Along with Washington, Jefferson and Jackson, Abraham Lincoln is a subject that everybody reading comes into with a head start as far as the major plot points in his life. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald is the fourth biography about an iconic president that I’ve read through the first sixteen. Dismissing his chances for the presidency, one of Hatches’ Boston correspondents remarked scornfully: “As for Lincoln, I am afraid he will kick the beam again, as he is in the habit of doing.” Pg. To be sure, his debates with Douglas had brought him national attention, but he had lost the senatorial election both in 19. Though he was one of the Founders of the Republican Party, he had no close friends and only a few acquaintances in the populous Eastern states, whose vote would be crucial in the election.

He had served only a single, less than successful term in the House of Representatives, and for the past ten years had held no public office. A profound student of the Constitution and of the writings of the Founding Fathers, he had limited acquaintance with the government they had established. Now fifty years old, he had no administrative experience of any sort he had never been Governor of his state, or even mayor of Springfield. Without family, tradition or wealth, he had received only the briefest of formal schooling. To all outward appearances, he was less prepared to be president of the United States than any other man who had run for that high office.

David herbert donald