Chapter 2 President Lincoln and General Lee

This is not the first time we have come to Lexington, Kentucky, but every time we come and go in a hurry, only this time, we took a leisurely stroll in the city and got some impressions. Kentucky's geographical location is very special. It is located between the north and the south, and can be regarded as the "Midwest", the "Central Plains" of the United States.In the early days of the founding of the United States, this place was still a remote and wild place, and there was no Kentucky state in the United States at that time.Later, the United States developed westward, and new states joined the Federation one by one.It was also an era when the American political system was gradually expanding, and opportunities for low-level heroes to emerge in local politics in remote areas began to increase.The first president, Andrew Jackson, who rose through military exploits, came out of Tennessee, south of Kentucky.More than two decades later, Lincoln and his political opponent Douglas, as well as Breckenridge, who split from Douglas's Democratic Party, were all from Kentucky and the slightly northerly state of Illinois.The political center has moved westward geographically from the traditional states of Virginia and Massachusetts, and the political arena has descended from a small elite circle to the lower class.

We walk into a school.This is a private university, very small, with extremely elegant buildings and an extremely quiet environment, and the tuition fees must be extremely expensive.From a commemorative sign at the school gate, we know that in 1780, before Kentucky joined the United States, it had already been established.It is such a little-known university. Among the graduates, there are two vice presidents, one Supreme Court justice, fifty senators, one hundred and one congressmen, thirty-six governors, thirty-four ambassador abroad.This performance sounds impressive, but in fact it just shows that early political power was still a game of a small coterie, which is a vestige of elite politics before the democratization of the system.

Abraham Lincoln was the first politician with truly civilian characteristics after the democratization of the system.He was born in a Kentucky farmhouse.The rise of Lincoln marked the completion of the transformation of the United States from elite politics in the early days of the founding of the Republic to democratic politics.Since then, democratic politicians have come. Politicians, politicians, are sometimes translated into politicians.In Chinese, a politician is a commendatory term, and a politician is a derogatory term.In English, politician is neutral and sometimes slightly derogatory.Once democracy is completed, it means that traditional politicians, statesman, will transform into politicians under democratic politics, modern politicians and politicians.In the era of classical republican politics, the moral standards of politicians were particularly emphasized; in the era of modern democratic politics, this emphasis on personal morality is not only a luxury, but also loses practical operational significance.Classical republican politics appeals to morality, while modern democratic politics appeals to institutions.

Lincoln was born in a farming family and had no opportunity to receive a complete formal education. He was not eligible to enter the aforementioned university.He worked as a lumberjack, store clerk, farm hand, ferryman, land surveyor.He does not have the shadow of his noble ancestors, nor has he had the opportunity to establish feats on the battlefield. His only means is campaign speeches. In countless campaign speeches in his life, he never denied his humble origins, "Here is humble Abraham Lincoln", "If you elected me, I would be extremely grateful, and if you did not elect me, I would be equally grateful . ” A kind of split tree trunk is used as a fence for pastures in the southern United States, and splitting tree trunks is the most laborious rough work.Lincoln's supporters used to place a heap of split tree trunks where Lincoln spoke, to show that our candidate once did this kind of menial work.Lincoln's son was ashamed, and said that now the whole world knew that his father was a tree-splitter, and Lincoln was happy to do so.The reason is very simple, in this way, we are emotionally close to the lower class people, and the votes are in their hands.In fact, Lincoln was not good at that series of menial work.He only worked menial jobs until he was twenty-one.Lincoln was most interested in politics, and he was a born statesman.After relocating to Illinois, he began campaigning in small towns and began his career as a politician in the state House of Representatives in his early twenties.

Later people said that Lincoln led the struggle of the American people to abolish slavery.There is a legend that when Lincoln was in his twenties, he went to New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River and saw a handsome black girl for sale in the market there.The footage stung him, and he swore that one day he would smash slavery if he got the chance.Later historians verified that this was probably a story made up by people, because since then, for a full twenty years, Lincoln has never started to fight against slavery in his own political activities.As an ordinary person, Lincoln was a compassionate man and a man with a sense of justice.There is no doubt that he hated slavery morally.But he kept silent before slavery, because statesmen had to look for chances of success, and the time for abolition was not yet reached.Kentucky, where Lincoln was born, was the export base of domestic slave trade in the United States in the first half of the 19th century. A quarter of the population in Kentucky was black slaves, and a large number of Kentucky black slaves were sold to the south where labor was more needed.If the slave trade really hurt Lincoln, it didn't need to go to New Orleans.We visited the natal home of Lady Lincoln Mary Todd in Lexington.The Todds kept slaves.

