Did Abraham Lincoln have a cult of personality around him?

Note: my sources include the novel Lincoln, by Gore Vidal, Team of Rivals by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Ken Burns' superb documentary on the Civil War. I suggest people read or view all of these. read more

Paul M. Angle, editor, Abraham Lincoln by Some Men who Knew Him, p.108. Peter Cozzens and Robert I. Giardi, editors, The Military Memoirs of General John Pope, p. 187. Henry Clay Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 119. Paul M. Angle, editor, Abraham Lincoln by Some Men who Knew Him, pp. 106-107. read more

Analysts have traced the leader cult back to the earliest days of the Soviet Union, when a personality cult spontaneously grew up around Lenin. The cult grew among Bolsheviks because of Lenin's stature as Party leader and among the population due to Russian traditions of the personification of political power in the tsar (Tucker, 1973, pp. 59 – 60). read more

Although it was reported that one of Fidel Castro's dying wishes was not to have buildings or streets named after him, and that statues of him not be erected, in order to avoid a cult of personality, it is generally believed that such a cult had already developed by the time of his death. read more