Book Review: With Malice Toward None by Stephen B. Oates

Every year I set a New Year's Resolution to be a better reader. When I was single and traveling a lot, I read all the time because I had a lot of downtime in airports. My coworkers would recommend and loan me books and I loved talking with them afterwards. I've been to book clubs and I've decided they aren't my journey. However, I still enjoy book recommendations from friends!

This one came from Janeal and I actually started it a couple of years ago but didn't finish. I decided to see it through to the end this time. I liked it, but I don't have a good memory for names when it comes to history- they all tend to blend together and then I get lost and it's no longer interesting to me. However, Janeal and I attended a class at BYU Education Week on Abraham Lincoln and that really made me excited to learn more. Not to mention living in the "Land of Lincoln" makes me feel like I have a responsibility to know and understand the history surrounding Abraham Lincoln.

I should state from the get-go that I'm not going to be able to do this book justice, but I can share some of my favorite parts and nuggets of wisdom I gained. For example, this one:

I love that! I've always thought it's better to be an outright sinner than a sanctimonious hypocrite- this is along those lines.

Here's another great Lincoln quote:

Lincoln's absolute commitment to honesty came up again and again in the book. "When Douglas learned of Lincoln's nomination, he confided in a fellow Democrat that 'I shall have my hands full. He is the strong man of the party-full of wit, facts, dates-and the best stump speaker, with his droll ways and dry jokes, in the West. He is as honest as he is shrewd, and if I beat him my victory will be hardly won.'"

As the BLM movement has gained recognition, it was really good for me to review the issues, politics and positions on slavery. What a quagmire! Back then and now. The speaker at the BYU Education Week class referred to this Lost Speech so I was happy to read about it again. 

"This they said and this they meant." I love this quote as well:

Lincoln had some very loyal friends- and man alive did he need loyalty during his presidency. I would love to be someone's "first, last and only choice" for something!

I loved this insight to Lincoln's House Divided speech. In the following chapter Oates states that in regards to the ultimate elimination of slavery, Lincoln said, "...may not be completely attained within the term of my natural life." And he was proud, "in my passing speck of time," to contribute what he could to that consummation. Not only was he ahead of his time, he really knew his place in the grand scheme of things. Although he told Mary he would be satisfied to just be a senator.

After living through the most contentious presidential campaign in my lifetime, I loved that he said, "let us do nothing through passion and ill temper." Such wise advice that is applicable in our times now! I did not know that at the time, it was customary for Presidential nominees to do no campaigning for themselves. I talked to Brent about what that would be like- to have all candidates silent and only have those they know and trust speak on their behalf. What a different campaign it would be, for sure!

Somewhere in the back of my mind I'd heard this- about his premonition that he would not live through his second term- but it was so interesting to read about it. I also loved that he decided to grow a beard upon the recommendation of a little girl who wrote him. We have a houseful of little girls who love their daddy's beard so this spoke to me personally.

Apparently as they traveled to Washington DC, "they stopped at Westfield, New York, long enough for Lincoln to kiss Grace Bedell, the little girl who'd convinced him to grow his beard." At another depot, "he brought out Mary, short, plump, and smiling, to stand beside him on the platform. This, he announced, 'is the long and the short of it.'"

I was so saddened to read about all the troubles he faced before he even made it to the Presidential office. How he was constantly pestered for government posts and all the threats he received. As the war ramped up and I read about how General after General failed him- often just too scared to fight, not due to a lack of supplies and men, I was again saddened. I didn't realize how delicate an issue the Emancipation Proclamation was- I just took for granted that it happened. Lincoln told one unhappy Democrat, "broken eggs cannot be mended. I have issued the proclamation, and I cannot retract it." I didn't even know he was pressured to retract it!

I didn't know part of the reason the Gettysburg Address is so short is because he was so bogged down with work he hardly had time to write it. Once he returned to Washington he came down with a mild form of smallpox as did his son Tad. 

I didn't know that Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe and in reference to her book Uncle Tom's Cabin he said, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war." Who run the world? Ha!

I went down a rabbit hole about his funeral and was shocked to discover the wood box on top of which his coffin lay in state is still used. It has been repaired and modified a bit, and the black fabric that hangs on it updated now and again, but the same box that held Lincoln's coffin is the same one that held Ruth Bader Ginsburg's.

As soon as I finished the book I voxered Janeal- the most optimal way for two busy mothers to actually have a conversation! I loved sharing the tidbits I learned and she loved sharing with me more details she knew off the top of her head. Lately I've been eager to scale down our books- especially since so many things are online nowadays. My highlighted copy of With Malice Toward None is staying put- it's such a gem and I'm so glad I finally got around to reading it!