What Henry Clay Taught Lincoln – – Samuel Postell

In 2012, a gaggle of historians was at a loss about easy methods to honor Abraham Lincoln on his birthday. Lincoln routinely lands atop presidential rankings and is among the most biographed individuals in world historical past. The group determined to create a statue of books written about Lincoln: they included lower than half of the books written about him, and the statue nonetheless towered to the peak of 34 toes. It is troublesome to say one thing new or fascinating a couple of man who has been so extensively studied; however, Dr. Michael J. Gerhardt manages the duty. Of all of the books i’ve examine Lincoln, i’ve but to come across a greater portrait of Lincoln, younger Whig.

Throughout Lincoln’s Mentors, Gerhardt turns over stones which have been lengthy uncared for: he takes a have a look at Lincoln’s early years in Illinois politics, introduces the reader to a handful of Lincoln’s mentors, and particulars the way in which by which Lincoln labored his method into politics and up the ranks of the Whig get together. Some of those counselors had been mates from Illinois, some later grew to become rivals, and a few had been males that he by no means even met.

Lincoln the Whig

In Gerhardt’s account, the 2 Illinois Whigs who most guided Lincoln had been John Todd Stuart and John J. Hardin. Stuart campaigned for Henry Clay alongside Lincoln, inspired him to review regulation, grew to become his regulation accomplice for nearly ten years, and helped Lincoln win a seat within the state legislature in his second marketing campaign. Hardin was a distant cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, he saved Lincoln’s life when Lincoln foolishly accepted a duel with a skilled fencer, and defeated Lincoln for the Whig nomination for U.S. House in Lincoln’s first run. Gerhardt points to a number of different of Lincoln’s associates in Illinois politics—all Whigs—resembling Orville Browning and Stephen Logan. Like Stuart, Browning helped Lincoln develop right into a profitable lawyer and Lincoln realized from Logan after they rode the Illinois circuit collectively.

Although the ebook mentions a number of Illinois Whigs with whom Lincoln related, it focuses most closely on the affect of Henry Clay, the person Lincoln referred to as his “beaux ideal of a statesman.” Gerhardt notes that Lincoln was drawn into Whig politics due to his fondness of Clay. Perhaps Lincoln’s different mentors had been, subsequently, a mere consequence of his Whiggishness, and his love of Clay’s statesmanship.

Gerhardt pulls the reader by the ins and outs of Whig politics in Illinois, detailing Lincoln’s rise by the get together, his campaigning experience for Clay, his function in urging the Whig get together in Illinois to undertake rotation in workplace as its precept for the U.S. House, and even his debates over nationwide coverage throughout his a number of campaigns, each for Clay and for himself. Gerhardt does an outstanding job of telling the reader concerning the males who had been Lincoln’s mentors, however he doesn’t discuss how or why they’re all united.

The greatest approach to perceive how they’re united is by Lincoln’s relationship with Clay. One of the very first issues that Gerhardt addresses is the elemental political pressure all through Lincoln’s youth—that between the Whig imaginative and prescient and the Jacksonian imaginative and prescient for American character. In Chapter 2, Gerhardt makes a vital distinction: he describes Jackson as a champion of the “common man” and Clay as he who “had coined the concept of ‘the self-made man…’” Throughout the ebook, Gerhardt argues that the train of thought of the self-made man resonated with Lincoln. According to Gerhardt, the widespread man represented those that Jackson “believed he exemplified—the poor, illiterate, disenfranchised, hardworking men, who were born with nothing but worked with their hands . . . ” The self-made man, alternatively, was “an ideal that inspired young Whigs like Lincoln to seek to improve themselves through hard work, self-discipline, and social respectability”—the important thing distinction between the 2 visions being self-improvement and social respectability.

The Whig get together frequently misplaced elections (particularly in Illinois), although not from lack of effort by younger Lincoln. What is probably most masterful about Gerhardt’s account is that it explains Lincoln as a political tactician who realized from failure, who cared deeply about organizing and profitable elections, and who understood political realities. He reveals how Lincoln realized from Clay’s many political blunders. For instance, Gerhardt singles out Clay’s need “to take a stand on the Texas issue before Van Buren could” in 1844. Clay firmly believed that America ought not enter a battle with Mexico over the Texas territory as a result of he believed that lots of the battle’s backers primarily needed to increase slavery westward. Clay revealed a “fateful letter” containing an excessively legalistic argument as to why America had no proper to Texas. Near the top of the letter, he defined that asserting possession of Texas was traditionally and legally absurd “if not dishonorable.” Clay anticipated the presumptive Democratic nominee Van Buren to take the identical floor as himself, which he did. What Clay didn’t anticipate was Jackson endorsing James Okay. Polk, thus dooming Van Buren, making Texas a pivotal difficulty within the South, and resulting in Clay’s slim presidential defeat. Gerhardt explains,

Later as a candidate for the House and nonetheless later for the presidency, Lincoln could be a mannequin of self-control, relentlessly staying on message and in any other case saying nothing, whereas get together leaders, the get together trustworthy, and Lincoln’s surrogates reassured constituents that he was their greatest wager. Clay’s errors could be among the many most lasting classes Lincoln realized from his mentor.

Though Lincoln realized from Clay all through his life, experience was Lincoln’s greatest trainer when it got here to profitable elections.

