ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND JEFFERSON DAVIS.   Term Paper ID:30708 Click to get this paper Essay Subject: Discusses their leadership styles.... More... 14 Pages / 3150 Words 11 sources, 41 Citations, TURABIAN Format $56.00 Return to List of Papers Paper Abstract: Discusses their leadership styles. Contends that President Lincoln was a superior leader. Lincoln's possession of traits and qualities needed for success in a crisis such as the American Civil War; a statesman with a clear goal. Jefferson lacking some critical characteristics and attributes, in spite of his intellect and skill as a tactician. Paper Introduction: The Leadership Styles of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis Introduction During the upheaval of the American Civil War, the Union and the Confederacy were lead by two very different men, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. History, it is generally recognized, tends to regard “winners” in any contest as superior to those who “lose” the contest. Such a valuation is, more often than not, based on sound and substantial evidence. In the case of Lincoln and Davis, this report will demonstrate that the former was a superior leader possessed of many of the traits and qualities needed for success in a crisis, while the latter (though a remarkable intellect and tactician) lacked some critical characteristics and attributes which could have improved his performance if not the outcome of the War. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. by two very different men Abraham Lincoln and substantialevidence In the case of Lincoln and Davis this some critical characteristicsand attributes which could have a variety of measures America's greatestpresident At the of his era than a aunique understanding of the world and a virtually divine vision and Randy Roberts point out one term in Congress and his militaryexperience was limited profound ability to reflect and think through the virtually hand-picking the military leaders whowould forge a victory supporting theConfederacy On the domestic of an EmancipationProclamation William K Klingaman contends that Lincoln was iron hand inside a velvet glove the Union He also insisted on appointing only in the U S Congress He was particularly attacked on and in the border stateslearned singlegoal ensuring the survival of the Union Livingstone also believesthat that end Lincoln made reference inhis speeches day on the matter of slavery and considered even the Emancipation Proclamation to have beena case Lincoln was a cautious constitutionalist and all weapons at hisdisposal It is interesting that surrounded him Martin andRoberts quote Lincoln saying to his generals shrewd politician but also a man pace and in his own time Lincolnunderstood himself as cowardice Williams argues that those of moderate and gradual Williams claims As a leader Williams says did the radicals and abolitionists in the North that thishigher him he depended His attitudetoward the South was nowhere he was willingto compromise when necessary class Elected to the presidency of theConfederacy War had served in Congress and hadbeen Franklin high-bred polished gentleman Time proved micro-managing Hesurrounded himself with weak assistants He the South desperately needed after war weariness He wasadministratively competent as an officer and fundamental difference between Davis and Lincoln was that Davisregarded foundhimself diametrically opposed to the view of the Confederacy depended Under Pierce as Secretary During histenure in the U S Senate he of president LikeLincoln he believed that Also like Lincoln Davis took his disposal a number ofexcellent field commanders including that Davis was notanywhere nearly people and the Confederate Congresseven his own vice president Alexander Stephens to create an adequate policy forraising the revenue needed to aleader did not come during his time as the and won a martyr's reputation throughout the South Eventhose who for the loss of his plantation further an intellectual andhad the arrogance of one His greatest accomplishments and would support a wrongdecision to dispute even theoretical points is a portrait of a man and with whom he was forcedto characteristic At the same time needed to pacify Beauregard and quiet This is a critical difference betweenthese two leaders each of out against JeffersonDavis His conscription policies that required young forced conscription but the Southern critics as Lincoln didon so many occasions Davis were many in the South who hated and with the masses a traitthat Lincoln result was that he began to lose the North Some Democrats criticized Lincoln as adictator who had common touch Abraham Lincoln did not Though minutely involved in and demonstrate that he hadnot shared suffering andthis ability helped to the ranks of theordinary people Summary and his lack of military service and to hold rivalfactions together and of the ordinary people as people for whom hebecame a martyr substantially different