Lincoln鈥檚 Enduring Relevance
Most teachers of American history and government admit to a fascination with Abraham Lincoln. Because he so clearly explains American political principles, many teachers use Lincoln鈥檚 words as touchstones throughout their courses. Yet many of the same teachers find Lincoln鈥檚 motives somewhat elusive.
We asked three teachers who attended a 2022 TAH multiday seminar in Lincoln鈥檚 hometown of Springfield, Illinois鈥�Charles Martindell, Justin Crews, and Brett Van Gaasbeek鈥攖o explain why Lincoln鈥檚 writings spoke to them and their students. All three are graduates of the Master of Arts in American History and Government program. All say their MAHG studies persuaded them to teach through primary documents. All teach more of Lincoln鈥檚 writings than those of any other author.
Lincoln Explains Our Political Principles
鈥淏efore MAHG, 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 realize the depth and continual relevance of Lincoln鈥檚 thought,鈥� said Charles Martindell, formerly a teacher at Pleasant High School in Marion, Ohio, and now a TAH staff member. Like Crews and Van Gaasbeek, he learned of Lincoln鈥檚 Fragment on the Constitution and Union in MAHG and began showing it to students when they first read the Constitution. In this private note to himself, Lincoln asserts that the Constitution was written to protect the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence, especially the principle of human equality.
鈥淚n a sense, Lincoln鈥檚 thoughts on the founding are more important鈥濃�攐r at least more accessible to students鈥�”than the 蹿辞耻苍诲别谤蝉鈥� thoughts on the founding,鈥� Martindell said. 鈥淟incoln viewed the founding in hindsight,鈥� at a time when the 蹿辞耻苍诲别谤蝉鈥� assertion of human equality had been called into question. 鈥淪lavery had become far more entrenched, and racism much more enshrined in the science of the day than the founders anticipated.鈥�
Martindell鈥檚 MAHG degree qualified him to teach a dual enrollment course on 鈥淒emocracy in America.鈥� Students earned college credit for the political theory course through Ashland University. 鈥淲e spent a few weeks of the course examining the question, 鈥榃hat did the founders mean when they said that all men are created equal?鈥� After all, many of the founders held slaves.鈥� Among other documents, students read Chief Justice Roger Taney鈥檚 majority opinion in the Dred Scott case, Alexander Stephens鈥� Cornerstone Speech, and Lincoln鈥檚 Peoria speech.
These documents yield three alternate interpretations of the 蹿辞耻苍诲别谤蝉鈥� meaning, Martindell said. 鈥淭aney claimed that the founders said one thing, but meant another. What they really meant was people of their own kind were created equal. Alexander Stephens argued that the founders literally meant what they said鈥攂ut they were wrong. Lincoln鈥檚 view was that the Founders meant what they said. And they were right.鈥�
One might easily arrive at Taney鈥檚 interpretation, Martindell said, if one neglected to do 鈥渕uch research on the founders. Lincoln did the research.鈥� To demonstrate the 蹿辞耻苍诲别谤蝉鈥� 鈥渉ostility鈥� to slavery, the Peoria speech cites the 1787 Northwest Ordinance; the refusal to use the word 鈥渟lave鈥� or 鈥渟lavery鈥� in the text of the Constitution; and five different acts of the earliest Congress to restrict or end the international slave trade.
鈥淚n fact, it鈥檚 remarkable鈥濃�攇iven the rapid expansion of slavery, despite the 蹿辞耻苍诲别谤蝉鈥� expectations鈥�”that Lincoln . . . could look back at the founding with reverence, and with hope鈥� that the principle of equality would one day lead to slavery鈥檚 extinction.
Lincoln鈥檚 Rational Leadership
Justin Crews‘ fascination with Abraham Lincoln began at an early age. He grew up in Lincoln City, Indiana, near the site of Thomas Lincoln鈥檚 160-acre homestead, where Lincoln grew from a child of seven into a youth of 21. At one time, Crews鈥� parents owned an acre of this homestead site; it was seized by eminent domain when the decision was made to create the . As the centerpiece of the memorial, the National Park Service created a 鈥渨orking pioneer homestead,鈥� where Crews鈥� mother took a job as an historical interpreter. 鈥淚 spent my summers with her, dressed in 1820s costume, learning and demonstrating how to use tools Lincoln used as a boy. It was there that Lincoln learned to split rails. I split a few myself鈥攖wo or three a day, whereas Lincoln split about 300.鈥�
Today Crews teaches US history, from the European discovery and settlement through the Civil War and Reconstruction, at Troy Junior High School, on the western border of Ohio. 鈥淪tudents know about me and Lincoln; they know they will get a heavy dose of Lincoln when they enter my classroom,鈥� says Crews. Photos of Lincoln and quotations from his speeches and writings hang on its walls. The eighth graders have had no experience reading primary documents before entering Crews鈥� class, so they struggle a bit to understand Lincoln鈥檚 Fragment on Constitution and Union鈥攈is comparison of the Declaration to a painting of an 鈥渁pple of gold鈥� and of the Constitution to a silver frame protecting it. To make the point, Crews often rolls up this sleeve to show them a key clause of the Gettysburg Address, replicating Lincoln鈥檚 own handwriting, tattoed on his upper arm:
a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal
鈥淭hat鈥檚 Lincoln鈥檚 tribute to Jefferson and the principle of equality, which is the apple of gold,鈥� Crews says. Showing off this tattoo 鈥渕akes a difference to students. When they see a teacher has a passion for history, they become interested.鈥� He also asks students to read excerpts of Lincoln鈥檚 Lyceum Address, including this passage:
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? 鈥擲hall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! 鈥擜ll the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest . . . could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a Trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. . . . As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
In the same speech, Lincoln gives his prescription for avoiding national suicide:
Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense. Let those materials be molded into . . . sound morality, and . . . a reverence for the Constitution and laws.
