Lincoln

Gore Vidal wrote this historical novel named "Lincoln." According to the reviews, this novel is historically accurate, almost like a history book but with conversations. Vidal is a big writer and he wrote a big momma of a book that almost gives you carpal tunnel when you read the hard cover version. For reasons I won't go into (because they reflect poorly on me and this is my blog so I get to choose how I get reflected) I didn't want to like this book. But I did like it. I read all 560 pages of it. I finished it at 10 p.m. the night before my book club meeting. Lincoln is an interesting president. Some say he was the best president in American history. I will say this about him, he had a singular focus - to preserve the union. He kept his eyes on the prize. For a new nation in a civil war, that was a good quality for our President to have. Lincoln wasn't an abolitionist. He didn't propose abolishing slavery until that idea helped preserve the nation. He would have preferred not to expand slave ownership into more states instead of getting rid of slavery entirely. He proposed that all the black people be shipped to a country in central or south America. When he talked that idea over with some black people, he was shocked to hear they didn't like that idea. Lincoln took all kinds of liberty with presidential powers during his tenure. Presidents who serve in time of war tend to do that. He went overboard. He made George W. Bush look mild in comparison. He suspended habeus corpus. But it was a crazy time. His in-laws were secessionists. Can you imagine declaring war on the relatives of your wife? He survived multiple assassination attempts. He requested that his stovepipe hats with bullet holes be burned so no one would know he was shot at again. His parenting style was extremely lax. He let his children run wild in the White House. His wife had a spending problem that he knew about and ignored, even when he knew she peddled his influence for more credit on her accounts. Lincoln was a smart man who knew how to influence people but he didn't use his influence on his family. He gave his political enemies positions in his cabinet. This led to lots of drama and many letters of resignation. Often Lincoln would ask the resigned cabinet member to stay. Eventually he would accept a letter of resignation and boy, was that cabinet member surprised! Although smart, he didn't think some things through. Lincoln asked the secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, how long it took him to sign all the dollar bills. Chase had an extremely fanciful signature. Chase had a strong reaction to this question. He said he didn't sign the dollar bills. His signature was printed on the bills because it would take him years to sign the dollar bills. For the rest of the day, Lincoln puzzled on that fact before he came to accept the idea that he had been wrong. Vidal explains in his novel the reaction to the Gettsburg address. Some newspapers said it was the worst speech ever written and the President should be ashamed of it. Other newspapers said the speech brought the listeners to tears. This novel showed me that some things never change. Newspapers are not any worse and in some cases, not any better than they were 160 years ago. If you like historical novels and have some time to read, you might like to read "Lincoln."