After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, tributes flowed in from all over the country lamenting the loss of the 16th President, who had led the nation successfully through the Civil War.
Stephen Douglas famously squared off against Lincoln in a statewide series of debates as part of the 1858 U.S. Senate race. The main issue at play in the debates was slavery and its expansion into the territories. Lincoln lost that election but faced Douglas again in 1860. That time – in a four-way race for president – Lincoln got the better of him.
Following the Civil War and the assassination of the president, Douglas penned a letter that was republished in newspapers of the time.
“I believe that I am right, but I may be wrong, but right or wrong, it is conceived in love and kindness. For apart from my father, there is no name in all the world's annals which I revere as I do, the name of Abraham Lincoln,” Douglas wrote. “I hope I may be pardoned for saying that in the generally accepted view of Mr. Lincoln's character, there is a tendency to glorify His heart, to exalt what may be called the child qualities of his nature, while reducing to a minimum what may be called his man qualities.”
Brent Taylor is a professor of history at West Kentucky Community & Technical College. He said that the contents of the letter tribute might surprise readers because it strikes a tone not often used to describe Lincoln.
“He is described as a dreamy, poetic nature, a man of reverie and not action, a man almost incapable of saying no, whose great heart often ran away with his judgment, a man whom all loved and respected but none feared. Politically, he is described as a child of destiny, a creature of circumstances,” Douglas wrote. “Again, others have described him as a man with practically but one aim in life, the freeing of the slave, which he pursued in season and out of season, and that this was the soul, or at least, the first object he sought as president.”
Taylor believes that, when Douglas refers to Lincoln as being “incapable of saying ‘no,’” he’s talking about the Kentucky-born leader’s penchant for letting people petition him for help personally and directly, including for pardons.
“I have definitely read about him that when it came for say, pardons and things like that, these widows would show up and say, ‘Look my husband joined the Confederacy. He didn't really want to,’ but it was kind of the thing,” said Taylor. “And then they would beg for a pardon, and he would grant it. I think the reputation was that he had a big heart.”
After setting up that vision of Lincoln, Douglas' letter refutes it, pointing out how he thought those parts of his personality made him a stronger leader for the country.
“I believe these are the generally accepted views of Mr. Lincoln. To them all I dissent respectfully but emphatically, because they dwarf him of his manliness,” Douglas writes. “Because they make him a dreamy drifter, molded into shape by circumstances, instead of a clear headed, kind hearted, strong handed man of Iron Will who molded circumstances and compelled success.”
Taylor said this view of Douglas would become the primary vision that Americans today have when they think of Lincoln.
“That's his view, which I think is probably more like our view,” said Taylor. “So it's kind of fun that Douglas's vision was kind of what has carried forward to today.”
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