Lessons from Lincoln in our Current Political Moment

Like many people, I have been deeply troubled by the recent string of political violence in our country and equally troubled by the reaction of some Americans to these murders. As liberals and conservatives argue over which acts of violence are more significant, who or what is responsible, and which party is ultimately to blame, it can be difficult to have faith in the American experiment. In a time when democracy seems so fragile, I thought it prudent to seek advice from one of America’s greatest unifying voices: Abraham Lincoln.

Of course, Lincoln was no stranger to violence. Indeed, he was himself the victim of a political assassination, and he oversaw one of the bloodiest chapters of American history—the Civil War. Nor was Lincoln, by any means, a violent man. His view of democracy hinged on the prospect of peace.

Early in the war, Lincoln wrote to Cuthbert Bullit, a staunch Unionist and Louisiana U.S. Marshal who had passed on concerns about the president’s “forceful” treatment of the Confederate state. In his letter, Lincoln justified the emancipation of slaves as a war measure and affirmed his commitment, above all, to preserve the Union. Notably, though, the president closed his letter by stating, “I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.”[1]

That statement guided Lincoln as he attempted to “bind up the nation’s wounds” in the last days of the war. Of course, it also directly foreshadows his famous line “with malice toward none” and “charity for all” in his Second Inaugural Address, delivered nearly four years after his letter to Bullit.[2] Though he did not plan to graciously extend pardons to Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis, Lincoln hoped to turn a blind eye as they escaped Federal custody and went into exile. That would preclude Davis’s capture and prosecution from becoming the object of ex-Confederate bitterness and an instrument of Radical Republican requital.[3]

To Lincoln, peace after the Civil War did not mean retributive trials and vengeful executions. He understood that democracy was not built upon the gallows or any sort of vindictiveness or retribution—and certainly not upon malice.

In an age when hateful sentiments seem to transcend the highest and lowest levels of our republic, it’s important to recall Lincoln’s maxim of “malice toward none,” no matter what political ideologies we might embrace.

Notes:

[1] Abraham Lincoln, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5, Oct. 24, 1861-Dec. 12, 1862, (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 346.

[2] Abraham Lincoln, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 8, Sept. 12, 1864-Apr. 14, 1865, (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 333.

[3] Allen Guelzo, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 423.