Lincoln was elected president in November 1860, the Republican defeating the Democrat John Breckinridge, the Democrat Stephen Douglas and yet another unionist, the Constitutional Union’s John Bell. On the brink of civil war, Lincoln’s travel from Illinois to Washington, D.C., was perilous. At one point he travelled incognito to avoid hostile mobs, which required him to abandon the stove-pipe hat.
That first inaugural remains relevant today. It is Lincoln’s disposition, both of attitude and policy, toward those who would soon enough become his enemies in battle. “Permit me,” said Sen. Stephen Douglas, stepping forward to take Lincoln’s hat. He held it on his lap throughout the speech.Article content
Douglas had been Lincoln’s nemesis; aside from Lincoln, he may have been the greatest orator in American politics. And now, he quietly took the hat. It was a magnanimous gesture not overlooked by the rest of the great and good on the dais. The spirit of that day — from the hat to the text — was all the more remarkable given that war was in the air. That spirit is the antidote to so much of what poisons political life today, where rancour and division are often the first choice, not the last resort.Article content
Where is Canada's Lincoln?!!
At the end of his first inaugural address, delivered to a nation deeply divided and on the brink of civil war, Abraham Lincoln concluded, We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Lincoln’s words ring true today, especially for a new generation raised on political