A groundbreaking and "affecting and powerful" ( The New York Times Book Review ) history of Abraham Lincoln's plan to secure a just and lasting peace after the Civil War--a vision that inspired future presidents as well as the world's most famous peacemakers. As the tide of the Civil War turned in the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln took a dangerous two-week trip to visit the troops on the front lines accompanied by his young son, seeing combat up close, meeting liberated slaves in the ruins of Richmond, and comforting ...
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A groundbreaking and "affecting and powerful" ( The New York Times Book Review ) history of Abraham Lincoln's plan to secure a just and lasting peace after the Civil War--a vision that inspired future presidents as well as the world's most famous peacemakers. As the tide of the Civil War turned in the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln took a dangerous two-week trip to visit the troops on the front lines accompanied by his young son, seeing combat up close, meeting liberated slaves in the ruins of Richmond, and comforting wounded Union and Confederate soldiers. The power of Lincoln's personal example in the closing days of the war offers a portrait of a peacemaker. He did not demonize people he disagreed with. He used humor, logic, and scripture to depolarize bitter debates. Balancing moral courage with moderation, Lincoln believed that decency could be the most practical form of politics, but he understood that people were more inclined to listen to reason when greeted from a position of strength. Ulysses S. Grant's famously generous terms of surrender to General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox that April were an expression of a president's belief that a soft peace should follow a hard war. While his assassination sent the country careening off course, Lincoln's vision would be vindicated long after his death, inspiring future generations in their own quests to secure a just and lasting peace. As US General Lucius Clay, architect of the post-WWII German occupation said when asked what guided his decisions: "I tried to think of the kind of occupation the South would have had if Abraham Lincoln had lived." Lincoln and the Fight for Peace reveals with "its graceful prose and wise insights" (Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America ) how Lincoln's character informed his commitment to unconditional surrender followed by a magnanimous peace. Even during the Civil War, surrounded by reactionaries and radicals, he refused to back down from his belief that there is more that unites us than divides us. But he also understood that peace needs to be waged with as much intensity as war. Lincoln's plan to win the peace is his unfinished symphony, but in its existing notes, we can find an anthem that can begin to bridge our divisions today.
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Abraham Lincoln And The Overcoming Of Polarization
With so much divisiveness in the United States, it is valuable to think about American history to understand its nature and, perhaps, its mitigation. John Avlon, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the author of "Independent Nation: How the Vital Center is Changing American Politics" and "Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations" has made an effort towards this end in his recent book, "Lincoln and the Fight for Peace" (2022). His book is an exercise in public history in that it studies history outside the boundaries of the academy to make it accessible to a broad range of people.
The book has the explicit goal of showing how the legacy of our 16th president can help Americans with divisiveness and polarization, both among ourselves and with other nations. It thus paints broadly over its less than 300 pages. As Avlon points out, over 16,000 books have been written about Lincoln. While not an in-depth scholarly work, "Lincoln and the Fight for Peace" is thoughtful and worth reading, both for those with a detailed knowledge of Lincoln and for those who are interested in his accomplishments and legacy. The book is well-written, accessible, well-documented, and important.
Avlon begins with a lengthy Introduction setting forth the basics of Lincoln's life and presidency. This is the most important part of the book in framing its goals. The first three sections of the book cover the final few weeks of Lincoln's life, interweaving his own activities with the upcoming end of the Civil War and trying to find how Lincoln proposed to deal with the peace. The book focuses on a sixteen day trip Lincoln took to City Point, Virginia during the final days of the Siege of Petersburg and examines Lincoln's relationship with Grant and the Union military command, his peace negotiations with Confederate leaders, and his actions in Richmond after its fall. The aim of the discussion is to show how Lincoln insisted both on an unconditional surrender to end the war and then on a reconciliationist, malice-free approach to peace and to putting the country back together. Some of this material also is covered in Civil War historian Noah Trudeau's book "Lincoln's Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days that Changed a Presidency, March 24 -- April 8, 1865". Avlon's focus is broader, however, and his treatment shorter.
Within a week of this trip, Lincoln would be assassinated on Good Friday, April 14, 1865. Historians have debated endlessly and inconclusively on the "what-ifs" of Reconstruction if Lincoln had lived. Avlon wisely does not take a stance on the particulars. He points to the tragedy of Lincoln's death and argues that his policy of peace would somehow have been both firmer in protecting the rights of the freed former slaves and also less provocative of ill-feeling and violence from the defeated South. It is a tall order and a hard case to make in a few pages.
Avlon proceeds in Section V to discuss Reconstruction itself through Andrew Johnson, the Radical Republicans, President Grant, and the disputed election of 1876. He aptly points out many of the failures of the Era. One could hope that the spirit of Lincoln, outlined in Avlon's book, might have done better.
The final section of the book leaves Lincoln's era behind to explore WW I, WW II, and the Cold War and their quests for peace. By this time, Lincoln and become, and rightly so, a figure revered throughout the world. Avlon briefly suggests the ways in which activities of American statesmen at the end of these conflicts both met and failed to meet Lincoln's goals of firmness in war and on non-negotiable goals followed by magnanimity in peace.
In his conclusion, Avlon returns to Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and asks the reader to rethink its concluding paragraph which he describes as the "best sentence in our democracy" with "a durable wisdom, pointing imperfect people toward a more perfect union."
The book includes the texts of the Second Inaugural Address and of Lincoln's Final Speech, delivered from the White House on April 11, 1865.
With its brevity and scope, "Lincoln and the Fight for Peace" is an inspiring work of public history. Readers will learn about Lincoln and they may come to reflect on our current state of polarization in a new way. Avlon has written admirably in encouraging Americans to think about their history.
