Heralding prudence on historic 200th birthday of Lincoln
James Wegmann
Issue date: 2/12/09 Section: Opinion
Today our country marks Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial. Two hundred years ago, the 16th president of the United States entered this world. It seems fitting that we pause and examine this curious remembrance. As Hillsdale men and women, we ought to ask what lessons we may learn from this man. After all, our college lost 60 of its finest sons in Lincoln's preservation of the Union.
As Hillsdale College's mission is to "develop the minds and improve the hearts of the students," it seems appropriate to speak of virtue on this day. Concerning the virtue of prudence, few men equal Lincoln's example.
Prudence is that virtue which pursues the transcendent good while recognizing and adjusting to transient conditions. More than the cleverness of philosophers like Machiavelli or politicians like Stephen Douglass, prudence is impossible without the other virtues. It is best displayed in the lives of statesmen. More than any other single word, prudence best defines Lincoln's character.
The Declaration of Independence offers a succinct statement of the principles of political justice, declaring that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Yet, for the first 86 years of our history, slavery remained a glaring exception to America's better aims.
In the 1830s, many imprudent men fanned the flames of sectional conflict. William Lloyd Garrison, damning slave owners to Hell, sought immediate emancipation. In the midst of the fervor fomented by Preston Brooks and John Brown, Lincoln urged the American people to adopt a new "political religion." "Reverence for the laws," he proclaimed before the Springfield Lyceum, must be "preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice." Yet he also decried any notion of amoral complacency. He continued: "Let proper legal provisions be made for [the repeal of unjust laws] with the least possible delay; but, till then, let them, if not too intolerable, be born with." Lincoln's model of reform is one of eminent prudence.
As Hillsdale College's mission is to "develop the minds and improve the hearts of the students," it seems appropriate to speak of virtue on this day. Concerning the virtue of prudence, few men equal Lincoln's example.
Prudence is that virtue which pursues the transcendent good while recognizing and adjusting to transient conditions. More than the cleverness of philosophers like Machiavelli or politicians like Stephen Douglass, prudence is impossible without the other virtues. It is best displayed in the lives of statesmen. More than any other single word, prudence best defines Lincoln's character.
The Declaration of Independence offers a succinct statement of the principles of political justice, declaring that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Yet, for the first 86 years of our history, slavery remained a glaring exception to America's better aims.
In the 1830s, many imprudent men fanned the flames of sectional conflict. William Lloyd Garrison, damning slave owners to Hell, sought immediate emancipation. In the midst of the fervor fomented by Preston Brooks and John Brown, Lincoln urged the American people to adopt a new "political religion." "Reverence for the laws," he proclaimed before the Springfield Lyceum, must be "preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice." Yet he also decried any notion of amoral complacency. He continued: "Let proper legal provisions be made for [the repeal of unjust laws] with the least possible delay; but, till then, let them, if not too intolerable, be born with." Lincoln's model of reform is one of eminent prudence.
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