Personally Meaningful Reflections on Jon Meacham's New Biography of Abraham Lincoln

 There was much in this book which I find a guide post on how to live a good life. 

Jon Meacham’s Biography of Abraham Lincoln:  And There Was Light:  Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle.

 

I questioned whether it made sense to read this book, having read so many other biographies of Lincoln.  I decided to, mainly because it was written by Meacham, whose writing I greatly admire.  I’m glad I did.

 

While part of this may be a function of my fading memory, I came away with several poignant impressions which add to my understanding of Lincoln and leadership in general.  Here they are:

 

1.     The importance of Lincoln’s early reading and incredibly retentive memory.  Books he immersed himself in, including the Bible, writings of Theodore Parker and Douglass, too, proved to be tremendously influential in informing his foundational views.  I came away especially appreciating the influence of the preacher, Theodore Parker.  He wrote:  “As a man cannot serve two masters, antagonistic and diametrically opposed to one another, as God and man, no more can a nation serve two opposite principles at the same time,” referring to slavery and non-slavery.  He continued:  “This is what I call the American idea…the idea that all men have unalienable rights, that in respect thereof, all men are created equal; that government is to be established and sustained for the purpose of giving every man an opportunity for the enjoyment and development of all these unalienable rights.  This idea demands a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people, of course, a government after the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God:  for shortness’ sake, I will call it the idea of freedom.”

 

Parker drew an all-important theological, political analogy:  As Jesus is to the Bible, so is the Declaration (of Independence) to the Constitution.  “By Christianity, I mean that form of religion which consists of piety—the love of God and morality—the keeping of His laws.” 

 

2.     I was moved by Lincoln’s increasing confliction as the war went on that he was an instrument in God’s plan who had the capability and responsibility to do what he believed to be right.  His growth appeared to be particularly driven following the death of his son in 1862.  As Meacham writes, Lincoln frequently speaks of “God and Providence.”  His theological quest is no small part of the story of his presidency.  His moral calculus had a discernible influence on public affairs.  A politician unburdened by conscience could have made different decisions and left us a different nation. “I may not be a great man,” Lincoln once remarked.  “I know I am not a great man—and perhaps it is better than it is so—for it makes me rely upon One who is great and who has the wisdom and power to lead us safely through this great trial.”  A true portrait of Lincoln as President must include our best, if necessarily imperfect and incomplete, effort to capture how he understood the concepts of God and Providence.  The mature Lincoln viewed the history of the American people and nation as mysteriously but inexorably intertwined with the will and the wishes, the vengeance and the mercy, and the punishments and the rewards of a divine force beyond time and space.

 

To Lincoln, people were obligated by conscience, informed by scripture and by experience, to pursue the ideals of love and of generosity—and each person would be accountable for action or inaction to the extent one undertook or impeded this pursuit.  The lives of individuals and of nations were thus defined by a moral drama.  Lincoln memorably said events had controlled him, but the man who ran for office on an anti-slavery platform, who affected emancipation, etc., viewed the world not as mechanistic but as moral.  Conscience and character were not incidental to human affairs, but instrumental.

 

3.     Lincoln’s deep conviction that the United States was a unique creation that had, at all costs, to be preserved.  That was his driving force.  That is what led him, again and again, to not accept compromise. 

 

Further, the book makes clear Lincoln’s growing belief that while the Union could be preserved for additional time by compromises similar to that of 1820 (the Missouri Compromise) and 1850 and 1854 (Kansas and Nebraska), it could not be sustained on the basis of being half slave and half free.  This was a conclusion he came to during the course of the war, it seems to me.  However, he had anticipated the issue.  In 1855, he had identified “our political problem now is ‘can we as a nation continue together permanently—forever—half slave and half free’?”  At the time that Lincoln wrote, “The problem is too mighty for me.  May God in His mercy superintend the solution?”  In 1858, he wasn’t sure.  By the middle of the war, by 1863, he was certain.  The answer was “no.”

