Abraham Lincoln & the Lincoln Myth

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 their most noble, among them honesty, tolerance, a work ethic, forgiveness, compassion, a clear-sighted vision of right and wrong, and a dedication to God and country (Oates 16). Thus, Oates maintains, the mythological Lincoln "carries the torch of the American dream, a dream of noble idealism, of self-sacrifice and common humanity, of liberty and equality for all" (Oates 16).

Oates argues that the myth-building around Lincoln began on "Black Easter," April 16, 1865, when Northern abolitionist ministers portrayed the slain President as an American Christ who died to cleanse the sins of his guilty land. They saw it as no coincidence that he had fall

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ed heavily on the Lincoln Sandburg believed the American people wanted him to be. Oates explains the significance of the American people's desire in the creation of the mythology around Lincoln. He notes that Sandburg's Lincoln was created for a generation of Americans who came of age amongst the cynicism of the 1920s, with its gang wars and speakeasies and unbridled speculation and declining moral values (Oates 10). He also notes that Americans were attempting to cope with the Great Depression of the 1930s, which was the worst crisis of American democracy since the Civil War (Oates 10). It is not surprising that they would turn to the mythic figure of the last great crisis for optimism (Oates 11). Oates notes that in his own effort to create a biography of Lincoln he drew from numerous contemporary sources of Lincoln scholarship (Oates 11). The portrait that emerged contrasted sharply with the saint or devil sketched alternatively by admirers such as Whitman and Sandburg or detractors 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 to crush the South into submission); and Len
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Approximate Word count = 1383
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)