Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum

Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum

ISBN-10:
0823227375
ISBN-13:
9780823227372
Pub. Date:
09/01/2011
Publisher:
Fordham University Press
ISBN-10:
0823227375
ISBN-13:
9780823227372
Pub. Date:
09/01/2011
Publisher:
Fordham University Press
Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum

Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum

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Overview

From his cabinet's politics to his own struggles with depression, Lincoln remains the most written-about story in our history. And each year historians find something new and important to say about the greatest of our Presidents.

Lincoln Revisited is a masterly guide to what's new and what's noteworthy in this unfolding story-a brilliant gathering of fresh scholarship by the leading Lincoln historians of our time. Brought together by The Lincoln Forum, they tackle uncharted territory and emerging questions; they also take a new look at established debates-including those about their own landmark works.

Here, these well-known historians revisit key chapters in Lincoln's legacy-from Matthew Pinsker on Lincoln's private life and Jean Baker on religion and the Lincoln marriage to Geoffrey Perret on Lincoln as leader and Frank J. Williams on Lincoln and civil liberties in wartime.

The eighteen original essays explore every corner of Lincoln's world-religion and politics, slavery and sovereignty, presidential leadership and the rule of law, the Second Inaugural Address and the assassination.

In his 1947 classic, Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald confronted the Lincoln myth. Today, the scholars in Lincoln Revisited give a new generation of students, scholars, and citizens the perspectives vital for understanding the constantly reinterpreted genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780823227372
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Publication date: 09/01/2011
Series: Lincoln Forum Books
Edition description: 3
Pages: 398
Product dimensions: 5.70(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

John Y. Simon is Professor of History at Southern Illinois University. Harold Holzer, Senior Vice President for External Affairs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one of the nation's leading authorities on Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. He served as co-chairman of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and has written, co-written, or edited 35 books.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Lincoln's Political Faith in the Peoria Address

Joseph R. Fornieri

"LITTLE BY LITTLE, BUT STEADILY AS MAN'S MARCH TO THE grave, we have been giving up the OLD for the NEW faith" — so proclaimed Abraham Lincoln on October 16, 1854, at Peoria, Illinois. What did Lincoln mean by this provocative statement? Just what was the "OLD" faith? And what was the "NEW" faith? What were the American people giving up?

It is my purpose to explore Lincoln's political faith in the Peoria Address as an ultimate moral justification of American public life, one that combines the moral and religious teachings of the Bible with the Founders' republicanism. It is my contention that the Peoria Address was the most mature and profound expression of Lincoln's political thought to date in 1854, and that its rich teaching on the moral foundations of American popular government has been overshadowed by scholarly attention given to earlier works like the Lyceum Address of 1838, and to subsequent works like the Second Inaugural Address of 1865. Though scholars have acknowledged its greatness, there has been no comprehensive treatment of the Peoria Address as exemplary of Lincoln's integration of religion and politics. I seek to remedy this gap in the voluminous Lincoln literature.

Let us first consider what a political faith is. Even a cursory reading of Lincoln's speeches and writings will reveal that his interpretation of American democracy was thoroughly imbued by the Judeo-Christian worldview revealed in the Bible. It is well known that he was an avid reader of Scripture, and that he sought to apply its wisdom to politics, explaining that "the good old maxims of the Bible are applicable, and truly applicable to human affairs, ..." Noteworthy in this regard was Lincoln's penchant for describing the first principles of American republicanism in terms of a sacred creed. Indeed, Lincoln often spoke of America's "political faith," its "Ancient faith," the "Old Faith," "the early faith of the republic," a "political religion," "the national faith," and "those sacred principles enunciated" by the Founding Fathers. All of these terms denote a union of religion and politics — a participation of the secular in the sacred. Lincoln's related effort to articulate, defend and affirm the legitimacy of American self-government against the threat posed to it by the "new faith" of slavery led him to probe the moral foundations of political order. Among the many reasons Lincoln is of enduring significance is his rare ability to provide an ultimate moral justification of American public life. This vindication of the founding principles of the American Democratic Republic is what is meant by his political faith.

