Lincoln's Missing Bodyguard
The night of the assassination, Lincoln's bodyguard snuck off to drink in the same saloon as John Wilkes Booth
By Paul Martin
Lincoln's Contested Legacy
Great Emancipator or unreconstructed racist? Defender of civil liberties or subverter of the Constitution? Each generation evokes a different Lincoln. But who was he?
By Philip B. Kunhardt III
Lincoln as Commander in Chief
A self-taught strategist with no combat experience, Abraham Lincoln saw the path to victory more clearly than his generals
By James M. McPherson
Gettysburg Address Displayed at Smithsonian
Lincoln's timeless speech during the Civil War endures as a national treasure
By Owen Edwards
Abraham Lincoln: a Man of His Words
Ted Sorensen finds that of all the U.S. presidents, Lincoln had the best
speechwriter—himself
By Theodore C. Sorensen
The Debates that Ignited Lincoln’s Rise to Fame
Abraham Lincoln's debates with Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate in
1858 turned the backwoods rail-splitter into presidential timber
By Fergus M. Bordewich
Letters Between Lincoln and Douglas Reveal Debate Negotiations
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas engaged in pre-debate negotiations in
1858
By Smithsonian.com
A Presidential Inventor
In 1849, Lincoln patented an ingenious addition to transportation
technology, a floatation system for riverboats
By Owen Edwards
Mr. Lincoln's Washington
The house where the conspirators hatched their heinous plot now serves sushi, and the yard where they were hanged is a tennis court.
By Christopher Buckley
Freeing the Slaves and Saving a Nation
As his army faltered and his cabinet bickered, Abraham Lincoln determined
that "we must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued." In 1862, he finally
got his chance
By Doris Kearns Goodwin
Musical Mudslinging on the Campaign Trail
Before TV came on the scene, presidential candidates relied on campaign
songs for negative advertising
By Anika Gupta
In Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, an Absence of Malice
Historian Ronald C. White, Jr., explains why Lincoln's address, given just weeks before he died, was his greatest speech
By Ronald C. White, Jr.
