Letter to the Editor: Lessons from Lincoln

To study human history is to study more than dates, events and the names of people, eras, civilizations and geographical areas. It is also to study cause and effect, patterns of thought and actions, the identification of problems and challenges, and solutions. Historians are the first to acknowledge history does not repeat itself, there are no hard and fast formulas with known outcomes, but they acknowledge patterns of behavior and proclivities. The history of human activity is a study of humans after all, and humans individually and collectively are largely predictable.

When we look at current events we can be confident there is historical evidence of similar events and circumstances to serve as a guide, a model, though not necessarily a precedent. Those who study history of any type know that current circumstances have similarly presented before. If we are aware, there is no need to be caught off guard.

In February of 1860, Abraham Lincoln traveled from Springfield, Ill., to New York City to deliver a speech which history refers to as the Cooper Union address. There is much to recommend in this speech from 158 years ago, but the point of this piece of writing is:  Pay Attention, Study History, and Educate Yourself.    

The theme of Lincoln’s speech, what he called his “text,” was a rebuttal of a Stephen Douglas speech in which Douglas, in an effort to prove the U.S. government had no power to limit slavery said, “Our fathers, when they framed the Government [the Constitution] under which we live, understood this question just as well, and even better, than we do now.” Douglas implied the framers who later served in Congress, did not act to limit slavery because they understood they had no authority to do so. Douglas gave no examples to support his premise. In essence he said, “Believe me.”  

In the first third of the Cooper Union speech, Lincoln systematically listed exactly what actions, what votes, were taken by the framers who served in the new republic’s early congresses. Of the 39 signers of the Constitution, 23 served in the first congressional session or subsequent sessions through 1820. These framers wrote and voted on legislation which affected slavery. Twenty-one voted to limit slavery, two of the 23 voted not to apply limits. All 23 voted on the issue with the understanding they were empowered to do so.

As he concluded this portion of the speech, Lincoln affirmed the right of any man to have an opinion, but not to mislead citizens as to the “facts” on which that opinion is based. “But he has no right to mislead others, who have less access to history, and less leisure to study it… substituting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument.”  

That quote is my theme. In these times while we have the access to history, we must study it.

Cathy Ward

Ellison Bay, Wis.