Includes bibliographical references (pages 469-492) and index.

Preface: The Moral Preparation of a Great Politician xi -- Chapter 1 Who Is This Fellow? He Is Smarter Than He Looks 3 -- 1. A Startling Disparity 3 -- 2. Moral Reasoning 13 -- 3. Disregarding Legends 15 -- 4. Destiny Obscure? 16 -- Chapter 2 Noble Rage 26 -- 1. Young Lincoln's Great Rejections 26 -- 2. Lifeline of Print 44 -- Chapter 3 He Will Be Good--But God Knows When 54 -- 1. Poor Man, Free Man, Free Moral Agent 54 -- 2. He Studied with No One 57 -- 3. Tom Lincoln and His Boy 59 -- 4. Awkward Age of Goodness 62 -- 5. A Name That Fills All the Nation and Is Not Unknown Even in Foreign Lands 67 -- Chapter 4 I Want in All Cases to Do Right 71 -- 1. Humor in His Composition 71 -- 2. Not a Rebel, Not a Revolutionary 74 -- 3. Gem of His Character 76 -- 4. Be Emulous to Excel 79 -- 5. Something More Than Common 82 -- 6. No More Scoffing 83 -- 7. A Poetry in His Nature 86 -- 8. Self-Improver 90 -- Chapter 5 Was This Man a Politician? 92 -- 1. Worthy of Their Esteem 92 -- 2. A Political Career 95 -- 3. A Free People Divide into Parties 99 -- 4. Party of National Improvement 106 -- Chapter 6 Rising Public Man 116 -- 1. Why This Vote? 116 -- 2. Don't Shoot Editors 129 -- 3. Hail, Fall of Fury! 140 -- 4. They Are as We Would Be 147 -- 5. Three Whigs from the Seventh, or, Honorable Maneuvering 153 -- Chapter 7 Another President, Another War 164 -- 1. Spotty Lincoln 164 -- 2. Politically Suicidal Nonprinciple? 171 -- 3. Letters Home 183 -- 4. Speech Notes 186 -- Chapter 8 Politics and Morals 192 -- 1. Congressman as Moralist (and Political Operative) 192 -- 2. Congressman as Political Operative (and Moralist) 209 -- 3. Same Hatred of Slavery 212 -- 4. Shall These Things Be? 216 -- 5. Vocation of a Politician 221 -- Chapter 9 Thunderstruck in Illinois 231 -- 1. Senate Acts and Lincoln Decides 231 -- 2. Fugitives, the Law, and the Principle 234 -- 3. No Man Is Good Enough to Govern Another Man 240 -- 4. Lincoln Reads Douglas's Opponents 243 -- 5. A Self-Evident Lie? 245 -- 6. Lincoln's Rise 247 -- Chapter 10 I Shall Try to Show That It Is Wrong 252 -- 1. Monstrous Injustice 252 -- 2. Just What We Would Be in Their Situation 255 -- 3. "Sacred" Self-Government? 256 -- 4. Men Are Not Angels but They Have a Sense of Justice 263 -- 5. Spirit of '76 267 -- 6. What Was He Doing? 269 -- Chapter 11 Our Duty as We Understand It 273 -- 1. If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong 273 -- 2. How to Make a Strong Moral Argument Without Being Moralistic 286 -- Chapter 12 Worthy Work of Party-Building 298 -- 1. A Point Merely Personal to Myself 298 -- 2. Following His Own Advice 316 -- Chapter 13 Not So Much Greater Than the Rest of Us 325 -- Chapter 14 Lincoln's Defense of Our Common Humanity 340 -- 1. Douglas's Assault on Lincoln's Egalitarianism 340 -- 2. Modern Assault on Lincoln's "White Supremacy": Some Considerations 353 -- 3. On Lincoln's Moral Composition 363 -- 4. Lincoln Attacks the Imbruting of Black America 368 -- Chapter 15 Such an Impression 375 -- 1. Mental Culture in New York 375 -- 2. Hugeness of Slavery 384 -- 3. How Did This Man Ever Become President? 391 -- 4. Candidate of Moral Argument 397 -- 5. Lincoln for President 401 -- Chapter 16 Man with the Blue Umbrella 406 -- 1. A Very Poor Hater 406 -- 2. Great Reaper Case 410 -- 3. President Appoints a Secretary of War 418 -- Chapter 17 Let Grass Grow Where It May 427 -- 1. Once a Friend and Still Not an Enemy 427 -- 2. Here I Stand 433 -- 3. Union Is Unbroken 442 -- Appendix 1 Reflections on Two War Presidents 457 -- Appendix 2 Election of 1860 "Thrown Into the House" 465.