 

Lincoln’s commitment to the words of the Declaration of Independence were what brought him again and again to resist compromise.  The offer of compromise that would have kept the Union together were abundant.  There was the Crittenden Proposal as the Southern states started to secede.  Even as late as 1864, a possible compromise was on the table which would have had the South come back into the Union, conceding the superior position of the Federal government but leaving slavery intact.  Lincoln refused.  There had also been a compromise proposal to extend the line to the Pacific Ocean which had demarcated the Missouri Compromise in 1820.  That would have permitted slavery in Texas and much of California, Arizona and New Mexico.  Lincoln refused.  He held fast.  He was defending the principle of “Liberty to all.” 

 

4.     I gained respect for Lincoln’s attitude toward persuasion and working with other people.  He was an enemy of self-satisfaction and any “know it all” attitude.  He advocated showing respect for others.  As Meacham writes, Lincoln believed that to hector or condemn another person, to tell them that they are wholly wrong, was not a path to agreement or reform but to intransigencies.  “If you would win a man to your cause,” Lincoln wrote, “first convince him that you are his sincere friend.  Therein this drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to reach and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment to the justice of your cause.  On the contrary, assuming to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart and although your cause be naked truth itself, transformed the heaviest lance…you shall now more be able to pierce him, than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a wry straw.”  I love this.    

 

5.     Finally, I left this book conscious of how qualities that marked Abraham Lincoln similarly marked John Smale whose biography by Rob Garver has recently been published.  Meacham writes:  “Truth, resolution, insight, faithfulness, courage, hopefulness:  such was Lincoln at his best.”  I can think of no more succinct listing of qualities to summarize the character of John Smale than these words.

 

In total, Meacham’s contribution here as I see it within the galaxy of biographies I’ve read rests on articulating the origin and strength of Lincoln’s devotion to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States which it supports and his deep belief in the moral truth that indeed all men are created equal and are endowed by God with natural rights that cannot and should not be denied by any other person.

 Jon Meacham’s Biography of Abraham Lincoln:  And There Was Light:  Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle.

 

I questioned whether it made sense to read this book, having read so many other biographies of Lincoln.  I decided to, mainly because it was written by Meacham, whose writing I greatly admire.  I’m glad I did.

 

While part of this may be a function of my fading memory, I came away with several poignant impressions which add to my understanding of Lincoln and leadership in general.  Here they are:

 

1.     The importance of Lincoln’s early reading and incredibly retentive memory.  Books he immersed himself in, including the Bible, writings of Theodore Parker and Douglass, too, proved to be tremendously influential in informing his foundational views.  I came away especially appreciating the influence of the preacher, Theodore Parker.  He wrote:  “As a man cannot serve two masters, antagonistic and diametrically opposed to one another, as God and man, no more can a nation serve two opposite principles at the same time,” referring to slavery and non-slavery.  He continued:  “This is what I call the American idea…the idea that all men have unalienable rights, that in respect thereof, all men are created equal; that government is to be established and sustained for the purpose of giving every man an opportunity for the enjoyment and development of all these unalienable rights.  This idea demands a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people, of course, a government after the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God:  for shortness’ sake, I will call it the idea of freedom.”

 

Parker drew an all-important theological, political analogy:  As Jesus is to the Bible, so is the Declaration (of Independence) to the Constitution.  “By Christianity, I mean that form of religion which consists of piety—the love of God and morality—the keeping of His laws.” 

 

2.     I was moved by Lincoln’s increasing confliction as the war went on that he was an instrument in God’s plan who had the capability and responsibility to do what he believed to be right.  His growth appeared to be particularly driven following the death of his son in 1862.  As Meacham writes, Lincoln frequently speaks of “God and Providence.”  His theological quest is no small part of the story of his presidency.  His moral calculus had a discernible influence on public affairs.  A politician unburdened by conscience could have made different decisions and left us a different nation. “I may not be a great man,” Lincoln once remarked.  “I know I am not a great man—and perhaps it is better than it is so—for it makes me rely upon One who is great and who has the wisdom and power to lead us safely through this great trial.”  A true portrait of Lincoln as President must include our best, if necessarily imperfect and incomplete, effort to capture how he understood the concepts of God and Providence.  The mature Lincoln viewed the history of the American people and nation as mysteriously but inexorably intertwined with the will and the wishes, the vengeance and the mercy, and the punishments and the rewards of a divine force beyond time and space.