In 1854, under the activities of Senator Douglas of Illinois, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which abolished the 1820 "Missouri Compromise" in the "Missouri Compromise". Law against slavery.Douglas' reason was that whether to allow slavery should be decided by the people of each state. It was "local self-government" and "self-determination of the people." He actually played a "democracy card."This bill angered not only abolitionists, but also the majority of the North who did not want to live with blacks. Most whites in the North were not radical abolitionists, they didn't like blacks, they even hated and feared blacks.According to the new bill, black slaves may spread to the north, affecting the work and life of the white people in the north.This is the moment when slavery returned to life more than half a century after the founding of the United States.Lincoln recognized his responsibility to stand in the way of slavery, and he saw: His chance had come. In August 1854, Lincoln condemned slavery for the first time in a public speech.He said: "I hate slavery because I am convinced it is immoral and evil.

From then on, until he was elected president in 1860, during the six years, when he faced the northern people, he condemned slavery morally over and over again, and made no secret of his hatred of slavery; When facing the people in the south, he explained earnestly that he did not advocate the abolition of slavery, and whether or not it should be abolished should be a matter for the states themselves. What he advocated was: slavery should not spread to the north. Although he personally hated slavery, he advocated its natural death. On July 10, 1858, in Chicago, the stronghold of Northern abolitionism, Lincoln delivered a speech:

Let us abandon the nonsense of different races, of different races, that one race is inferior and therefore must be placed in an inferior position, and the like.Let us drop all such things, and let us stand as one in this land, till we can stand once more and say that all men are created equal. Two months later, on September 18, in southern Charleston, the stronghold of the slaveholders, Lincoln delivered a speech: I must say that I am not, and never have been, an advocate of social and political equality of the white and black races in any way; You can also marry white people. Both speeches won warm applause from the audience.What is Lincoln's innermost thoughts?Which Lincoln is the real Lincoln?Such questions are meaningful only under classical republican politics.In modern democracies, this question loses its operational meaning.Politicians not only have the responsibility to guide the people with their own ideas and moral conscience, but also have the need to follow public opinion, win over public opinion, and shape public opinion.

In fact, it is no longer possible for you to know with certainty when he is a politician who speaks based on principles and morals, and when he is a politician who weighs pros and cons.Renowned historian Richard Hofstadter argues that this is the normal behavior of a career politician seeking the support of the popular vote.Of course, even so, how to focus on these two parts of political operations, and whether there are certain principles, can still tell the difference between an excellent modern statesman and a politician. The seven famous debates with Douglas show Lincoln's wisdom as a statesman.Douglass defended slavery, not the morality of slavery, but the property rights of the people, local self-government and self-determination, and the rights of states.After all, it is the era of democracy. Douglas is appealing to the people, but he is appealing to a single camp.Lincoln was also appealing to the people, but he found a balance between radical abolitionists and people who were afraid of black people, and appealed to both sides. In the 1860 general election, the Democratic Party split. The former vice president of Kentucky, Breckenledge, and Douglas parted ways. Lincoln "beneficiary" was elected president.However, none of the major electoral colleges in the eleven southern states voted for Lincoln.Lincoln received only 39% of the popular vote.

The ballot had been predicted, and Lincoln faced opposition from an impassioned populace.For the president of a country, this is really not a happy thing to see.During his four-year presidency, Lincoln did only one thing, fighting the Civil War, the only civil war in the United States. Lincoln had not yet been sworn in, and the seven southern states had declared secession.President Lincoln inherited a crippled country.Even if he intends to resolve the war, his goal is to maintain the unity and integrity of the Federation, not to abolish slavery.He had an intuition that it was not up to him to start the war.He wanted the southerners to fire the first shot.The federal government has a lonely Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston in the South.The hundred or so soldiers in the fortress, located in the throat of the south, lacked enough supplies to support them.Instead of ordering its withdrawal, Lincoln notified the governor of South Carolina in Charleston that the fort would be replenished with supplies from the federal government.This is equivalent to saying that the federal government does not recognize the division, and the federal military fortress will exist in Charleston Harbor for a long time.This strategy forced the southerners in Charleston to take the fort back, and opened fire on Fort Sumter.The Civil War broke out.

