The Practical Genius of Abraham Lincoln

“The greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is only moonlight by the sun of Lincoln. His example is universal and will last thousands of years…. He was bigger than his country – bigger than all the Presidents together… and as a great character he will live as long as the world lives.”

- Leo Tolstoy 1

Introduction

Jacob Burckhardt has said that “great men are necessary for our life, in order that the movement of world history can free itself sporadically, by fits and starts, from obsolete ways of living and inconsequential talk”. 2 Abraham Lincoln was almost certainly one such man. He has been hailed as the pre-eminent politician of his period, the great emancipator, and the father of the American nation. There have been more works published concerning his character than that of any other man, bar Jesus Christ and William Shakespeare. 3 As Lincoln himself said, he could not escape history; 4 it has taken grip, recognising him as the personification of good leadership, the example to follow when it comes to overcoming even the greatest trials or tribulations.

Lincoln was, first and foremost, a war president. In fact, he was the only president whose entire administration was bound by the parameters of war. 5 Thus it should come as no surprise that “the most important single circumstance in shaping Lincoln’s genius was the war.” 6 Accordingly, the vast majority of this work has been devoted to Lincoln’s various roles in precipitating the Union’s victory; those same roles that have been employed as a structural apparatus, whereby Lincoln’s remarkable success in dealing with the problems of his day may be fully and conclusively communicated in this modest document.

Chapter 1: The Power of the President

Civil law systems are, by their very nature, reactionary. Rather than having their doctrines established and refined by specific cases, they begin from a basis of stringent abstractions that have only a unilateral effect where applied. Passing amendments in such circumstances is undoubtedly an uphill battle. Regardless of the advantages and disadvantages, an appreciation of this is of cardinal significance to any discussion of the development of Lincoln’s authority.

In 19th century America doctrinal reliance upon the constitution was so extensive that the first question with which Lincoln had to wrestle, having anticipated the coming Civil War, was whether the Constitution was not so outmoded as to prove a hindrance to the Union’s war effort. Lincoln’s own answer lay decidedly in the negative, with the only provision being a pragmatic interpretation. Lincoln himself said that he had “no purpose to construe the Constitution… by any hypercritical rules.” 7 This faith that “the Constitution, spaciously interpreted, could surmount crisis” 8 was to prove the basis behind almost all of Lincoln’s politically inclined deliberations. It has been hailed as the conviction responsible for not only Lincoln’s personal success but also the perpetuation of the Union itself.