large part because they are about memoryrnitself: “Tbc mystic chords of memoryrn. .. The world will little note, nor long rememberrn. . . My fellow citizens, we cannotrnescape history. We of this Congressrnand this administrahon will be rememberedrnin spite of ourselves. . . The worldrnwill not forget…”rnBut Lincoln had haunting memoriesrncloser to home, which he preferred to forget.rnI le spoke of his own father rarely andrnwith faint contempt, never with warmth;rnhe loved the mcmor’ of his mother, whorndied when he was nine, but he once confidedrnto fierndon that “my mother was arnbastard” and never spoke of her to himrnagain, hi 1850, Thomas Lincoln lay dyingrnand asked to see his only son, who declinedrnto visit and didn’t attend the funeralrna few weeks later. Abe had neverrnintroduced his father to his wife and children.rnWhy was Lincoln so strangely remoternfrom his fatlier? Was it just because hernwas moving up in the world and wasrnashamed of the coarse and illiterate ‘i’honras?rnWe can only guess. My own surmisernis that the old man was a brutal drunkard.rnWe have testimony that Thomas sometimesrnhit little Abe for minor provocations,rnafter which Abe would never wail,rnbut shed a silent tear. But I find it suggestivernthat I .ineoln became a teetotalerrnand joined a temperance society. And hernnever disciplined his own children,rnwhose wildness became an acute anno’-rnance to everyone, including Lincoln’srnCabinet. Throughout his adult life, Lincolnrnseemed to want to be the opposite ofrneverything his fatiier was. He idealizedrnthe long-dead national “fatiiers,” but notrnthe actual man who had begotten him. Ifrnhe was an assiduoush’ self-made man, itrnwas probably because he dreaded becomingrnthe man Thomas would havernmade him.rnIf Lincoln seems devoted to abstractrnprinciples, it may be because he wasn’trndefined by concrete loyalties. lie wasrnquick to forget old friends and allies whornhad boosted his career. He was alwaysrnmarkedly reserved in his affections. Yes,rnhe was “I lonest Abe,” in the sense that hernpaid his debts and spoke accurately,rnwhen he spoke at all; but his honest)’ wasrnfar from confessional candor. His innerrnlife remains a mster’. He almost neverrnspoke of his personal experiences in public;rnto a temperance society, he couldrnspeak eloc[uentl on the evils of drunkenness,rnwitiiout alluding to anything in hisrnown life that might have enlisted his passionrnon the subject. Ambition drove himrnforward; he didn’t look backward.rnThe impression he leaves is one of personalrnderacination. He had no ancestorsrnto speak of, except “our fathers” —themselvesrnrather abstract entities, dedicatedrnto propositions. His friends describedrnhim as “reticent” and “secretive.” When,rnbetween his election in November andrnhis inauguration in March, the wholernThe Re-Birth of a Classic!rnOutline of Sanity by G.K. ChestertonrnAfter 75 y^rs, tiiis brilliant, aigaging WOTk is now availablernas a single volume, in quality paperback…only frcmi IHS.rnIn Outline of Sanity Chesterton reveals…rn• The pitfells of both socialism and capitaUst monqjoly.rn• The modoTi economic tendency to deprive people of real wealthrn• That “Distributism” is the canmon-saise answer!rnLow introdBCtory prfee! $12.95 plus $2.50 S/H Money Back Guarantee!rn% K«€. To onttr: call (757) 623-0309,rne-raaih OTder@ihsiH^s.com, or send c^eck tornmS Press, Dept C, 222 W. 21st St, Suite F-122rnNorfolk, VA 23517rnAlso available in bookstores.rn,^^°’ Tie exclnsive publisher…dedicated excinsively to thern^ Social Teachings of tiie Catholic Church.rncountry was writhing over whether therernwould be civil war, he kept his own counselrnfor four months, refusing to disclosernhis intentions. Even his first inauguralrnaddress was Delphic in its evasion of thernwar question.rnHe did love Shakespeare, especiallyrnMacbeth —a play that revolves aroundrntwo Lincolnian themes, ambition andrnequivocation. Like the Weird Sisters,rnLincoln had a lawyer’s gift for sayingrnthings that were literally true but actuallyrnmisleading. “I han’t been caught lyin’rnyet,” he once told Billy Herndon, “and Irndon’t mean to be.” I le excelled at not beingrncaught lyin’. For weeks, he letrnWilliam Seward and Ward Lamon assurernthe Confederates that Fort Sumterrnwould be evacuated; tire Confederatesrnfelt betrayed when Lincoln sent reinforcementsrninstead, but nobody couldrnpin the deceit on him. He had personallyrnsaid nothing.rnThroughout the war, Lincoln contrivedrnto interpret the Constitution as ambiguousrnwhere others found it quiternclear. The separation of powers, in hisrnreading, became remarkably porous; inrnwartime, the president could assumernpowers normally belonging to Congress,rnor to nobody. In peace, the EmancipationrnProclamation would have been unconstitutional,rnbut this was wartime, andrnthe Commander in Chief could seizern”rebel” property if necessary—meaningrnif he deemed it necessary.rn”Perception is realit}-,” as we now say.rnLancoln was peerless in creating “perception,”rnin that sense. Even postiiunrously,rnhe defines himself, through his commandrnof a language—a pastiche of KingrnJames English —that only he ever reallyrnspoke. It certainly wasn’t the political idiomrnof “our fathers.”rnStill, Lincoln managed to upstage —rneven supersede—the remarkable generationrnthat had won American independencernand forged a federal union. Withrna few finely hirned phrases, lie drasticallyrnabridged their thought, creating, if not arn”new nation” or a “new birth of freedom,”rnthen a new tradition of nationalismrnand centralization. The real ymericanrnpast was obscmed and mostlyrnforgotten. Lincoln’s words have becomerna legacy in themselves, a substitute for arnrepudiated body of serious political philosophy.rnLincoln is indeed the founder —andrnperfect symbol —of an amnesiac Americarnthat remembers even less of its originsrnthan he did. crn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn