Slavery & its Aftermath: Revisiting Lyceum

Review by Bill Doughty––

The shadow of Lincoln looms over some politicians who restrict certain books and the teaching of slavery. Learning about American history, both shiny and tarnished aspects, is key to a strong republic and successful self-government, as suggested in Diana Schaub’s “His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation” (St. Martin’s Press, 2021).

Schaub examines three speeches and related dates as “punctuation points”: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, with themes tied to 1619 and the beginning of the sin of slavery of African Americans in North America; The Gettysburg Address, echoing 1776 and the Declaration of Independence; and young Lincoln's Lyceum speech, bringing forth ideals outlined in the Constitution of 1787: “American purpose and destiny” and respect for law and order.

Lincoln wanted to place slavery “in the course of ultimate extinction.” He wanted progressive perpetuation of the nation in the face of disintegration. He called for a continued pursuit of “a more perfect union.”

This book is essential to understanding the reasons for (1) the insurrection of January 6, 2021, (2) the rise of white nationalism and violent extremism, (3) threats of a potential  autocracy, and (4) the need to defend the Constitution and protect the rule of law, voting rights and personal freedoms.

In his Lyceum address, Lincoln said, “The lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used to no restraint, but dread punishment, they thus become absolutely restrained. Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much as its total annihilation.”

He called such lawlessness “Mobocratic spirit,” in which anger makes restraint more difficult. Lincoln saw “increasing disregard for the law” and risk of despotic autocracy that “fits the very definition of arbitrary rule: unlimited, unrestrained, capricious,” Schaub writes. “By contrast, these constitutionally articulated parts divide and check power through their complex relation to one another.”

Master Chief Marcious Kelley and another Sailor assigned to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C., January 27, 2017. USS Lincoln organized a tour for 23 Sailors of the Lincoln Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the African-American History Museum. (Matthew Herbst)

Schaub compares Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolence with the concept of peaceableness: “Peaceableness is a demanding standard –– more demanding than non-violence since it applies to the attitude of those gathered, not just their actions.” Schaub also analyzes Lincoln's philosophy with the thinking of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, more prone to condoning violence than preaching peaceableness.

The Lyceum speech ties back to another great American, President George Washington, and specifically Washington’s Farewell Address and warnings, not only of threats from other nations, but also of divisions from within. Schaub writes:

“Washington warns against sectionalism that would ‘tend to render Alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection’; Lincoln worries about ‘the alienation of their affections from the Government’ –– a generalized, rather than sectional, alienation felt by ‘the American People.’ Washington announces in the strongest terms that compliance with the law and the Constitution is ‘sacredly obligatory upon all’; the lesson in democratic theory is reiterated by Lincoln and supplemented with his call for a ‘political religion’ or ‘reverence’ for the Constitution and laws. Washington inveighs against the dangerous effects of ‘the strongest passions’ and the ‘cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men’ who would ‘usurp for themselves the reins of Government’; Lincoln, too, disparages passion –– calls it ‘our enemy’ –– and puts us on guard against the unbounded ambition of the republic-destroyers.”

The Founders, including Washington and especially Hamilton and Madison, were “aware of the power latent in the love of fame” so they set up a complex system of checks and balances to protect against the rise of a narcissistic ego-driven autocrat. The checks include the legislative, judicial, and executive branches as well as the balance of national/federal and state power.

Navy Recruiter PO Jasmine Allen (CPO Todd Macdonald)

“According to Lincoln,” Schaub writes, “the only restraint upon the incipient tyrant must come from the concerted resistance of … the people.”

In order to progress from slavery, insurrection, racism and discrimination toward that "more perfect union," one needs faith in reason and critical thinking, not in passion and pure emotion.

Lincoln and Washington used the word “passion” in its original meaning, that of strong feelings of a negative nature. Think: January 6th rioters and insurrectionists.

Lincoln said, perhaps presciently, “Passion has helped us [in the Revolutionary War], but it can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy.”

“Passion,” to Lincoln, meant more hate, revenge, and fear –– more divisiveness. He even eschewed compassion, choosing instead to approach issues with logic.

According to Schaub, “Lincoln sought always to lift the slavery debate to the level of principle and unimpassioned reason, avoiding the dangerous ground of compassion, anger, and blame.”

In Lincoln’s case, the strong passions of the mob included vigilantism and lynchings that were happening especially in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. His description of black bodies hanging from trees like so much Spanish moss reminds people of the Billie Holiday song “Strange Fruit,” Schaub observes.

