PDF Summary:And There Was Light, by Jon Meacham

Abraham Lincoln is a central figure in American history: He was the 16th president of the United States, the “Great Emancipator,” and the man who led the US through the Civil War. In And There Was Light, historian and biographer Jon Meacham breaks down the myths and legends that have surrounded Abraham Lincoln, arguing that Lincoln had good intentions, and accomplished great things, but was still as flawed and prone to mistakes as anyone else.

In this guide, we’ll present Lincoln’s remarkable life in chronological order, from his birth in rural Kentucky to his assassination in Washington, D.C. We give particular attention to Lincoln’s political career, especially his actions as president during the Civil War.

In our commentary, we’ll add context for Lincoln’s life and the major events in it, especially the historical and economic motivations behind slavery and the Civil War. We’ll also explore where Meacham’s account of Lincoln’s life differs from other accounts.

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Lincoln Runs for President: 1856-1861

Meacham explains that Lincoln joined the newly formed Republican Party in 1856. He ran for an Illinois Senate seat in 1858, but he lost narrowly to Democratic Party candidate Stephen Douglas.

(Shortform note: To highlight how remarkable it was that Lincoln lost so narrowly to Douglas, it’s worth noting that Douglas seemingly had every advantage over Lincoln. At the time, Stephen Douglas was one of the most popular and influential politicians in the country, while Lincoln only had a single term in Congress to his name and was running as a member of a brand new political party (the Republican Party). That near-loss to a relatively unknown opponent spoke to Lincoln’s charisma and his debate skills.)

Despite his loss, the political world took note of Lincoln’s debate skills; he quickly became popular among his colleagues not just in Illinois, but across the entire country. As a result of his newfound fame, the Republicans chose Lincoln as their presidential candidate in 1860, and he won the election.

In 1861, at the age of 52, Abraham Lincoln took office as the 16th president of the United States.

The Republican and Democratic Parties, Then and Now

The Republican Party of Lincoln’s day was very different from the present-day Republican Party. In fact, at its founding, the Republican Party was considered the liberal party, while the Democratic Party was conservative; this is the opposite of the two parties’ respective platforms today. Therefore, Stephen Douglas—who believed the federal government had no place interfering with slavery at all—exemplified the beliefs of the early Democratic Party. By contrast, Lincoln’s centrist approach, such as his failed bill to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C., was in line with the more progressive Republican party of the day.

While today’s Democratic and Republican parties look very different from those of Lincoln’s day, the rivalry between these parties has endured. According to some experts, the 1860 election marked the start of the country’s two-party rivalry that we still see today.

Backlash to Lincoln’s Win: 1860-1861

Lincoln, as well as the Republican Party as a whole, strongly opposed slavery. Therefore, Lincoln’s win pleased abolitionists, but he and his colleagues feared retribution from slavery advocates. In fact, Meacham notes, there were rumors that former Virginia Governor Henry Wise was raising an army of 25,000 men, with a plan to march on Washington, D.C. and stop Lincoln from taking office.

(Shortform note: Lincoln won the presidency partly due to a split in the Democratic Party that led to them nominating two candidates for the 1860 election (Douglas and John C. Breckinridge). During this schism, Henry Wise—who had previously opposed his party on several key issues—suggested himself as a compromise between the Northern and Deep South factions of the Democrats, but he didn’t receive a nomination. After Lincoln’s victory, Wise didn’t personally lead an army to Washington, D.C. as the rumors suggested he would. However, he was the driving force behind Virginia’s secession and served as a brigadier general in the Army of Northern Virginia.)

The Confederacy Secedes: 1861

The rumors of an attack on Washington, D.C. proved false; instead, the pro-slavery South decided to leave the Union entirely.

On February 8, 1861, seven states—South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—declared they were seceding from the United States, and they came together to found the Confederate States of America. Four more states joined the Confederacy in April of that same year: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

Why the Confederate States Seceded

Lincoln’s election wasn’t the only factor in the states’ decision to secede; in fact, South Carolina and Mississippi had been calling for secession for over a decade by the time Lincoln took office.