Lincoln emerges from this than that of Jefferson Davis The the primary causeof that victory For that we commander and politician Onall measures pp Johnson Paul A History of the American People New Model of Statesmanship Perspectives on Katzman D M Escott P D T Harry P G T Beauregard and Randy Roberts America and Its People New the Presidency Lincoln's Model of Statesmanship of T Harry Williams BatonRouge Louisiana State Good Loser The New York Review of Books November Press p Ibid Ibid p M p Ibid p Ibid p Ibid Paul Johnson A History the upheaval of the American superior to those who lose the contest Sucha valuation is traits andqualities needed for success in a crisis while Carter has stated that most serious historians will as a hero a genius and a visionary or avague leader it is necessaryto understand that Lincoln nationthan had been asked since noformal schooling had spent his childhood in poverty before succeeding was ultimately regarded even by leader in theNorth's drive for victory Further Lincoln took a diplomatic relations with foreign powers inwhich his and Robertsclaim that Lincoln was successful on both fronts but hisadministration and the full power of the on criticalissues He worked on any number of on approach to the task At various times misinterpreted as weakness and it was withsome surprise was first and foremosta statesman whose a faculty for knowing man's proper and of Independence In other words Livingstone concludes ofthe consent of the governed In dealing with partially by ignoring it and partially was to win awar and was often much more prescient about the sametime the South could be disemboweled characterized Abraham Lincoln as a pragmatist whodid theCivil War demonstrated that caution was tolerant patient and nonsensorious based firmly on principle His public or outeropinions were always public and personalfatalism He accepted that man was imperfect and he tolerated imperfection in simply preserving the Union and guidingthe Union back a man of the people Jefferson slaveholdersteeped in the tradition of Southern chivalry He had president In an admirer wrote hebears the marks of greatness but ineffective administrator He did notdelegate authority and disagreed with hisopinions Perhaps most tellingly he was asserts that Davis revealed a very good understandingof well in the military in Congress and in his conviction that slavery wasthen necessary leaders in theConfederacy and many the Union Army embraced newweapons found that he had to cast his lot with that was ordained as moral by rendered him more able in this area human resources in anywhere nearas wise enjoyed an advantage as a leader that Lincoln did not to the fortunes of the Confederacy At thesame time the fact that he supported all the Confederate cause It is a period ofyears after the defeat the South's greatest heroes after itsdefeat His Williams has also discussed the personality and leadershiptraits of Jefferson time Davis was vain and sought both applause his politics as almost a or compromise He severed relations with to have been capable of disagreed with himand may have Having fallen into a dispute with P number of occasions to cope with thepersonalities of his generals apparent that the tide of the war had turned irrevocablyagainst perceived by many as subversive of statepolicies measures that gave the Confederacy a fighting Just as there were manyin the North who in He was austere andprivate by nature matters and his classperspective also distanced him from of theconfidence of the Southerners acted with a much heavier hand than was needed in Lincoln used letters to newspapers and the Civil War wasa tragedy never achievethe degree of support Davis The former was the product of thecommon people whereas ongoing opposition to his policies not a rich man's war and a poor he managed to overcome it and man of the people Davis wasnot their challenges were remarkably clear-cut victor His leadership focused on a single infrastructure that Davis did not possess contributed to theFederal victory the superior leader and it Culture July pp Guelzo Allen Emancipation New York Viking Livingstone David The Emancipation Proclamation Books November pp Martin James K and Roberts Randy America People a Nation Boston Houghton Mifflin Stadiem Louisiana State University Press Stephen Carter Lincoln's America Books Culture York Viking p Ibid p Ibid p David pp James K Martin and Randy Roberts K Martin and Randy Roberts op cit p Ibid New York Crown Publishers p Ibid p T W M Tuttle A People and The Leadership Styles of Abraham andJefferson Davis History it is generally report will demonstratethat the former was a superior improved his performance if not same time debate continues to shaper of them Nevertheless Carter of itsplace in that world that when Lincoln enteredthe White House his to a brief duty as a militia captain in implications ofproposed actions and then to move forward for the Union During his presidency he also front Lincoln's legislation was aimed atmaintaining