It's a pity that no one in the Americans at that time estimated the cruelty of war.After the war broke out, President Lincoln's first conscription order only recruited 75,000 people to serve in the army for three months.At that time, President Lincoln probably felt that after a brief conflict, a compromise could still be reached among dozens of politicians.He certainly did not expect that this war would last for four years, and the United States would lose 618,000 young and strong men.There was already photography at that time, and the Civil War left a lot of pictures.The photos of President Lincoln we see now, without exception, are frowning, with a heavy expression of sadness and anxiety.The staff of the Mrs. Lincoln Museum said that although Kentucky did not join the Confederacy, Kentuckians considered themselves Southerners.The first lady's natal family had several brothers who joined the southern rebels, and many of them died on the battlefield.Southerners called the first lady a traitor, while northerners accused her of being a southern spy in the White House.One of her girlfriends said after seeing President Lincoln, "God, why does he always have such a sad face!" How could President Lincoln not have a sad face?No moral statesman would remain indifferent to the weight of a civil war in which 618,000 lives were lost.It is this frown that proves that President Lincoln is still a classical statesman to some extent. It was not President Lincoln who ended the disaster of the Civil War, but General Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army.Compared with President Lincoln, General Lee is like an old-fashioned gentleman from history.They live in the same era, but they are people of two eras.General Lee was born in Virginia, the political center before the political scene moved westward with democratization.General Lee was related to General Washington, but spiritually he still inherited the gentleman's code of Washington's generation.On the stage of social activities, there is a difference between their classical generation and the people of the democratic era: when the wind and waves rise, the people of the democratic era tend to appeal downward and appeal to the people; the people of the classical era tend to appeal inward, Appeal to your inner moral conscience. General Lee was a professional soldier, and to him the calling of the country was the calling of Virginia.He always hated slavery and freed his own slaves very early.He also opposed the secession of the South, and even more against the use of war to resolve the secession issue.He concluded from the perspective of soldiers that the North is strong and the South is weak, and the South has no chance of winning a long-term war.However, when Virginia declared separation after the start of the Civil War and joined the Confederacy, he had to obey Virginia's call and lead the Confederate Army to start a arduous war. Four years later, in the spring of 1865, Lee put personal honor and life on the line by surrendering at Appomattox to his rival, General Grant.His only request was that the Northern Army treat his soldiers well.From the expedition to the surrender, General Li's actions were consistent in morality and reached the point of perfection.General Lee's surrender was the last farewell performance of the classical political personality after the democratization of the United States.Since then, on the American political stage, you can probably only expect the appearance of Lincoln, but it is difficult to expect people like General Robert E. Lee. Just days after General Lee surrendered, President Lincoln was assassinated and he fell at his post.In American history, the Civil War was a turning point.After the Civil War, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution passed by Congress finally legally abolished slavery and put forward the principles of "due process" and "equal protection".Thirty years later, a Frenchman, Tocqueville, raised concerns about "tyranny of the majority" after visiting the United States.Democracy is the rule of the majority. If the majority decides to impose tyranny on the minority, like slavery in the United States, what can be used to correct and prevent it?Post-Civil War America replied: Democratic principles plus the Bill of Rights, plus the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. At that moment, the United States completed the transition from classical republican politics to modern democratic politics, which is a kind of historical progress.From then on, the politicians in the eyes of the people are no longer statesman, but all politicians.They no longer require those who stand up for election to be gentlemen like President Washington and President Jefferson, and they no longer expect to be highly respected.They also no longer believe that the speeches of these politicians are true and from the heart, and they look at the people on stage with suspicion.They know that what these people say may be insincere, they may evade important issues, and they may temporarily flatter and deceive the public purely for the sake of votes.But the people in a mature democratic system will not be disappointed with the system because of this. They know that to avoid politicians making disasters, they can only rely on the balance of the opposition, rely on open and active news supervision, and rely on the enlightened people themselves.They know that man is not to be relied upon, except upon healthy institutions.