Ghosts of the Revolution: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and the Legacy of the Founding Generation

For the wartime generation, the Civil War in many ways represented a recapitulation of the American Revolution. Both the Union and Confederate civilian populations viewed themselves as the true successors of the Founding Generation. Throughout the Antebellum years and the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis frequently invoked the Founders and their legacy. The two future executives did so in order to both justify their own political ideologies as well as inspire their respective civilian populations. Their sense of ownership over the legacy of the Founders reflected one of the uniquely American conflicts of the Civil War Era