“Abraham Lincoln: Leadership Lessons For Our Times (and All Times)”

Originally published July/Aug 2006

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a wonderful presidential historian whose books on FDR, Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson have won wide praise and a Pulitzer Prize. However, when I learned that she recently finished a work on Abraham Lincoln, my first thought was, “What else can be written about this extraordinary leader? What new insights or information could she offer?”

The title of her book, Team of Rivals, gives a clue to the answer. Soon after winning the presidential election in November, 1860, Lincoln began assembling his Cabinet. For the most important positions he selected the three men who were his rivals for the Republican nomination for president: William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates. Each was better known and more accomplished than Lincoln. Each was considered to be better positioned to become the Republican candidate for President than Lincoln. And each man certainly thought he could do a far better job as President than Lincoln.

Once he won the nomination, however, Lincoln saw the enormous crisis facing the country, and he was determined to find the strongest and most capable men to help him lead the nation. His Cabinet was truly a “team of rivals.” One Cabinet member, William Seward, had long sought the presidency and was very reluctant to accept Lincoln’s offer to be the Secretary of State. Another member, Salmon Chase [for whom Chase City, Virginia is named], was an extremely self righteous man who frequently criticized Lincoln throughout his first term (sometimes publicly) while he privately lined up support to run for the Republican nomination in 1864 (and schemed to get Seward removed from the cabinet). Slowly, patiently, Lincoln earned their respect as he kept his eye on the enormous challenges facing them, and got them to do the same.

How did he do this? How did a man whose political career included two failed campaigns for the US Senate, two undistinguished years in the US House, and no executive experience, rise to the occasion and lead this team of fierce rivals during our country’s biggest crisis?

Lincoln had many extraordinary skills and traits. From Goodwin’s book, I offer four that were especially important during the Civil War (and would be important at any time).

Kind and Magnanimous

One of Lincoln’s strongest traits was that he was generous and kind to others, and never held a grudge. When he lost elections that he might have won, he warmly congratulated the victors. In 1858 he ran for US Senate from Illinois and lost to Stephen Douglas (he won the popular vote, but the state legislature decided the winners of the elections back then and the Democrats controlled the Illinois legislature). After the painful defeat, he told those who had worked hard to defeat him “I can not for a moment suspect you of anything dishonorable.”*

Another example: when his first Secretary of War turned out to be a disappointment, Lincoln offered the post to the most capable man he could find‹Edwin Stanton. It was an excellent choice, but few presidents would have made it. Stanton had treated Lincoln in a derogatory way when they first met during a trial six years earlier in Cincinnati, and had made very negative comments about the first year of Lincoln’s presidency. But Lincoln put such personal considerations aside; he didn’t hold grudges, he kept his eye on the paramount question: who can organize the government for war? He’d seen Stanton’s impressive energy, focus and competence during their earlier Cincinnati encounter, and that convinced him to appoint Stanton to the critical post. Lincoln also refused to let subordinates take the blame when people were upset with Lincoln’s decisions. When Northerners were getting agitated at the slow progress of the war, they looked for a scapegoat and some turned on Stanton. They criticized his brusque manner, and claimed that he had deliberately withheld troops from Union generals. Lincoln came to Stanton’s defense, publicly claiming that Stanton’s decisions regarding the army had all been authorized by him, saying that “the Secretary of War is not to blame for not giving when he had none [e.g., no soldiers] to give.”

Modest, Yet Self Confident

Lincoln loved to tell stories, and was a master at it. Often, he was the butt of his own jokes. Humor often has a sharp edge, but not Lincoln’s humor. He was well aware of his awkward gait, his less–than–photogenic face, his reputation as an uneducated rail splitter, and he used self deprecating humor to disarm his opponents. Lincoln never flouted his lofty status in others’ faces. Quite the opposite, he put up with slights and uncivil behavior when he had to, if it allowed him to push forward on the cause of winning the war and maintaining the Union.

