At Quora, the social question & answer website, we have posted the following essential question to help teachers and students organize their thoughts on some of the documents within the Railsplitter theme:<\/p>\n
Was Abraham Lincoln self-made or self-invented, especially in the years before he became president?<\/a><\/p>\n You can view (and vote) on all of the answers to this question at Quora, which is a free site but one that requires registration. \u00a0Or you can see excerpts from some of the most thought-provoking answers below:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Abraham Lincoln was, in my opinion,\u00a0a self-invented<\/i>\u00a0man.\u00a0 Like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and other American presidents, Lincoln\u2019s rise was a calculated climb to the top of the hill, Capitol Hill.\u00a0 Lincoln was the consummate politician, a man who understood his constituents and played them like a fiddle.\u00a0 He carefully orchestrated his rise to bigger and better things, although, unlike many politicians of his time and today, his ambition was tempered by a sincere desire to do the right thing.\u00a0\u201cEvery man is said to have his peculiar ambition.\u00a0 Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow, men by rendering them worthy of their esteem.\u00a0 How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed\u201d\u20261832. \u00a0<\/i>Michael Burlingame stated that like many politicians, Lincoln\u2019s ambitions were rooted in a strong need for deference and approval.\u00a0 Lincoln\u2019s modest and humble approach appealed to the emotions of the electorate, whether speaking to them about their tax dollars or about other politicians.\u00a0 This is a common theme borne out in the 1832 campaign statement, his autobiographical sketch to Jesse Fell, the Lyceum speech and the letters to Johnston and Herndon.<\/p>\n However, over time I think Lincoln became more of a self-invented man. His movements and how he portrayed himself were based off of political motivations as well as the unique circumstances that took shape in his career. As Michael Burlingame described, he most likely had a hand in creating the image of the \u201crail-splitter\u201d as was advocated during the election of 1860. His views on religion, although not “invented,” were definitely very personal, unique, and self-directed. He was different from northern Whigs when it came to religion, being more of a deist in his early political career. However, this changed as he became increasingly more spiritual during the Civil War. Throughout the later years of the war, and especially in his Second Inaugural Address, he spoke of the role of God in the coming, extent, and results of the war. This differed greatly from his beliefs in 1846 when, after being accused by Peter Cartwright for being against religion, he said that he believed in a \u201cdoctrine of necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSelf-invented\u201d connotes an element of flexibility with facts, especially compared when to \u201cself-made.\u201d\u00a0 If anything, Lincoln went out of his way to minimize many of his accomplishments, as he did with his militia service.\u00a0 But he did not hesitate to use his experiences in support of his public persona, as he did when he referred to his knowledge of the river in his first campaign speech.\u00a0 He was using his knowledge in one discipline to support his efforts in another, but he was not \u201cinventing\u201d anything.<\/p>\n Absolutely and unequivocally Lincoln was self-made.\u00a0 \u2018Self-invention\u2019 is more like a car salesman, \u201cnot that\u2019s there\u2019s anything wrong with that.\u201d (Seinfeld reference: 57th episode, \u201cThe Outing.) When the car salesman sells you a car, you are never sure what is under the hood. There is no question that Lincoln\u2019s \u2018engine under the hood\u2019 was a finely tuned machine, an Audi S5 with its supercharged fuel stratified injection in a V6 engine (Ward\u2019s Ten Best Engine 2013.) The question to be asked is how did he build his \u2018self-made\u2019 engine?\u00a0Historians have weighed into his many gifts that must have been self-taught, for \u201call his schooling did not much amount to one year.\u201d \u00a0Even if recent scholarship reveals that it may have been more than one year, his innate genius and thirst for learning is legendary.\u00a0 Douglas Wilson wrote \u201cAbraham Lincoln is arguably one of the greatest of all American writers.\u201d \u00a0Steven Mintz wrote \u201cIt is certainly true that Lincoln lacked any formal legal training, either in a law school or from a preceptor. He gained his knowledge of the law largely from reading an eighteenth-century legal treatise, William Blackstone\u2019s Commentaries on the Laws of England, and researching and arguing contemporary case law.\u201d \u00a0Lewis Lehrman wrote \u201cWe must not be misled by Lincoln\u2019s simple metaphors; for one of the profound strengths of Lincoln\u2019s political philosophy was his self-taught and masterful grasp of economic theory.\u201d What text did Lincoln read as a young man to become a great writer, a great lawyer and even a great economist and philosopher? I think it was the Caleb Bingham\u2019s Columbian Orator!