As Meacham says, the divide between North and South was largely driven by the issue of slavery. Many people in Northern states opposed slavery, but the South (which relied on enslaved people as a cheap source of plantation labor) feared that freeing them would harm the Southern states’ economy.

In that tense atmosphere, Lincoln’s election was merely the inciting incident. Southern politicians began claiming that Lincoln intended to free enslaved people by force, and that secession was the only way to save their states and their way of life. There was little truth to the politicians’ claims—in fact, Lincoln only favored a “free-soil” policy stating that slavery should not expand into any new US territories. Nonetheless, many southern states decided to secede, thereby sparking the American Civil War (which we’ll discuss next).

The American Civil War: 1861-1865

Meacham tells us that, after the Southern states announced they were breaking away from the Union, President Lincoln made an uncharacteristically one-sided statement: He wouldn’t compromise with the Confederacy, and he wouldn’t allow the nation to split. In other words, Lincoln didn’t recognize the states’ right to secede; he was determined to dissolve the Confederacy and bring its members back into the Union.

The Confederacy responded by making the opening move of the American Civil War: On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked a federal garrison in South Carolina called Fort Sumter. The following morning, Lincoln made another statement saying that he was prepared to meet violence with violence, and so the war began in earnest.

What Caused the Civil War?

While it’s commonly believed that the Civil War was purely about slavery versus emancipation, Lincoln stated that his one and only goal in the war was to preserve the United States by preventing the Southern states from seceding. It was only with the Emancipation Proclamation—which we’ll discuss shortly—that Lincoln shifted his focus to freeing enslaved Southerners.

In fact, Lincoln’s determination to keep the US united was so strong that, even as the Confederacy prepared to attack Fort Sumter, he still hoped to avoid all-out war. Despite knowing that the Confederates were targeting Fort Sumter, Lincoln opted to defend it only by sending supplies on unarmed ships, rather than taking any overtly hostile action such as sending troops or weapons.

However, South Carolina’s representatives had declared that any attempt to support Fort Sumter would be a declaration of war against the Confederacy. Therefore, while the attack on Fort Sumter is now considered the official beginning of the Civil War, Confederates argued that Lincoln himself was responsible for starting it.

In this section, we’ll begin by briefly discussing Lincoln’s personal thoughts about the war, especially how he viewed it through the lens of his faith. Then, we’ll examine some key moments of the war—namely, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and the war’s end in 1865 with Union forces taking the Confederate capital.

Lincoln’s Faith During the Civil War

Meacham says that, during the Civil War, Lincoln wondered whether God would favor the Union or the Confederacy. In other words, Lincoln came to view the war as a religious and moral struggle, not just a military one; he believed God would ensure victory for whichever side was morally right.

This heightened interest in religion came after Lincoln’s son Willie died of typhoid fever in February of 1862. Lincoln sought comfort in attending church and in the idea that every event in the world—even Willie’s death—was part of God’s plan.

Finding Religion During Hard Times

Meacham portrays Lincoln as a deeply religious man, even if he had some concerns about Christianity. However, some historians question whether Lincoln was a Christian at all. For example, a letter from a former business partner of Lincoln’s describes him as a Theist and Rationalist—in other words, someone who believes that God exists, but sees no evidence that God interferes in earthly affairs.

Notably, though, that letter was from an earlier period in Lincoln’s life. It wouldn’t be surprising if the combined stresses of his presidency, the Civil War, and Willie’s death pushed Lincoln to more fully embrace Christianity. In fact, people commonly turn to organized religion to find comfort or look for meaning in a loved one’s death. Some studies show that strong religious beliefs can help people overcome grief more quickly.

People also commonly turn to religion for courage and emotional support in times of war, whether they’re personally fighting in the war or simply living through one. Some experts say the belief that God supports their cause and condones their actions makes people more confident and more aggressive. They explain that people who think they have God’s favor are also more likely to engage in violent—even cruel—acts against people whom they see as their enemies (and, therefore, as God’s enemies).

The Emancipation Proclamation: 1863

On January 1, 1863, two years into the Civil War, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law. By doing so, he officially freed all enslaved people in Confederate states—though, as Meacham points out, not those in the few Union states where slavery was still legal.

