ABSTRACT
Like Fredrickson, historians often compare Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as war pesidents so as to illuminate the former's outstanding qualities by pointing to Davis's corresponding deficiencies. Lincoln emerges as a paragon of moral grandeur, political sagacity, and strategic intuition, all wrapped up in an appealing humility and kindliness. The considerations that often influenced Lincoln's military appointments are part of the larger subject of how the Republicans sought to politicize the war for partisan advantage. Davis picked men of poor quality, they say, because he was a bad judge of talent and because he wanted only yes-men, and having selected his mediocrities, his personality prevented his working with them efficiently or harmoniously. To turn from military to political matters, both the Confederate Congress and Davis's relationship with Congress are usually condemned, Congress for being little better than a "bear garden" where the solons threw inkwells at one another, and Davis for tactless and inept handling of the legislators.
