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Americans revere Abraham Lincoln as perhaps the nation's quintessential self-made man. His remarkable struggle to overcome humble beginnings and achieve the pinnacle of success remains one of the most cherished themes within the Lincoln legend and, indeed, within all of American history. An astute mythmaker, Lincoln himself nurtured this tradition of humble origins to accentuate his own rise from obscurity to distinction. Throughout his life, Lincoln disparaged his own parentage and childhood rather than romanticizing them. In fact, Lincoln self-consciously grounded his entire political career within the context of a personal triumph over inherited adversity. During his very first campaign for public office, he declared, "I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life." Three decades later, Lincoln was still sounding the theme of his own humble origins. Running for president in 1860, he noted that both his parents had descended from "undistinguished families," and he depicted his youth as physically hard and culturally unrewarding. The biography Lincoln authorized for his presidential campaign pictured his family as "poor and uneducated" and concluded that "It would be difficult to conceive of more unpromising circumstances than those under which he was ushered into life." By denigrating his own origins, Lincoln simultaneously identified himself as a "common man" while emphasizing his own self-improvement. Although a polished speaker, adroit politician, and prosperous attorney, Lincoln "grew up in full sympathy with the people." In short, throughout his life he consistently portrayed himself as a "self-made man."1
Following his lead, Lincoln's early biographers elaborated this self-made myth far beyond anything that he would have recognized or approved. They vastly overstated his humble beginnings, denigrated his ancestry, impugned his parents' character, questioned their legitimacy and, eventually, even his own. This "hereditary" impeachment of Lincoln began with his longtime law partner, William Herndon, who likened Lincoln's origins to a "stagnant, putrid pool," and it flourished. During this century, historians and biographers have gradually rehabilitated the reputation of Lincoln's family and his frontier heritage as contributors to the future president's success. As the severity of Lincoln's origins has faded as a biographical theme, however, his reputation as a self-made man has suffered a corresponding decline. Historians argue, justifiably, that his family and childhood gave him a better start...