While the mob’s desire was to crack down on what they saw as crimes, they in fact emboldened the criminals. “When law is disregarded for the sake of justice, that provides license for those who would disregard law for purposes of their own.”

Lincoln believed in obeying even “bad laws” until they could be changed. That is where his and MLK’s philosophy splits. In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King calls for disobeying unconscionable laws but, importantly, disobeying them openly and lovingly.

Yet, Schaub presents an example of Lincoln disobeying a law when the standard for doing so was “too intolerable.” It occurred during the war when the widow of a white officer who died while commanding African American troops pleaded with President Lincoln. She asked for him to help “widows” of fallen black service members who hadn’t been able to marry before going off to war and so were ineligible for death benefits for themselves and their children. Lincoln stepped in “as if there had been a legal marriage” and arranged for help to the widows and orphans.

Schaub quotes Martin Luther King Jr. again later in “His Greatest Speeches”: “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Schaub writes, “Aware of the inescapable reciprocity of rights –– Lincoln always insisted that it was imperative to restore the belief in universal equality for the sake of white citizens, as well as for the sake of the enslaved people.”

Schaub notes that Lincoln and King are “often viewed as our nation’s greatest moral lights.” The two great men would probably agree on Lincoln’s recommendations for preventing mobocracy and resulting autocracy.

Lincoln’s solutions, as revealed by Schaub:

— Have “reverence for the laws,” recognizing usurpation (wrongfully seizing power) is suicide. 

— Win public sentiment: with it, everything; without it, nothing. 

— Harness personal ambition rather than try to suppress it; steer ambition to the duties of office and the public good. 

— Recognize two fundamental blessings in the United States: Nature and Government: “Both legacies must be transmitted to the next generation.” 

— Be law-abiding, not out of fear but out of reverence. 

— Engage and prove the unproven proposition of the Founders, namely “the capability of a people to govern themselves.” Vote. 

— Become an educated citizenry; more education, more books! [It was remarkable and memorable when former CNO Adm. Jon Greenert unveiled his take on the Navy’s Reading Program in 2012 by standing in front of hundreds of books –– all related to Abraham Lincoln.]

“In his first appearance on the political stage, announcing his candidacy for office in 1832, Lincoln endorsed public education so that citizens might, through the reading of history, ‘duly appreciate the values of our free institutions.’ He makes a similar linkage here, telling us that the system of political institutions serves ‘the ends of civil and religious liberty’ and that the whole elaborate arrangement requires ‘general intelligence’ on the part of the people.”

Lincoln refers to a tangible “fabric of freedom.”

A command ball cap from the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64) rests upon on a stone wall on the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pa. The ship’s crew visited and paid honor to the ship’s longstanding ties to its namesake town, July 2, 2015. (MC3 Rachel E. Rakoff)

In “His Greatest Speeches,” Schaub dissects not only the Lyceum speech, but also the most famous American speech, The Gettysburg Address, as well as The Second Inaugural Address, where Lincoln says –– relevant to today’s controversies about what is taught in schools –– achievement of “a just and lasting peace among ourselves” requires reconciliation through what Schaub calls truth-telling and an inquiry into the cause and purpose of the war.”

In other words, we must teach the truth about slavery, the original sin, and take truth out from the shadows.

Abraham Lincoln & January 6th

Review by Bill Doughty––

This “found haiku” comes from Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address in Springfield, Illinois on January 27, 1838:

Reason must furnish

all the materials for

our future support

The speech is quoted in one of the four forewords in the massive “The January 6th Report: Findings from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol” (December 2022, U.S. Government Publishing Office).

In fact, Lincoln appears on the very first page of the report.

Representative Adam Schiff, author and finisher of the J6 Report, recounts how Lincoln –– then a state legislator in Illinois –– addressed young men about a rebellious time of mob violence, including lynchings, general crimes, and disregard for the rule of law. Lincoln chose to speak about "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”

In Schiff’s words, Lincoln spoke about internal threats “not the threat of foreign invasion, even though the War of 1812 was only two decades past. It was the danger from within that a young Lincoln identified as our gravest threat.”

Lincoln is also quoted in the second foreword to the book by former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: “Let us always honor our oath to, as Abraham Lincoln said, ‘nobly save or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.’ So help us God.”

