adapted from Lincoln the Great by Wilfred W. McClay

Question

We too will have our own Lincoln or Lincolns, and there is good reason to believe that ours will be as partial as anyone else’s. But we should not be content with such easy relativism¹. Out of respect to the man, we should at least try to recover a sense of both the grandeur and the contingency² of the history that he lived through and helped to shape. To see a statesman in full, and thereby learn something about the nature of statesmanship, one needs to see him not only in the overly clear light of retrospection but in the shadowy and inconclusive light of the conditions he faced as they were unfolding. “I claim not to have controlled events,” Lincoln mused during the course of his presidency, “but confess plainly that events have controlled me.”

__________________________

¹ the theory that judgments are valid only for the group’s holding them

² a state of being dependent upon chance

Which is the best inference about Lincoln’s assessment of his presidency?

A. 

Lincoln did not believe he could have been a master of his own fate.

B. 

Lincoln believed he was too passive to be president.

C. 

Lincoln did not think that his term of office was valuable.

D. 

Lincoln thought he could have been a more decisive decision-maker.

Answer 1

Hi, Sarah!

The best answer is (A) - Lincoln did not believe he could have been a master of his own fate.

The reason this is the best answer is found at the very end of the passage. Lincoln said that, " . . . events have controlled me." If he had been "master of his own fate," that would mean that he would have believed he could control the events in his life. But he believed the opposite, that events had controlled him. Therefore (A) is the best answer. Also, none of the other answers can be supported from the text.

I hope this is a helpful answer!

Jeff M.