Abraham Lincoln Photo: Photo: Gage Skidmore / flickr CC
Lincoln and leadership
Gerald Conyngham believes Friends can learn from Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln had many qualities a Quaker would want in a leader: clear vision of what he sought to achieve based on ethical principles, combined with a sensitive and compassionate approach to the people he met. These qualities came out strongly in the recently released Steven Spielberg film, Lincoln, which dealt with a critical period in his presidency.
Lincoln’s humanity was expressed in the way he had time for people and listened to what they had to tell him. At moments of tension he had a clever way of defusing the situation by telling a story. A very moving scene in the film was when his wife talked about her grief at the death of their first son and his lack of understanding of this. He agreed that he had been feeling similar feelings of grief but had been unable to acknowledge them, and this was why he tried to repress his wife’s feelings.
Lincoln’s forebears had been Quakers but his father was a Baptist and he was not a member of a church. However, he had deep religious convictions and had great respect for Friends. This was shown in his answer to Eliza Gurney when she wrote to him expressing sympathy for the heavy burdens he faced as a leader. In his reply, he said:
Your people – the Friends – are having a great trial. On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war… For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the law.
Lincoln had a strong conviction that the divine order could be discovered and followed, but was also conscious of the difficulty of knowing what to do when there is more than one principle and they clash with each other. Unlike some of the American presidents who came after him, he was in no way convinced he alone had the right answer, and had many periods of uncertainty and doubt. Some of his most important insights came at times of sorrow and strain in his life.
In his political life, Lincoln was a shrewd negotiator and politician, and used tactics about which some of us, as Quakers, might have reservations. This included understanding why other politicians objected to voting for the amendment to abolish slavery and finding ways to win them over. His passion and determination to achieve this end came out strongly in some of the scenes with his colleagues. The film implied that more dubious means were also used, such as resorting to bribery, although this was done by people working on his behalf.
Some of those who wanted a postponement of the vote were doing so because they believed this would make peace more difficult to achieve and would delay an end to the civil war, which had killed so many. So, even good decisions may have some negative outcomes. It is unlikely, though, that the war would have come to an end if the amendment hadn’t been passed.
There is much in this film which is relevant to the issues we face today as Quakers, especially in how we discern the right way forward and how to balance different courses of action, which may have negative as well as positive consequences.
We can also learn from Lincoln’s style of leadership, which was underpinned by strong moral and spiritual beliefs.
