Lehrman Visiting Senior Fellow: True Lies About Abraham Lincoln

Brunswick welcomed Dr. Allen C. Guelzo — Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College — to Baker Theater on Thursday, March 12.

 

Three-time winner of the Lincoln Prize for the best nonfiction historical work of the year on the American Civil War, Guelzo is this year’s Louise Lehrman Visiting Senior Fellow.

 

The Fellowship, established in 2013 by a gift from the Lehrman Institute, engages experts in American History to visit Brunswick, instilling in students a greater understanding of the rights, privileges, and duties of American citizenship.  

 

Entitled “Ten ‘True Lies’ About Abraham Lincoln,” Guelzo's remarks encouraged Upper Schoolers to analyze Lincoln's life — and mystery — all while determining if, in fact, he is our country’s greatest president.

 

“Clustering around Lincoln are not so much truths or lies, as are a galaxy of ‘true lies’ — exaggerations, paradoxes, and myths that almost always turn out to have something of a truth in them,” Guelzo observed.

 

“It is true that he started poor — but it is also true that he was a social climber. It is true that he was the Great Emancipator — but it is also true that he had to be nudged and urged toward abolishing slavery.”

 

Other "true lies" on Guelzo's list: That Lincoln was an honest lawyer; that he wrote the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope on the way there; that Lincoln’s assassination was arranged by members of his own cabinet; and that Lincoln’s body is missing.

 

As for the tenth — that Lincoln was our greatest president — the answer must be found in the individual, Guelzo said.

 

“What we need to ask about Abraham Lincoln is what we need to ask about ourselves: Whether the vision of America that moved Lincoln is our vision, or merely our own ‘true lie.’”