What Would Abraham Lincoln Say?

By AAROL Member Homer E. Moyer, Jr.

Before we reach this year’s Fourth of July—the 250^th anniversary of our country—we honor, on February 12^th, the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. 

When Lincoln was elected to become our 16^th President, our young nation was deeply divided. In the four months between his election and his inauguration, seven states seceded from the union, with four more to follow. And before he had been in office six weeks, our country was engaged in civil war. 

One of the most indelible acts of Lincoln’s presidency was his historic Gettysburg Address — a speech of fewer than a dozen sentences. That 1863 speech, now etched in the left wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., reminded our country of its foundational values and the high stakes of civil war. It was a message that helped preserve our nation.

Imagine for a moment if we could call upon Abraham Lincoln today and ask him to share his thoughts about the challenges our country faces in this anniversary year. What if we asked simply that he update, for today, the iconic speech he gave at Gettysburg? 

Lincoln at Gettysburg, 1863

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

What Lincoln might say today

“Two and a half centuries ago this July, our founding fathers brought forth a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to a revolutionary, if nascent, commitment to equality.

“Today, cultural and political differences deeply divide us. We are again at war with ourselves, testing whether our nation—or any nation so conceived and dedicated — can endure. In this commemorative year it is fitting not just to honor our past, but also to dedicate ourselves to a unified, collaborative path forward, that our great nation might live.

“Differ we will. In a dynamic, diverse society, doing so is a source of our strength. But our values require that we do so with respectful discourse, mutual accommodation, and common purpose. The conceit of unyielding partisanship and disregard of the public interest subvert our marketplace of ideas and our sense of community. Should we fail to appreciate the daily rewards of constitutional, rule of law principles and the stark consequences of their absence, we would ignore a central lesson of history.

“The world may little note nor long remember what we say here, but it will never forget — nor forgive — if we squander the great promise of our founding principles which so many before us have nobly advanced. Today, the great task for us is not just to recall our national values, but to dedicate ourselves to honoring them by living them — with humility, grace, and self-discipline so that our nation, under God, shall not wither but shall have a new birth of freedom, and government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

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Watch Homer Moyer’s in-depth discussion with AAROL Steering Committee Chair Mark Dietrich, “From Eastern Europe to the U.S.: Defending the Rule of Law” here and his previous blog post for AAROL, “Catching up with our national values,” here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Homer Moyer, a political appointee in both Republican and Democratic administrations, has served as General Counsel and Counsellor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, spent years in private practice in Washington, DC, and, as co-founder of the American Bar Association’s Central and East European Law Initiative, been a longstanding champion of the rule of law internationally.

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