Civil War Memory and George Bancroft’s Congressional Memorial Address for Abraham Lincoln, 1866

George Bancroft

Book

Bancroft, George. Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln, 1866, records one of the formal national acts of commemoration for Abraham Lincoln less than a year after his assassination. Delivered at the request of both houses of Congress, the address places Lincoln’s life within the Civil War, slavery’s destruction, Union survival, and the moral authority attached to his wartime leadership. Bancroft’s tribute is especially useful for studying early Reconstruction memory, the political sanctification of Lincoln, and the language through which federal leaders framed emancipation and national reunion.

Bancroft, George. Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln Delivered at the Request of Both Houses of the Congress of America Before them, in the House of Representatives at Washington, on the 12th of February, 1866. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1866. 69 pages. Frontispiece portrait of Lincoln with tissue guard. Original brown pebbled cloth with gilt lettering and blindstamped cover decoration. Tall octavo. Bancroft, a prominent historian, statesman, and diplomat, traces Lincoln’s origins, the political crisis over slavery, foreign affairs, and the preservation of the Union, emphasizing Lincoln’s humility as an “accidental, temporary instrument” through whom Americans would “rise up and preserve the Union.”

The address belongs to the first wave of official Lincoln memorial literature, when Congress, public mourners, and political leaders were defining the meaning of emancipation, martyrdom, and Union victory for the postwar nation. Minor chipping to cover, light wear to boards, slight pitting to cloth, and light foxing to front and rear free endpapers; very good. A formally issued congressional memorial preserving Reconstruction-era language of grief, Unionism, and Lincoln’s public character.

Item #17239

Price: $450.00