With political contentiousness now at a fever pitch and with Presidents Day in mind, there’s much to be gained by learning about the savvy genius and deep kindness of Abraham Lincoln. Here, acclaimed author Ed Achorn provides a fascinating, warts-and-all look at how this brilliant and inspiring man helped keep America one country.
Lincoln had served a single term in Congress 10 years before,?and since then had failed twice running for the Senate.?Few would have imagined that he?would win the Republican nomination for president?and become one of America's greatest presidents.?
- "People were struck by his looks. He had sort of this disheveled hair.?He could never quite comb.?He had a wart on his cheek. He had a lazy left eye.?He was wrinkled, prematurely aged,?and he looked kind of like a country, a plain country man.?But people often commented on that?after they got over their initial shock of him, they actually thought he was kind of handsome?in a strange way.?They just sort of warmed to him and thought this guy's really special, after this initial shock."
- Lincoln was elected in November but by the time he assumed the presidency in March, seven states had seceded. Lincoln called up 75,000 troops?to suppress the rebellion. ?"This is the incredible thing about Lincoln.?Congress was out of session.?He was sort of alone. He was a new president.?His executive experience had been limited?to running a two-man law office back in Illinois.?And he somehow gathered the courage and the nerve?and the strategy...?to save the Union."
- Frederick Douglass,?the escaped slave who dedicated his life?to destroying slavery, said? “Viewed from the genuine abolition ground,?Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent. But measuring him by the sentiment of his country,?a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult,?he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.”?I think that's a brilliant analysis by Douglass.?That's Douglass commenting later on Lincoln, though. During the war, he was very negative about Lincoln.?In fact, he was looking for another candidate to support when Lincoln came up for re-election.?But I think that quote is profound and brilliant. That is exactly true.?Lincoln had to move at a certain pace?to rally the nation behind the idea of emancipation.?And if he had gone too early,?the whole thing would have fallen apart,?he would not have had support to conduct the war. So, I think this is Lincoln's greatest skill... he exactly calibrated?when the public was able to endure certain things?he had to do to save the country.?He met every day with members of the public.?It's quite extraordinary. He took time having what he called public opinion baths.?
- One of the extraordinary things about Lincoln?was how gracious and accepting of people he was. When he was president, his Secretary of War,?Edwin Stanton, compared him to a baboon.?And Lincoln was asked, how he could endure the insult.?And he said something to the effect?that it's not an insult, it's an expression of opinion. And what troubled him about it?is that his Secretary Stanton had said it, and he said, Stanton is usually right.
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