Love Him / Shove Him

LINCOLN

Love Him / Shove Him

"Lincoln committed himself to the elimination of slavery throughout the country by degrees. Initially, he wished only to contain it; then he say that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," and he proceeded cautiously, with the Emancipation Proclamation . . . finally, he took the leading role in the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery everywhere and forever in the United States." ( Nina Baym, pg. 1609, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, "Abraham Lincoln")





The editor of Norton is saying that it took ol' Mr. Lincoln a while to come around to fully embracing the total abolition of slavery. He was pushed further into the direction because of his realization that having two stances on slavery was going to rip the union of the states apart. He ultimately ended up spear-heading the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.


I've been thinking about Abe since Wednesday. It's a tough one. As a woman of color, and just as someone who thinks that slavery is plain wrong, it is troubling that Abe wasn't really about ending slavery - he was about preserving the union. Despite that, he does deserve credit for taking a stand eventually and doing the right thing by passing the Emancipation Proclamation as well as the Thirteenth Amendment for whatever reason he did it.


I don't agree that he was just another fake, placating, politician out to cover his own butt. He may not have been about abolishing slavery, but he realized that things wouldn't work they way that they were, that there was going to be a fight, and once he realized that, he took a stand. The seeds of civil war had long been planted by the time Lincoln got around to being president.


I feel that he was the only person who could've been president during the Civil War. The nation needed a leader that was conscientious of the needs of the nation and of the fact that on the issue of slavery, the right choice was abolition. It should be noted that things usually aren't very simple and that even when it seems there is a clear right and wrong choice, the fallout of those choices still must be contended with. Being president meant that whatever decision you make, it isn't just a personal one, it's about the country - besides, who wants to be the president who killed America? There must have been an infinite amount of pressure, I can't even imagine. In friendship, I don't know that I would be cool with Abe. As a president, you want the person who can make the decision that is in the best interests of the nation and I think he tried his hardest to do that. I get the impression that he truly thought about slavery and what it meant for the future of the nation and that he deeply struggled with it; I respect that.


"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all nations." ( Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address)


I believe that his Second Inaugural Address supports the idea that Lincoln wasn't perfect, but he wasn't horrible either. In the last paragraph of his address, he talks about charity, healing and peace. This should've been his "Ha, I was right, I won, suckers!" moment, but instead, he took the opportunity to share his grief over the war. The whole thing seems seeped in guilt and sadness. He doesn't call for punishment - he says we've all been punished by the war. By not singling out either the North or the South, he gives the idea that as a nation we were collectively wrong. He calls for "firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, ..." saying that not only were we all in the "wrong" but that none of us will unfailingly be the bearers of what is right and that we need a higher power to assist us. Those simply don't seem like the words of a man that is only in it for damage control.


Lincoln may have not cared about slavery, or even African Americans, but he still managed to do great work and you can't argue with that. Besides, everyone is a jerk if you look close enough.