The Poet President & The Radical

Vonnegut called him our Poet President. To me, he is mankind's greatest achievement after Jesus Christ. I refer, of course, to Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President. Everyone who came after him would agree he's a tough act to follow. Yet now more than ever, the people in our federal and state legislatures would do well to follow his lead. Since it's pretty obvious that few of them actually read books, I'd recommend they take a break between fundraising dinners to see Speilberg's Lincoln, which was released last week. I'd also recommend it to the numerous lever pullers and partisans, left and right, who think they know everything. They might learn they don't.

Spielberg's Lincoln is supposed to be based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals. Her title refers to Lincoln's cabinet, most of whose members considered his election a colossal mistake. Some of them, like Secretary of War Stanton, snubbed him as a lawyer many years before, laughing at his tattered clothing. They called him an ape, a gorilla. But these same cabinet members slowly realized that Lincoln was just the man our fractured country needed. When our Poet President was cut down by a gunshot wound, it is Stanton who announced, "Now he belongs to the ages."

Even as President, Lincoln was snubbed. He once paid a late-night visit to General George McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, to discuss strategy. McClellan was out, so Lincoln waited, stovepipe hat in hand. When McClellan returned home, Lincoln waited another half hour until a porter came to tell him that the General had retired for the evening.

Lincoln took no disciplinary action. He was used to being snubbed. His was a life of hardship, what he himself would call the "short and simple annals of the poor." In his youth, he lost his mother and sister to illness. As a young man, his first love died as a result of illness as well, nearly driving him to suicide. And as a father, he saw two sons die.

In the movie, you see little of Lincoln's interesting and evolving relationship with his cabinet. You only see glimpses of the deep depressions he often suffered. You see little of the abuse he endured from his mentally unstable wife, who did love him. What you do see in detail is his relationship with a divided House. Just the year before, its members refused to adopt a Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery. But Lincoln considered that crucial, and he wanted bi-partisan support.

The House's biggest proponent for abolition of slavery was Thaddeus Stevens, a Pennsylvanian from Lancaster. He was an unbending radical, a man ahead of his times. It is Stevens who, here in Pennsylvania, successfully defended a law providing for public education when it was certain to fail. It is Stevens who believed our differences are a cause for celebration, not intolerance.

But Stevens, like most draped in self-righteousness, was also very divisive. Lincoln was worried that this great orator might inflame some House Democrats who would otherwise support abolition.

Lincoln and Stevens discuss this, at least in the movie. Stevens assures Lincoln that a compass will always point true north. Lincoln agrees but tells Stevens that a compass won't tell you about the swamps between you and north.

If you don't avoid the swamps, what's the use of knowing true north, asks the President.

Stevens took Lincoln's warning to heart and moderated his commentary in the House debate that followed, to the chagrin of Democrats attempting to bait him.

Lincoln eventually got his bi-partisan support. The House adopted a Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery. Black men are free.

Because it's not enough to know true north.

This is a lesson that both President Obama and House Republicans should take to heart. It's a lesson for us all.