Lincoln on Democracy

Introduction

Introduction BY HANS L. TREFOUSSE By the fall of 1863, Lincoln had arrived at a point in his career that permitted him to develop to the fullest his skills and ideals. Always committed to the democratic process, he now gave his most memorable expression to this faith in the Gettysburg Address; always opposed to slavery, he was now able to carry this opposition to its logical conclusion with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution; always sympathetic to the downtrodden, he could now openly voice his concern for black rights. And while he always had a sound understanding of the necessities of warfare, he could now benefit from his previous experiences and, together with General Ulysses S. Grant, lead the nation to victory. His long devotion to democracy received its finest expression in the Gettysburg Address. Asked to say a few words on November 19, 1863, on the occasion of the dedication of a national cemetery at the site of the gigantic battle fought there only a few months before, he had given much thought to the preparation ofhis remarks. But, worried about the illness of his youngest son, Tad, and preoccupied with affairs of state, he had only been able to complete it in the house ofhis Gettysburg host, the local attorney David Wills, on the night before the ceremony. Wishing to say something that could not be construed as a mere fishing for votes-the affair was much too solemn for that-Lincoln determined to make a firm statement about the purpose of the war. The result was one of the greatest speeches ever made in the English language. After the main speaker of the day-Edward Everett, the famous orator, former Harvard professor and statesman-had held forth for two hours, the tall, lanky president, dressed in black, mounted 302 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY the rostrum in the cemetery in the small Pennsylvania town. As members of the cabinet, state, local, and foreign dignitaries looked on, he addressed an audience offifteen thousand. "Four score and seven years ago," he began in a clear allusion to the Declaration of Independence, "our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." The President's masterful rhetoric cut through all arguments about the nature of the Civil War, a contest to determine whether any nation dedicated to the concepts of freedom and equality could long endure. The war was a struggle for democracy, for if a popular decision by ballots could be challenged by bullets, democratic government was at an end. The speech of a few paragraphs has rightly remained a classic. Lincoln never failed to remind his correspondents of its implications. Thus he expressed the opinion that the Lord must have loved the common people because he made so many of them, called on laboring folk to support the war effort, and emphasized his belief in the democratic process by running for a second term in the midst of war. To suspend the elections would never have occurred to him; they were mandated by the Constitution and embodied an essential part of the democratic government Lincoln was fighting to preserve. And unlike other wartime leaders, he had no thought ofusing his military prerogatives to perpetuate himselfin power. On the contrary, as he expressed it so well, should he suffer defeat, as seemed likely, he would make every effort to cooperate with his successor to bring the war to a successful conclusion. His own renomination was attended by difficulty. Salmon P. Chase, his secretary of the treasury, was an open aspirant for the higher office. Various others were also mentioned, and in February 1864, the Pomeroy Circular, a letter to various Republican politicians signed by Senator Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas, urged the nomination of Chase rather than that of the President. Because of the impropriety of a cabinet member conspiring against his chief, the effect of the circular was the opposite of that intended. The Republicans in Ohio, Chase's home state, endorsed Lincoln, and the secretary withdrew, so that the President was renominated in June. Nevertheless, many radical Republicans, the most advanced wing of the party, some ofwhom had already put into the field a separate ticket headed by General John C. Fremont, remained dissatisfied. When in Lincoln and Democracy, 1863-1865 303 July Lincoln pocket-vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill, a Reconstruction measure more...