The Greatness of Lincoln

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I've written about Abraham Lincoln often on this blog — during the Obama-Clinton race for the Democratic nomination last spring, on the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg last summer and in the last couple of months, as we approached the bicentennial of his birth.

Lincoln, like Mark Twain, always seems to have something pertinent to contribute to a conversation — much of which is due to the modern-day spinmeisters who have helped to shape his image.

Today, of course, is that bicentennial of his birth, and I feel compelled to write about Lincoln once again. Perhaps when I'm done, I can let him rest in peace for awhile. God knows, he's earned it.

Last night, I watched Henry Louis Gates' two-hour program on PBS titled "Looking for Lincoln," which repeatedly made the point that Lincoln was a man — not a god, not a saint. He did not enter the presidency aiming to end slavery. His goal was to preserve the Union. The course of events had the final word, as it so often does.

Even if he is still not recognized as such by his most ardent admirers, Lincoln was a pragmatist. When he finally did free the slaves, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (which was actually announced in September 1862 and signed 100 days later, on New Year's Day 1863) was intended more as a propaganda tool and a political weapon than it was a radical change in American life. It didn't really help Lincoln's fellow Republicans in the midterm elections of 1862, though. Democrats gained 28 seats in the House and won the governorship of New York.

The so-called "War Democrats," who had broken ranks with their fellow Democrats and allied with Lincoln in supporting a war to preserve the Union, were conflicted over emancipation, and many did not go along with Lincoln on the issue. It was, perhaps, as much to appease them as it was to give the outward impression of bipartisanship that Lincoln chose one such "War Democrat" to be his running mate in 1864.

In fact, it's hard for me to imagine any other reasons why Lincoln picked Andrew Johnson to be his running mate. Johnson and Lincoln shared few, if any, of the same political views, and Johnson did not have a special talent that made him stand out from the rest, unlike most of the members of Lincoln's famed "Team of Rivals." Surely, Lincoln did not choose Johnson to be his running mate because he felt Johnson would be a good president if something happened to him.

Johnson, of course, did become president after Lincoln was assassinated — and went on to become the first president who was impeached by the House and tried by the Senate, winning acquittal by a single vote. Today, most historians regard Johnson as one of the nation's worst presidents — which is something of an accomplishment when one considers the extensive competition for that title.

The Emancipation Proclamation did achieve a couple of Lincoln's goals. Domestically, it pleased the growing abolitionist wing of the Republican Party, which virtually guaranteed that Lincoln would be renominated for president.

Internationally, the Emancipation Proclamation swung popular support in Europe to Lincoln and the Northern Army. And that, perhaps more than the Battle of Gettysburg later in 1863, was responsible for preventing the South from winning official recognition from Britain or France, which might well have led to a Confederate victory, as was suggested in the alternate history film "C.S.A."

All this is not to suggest that Lincoln wasn't opposed to the idea of slavery. But his modern image is not entirely accurate, as Gates' program pointed out. He was a 19th century man who believed it was wrong for a human being to own another human being.

But he also believed, as Gates observes in The Root, by way of citing a pre-presidency quotation from Lincoln that was mentioned in a 1922 article written by W.E.B. Du Bois, "that there is a physical difference between the white and black races," and Lincoln went on to say that "while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

In the wake of such a revelation, many blacks have confessed to feeling conflicted. They were raised to revere Lincoln; now they're being told things about him that make him sound racist to 21st century ears.

But, in the long run, I think it's healthy for Americans to learn certain truths about their heroes — whether that truth is that George Washington raised hemp (marijuana) and owned slaves or Lincoln may have harbored the white supremacist views of his day. Neither man lived in the 21st century. It would be unreasonable to expect them to live by its mores.

I felt that an important truth was revealed during Gates' program last night. Speaking to a high school student, Gates was told that it was probably a good thing that Lincoln wasn't a wild-eyed extremist because he probably couldn't have been elected if he had been. Some of his ideas were radical for their time, but he was just conservative enough and traditional enough to reassure mainstream voters to trust him with the presidency.

I've always thought that Edward Kennedy's eulogy for his slain brother Bobby in 1968 was a fitting description of Lincoln.

"My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life," Kennedy said, adding that he felt his brother should be "remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."

Kennedy, like Lincoln, is regarded as almost a patron saint to the cause of civil rights, but that wasn't his original objective. The Kennedys had maintained a certain distance from the civil rights movement — again, for primarily pragmatic reasons. They needed the support of the South to win in 1960 — that was much of the reason behind John F. Kennedy's selection of Lyndon Johnson to be his running mate. And it is certainly not an understatement to say that civil rights was not popular in the South.

