Lincoln on Reconciliation (Article 47)
At a time when our country faces deep political divisions, a review of Abraham Lincoln’s messages of reconciliation may provide a starting point for our own healing.
While the political campaigns in our time are rough, in fact, the campaign rhetoric in the 19th century was even worse. Abraham Lincoln was a target of some of the most vile, and untrue, charges ever aimed at any candidate. To his credit, he rarely responded to such attacks, but when he did, his comments were concise, reasonable, and sometimes humorous. While there was no mass electronic media in the 1800s, newspapers were prevalent and almost always partisan, promoting one candidate and one ideology over others and eviscerating opponents and different political philosophies. Many newspapers and political groups also distributed handbills, usually one page diatribes against a politician or some government policy. Most publishers considered politicians free game in editorials, in articles, and especially in political cartoons.
Truth was not a journalistic objective.
In March 1861, Lincoln began his Presidency with his country literally torn apart. Over the preceding decade, a war of words had become a war of secession, death and destruction. In the 1860 Presidential election, nine states refused to even place Lincoln’s name on the ballot, and this was before the first secession by a state had occurred. The South’s largest newspaper, in Richmond, Virginia, editorialized; “ ..whether the Potomac is crimson in human gore and Pennsylvania Avenue is paved ten fathoms deep with mangled bodies, the South will never submit to such humiliation and degradation as the Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.”
Throughout his political career, Lincoln tried to remain above personal enmity and he consistently demonstrated graciousness in defeat and magnanimity in victory. Further, Lincoln sought to reconcile different factions; whether the debates were centered on Illinois governmental issues, or the more national disagreements over secession and slavery. For years before the Civil War, he held some hope the Northern and Southern differences could be settled without conflict. Even after the Civil War began, and until the day of his death four years later, Abraham Lincoln continued to wish and pray for, and work towards, re-union; and wrote and spoke of forgiveness.
His willingness to try to reconcile political differences, however, began much earlier. For example, in 1838, when he was twenty-nine and an Illinois legislator, he implored several angry colleagues to settle their differences through compromise and said, “There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.”
In 1854, Lincoln decided to campaign to become a U.S. Senator, although he knew it would be an uphill battle. At that time, the Constitution required that Senators be selected by state legislatures, not by citizen votes; and his political party did not hold a majority in the Illinois legislature. But Lincoln was a popular figure across party lines, so he had some reason to believe that enough Democrats might vote for him; but his opponent was selected by a slim margin. On the evening of the vote, Lincoln went to the Springfield home of the victor, Lyman Trumbull, warmly congratulated him, and stayed around to tell a few of his humorous stories. The next day, Lincoln simply went back to work at his law office and his partner, William Herndon, later remarked, “A person could not have known from Mr. Lincoln’s words or demeanor whether he had won or lost.” He then lost a similar Illinois legislative vote four years later to Steven A. Douglas by an even closer margin. But the losses did not keep Lincoln from pressing his ideas for political change; he just maintained a civil dialogue while doing so, and began to build a constituency. It paid off in 1860!
After he won the election for President in November 1860, but before his inauguration in March 1861, Lincoln planned a trip to New England to meet that region’s political leaders. In particular, he wanted to get to know Hannibal Hamlin, who would be his Vice-President-Elect, and who he had not yet met. To the surprise of many, he asked Senator Lyman Trumbull, who had defeated him in the 1854 race, to accompany him on the tour; because Lincoln respected his knowledge of the Washington DC political scene and trusted his advice. A true example of reconciliation!
Then, as Lincoln began the process of selecting men to serve in his Cabinet, he put aside the rhetoric of the campaign and offered positions to all three of his Republican opponents for the nomination; each of whom initially had a higher expectation of victory than did Lincoln. He also included Democrats in several of these critical offices and, in another clear display of personal forgiveness and reconciliation, he said, “I am determined to seek the best men for the country, not the best men for Lincoln.”
On March 4, 1861, Lincoln gave his First Inaugural Address, two weeks after Jefferson Davis was sworn-in as President of the Confederate States of America. In this conflicted setting, Lincoln spoke directly to the people of the South when he said; “ I am loathe to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Those passions may have strained, but must not break, our bonds of affection.” However, his pleas went unanswered and, five weeks later, the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter beginning a four-year Civil War.
With members of his wife’s family serving on both sides of the War between the States, Lincoln did not hold personal animosity toward those who chose the different path. During the Civil War, on several occasions, Lincoln visited the Washington hospitals which cared for Confederate prisoners. In one famous exchange, he said; “You, as I, are in this place through uncontrollable circumstances. Would you accept my hand in sympathy and respect.” Several, but not all, shook the President’s hand. In another instance while visiting severely wounded Confederate officers, Lincoln said; “If I were to tell you who I am, would any of you shake my hand? I am Abraham Lincoln.” A nearby Confederate officer replied; “Would you shake my hand if you knew I was a Confederate Colonel who has fought against you for four years?” To which Lincoln replied; “Well, I hope a Confederate Colonel will not refuse me his hand.” The two men shook hands and several others also came forward to greet Mr. Lincoln.
By the time of the Second Inaugural in March 1865, it was clear to most reasonable observers that the war would end soon and the Confederacy would be vanquished. Lincoln directed most of his remarks at that Inauguration to reconciliation and re-union. He urged the citizens of the North to ..”be sympathetic to our friends in the South….let us judge not, that we not be judged.” And he concluded, “With malice toward none, with charity for all,..let us bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for those who have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves.”
To Lincoln, these were not just words, but a plan of action. To assure that his wishes for generous peace terms for Confederate soldiers and officers were carried out by his military commanders, Lincoln met in March with General Grant, General Sherman, and Admiral Porter. He directed, “Let them once surrender and reach their homes…Let them go, officers and all, I want no more bloodshed. I want no one punished; treat them liberally all around.” Lincoln’s message was clear and military historians over the years have marveled at the magnanimous terms of surrender which the Union military leaders provided to their former adversaries. Essentially, they just “let the boys go home.”
In the late evening of April 11th,1865, in a short speech from a White House window, Lincoln addressed the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army. He said, “Let us welcome the Southern states, back into the fold, without divisive argument over their behaviors, indeed without deciding, or considering, whether their status have ever been out of the Union.” And, he urged the crowd to “embrace our former rivals.”
Then, at his last Cabinet meeting on the day of his assassination, Lincoln said: “Indeed I hope there will be no persecutions, no bloody work after this war is over.” Speaking of the Confederate leaders he said; “None should expect that I will participate in hanging or killing of these men, even the worst of them. Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and Union.” An attendee at the meeting later said that Lincoln spoke kindly of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and suggested he might be helpful in the re-construction of the southern states because, “He is so universally admired.”
It is most remarkable that, at his final cabinet meeting, he was referring to people who had sought to destroy the Union, and fought a war against his government for four years at a cost of over a million lives. Still, with forgiveness and reconciliation foremost in his mind, he said, “We must extinguish our resentments!”
My hope is that, going into 2017, after this turbulent election, we can heed Lincoln’s appeal when he said, “Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection.”
So, let us begin our own reconciliations. But first, as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently stated over one hundred and fifty years ago, “we must extinguish our resentments.”
Contact the author at gadorris2@gmail.com