ABSTRACT
The enduring impact of Abraham Lincoln is reflected, in part, by the fact that he is the subject of more books than any other leader of a democracy in world history. In politics Lincoln discovered the perfect match for his interests and abilities. Lincoln emerged in an extremely short time from the political wilderness to become the Whig floor leader in the Illinois legislature. Lincoln's rags-to-riches life epitomizes the self-made person who then used politics as a tool to help the working and emerging middle classes, codifying into law their "right to rise" in society based on individual initiative and merit, just as he had. To accomplish his goal, Lincoln became America's best-known political autodidact. Lincoln enjoyed a highly active practice, mostly in state circuit courts, arguing hundreds of cases before the Illinois Supreme Court and federal courts. As the Civil War ground on, Lincoln modified his earlier conservative stance of endorsing the South's constitutional right to slavery.
