Must we remember Lincoln for that? Let’s leave it out! Such an approach to
Lincoln might be called the Walt Disney interpretation: Disney’s exhibit at the
1964 New York World’s Fair featured an animated sculpture of Lincoln that
spoke for several minutes, choosing his words carefully to say nothing about
slavery.
Having disconnected Abraham Lincoln from considerations of right and
wrong, several textbooks present the Civil War the same way. In reality, U.S.
soldiers, who began fighting to save the Union and not much more, ended by
fighting for all the vague but portentous ideas in the Gettysburg Address. From
1862 on, Union armies sang “Battle Cry of Freedom,” composed by George
Root in the summer of that year:
We will welcome to our numbers the loyal true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.
And although he may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.^43Triumph of the American Nation includes this evocative photograph of the