 

To Lincoln, people were obligated by conscience, informed by scripture and by experience, to pursue the ideals of love and of generosity—and each person would be accountable for action or inaction to the extent one undertook or impeded this pursuit.  The lives of individuals and of nations were thus defined by a moral drama.  Lincoln memorably said events had controlled him, but the man who ran for office on an anti-slavery platform, who affected emancipation, etc., viewed the world not as mechanistic but as moral.  Conscience and character were not incidental to human affairs, but instrumental.

 

3.     Lincoln’s deep conviction that the United States was a unique creation that had, at all costs, to be preserved.  That was his driving force.  That is what led him, again and again, to not accept compromise. 

 

Further, the book makes clear Lincoln’s growing belief that while the Union could be preserved for additional time by compromises similar to that of 1820 (the Missouri Compromise) and 1850 and 1854 (Kansas and Nebraska), it could not be sustained on the basis of being half slave and half free.  This was a conclusion he came to during the course of the war, it seems to me.  However, he had anticipated the issue.  In 1855, he had identified “our political problem now is ‘can we as a nation continue together permanently—forever—half slave and half free’?”  At the time that Lincoln wrote, “The problem is too mighty for me.  May God in His mercy superintend the solution?”  In 1858, he wasn’t sure.  By the middle of the war, by 1863, he was certain.  The answer was “no.”

 

Lincoln’s commitment to the words of the Declaration of Independence were what brought him again and again to resist compromise.  The offer of compromise that would have kept the Union together were abundant.  There was the Crittenden Proposal as the Southern states started to secede.  Even as late as 1864, a possible compromise was on the table which would have had the South come back into the Union, conceding the superior position of the Federal government but leaving slavery intact.  Lincoln refused.  There had also been a compromise proposal to extend the line to the Pacific Ocean which had demarcated the Missouri Compromise in 1820.  That would have permitted slavery in Texas and much of California, Arizona and New Mexico.  Lincoln refused.  He held fast.  He was defending the principle of “Liberty to all.” 

 

4.     I gained respect for Lincoln’s attitude toward persuasion and working with other people.  He was an enemy of self-satisfaction and any “know it all” attitude.  He advocated showing respect for others.  As Meacham writes, Lincoln believed that to hector or condemn another person, to tell them that they are wholly wrong, was not a path to agreement or reform but to intransigencies.  “If you would win a man to your cause,” Lincoln wrote, “first convince him that you are his sincere friend.  Therein this drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to reach and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment to the justice of your cause.  On the contrary, assuming to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart and although your cause be naked truth itself, transformed the heaviest lance…you shall now more be able to pierce him, than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a wry straw.”  I love this.    

 

5.     Finally, I left this book conscious of how qualities that marked Abraham Lincoln similarly marked John Smale whose biography by Rob Garver has recently been published.  Meacham writes:  “Truth, resolution, insight, faithfulness, courage, hopefulness:  such was Lincoln at his best.”  I can think of no more succinct listing of qualities to summarize the character of John Smale than these words.

 

In total, Meacham’s contribution here as I see it within the galaxy of biographies I’ve read rests on articulating the origin and strength of Lincoln’s devotion to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States which it supports and his deep belief in the moral truth that indeed all men are created equal and are endowed by God with natural rights that cannot and should not be denied by any other person.

 

A Chance Encounter Leads Me To a Mind-Opening and Spirit-Lifting Book

 A Chance Encounter Leads Me To A Mind-Opening and Spirit-Confirming Book

 

I was walking out of one of the Sloan Kettering buildings with Francie a couple of weeks ago, following a chemotherapy session, and encountered this sign:  “Kindness Matters.”  It struck me deeply for I have always believed that.  I posted a photograph of this poster on my Facebook page.  I have had over 300 responses, all of them affirming belief in this conviction.  