high levels determined that theUnion would be preserved and to that end Hewas alternatively conciliatory towards his opponents in Congress qualifiedapplicants to government jobs and took what hisefforts to conciliate the border that beneath the velvet glove was a Lincoln exhibited political prudence a prudence of and particularly in the Emancipation Proclamation not and tried to elevate the opinion ofAmericans on the of too little too late He but he was also a for a man with no we have the greater numbers and possessed of aninstinctive understanding of what it would take the servant of the people and while he was hiscontemporaries who viewed Lincoln as a good but not particularly that Lincoln's political beliefs or what that Lincoln possessed a deep mysticstrain in his law should control all political near as harsh or condemnatory as many wishedit to be and to be firm when necessary Jefferson by popular mandate against no opposition Davis appeared Pierce's Secretary of War from to Unlike the rangy ill-clothed thatappearances were deceptive In summarizing Davis' leadership qualities Martin and held strong opinions on allsubjects and was set in anddefeat piled up on there are no reports that hewas anything other than courageous the rights of states are superior to the rights of of Lincoln Davis was by all accounts an impatient man of War Davis had been attempted to stave off secession however asa he was working to achieve amajor role in shaping military strategy his own military Robert E Lee Stonewall Jackson andBraxton as well served either by his generals when the war effort went badly There He was not well served by many fight the war and failed to generate adequatesupport president of the Confederacy butin the had found him to be a less than stellar added to his legendarystatus and solidified the had been those ofthe mind his mind was the one to the bitter end He appears to have regarded to win a logicalvictory If he could not convince opponents a leader that is very work Davis in contrast had Williams also notes that President Davis was attimes his own critics inorder to raise popular whom held the highest office boys old men andslaves to courts ultimately upheld Davis' power to conscript Hecontinued to provide possessed the leadership virtues of irondetermination and despised Jefferson Davis Davis has been described as ill possessed in abundance For long stretches of time the support of the plain folk At the suspended the writ of habeas corpus without Congressionalauthority and the day-to-day operation of the forgotten them Unlike the more remote Davis Lincoln identifiedwith the contain Northern discontent Unfortunately forDavis the lack of the Conclusions It would be difficult indeed to education wasnevertheless a more able commander-in-chief achieved a stunning victory on behalf of the Union While the Wardragged on and privations became more and upon his assassination The critical difference discussion as he did from simple country boy out-thought outfought and outwitted hisopponent in every must look to the appeal of of leadership Davis cannot compete York Harper Collins Klingaman William K Political Science Fall pp McKitrick Chudacoff H P Patterson T G Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press Williams T Harry York Harper Collins p Ibid Ibid p William Perspectives on Political Science Fall p Ibid p Allen University Press p Ibid p Ibid p p Ibid p Ibid Ibid Ibid p Ibid Ibid Ibid B Norton D M Katzman P D Escott H P of the American People New York HarperCollins p Civil War the Union and theConfederacy were lead more often than not based on sound the latter though aremarkable intellect and tactician lacked insistthat Abraham Lincoln was on passive even pusillanimous man more shaped by the tumultuousevents believed America was a special place with the Revolution itself James Martin as acountry lawyer had served only many of his enemies or opponents ashaving a lead role indirecting military matters objective was to keep European nations from he took many risks the most dramatic being his announcement Union's military might Lincoln functioned as a leader with an occasions to delay succession and tobuy time for Lincoln found himself in direct conflict withRepublicans that the Republicans in Congress entire tenure in the White House was focused on a highestpolitical end and the means to achieve that Lincoln did not follow prevailing public opinionof his the Abolitionists Lincoln confronted individuals whodisliked him byconfronting and condemning the most radical within the Abolitionistranks to that end Lincoln was willing to use any militarymatters than the West Point graduates that from the inside Thus Lincolnwas not only a what he did at his own was mistaken for timidity anddetermination for By nature he was practical restrained by his strong pragmatic sense the principle of a higher law but did notdemand as many ofthose officials and military officers upon toward its democratic destiny To that end Davis was a man from an elite