Abraham Lincoln: A President of Courage, Honor, Truth

Brunswick welcomed Michael Burlingame — holder of the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield and the May Buckley Sadowski Professor of History, Emeritus, at Connecticut College — to Baker Theater on Thursday, November 10.

 

Burlingame, a Fulbright and renowned Abraham Lincoln scholar, is this year’s Louise Lehrman Visiting Senior Fellow.

 

The Fellowship, established in 2013 by a gift from the Lehrman Institute, engages experts in American History to visit Brunswick, instilling in students a greater understanding of the rights, privileges, and duties of American citizenship.

 

Burlingame is the author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life — winner of the 2010 Lincoln Prize, sponsored by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History and Gettysburg College — and The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln.

 

In addition, he has edited the several volumes of Lincoln primary-source materials.

 

Burlingame began his address by citing a passage from the opening pages of Abraham Lincoln: A Life, also a co-winner of the annual book prize awarded by the Abraham Lincoln Institute of Washington, D.C., and winner of the Russell P. Strange Book Award given annually by the Illinois State Historical Society for the best book on Illinois history.

 

“Character is destiny,” he writes.  

 

“And Lincoln’s remarkable character helped him not only to become a successful president but also a model which can be profitably emulated by all. Somehow Lincoln managed to be strong willed without being willful, righteous without being self-righteous, and moral without being moralistic.

 

“The importance of his character was recognized during his presidency.”

 

Burlingame addressed Brunswick students and faculty with a keen awareness of his audience, choosing to emphasize the elements of courage, honor, and truth within Lincoln’s character as the focus of his remarks.  

 

He offered many examples of the moral and political courage Lincoln manifested at all stages of his political and personal life — always grounded in sincere modesty and humility — and also noted his physical courage, Lincoln being the lone American president to come under enemy fire.

 

In addition, Burlingame reviewed Lincoln’s firm stance on the expansion of slavery and his unwillingness to accept compromise in the name of honor after being elected in November 1860.

 

“Lincoln’s sense of honor, of integrity, was one of the profound bedrocks of his character and his personality,” the Phillips Academy Andover and Princeton University graduate said.  

And, as for truth, Burlingame stated that Lincoln did not take political stands to enhance his political power and became involved in politics largely to promote the common good. Instead, he spoke tirelessly and elegantly about the evils of slavery and putting it on path of ultimate extinction.

“Lincoln was willing to tell the truth in public, even though it wasn’t popular,” he said.

 

In conclusion, Burlingame returned to text of his two-volume book Abraham Lincoln: A Life.

 

“Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity, but also as a source of inspiration. Few will achieve his world historical importance, but many can profit by his personal example.

 

“His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries, and his life story can do the same for generations to come.”