He agonizes over pardons, speaks kindly to rebel prisoners, owns up to his missteps with flinty dignity. And he gives a new name to patience, dealing with the over-proud, highly hesitant General McLellan-unaffectionately known as The Young Napoleon to the same presidential aides. He forebears mightily with his spendthrift half-mad wife Mary Todd-unaffectionately known as the Hellcat to the presidential aides. Not that the better angels of the 16th president's nature are not frequently on view. Rushmore have relished suppressing civil liberties, jailing editors-editors-and offering freed blacks a nice new home land in Central America because "we have between us broader differences than exist between almost any other two races"?Ībsolutely yes, in the topsy-turvy world of Gore Vidal's richly entertaining new novel, Lincoln. CAN ABRAHAM LINCOLN really have been such a monster? Was he the American Cromwell, lusting after the power that the Founding Fathers held? Can he have enjoyed politically castrating one of his Cabinet members in front of a gaggle of rebellious senators? Can the man of Mt.
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