a West Pointeducation had fought in the Mexican because above all the gentleman is apparent the thorough became immersed in details or not an inspirational leader something military strategy during his time in the U S Army the Cabinet of Pierce The to ensure the economic survival of the South he of the generals and higher-level officers on whom thesurvival and technology and yet was a supreme micro-manager theSouth Like Lincoln Davis gave his best to the job a supernatural being andaffirmed by history and tradition thanLincoln Davis was fortunate in having at a fashion as did Lincoln McKitrick believes have Heretained the loyalty of the Southern he did not lack for enemies including ofLee's decisions Further Davis failed the belief of William Stadiem that Davis' best moments as of the South Davis endured horrible conditions withgreat dignity poverty and his steadfast refusal to accept compensation fromthe Union Davis stating that he looked like and flattery Hecould not tolerate opposition or contradiction crime Williamscontends that he loved them and becametheir enemy This anddetermined upon conciliating the disparate groups impeded his own pause because of this G T Beauregard Davis ultimatelyrealized that he Nevertheless Davis was much less willingto compromise than was Lincoln the Confederacy some Southerners struck Many Southerners refused to comply with chance Despitehis cold formality along with his ability to disarm resented Lincoln for precisely these characteristics there and not able to communicate the sufferings of the common people The end Lincoln was also experiencing difficultieswith his opponents in quellingdissent If Jefferson Davis lacked the tosoldiers' families to reach the common people He was able to communicate his sense of enjoyed by Lincoln from among the latter was from among the Southern aristocracy Lincoln despite aspresident nevertheless used his leadership abilities man's fight he did notsucceed Davis lost the support to foster atruly remarkable degree of unity among the ordinary similar but their responses to thosechallenges were andlegitimate objective was far more successful but it was not the only or perhaps even must be admitted the superior thinker C Lincoln and the Abolitionists The Wilson Quarterly Autumn the Declaration of Independence and the Presidency Lincoln's and Its People New York Harper Collins Norton M B William A Class By Themselves New York Crown Williams July p Ibid Ibid p James K Martin Livingstone The Emancipation Proclamation the Declaration ofIndependence and op cit p T Harry Williams The Selected Essays Ibid p Eric L McKitrick The Harry Williams P G T Beauregard Baton Rouge Louisiana StateUniversity a Nation Boston HoughtonMifflin p Ibid Lincoln and Jefferson DavisIntroduction During recognized tends to regard winners in any contest as leader possessed of many of the the outcomeof the War Lincoln's Leadership Stephen rage as to whether ornot Lincoln is best remembered believesthat to understand Lincoln and to evaluate him as a Lincoln demanded more of himself and of the credentials were viewed as unimpressive He had the BlackHawk War of Nevertheless despite his unprepossessing appearance Lincoln decisively As old Abe Lincoln emerged as an inspirational gave agreat deal of attention to of support for the war effort Martin he was willing to commit andsimultaneously determined to tolerate no meaningful dissent modern managers wouldcharacterize as a hands states to prevent them from joining theConfederacy His solicitude was clenched fist According to David Livingstone Abraham Lincoln the Aristotleansense of the term or meaning to theConstitution but to the Declaration subject while remaining deferential to the principle dealt with the at times vituperativecontempt of the Abolitionists wartimepresident with a very narrowly defined mission That mission formal training inmilitary strategy Lincoln if superior forces could break through at different points at to defeat the Confederacyin the Civil War T Harry Williams oftencriticized as excessively cautious and even timid his actions during bright manwere patently wrong By temperament Lincoln might be termshis inner opinions were nature and a constant sense of both actions Lincoln understood as aleader Lincoln saw his job as Davis If Abraham Lincoln was topossess superior qualifications Davis was a wealthy and physically awkward Lincoln Jefferson Davis looked like a Roberts pointout that he was a hard-working invariably rude with those who top of defeat Eric McKitrick in action Davis served the UnitedStates the Federalgovernment to that end and because of who easily becameenraged with others He alienated many competent a purposeful imaginative and energeticadministrator He helped reorganize Southerner and a planter he a vision and toaccomplish a mission service however may have at least superficially Bragg However Davis did not deploy these or his politicalfollowers as was Lincoln Davis was a widely diffused sentimentthat he was indispensable of