One hundred and fifty years ago today Abraham Lincoln stood on the steps of the Capitol to take the oath as the 16th President of the United States.
Certainly few, if any Presidents faced a greater crisis on taking office. A significant portion of the country had left the union and even many of those who remained were hardly enthusiastic supporters of the new leader.
Over the next four years he would carry the nation through some of the greatest trials it would ever face. He would face the pain of the death of his child, he would carry the burden of sending thousands of men to die, and all for a struggle that he hardly knew would succeed.
During his first inaugural address he called on the nation to unify, and given the divisions we face today perhaps it is worth taking his words to heart.
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it.
Today we find ourselves divided on many issues and frequently there is the desire or demand that we must answer all questions now, we must be granted our viewpoint now, we must have everything we want now.
Yet there is value to taking time, to consider our own opinions, to work to support them not with our passions but with our intellect. We need to work together to find ways to cooperate where we can, compromise as we are able, and accept differences where we cannot.
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right?
As Lincoln pointed out, why can we not sit back and take the time to think calmly on the subjects that divide us. Consider the other person’s opinion, for how do we know the value of our own view if we do not ponder the good points raised by the other side ? A fundamental principle of debate is to defend our own view by finding ways of supporting the opposing one.
We may disagree with each other but we must never disagree with our right to hold opposing views, and the need to respect that viewpoint, even as we think it is wrong.
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Among the most eloquent of concluding phrases to an inaugural address. We must not be enemies, whether it be here on the internet or in our daily lives.
When tragedy strikes it should unite us, and yet it often today divides. When we succeed it should be an occassion for mutual joy, both from those who supported the policy and those who opposed, yet this often seems impossible today.
We are in many ways still that unique experiment that Lincoln worked to save, can we not today strive to commit a little of our energy to maintain it ?