Traditionally, partisanship has been an organizing label for voters and candidates in elections and for elected officials in governing. Today, however, partisan affiliation is treated by many as a fundamentalist pseudo-religious identity. They see those on the other side not as compatriots with different interests and opinions with whom they need to seek conciliation, but as contemptible foes. This negates the political process of debate, negotiation, and compromise—necessary for the democracy of our Constitution—and replaces it with zero-sum sectarian warfare. These sectarian partisans have come to dominate our political system. Ultimately, the only acceptable options they see for dealing with the “other side” are subjugation or separation, tyranny or dissolution of the country.
In these times of a modern-day “house divided,” there is perhaps no one better to look to than President Abraham Lincoln. Before the outbreak of the Civil War, the divide over slavery had been roiling the country for decades. It was also a very violent time, partially—but not only—because of tensions over slavery. While Lincoln sought elected office so he could address these problems, he also knew the vital importance of shaping public thought about these matters and about the country. As Lincoln said in one of his debates with Stephen A. Douglas during the 1858 Senate campaign, “Public sentiment is everything. 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.”
As Lincoln worked to do this through decades of public life, there was an idea central to his rhetoric: Americans are unified by the highly noble purpose of upholding the principles upon which the country was founded. The most famous example was the Gettysburg Address, where he proclaimed this nation was “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He instructed Americans that this gives us a purpose which was not only parochial but world-historic, claiming in his Annual Message to Congress in December 1862 that America was the “last best hope of earth.” Through these and other speeches, Lincoln was calling on Americans to not only reject slavery, but also to prioritize their devotion to these patriotic ideals.
But Lincoln did not simply take for granted Americans’ love of and commitment to these principles. He continually endeavored to remind people of their sacredness, to build reverence for them, and to explain how they should be applied to contemporary issues. On Oct. 16, 1854, he urged a crowd in Peoria, Ill:
“Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. Let north and south—let all Americans—let lovers of liberty everywhere—join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the world over, shall rise up, and call us blessed, to the latest generations.”
Lincoln also knew the survival of the country relied on more than the unifying ideals of the Declaration. In 1838, Lincoln delivered a speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Ill., which he began by praising America’s “system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.” But in the 1830s, mob violence was prevalent. He decried the “mobocratic spirit” and the “increasing disregard for law” whose continuation would destroy the attachment of Americans to their government, leading to the destruction of the country. To counter this threat, Lincoln exhorted his audience: “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.”
Today, we rarely—if ever—hear anything like Lincoln’s call to “re-adopt the Declaration” or to pledge life, liberty, and honor “to the support of the Constitution and Laws.” To some, it may sound quaint or archaic, while others would cynically write it off as empty rhetoric. But this is the foundation upon which our country stands. If we are going to overcome the partisan divide, it will require leaders who inspire a widespread renewal of this type of civic patriotism. As Americans continue to fear for the future of our republic, we should all be asking: Who will be our contemporary Lincoln—or Lincolns? Or will Americans’ fears be realized?