Lincoln on Democracy

Preface

Preface BY MARIO M. CUOMO In July of 1989-months before democracy blossomed in the capitals of Eastern Europe-the seed for this book on democracy was planted halfway around the world, in the capital of New York State. I had the privilege of welcoming to Albany a delegation of leading educators from Poland, a nation with a long history of yearning and fighting for liberty, but at the time, only the briefest experience enjoying liberty itself. They were members of the Teachers' Section of Poland's Solidarity U:nion, the heroic coalition of working people that had been advocating democratization in the face of rigid, historic repression. They had come to the United States on a tour sponsored by the "Democracy Project," a global exchange program organized by American teachers to foster understanding and opportunity among teaching professionals here and overseas. The American hosts had invited me to greet their Polish colleagues, and I was delighted to accept, hardly realizing that their visit would inspire this volume. When they arrived in July, I proudly guided the delegation through our recently restored and refurbished "official" governor's office. This is an ornate chamber in the capitol building known as the "Red Room," where many ofmy predecessors, including Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Thomas E. Dewey, all enjoyed working, but which I use only for ceremonial purposes, preferring to work in smaller quarters next door. The Red Room, with its gleaming wood paneling, stately chandeliers, formal drapery, and gilt molding, is an architectural marvel. And it is more. It is a reminder of all that was accomplished xxviii PREFACE by those who came before us, and of our obligation to preserve what they left us and to build upon it for the benefit of those who will come after us. What better room to display to our Polish visitors, I thought, than a chamber where so much of our own history has taken place, where democratically elected chief executives have administered one of the greatest states in the Union. The Poles seemed to share my enthusiasm for these surroundings. But our visitors had something more on their minds than the highlights of our capitol. There is no shortage of graceful public architecture or lavish interior design in Warsaw. What had long been missing there was the guarantee offreedom, not its trappings; the privilege ofself-government, not monuments in its honor. What had been lacking there, in those dark days before Poland and her neighbors in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and East Germany so dramatically threw offthe stifling yoke oflongtime oppression, was the personal experience of democracy, and with it a meaningful, inspiring credo offreedom and self-determination that could be relied on to illuminate democratization in the future. Speaking through translators, the Polish teachers asked whether I might help them begin building an archive of great thoughts and writings on democracy, by telling them which American writings on the subject had meant the most to me in my life and career, and might provide similar guidance for them. I did not need to reflect on the question. My choice of a source was immediate and unequivocal: Abraham Lincoln. I enjoy joking with people today that I've always admired Lincoln because he's reassuring to politicians like me. He was himself a big, homely-looking politician from a poor family who started off by losing a few elections, yet in the end succeeded brilliantly. Of course, my fascination with Lincoln goes far deeper, and has ever since I can remember. Lincoln was the president who argued that government has a responsibility "to do for the people what ... they can not ... do at all, or do so well, for themselves." I have quoted those lines many times to support my own belief that government today is no less obligated. I said so most recently at Gettysburg, on the 126th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. For me Lincoln's writing-his unique ability to craft arguments of raw power and breathtaking beauty, to argue with the seamless logic Preface xxix ofa great lawyer and the large heart ofa great humanitarian-is among the best produced by any American, ever. I have read Lincoln's words over and over from the volumes of his Collected Works. I am always taken by the humor, the pathos, the determination, the compassion that resonate in those words. And by the great ideas. Above all, the theme...