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.
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