The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln — Volume 5: 1858-1862

This volume captures Abraham Lincoln in the years that transformed a Springfield lawyer into the president who would redefine America. Spanning 1858 to 1862, it documents the most consequential period of Lincoln's life: the explosive Lincoln-Douglas debates where he first articulated his moral opposition to slavery, the devastating Senate defeat that somehow made him a national figure, the 1860 presidential campaign, and the early blood-soaked months of the Civil War. Here are the original documents: the famous "house divided" letter, correspondence with generals and politicians, the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and private letters revealing the weight he carried. This is Lincoln the strategist, not the monument. Lincoln the man who could be petty, brilliant, uncertain, and unyielding in the same week. For anyone who wants to understand how a nation fractures and whether it can mend itself, these are the primary sources, written by the one person at the center of it all.