Lincoln by Gore Vidal

First published: 1984

Type of plot: Historical chronicle

Time of work: 1861-1865

Locale: Washington, D.C.

Principal Characters:

• Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States
• Mary Todd Lincoln, his wife
• John Hay, his secretary
• William Seward, United States Secretary of State
• Edwin Stanton, United States Secretary of War
• Salmon P. Chase, United States Secretary of the Treasury
• John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin
• David Herold, a follower of Booth

The Novel

Lincoln: A Novel begins and ends with the Civil War president’s term of office. It is a study in the way political power is captured and maintained. Although the novel contains a subplot that focuses on the reasons for Southern disaffection with the Union, the main concern is always with the great politician himself and with how his subordinates connived to support or to undermine his authority. It is clear that Gore Vidal regards Abraham Lincoln as the greatest of American presidents, who not only preserved the Union but, in effect, re-created it. In order to comprehend fully the monumental task Lincoln confronted, Vidal follows the intricacies of cabinet and congressional politics. Many of the politicians who served and opposed the president seriously underestimated him and mistook his mild manner for weakness and passivity. As a result, Lincoln was generally perceived in his time as an ineffectual president overmatched by his demanding office.

One of the finest qualities of Vidal’s narrative is the way he gradually builds up evidence of Lincoln’s shrewdness and deviousness, both of which, the novelist demonstrates, are indispensable characteristics of a leader who has to rely on ambitious politicians, vain generals, and avaricious businessmen and journalists who seek his favor but who will profit from his failures if he is too open with them.

Much of Lincoln’s success, as this novel reveals, stems from keeping his own counsel, compromising when he absolutely has to, but making sure that no one has a complete reading of his mind. Lincoln also has a knack for avoiding subjects and issues that he can do little about—such as his wife’s extravagant spending, politically compromising behavior, and fits of madness. He has a way of economizing his attention for problems that he understands and can successfully resolve or at least cope with—such as the rivalries within his Cabinet and Congress. On other issues, such as the currency and the administration of the Treasury Department, he is hopelessly and even comically naïve, but he dismisses his ignorance and cheerfully delegates the responsibility for such matters to others, except where, as in the prosecution of the war, he must learn how his generals fight and why they are so inept in engaging the Confederate forces.

Lincoln’s politics in this novel might be called centrist, since he sides neither with radical Republican abolitionists nor with conservative Democrats, although he makes use of both parties in his government. Yet for all his show of consulting conflicting opinions, he will often act unilaterally and even dictatorially, invoking his “inherent powers” to suspend sacrosanct democratic principles such as habeas corpus. His main goal is to reunite the Union, even at the cost of “bending the Constitution,” as he puts it.

The Characters

Vidal’s way of characterizing Lincoln’s genius is one of the finest achievements of his novel. The president is often viewed through the fresh eyes of his young secretary, John Hay, who first learns about politics from his employer. Because Lincoln is so careful not to disclose too much of his strategy or of his emotions, his secretary is forced to scrutinize the politician’s posture, his gestures, the small physical signs of his state of mind: “As a hundred men saluted, the President raised his hat, eyes on the road, head and neck pushed slightly forward, always a sign of anxiety, Hay now knew.” Another way of characterizing Lincoln, especially his sly side, becomes available through the many pages devoted to Salmon P. Chase, a fierce abolitionist, Christian ideologue, and pompous aspirant to the presidency. Chase disdains Lincoln’s apparent lack of command, his unwillingness to confront directly the major issues of his time and to take the initiative away from his opponents. Chase prides himself on his public stands and on his astute management of his political career, which are abetted by the bold maneuvers of his devoted daughter Kate. In private, he often compromises and is at least as hypocritical as Lincoln—if not more so, since Chase lacks his competitor’s self-knowledge. The secretary of the Treasury eventually destroys his chance to be his country’s leader by failing to restrain the clumsy efforts of his supporters, and Lincoln, who has patiently bided his time with Chase, is rewarded with the pleasure of observing the collapse of his rival’s political fortunes.

David Herold and John Wilkes Booth are the major representatives of the plots against Lincoln’s life. Much of the material on Herold has been invented, Vidal notes in his afterword, and though he is given a credible psychology, particularly in the matter of his attraction to histrionic figures such as Booth who evoke the rich romanticism of the South, Herold is a pale figure compared to Lincoln and to politicians such as William Graham Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, Edwin Stanton, William Seward, and others who appear with so much panache in wonderfully orchestrated scenes of political intrigue and argument.

