The Nationalism of Abraham Lincoln

THE NATIONALISM OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN James A. Rawley Abraham Lincoln is the supreme nationalist in die history of die United States. His greatest service to die nation was not freeing its slaves but preserving its body poUtic. When Lincoln became President in 1861 four score and five years had passed since his nation had been "conceived and dedicated"—years marked by phenomenal growth and an attendant theorizing over die exact nature of die Federal Union. Lincoln's concept of American nationalism differed not only from die Soudiern interpretations he waged war to refute, but also from Nordiern interpretations in the formative years preceding his election as die nation's chief executive. His nationalism was a mid-century bridge between die earUer diought of die Founding Fatiiers, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster, and die later diought of Francis Lieber and John W. Burgess. In his hierarchy of values he placed die nation uppermost—above peace, above abolition, above property rights, and even above the Constitution. Surprisingly, though it is well-known that Lincoln was a nationalist, historians have not subjected die nature of his concepts to extended, systematic analysis. Before he took die oatii of office in 1861 Lincoln had developed a nationalism notable for its quiet fervor, its avoidance of spread-eagle expansionism, of strident Americanism, of cultural chauvinism, and of excessive legalism—differing markedly from die fervid sentiments of many mid-century nationalists. His pre-Presidential diought is best separated into its poUtical, cultural, and economic components. Lincoln's political nationalism stemmed from a beUef in die uniqueness of the United States. Its government and society were an unexampled experiment—a successful experiment, indeed, but onewhich had yet to demonstrate its success to skeptical and less happy nations. What was die root of this distinctive national character? It was nodiing less than a system of free government. Here was the source of American James A. Rawley, professor of history at Sweet Briar College, is the author of a biography of New York's Civil War governor, Edwin D. Morgan. 283 284J AMES A. RAWLEY poUtical prosperity; without this living principle the state was worth nothing. The incarnation of the spirit of American nationalism was for him the Declaration of Independence. "I have often inquired of myself," he reflected at Philadelphia in 1861, what great principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy so long together . It was not die mere matter of die separation of die colonies from the mother land; but something in diat Declaration giving liberty, not alone to die people of this country, but hope to die world for all time. In tiiis statement Lincoln put to one side many conventional explanations of nationalism—language, common descent, cultural tradition, foreign perils, and historical territory—in favor of an idea.1 This central concept found legal embodiment in die Constitution— "the only safeguard of our Uberties," as he put it. The American government , held in restraint by the Constitution, offered hberty and equaüty for aU. "Free speech and discussion and immunity from whip and tar and featiiers, seem impUed by die guarantee to each state of a repubücan form of government," he deliberated. Through the pubUc press our repub ücan institutions "can be best sustained by die diffusion of knowledge and die due encouragement of a universal, national spirit of inquiry and discussion of pubüc events. . . ." He deemed religious and civü liberty "the noblest of causes," and found American political institutions more conducive to tiieir maintenance tiian any in human history.2 Lincoln would not proscribe immigrants, would not make diem less eUgible for the freedom of the Declaration than those descended by blood from the Revolutionary fathers. ". . . They have a right to claim it as though they were blood of die blood, and flesh of die flesh of die men who wrote that Declaration . . . ," he insisted. His conception of the place of die Negro in American society flowed from his faith in the Declaration. UnUke Stephen A. Douglas, he beUeved die Declaration embraced Negroes as weU as white persons, but that the commitmentwas to be reaUzed in die future. Just as the Declaration did not decree immediate aboütion of slavery, neither...