The term "political faith" was coined originally by Thomas Jefferson in his First Inaugural Address where he described the core principles of American republicanism as the "creed of our political faith — the text of civil instruction — the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety." Lincoln forthrightly acknowledged his political debt to the Author of the Declaration when he identified "the principles of Jefferson" as "the definitions and axioms of free society." Consequently, Lincoln interpreted his mission to preserve the Union as an endeavor "to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation." Saving the principles meant reinvigorating the political faith or "ancient faith" of the Founders. As reported by the Illinois Journal on October 5, 1854, Lincoln candidly revealed his political vocation to uphold the "political faith":

Taking up the anti-slavery ordinance of 1787, that had been applied to all the North-west Territory, Mr. Lincoln presented that act of the fathers of our republic, the vindicators of our liberty, and the framers of our government, as the best exposition of their views of slavery as an institution. It was also a most striking commentary of their political faith, and showed how the views of those political sages, to whom we owe liberty, government, and all, comported with the new- fangled doctrines of popular rights, invented in these degenerate latter days to cloak the spread of slavery.

Indeed, Lincoln's remarks at Springfield help shed light on his articulation of the "old faith" and "ancient faith" in the Peoria Address, which was delivered twelve days later.

Lincoln envisioned the Declaration of Independence as a moral covenant that articulated the first principles of the regime's political faith. The self-evident truths of the Declaration were sacred and therefore worthy of reverence insofar as they constituted a rational expression of humankind's participation in the divine law that governs the universe. In effect, Lincoln interpreted the Declaration as a declaration of the precepts of natural law. Throughout his public life, he consistently maintained that the moral legitimacy of human laws must be measured in terms of their conformity to a transcendent normative standard — that is, a universal rule and measure of "how things ought to be." This standard was calibrated by God's moral universe, promulgated by the Declaration, and known through the cooperation of both human reason and divine revelation in the Bible. According to Lincoln, human rights were antecedent to government because they came from the hand of the Creator. Natural rights were not the gift of government, but of God. Metaphorically, Lincoln's political faith may be viewed as a "yardstick" to judge the moral progress or decline of the country. Similarly, Jefferson described this political faith as the "text of our civil instruction" and "the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust."

It must be emphasized that Lincoln's political faith was not formulated as an abstract doctrine, but as a concrete, historical response to rival interpretations of American public life vying for the nation's soul. The struggle over slavery in the mid-nineteenth century raised ultimate questions about the meaning and destiny of the Union. Both sides invoked the same God, the same Bible, and the same Constitution to vindicate their particular interpretation of the American regime.

The struggle over slavery was at the same time a struggle over competing interpretations of Christianity and the Bible. Southern Divines like Frederick Ross appealed to Romans 13 in support of their claim that "Slavery was ordained of God." This, by the way, was the title of Ross's book on proslavery theology, a work that Lincoln repudiated. In the North, abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison declared that there could be "no Union with slaveholders," reviling the Constitution as "a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell." Even Stephen A. Douglas, certainly no abolitionist and one who decried the mixing of religion and politics, exploited the Bible in defense of popular sovereignty. As will be seen, during the Peoria Address, Douglas interrupted Lincoln as claiming that popular sovereignty was prefigured in the Garden of Eden where God offered Adam and Eve the Freedom of Choice to eat from the tree of knowledge. Douglas further exploited the Bible to defend the moral relativism of popular sovereignty, invoking Matthew 7:1, "judge not lest ye be judged" as a divine prohibition against making any judgment about slavery's inherent goodness or evil. It is in this context that Lincoln's political faith emerges as a response to rival accounts of American order.

