I very much enjoyed reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. I posted a book review on my shelf over at Shelfari. My favorite passage in the book is an analysis the author, Doris Kearns Goodwin, does of Lincoln's resonant First Inaugural Address. Before introducing her analysis, Ms. Goodwin spends many previous pages tracing the development and boundaries of Lincoln's and William H. Seward's opinions on slavery. Seward phrases his abolition opinion as a response to a higher law that compels us to treat all people humanely. Lincoln phrases his anti-slavery opinion as a pragmatic fulfillment of the principles of equality enshrined in the Constitution. In the passage excerpted below, Ms. Goodwin lays out the language recommended by Seward side-by-side with the language Lincoln eventually chose. The texts are extremely similar, but the subtle differences exhibit important qualities of Lincoln: (1) his willingness to seek and embrace the advice of others; (2) his talent for effective eloquent communication as both a writer and editor; and (3) his confidence in adhering to the pragmatic idealism he believed in.
Seward’s greatest contribution to the tone and substance of the inaugural address was in its conclusion. Lincoln’s finale threw down the gauntlet to the South: “With you, and not with me, is the solemn question of ‘Shall it be peace, or a sword?’” Seward recommended a very different closing designed “to meet and remove prejudice and passion in the South, and despondency and fear in the East. Some words of affection—some of calm and cheerful confidence.” He suggested two alternate endings. Lincoln drew upon Seward’s language to create his immortal coda.
Seward suggested: “I close. We are not we must not be aliens or enemies but fellow countrymen and brethren. Although passion has strained our bonds of affection too hardly they must not, I am sure they will not be broken. The mystic chords which proceeding from so many battle fields and so many patriot graves pass through all the hearts and all the hearths in this broad continent of ours will yet again harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the nation.”
Lincoln proceeded to recast and sharpen Seward’s patriotic sentiments into a concise and powerful poetry: “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 battle-field, 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.” Most significant, Seward’s “guardian angel” breathes down on the nation from above; Lincoln’s “better angels” are inherent in our nature as a people.
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