In the third foreword to the book, chairman of the committee Rep. Bernie Thompson says he was advised to remove his lapel pin so he wouldn’t be identified and targeted by attackers who threatened to kill legislators and the vice president. He chose not to remove his pin and thereby showed support for the defenders of the Capitol and against the attackers.

“We can never surrender to democracy’s enemies,” Thompson writes. “We can never allow America to be defined by forces of division and hatred. We can never go backward in the progress we have made through the sacrifice and dedication of true patriots. We can never and will never relent in our pursuit of a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all Americans.”

Former Representative Liz Cheney, vice chair of the committee, opens the report’s fourth and final foreword with a story about Abraham Lincoln issuing the first call for volunteers for the Union Army in April 1861 and how her great-great grandfather, Samuel Fletcher Cheney signed up for the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Cheney, a Republican like Lincoln, writes: “I have found myself thinking often, especially since January 6th, of my great-great grandfather, and all those in every generation who have sacrificed so much for (quoting OVI’s regimental historian Silas Canfield) “the unity of our Nation and the perpetuity of our institutions.”

Cheney says, “At the heart of our republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power.”

Cheney notes how General George Washington resigned his commission and handed control of the Continental Army back to Congress. (When Washington’s term as president ended, he rejected calls by some to remain in office as dictator.)

This bipartisan report features a comprehensive Executive Summary that encapsulates the main thrust of the investigation and its findings in the report. Within the summary is a list of witnesses, nearly five dozen of whom are registered Republicans. Only one witness, the Secretary of State of Michigan, is identified as a Democrat.

Most of the report, itself, is a “Narrative” in 8 chapters that explores: the Big Lie of a stolen election, the scheme of fake electors, the plan to block certification of the election by the vice president, the invitation of then-President Trump to come to D.C. and march to the Capitol to “fight like hell,” an examination of the role of far right extremists in the insurrection, and “187 minutes of dereliction” in which the commander in chief chose not to call off the rioters nor order DOD to send the national guard to defend the Senate and House of Representatives.

The long “narrative” is excellent writing: True historical storytelling in the tradition of David McCullough; careful citing of facts and sources in the vein of Craig Symonds; and drama and suspense –– especially during the actual lead-up and breaching of the Capitol –– in the style of Tom Clancy. As with the Executive Summary, there are extensive endnotes throughout.

Military readers will be interested in reading two of the appendices: Government Agency Preparation for and Response to January 6th, and DC National Guard Preparation for and Response to January 6th.

The report cites what one witness called “decision paralysis” and “decision avoidance.” Army leaders were “sensitive to the sight of troops near the site of the congressional certification of electoral votes.” The report examines “fears of politicizing the military in an anti-democratic manner” in the wake of the heavy handed National Guard confrontation with protesters in the summer of 2020, which included low-flying military helicopters. The Guard was deployed and used chemical agents to clear Lafayette Square for Trump’s photo-op holding up a Bible at St. John’s Church.

While the report has been criticized by some progressives for not examining the motivation and role of Christian Nationalism specifically, the report does mention QAnon Shaman Jacob “Angeli” Chansley’s leading of a “conspiracy-laden prayer session” at the Senate dais after shouting “Mike Pence is a f—ing traitor” at the spot where Pence had been presiding. Chansley left a note that read: “It’s only a matter of time. Justice is coming.”

The committee thoroughly investigated the actions of other QAnon conspiracy believers and white nationalists. Chapter 6, “Be There, Will Be Wild,” examines extremist militia groups such as The Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers, and The Three Percenters.”

More than 1,000 rioters have been indicted since the insurrection. Many remain in jail and many more have been stained with a criminal record. While some have had their lives ruined, others, like Chansley, who has already been released from prison, are cashing in on their fame and hardening their support with the far right. Some key leaders and planners of the attack are facing much longer prison terms.

Since publication of The January 6th Report, the most serious convictions have occurred among military veterans who in many ways led the attack. On May 4, five members of the Proud Boys were convicted of various charges, including four members convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Last week, on May 25, the Department of Justice announced: “Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, and Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida chapter of the organization, were sentenced today for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Rhodes, an Army veteran from Texas, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, “the longest sentence, to date, related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.” Fellow militia leader Meggs received a sentence of 12 years. “This is the first time a court has found that a defendant’s conduct related to the January 6 attack was tantamount to terrorism warranting an upward departure under the sentencing guidelines,” according to DOJ.

“Today’s sentences reflect the grave threat the actions of these defendants posed to our democratic institutions,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The United States proved at trial that the Oath Keepers plotted for months to violently disrupt the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. The Justice Department will continue to do everything in our power to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6th attack on our democracy.” 

