Abraham Lincoln, the Consummate Politician
Among his many talents was his ability to perfectly fain humility and Godliness. He was an attorney, very familiar with the importance of persuading his audience with theatre. He understood the importance of appealing to people’s emotions even more than to their reason.
It has been suggested that the actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, more out of professional jealousy than because of his politics. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was a short, humble, eloquent tribute to the men who fought and died at Gettysburg. He knew, contrary to what he said in his speech, that the few, carefully thought out, reverent words he spoke there, would live on in the same history books that recorded the battle.
Political monarchs love honor and glory and that is why men strive to become leaders, generals, and presidents. And it was no different with Lincoln. He was a good campaigner for himself. He was an ambitious man. His wife, Mary was ambitious too, for him, and for herself. She encouraged him in his quest for the presidency, and he consulted with her about his strategy. When they moved into the White House, Mary began to remake it into a house fit for a queen. She was given a lavish, fixed amount of many thousands of dollars in taxpayer money for the remodeling, but she soon spent double the amount allotted, which had to be hidden from the public, and was done so by devious, accounting. And “honest Abe” went along with the cover up. The northern states were industrial and financially powerful. The southern states were agricultural, and relied on slave labor to produce there agricultural products at a profit until new machinery could be developed to replace the slaves. To a certain extent, a trade war already existed between the North and the South, with the south being at a disadvantage because of a lack of manufacturing industry. The Southern States and the people of the South, which included free Negros, wanted out of the Union and to be free of domination by the North, similar to the thirteen Colonies wanting freedom from domination by England. And so, in both cases, a war resulted. There is no greater glory than war, and no greater honor than winning a war. Many politicians lament war’s coming, but fan the flames with patriotism when it arrives. Such was the case with Lincoln. Slight effort was made to avoid or stop the war, rather Lincoln was clamoring for an aggressive general to give him victories – no matter the cost. Southern victories were humiliating the president. Lincoln got his aggressive general with Grant, who fought his battles similarly to the Russian generals on the Eastern Front in WWII. General Grant overwhelmed his opponents with sheer numbers, and paid a high price for his victories in dead and wounded. Lincoln was fully aware of the shocking slaughter that was going on, but it was the price that had to be paid to “preserve the Union”, - and his stature.
As the war dragged on, people in the north began to doubt whether the”war to preserve The Union” was worth the terrible cost. There was rebellion against the war by Irishmen in New York, and Illinois sent a delegation to the president to tell him that he couldn’t have any more of their young men to sacrifice in his war to preserve The Union. To justify continuing the carnage, Lincoln, in his second inaugural address used a cynical ploy, used also by the Bolsheviks in WWII. He made the war into a religious imperative. Before he became president, he said he would not make an issue of slavery because it was a states rights issue. But now he told the assembled crowds that the war, with its terrible cost, was a punishment from God for slavery; for the South, because they practiced it, and for the North, because they allowed it. And the only way the country was going to free itself from God’s curse, would be if they “stayed the course”, and continued the war, not to “preserve The Union”, but now,” to rid the country of slavery.”
Lincoln should certainly have appreciated the grief, the pain and suffering his war was causing. He and his wife experienced it themselves, when their favorite young, son William died during his presidency. They both grieved deeply, and Mary never fully recovered from it. Now Lincoln was throwing thousands of other people’s sons into a meat grinder, “to preserve The Union”, - and his stature. In the final phase of the war, Lincoln’s General Sherman expressed the war philosophy shared by President Lincoln; Southerners would never change their thinking voluntarily, the only way to change them would be “to make the war so costly, that they would never go to war again” In other words, to completely crush them and their society, with the most brutal cruelty. And they did, with Lincoln and “Sherman’s march to the sea”. This marked a change in warfare. The destruction and cruelty was no longer limited to the battlefield. Now civilians, crops, farms, railroads and factories also became the targets. Complete devastation marked the path of Lincoln and Sherman’s march to the sea. Even the Europeans, accustomed to many wars, were shocked at its viciousness. Lincoln is reported to have done a lot of Bible reading at that time. And spoke about God and referred to the Bible frequently when he spoke publically. He once made the comment that both the North and the South read the same Bible, and both prayed to the same God, but God would not answer the prayers of both sides. The question arises; how could he have read about his messiah, Jesus, “the Prince of peace”, - His, “love your enemy”, and then, promoted such diabolical cruelty? Was “preserving The Union” and later, abolishing slavery, and of course, preserving his stature, justification for such unchristian barbarity?
What if The South had been allowed to secede, who would have lost, and what? The thirteen colonies seceded from England, and yet a close relationship, socially, economically and politically was again established, and remains to this day. The Civil War resulted in a tyrannical subjugation of the people of the South by the politicians of The North. And economically it was a disaster that the South has only, in resent years, fully recovered from. Because of their close proximity, similar to Canada’s, the North and The South would, undoubtedly, have become strong trading partners, just as Canada is, with the U.S., today. The South would have needed the agricultural machinery being developed in the North and would have needed the North’s help in setting up industry in the South. And the North needed the South’s agriculture and oil.
What about slavery, would it never have ended? Sentiment against slavery, at that time, was growing all over the Western World and many countries had already abolished it. That sentiment was a world wide trend that would have pressured the South to move in the same direction. Agriculture was also becoming more mechanized at a rapid rate and would soon have made slavery superfluous. The increasing use of machinery in the South would also have necessitated more education for freed Negros to fill skill requirements in the increasingly technical work place.
At any time, had Lincoln wanted to, he could have worked out a treaty with the South, beneficial to both sides, especially before armed conflict began. Avoiding that horrible war and saving all those young men from both sides, would have been the greatest thing he could ever have done. That would, truly have made him a great man and president. However, he would not have been honored as the “victorious president who saved The Union and abolished slavery”. And so, instead of a great man and president, he proved to be just “The Consummate Politician”.
