Lincoln’s Thought and Rhetoric

Abstract

In a note to himself, Abraham Lincoln once defined the essence of democracy with a simple statement: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.” Is there more to the political thought of the savior of the American union and the emancipator of slaves? George Kateb, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at Princeton University, believes that what Lincoln thought politically and how he communicated these thoughts require more than a cursory reading to understand his deep moral convictions and deft political rhetoric.