On This Day....

Abraham Lincoln and the Conundrum of the Presidency

On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died. He was shot the day before, point blank, in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth. Those around him said it was his great strength of character that lingered on through the night, before finally succumbing to his wounds. Friday, April 14, 1865, was Good Friday. That Sunday, the day after Lincoln died, was Easter.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Lincoln lately. Partly because of my recent volume, Mourning the Presidents. Audiences usually ask what surprised me the most or what I learned, and one of the answers has to do with Lincoln’s death. I’m certain I learned at some point that he died the day before Easter, but that fact didn’t really stick until I read Martha Hodes’s fantastic chapter.

The significance was not lost on Lincoln’s contemporaries. In 1865, most Americans attended church regularly and were observant Christians. Rather than celebrating Easter, many were shocked and dismayed at the sudden, violent death of the president. They couldn’t help but see the parallels between the Jesus in their bibles who died for their sins, and a president, shot down in his prime, for the nation’s sins. (John Wilkes Booth was a Confederate sympathizer and determined to prevent widespread abolition).

Harper’s Weekly c/o Ford’s Theater

It's hard to imagine how destabilizing Lincoln’s death was for his fellow Americans—in addition to the religious symbolism, it was also the first assassination and came just as the end of the war was in sight. With the benefit of hindsight, we have even more reason to grieve the loss. There is no way to know how Lincoln might have handled Reconstruction, of course, but almost certainly he would have done better than Andrew Johnson.

The circumstances of his death have been on my mind, but I’ve also been noodling on how Lincoln emphasizes one of the great mysteries of the presidency. By almost all measures, Lincoln was wildly unqualified to be president. He had almost no governing experience and even less management experience. There was little in his background to suggest he had the skills needed to see the nation through its greatest crisis. The nation got darn lucky that they happened to elect him when it did.

I recently listened to an Axelbank Reports History and Today podcast interview with Ed Acorn, who talks about this extraordinary luck. He writes about “the Lincoln Miracle,” when the Republican Convention elected Lincoln. The delegates didn’t have any particular foresight about Lincoln’s skills or the impending civil war. Instead, Lincoln was relatively unobjectionable, a good second choice for most electors, and benefitted from skilled and creative convention staff.

And yet, as we know, Lincoln was one of the most extraordinary presidents. On the other hand, presidents who should be great, who possess all the possible qualifications, sometimes struggle once they are in the highest office. James Madison had an IQ of a trillion (I exaggerate, but only slightly) and had been in public service for decades. His presidency was a disaster. It’s almost futile to predict who will do well and who won’t.

There are tons of reasons for that challenge. It’s impossible to predict what events might come down the road, what challenges might bedevil the president, or how domestic politics might morph to pose additional obstacles. Therefore, it’s hard to select someone who might be equipped to meet the moment.

But the presidency is also part of the problem. If you’ve ever heard me speak about the executive branch, you’ve probably heard me encourage you to read Article II of the Constitution. It’s incredibly short and little is written down. Since the Constitution’s ratification, the nation has passed additional laws and countless statutes to supplement the written word or fill out some of the fuzzy bits. But so many gaps remain.

One of Lincoln’s greatest strengths was his keen awareness of those enormous gaps and their legal importance, and then his willingness to plunge headfirst into the blank spaces. Nowhere was this dichotomy more on display than Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and his subsequent support for the 13^th Amendment to resolve the issue of slavery once and for all.

This clip isn’t the best quality but if you’ve never seen the movie Lincoln, or it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, you really must watch this scene. All six minutes. It’s worth every second, promise:

I’ve talked about this moment before, including on the Historians at the Movies podcast, but I will never tire of it. The acting, the dynamics at play, and Lincoln’s famous use of storytelling and humor to convey a message or lighten the mood are all remarkable.

But what stands out to me every single time is Lincoln’s acute knowledge of the laws, his power under them, and the inconsistencies and hypocrisies forged in times of war. The circular logic he employs to end slavery and his unparalleled ability to explain that circular logic and navigate it. He understood presidential power, and more importantly, he understood where that power ended. But he also knew what the war required of him to win. And he was willing to do it and hoped Congress would make it legal later or that history would forgive him. That takes extraordinary bravery and also maybe a bit of insanity.

I don’t think we should glorify power, nor should we casually dismiss the abuse of power—even if for the very best reasons. To be fair, even Lincoln may have gone too far by suspending habeas corpus during the war. Lincoln’s rationale could easily go very, very bad in the wrong hands, and has in the past. It’s a delicate balance.

But isn’t that one of the most confounding parts of our political system? So much isn’t written down, even to this day. So many expectations and demands are placed on the president, when they frequently don’t have the means, will, or even legal authority to address the issue.

This conundrum has plagued the nation since the founding era. The framers of the Constitution didn’t want a king. They had just fought a war to free themselves from the monarchy. But governing by committee or Congress didn’t work either, as they learned the hard way during the Confederation period. The president needed to be somewhere in the middle.

While we place the burdens of leadership on the shoulders of one person, we are going to continue to face this dilemma. It works best when there is a powerful president, but also a Congress that functions effectively as a partner and a check. The perfect balance is illusive and so many gaps remain.

As I reflect on Lincoln, I’m convinced that the key is to find someone who treasures the legal system - we are a nation of laws after all - and pursues a deep understanding of how it works. But we also need someone who embraces the need for creativity and boldness. And finally, we need someone who recognizes that their actions may be wrong. They must be willing to face the consequences of their actions in the near term and bear the burden of history’s judgment forever after.

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If you are new to my newsletter, thank you! If you’d like to read more, please consider The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution and Mourning the Presidents.

Available for purchase on Amazon, Bookshop, or wherever you like to buy books.

Podcasts/Radio:

Founding Son: John Quincy’s America, April 13, 2023, #1- The Corrupt Bargain

[Abridged] Presidential Histories, April 3, 2023, #32.B: FDR’s death & the history of presidential mourning, an interview with Lindsay Chervinsky & Matthew Costello

With the Bark Off, March 30, 2023, A Conversation About Presidential Funerals and Mourning with Lindsay Chervinsky and Matthew Costello

Press:

Face the Nation, CBS, April 9, 2023 (preempted by Masters Tournament coverage).

“Trump 2024 campaign strategy after indictment prepares supporters for more charges against him,” USA Today, April 13, 2023

“An Avett Brother Meets a Founding Son: John Quincy Adams,” DNYUZ, April 12, 2023.

“Overlooked at home, Harris builds climate authority abroad,” E&E News, April 6, 2023.

“Donald Trump Becomes First Former President In U.S. History To Be Indicted,” Scripps News, April 1, 2023.

“Trump Becomes First Former President To Be Criminally Charged,” CNN, March 31, 2023.

“What the Founding Fathers Would Think of the Trump Indictment,” TIME, March 31, 2023.

“Trump Inquiries Present a Stress Test for Justice in a Polarized Nation,” The New York Times, March 23, 2023.

Events:

April 12, 18, and 19: University of Virginia, Building a New Nation: The Role of Four Virginia Presidents

May 11: SMU Center for Presidential History, Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture

May 17: National Archives

July 13: American Battlefield Trust, National Teacher Institute 2023

September 7: Virginia Museum of History and Culture

September 14: Valley Forge Leadership Forum