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1st of a 3-Part Series: Time to Remember Abe Lincoln

The Middle East is in crisis. A government shutdown over the debt ceiling looms. Public sector unions are fighting in states across the country. But gratefully, and with impeccable timing, author and historian Lewis E. Lehrman emailed me three articles, stories that elegantly and graciously remind us how our leaders pulled our country through even darker days. This is the first of a three-part series.

This piece about President Abraham Lincoln’s patriotism by Mr. Lehrman first ran in the Stamford Advocate on February 12, 2011. Mr. Lehrman is co-founder of the Gilder-Lehrman
Institute of American History and author of “Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point” (Stackpole Books, 2008).

I cede the floor to Mr. Lehrman:

President-elect Lincoln made very few public remarks before departing Springfield, Ill.,
for Washington for his inauguration in 1861. On Nov. 20, 1860, however, Lincoln
addressed some very brief comments to supporters in Springfield. He urged them
“neither express, nor cherish, any harsh feeling towards any citizen who, by his vote, has
differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a
common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.”

Lincoln’s concern was catholic. More than a year later in his First Annual Message to
Congress in December 1861, President Lincoln noted that America’s population had
grown eight-fold since its founding: “The increase of those other things which men deem
desirable has been even greater.”

In the midst of the Civil War, he foresaw a great future for America: “The struggle of
today, is not altogether for today — it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on
Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events
have devolved upon us.”

Lincoln’s was an optimistic patriotism. In that official message of 1861 he predicted that
some Americans would live to see the country’s population reach 250 million — a record
not reached until the 1990 census.

Lincoln was ever-conscious of the country’s potential. In December 1862, Lincoln
concluded his second annual message with a stirring admonition of the nature of the
American Republic: “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. … The fiery trial through
which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say
we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save
the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it.”

Lincoln understood America’s duty and power in the world: “We shall nobly save, or
meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail.
The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will
forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”

Another year of civil war passed. Lincoln understood that America’s destiny would not
be fulfilled without struggle and persistence. In December 1863, he responded to an
invitation to give a speech in New York City at Cooper Union. The president, recovering
from a mild case of smallpox, declined to come.

Instead, he wrote: “Honor to the soldier, and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause — honor to him, only less than to him, who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle.”

Lincoln understood his obligation to minister to America’s citizens and especially to
America’s soldiers. In brief remarks to the Ohio regiment in August 1864, Lincoln said:
“We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal
with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of
human right is endangered if our enemies succeed. There is involved in this struggle the
question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privilege we have
enjoyed.”

Later that month, Lincoln addressed another Buckeye regiment: “I admonish you not to
be turned from your stern purpose of defending your beloved country and its free
institutions by any arguments urged by ambitious and designing men, but stand fast to
the Union and the old flag.”

The president knew that America’s future depended on its willingness to defend the
union and the freedom it represented. In response to a serenade after his reelection in
November 1864, the commander-in-chief said: “Gold is good in its place; but living,
brave, patriotic men are better than gold.”

President Lincoln’s patriotism appealed to all and included all. He concluded his second
Inaugural Address in March 1865: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work
we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the
battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a
just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

 

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