‘Malice toward none … charity for all’ vision of Lincoln still a goal for divided nation
Congressional leaders, particularly Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, should go, unannounced, to the Lincoln Memorial, and together read, on the north wall, the closing words of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, along ourselves, and with all nations.”
Lincoln delivered his address on March 4, 1865, then the constitutionally mandated date for presidential inaugurations, since changed to January 20. Lincoln’s words were hailed, 156 years ago, by leaders such as Frederick Douglass, one of the great orators of the time.
Lincoln referred to his first inauguration, “the occasion corresponding to this four years ago,” when he urged Northerners and Southerners to “not be enemies.” That was as Civil War loomed. Lincoln had thought much about reuniting North and South after the war.
‘POWERFUL INTEREST’
In the Second Inaugural Address, as the end of battle neared, Lincoln referred to slavery, “… a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.”
Forty-one days after Lincoln’s second inauguration, he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre. The “malice toward none; with charity for all” Lincoln envisioned was not to be. Vice President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee became president, one of the most ineffective in U.S. history.
Throughout U.S. history, there has been division, even during crises when the nation has come together as during World War II. Leaders of the major political parties, Democratic and Republican, have managed to place the national well-being ahead of partisan interests. Examples include the Truman Doctrine following WWII, and civil rights advances in the 1960s.
Republican presidents (Ronald Reagan) worked with Democratic-controlled Congresses and Democratic presidents (Bill Clinton) worked with Republican-controlled Congresses. Moderate Republican presidents such as Dwight Eisenhower faced opposition from conservative Congressional leaders such as Robert Taft of Ohio.
STATE LEGISLATURES
In state legislatures, Republicans have ironclad control of some, Democrats of others. The parties are at odds on various issues, although there seems to be far more bipartisanship in Columbia than in Washington.
At the national level, Congressional Republicans refused to support a pandemic relief plan that has wide support of Republican voters. Substantial majorities of registered voters, Republicans and Democrats, support background checks for purchasers of firearms. Voting rights protections, absolutely fundamental to American democracy, seem lost in Republican fears of losing power.
The most recent former president, continuing his Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen from him, is all about revenge. He has announced support of an announced 2022 primary election opponent of the Georgia secretary of state.
FLUMMOXING SUPPORT
The former president did not invent demagogy and the indecency that goes with it; however, he aided and abetted white supremacy and utterly false notions about science, including the coronavirus pandemic. Those are but two examples of why it is flummoxing that so many continue to support him.
Horry County and other local GOP leaders tiptoe around Donald Trump. Lindsey Graham talked about capturing “the magic of Trump” and in the same soundbite acknowledged Trump could also destroy the Republican party.
Implicit in “malice toward none; with charity toward all” is equality for people who do not look the same; at least a degree of tolerance for differing viewpoints; a willingness to listen to – and perhaps understand – the other sides of issues.
Lincoln’s vision for a unified nation is good today, for all citizens as well as organizations including political parties and elected leaders at every level of governance. May it be so.