In search of the 'better (not bitter) angels of our nature'

We celebrate Lincoln's birthday on Feb. 12, and it is an occasion on which I suspect more than a few lawyers, judges and others interested in the justice system may be inclined to reflect on some of Lincoln's more iconic speeches. I concede to a strong favorable bias towards Mr. Lincoln. I keep his bust on my bench and use his words engraved on its base to welcome every group of prospective jurors who report to my courtroom: "The highest service of citizenship is jury service." 

Some of Lincoln's other works provide additional grist for any judge trying to deliver justice while managing an active docket. He can be quoted on the virtue of diligent preparation ("If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I would spend the first four sharpening my axe"), and his 272-word Gettysburg Address can be held out as a model for those prone to prolixity - it conveys brilliance and passion with admirable brevity.   

If you are interested, Ronald C. White Jr.'s book "The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through his Words" is an excellent compendium of wise words spoken by our sixteenth President. It also includes insightful commentary about the creation, context and nuances of key examples of Lincoln's prose from White, who is a leading Lincoln scholar and the author of multiple books about him.

In the wake of our recent presidential transition, I picked up White's book on Lincoln's rhetoric again and was particularly interested in reacquainting myself with the first inaugural address to look for insights from a man judged by history to have been among our greatest leaders during turbulent times.

A few passages seemed particularly poignant, and I will repeat them verbatim below without substantive commentary. Although they stand on their own, a full appreciation of them in this moment is enhanced with some background context.

Lincoln was elected President on Nov. 6, 1860. His first inaugural address was not given until March 4, 1861. He was relatively quiet in the four months after he was elected before he took his oath of office. This despite the extraordinary events that were unfolding virtually every day, including the secession of seven southern states and the establishment of the Confederate States of America in February.

Lincoln well-understood the importance of the inaugural address he was to give. He spent a great deal of time honing it and shared early drafts with a number of long-time confidants, including Judge David Davis and a lawyer named Orville Browning. Perhaps most notably, he also sought the advice of William Seward, who had been his main rival for the nomination but had nonetheless been named by Lincoln to be his Secretary of State.

The choice of Seward for a top role in the administration is widely regarded as one of Lincoln's defining acts of leadership. As historian Doris Kearns Goodwin stated in her book "Leadership in Turbulent Times," "Where President James Buchanan had deliberately chosen like-minded men, adherents who would not question his authority, Lincoln created a team of independent, strong-minded men, all of whom were more experienced in public life, better educated and more celebrated than he. In the top three positions... he placed his three chief rivals - William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates - each of whom thought he should be president instead of the prairie lawyer from Illinois." (Goodwin, Leadership in Turbulent Times (2018) p. 212).

Steward annotated the draft of Lincoln's speech, making at least 49 suggested changes, some of which Lincoln adopted in whole or in part. However, even with the input from others, the speech, particularly the concluding paragraphs, is pure Lincoln. As White states, "Lincoln's artistry with words can be seen by comparing the words in the sentences of the Seward and Lincoln conclusions." (White, The Eloquent President (2006) p. 90).  

Lincoln knew that the most significant audience for his words consisted of the citizens in the Southern states, who were deeply antagonistic to him and his position on the issue then dividing the county--slavery.

The final six paragraphs of the address are worthy of careful reading by anyone interested in how Lincoln thought about and articulated the case he was making to avoid civil war and to do so by invoking what he perceived to be the overarching principle on which all sides should be able to agree - the primacy of the rule of law and our processes of Constitutional government.

"The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have referred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this if also they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.

By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Well-said Mr. Lincoln. Happy Birthday.