The four new essays in Lincoln's Legacy describe major ethical problems that the sixteenth president navigated what can be learned from how he did so. The distinguished and award-winning Lincoln scholars William Miller, Mark E. Neely Jr., Phillip Shaw Paludan, and Mark Summers describe Lincoln’s attitudes and actions during encounters with questions of politics, law, constitutionalism, patronage, and democracy. The remarkably focused essays include an assessment of Lincoln's virtues in the presidency, the first study on Lincoln and patronage in more than a decade, a challenge to the cliché of Lincoln the democrat, and a study of habeas corpus, Lincoln, and state courts. On the eve of the bicentennial celebration of Lincoln’s birth, Lincoln’s Legacy highlights his enduring importance in contemporary conversations about law, politics, and democracy.

Phillip Shaw Paludan was the Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair of Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois, Springfield, and author of War and Home: The Civil War Encounter, A People's Contest: The Union and Civil War 1861-1865, and The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln among other books. He was a recipient of the Barondess-Lincoln Award of New York's Civil War Round Table and the Lincoln Prize from Gettysburg College.