Crews hopes his students come to see Lincoln as the preeminent exemplar of 鈥渦nimpassioned reason.鈥� Lincoln could 鈥渟eparate his personal feelings from what he thought needed to be done.鈥� He could 鈥渞ead the pulse of the people and then pull them to where he felt they needed to be. He didn’t get them all the way over. But he was able to shift the national conversation through his reason, and through his ability to speak to the people in ways that they could understand.鈥�
Lincoln鈥檚 Rhetoric
Lincoln鈥檚 ability to reach ordinary citizens with his words makes him 鈥渢he easiest author to teach,鈥� says Brett Van Gaasbeek. 鈥淗e鈥檚 brilliant, and he鈥檚 folksy, and folksy translates to kids, especially to those from backgrounds similar to his.鈥� Van Gaasbeek teaches at Cincinnati Northwest High School, in what was once a thriving working-class neighborhood but now houses those left behind by a changing job market.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an interesting place to teach, because the student population is so diverse鈥� 鈥攁bout 50% Caucasian; 40% African American, and 10% Asian or Hispanic. Many are immigrants. Outside of school, most care for younger siblings or work long hours in service jobs. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to interest them in the issues debated by Clay, Calhoun and Webster. The don鈥檛 even see the relevance of William Lloyd Garrison or Frederick Douglass. For them, the struggle over slavery is long past. They come alive when we discuss Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.鈥�
Nevertheless, Lincoln gets through. Van Gaasbeek spoke of recently teaching Lincoln鈥檚 Lyceum Address to his advanced placement and dual credit students. He鈥檇 begun by setting the context. 鈥淟incoln was born in 1809, and gave this speech when he was 29. Where does this put him in our history?鈥� A student replied, 鈥渨ell, he鈥檚 not a founding father.鈥� Van Gaasbeek then asked an avid follower of football to list the greatest quarterbacks, starting from today and continuing back to the 1980s. After struggling to come up with the earlier stars, the student agreed that each generation must have learned from their predecessors. Van Gaasbeek drove home the point. 鈥淕reat quarterbacks watch what other guys do. What is Lincoln saying about our political institutions? If the perception is we’re not getting any better, are we failing to train the next generation?鈥�
When students reached Lincoln鈥檚 line, 鈥淲e must live through all time, or die by suicide,鈥� one said, 鈥淗e was speaking in 1838; the Civil War began in 1861. Was he predicting this war 23 years beforehand?鈥� Another said, 鈥淭his problem Lincoln鈥檚 talking about鈥攊s that why people were so upset about January 6?鈥�
In the next weeks, these students would read the Peoria and House Divided speeches, excerpts of the Lincoln-Douglass Debates, the First Inaugural, Gettysburg Address, and the Second Inaugural. Afterwards, Van Gaasbeek would ask them whether Lincoln was consistent in his view of abolition. 鈥淔rom 51 students, I鈥檒l get 51 different responses,鈥� ranged at slightly different points in the middle of a continuum between avidly in favor of abolition and uninterested in it, Van Gaasbeek predicted. They will all understand something about Lincoln and his priorities, even though they鈥檒l reach different conclusions.
Van Gaasbeek thinks Lincoln speaks to students today much as he spoke to citizens of his own time, making each feel a connection to him. 鈥淗e handled the greatest crisis this nation has ever faced, speaking in a way that made people feel better about it.鈥� As the war neared its end, Lincoln delivered the Second Inaugural Address, telling those on both sides of the conflict that the bloodshed they suffered was needed to 鈥渃leanse them all of the sin of slavery. He doesn鈥檛 cast blame鈥攅xcept to blame us all.鈥� Van Gaasbeck believes that most of those listening must have felt convicted, and readier to forgive the other side鈥攂ecause Lincoln goes beyond rhetoric to poetry that changes hearts. 鈥淲hat a testament to a leader who for four years has himself been blamed by critics on all sides for causing a terrible war. . . . Even on his worst day, Lincoln is the person we would all aspire to be.鈥�
