How Lincoln's Speeches Preserved American Self-Government

In his day, members of upper-class society likely viewed Abraham Lincoln with a mixture of amusement and revulsion. With his high, shrill voice, Lincoln had neither an impressive family lineage nor much of a formal education, save for less than a single year of schooling.

Cartoonists and political opponents regularly assailed his gangly, awkward features and unfairly attempted to portray him as a country bumpkin. Especially as a young man, Lincoln was generally not surrounded by individuals of “approved intellectual distinction.” Instead, he mostly interacted with “crude people within a narrow horizon,” according to his renowned biographer Lord Charnwood.

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