The Great Humanitarian

Phew, the book I just finished really really touched my heart in a surprising way. And I must write down my thoughts about it now because I dont want to forget the feelings I have about it.

The book is “Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Because of the title, I didnt expect to get such a deeply personal and spiritual insight to Abraham Lincoln: his courage, strength and humanity. He is a giant among historical giants.

I wanted to read this book for two reasons. First, I had heard that President Obama referred to Lincoln’s executive leadership style as a good model (so I wanted to get insight as to what to expect!); secondly, I wanted to understand better the period of the Civil War in the US because my favorite author of spiritual writings, Mary Baker Eddy, was formulating through scientific discoveries the principles for her seminal book on the Science of being, Science and Health, during this time.

When I studied history in school, we learned the basics of the key people like George Washington and Lincoln. To me, Lincoln’s claim to fame was the Emancipation Proclamation which freed the slaves from all states still allowing ownership. A very big deal, of course, but for some peculiar glitch in teaching, my overall impression was that this president was not much of a leader, let alone a motivational speaker able to rally millions of people through 4 long years of unimaginable bloodshed.

Wrong. So pathetically wrong. I must have been absent on the day the teacher spoke about Lincoln’s powerful intellectual reasoning, his superior (seriously, to anyone else) ability to communicate his logic in common-man language, his deep connection to the concerns of the family on-the-sod, his profound desire to lift ALL men up to partake of the potential of living in the “land of the free”.

Lincoln had translated the story of his country and the meaning of the war into words and ideas accessible to every American.”

How did he do this? He was totally self-educated which, in the early days of his political battles and even his presidency, the Eastern elite continuously misjudged, to their detriment.  In his own words, this is how he saw his mission on earth:

“I must keep some consciousness of being somewhere near right: I must keep some standard of principle fixed within myself.”

In his 2nd Inaugural address, in the waning days of the Civil War with victory for the Federal/Union cause practically assured, he gave this plea to all Americans:

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

Doesnt this just make your heart sing and soar to hear the Leader of his country — our country — set this standard of right? And not in sunshine days, but in the twilight of a horrific war.

One of his friends described Lincoln’s fidelity to God as evidenced  by his “higher rule of purity of conduct, of honesty of motive, of unyielding fidelity to the right…by his powerful belief in the great laws of truth, the rigid discharge of duty, his accountability to God…” Is not this a model of living for any one of us?

About 2/3 of the way through the book I realized that I was going to have to read about Lincoln’s assassination. Again. And I cant describe the deep sadness I felt…still feel.

It is a testament to the writer, Doris Kearns Goodwin, that I empathized so strongly with Lincoln’s weeping cabinet, most of whom stood vigil as he struggled and died hours after being shot. They loved him so much because he clearly loved them and proved it each day with unfailing kindness, goodness, selflessness. Each one knew that while they had given all they had during the 4 terrible years of war, Lincoln had given more. He was, in all respects, the better man.

The United States is what it is today because of Abraham Lincoln. But his story is also an all-American story and should be praised for its proof of the achievement of moral courage, spiritual devoutness and discipline, unconditional love for all mankind and practical, humanitarian leadership.

Thank you Doris Kearns Goodwin for shining a light on this American giant’s whole self; perhaps, by Lincoln’s example, each of us can learn and practice a new quality of true humanity.