Lincoln, Paine, and Garrison

To try to understand Lincoln even a little, one must read what he read and try and place that reading in the context of the times. Jacoby answered a question I had about whether Lincoln read Paine. She indicated that he had read The Age of Reason. How many of us have read it? We know that William Lloyd Garrison didn't read it according to Jacoby until November of 1845, "because he had been raised to regard the author...as 'a monster of iniquity.'" Garrison began publishing The Liberator in January of 1831. This was the same year that Abraham Lincoln settled in New Salem, IL. Lincoln was responsible for mail delivery. He had extra time to read. Dr. Robert Bray compiled a bibliography that attempts to list, in alphabetical order by author, all the books or parts of books that any serious scholar, biographer, or bibliographer has asserted that Abraham Lincoln read. Bray's book Reading With Lincoln provides details of his research.

We know from some of Lincoln's quotes and his writings that he read the Bible, plays by Shakespeare, and poetry by Robert Burns. He read many more that he attested to such as Aesop's Fables, and Life of Washington by Washington Irving. His law partner William H. Herndon was an avid purchaser of books and after Lincoln's assassination he catalogued many that he knew Lincoln read some in part and some in whole, before and during their partnership.  According to Herndon “In 1834, while still living in New Salem and before he became a lawyer, he was surrounded by a class of people exceedingly liberal in matters of religion. Volney’s Ruins and Payne’s Age of Reason passed from hand to hand. . . . Lincoln read both these books and thus assimilated them into his own being.” Additionally, of course, Lincoln read and studied many law books, including Blackstone's Commentaries.

People who lived in New Salem were recorded as saying that Lincoln also devoted time to reading newspapers. I would love to know if Garrison's Liberator made it to New Salem, and if Lincoln read it. I'm thinking he probably did. I wonder how it influenced his views on many issues of the time. Here is the first issue:

To the Public

January 1, 1831

In the month of August, I issued proposals for publishing "THE LIBERATOR" in Washington City; but the enterprise, though hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by public indifference. Since that time, the removal of the Genius of Universal Emancipation to the Seat of Government has rendered less imperious the establishment of a simliar periodical in that quarter.

During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in the free States -- and particularly in New-England -- than at the South. I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slave-owners themselves. Of course, there were individual exceptions to the contrary. This state of things afflicted, but did not dishearten me. I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker HIll and in the birthplace of liberty. That standard is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missles of a desperate foe--yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free! Let Southern oppressors tremble--let their secret abettors tremble--let their Northern apologists tremble--let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble.

I deem the publication of my original Prospectus unnecessary, as it has obtained a wide circulation. The principles therein inculcated will be steadily pursued in this paper, excepting that I shall not array myself as the political partisans of any man. In defending the great cause of human rights, I wish to derive the assistance of all religions and off all parties.

Assenting to the "self-evident truth" maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights--among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. In Park-Street Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice, and absurdity. A similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in September, 1829. My conscience is now satisfied.

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen;--but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest--I will not equivocate--I will not excuse--I will not retreat a single inch--AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

It is pretended, that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective and the precipitancy of my measures. The charge is not true. On this question my influence,--humble as it is,--is felt at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years--not perniciously, but beneficially--not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will bear testimony that I was right. I desire to thank God, that he enables me to disregard "the fear of man which bringeth a snare," and to speak his truth in its simplicity and power. And here I close with this fresh dedication:

"Oppression!  I have seen thee, face to face,

And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow;

But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now

For dread to prouder feelings doth give place

Of deep abhorrence!  Scorning the disgrace

Of slavish knees that at they footstool bow,

I also kneel--but with far other vow

Do hail thee and they herd of hirelings base:

I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins,

Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand,

Thy brutalising sway-till Afric's chains

Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land,

Trampling Oppression and his iron rod:

Such is the vow I take-so HELP ME GOD!"

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.

BOSTON, January 1, 1831

The Essential Documents of American History was compiled by Norman P. Desmarais and James H. McGovern of Providence College.

I believe to try to place Lincoln in a specific category does a disservice to the incredible human being he was, a very well-educated, thoughtful individual who reflected deeply on the meaning of life and his role in it.