Because Lincoln's moral justification of American public life combined the moral and religious teachings of the Bible with the Founders' republican tradition of self-government, it may be described as biblical republicanism. I contend further that Lincoln's political faith was constituted by the mutual influence and the philosophic harmony between these traditions. For Lincoln, the moral precepts of God's revelation in the Bible were confirmed by natural, unassisted reason, and vice versa. The teachings of the Bible were made publicly authoritative through the common language of reason. Consequently, one may speak of The Three R's of Lincoln's political faith: reason, revelation, and republicanism. The complementary insights of these traditions reinforced one another in affirming the moral legitimacy of American democracy.

The immediate context of the Peoria Address was in response to Douglas who toured Illinois in September of 1854 defending the Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed the same year, and trumpeting his doctrine of popular sovereignty. The ostensible subject of the speech was the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by the Kansas- Nebraska Act. This event polarized sectional conflict with increasing vigor, and it marked an important turning point in Lincoln's public life and the life of the nation. After 1854, Lincoln would focus his energies against the tangible threat of slavery's extension. From this point onward, he would consistently appeal to the Declaration as the moral covenant of American republicanism. To be sure, Lincoln's response at Peoria was motivated by the danger that slavery extension posed to the Union's perpetuity at home, and to the nation's moral credibility abroad. He thus called for a restoration of "the national faith" based upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

Throughout the Peoria Address, Lincoln quoted the Bible directly and extensively, drawing upon its moral teachings, and its rich allegorical symbolism to vindicate republican government. It should be noted that in the mid-nineteenth century, Lincoln's audience would have recognized his myriad references to the Bible. The King James Bible was widely read at the time and its authority was taken for granted. Throughout the eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, the Bible was viewed as a comprehensive guide to both private and public life. Indeed, John Adams once praised the Good Book for its political wisdom, stating that, "The Bible contains the most profound philosophy, the most perfect morality, and the most refined policy, that was ever was conceived upon earth. It is the most republican book in the world." Significantly, Adams envisioned the moral teachings of the Bible as confirming republican government in a manner similar to Lincoln.

Let us now consider more specifically how the Peoria Address exemplifies Lincoln's political faith. We begin with the many references Lincoln makes to a political creed in the speech. He uses the terms "national faith," "ancient faith," and "old faith" synonymously on five different occasions. Remarkably, Lincoln's sole passing reference in the Lyceum Address to a "political religion" has received more attention than his myriad references to the ancient faith in the Peoria Address. The references to the ancient faith in the Peoria Address denote more than a mere instrumental use of religion to buttress the rule of law, as in Lincoln's Lyceum Address. By contrast, the Peoria Address provides a more vivid expression of Lincoln's political faith, one that involves a more fully developed articulation of the natural law teaching of the Declaration of Independence.

As noted, Lincoln viewed the Declaration as an American Decalogue, which promulgated America's republican creed. The self-evident truth of human equality and its correlative principle of consent were the principal articles of this faith. At a climactic moment in the middle of the Peoria Address, Lincoln quoted the Declaration's celebrated prologue — "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. ..." By doing this, Lincoln was, in effect, bearing witness to the self-evident truth of equality as the "central idea" of the regime.

Lincoln's interpretation of the self-evident truth of equality relied upon the biblical teaching that all persons are created in the image of God, thereby possessing a unique rational and moral dignity among created beings. This unique rational and moral dignity constitutes the basis of our common humanity. And it suggests that manifest differences among human beings are differences in degree, not in kind. Such differences do not alter our fundamental essence as members of the same human family. Despite variances in ability, all human beings, given their composite nature as both rational and sentient beings, occupy the middle station in the hierarchy of being between God and the beasts. Thus, to debase a human being from the rank of a man to the rank of an animal was to degrade the inherent dignity of one created in the likeness of God. Popular sovereignty was "perfectly logical," argued Lincoln, "if there is no difference between hogs and Negroes." Affirming the equal humanity of the African-American at Peoria, Lincoln blamed Douglas for having "no very vivid impression that the negro is a human; and consequently [having] no idea that there can be any moral question in legislating about him."