the decisions madein the field by General Lee despite from European nations sympathetic to years after the Civil War ended Incarcerated for leader during the CivilWar considered Davis to be one of admiration of Southerners in similarpositions T Harry thing of which he could be proud Atthe same criticism ofhimself his friends and of their errors he did nottry to conciliate different fromhis Union counterpart Lincoln appears little use for any who a smarter politician than his enemies credited him with being morale Lincoln also had on any available in theirown separate regions As it became serve in the Army was strong leadership and drove through the Confederatelegislature total dedication to a mission equipped to deal with the discontentthat emerged throughout the Confederacy Davisburied himself in military affairs or administrative same time that Davis was beginning to lose some arrested thousands of innocent citizens Others felt thatLincoln nationalgovernment and the war effort pain and suffering of the common people for whom common touch ensured that he would imagine two men more different thanAbraham Lincoln and Jefferson than the far more experiencedDavis Lincoln confronted with Jefferson Davis tried to convince Southerners that the CivilWar was more severe Lincoln was alsochallenged by this problem but betweenthese two men was that whereas Lincoln was a the War itself as the important way That Lincoln enjoyed an economic andindustrial Lincoln's idealsand the spirit of the Union itself Lincoln was BibliographyCarter Stephen L Lincoln's America Books Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Eric L The Good Loser The New York Review of and Tuttle W M A The Selected Essays of T Harry Williams Baton Rouge K Klingaman Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation New C Guelzo Lincoln and the Abolitionists The WilsonQuarterly Autumn Ibid p Ibid pp James William Stadiem A Class By Themselves Chudacoff T G Patterson and Ibid p by two very different men Abraham Lincoln and substantialevidence In the case of Lincoln and Davis this some critical characteristicsand attributes which could have a variety of measures America's greatestpresident At the of his era than a aunique understanding of the world and a virtually divine vision and Randy Roberts point out one term in Congress and his militaryexperience was limited profound ability to reflect and think through the virtually hand-picking the military leaders whowould forge a victory supporting theConfederacy On the domestic of an EmancipationProclamation William K Klingaman contends that Lincoln was iron hand inside a velvet glove the Union He also insisted on appointing only in the U S Congress He was particularly attacked on and in the border stateslearned singlegoal ensuring the survival of the Union Livingstone also believesthat that end Lincoln made reference inhis speeches day on the matter of slavery and considered even the Emancipation Proclamation to have beena case Lincoln was a cautious constitutionalist and all weapons at hisdisposal It is interesting that surrounded him Martin andRoberts quote Lincoln saying to his generals shrewd politician but also a man pace and in his own time Lincolnunderstood himself as cowardice Williams argues that those of moderate and gradual Williams claims As a leader Williams says did the radicals and abolitionists in the North that thishigher him he depended His attitudetoward the South was nowhere he was willingto compromise when necessary class Elected to the presidency of theConfederacy War had served in Congress and hadbeen Franklin high-bred polished gentleman Time proved micro-managing Hesurrounded himself with weak assistants He the South desperately needed after war weariness He wasadministratively competent as an officer and fundamental difference between Davis and Lincoln was that Davisregarded foundhimself diametrically opposed to the view of the Confederacy depended Under Pierce as Secretary During histenure in the U S Senate he of president LikeLincoln he believed that Also like Lincoln Davis took his disposal a number ofexcellent field commanders including that Davis was notanywhere nearly people and the Confederate Congresseven his own vice president Alexander Stephens to create an adequate policy forraising the revenue needed to aleader did not come during his time as the and won a martyr's reputation throughout the South Eventhose who for the loss of his plantation further an intellectual andhad the arrogance of one His greatest accomplishments and would support a wrongdecision to dispute even theoretical points is a portrait of a man and with whom he was forcedto characteristic At the same time needed to pacify Beauregard and quiet This is a critical difference betweenthese two leaders each of out against JeffersonDavis His conscription policies that required young forced conscription but the Southern critics as Lincoln didon so many occasions Davis were many in the South who hated and with the masses a traitthat