Meacham adds that Lincoln’s decision to finally sign the Proclamation wasn’t driven only by morality. The Union was struggling in the Civil War, and Lincoln hoped that emancipation would encourage more Black Americans in the North to join the fighting, thereby bolstering the Union’s ranks. His gambit worked, and as a result, the Union gained a decisive edge.

(Shortform note: Lincoln didn’t sign the Emancipation Proclamation only out of desperation for more soldiers, but because the Civil War gave him legal grounds to free the slaves. As Doris Kearns Goodwin explains in Leadership: In Turbulent Times, Lincoln still held to his belief that the federal government didn’t have the authority to outlaw slavery—however, by utilizing the special wartime powers granted to the president, Lincoln was able to get around that constraint and sign the Proclamation. This is also a possible explanation for why he didn’t free the slaves in Union states; since he wasn’t at war with those states, he had no grounds to use special wartime powers to end slavery there.)

The Gettysburg Address: 1863

On November 19, 1863, slightly less than a year after signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln delivered a short speech called the Gettysburg Address. This speech was part of a ceremony to consecrate the Soldiers’ Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Address condensed decades’ worth of Lincoln’s thoughts into a few minutes of speaking. In it, he made a case for freedom, equality, and democracy for all US citizens—regardless of skin color or ethnicity—and renewed his promise that the United States would be a place of liberty and opportunity for everyone.

(Shortform note: In addition to discussing the larger issues of freedom and democracy that Meacham describes, the Gettysburg Address also made a point of honoring the fallen Union soldiers and reminding listeners of what those soldiers had fought and died for. In other words, Lincoln tried to immortalize both the soldiers’ memory and the Union’s legacy by tying the two together—he wanted Americans to honor the fallen soldiers by continuing to uphold their ideals of democracy and freedom for all. You can read a full transcript of the Gettysburg Address here.)

The site of the Address also held great significance. The Battle of Gettysburg—which took place from July 1 through July 3, 1863—was the Union’s most significant victory to date and a clear sign that the war was turning in their favor.

(Shortform note: The Battle of Gettysburg was so significant because it was Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s attempt to win a major victory in the Northern states, and by doing so, force the Union to negotiate a peace treaty with the Confederacy. However, with the Union victory at Gettysburg, Lee and his forces were instead forced to flee back South. Some historians say that this battle represented the end of the Confederacy’s hopes. Although the Civil War would continue for another two years, it seemed like the Confederates—unable to gain a foothold in Union territory—no longer had a chance of winning it.)

The War Ends: 1865

Meacham tells us that Lee had set up a base in the town of Appomattox, Virginia, from which he was defending the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. However, on April 2, 1865, Lee sent a telegraph to Confederate President Jefferson Davis saying that he could no longer hold his position. Richmond fell to Union forces that same day.

On April 9, 1865, Lee signed the Articles of Surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse. The Articles affirmed that the Confederates surrendered completely and unconditionally to the Union.

(Shortform note: Many people view the Union victory at Richmond, and Lee’s subsequent surrender at Appomattox, as the end of the American Civil War. However, the war didn’t officially end until over a year later. This is because General Lee didn’t have the authority to speak for the entire Confederacy, and therefore his surrender only applied to his own Army of Northern Virginia—the largest Confederate force, but not the only one. It wasn’t until August 20, 1866, that President Johnson—Lincoln’s successor—declared that the last of the rebel states had been brought back into the Union, and therefore the Civil War was officially over.)

The next day, at dawn, a barrage of cannons fired in Washington, D.C. to announce the Union’s victory. Lincoln gave a brief speech, then asked some nearby musicians to play “Dixie,” a popular song that the Confederacy had taken as its national anthem. Meacham says that, by requesting that specific song, Lincoln was signaling his desire for Reconstruction—in other words, his wish to reintegrate the rebel states into the Union and move forward as a united country.