 

Then I received a note from the head of learning at P&G. She recommended a book to me:  Compassionomics:  Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes A Difference, written by Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli.  I read it in two days.  It will go down as one of the handful of books that changed the way I think the most.  It did this by providing compelling scientific data based on 1,000 scientific abstacts and 250 research papers that caring really does matter.  

 

This research takes something I’ve long recognized experientially—the impact that caring has on another person and also the person providing that caring—to a biological level.  It shows that practicing compassion can change our brains—our brainwaves, brain structure and brain function.  The research shows that this in turn can actually change our behavior in meaningful ways as well as the perception of our caring as seen by the receiver’s perspective.  And there is a reciprocal, cumulative effect that comes from that behavior, as C. S. Lewis once observed, “When you are behaving as if you love someone, you will presently come to love him.”

 

The research shows the impact on a person exhibiting compassion on health care patients, health care providers and the health care culture.  What struck me as I went through all of these data is how relevant the conclusions are to the business world.  I refer here to the influence compassion, i.e. connecting to another person in a way that shows you care, matters to their own expectations of success (or failure) and the formation of trust--the great liberator of an individual’s willingness and ability to act and be their authentic selves.

 

One of the things that makes this book so powerful is the way it uses carefully designed research studies to show differences in outcomes, including physiological impacts on the patient (heart rate, blood pressure, survival rates after trauma) and psychological effects.

 

In showing that compassion builds trust in patient experience, the studies go on to show a lower incidence of serious complications from, for example,  diabetes.

 

The research underscores the importance of “non-verbal immediacy” in building trust and evidencing compassion.  This underscores the importance of not only being physically close as one is talking to an employee, but it helps me better understand why the most memorable instances of people providing trust (and confidence) in me were not obviously planned but were, rather, spontaneous. 

 

 For example, I recall Jack Clagett, my first two-up boss, telling Francie, after I had only been in the company for four or five years, that he wouldn’t be surprised if “someday, all of us might be working for John.”

 

Or, I recall, Ed Harness passing me in the hall one day and telling me in the most friendly voice, “you better take care of yourself, a lot of people are going to be depending on you.”  Or something as simple as John Smale turning to me in a car asking me “what do you think of that idea?”.

 

The research also shows the importance of a person having a purpose in life to their recovery from disease and, therefore, how important it is that a physician take the time to know what a person’s purpose is.

 

The authors address the response:  “But I don’t have enough time to exhibit compassion.”  They use sample conversations to show how compassion can be exhibited in less than a minute.  I actually believe, and I think they recognize, that the development of a trusting relationship will  take longer than that, but it needn’t take long if it is authentic and genuine.

 

The book also underscores the importance of workplace culture.  While they do this in a health care setting, it is obviously relevant to a business setting. 

 

Bearing on this is an article written by Emma Seppala, the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.  “A new field of research,” she writes, “is suggesting that when organizations promote an ethic of compassion rather than a culture of stress, they may not only see a happier workplace but also an improved bottom-line.  Consider the important—but often overlooked—issue of workplace culture.  Employees in positive moods are more willing to help peers and to provide customer service on their own accord.  In doing so, they boost co-workers’ productivity levels and increase co-workers’ feelings of social connection as well as their commitment to the workplace and their levels of engagement with their job.”

 

The truth of this is reflected in elements in our P&G employee attitude studies which probe employees’ satisfaction with their workplace, their respect and regard for their boss and their intention to continue to work at P&G.

 

Just as I have often made the point that the quality of mutual trust is vital in one-to-one relationships, it is vital that it become a characteristic of the entire culture.  This is well-documented in this book as applying to a health care environment.  A workplace culture, a part of which involves a caring attitude in one another and where senior leadership is seen as caring about the welfare of fellow employees on a personal level,  will produce better results than one that doesn’t do this.

 

The authors also offer compelling evidence that compassion can be learned.  

 

Turning again to the business environment, this suggests that showcasing the fact that having caring relationships in a caring environment improves outcomes would  be worthwhile.  Most important would be providing examples of exactly what caring behavior looks like.

