (Red Lion, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lincoln, the South, and Slavery: The Political Dimension (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History) (Paperback)

Robert W. Johannsen's dislike of Abraham Lincoln comes roaring through in these four lectures put into print. It is the work of an experienced, thoughtful professional historian who uses sources that are many and wide-reaching, most of them primary. All that is worth 5 stars. However, if the only thing that someone knew of Lincoln came from Johannsen's fourth lecture "Lincoln and the South," he would have to conclude that it was a miracle that Lincoln was elected in 1860. According to Johannsen, no one except for a few radical abolitionists had anything good to say about him. He also believes that Lincoln never did much right except pull the wool over the public's eyes. Johannsen is a Stephen A. Douglasphile, and it shows. He wrote a near 1,000 page biography of Douglas and here even uses some of Douglas's conjectures about Lincoln as if they were facts. While not a Lincolnphobe in the awful sense of Thomas DiLorenzo, Johannsen isn't too far from it, although his arguments are much more noteworthy than those of the historically-challenged DiLorenzo. Johannsen's principle point is that Lincoln was a consummate politician and ambitious, as if we should all be shocked to hear that. Perhaps Mr. Johannsen would care to name the one person who ever ran for president who had no ambition and who never engaged in politics. He thinks that Lincoln's anti-slavery stance was almost entirely political in nature, which is to imply that Lincoln really didn't mean anything he said about slavery the 175 times he spoke of the subject between 1854 and 1858. If so, Lincoln was the bravest and shrewdest pure politician of all time, because he expressed a principle with which the majority of U.S. citizens did not concur but won anyway. Johannsen spends page after page lambasting Lincoln for not saying something soothing to the South after his election, only to finally and honestly conclude that there wasn't anything Lincoln have said anyway. By all means, read Johannsen's four lectures but follow up with James McPherson's work on Lincoln for a more balanced viewpoint.