(Shortform note: Attitudes toward the name Dixie have changed dramatically since Lincoln’s time. While Lincoln specifically requested the song as a gesture of goodwill toward the former Confederate states, many people today shun the song—and even the name Dixie—due to its associations with the Confederacy and racism. For example, in 2018, country singer Dolly Parton dropped the name from her popular dinner show Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede. In 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests in America, the Dixie Chicks band also distanced themselves from the name Dixie, rebranding themselves as The Chicks.)

Lincoln’s Assassination: 1865

Lincoln had won the Civil War, but he didn’t live long thereafter.

Meacham explains that on April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth—a white supremacist and a Confederate sympathizer—attacked Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shouting “sic semper tyrannis” (“thus always to tyrants”), Booth shot the president in the head from close range, then fled the theater and went on the run.

Lincoln died from the gunshot wound the following morning.

(Shortform note: Booth kept a diary during his time on the run from Union forces, which offers some insight into his mindset and his motivations. Based on his writings, Booth believed that he’d struck a decisive blow against tyranny by killing Lincoln. He considered himself a hero and expected to be lauded as such. Instead, he was shocked and bitterly disappointed to learn that the media almost universally condemned him. Furthermore, Booth showed no remorse for killing Lincoln: He wrote repeatedly that he’d done so in order to save the country from Lincoln’s “tyranny.” He also said that, while God might convince him to repent after his death, no human could ever make him regret the assassination.)

Booth himself was cornered and killed during a standoff with Union cavalry on April 26 of the same year. After being fatally shot, Booth proclaimed that he was dying for his country—meaning the Confederate States of America.

(Shortform note: The fact that Booth was killed, rather than captured, came as a disappointment to many people in the federal government. Booth’s actions made it clear that there was still a strong pro-Confederacy, anti-Lincoln movement in the wake of the Civil War, and government officials had hoped to interrogate Booth about who else was involved in his assassination plot.)

In this section, we’ll examine the events that followed Lincoln’s assassination: the presidency of Andrew Johnson and the beginning of the “Lost Cause” ideology in the American South.

President Andrew Johnson: 1865-1869

Lincoln’s death meant that his vice president, Andrew Johnson, became the new president. Johnson took office on April 15, the same day that Lincoln was pronounced dead.

However, Johnson—a conservative Democrat—held very different views from Lincoln’s. In fact, Meacham says that Lincoln chose him as vice president as a way to placate racist whites who would otherwise not have supported the Lincoln administration.

Meacham says that Johnson’s presidency was a disaster for race relations and Black social progress. After taking office, Johnson rejected many of Lincoln’s ideas for postwar Reconstruction; Johnson was more interested in quickly restoring order and rebuilding the country than in protecting the rights and liberties of formerly enslaved people.

In fact, according to Meacham, Johnson didn’t think that Black people were capable of governing themselves; therefore, he said that whites must continue to control the South. As a result, although the institution of slavery had been overthrown, white supremacy continued in the form of legal segregation, lynchings, and Jim Crow laws.

President Johnson and Jim Crow Laws

Meacham’s description is quite a bit harsher than that of many other accounts of President Johnson.

Some historians say that Johnson seemed to agree with Lincoln’s ideas at first, and he stuck to Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction. Johnson appointed special governors to the former Confederate states and instructed them to draft new state constitutions outlawing slavery and affirming the states’ loyalty to the United States. Once that was done, the rebel states would be reinstated into the Union with all rights intact, as though they’d never tried to secede.

Furthermore, while other sources do agree that Johnson fought against expanding civil rights and protections for formerly enslaved people, these sources say his resistance came as a surprise to many of his colleagues. The fact that Johnson was, apparently, not known for racism clashes with Meacham’s assertion that Lincoln chose him specifically to appease white supremacists.

However, the outcomes of Johnson’s presidency aren’t in question: Due to Johnson’s conservative beliefs in states’ rights and a small central government, Southern states had free rein to use anything short of slavery to keep Black people powerless and subservient.

For example, “Black Codes” (more commonly known as Jim Crow laws) required Black people to hold jobs at all times or else be arrested for vagrancy; no such law existed for white people. Black Codes also legalized racial segregation, thereby forcing Black people into separate (and usually worse) neighborhoods, schools, and jobs.