 

In total, the authors make a persuasive case that compassion matters in not only meaningful ways, but also in measureable ways.  Compassionate care is more effective than health care without compassion, by virtue of the fact that human connection confers distinct and measureable benefits.  The authors argue that it is important to know that the conclusions of this book are not based on what the authors think nor that what they believe.  Rather, they are based on what they found clinically and statistically.

 

The authors conclude by writing that “this book was aimed to change your mind, to help open your eyes to the scientific basis of what you already know to be the right thing to do.”  The book did that for me.  It has affirmed and brought greater commitment to my longstanding belief that the most important thing we leave behind is not what we said, what we wrote, even what we did but, rather, how we made other people feel.  

Richard Hofstadter: Champion of the Values of Irony and Balance- But Relentless Passion is Often Essential to Make Breakthrough Progress

 

David S. Brown’s book, Richard Hofstadter, An Intellectual Biography reminded me why I so appreciated Hofstadter’s writings and political beliefs in my younger days.  He takes a balanced and appropriately ironic view to both the Left and Right when they plant themselves in ideological certainties, which he dismisses.  He found himself “oppositional” and “skeptical” by nature throughout his career, from different vantage points in terms of emphasis, including being no fan of Roosevelt, even though he agreed with many of his policies’ and, of course, being bitterly opposed to McCarthy and the far Right.

 

He would be dismayed by what exists today, a too-far-left progressive wing of the Democratic Party and an entrenched right wing of the Republican Party fueled and caricatured by Trump himself, with an eroding middle in the values he most appreciated:  “Intellectual autonomy, scientific enquiry, individual freedom, and cultural latitude,” or, in my words, open-minded consideration of different cultural views. 

 

Late in his career, probably close to his death in 1970, Hofstadter wrote presciently in terms of our current moment:  “The United States began with the heritage of slavery and with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant domination…”  “The upsurge of new immigrants, the Catholics and now finally the Negroes has made our 20^th century history into a story of ethnic wars of various kinds, war incidental to transforming the old America into a multi-ethnic, multi-religious urban society.” 

 

The arc of Hofstadter’s career in thinking was in effect a pilgrimage from the Left to the liberalist center.

 

Late in his career, Hofstadter raised the issue of violence.  He, together with a number of other historians, contributed original essays to the New York Times magazine on the topic, “Is America by Nature a Violent Society?”  Hofstadter’s brief piece, produced only days after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, saw more darkness than light.  He lashed out at the “feebleness of our efforts at gun control” and the ease with which “any zealot, any maniac, could purchase a firearm.”  Disturbed by the New Left posturing, and concerned with the fate of pluralism and a political system crippled by sharp ideological divisions, Hofstadter saw little promise for a peaceful society.  Quoting from D.H. Lawrence, he concluded that, “The sacred rites of American manhood” to arm oneself have led to a deeper and more ominous truth—“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer.”  This is going too far.  Yet, 54 years later, sadly and truthfully these words ring with more truth than we wish, as we witness the even greater prevalence of guns, outbreak of mass shootings, and the removal by the Supreme Court of the state’s right to control the concealed carrying of handguns.

 

Irony permeated Hofstadter’s writing and thinking.  He used irony to shed light on the confusing and often absurd episodes of the past.  This struck many scholars as a strategy of careful detachment or evasion—imposing an artificial sense of complexity as a means of avoiding or rationalizing away conflict.  That’s not how he intended, nor do I; it’s to show the reality of conflict and, yes, the absurdity of unintended consequences which pursuit of ideals often produces.

 

Hofstadter lamented unreflecting, all-knowing and close-minded pronouncements on both the Left and Right.  He saw the irony in student protests on campus at a time when they had more freedom and more rights than ever before.

And yet, knowing where to draw the line on this is difficult.  For if it were not for what Hofstadter probably would have called intemperate protests, progressive social change of which he approves would not have taken place, certainly not on the timing that it did.  That’s true when it comes to women’s suffrage, the abolition of slavery, the approval of fair labor and childcare policies, securing the right to vote.  Progress, like it or not, will often depend, if not always, especially when it comes to the big changes on what those in the middle (and I am often there) would describe as intemperate.