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"ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTHS" (STEPHEN OATES).   Term Paper ID:26728 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Reviews biography examining historical truths & mythical beliefs about President.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Reviews biography examining historical truths & mythical beliefs about President. Paper Introduction: Abraham Lincoln: Man and Myth Stephen Oates believes the grandiose dimensions and symbol-building power of the myths people create reveal their deepest longings (Oates 4). He argues this is especially true of the myths Americans have created about Abraham Lincoln, the powerful figure who presided over the country's greatest trial, the Civil War (Oates 4). However, he argues that rather than reflect any actual truths about Lincoln the man and President, the American mythology surrounding Lincoln reflects the spiritual and psychological needs of America's culture (Oates 4). Oates argues that mythology carries a different truth than that of historical truth. In the case of Abraham Lincoln, the myth is what Americans wish the man had been rather than what he really was. The Lincoln myth has imbued him with the traits Americans consider th Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Rather he believed that if slaverywere confined to the South, it would ultimately die out (Oates 63). Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind The Myths. It is not surprising that they would turn to the mythic figure of thelast great crisis for optimism (Oates 11). In Lincoln, Whitman saw the archetypal Captainwho was destined to lie fallen cold and dead (Oates 9). He also notes thatAmericans were attempting to cope with the Great Depression of the 193 s,which was the worst crisis of American democracy since the Civil War (Oates1 ). Oates argues that mythology carries a different truth than that ofhistorical truth. However, Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon, reactedto this initial mythology by offering up instead a contrasting Western folkhero, who could be funny, ambitious, irreverent, and sorrowful by turns(Oates 16). in his article inEbony magazine (Bennett was a black writer-historian whose 1968 article wasa no-holds-barred attack against "the myth of the Great Emancipator," heoffered up instead a racially repugnant, opportunist Lincoln limited by theanti-black environment of his childhood). Heargues that it was Whitman's mythic vision of Lincoln that capturedSandburg's imagination. He spoke repeatedly and eloquentlyagainst the expansion of slavery, as he believed the Founding Fathers hadintended (Oates 67). Abraham Lincoln: Man and Myth Stephen Oates believes the grandiose dimensions and symbol-buildingpower of the myths people create reveal their deepest longings (Oates 4).He argues this is especially true of the myths Americans have created aboutAbraham Lincoln, the powerful figure who presided over the country'sgreatest trial, the Civil War (Oates 4). In February 1861, Whitman was captivated when he saw President-electLincoln as he passed through New York City (Oates 16). Slavery distressed him because he believed it should not exist in aself-proclaimed free and enlightened Republic. He ran for Douglas's Senate seat, openly declaring his anti-slavery sentiments (Oates 7 -71). Instead, Lincoln emerged as aprofessional, respected attorney with a burning ambition to a high stationin life (Oates 51). For example, he was tolerant of alcoholics andregarded religion as a subject of individual conscience (Oates 53). He was a self-taught lawyer who entered the Illinoislegislature when only twenty-five and became a leader of the state Whigparty, a party campaigner, and a regular candidate for public office (Oates51). Now, Lincoln and other Republicans began tosee a plot on the part of Southern leaders to nationalize slavery. Thus, Oates argues that Carl Sandburg found the central themes of thelife of Lincoln he wanted to tell in Whitman's writings (Oates 9). Bibliography Oates, S. Oates maintains that the best we can achieve as we strive for thebiographical truth about Lincoln is "a careful approximation of whatLincoln was like in the days he lived" (Oates 33). However, he carefully couched hislanguage to also endorse the racial discrimination then enforced byIllinois law (Oates 72). Rather than a haloed saint, Herndon's Lincoln was the son of ashiftless poor white man and the illegitimate daughter of a prominentVirginia planter. However, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 forced Lincoln to speakpublicly on the issue of slavery. The Act was offered by Senator Stephen A.Douglas of Illinois and overturned the Missouri Compromise, which excludedslavery from the Louisiana Purchase territory (Oates 64). "In Lincoln," Sandburg wrote, "the people of theUnited States could finally see themselves, each for himself and alltogether" (Oates 1 ) Thus, the Lincoln Sandburg