Students of American history have always been fascinated by the life and career of the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe, as his Kentucky and Illinois peers knew him, is the subject of history lessons from primary school through graduate school education. Lincoln was the stereotypical backwoodsman who felt the call to public service on local, state, and national levels. He became well known for his anti-slavery political and moral stance and saw his goal as president to preserve the Union. Few have ever looked carefully at the method he used to fulfill his call and meet his goal.

The historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author, Doris Kearns Goodwin, has in a recently published book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,1 demonstrated …