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Lincoln's Great Depression

From The Atlantic (2005): 

"When Abraham Lincoln came to the stage of the 1860 state Republican convention in Decatur, Illinois, the crowd roared in approval. Men threw hats and canes into the air, shaking the hall so much that the awning over the stage collapsed; according to an early account, "the roof was literally cheered off the building." Fifty-one years old, Lincoln was at the peak of his political career, with momentum that would soon sweep him to the nomination of the national party and then to the White House.

Yet to the convention audience Lincoln didn't seem euphoric, or triumphant, or even pleased. On the contrary, said a man named Johnson, observing from the convention floor, "I then thought him one of the most diffident and worst plagued men I ever saw."

Lincoln's Great Depression

Lincoln: Nuanced, Paradoxical

The word we would use today to describe Lincoln’s position on slavery would most likely be “nuanced."  But “paradoxical” would probably be more descriptive.  Lincoln’s legacy is always discussed as freedom for slaves, and the nation's freedom from slavery.  However, this has always been controversial since it was the result of his focus on unifying the north and south, and not the result of living for an important principle in which he believed.  He did believe in the principle of freedom, but he was moved to action because he did not believe the country could survive otherwise.  And though he did not believe in slavery, and though he did believe in the need to establish fundamental equality in the sense of “all men are created equal", on the other hand he was not concerned with a practical form of equality in the sense that all should enjoy equally of access, opportunity, and ultimately result.  He was an unheroic hero - a man of the people, who defined himself as fundamentally equal to all human beings, but not all men.  He found a middle road to travel in a world where taking a stand may have been just, yet also unproductive.  His greatness as a leader lay in his wisdom to find and begin to plow this paradoxical path in the direction of reconciliation.

Read:  Sallow, Queer, Sagacious: Lincoln Through the Ages published in the March 30, 2009 issue of The Nation by Brenda Wineapple

And the Pursuit of Happiness: In Love With A. Lincoln

And the Pursuit of Happiness: In Love With A. Lincoln

This lovely illustrated essay by Maira Kalman, published: February 26, 2009 in the New York Times, highlights our new found love of President Lincoln thanks to President Obama paying continual homage to his legacy with his words, practices and spirit.  This summer I had the opportunity to go to the Lincoln Memorial and read Lincoln's wonderful words inscribed on its walls.  There were many tourists, mostly taking pictures of friends on church trips.  As I finished reading the words, the African-American guard approached me and said, "Deep, huh?"  I could only agree.

"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 lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."