In Lincoln's political faith, consent of the governed is the moral corollary of equality. Because the principle of consent acknowledges the equal dignity of each human being, it is the only just principle of governance. Popular sovereignty, in Lincoln's view, constituted a spurious interpretation of self-government because it denied the principle of consent to an entire class of human beings. Distinguishing between the new faith of popular sovereignty and the ancient faith of the Founders, Lincoln stated:

The doctrine of self-government is right — absolutely and eternally right — but it has no just application, as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such just application depends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. If he is not a man, why in that case, he who is a man may, as a matter of self-government, do just as he pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is not to that extent, a total destruction of self-government, to say that he too shall not govern himself? When the white man governs himself that is self-government; but when he governs himself, and also governs another man [without that other's consent], that is more than self-government — that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that "all men are created equal"; and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another.

After affirming the equal humanity of the African-American, Lincoln then declared, "no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle — the sheet anchor of American republicanism." Lincoln's statement that "no man is good enough to govern another without that other's consent" implies the Christian teaching of original sin. In Lincoln's political faith, the equal depravity of mankind is just as relevant to democracy as the equal dignity of mankind. Lincoln's further statement that "Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, is [in?] his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism" also reflects the teaching of original sin and the cosmic struggle between good and evil.

Though Lincoln believed that we are entitled to equal rights based on our equal humanity as rational, moral and free beings, he also believed that we are equally fallible and prone to selfishness. Lincoln would have accepted Lord Acton's famous aphorism that "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." That is to say, no matter how virtuous, no fallible human being can be entrusted with absolute power over another — as in the case of slavery or Divine Right. Given the common defect of our human nature, no one is entitled to a godlike superiority over his fellows. To claim such a superiority of kind would be tantamount to elevating oneself above the rest of humanity, thereby exempting one from the same moral laws that apply to everyone else — the very principle behind the Divine Right of Kings. Thus, Lincoln explained that the "master ... governs by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself." Indeed, this statement in the Peoria Address is an expression of the Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

At Peoria, Lincoln characterized popular sovereignty as a novel faith that threatened to supersede the old faith of the Founders. Lurking beneath popular sovereignty's moral neutrality over slavery was a thinly disguised contempt for the African-American's humanity and a covert zeal for the spread of the institution. Lincoln repudiated Douglas's purported moral indifference to the monstrous injustice of slavery in these terms:

This declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world-enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites — causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty — criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.

(Continues…)


Excerpted from "Lincoln Revisited"
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Table of Contents


Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction   Harold Holzer     xi
Lincoln's Political Faith in the Peoria Address   Joseph R. Fornieri     1
Lincoln's Political Religion and Religious Politics   Lucas E. Morel     19
Lincoln, Douglas, and Popular Sovereignty: The Mormon Dimension   John Y. Simon     45
The Campaign of 1860: Cooper Union, Mathew Brady, and the Campaign of Words and Images   Harold Holzer     57
"I See the President": Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home   Matthew Pinsker     81
Varieties of Religious Experience: Abraham and Mary Lincoln   Jean Baker     105
The Poet and the President: Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman   Daniel Mark Epstein     117
1862-A Year of Decision for President Lincoln and General Halleck   John F. Marszalek     133
"I Felt It to Be My Duty to Refuse": The President and the Slave Trader   William Lee Miller     147
Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant   Jean Edward Smith     169
Motivating Men: Lincoln, Grant, MacArthur, and Kennedy   Geoffrey Perret     181
Lincoln and His Admirals   Craig L. Symonds     195
After Emancipation: Abraham Lincoln's Black Dream   Michael Vorenberg     215
The Second Inaugural Address: The Spoken Words   Ronald C. White, Jr.     231
Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties: Then and Now   Frank J. Williams     251
After Lincoln's Reelection: Foreign Complications   William C. Harris     279
Henry Adams on Lincoln   Garry Wills     297
Lincoln's Assassination and John Wilkes Booth's Confederate Connection   Edward Steers, Jr.     311
Notes     327
Contributors     365
The Lincoln Forum: Officers and Advisors     370
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