LEADER PROFILE FOUR
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
There can be no argument that the Civil War was the defining moment for the United States. We were a fractured nation, divided primarily over states’ rights and slavery. What transpired during those four terrible and bloody years was nothing less than a struggle for the soul of the country. Had the outcome been different or certain concessions been made in order to shorten the war, the face of America would almost certainly be unrecognizable today.
We were on the brink of tearing ourselves apart. And had it not been for the iron will and steely resolve of Abraham Lincoln, we just might have succeeded. For Lincoln, in his time, was a man revered by many and despised by an equal number. He was unbending in his belief that this nation had to be reunited if it hoped to fulfill the vision of its founders.
Of course, achieving such a goal was easier said than done, especially in such turbulent times. There were many intelligent, well-meaning individuals who honestly believed in states’ rights. Robert E. Lee, one of our greatest military leaders, was among them. Although the West Point–trained Lee loved his country, when push came to shove he resigned his commission in the Union Army and became the leader of the Army of Virginia.
Lee wasn’t unique either. This was an era when the majority of citizens never traveled very far from their homes, much less outside their state. And that’s where their loyalty lay, not with some abstract government far away in Washington, D.C.
Equally divisive, yet far more inflammatory, was the issue of slavery. It wasn’t hard to find zealots on both sides of this issue, and it’s a tribute to Lincoln’s great leadership skills that he never caved in to either side, regardless of how hard they pushed him or how unpopular it made him.
Although Lincoln unshackled the chains of slavery by signing the Emancipation Proclamation, it must be remembered that he also struggled with this issue. In fact, he initially hedged on the subject and it wasn’t until well into his presidency that he finally resolved to end the practice.
How was Lincoln able to accomplish this? Given all that was going on at the time, how did he manage to hold things together?
The answers are fairly simple: Lincoln was a flexible leader and a shrewd politician. In the history of our country, there has never been another individual who better combined those vital qualities. The majority of great leaders could only have succeeded during the time in which they lived. Lincoln wasn’t one of them. With his strength of character, and with his understanding of how—and when—to compromise, Lincoln belongs to the ages.
What made Lincoln so successful was his willingness to take small steps in order to cover a great distance. He knew the people had to feel they had to come to a decision on their own. In this way, Lincoln was uncommonly shrewd. He gave them just enough to gain their interest, and as their interest increased, he gave them more. That way, people were made to feel that they were in on the process from the beginning.
Lincoln was also a great coalition builder, a man who understood that there was a vast mix of motives in his fellow citizens. Given the tenor of the times, Lincoln had no real choice other than to bring people together in a slow and deliberate way. To try and pound a single solution into them would only have led to dismal failure. Lincoln was far too smart and insightful to go down that path.
Lincoln’s constituency included hard-core abolitionists, defenders of slavery, and those who wanted to dodge the issue entirely. It was out of such disparate factions that Lincoln had to forge a body of voters who were willing to join him on his quest to end slavery and preserve the Union.
Dealing with the abolitionists presented a unique problem for Lincoln. Their approach to ending slavery, while well-meaning and well-intentioned, was considered by many of their sympathizers to be too radical and too violent. While Lincoln may have agreed in principle with the abolitionists, he was also aware of the firestorm of controversy they were capable of igniting. So in an effort to keep the peace, Lincoln rejected the high ideals of the abolitionists until key portions of his constituency would accept certain parts of that platform.
Lincoln’s true genius lay in his ability to compromise. But he also knew that compromise only goes so far and that if you compromise too much or too often, it only leads to chaos. Lincoln was always willing to listen and it often seemed to take a long time for him to act. But once he did, once he had no doubt about what road to travel, it was then, as the writer G. K. Chesterton said, “the thunderbolt fell from the clear heights of heaven.”
In Lincoln, we see the classic traits necessary for great leadership: strength, boldness, character, compassion, ethics, high-minded ideals and principles.
And an unwavering belief in his cause.
Although Lincoln was willing to compromise on certain issues and in certain situations, he was never willing to compromise his love for, or his faith in, the Union and its people. All of its people.
It was this intense faith combined with his almighty will that allowed Lincoln to almost single-handedly preserve our past while giving us our future.