It’s becoming clear that there is a litmus test for who will be elected as the next President and commander in chief of the military next year: Voters will choose between those who believe in accountability for those who stormed the Capitol and those who promise pardons for the seditionists and rioters such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

Rep. Adam Schiff

The “Oath Keepers” name seems Orwellian when one considers the actual oath all military service members take to support and defend the Constitution –– and a similar oath civilian leaders take to support the Constitution –– the foundational document that outlines the peaceful transfer of power.

Representative Schiff said this about the Constitution and the oath:

“Even the most brilliant Constitution cannot protect us if the people sworn to uphold it do not give meaning to their oath of office, if that oath is not informed by ideas of right and wrong, and if people are unwilling to accept the basic truth of things. None of it will be enough.

But if we allow ourselves to be guided by facts –– not faction –– if we choose our representatives based on their allegiance to the law and the Constitution, then we should have every confidence that our proud legacy of self-government will go on.”

That’s the accountability, respect for truth and justice, and faith in the rule of law Lincoln spoke about in the Lyceum Address, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”

Lincoln believed in an informed electorate, honest leaders, and support for the Constitution and rule of law, which he called “the political religion of our nation.”

with other pillars,

hewn from the solid quarry

of sober reason

Pillars of logic and reason found in the Constitution support our democracy.

There's more “found haiku” from Abe Lincoln and others on Navy Reads.

Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Found Haiku’

by Bill Doughty

Haiku: Insights distilled to three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables only.

Originally from Japan and traditionally nature based, haiku are poems that can bring out subtle but deep insights in a few words.  Sometimes, haiku can be found in other people’s words.  The ‘found haiku’ on this page come from the published works of President Abraham Lincoln.  These are his words:

with other pillars

hewn from the solid quarry

of sober reason

(Speech before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, Jan. 27, 1837)

his ruling passion --

a love of liberty and

right, unselfishly

(Eulogy of Henry Clay, July 16, 1852)

steadily as man’s

march to the grave, we have been

giving up the old

(Speech at Peoria, Illinois on Kansas-Nebraska Act, Oct. 16, 1854)

We live in the midst

of alarms, anxiety

beclouds the future

(Speech before the first Republican State Convention of Illinois, May 29, 1856)

In my opinion...

a house divided against

itself cannot stand

(Speech before the first Republican State Convention of Illinois, June 17, 1858)

that if a man says

he knows a thing, then he must

show how he knows it

(Speech at first Lincoln-Douglas debate, Aug. 21, 1858)

Let us have faith that

right makes might; and in that faith

...dare to do our duty

(Speech at New Haven, Connecticut, March 6, 1860)

touched, as surely

they will be, by the better

angels of our nature

(First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1861)

Let us proceed in

the great task which events have

devolved upon us

(First Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1861)

Slavery is the

root of the rebellion...

it’s sine qua non

(Reply to a committee from Chicago religious denominations, Sept. 13, 1862)

The subject is on

my mind, by day and night, more

than any other

(Reply to a committee from Chicago religious denominations, Sept. 13, 1862)

Sorrow comes to all

and to the young it comes with

bittered agony

(Letter to Fanny McCullough, Dec. 23, 1862)

Peace does not appear

so distant as it did. I

hope it will come soon

(Letter to James C. Conkling, Aug. 26, 1863)

with malice toward none,

with charity for all, with

firmness in the right

(Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865)

We shall sooner have

the fowl by hatching the egg

than by smashing it

(“On Reconstruction,” his last public address, April 11, 1865)

President Lincoln, 1864

Lincoln was a master of prose whose writing feels like poetry.  His Gettysburg Address and his inaugural addresses are some of the finest examples of writing in American History.  As we reflect on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Navy Reads will continue to periodically feature works by and about our 16th President. As we end wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, deal with perils of a continuing resolution and sequestration, and even contemplate asteroids and meteors in 2013, Lincoln’s words offer inspiration, perspective and hope.

The haiku in this Navy Reads post were "found" by Bill Doughty from works published in “The Essential Abraham Lincoln,” from the Library of Freedom, published by Gramercy Books, distributed by Outlet Book Company, Inc., a Random House company. The works are from Lincoln’s original papers, collected in The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln (twelve volumes, 1905), edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay, and prepared with the cooperation of Robert Todd Lincoln, the president’s son.