To: jhild who wrote (58388 ) 2/1/2001 5:22:27 PM From: nihil Respond to It is difficult to understand the historical importance of anyone, and no too people can expect to agree. One needs a comprehensive theory of history and human action accurately to assess someone's importance. In the instance of Lincoln, we know an enormous amount about his thought and actions. There is little disagreement about what he actually did. But the movement of his mind, particularly during the first two years of his presidency, is not always perfectly traceable. We know when he took his oath in March, that he had no objective except to save the union at any cost, but that he was not willing to let one or seven states go to save the union of the rest. His call for troops and plan to use force precipitated the war, but South Carolina fired the first shot and can never escape the blame for the war. His direction of the war was far from perfect, but the people he had to work with were not reliable. While Grant, Sherman, Thomas, and others were there, they had not yet revealed themselves as the generals that he required. Politically, he was beset by conservatives, who wanted to preserve slavery, and radical abolitionists who want to destroy it root and branch. Moreover, there were Democrats, ranging from compromisers to traitors to be dealt with. He was a minority president, resented even by some in his cabinet. He was denigrated as socially inadequate, as ungentlemanly, as uneducated, as a clown, gorilla, and buffoon.