His confidence came out in many ways, most notably in choosing three rivals for his cabinet. His aide John Nicolay later wrote that Lincoln’s decisions on his cabinet showed “great courage and self–reliance;” that each of his former rivals was “sure to feel that the wrong man had been nominated.” When a journalist asked Lincoln why he’d selected men for the cabinet who were rivals to himself and in some cases opponents of each other, he replied “We needed the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet … I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services.”

Political Skills: Timing, Ability to Sense Public Opinion and Shape It

Lincoln had a great ability to keep his finger on the pulse of public sentiment. He knew that he couldn’t make major changes without public support (at least in the North). And, as Goodwin notes, he understood that one of his most important roles was to educate people and shape public opinion. As he put it, “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.”

For instance, Lincoln long believed that “if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” But he didn’t voice that opinion in his political campaigns prior to 1860, or in his run for the presidency. Indeed, he ran for president vowing to allow slavery to remain where it already existed, and keep it from spreading. As passions grew over the slavery issue (within his cabinet as well as across the Union), he modified his position and resolved to free those slaves in the Confederate states. But he came to this slowly, and later said that “had the [Emancipation] Proclamation been issued even six months earlier than it was, public sentiment would not have sustained it.” Lincoln, and Secretary of War Stanton, saw how emancipating slaves in the South would benefit the war effort. Winning the war to preserve the Union was always his highest priority, and as others saw the military benefits of emancipation, their support for it grew. It’s important to note that Lincoln saw emancipation as a highly moral act, the one thing he thought he would be remembered for, but he also saw the strategic value in it, and that helped convince others to support it.

Empathy: Understanding Others’ Needs and Points of View

A critical factor in Lincoln’s political successes was his great understanding of others’ needs. Lincoln was a keen observer of people, and made very accurate assessments of others’ needs and capabilities. Because he was so good at putting himself in the place of the other, and because he never held grudges, he could sense the most effective way (and time) to connect with people. And this wonderful ability gained him life–long supporters from his earliest days as an Illinois attorney through his presidency.

For instance, when Lincoln was forming his first cabinet and wanted Salmon Chase to be secretary of the treasury, he ignored newspaper reports that Chase was angry to lose the nomination to “so obscure a man as Mr. Abe Lincoln,” and chose to interpret Chase’s rather stiff congratulatory letter to him as a sign that Chase was willing to help Lincoln. Lincoln wrote back, “Holding myself the humblest of all whose names were before the convention, I feel in especial need of the assistance of all, and I am glad‹very glad‹of the indication that you stand ready.” This gracious letter was what Chase needed; it satisfied his (oversized) ego, and he went on to speak on Lincoln’s behalf to several Republican meetings after the election. Ultimately he accepted Lincoln’s request to join the cabinet.

Another example of Lincoln’s empathy occurred in 1854, in his first major anti–slavery speech. The previous day, Stephen Douglas had spoken for three hours on the same topic. Lincoln was moved to respond, and gave an impassioned speech that caught the public’s attention. Rather than castigate slave owners and call them immoral (as many abolitionists did), Lincoln did a remarkable thing: he denied any fundamental differences between those who did and did not own slaves. “… they [slave owners] are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist amongst them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist amongst us, we should not instantly give it up … I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself.”

Part of Lincoln’s political genius was his great ability to put himself in the other’s position, to genuinely wonder how the world looked to another person, and use that insight to show his understanding and respect. Such acts of empathy and understanding were repeated throughout his life, and drew both allies and opponents to support him.

When Abraham Lincoln died from an assassin’s bullet at 7:22 am on April 15, 1865, his loyal Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said, “Now he belongs to the ages.” His skills and attributes, beautifully described by Doris Kearns Goodwin, also belong to the ages. They are as powerful today as they were in Lincoln’s time. And, given the divisive, ineffectual state of American politics in 2006, they are certainly needed.