Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/177

 Rothschild: Lincoln, Master of Men 167 On the somewhat slender thread of what is termed Lincoln's mastery- over men, has been strung an entertaining series of anecdotes and stories relating to his encounters with successive rivals. The Little Giant, Seward as the power behind the throne. Chase as the indis- pensable man, Stanton, Fremont, and finally McClellan as the Young Napoleon, are pitted in turn against the hero, only to be discomfited by this master of men. This method of waiting biography is exposed to peculiar hazards. Where the personal element is allowed to obtrude to this extent, there is always danger that the individual will be isolated from his world and made to act as though propelled by his own independent volition. It is easy to mistake for a personal antagonism what is really an oppo- sition bottomed on quite different motives. The temptation is to treat the clash of wills as altogether volitional, prompted by jealousy, envy, resentment, and what not. Coincidently comes the tendency to exalt the hero by belittling his opponents. Mr. Rothschild has not escaped these pitfalls, though his portraiture of Lincoln is fairly successful. The account of Lincoln's career in Illinois is least satisfactory, though for that matter most biographers from Nicolay and Hay down have allowed their treatment of his early life to be colored by the memory of his bearing in the great crisis. It is somewhat extraordi- nary that nearly all should trust to Herndon and to the columns of the Sangamon Journal for accounts of Lincoln's early encounters with Douglas, when this is so clearly ex parte evidence. Both Herndon and Lincoln contributed freely to the editorial columns of the Journal, which was a strongly partizan paper. The corrective should be sought, of course, in contemporary opinion as reflected in the State Register, the rival newspaper of Springfield. That Douglas should be systematically berated, and underrated, in these pages, was to be expected. The author quite naturally chose the conventional treatment of Lincoln's opponent. Doubtful statements abound. We are told that in the great contest of 1858 the aid of promi- nent Republicans throughout the country brought Douglas as many votes as Buchanan took (p. no); that the single favorable letter of Senator Crittenden of Kentucky " turned the wavering scale in enough districts to ensure the election of Douglas" {ibid.); that after the debates Douglas hurried south " with speeches that commended slavery " (p. 117) ; that Popular Sovereignty and the Freeport Doctrine were "twin nostrums of an unscrupulous political quack" (p. 119) ; and that after the election of i860 Douglas ceased to be a vital factor in political cal- culations {ibid.). It would be a difficult task to substantiate these asser- tions. Mr. Rothschild does not attempt to do so. Is it quite fair to picture Douglas as the discomfited rival, " humbly holding the victor's hat ", at Lincoln's inauguration, when the authority from whom Mr. Rothschild borrow-s the incident adds the further touch " he [Douglas] told me that he meant to put himself as prominently forward in the