The Middle East is in crisis. A government shutdown over the debt ceiling looms. Public sector unions are fighting in states across the country. But gratefully, and with impeccable timing, author and historian Lewis E. Lehrman emailed me three articles, stories that elegantly and graciously remind us how our leaders pulled our country through even darker days. This is the first of a three-part series.
This piece about President Abraham Lincoln’s patriotism by Mr. Lehrman first ran in the Stamford Advocate on February 12, 2011. Mr. Lehrman is co-founder of the Gilder-Lehrman
Institute of American History and author of “Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point” (Stackpole Books, 2008).
I cede the floor to Mr. Lehrman:
President-elect Lincoln made very few public remarks before departing Springfield, Ill.,
for Washington for his inauguration in 1861. On Nov. 20, 1860, however, Lincoln
addressed some very brief comments to supporters in Springfield. He urged them
“neither express, nor cherish, any harsh feeling towards any citizen who, by his vote, has
differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a
common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.”
Lincoln’s concern was catholic.