Addendum: Deconstructions of Lincoln
The recent trend in popular history is to deconstruct major historical figures. Delve into their nasty underbellies and if their underbellies are not nasty enough, project something onto them. What is always amusing is how someone will write a best seller about how George Washington was a lecher (or something similar) like they are revealing the Ark of the Covenant and all the Historians are sitting around saying, “Well, yah. So?”
Not news to us.
(I once had a friend call me up, very excited from having read Holy Blood, Holy Grail. "OhmiGawd, Jen! Did you know the ruling family of England isn't even English!"
"Uhm, Yeah. The German family that took over changed their names to Windsor during World War I because of the anti-German sentiment runing around."
She was very disappointed.)
Lincoln in particular has become the focus of this trend from theorizing he is a homosexual to his being a racist.
There isn’t anything wrong with homosexuality. The problem is there is simply no proof to support our 14th president being so inclined. Nada.
Often the language of the time used among family and close friends confuses our skittishly homophobic and sexually obsessed modern society. When I was doing my research last semester on the Blockade of Wilmington, I came across a series of letters written between one of the confederate officers stationed in Wilmington and someone he addressed every letter to as “My Darling” with very banal and fatherly content. It took me a few very confusing minutes to figure out he was exchanging letters with his nephew. Forms of address and expressions of friendship in that time were not hung up on our modern concepts of machismo.
Besides, even if Lincoln was a homosexual, he was so far in the closest it’s impact on history is non-existent.
Was Lincoln a racist? Yes. He was. So was everyone else. It would be very, very hard to find anyone in that time that did not qualify as a racist to our modern values. I’m sure there were some, but they were few and far between. It doesn't make racism right, but you do have to evaluate the man, or any historical figure, while taking his time and the society in which he lived into account. Lincoln believed that slavery was inherently evil but he was unsure of the black man’s intellectual equality with the white. For his time he was considered radically progressive by much of the population.
I think this is best summed up by Fredrick Douglas’ comments at the anniversary of Lincolns Death.
I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and, second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful cooperation of his loyal fellow-countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.
Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery. The man who could say, "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether," gives all needed proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He was willing, while the South was loyal, that it should have its pound of flesh, because he thought that it was so nominated in the bond; but farther than this no earthly power could make him go.
Not news to us.
(I once had a friend call me up, very excited from having read Holy Blood, Holy Grail. "OhmiGawd, Jen! Did you know the ruling family of England isn't even English!"
"Uhm, Yeah. The German family that took over changed their names to Windsor during World War I because of the anti-German sentiment runing around."
She was very disappointed.)
Lincoln in particular has become the focus of this trend from theorizing he is a homosexual to his being a racist.
There isn’t anything wrong with homosexuality. The problem is there is simply no proof to support our 14th president being so inclined. Nada.
Often the language of the time used among family and close friends confuses our skittishly homophobic and sexually obsessed modern society. When I was doing my research last semester on the Blockade of Wilmington, I came across a series of letters written between one of the confederate officers stationed in Wilmington and someone he addressed every letter to as “My Darling” with very banal and fatherly content. It took me a few very confusing minutes to figure out he was exchanging letters with his nephew. Forms of address and expressions of friendship in that time were not hung up on our modern concepts of machismo.
Besides, even if Lincoln was a homosexual, he was so far in the closest it’s impact on history is non-existent.
Was Lincoln a racist? Yes. He was. So was everyone else. It would be very, very hard to find anyone in that time that did not qualify as a racist to our modern values. I’m sure there were some, but they were few and far between. It doesn't make racism right, but you do have to evaluate the man, or any historical figure, while taking his time and the society in which he lived into account. Lincoln believed that slavery was inherently evil but he was unsure of the black man’s intellectual equality with the white. For his time he was considered radically progressive by much of the population.
I think this is best summed up by Fredrick Douglas’ comments at the anniversary of Lincolns Death.
I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and, second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful cooperation of his loyal fellow-countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.
Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery. The man who could say, "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether," gives all needed proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He was willing, while the South was loyal, that it should have its pound of flesh, because he thought that it was so nominated in the bond; but farther than this no earthly power could make him go.
Labels: Civil War
posted by KiplingKat | 9:47 PM
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