What More Is There, To Be Made -- Of Lincoln's Examples, After 160 Years?

So much has been written -- so many movies made. . . and frankly, so much water is now under the bridge. . . it is hard to say whether there is anything original that might yet be said of Abraham Lincoln.

Certainly he was a great American President -- perhaps second only to George Washington -- and yet, both of them seemed to less than fully embrace the equality of all humans.

. . .John Brown was executed by the state of Virginia with the approval of the national government. It was the national government which, while weakly enforcing the law ending the slave trade, sternly enforced the laws providing for the return of fugitives to slavery. It was the national government that, in Andrew Jackson's administration, collaborated with the South to keep abolitionist literature out of the mails in the southern states.

Such a national government would never accept an end to slavery by rebellion. It would end slavery only under conditions controlled by whites, and only when required by the political and economic needs of the business elite of the North. It was Abraham Lincoln who combined perfectly the needs of business, the political ambition of the new Republican party, and the rhetoric of humanitarianism. He would keep the abolition of slavery not at the top of his list of priorities, but close enough to the top so it could be pushed there temporarily by abolitionist pressures and by practical political advantage. . . .

Lincoln could skillfully blend the interests of the very rich and the interests of Black America at a moment in history when these interests met. And he could link these two with a growing section of Americans, the white, up-and-coming, economically ambitious, politically active middle class. . . .

I will add nothing else, except to say his life is worthy of celebration -- but certainly not deification. He was a man. In many ways, he was a better man than anyone who has led this nation in over ten years, but in many ways. . . he too, was in part a pandering politician.

We may be certain though, that while he had engaged in fisticuffs as a youth for sport and money, he would never have hawked colognes and hideously-made spray-painted gold sneakers on the streets of Philadelphia -- or any other city.

And, he did manage to avoid ever being indicted, despite the virulent racists who sought to end him. . . and eventually. . . did. Onward, to more substantive -- and on topic -- fare by tomorrow.

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