Lincoln And The Lost Cause Analysis

WEEK FIVE- Lincoln and the Lost Cause Last week Lincoln was a patron saint, but in this week’s readings, anywhere from one to four decades after his assassination, the white southerners have denounced him a despot. Never before in our readings have we seen this view of Lincoln discussed, and it seems to me that they are blaming everything on Lincoln in order to scape goat all off the problems they had caused (did not want to admit they were at fault). They even go as far to say that Lincoln should be “bitterly ashamed” for what he has done (Minor, p. 18). Looking back on the aftermath of the Civil War, I could understand why white southerners would be distasteful of Mr. Lincoln: he took away their free labor source, had their lands destroyed, …show more content…
Both of them seem to idolize Abraham Lincoln, but this week the readings put more thought into Abe than just being a martyr. If I had to choose one word to describe him this week, it would be timeless. It seems that anything written this week on Mr. Lincoln is in remembrance of all of his good-hearted qualities, most of them due to the time period of Lincoln’s 100th birthday, that we seem to see as stereotypes in today’s society. For example, he is described as someone who had an extreme “influence with the jury” (Tarbell, p. 359). Not only is he a great lawyer, but he can easily persuade people he does not even know to see things as he does. By demonstrating this trait Lincoln is being portrayed as an almost larger than life human, and he is described as the God-like person we saw in week four. Showing that he was inspirational back before he was president and while he was in office might definitely have had an influence as to why people today view him as one of the greatest presidents. Another trait/ stereotype of Lincoln that is evident this week is the idea of him being a storyteller. Not only did Abe just tell stories to pass the time, he actually used his “stories in pleading, using them as illustrations which demonstrated the case more conclusively than argument could have done” (Tarbell, p.361). If he could use stories to influence a group of jurors, what is to say that he did not do this …show more content…
One article attacks Lincoln for all of his wrong doings (week five) while the other uses the figure of Lincoln to gain political advantage (week six). Instead of a tyrant that we saw in week five, Edgar Lee Masters says he is a “mongrel breed who new nothing and cared nothing about liberty and constitutional government” (Masters, p.8). This quote immediately reminded me of the Lost Cause and another southerner attempting to blame Lincoln and the North for taking away their rights. As Masters, surprisingly a northerner, continues his rant on the “hypocrite Lincoln,” I would say that the author is writing in such a horrible tone because at this time in the 1930’s blacks were starting to move North more and more, and I bet the author feel as though his “constitutional rights” were being evoked-not even close to being true (Masters, p. 484). On the flip side, in an address given by Woodrow Wilson, Lincoln is being manipulated in order to gain political ground which is a topic that we initially talked about in week two. Wilson talks about how democracy is something that we all have the power to exploit…. just like Abraham Lincoln did. Touching on Lincoln’s humble origins, he says, “This little hut was the cradle of one of the great sons of man” (Wilson, p.418). Not only is Wilson using Lincoln to justify the greatness of democracy, he is using the rare case of Lincoln being born of humble origins and