Finally, while racially motivated killings weren’t officially legal, thousands of Black people were murdered during the Reconstruction era. Most of those murders ended with nobody arrested or prosecuted, and the police themselves committed some of them.

The “Lost Cause” Ideology: 1865-Present

After the end of the Civil War, prominent white Southerners—ranging from religious leaders to influential authors—invented a romanticized version of the Confederacy’s history, which they came to call the Lost Cause. According to this revised version of history, the Confederacy had been doing Black people a much-needed service by allowing them to work in exchange for housing and food.

(Shortform note: The idea that Black people are unable to take care of themselves, and therefore need to be ruled by white people, is one of the oldest racist beliefs in the world. In How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi explains that this idea was invented in the 15th century by the biographer Gomes de Zurara, who created the concept of race in order to justify Portugal’s decision to enter the African slave trade. Zurara wrote that Africans were a completely different—and inferior—race from Europeans and that the “primitive” Africans needed to be saved by the “enlightened” Europeans.)

According to Meacham, proponents of the Lost Cause said that the South’s rebellion had been a righteous defense of states’ rights against federal tyranny. As such, the Confederacy’s defeat had been a tragic victory for the forces of evil and oppression.

Paradoxically, these same people also said the “Lost Cause” wasn’t lost at all; though they’d been defeated on the battlefield, the spirit of the Confederacy would live on. They urged Southerners to uphold Confederate ideals in politics, education, and social norms—in other words, to continue the fight for white supremacy with social and political means, rather than military ones.

(Shortform note: The idealized version of the Confederacy presented in the Lost Cause is still an influential part of American culture, particularly in the American South. Likewise, the Confederate battle flag (colloquially known as the “Stars and Bars”) is still a relatively common sight in conservative areas of the country, where people say that it represents their heritage and the struggle for freedom from government tyranny. Although the Civil War ended over 150 years ago, the United States is still deeply divided by many of the same issues that caused the war in the first place—for instance, how much power the federal government should have and racial inequality—due in large part to “Lost Cause” ideology.)

Conclusion: Lincoln’s Legacy

Broadly speaking, people remember Lincoln in one of two ways: as the Great Emancipator who saved the United States and ensured freedom for all its people, or as a tyrant who overstepped his authority and forced Northern ideology onto the South. Meacham says the truth is somewhere in the middle. Lincoln was a political moderate, a negotiator, and a peacemaker at heart, yet willing to fight passionately for what he believed in.

It’s unclear whether there was anything Lincoln could have done to prevent the Civil War, short of allowing the Union to split and the Confederacy to secede. It’s equally unclear what the outcome would have been if he’d lived long enough to enact his plans for Reconstruction. But Meacham says it is clear that Lincoln is remembered as one of the most famous and influential American presidents—the man who guided the United States through its greatest crisis to date—and that his work was left tragically unfinished.

What if Lincoln Had Survived?

The question of where the United States would be today if Lincoln hadn’t been assassinated has been the subject of many debates and thinkpieces over the years.

Some scholars dream of a United States where Lincoln’s second term secured voting rights for all and resulted in massive infrastructure and public education projects. The most optimistic among these imagine that he’d have accomplished many of the things that the Civil Rights movement had to fight for a century later, including universal Black suffrage.

More moderate thinkers point out that Lincoln’s one remaining term was hardly enough time to accomplish all he dreamed of, especially given the fierce political opposition he would face. However, they acknowledge—given Lincoln’s reputation as a skilled mediator—that he’d almost certainly have healed the nation’s divisions more effectively than Andrew Johnson did.

Still other Lincoln scholars say that considering Lincoln’s unpopularity and hesitation to overstep the federal government’s bounds, there’s no reason to believe he would’ve been any more successful at Reconstruction than Andrew Johnson was. These scholars explain that Lincoln wasn’t the dauntless, masterful politician he’s often portrayed as. They argue that he was in a weak position at the start of his first term as president (due to the backlash against his relatively progressive platform), and he was reluctant to embark on the Civil War. According to this view, had Lincoln survived, people today might remember him as a weak president who struggled to hold his nation together, then failed to live up to his promises in the postwar era.