Booknotes: Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence

New Arrival:

• Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination by D. Leigh Henson (Univ of Ill Pr, 2024).

Combining disciplined self-education, ambitious drive, and natural intelligence, Abraham Lincoln was one of those gifted men able to successfully rise above presumed limitations of humble beginnings. His public oratory, seamlessly alternating between being folksy in popular appeal and striking in formal political and legal expression, was an essential tool in Lincoln's political arsenal. What was behind its development is the focus of D. Leigh Henson's Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination.

Presented in two parts, the first addressing Lincoln's early Whig career and use of language to "gain distinction in Congress" and the second his 1850s rhetorical duels against both Stephen Douglas and slavery, Henson's study "examines Lincoln’s pre-presidential development as a rhetorician, the purposes and methods behind his speeches and writings, and how the works contributed to his political rise."

As outlined by numerous Lincoln experts, Lincoln's rhetorical power was rooted in multiple sources. More from the description: "Lincoln’s close study of the rhetorical process drew on sources that ranged from classical writings to foundational American documents to the speeches of Daniel Webster. As Henson shows, Lincoln applied his learning to combine arguments on historical, legal, and moral grounds with appeals to emotion and his own carefully curated credibility."

When it comes to analyzing the structure of Lincoln's rhetoric, other works of recent vintage—such as those from David Hirsch and Dan Van Haften that have deconstructed Lincoln's words and speeches using principles of science and math (specifically geometry)—come to mind. Henson "also explores Lincoln’s use of the elements of structural design to craft coherent arguments that, whatever their varying purposes, used direct and plain language to reach diverse audiences--and laid the groundwork for his rise to the White House."

Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence "follows Lincoln from his early career through the years-long clashes with Stephen A. Douglas to trace the future president’s evolution as a communicator and politician."