In only a few sentences, Vidal is often able to capture characters in motion, working out their historical destiny as they express their personalities and political positions. There is, for example, the scene between General McClellan, the “young Napoleon,” who for all his strutting fails to engage the enemy in battle; General Winfield Scott, the aged warrior approaching senility and losing touch with the planning of the war; Secretary of State Seward, the consummate politician who has more facts and figures at his disposal than the chagrined Scott; Secretary of War Simon Cameron, an inept, ignorant, and purely political appointee; and Lincoln, who, as usual, is not giving away his reactions in an embarrassing situation: “Like some ancient arcane engine of warfare, Scott swiveled round to face Cameron, whose tricky eyes were now at rest upon a chandelier. Seward found himself sweating. He glanced at Lincoln, and saw that that usually restless body was unusually still in its chair.” This is the historical imagination operating in peak form, dramatizing and clarifying characters and events, and making readers experience, in an almost visceral fashion, the dynamic of the life it re-creates.

Critical Context

Lincoln takes a distinguished place among Vidal’s historical novels about American politics, which include Washington D.C. (1967), Burr: A Novel (1973), and 1876: A Novel (1976). With this tetralogy, Vidal covered all the major periods in American history, and when one includes his essays and plays, he has dealt with most of the major American political figures. Like its predecessors, Lincoln is noteworthy for its author’s sure grasp of political personalities. Unlike other major American novelists, Vidal has patiently and shrewdly followed the careers of American politicians and explored their lives in historical fiction, a genre now usually consigned to second-rate, popular writers.

Vidal’s idea of historical fiction is to follow the documented record closely. He rarely deviates from the chronology of history without informing his readers of doing so, and historians have generally complimented his fiction for its accuracy. Even secondary characters and much of the dialogue are the product of historical research. The author delights in exposing the foibles of great figures such as George Washington and Lincoln without in the least demeaning their deserved reputations. Vidal is always the realist, with great sympathy for romantic characters and dissenters such as Aaron Burr.

Bibliography

American Heritage. XXXV, August, 1984, p. 18.

Baker, Susan, and Curtis S. Gibson. Gore Vidal: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997. The first full-length study to include Vidal’s most recent works. A biographical sketch precedes a general discussion of Vidal’s early writings, followed by critical discussions of individual novels. The discussions include sections on plot and character development, thematic issues, narrative style, and critical approaches. Includes an essay on Lincoln.

Christian Science Monitor. LXXVI, July 25, 1984, p. 19.

Goodman, Walter. “History As Fiction.” The New Leader 71 (May 16, 1988): 11-12. Vidal defends himself against critics who charge that his books are “unhistorical or antihistorical exercises.” Although Goodman believes that the harsh criticism is unwarranted, he argues that Vidal’s novels should “best be taken for what they are, which is something different from history.”

Library Journal. CIX, June 1, 1984, p. 1146.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. June 24, 1984, p. 1.

The Nation. CCXXXVIII. June 16, 1984, p. 744.

The New Republic. CXCI, July 2, 1984, p. 32.

The New York Review of Books. XXXI, 12, July 19, 1984, p. 5.

The New York Times Book Review. LXXXIX, June 3, 1984, p. 1.

Newsweek. CIII, June 11, 1984, p. 74.

Parini, Jay, ed. Gore Vidal: Writer Against the Grain. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. A collection of essays by various critics that covers the important works of Vidal’s career. An interesting overview that places Vidal’s historical fiction within the context of the entire body of his work. Includes an essay by Harold Bloom on Lincoln.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXV, May 4, 1984, p. 49.

Time. CXXIII, May 21, 1984, p. 87.

Vidal, Gore. “The Importance of Being Gore.” Interview by Andrew Kopkind. The Nation 257 (July 5, 1993): 16-19. Vidal discusses the influence of his same-sex orientation on his work. He reveals his dismay at the adverse critical reaction that Lincoln received.

Vidal, Gore. Interview by Jay Parini. The New England Review 14 (Fall, 1991): 93-101. Vidal talks about his career as a novelist and television scriptwriter. He cites writers who have influenced him, including Jonathan Swift and William Golding. He also shares his views on contemporary literary criticism. A revealing interview that offers valuable insight into Vidal’s artistic motivations.

The Wall Street Journal. CCIII, June 27, 1984, p. 32.