Research Paper: Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln:
The Most Perfect Ruler of Men the World Has Ever Seen

Abraham Lincoln was a man led by divine principle, a liberator of men who had risen from his underclass world to the lofty heights of presidential authority, a towering monument immortalizing the great cause of freedom. Lincoln was the shepard of his people, the Moses of his day, who led his country out of the darkness of slavery, into the wilderness of despair. Set high upon the mighty office, his conscious to bear, the fate of the Union resting on his understanding of right and fair.

"nothing can bring you peace, but the triumph of principles"- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lincoln did possess this understanding. His curiousity and appetite for learning led him to study privately, and in great detail, the works of the Bible, Aesop's Fables, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Mentor Graham, one of his schoolmasters, once commented, that Lincoln was the "most studious, diligent, straightforward young men in the pursuit of knowledge and literature" he had ever known out of five thousand students.

Lincoln's political career was fueled by his knowledge of Literature, Law and History. It affected every speech he ever made, every stand he ever took, the manner in which he wrote, and every thought he conveyed. It would equip him with every faculty needed to preserve the union and to abolish slavery.

In his early political career, Lincoln ran for the Illinois state legislature and would be defeated. However, it is the closing statement, of his first address to the public, that gives us a clearer understanding of Lincoln's foundational views. Lincoln said, "I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular friends to recommend me. But if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined."

Lincoln knew great disappointment as well as he knew defeat. After the loss of Ann Rutledge, his childhood sweetheart, he suffered so severely that he had contemplated suicide. This sadness would remain with him throughout the course of his life. His law partner said, "If Lincoln ever had a happy day in twenty years, I never knew of it... Melancholy dripped from him as he walked."

Poverty, disappointment and defeat endowed Lincoln with empathy for his fellow man. Lincoln may have been born a white man, but he was also born and raised among the lower classes. One would assume, Lincoln could easily put himself in the shoes of the enslaved, the poor and the common man. Lincoln was known to say, on many occasions, " 'Judge not that ye be not judged.' They are just what we would be in their position."

"Malice toward none, and charity for all". Lincoln was able to accept people as they were and in so doing, displayed his love for all his people. Historian Allen C. Guelzo noted: "When Frederick Douglass, a leader of the abolitionist movement, arrived at the White House in August, 1863, to meet Lincoln for the first time, he expected to meet a 'white man's president, entirely devoted to the welfare of the white men.' But he came away surprised to find Lincoln 'the first great man that I talked with in the United States freely who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, or the difference of color.' The reason Douglass surmised, was 'because of the similarity with which I had fought my way up, we both starting at the lowest rung of the ladder."

Lincoln's climb up this ladder would develop his convictions concerning the injustice of slavery. However, his duty, as he percieved it, was to support the Consitution, not to impose his personal beliefs. Though, he would use his personal beliefs to argue his position on the subject. Historian David Potter wrote: "In the long-run conflict between deeply held convictions on one hand and habits of conformity to the cultural practices of a binary society on the other, the gravitational forces were all in the direction of equality. By a static analysis, Lincoln was a mild opponent of slavery and a moderate defender of racial discrimination. By a dynamic analysis, he held a concept of humanity which impelled him inexorably in the direction of freedom and equality."

Lincoln's concept of humanity would direct the military force of a million men, fighting for the triumph of principles. In his "House Divided" speech, inspired by the teachings of Jesus, Lincoln said, "Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends -- those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work -- who do care for the result. Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then, to falter now? --now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail -- if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come."

Victory would not come easy or without a high price. The losses of men, on both sides, were severe. In the battle of Cold Harbor, led by General Grant, the Union suffered 54, 926 fatalities in six weeks. Lincoln would begin to show the physical effects of the extreme stress on his nation. "This war is killing me", Lincoln would tell Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Imparting to her, that he would not live to see his great achievement.