Questions for Chuck Wills Author of Lincoln: The Presidential Archives

1. You’ve written extensively on different aspects of American History. How did you become interested in writing a book specifically about Abraham Lincoln?

Every mountain climber wants to climb Mt. Everest because it’s the tallest peak in the world. Anyone who writes about American history wants to tackle Lincoln because he’s the towering figure in our nation’s story (and I’m not just referencing his actual height here). George Washington established our independence and made America an ongoing concern; but Lincoln had the harder job. Without his combination of practical leadership and moral vision, we would have wound up as the Dis-United States.

2. Why do you think that all these years later, Abraham Lincoln continues to be such a widely popular historical icon?

Beyond his obvious historical importance and his intriguing personality, I think it has something to do with the fact that he was in the White House at the dawn of the era of mass media—real-time communications (i.e., the telegraph), mass-circulation newspapers, photography, etc. So he’s more “real” to us than the chief executives who preceded him because we have a more accessible record of his life and accomplishments. For example, when people think of George Washington, they think of the rather dull portrait by the painter Gilbert Stuart. But when people think of Lincoln, they conjure up a mental image of the great Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner photographs—which are reproduced in the book—and it’s a real person staring back at you from the page. You can sense the emotions behind the man.

3. What makes LINCOLN: The Presidential Archives unique from other Lincoln biographies?

It’s not just a book; it’s a museum in a book. The high-quality removable documents add the really special dimension. As I like to say, with this book, you can hold history in your hands. And the documents aren’t just the standard “Lincolnia” like the Emancipation Proclamation and drafts of his Gettysburg and inaugural addresses. The book contains stuff like a page of his arithmetic homework, his marriage certificate, and his patent application for an invention that was supposed to lift boats over obstructions on shallow rivers. My personal favorite is a letter that went to California via the Pony Express just after the votes were counted in 1860; the sender wrote “Lincoln Elected” on the envelope. How cool it must have been to get that letter. You could tell your friends, “Hey, I knew who the new president was way before you did.”

4. Was Abraham Lincoln very different in his personal life than he was in his professional life?

That’s an interesting and complex question. Despite the fact that millions of words have been written about Lincoln (I recall reading somewhere that only Jesus Christ and Napoleon Bonaparte have been the subject of more biographies), even people who were close to him during his lifetime said that they felt that they never knew the “real” Lincoln. He was that private. But to answer the question directly . . . No, I think he showed the same characteristics both in the personal and public spheres. For example, look at his relationship with his wife. No matter how difficult Mary was, Lincoln never wavered in his loyalty and affection for her. Lincoln’s relationship with America was the same. He was hated in the Confederacy (naturally) and reviled in much of the Union during the Civil War—but he never faltered in doing what he perceived to be the right thing.

5. Aside from the Emancipation Proclamation, what do you think was Lincoln’s greatest contribution to America?

That would be his unshakeable conviction that America had to endure as a united, democratic nation—not just for its own sake, but also as an example to the world. We tend to forget that in the mid-19th century, despite its flaws (slavery first and foremost, of course) the United States was pretty much the only country on the planet with a government—as Lincoln put it in the Gettysburg Address—“of the people, by the people, and for the people.” He linked the success or failure of the “American Experiment” to the drive for freedom and representative government everywhere else. That’s a message that still resonates in our own time. Just read the latest news reports from Burma.