Lincoln’s Political Philosophy

One of the ebook’s biggest strengths, nonetheless, maybe provides approach to its biggest weak point: in explaining Lincoln’s political thoughts, it neglects Lincoln’s political philosophy. For instance, Gerhardt writes, “Many of Lincoln’s closest associates, perhaps all, missed the fact that Lincoln was fundamentally a pragmatist. . . .  Lincoln’s hero, Clay, had been the same.” In the identical paragraph, Gerhardt goes on to say that “[Lincoln’s] moral imperative, particularly when it came to opposing the extension of slavery, remained his compass.” Yet Gerhardt by no means goes as far as to elucidate why Lincoln adopted this ethical crucial, nor does he tie this declare again to the first story that he’s telling: the story about Lincoln, Clay, and the Whigs.

However, Lincoln admitted that he leaned closely on Clay and the Whigs for his understanding of liberty. In his eulogy for Clay, he claimed that Clay’s “all controlling passion” was “liberty for all.” In his debates with Douglas, he quoted Clay 41 occasions. He defined that he might argue his stance on slavery solely utilizing quotes from Clay. He argued that Douglas was most blameworthy for repealing the Missouri Compromise, the act that Clay championed and for which he grew to become generally known as “the great compromiser.” Yet it isn’t clear how Lincoln might rely so closely on Clay for his place on slavery when Clay was a slave proprietor.

Although the query of slavery is on the heart of any research of Lincoln, Gerhardt rightfully locations the best emphasis on the Whig criticism of demagoguery. He reveals that Lincoln and Clay aligned rhetorically and ideologically of their criticism of tyrants. This can maybe be elucidated with recourse to 2 speeches from Lincoln and Clay, Lincoln’s Lyceum Address (1838) and Clay’s speech towards the Seminole War (1819). Gerhardt discusses the Lincoln speech in his ebook, however he by no means alludes to the Clay speech. This is odd for 2 causes: first as a result of Gerhardt addresses the Jackson-Clay-Lincoln dynamic all through the ebook, and second as a result of Lincoln relied on this speech all through his life, however notably when he made the argument in his Lyceum Address.

In 1819 Clay gave a speech urging Congress to censure Jackson after he had invaded Florida together with his militia, burnt two Seminole villages to the bottom, and executed two foreigners by army tribunal. In the speech he says,

Do you count on to execute this excessive belief (of the Declaration) by trampling, or struggling to be trampled down, regulation, justice, the Constitution, and the rights of the individuals? by exhibiting examples of inhumanity and cruelty and ambition? When the minions of despotism heard, in Europe, of the seizure of Pensacola, how did they chuckle, and chide the admirers of our establishments, tauntingly pointing to the demonstration of a spirit of injustice and aggrandizement made by our nation, within the midst of an amicable negotiation! Behold, stated they, the conduct of those that are always reproaching kings! . . . Beware the way you forfeit this exalted character. Beware the way you give a deadly sanction, on this baby interval of our Republic, scarcely but twoscore years outdated, to army insubordination. Remember that Greece had her Alexander, Rome her Caesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and that if we might escape the rock on which they cut up we should keep away from their errors.

Aside from Clay’s phrase that the nation was “twoscore years old,” and his identification of “the rock on which” the union would cut up—each tropes Lincoln employed to larger success—there are additional similarities. Compare that speech with what Lincoln says virtually 20 years later in his Lyceum Address, observing the consequences of Jackson’s “towering genius.” Lincoln begins with a dialog of the spirit and habits that animated the revolution. He goes on to say that,

This subject of glory is harvested, and the crop is already appropriated. But new reapers will come up, they usually, too, will search a subject. It is to disclaim, what the historical past of the world tells us is true, to suppose that males of ambition and skills is not going to proceed to spring up amongst us. And, after they do, they may as naturally search the gratification of their ruling ardour, as others have so finished earlier than them. The query then, is, can that gratification be present in supporting and sustaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most definitely it can not. Many nice and good males sufficiently certified for any process they need to undertake, could ever be discovered, whose ambition would encourage to nothing past a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; however such belong to not the household unit of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! suppose you these locations would fulfill an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon?—Never! Towering genius distains a overwhelmed path. It seeks areas hitherto unexplored.—It sees no distinction in including story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the reminiscence of others. It denies that it’s glory sufficient to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread within the footsteps of any predecessor, nonetheless illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if potential, it should have it, whether or not on the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen.

The rhetorical similarity is fascinating—each Lincoln and Clay deal with the hazard of towering genius and examine their opponents to bold males all through historical past who’re accountable for the lack of liberty—however what’s most fascinating is that following their critique of ambition, every espouses the identical imaginative and prescient for self-government and the character of the individuals. Clay argued that Jackson’s carelessness for the boundaries inherent within the Constitution would quit the “sacred trust” of self-government. Lincoln started the Lyceum speech remarking on the habituation of the general public towards mob rule. Lincoln urged the general public: “As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor.” In 1838, after Jackson’s presidency, Lincoln picked up what place Clay left off. As he does years later within the Gettysburg Address, he makes an attempt to rededicate the individuals to the Declaration and the precept of self-government that issued therefrom, the identical “high trust” that Clay recognized in his critique of Jackson.

Admittedly, such a detour into political philosophy would distract the reader from the story that Gerhardt tells. Gerhardt’s account offers the important background to understanding Lincoln’s rise to statesmanship. It isn’t potential to know Lincoln with out understanding his Whiggism and his departure therefrom. Yet, in Gerhardt’s account, it isn’t precisely clear what Whiggism is. Admittedly, it was not precisely clear what Whiggism was even to many Whigs themselves. Nevertheless, Gerhardt has paved the groundwork by displaying who Lincoln’s mentors had been, and it’s as much as future students to know why they matter.