No President, in his
own time, with the possible exception of Washington, was so
bitterly hated and so fiercely reviled. On the other hand, none
has been the object of such intemperate hero-worship. However,
the greatest of the land were, in the main, quick to see him in
perspective and to recognize his historic significance. It is
recorded of Davis that in after days he paid a beautiful tribute
to Lincoln and said, "Next to the destruction of the Confederacy,
the death of Abraham Lincoln was the darkest day the South has
known."
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
There are two general histories, of conspicuous ability, that
deal with this period:
J. F. Rhodes, "History of the United States from the Compromise
of 1850", 7 vols. (1893-1906), and J. B. McMaster, "History of
the People of the United States", 7 vols. (1883-1912). McMaster
has the more "modern" point of view and is excellent but dry,
without any sense of narrative. Rhodes has a somewhat older
point of view. For example, he makes only a casual reference, in
a quotation, to the munitions problem of 1861, though analyzing
with great force and candor such constitutional issues as the
arrests under the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The
other strong points in his work are its sense of narrative, its
freedom from hero-worship, its independence of conventional views
of Northern leaders.
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