Review: Hans-Jürgen Grabbe, ed. Lincoln's Legacy: Nation Building, Democracy, and the Question of Race and Civil Rights (original) (raw)

Abraham Lincoln’s Attitudes on Slavery and Race

American Studies, 2009

The life of Abraham Lincoln coincided with dramatic societal transformations that shaped the future of the United States. In the center of these developments stood the question whether that nation could continue to grow with the system of slavery or not. Inherently linked to an issue that almost dissolved the nation was the problem of racism and the future of race relations after emancipation. To examine Lincoln's attitudes on slavery and race opens a window for us to look at his own struggles concerning these issues, but at the same time at the political and cultural contentions at large of a nation that he helped to save as President during the American Civil War. His legacy as the Great Emancipator, liberating over four million slaves, has generated a controversial debate on Lincoln's position towards race and racism. The life of Abraham Lincoln coincided with dramatic societal transformations that shaped the future of the United States. In the center of these developments stood the question whether that nation could continue to grow with the system of slavery or not. Inherently linked to an issue that almost dissolved the nation was the problem of racism and the future of race relations after emancipation. To examine Lincoln's attitudes on slavery and race opens a window for us to look at his own struggles concerning these issues, but at the same time at the political and cultural contentions at large of a nation that he helped to save as President during the American Civil War. His legacy as the Great Emancipator, liberating over four million slaves, has generated a controversial debate on Lincoln's position towards race and racism. A hundred years after Civil War President Abraham Lincoln had initiated the collapse of slavery with his Emancipation Proclamation, Martin Luther King delivered his most famous speech, "I Have a Dream," in front of the temple-like Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. In August 1963, within the context of the civil rights movement, he directly referred to Lincoln in front of 250,000 people: "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity." But King decisively pointed to the fact that color bars still existed, and soon after he asked President Kennedy to issue a "second Emancipation Proclamation," that would finally demolish the barriers between blacks and whites in the United States. In his classical 1944 study on this subject, the Swedish economist, politician, and Nobel laureate Gunnar Myrdal once called the deeply-rooted racism, which has hitherto prevented harmonious race relations, "an American dilemma." A phenomenon which Lincoln knew only too well, especially since he had unreservedly admitted not to be entirely without such sentiments. Where exactly can we locate Abraham Lincoln's position on the question of slavery and-closely connected to this subject-his opinion on race and his attitudes towards the future of race relations in the United States? In general, it is not an easy undertaking to differentiate between personal attitudes and public political agitation, especially in the case of an enigmatic personality such as Abraham Lincoln. This problem leads directly to questions of historical sources. Whereas we have much more evidence on Lincoln's attitudes on slavery through his numerous speeches and commentaries on this subject, the sources reflecting his attitudes towards African Americans and race relations are much less numerous. In other words, we might never be able to pinpoint Lincoln's exact genuine beliefs and convictions on this subject. Lincoln was indeed a full-blooded politician adapting to political necessities, always ready for comprises in order to reach his final agenda. He was permanently aware that he spoke to a white-often racistaudience and he had a keen sense of "the public sentiment" as he called it. He embodied a type of politician who practiced an "ethics of responsibility," a term that was coined later by the German sociologist Max Weber. In other words, Lincoln was not an adherent of an "ethics of conviction," that many politicians and

Abraham Lincoln's Racial Identity in the 19th Century

Case Study, 2024

This case study examines the theory that Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, may have had African ancestry, challenging traditional historical narratives of his racial identity. By analyzing the racial categories and identity definitions of the 19th century, this study explores how race was socially and legally constructed during Lincoln's time and how these constructs may have shaped perceptions of his heritage. The study delves into Lincoln's family history, physical appearance, and public persona, comparing these factors with the racial norms of the era. Additionally, it explores how Lincoln's political actions, particularly his advocacy for the abolition of slavery, may have been influenced by a potential African lineage. The case study also draws comparisons with other historical figures, such as Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, to illustrate the complexities of racial identity and misidentification in the 19th century. Ultimately, this study provides a nuanced perspective on Lincoln's racial identity, suggesting that it was more complex than traditionally understood, and invites further reflection on the fluidity of race in American history.

Debating the Great Emancipator: Abraham Lincoln and our Public Memory

Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2010

In this essay I analyze the debate over Abraham Lincoln’s role in the emancipation of African American slaves. Speaking both to contemporary public memory and the evidence of history, I contend that when Lincoln discussed or wrote about emancipation between 1860 and 1863, his rhetoric exhibited a dialogic form that shifted responsibility from the president to congressional leaders and common citizens. I conclude that Lincoln’s dialogic rhetoric does not signal his opposition to emancipation but rather his deep belief that emancipation would become meaningful only afer the considered deliberation and action of the American people.

Democracy for All and All for Democracy: Lincoln as a Man of Hope

Many scholars have rightly been interested in Abraham Lincoln's thoughts on 'political religion.' His writings are glazed with his own individual religiosity---not that of any established church---making it a worthy and ambitious endeavor to pin down and articulate the components of Lincoln's conscience during the various phases of his life.

Lincoln's Romantic Political Thought: Law, Political Religion, and Slavery

Abraham Lincoln’s political thought is an important turning point in American political ideas and practices. For Harry Jaffa, Lincoln represented a return to the principles of the Declaration of Independence while Willmoore Kendall and George W. Carey saw him derailing the American political tradition. More recently Joseph R. Fornieri has portrayed Lincoln’s enduring legacy as a product of his status as a “philosopher statesman” rather than a pragmatist and Grant N. Havers has demonstrated the centrality of “charity” to his political religion. In a new book on his political thought, George Kateb has also added Lincoln to Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman as an innovator in the development of “democratic individuality,” and maintains the secularity of Lincoln’s political religion. What has not been addressed directly by political theorists, however, is the distinctly “Romantic” bent of Lincoln’s political thought. Despite his fidelity to the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln’s evocations of “natural” or “human” rights are quite limited and although he was deeply influenced by Enlightenment radicals like Paine and Volney, his unorthodox religious language has little in common with their anti-clericalism. Rather, Lincoln’s political thought should be understood in a mid 19th century intellectual context where Romantic political ideas could be found throughout American culture. The Romanticism of literary figures like Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, and its formative effect on the Transcendentalist movement and Second Great Awakening has been well documented, but its influence on American politics has been understudied. Lincoln was part of a generation of political thinkers and actors that was forced to rethink the Enlightenment and classical ideals of the Founders in the context of slavery. Liberal Enlightenment ideals like the natural right to property and the rule of law had been used to defend slavery intellectually while liberal and democratic institutions had been captured by slave power. Perhaps most disturbing to Lincoln and his generation was that this seizure was possible because of the legalism inherent in the liberal institutions of the founding. Lincoln’s political thought represents a Romantic renewal of Enlightenment liberalism in a time of crisis, one that reimagined law, rights, and democratic institutions as a kind of “political religion,” with an emotional and aesthetic appeal instead of a cold, impersonal, unlovely, and instrumental means for preserving liberty.