Lincoln’s Surprising Leadership

I have a goal of reading a biography about each U.S. president. I initially started reading in order, until I got to Zachary Taylor. Unsurprisingly, the available biographies in local libraries dried up for a few presidents so I have begun to skip around. Last month, I read one on Lincoln. Today, on his birthday, I would like to share what struck me most profoundly about his life and leadership.

The biography I chose was Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Abraham Lincoln is one of the most beloved presidents of the United States and I am not saying anything new when I affirm that he was a great man and an incredible president. What made him so great? Why was he so beloved? Goodwin’s perspective helped answer this a little bit for me, though in an unexpected way. It was a long read, so it worked out that I had two weeks of being sick and having to isolate to get me through more than 750 pages. One reason for the length of the biography is that Goodwin also traces the careers of Lincoln’s greatest rivals in his nomination for presidential candidate of the newly formed Republican Party. Why spend so many words on his defeated rivals? Lincoln obviously saw their worth. In fact, he persuaded them to join his cabinet (and for some, it took significant persuading to keep them there). He filled out his cabinet with quite a diverse range of backgrounds and political opinions with the purpose of getting a truly balanced advising body. It was not always an easy group to work with, but his amazing talent seemed to be in harnessing the differences for good.

Lincoln was certainly not a perfect man nor a perfect president. He was criticized by nearly everyone at some point for not being radical enough or not being conservative enough. He was accused of being too proslavery and too antislavery. Today, he is sometimes still criticized for his stance on slavery. It bothers many that he said, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” Yet, for his time, Lincoln had incredible compassion for the enslaved while also demonstrating unusual graciousness toward the rebellious Confederates. Lincoln not only issued the Emancipation Proclamation, but also fought diligently for the passage of the 13^th amendment, allowed black men to fight in the Union army, and welcomed blacks, including Frederick Douglass, into the White House as friends.

Perhaps what made Abraham Lincoln so great was not his memorable eloquence or his notable friendliness, but his ability to work with people he disagreed with and strike the best balance for the United States as a whole. He once said, “Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.” Lincoln had the ability to stand by other men in the areas that he saw were right while disagreeing with them when they were wrong. He also showed a willingness to be reconciled and join together again when views aligned once again.

I think we can all learn from his perspective.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash