Doris Kearns Goodwin

An analysis of Abraham Lincoln's political talents identifies the character strengths and abilities that enabled his successful election, in an account that also describes how he used the same abilities to rally former opponents in winning the Civil War.

The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Team of Rivals

Dan Magee

No praise must have been more welcome to Lincoln than that of his old critic, the fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. "And to whom is the country more immediately indebted for this vital and saving amendment of the Constitution than, perhaps, to any other man?" Garrison asked a cheering crowd at the Boston Music Hall. "I believe I may confidently answer-to the humble railsplitter of Illinois-to the Presidential chain- breaker for millions of the oppressed-to Abraham Lincoln!"

"Having hope," writes Daniel Goleman in his study of emotional intelligence, "means that one will not give in to overwhelm- ing anxiety, a defeatist attitude, or depression in the face of difficult chal- lenges or setbacks." Hope is "more than the sunny view that everything will turn out all right"; it is "believing you have the will and the accomplish your goals."

Lincoln was "the most truly progressive man of the age, because he always moves in conjunction with propitious circumstances, not waiting to be dragged by the force of events or wasting strength in premature struggles with them."

He tried to impart some of the measured outlook that had served him so well: "No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog, than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite."

Team of Rivals quotes

Join the club