In 1856, Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer and erstwhile politician whose first and only term in the House of Representatives was then seven years in the past, penned a note on a small piece of paper. In it, he compared himself to Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, whom he would later face in a celebrated series of debates. Struggling with a keen sense of failure, deeply wounded by his defeat the year before in a bid for the state’s other Senate seat, Lincoln confessed his feelings in a note that he never expected anyone to see. It read:

Twenty-two…