<\/p>\n Abraham Lincoln was a self-made man. We know that because Lincoln told us so, and Honest Abe wouldn’t lie.\u00a0First, we have to realize that \u201cself-made man\u201d was a demographic stereotype \u2013 even a clich\u00e9 \u2013 similar to \u201cpoor black washerwoman,\u201d \u201cIrish dock worker,\u201d \u201cpious minister,\u201d and \u201cBoston Brahmin.\u201d Each stereotype had its standard characteristics. \u00a0The self-made man came from humble origins. \u201cMy parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families \u2013 second families, perhaps I should say.\u201d\u00a0He was ambitious, with a clearly defined goal. \u201cEvery man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.\u201d \u00a0He strove to improve his lot in life. \u201cThe way for a young man to rise, is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him.\u201d\u00a0And, of source, he was successful: Lincoln was elected President in 1860 and 1864, and ended the institution of slavery in the U.S.<\/p>\n The question I am tasked to answer is this, “Was Abraham Lincoln self-made or self-invented, especially in the years before he became president?”\u00a0At first blush this question seems able to be readily dispatched with investigation into the thoughts and feelings of Lincoln via his early writings of the time. But there was another question I needed to answer first; “What really is the difference between self-made and self-invented?”…Lincoln’s writings reflect a man that took great pause when putting pen to paper, understanding\u00a0 the weight and importance of his words on his career and the relationships in his life. Lincoln’s career was shaped by his own actions, and his success was hard wrought by him, making Lincoln a self-made man. However, Lincoln’s words and actions also embody the ideals of the self-invented man- as he wrote his own script and chose how to live. It is for these reasons that I must answer the question regarding whether Lincoln was self-made or self-invented with a resounding, “Both!”. Lincoln continues to confound and refuse a label, still writing his own script, even in death.<\/p>\n The answer to that question would be yes, as long as, the question was referring to Lincoln self-educating himself. However, the answer would be no, if referring to the stereotypical self-made image of a man in the early 1800s, who was an average Joe-blow who pulled himself up by the bootstraps and through hard work and dedication made a success of himself. Lincoln was by no means an average Joe-blow, he was in fact a profoundly gifted individual to whom success in processing information came very swiftly and effortlessly.<\/p>\n As I look at this question my first thought was…how are they different?\u00a0 Often people seem to use the terms in an interchangeable fashion.\u00a0 Apparently Ben Franklin is said to have coined this term.\u00a0 Frederick Douglass also gave a speech on this in 1859.\u00a0 Given the Franklin and Douglass definition I believe Lincoln was self-made.\u00a0 I may be oversimplifying but I equate self-invented to hocus pocus.\u00a0It is like when someone supposedly re-invents themself.\u00a0 What does that even mean?<\/p>\n I have used the term \u201cself-made\u201d in class with students(8th grade) when discussing historical figures such as Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln, but after reviewing the readings and documents I think I may need to revisit my definition of self-made.\u00a0 Self-made, I believe, is more about working hard and attaining success through advancement of your status in a system that already is established. Now self- invented on the other hand, is more about making yourself successful in a new standard that, through your own hard work, you have created. Self-made men measure themselves and are defined by society through pre-established criteria. Self-invented men, create criteria beyond that of the preconceived notions of success.\u00a0 I would say Abraham Lincoln is both based on those definitions. No one could argue he came from \u201cnot much\u201d and \u201chumble\u201d beginnings to \u201cimprove himself every way he can\u201d, using continued, though sporadic, education and hard work to become the known lawyer, husband , father and representative.\u00a0 He achieved success as most would define it in the 1800\u2019s. He also was self-invented, creating for himself and those around him a society that could be remembered more than \u201cmaintaining an edifice that has been erected by others\u201d.<\/p>\nCynthia Smith on Lincoln’s self-invention<\/h4>\n
Marsha Greco on how Lincoln changed over time<\/h4>\n
Dan Wagenberg rejects self-invention<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
Lois MacMillan describes Lincoln as the unequivocal self-made man<\/h4>\n
Woody Woodruff on being self-made<\/h4>\n
Simone Duven responds “Both!”<\/h4>\n
Martha Bohnenberger on why both terms make sense<\/h4>\n
Jimmy Grant wonders whether the terms are really different<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
Allison Lorenz on defining terms<\/h4>\n
Viviane Puhalovic summarizes period context<\/h4>\n