braham Lincoln is universally regarded as one of the greatest men ever to occupy the presidency. Yet through much of his administration, this lank and humble Illinois lawyer seemed destined for a less exalted historical judgment. Entrusted with guiding the nation through a civil war brought on by his own election to the White House on the antislavery Republican ticket, he was beset from the start with criticism from all sides. On the one hand, there were those who accused him of moral cowardice when he initially insisted that the purpose of engaging in a war with the South was to preserve the Union and not to eliminate slavery. On the other hand, his wartime suspension of basic civil rights gave rise to charges of despotism, and when the conflict went badly for the North, the blame inevitably fell on him. But as Union forces advanced toward victory in the field, Lincoln’s eloquent articulation of the nation’s ideals and ultimate call for an end to slavery gradually invested him with a saintly grandeur. Following his assassination in 1865, that grandeur became virtually unassailable.