George W. Bush, meanwhile, is slinking back to Texas with such low ratings that we forget that he made his own run at Presidential greatness. That ambition became apparent after the 9/11 attacks, when Bush adeptly, if briefly, harnessed the hunger for leadership that always follows a major crisis. In those days, incredible as it may seem now, Bush was often compared to Lincoln.

Obviously, Nicholas Lemann is not a historian. If you want the full impression of how Lincoln was reviled by his opponents, you get such snippets as this:

Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military necessity of war-power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view of an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States.

That’s from the Democratic Party Platform of 1864. Seems like it was just written yesterday, doesn’t it?

As for Lincoln’s reputation, there is this interesting letter of August 22, 1864 to him from Henry Raymond (publisher of the New York Times and Chairman of the Republican Party’s Executive Committee):

I feel compelled to drop you a line concerning the political condition of the country as it strikes me. I am in active correspondence with your staunchest friends in every state and from them all I hear but one report. The tide is setting strongly against us. Hon. E. B. Washburne writes that were an election to be held now in Illinois we should be beaten. Mr. Cameron writes that Pennsylvania is against us. Gov. Morton writes that nothing but the most strenuous efforts can carry Indiana. This state [New York], according to the best information I can get, would go 50,000 against us to-morrow. And so of the rest. Nothing but the most resolute and decided action on the part of the government and its friends, can save the country from falling into hostile hands.

Lincoln’s reputation was in the tank, the population was tired of war, and a large number of influential newspaper publishers were united against him. Only a few union victories just prior to the election saved Lincoln from defeat. He luckily won the election 55%-45% (margin == 5%) to defeat the Democratic candidate “little Mac” George McClellan.

unclesmrgol on January 20, 2009 at 7:43 PM