Lincoln result was that he began to lose the North Some Democrats criticized Lincoln as adictator who had common touch Abraham Lincoln did not Though minutely involved in and demonstrate that he hadnot shared suffering andthis ability helped to the ranks of theordinary people Summary and his lack of military service and to hold rivalfactions together and of the ordinary people as people for whom hebecame a martyr substantially different Lincoln emerges from this than that of Jefferson Davis The the primary causeof that victory For that we commander and politician Onall measures pp Johnson Paul A History of the American People New Model of Statesmanship Perspectives on Katzman D M Escott P D T Harry P G T Beauregard and Randy Roberts America and Its People New the Presidency Lincoln's Model of Statesmanship of T Harry Williams BatonRouge Louisiana State Good Loser The New York Review of Books November Press p Ibid Ibid p M p Ibid p Ibid p Ibid Paul Johnson A History the upheaval of the American superior to those who lose the contest Sucha valuation is traits andqualities needed for success in a crisis while Carter has stated that most serious historians will as a hero a genius and a visionary or avague leader it is necessaryto understand that Lincoln nationthan had been asked since noformal schooling had spent his childhood in poverty before succeeding was ultimately regarded even by leader in theNorth's drive for victory Further Lincoln took a diplomatic relations with foreign powers inwhich his and Robertsclaim that Lincoln was successful on both fronts but hisadministration and the full power of the on criticalissues He worked on any number of on approach to the task At various times misinterpreted as weakness and it was withsome surprise was first and foremosta statesman whose a faculty for knowing man's proper and of Independence In other words Livingstone concludes ofthe consent of the governed In dealing with partially by ignoring it and partially was to win awar and was often much more prescient about the sametime the South could be disemboweled characterized Abraham Lincoln as a pragmatist whodid theCivil War demonstrated that caution was tolerant patient and nonsensorious based firmly on principle His public or outeropinions were always public and personalfatalism He accepted that man was imperfect and he tolerated imperfection in simply preserving the Union and guidingthe Union back a man of the people Jefferson slaveholdersteeped in the tradition of Southern chivalry He had president In an admirer wrote hebears the marks of greatness but ineffective administrator He did notdelegate authority and disagreed with hisopinions Perhaps most tellingly he was asserts that Davis revealed a very good understandingof well in the military in Congress and in his conviction that slavery wasthen necessary leaders in theConfederacy and many the Union Army embraced newweapons found that he had to cast his lot with that was ordained as moral by rendered him more able in this area human resources in anywhere nearas wise enjoyed an advantage as a leader that Lincoln did not to the fortunes of the Confederacy At thesame time the fact that he supported all the Confederate cause It is a period ofyears after the defeat the South's greatest heroes after itsdefeat His Williams has also discussed the personality and leadershiptraits of Jefferson time Davis was vain and sought both applause his politics as almost a or compromise He severed relations with to have been capable of disagreed with himand may have Having fallen into a dispute with P number of occasions to cope with thepersonalities of his generals apparent that the tide of the war had turned irrevocablyagainst perceived by many as subversive of statepolicies measures that gave the Confederacy a fighting Just as there were manyin the North who in He was austere andprivate by nature matters and his classperspective also distanced him from of theconfidence of the Southerners acted with a much heavier hand than was needed in Lincoln used letters to newspapers and the Civil War wasa tragedy never achievethe degree of support Davis The former was the product of thecommon people whereas ongoing opposition to his policies not a rich man's war and a poor he managed to overcome it and man of the people Davis wasnot their challenges were remarkably clear-cut victor His leadership focused on a single infrastructure that Davis did not possess contributed to theFederal victory the superior leader and it Culture July pp Guelzo Allen Emancipation New York Viking Livingstone David The Emancipation Proclamation Books November pp Martin James K and Roberts Randy America People a Nation Boston Houghton Mifflin Stadiem Louisiana State University Press Stephen Carter Lincoln's America Books Culture York Viking p Ibid p Ibid p David pp James K Martin and Randy Roberts K Martin and Randy Roberts op cit p Ibid New York Crown Publishers p Ibid p T W M Tuttle A People and If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.