created was based heavilyon the Lincoln Sandburg believed the American people wanted him to be. Oates explains the significance of the American people's desire in thecreation of the mythology around Lincoln. Oates maintains thatfrom that moment, Whitman idolized Lincoln and insisted that a trueportrait of the man must be formed around the dimensions and powerfulsymbols of myth (Oates 16). By the 185 s, Lincoln was one of the most sought-after attorneys inIllinois who practiced regularly and often successfully before the SupremeCourt of Illinois rather than in the circuit courts as mythology claims(Oates 51). Lincoln" or just "Lincoln"because he hated the nickname "Abe" (Oates 51). The portrait that emerged contrasted sharply with the saint or devilsketched alternatively by admirers such as Whitman and Sandburg ordetractors such as Edgar Lee Masters in his 1931 book Lincoln: The Man(Masters, a Chicago lawyer and poet, portrayed Lincoln as an undersexed,"slick" and dastardly demagogue who could have avoided war, but chose tocrush the South into submission); and Lenore Bennett, Jr. Had he not done so, one scholar notes that "theLincoln of history simply would not exist" (Oates 72). Furtherlanguage effectively legalized slavery in all federal territories fromCanada to Mexico (Oates 69). Thus, in 1858, Lincoln believed the Union had reached a monumentalcrisis. The Lincolnmyth has imbued him with the traits Americans consider their most noble,among them honesty, tolerance, a work ethic, forgiveness, compassion, aclear-sighted vision of right and wrong, and a dedication to God andcountry (Oates 16). Oates notes that in his own effort to create a biography of Lincolnhe drew from numerous contemporary sources of Lincoln scholarship (Oates11). Nonetheless, the biographer must painstakinglypursue evidence and test each piece's reliability. He alsohad a liberal mind toward women's rights and those of ethnic groups (Oates53). However, he argues that ratherthan reflect any actual truths about Lincoln the man and President, theAmerican mythology surrounding Lincoln reflects the spiritual andpsychological needs of America's culture (Oates 4). They saw it as no coincidence that he had fallen on GoodFriday (Oates 16). Whitman saw in Abraham Lincoln the Poet Hero hehad anticipated in the preface to Leaves of Grass (1855). And even then, each canonly offer an approximation of Lincoln depending on the biographer's owninferences, insights, sense of importance, and conception of character(Oates 33). Whitman's herowas a simple, generous, large man who spoke for the common people and fornational union (Oates 8). (HarperPerennial:New York, 1984). Now, until thecitizens of a territory voted on the issue, southerners could take slaveryinto most western territories, including Kansas and Nebraska (Oates 64).Lincoln campaigned against the Act, going so far as to become the head ofthe new Republican Party in Illinois. Thus, he becomes a product of the great Western prairies, areligious skeptic, open, candid, energetic, trusting, and brave (Oates 16).But it was Carl Sandburg's 1928 biography of Lincoln, which was based onthe mythos created by Walt Whitman, which would finally merge the mythicfigure of saint and folk hero into the image of Lincoln that wouldeventually resonate. He notes that Sandburg's Lincolnwas created for a generation of Americans who came of age amongst thecynicism of the 192 s, with its gang wars and speakeasies and unbridledspeculation and declining moral values (Oates 1 ). In the case of Abraham Lincoln, the myth is whatAmericans wish the man had been rather than what he really was. Oates argues that the myth-building around Lincoln began on "BlackEaster," April 16, 1865, when Northern abolitionist ministers portrayed theslain President as an American Christ who died to cleanse the sins of hisguilty land. Lincoln held broad humanitarian views, some of which may have beenbefore his time (Oates 53). Then, in 1857, the pro-Southern Supreme Court handed down the DredScott decision, which decreed that Negroes were inferior beings who werenot and never had been United States citizens and the Constitution andDeclaration of Independence did not apply to them (Oates 69). Oates notes that though Herndon's Lincoln does riseabove his impoverished origins, he keeps the stamp of the frontier on him(Oates 16). Once itdid so, black could be colonized back to Africa (Oates 63). However, he did not viewblack people as Americans (Oates 54). His colleagues called him "Mr. Thus, Oates maintains, the mythological Lincoln"carries the torch of the American dream, a dream of noble idealism, ofself-sacrifice and common humanity, of liberty and equality for all" (Oates16). However, Lincoln'sviews likely lost him the election and his speeches gave ammunition tolater detractors such as Bennett. Clearly, without actualobservation of Lincoln, and perhaps not even then, we cannot know exactlywho Abraham Lincoln was. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.