Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination

In Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence, D. Lee Henson brings a somewhat unusual perspective to the subject of Abraham Lincoln. An emeritus professor of English, Henson possesses expertise in rhetorical philosophy and pedagogy, composition, and literary theory. He also possesses a background in marketing; and Lincoln, Illinois, is his hometown, where he maintains their community history website.With this decidedly unique skill set, Henson takes the reader on a tour of the well-trodden ground of Lincoln's prewar speeches and political writings. He shows that Lincoln was far more well versed in rhetorical devices than might otherwise be believed, given his lack of education. Even his earliest efforts suggested this, likely due to his having read on his own works like William Scott's Lessons in Elocution and Lindley Murray's English Reader as a youth and then adapting their approach to suit his purposes when he entered politics. Henson finds echoes of various classical stratagems in many of his early speeches: His 1839 speech on the state subtreasury, for example, was “a textbook example of political deliberative discourse derived from classical rhetoric” (p. 5). Lincoln's knack for plain language and simple wording masked an underlying sophistication: He “was arguing with common-sense logic and a mixture of plain and loaded language” (p. 44), Henson observes.During the sectional crises of the 1850s, and especially after 1854 when he emerged from a brief semiretirement—what Henson calls his “second political career”—Lincoln further honed his speechmaking abilities in his famous debates with Stephen Douglas during the 1858 Illinois senate race, and his equally famous speeches before the state Republican Party that year (the “House Divided” speech), and his address at New York's Cooper Union in 1860. Henson carefully dissects these and other major antebellum political documents, showing that Lincoln was a seasoned rhetorician and a careful strategist who refined his rhetorical skills with such success that they played a major role in winning him the 1860 Republican presidential nomination. “The masterful compositions of Lincoln's second political career show that he was emerging as a Republican statesman,” Henson writes, as his “compositions exemplify the inventiveness and rhetorical growth that accounted for that emergence” (p. 221).Henson is generally an admirer of Lincoln, in particular his forceful use of logic, his historical research, and perhaps most of all in Lincoln's ability to maintain a strong antislavery moral center in those decidedly racist times. But he is not a hagiographer. He points out that Lincoln did sometimes slide into personal ridicule of political opponents, especially early in his career. He also shows Lincoln could engage in sarcasm, biting satire, and demagoguery, particularly during the debates with Douglas, as “he sometimes blurred the line between moral and demagogic suasion” when attacking the Little Giant” (p. 55).A recurring theme throughout Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence is this paradox, what Henson sees as Lincoln's mix of moral principles and his sharp, sometimes sharp-edged rhetorical stratagems. On the whole, he sees in Lincoln a “shrewd but ethical politician” (p. 47) who used a wide array of rhetorical techniques to not only advance his own career but also defend antislavery principles. “Lincoln created compositions to shape and promote Whig and Republican positions, to influence public opinion, and to fulfill his political ambition with honor but without self-glorification” (p. 11), he argues.Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence successfully meets the daunting challenge of saying something new about Lincoln documents that have been analyzed and interpreted many times over by many historians and Lincoln biographers. Henson sees in the antebellum years the necessary groundwork for what Lincoln would become during the Civil War: the greatest of presidential speechmakers. Concluding his book with the Cooper Union Address, he writes, “Lincoln stepped onto a national stage leading to the presidency and literary statesmanship achieved in such works as the Inaugural addresses, the Gettysburg address, and the Last speech. Those imperishable compositions contribute immeasurably to the classical heritage of American and world literature” (p. 241). Lincoln's Rise to Eloquence offers an interesting and valuable window into how his prewar career made this possible.