Events forced the Kennedys to make more of a public commitment, much as events forced Lincoln to adapt his thinking a century earlier. When Bobby Kennedy became attorney general, his main concern at the Justice Department was organized crime, and much of the initial attention of the Kennedy administration was on Cuba, Russia and the Cold War. But the civil rights movement had a momentum all its own.

That is when greatness becomes evident — when someone is capable of acknowledging that he was wrong or not fully committed to something before and then evolves.

Seen in that light, it is even more appropriate that Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day.

Lincoln — the Myth and the Man

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Chris Wehner had an intriguing post in his "Blog 4 History: American & Civil War History" blog recently — "Lincoln a Racist? What, You're Kidding Me!!"

In it, he quotes an article by Henry Louis Gates Jr., an author and professor of African-American studies at Harvard — "Was Lincoln a Racist?"

This is a subject on which I touched last month, when I posted an article following Barack Obama's inauguration as president.

In my post, which I gave the heading "The Great Emancipator," I pointed out that Lincoln did not enter the presidency with the objective of ending slavery. In his inaugural address, Lincoln clearly stated that his goal was to keep the nation together and that there was no reason for the people of the South to be apprehensive about his presidency.

He cited his own speeches prior to his election as proof of his intentions.

In his article, Gates recalled reading a "troubling" essay by W.E.B. Du Bois that had been published in 1922. "Du Bois wrote that Lincoln was one huge jumble of contradictions: 'he was big enough to be inconsistent — cruel, merciful; peace-loving, a fighter; despising Negroes and letting them fight and vote; protecting slavery and freeing slaves. He was a man — a big, inconsistent, brave man.' "

Du Bois, wrote Gates, supported his point by quoting from a speech Lincoln gave two years before being elected president:

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"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races — that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

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Thus, Lincoln has become the source of great conflict for many black Americans. Gates writes about accepting two years ago an assignment to co-produce, write and host a PBS program on Lincoln that would coincide with the 200th anniversary of his birth this week.

That program, "Looking for Lincoln," is airing on the Dallas PBS channel tonight from 8-10 p.m. It may be airing at a different time and on a different date in your city and state.

I think Gates had at least an idea of what he would find.

"Lincoln's myth is so capacious that each generation of Americans since his death in 1865 has been able to find its own image reflected in his mirror," Gates wrote.

"Lincoln is America's man for all seasons, and our man for all reasons. In fact, over and over again through the past century and a half, we Americans have reinvented Abraham Lincoln in order to reinvent ourselves. The most recent example, of course, is captured in the journey of our 44th president, Barack Obama, who launched his presidential campaign in Lincoln's hometown, Springfield, Ill., cited Lincoln's oratory repeatedly throughout his campaign, retraced his train route to Washington from Philadelphia and even used Lincoln's Bible for his swearing-in ceremony."

That is as honest an appraisal of Lincoln as you will find — and it seems particularly poignant coming, as it does, from a black man.

Many Americans — black and white — have seen in Lincoln what they wanted to see, but perhaps it is most pronounced in the black community.

"Lincoln continues to occupy a place of almost holy reverence" among blacks, Gates wrote, "the patron saint of race relations."

But Gates observes that "until very late in his presidency, Lincoln was deeply conflicted about whether to liberate the slaves, how to liberate the slaves and what to do with them once they had been liberated."

So it should not come as a surprise to anyone that the search for the "real" Lincoln continues, nearly 145 years after his death.

Lincoln was a man. He was a good man, perhaps, more generous than most. He certainly was more eloquent than many. But he wasn't blessed with gifts of prescience or insight that are unavailable to other mortal men.

Lincoln lived in the 19th century. And, no matter what 21st century people think of slavery, it was not seen as a moral issue but as an economic issue in the 19th century.

Whatever his views were on any issue, though, Lincoln did keep an open mind. And, as Gates points out, his attitudes and beliefs about blacks changed in part after meeting Frederick Douglass at the White House. "He was the first black person Lincoln treated as an intellectual equal," Gates observes, "and he grew to admire him and value his opinion."

Lincoln's life was emblematic of the nation he led. America remains, as it was in the 19th century, a work in progress. It is a better place because Lincoln was its president. But neither the man nor the country have achieved perfection, regardless of the mythical reverence with which some insist upon regarding both.

As Gates observes, Lincoln's "journey was certainly not complete on the day that he died," and America's journey is not complete today.

It is fitting that the nation should honor Lincoln tomorrow on the 200th anniversary of his birth. But the most fitting tribute that can be paid to our 16th president is to continue the quest for improvement.