Editing Abraham Lincoln (section)

=== Historical reputation ===
In [[Historical rankings of presidents of the United States|surveys of U.S. scholars ranking presidents]]<!-- Lincoln is first in 9 of 17 on that page. --> since 1948, the top three presidents are generally Lincoln, George Washington, and [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]], although the order varies.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lindgren |first=James |author-link=James Lindgren |date=November 16, 2000 |title=Rating the Presidents of the United States, 1789–2000 |publisher=Federalist Society |url=https://fedsoc.org/commentary/publications/rating-the-presidents-of-the-united-states-1789-2000-a-survey-of-scholars-in-history-political-science-and-law}}</ref> Between 1999 and 2011, Lincoln, [[John F. Kennedy]], and [[Ronald Reagan]] were the top-ranked presidents in eight [[public opinion]] surveys, according to Gallup.<ref>{{cite web |last=Newport |first=Frank |date=February 28, 2011|title=Americans say Reagan is the greatest U.S. president|website=Gallup.com|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/146183/Americans-Say-Reagan-Greatest-President.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314210856/http://www.gallup.com/poll/146183/Americans-Say-Reagan-Greatest-President.aspx |archivedate=March 14, 2012}}</ref> A 2004 study found that scholars in history and politics ranked Lincoln number one, while legal scholars placed him second after Washington.{{sfn|Taranto|Leo|2004|p=264}}

Lincoln's assassination made him a national martyr. He was viewed by abolitionists as a champion of human liberty. Many, though not all, in the South considered Lincoln as a man of outstanding ability.{{sfn|Chesebrough|1994|pp=76, 79, 106, 110}} Historians have said he was "a [[classical liberal]]" in the 19th-century sense.{{sfnm|Randall|1962|1pp=65–87|Guelzo|2008|2p=19}} In the [[New Deal]] era, liberals honored Lincoln as an advocate of the common man who they claimed would have supported the [[welfare state]],{{sfn|Schwartz|2008|pp=23, 91–98}} and Lincoln became a favorite of liberal intellectuals across the world.{{sfn|Carwardine|Sexton|2011|pp=7, 9–10, 54}} Sociologist [[Barry Schwartz (sociologist)|Barry Schwartz]] argues that in the 1930s and 1940s Lincoln provided the nation with "a moral symbol inspiring and guiding American life."{{sfn|Schwartz|2008|pp=xi, 9, 24}} Schwartz argues that Lincoln's American reputation grew slowly from the late 19th century until the [[Progressive Era]] (1900–1920s), when he emerged as one of America's most venerated heroes, even among White Southerners. The high point came in 1922 with the dedication of the [[Lincoln Memorial]] on the [[National Mall]] in Washington, D.C.{{sfn|Schwartz|2000|p=109}} However, Schwartz also finds that since World War II Lincoln's symbolic power has lost relevance, and this "fading hero is symptomatic of fading confidence in national greatness." He suggested that [[postmodernism]] and [[multiculturalism]] have diluted greatness as a concept.{{sfn|Schwartz|2008|pp=xi, 9}}
By the 1970s Lincoln had become a hero to [[Conservatism in the United States|political conservatives]]{{sfn|Havers|2009|p=96}}—apart from [[neo-Confederates]] such as [[Mel Bradford]], who denounced his treatment of the White South—for his intense nationalism, his support for business, his insistence on stopping the spread of slavery, his acting on [[Lockean]] and [[Burkean]] principles on behalf of both liberty and tradition, and his devotion to the principles of the Founding Fathers.{{sfnm|Belz|2014|1pp=514–518|Graebner|1959|2pp=67–94|Smith|2010|3pp=43–45}}

[[Frederick Douglass]] stated that in "his company, I was never reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color",{{sfn|Trefousse|1999|p=97}} and Lincoln has long been known as the Great Emancipator.{{efn|The origin of the nickname is unknown.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2001/05/17/a-civil-war-mystery-who-named-lincoln-the-great-emancipator/339f3fc9-91fb-454a-ada0-d4a093d0812e/ |title=A Civil War mystery: who named Lincoln the 'Great Emancipator'?|last=Wheeler|first= Linda|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 17, 2001}}</ref>}} By the late 1960s, however, some Black intellectuals denied that Lincoln deserved that title.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Arthur|last=Zilversmit|title=Lincoln and the problem of race: a decade of interpretations|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0002.104/--lincoln-and-the-problem-of-race-a-decade-of-interpretations?rgn=main;view=fulltext|journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association|volume=2|issue=1|date=1980|pages=22–24|doi=10.5406/19457987.2.1.04}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=John M.|last=Barr|title=Holding Up a Flawed Mirror to the American Soul: Abraham Lincoln in the Writings of Lerone Bennett Jr.|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0035.105/--holding-up-a-flawed-mirror-to-the-american-soul-abraham?keywords=rgn...;rgn=main;view=fulltext|journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association|volume=35|issue=1|date=Winter 2014|pages=43–65|doi=10.5406/19457987.35.1.05 }}</ref> [[Lerone Bennett Jr.]] won wide attention when he called Lincoln a [[White supremacist]] in 1968.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Bennett|first=Lerone Jr.|author-link=Lerone Bennett Jr.|year=1968|title=Was Abe Lincoln a white supremacist?|magazine=Ebony|volume=23|issue=4|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=H84DAAAAMBAJ|page=35}}|pages=35&ndash;42}}</ref> He noted that Lincoln used ethnic slurs and argued that Lincoln opposed social equality and proposed that freed slaves voluntarily move to another country.{{sfnm|1a1=Cashin|1y=2002|1p=61|2a1=Kelley|2a2=Lewis|2y=2005|2p=228}} Defenders of Lincoln retorted that he was a "moral visionary" who deftly advanced the abolitionist cause, as fast as politically possible.{{sfn|Striner|2006|p=1}}

David Herbert Donald opined in his 1996 biography that Lincoln was distinctly endowed with the personality trait of [[negative capability]], defined by the poet [[John Keats]] and attributed to extraordinary leaders who were "capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason".{{sfn|Donald|1996|p=15}} Lincoln has often been portrayed by Hollywood, almost always in a flattering light.<ref>{{cite magazine|first1=Steven|last1=Spielberg|author-link1=Steven Spielberg|first2=Tony|last2=Kushner|author-link2=Tony Kushner|first3=Doris|last3=Kearns Goodwin|author-link3=Doris Kearns Goodwin|title=Mr. Lincoln goes to Hollywood|magazine=Smithsonian|date=2012|volume=43|issue=7|pages=46–53}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/14664658.2011.594651|title=Abraham Lincoln and the movies|year=2011|last1=Stokes|first1=Melvyn|journal=American Nineteenth Century History|volume=12|issue=2|pages=203–231}}</ref> Lincoln has also been admired by political figures outside the U.S., including [[Address of the International Working Men's Association to Abraham Lincoln|German political theorist]] [[Karl Marx]],{{sfn|Samuels|2012|p=156}} Indian [[Indian independence movement|independence]] leader [[Mahatma Gandhi]],{{sfn|Avlon|2023|p=270}} and leader of the Italian [[Risorgimento]], [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]].{{sfn|Field|2011|p=51}}