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INTRODUCTION

Abraham Lincoln was a politician. People like to identify him in ways that sound more noble—lawyer, statesman, husband, father. Contemporaries considered him a Christlike figure who suffered and died that his nation might live. Tolstoy called him "a saint of humanity" who realized "the greatest human achievement is love." But this revered American's vocation is not revered at all, seen as the province of money, power, cynicism, and lies.

Some writers suggest he was only a politician, who revived a stalled career by seizing on the slavery issue and who wasn't even advanced in his views. Lincoln himself modestly said he was only an "accidental instrument" of a "great cause"—but this book holds something different. Lincoln preserved the country and took part in a social revolution because he engaged in politics. He did the work others found dirty or beneath them. He always considered slavery wrong, but felt immediate abolition was beyond the federal government's constitutional power and against the wishes of too many voters. So he tried to contain slavery. He helped to build a democratic coalition supporting that position and held to it even when threatened with disunion and civil war. He moved forward when circumstances changed. "I shall adopt new views so fast as they appear to be true views," he said shortly before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation."

Just as athletes are best seen in motion on the field, Lincoln is best seen in action with other people. This biography views him in sixteen such encounters before and during his presidency, each one a face-to-face meeting with a person who differed with him—in background, experience, or opinion. In each meeting one or both people wanted something. These interactions show a master politician's practical and moral choices, along with his sometimes mysterious character.

Together the meetings make a book of arguments, as Lincoln matches wits with allies and adversaries alike. Their differences lead to this book's main insight: Lincoln learned, adapted, and sought advantage while interacting with people who disagreed with him. Senator Stephen A. Douglas said Lincoln misunderstood the nation's founders, and General George McClellan considered Lincoln "an idiot." Jessie Benton Frémont felt Lincoln was misled by advisers; George H. Pendleton that Lincoln was trampling the Constitution. Frederick Douglass excoriated Lincoln, saying he had a "passion for making himself seem silly and ridiculous," that his statements were "characteristically foggy, remarkably illogical and untimely," that he had shown "canting hypocrisy," and that he represented "American prejudice and Negro hatred." Even when Douglass celebrated the Emancipation Proclamation he said Lincoln had taken this "obvious" course only after "slothful deliberation." Lincoln had read some of this criticism before Douglass appeared in his crowded anteroom—but he met Douglass anyway, and you may judge who gained from it.

This book's title comes from an 1855 letter Lincoln sent to his best friend Joshua Speed, who came from a slaveholding family: "If for this you and I must differ, differ we must." He chided Speed for admitting the "abstract wrong" of slavery but failing to act accordingly: "Slave-holders talk that way" but "never vote that way." Yet he didn't abandon Speed, signing off as "your friend forever." He rarely wrote people off, because he knew they had the power of the vote. It's not that Lincoln greatly changed his critics' beliefs—some went to war against him—nor that they greatly changed his. Rather, he learned how to make his beliefs actionable. He started his career in the minority party and set out to make a majority. He perceived a social problem so vast it seemed impossible to address, and he slowly found ways to address it. Had he failed to engage with people who differed, he would not have become the Lincoln we know; and history would little note nor long remember him.
 
The encounters in this book showcase his political techniques. He's known for his speeches, of course—the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural—but he used more personal methods, beginning with his skill in conversation. He was a storyteller. He told offbeat tales of growing up in Indiana. He repeated jokes he'd heard, mimicked dialects, and guffawed at his own punch lines. He used sarcasm. When Senator Douglas accused a rival of inconsistency, Lincoln said it was unfair: "Has Douglas the exclusive right, in this country, of being on all sides of all questions? Is nobody allowed that high privilege but himself?" He made fun of self-important clerics and his own ungainly face. Nothing was off-limits; he told a poop joke in the White House, recounting the day in his boyhood when he tried to relieve himself into a friend's upturned hat. (The friend foiled him by switching their hats.) Such self-deprecating banter helped him relate to people—and helped him hide. A storyteller could use his story as a mask, controlling the conversation and choosing what to say or withhold.
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