And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

Jon Meacham’s biography of Abraham Lincoln, And There Was Light (2002), traces the complicated development of Lincoln’s character from his humble upbringing on a Kentucky homestead to his infamous assassination in the Ford Theater. Meacham describes Lincoln’s moral and political development as he grappled with slavery, democracy, and the duties of his office. In Meacham’s lens, Lincoln was troubled by grief and personal insecurities; he was also dedicated to moral improvement and his faith, commitments that deepened as the war between the states progressed. And There Was Light was written with an eye on growing polarization in 21st-century America. According to John Fabian Witt’s review of the book in The Washington Post, Meacham crafts a “usable mythology of Lincoln” at a time when America is again riven with conflict.

This guide references the Random House hardback edition published in 2022.

Although the primary focus is on the inner Lincoln, And There Was Light also documents the variegated political climate of the United States from the 1840s through the 1860s by quoting materials from across the political spectrum that reveal the tenor of the nation. Other material contextualizes the president’s ideas with reference to important influences on him, from the Hebrew Bible to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The voices of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many abolitionists appear as well.

Content Warning: This book focuses on a virulently racist era of American history. As such, there are many expressions from a myriad of individuals who express racist, and oftentimes hateful, sentiments. The subject of the book, Abraham Lincoln, was himself not immune from racist ideology. The author, it should be reiterated, does not express any endorsement for any of these views.

Summary

The book divides Lincoln’s life chronologically into six parts:

Part 1, “Clothed in Nerve and Bone,” covers the first 37 years of Lincoln’s 56-year life. It progresses from his origins in rural Kentucky and Indiana to his various ventures and griefs as a young man in small-town Illinois. Almost entirely self-taught, Lincoln went on to study law. He worked in several professions before entering the Illinois State Senate. Part 1 also describes his turbulent relationship with Mary Todd, who became his wife in 1842. Part 1 mostly focuses on Lincoln’s political and moral foundations.

Part 2, “The Banner He Bears,” covers a 13-year period during which Lincoln served as a United States representative and worked as a lawyer in Illinois. The 1850s were a time during which the expansion of slavery into the western territories of the United States was a source of major divisions across party lines. Meacham discusses the development of Lincoln’s unique religious views, especially his understanding of conscience. During this era Lincoln ran for Senate against Stephen Douglas, engaging in a famous series of debates. He lost this election, but became a prominent member in the newly formed Republican party. Meacham documents the historical events that preceded and helped precipitate the Civil War, including, for instance, the case of Dred Scott, an enslaved Black man who sued for the freedom of himself and his family. Four years before the outbreak of the Civil War, the US Supreme Court ruled against Scott in Dred Scott v. Sandford.

Part 3, “Right Makes Right,” covers a three-year span of time before the onset of the Civil War. Lincoln ran as a Republican candidate for president as part of a four-way presidential race and won with the largest minority share of the vote. This was an extremely divisive time in American politics and Lincoln’s ascension to the presidency caused political turmoil. South Carolina, for instance, seceded from the Union. Meacham frames Lincoln’s dedication to the maintenance of the Union and strict views on the limitations of the future of slavery in theological terms, noting that the president had developed a strong sense of his moral duty.

Part 4, “My Whole Soul Is In It,” documents the first two years of Lincoln’s first term, the first two years of the Civil War. Meacham documents the complicated political and military battles that Lincoln navigated and managed. In 1862, the Lincolns lost their child, the second of their children to die. As an embattled political leader in a time of war, and as a grieving parent, this was a time of despair for Lincoln. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed enslaved people in the rebelling states and was an important milestone on the path to abolition. According to Meacham, Lincoln believed, and history confirms, that this was his most important achievement in life.

Part 5, “A New Birth of Freedom,” covers the last half of the war, 1863-1864. This includes Lincoln’s reelection to the presidency, his famous Gettysburg Address, the question of the selection of the next vice president (which takes on great weight in hindsight, following Lincoln’s assassination in 1865), and Lincoln’s overarching philosophical, moral, and practical concerns with the maintenance of democracy and victory on both the battlefield and ballot box. It is a time during which Lincoln seems to be nearing the apogee of his moral certainty on the question of slavery and his capabilities as a politician.

Part 6, “His Illimitable Work,” stretches from the passage of the 13th Amendment (outlawing slavery) to the completion of the Civil War to Lincoln’s assassination. He touches on the conspiracy kill Lincoln and the manhunt to find the assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Meacham briefly discusses Lincoln’s post-war plans for reconstruction and its abandonment after his untimely death. Meacham outlines the continued embattled racist legacy of the United States through an engagement with the varied reactions to Lincoln’s death. Even in 1865 there were tendencies to both sanctify and demonize him. Meacham’s goal in And There Was Light is to humanize him and articulate a view of Lincoln as an inconsistent and flawed, but essentially good, president.