IDEAS // Come Together
America Reconciled
by John Wood, Jr.
EXCERPT //
Abraham Lincoln was oft misunderstood. When Lincoln said that this nation cannot endure “half slave and half free,” critics would interpret Lincoln as calling for war. Surely—so his detractors believed—Lincoln meant to abolish slavery by force of law, which he knew the South could not abide. Yet Lincoln’s practical position was to restrict the further spread of slavery into newly acquired territory.
In halting the spread of slavery, Lincoln believed not only that war could be averted, but that slavery itself would be put on a natural course toward extinction. Slavery was the greatest of evils, so Lincoln believed. And yet, good people supported, or at least tolerated, this peculiar institution. Lincoln was certain that on the issue of slavery, if only the nation could hold the incentives for war in check, the American people would ultimately solve the problem on their own, over time.
But the nation failed to halt the spread of slavery. Lincoln’s theory could never be tested. But it may be that we face an analogous test in our own time. What would it look like for us to pull back from the precipice of civic unraveling to find America reconciled across the bitter gulfs of her present divisions? //
For full text and images, consider reading RQ in print, on a Sunday afternoon, sun streaming through your window, coffee in hand, and nary a phone alert within sight or in earshot… just fine words, fine design, and the opportunity to make a stitch in time. // Subscribe or buy a single issue today. // Print is dead. Long live print. //