Where Is Today’s Lincoln?
It has been 150 years since the beginning of the American Civil War. Although it seems like such a distant past, many of the issues which led to the conflict still simmer today close to the surface of our society. The battles have turned decidedly less bloody but the rancor and anger are there, nonetheless.
The great Presidential election of 1860 which preceded the Civil War was bitterly fought and brought into contention many diverse candidates who passionately pleaded their case for election. Each of the four principal candidates who made it to the November ballot had their supporters and fervently advocated for their beliefs. Lost on many people today is the fact that there were four viable candidates running for President in 1860.
While most people today know that Abraham Lincoln was the Republican candidate, the other three candidates are largely unknown by the present generation. Running for the Northern Democrat Party was Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. Running for the Constitutional Union Party was John Bell of Tennessee. The Southern Democrat Party was led by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky.
John C. Breckinridge was Vice-President of the United States and held a view that slavery should not only be continued but expanded into new territories. His position was intractable and represented those of the States that would eventually secede from the Union.
John Bell held a belief that we needed to continue the status quo in regard to the Constitution and slavery. He believed that things were going well and that there was no need to tear the country apart of the issue of slavery.
Stephen A. Douglas was the consummate politician and a gifted orator. His beliefs were somewhat flexible and subject to the blowing of political winds. Deep down, I believe Douglas knew right from wrong, but he knew that by telling the truth, he would lose the election.
Abraham Lincoln’s positions were unambiguous. He tended to see issues in a rather black and white manner. Perhaps it was his common sense Hoosier boyhood that contributed to his practice of speaking his mind, no matter what the cost.
Lincoln knew that the 1860 election would begin the ultimate test of our Union. The issues threatening to tear apart the Country were just too great to postpone a decisive election. Since the Constitutional authors compromise counting slaves as 2/3 of a person for apportionment purposes, our government and its leaders had kicked the can down the road for future generations to address. Lincoln knew this and used the election to promote a universal truth. In his famous “A House Divided Against Itself Speech” Lincoln stated:
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.
Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.
In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.
Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.
Have we no tendency to the latter condition?
Lincoln delivered this speech at the Republican Convention in Chicago. The speech was not well received. Even Lincoln's friends believed the speech was too radical for the occasion. His law partner, William H. Herndon, believed Lincoln was morally courageous but politically incorrect. Lincoln read the speech to him before delivering it, referring to the "house divided" language this way: "The proposition is indisputably true ... and I will deliver it as written. I want to use some universally known figure, expressed in simple language as universally known, that it may strike home to the minds of men in order to rouse them to the peril of the times."
Abraham Lincoln spoke the truth as he perceived it without regard to his election. This is what makes Lincoln such a great man. Douglas, Bell and Breckinridge have been relegated to the dust bin of history but the glory of Lincoln endures for the ages.
History is only useful if we learn from it. The election of 1860 is full of lessons for the American citizen of 2012. Our Nation faces an unparalleled threat which imperils its very foundation. The staggering, monstrous and ever-growing Federal debt is the Civil War of our generation. Strong forces advocate equally for both fiscal restraint, a maintenance of the status quo and for even more deficit spending. Multiple generations and politicians too numerous to mention have allowed the debt can to be kicked into the future for too long and, now, the issue must be dealt with permanently. As Lincoln might say, “It will become either one thing or the other.” We will either slide into a debt-ridden and socialist society that robs the future to pay the present with a credit card that will soon max out or we will regain control over our profligate wasteful spending and return to a path of fiscal responsibility. It will become either one thing or the other.
Somewhere there is a man or woman who will tell the truth and face the consequences. There is a man or woman who will see the task to the end. This person may not be the most telegenic or photogenic but they will have vision. This person may not have Lincoln’s physical stature, but they will stand tall on principle. I believe this person will spring forth from the same state that nurtured Lincoln. As the weeks unfold, let us hope that they step forward.
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