I became interested in studying the life of Lincoln after attending a Christian conference at Gettysburg in the spring of 2009 that explored the leadership successes and failures of the Union and Confederate leaders.
Since then I have found that there are tremendous principles to be gleamed from the life of the 16th President.
From William Miller’s book “The Duty Of A Statesman” I saw the degree to which Lincoln worked to keep the Union intact above all else. Despite his loathing for slavery, Lincoln felt that his first responsibility was to preserve the Union. Slavery, he felt, would die of its own accord eventually, even if there wasn’t a constitutional pronouncement eradicating it. Miller shows the lengths to which Lincoln went to keep the border states of Kentucky and Maryland neutral, and to keep various competing interests satiated. His magnanimous nature is shown in how he deal with both his critics and with Union soldiers, many of whom would have been shot for desertion.
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team Of Rivals” explores the unique approach that Lincoln took to choosing his cabinet. He picked his political rivals. Some of them (Stanton, for example) had treated him with disdain. Yet he felt like their strengths could help the country.