1 00:00:15,396 --> 00:00:23,476 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Welcome to episode three of my podcast on the 2 00:00:23,556 --> 00:00:29,996 Speaker 1: Broken Constitution, Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America. In 3 00:00:30,116 --> 00:00:34,116 Speaker 1: episode one, I talked about how the Constitution of seventeen 4 00:00:34,156 --> 00:00:37,156 Speaker 1: eighty seven and the way that it was a compromise 5 00:00:37,476 --> 00:00:41,636 Speaker 1: between slave states and free states in order to preserve 6 00:00:41,796 --> 00:00:46,036 Speaker 1: and enable the expansion of the Union. In episode two, 7 00:00:46,476 --> 00:00:49,316 Speaker 1: I brought us into the breaking of that Constitution by 8 00:00:49,316 --> 00:00:54,196 Speaker 1: the Confederacy and Abraham Lincoln's corresponding breaking of the Constitution 9 00:00:54,556 --> 00:00:57,636 Speaker 1: as it was then understood, both by going to war 10 00:00:57,796 --> 00:01:00,716 Speaker 1: to coerce the Southern States back into the Union, and 11 00:01:00,836 --> 00:01:05,276 Speaker 1: then by suspending Habeas corpus unilaterally, even though that was 12 00:01:05,316 --> 00:01:09,156 Speaker 1: a power reserve to Congress, and through that becoming a 13 00:01:09,316 --> 00:01:12,556 Speaker 1: kind of a dictator, one who suspended the freedom of 14 00:01:12,556 --> 00:01:15,476 Speaker 1: expression in the United States through the duration of the war, 15 00:01:16,036 --> 00:01:20,716 Speaker 1: arresting ultimately many thousands of people and shutting down hundreds 16 00:01:20,756 --> 00:01:25,036 Speaker 1: of newspapers. In today's episode, I want to turn to 17 00:01:25,116 --> 00:01:30,556 Speaker 1: the most memorable, significant, and consequential breaking of the Constitution 18 00:01:30,716 --> 00:01:34,156 Speaker 1: that Abraham Lincoln achieved, the one that had the effect 19 00:01:34,396 --> 00:01:37,276 Speaker 1: of transforming not only the meaning of the Civil War, 20 00:01:37,796 --> 00:01:42,116 Speaker 1: but transforming the Constitution itself in the most fundamental way, 21 00:01:42,636 --> 00:01:46,116 Speaker 1: so much so that the Constitution of today is no 22 00:01:46,396 --> 00:01:50,476 Speaker 1: longer the Constitution of seventeen eighty seven, but something new 23 00:01:50,556 --> 00:01:55,116 Speaker 1: and different, the Constitution of Abraham Lincoln, and then ultimately 24 00:01:55,396 --> 00:02:00,596 Speaker 1: the Constitution of the Reconstruction Amendments, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and 25 00:02:00,716 --> 00:02:05,836 Speaker 1: fifteenth Amendments. To do that, we have to begin with 26 00:02:05,876 --> 00:02:10,116 Speaker 1: a recognition of a fact that we've effectively supprest, and 27 00:02:10,236 --> 00:02:14,116 Speaker 1: that is that when the Civil War began, Abraham Lincoln 28 00:02:14,236 --> 00:02:19,356 Speaker 1: remained exactly as committed to the compromised Constitution and therefore 29 00:02:19,436 --> 00:02:23,196 Speaker 1: to the preservation of slavery as he had been through 30 00:02:23,236 --> 00:02:26,876 Speaker 1: the entirety of his political career up to that point. 31 00:02:27,356 --> 00:02:30,756 Speaker 1: The evidence that indicates the depth of this comes from 32 00:02:30,796 --> 00:02:35,236 Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address. Now you may be thinking 33 00:02:35,276 --> 00:02:38,956 Speaker 1: to yourself, well, wait a minute, what was Lincoln's first 34 00:02:38,956 --> 00:02:43,876 Speaker 1: inaugural address. His second inaugural address, which i'll talk about 35 00:02:43,916 --> 00:02:47,076 Speaker 1: a bit later in this podcast, is part of the 36 00:02:47,196 --> 00:02:52,356 Speaker 1: canon of American political and constitutional thought. When you visit 37 00:02:52,396 --> 00:02:55,236 Speaker 1: the Lincoln Memorial, it's right up there on one of 38 00:02:55,276 --> 00:02:58,836 Speaker 1: the walls, across from the Gettysburg Address. The other one 39 00:02:58,876 --> 00:03:02,756 Speaker 1: of Lincoln's most famous speeches, But the first Inaugural Address 40 00:03:02,876 --> 00:03:06,596 Speaker 1: is all but forgotten, and the reason for that is 41 00:03:06,636 --> 00:03:10,076 Speaker 1: that it began in its first full power graph by 42 00:03:10,196 --> 00:03:13,436 Speaker 1: quoting a statement that Lincoln had made in debating Stephen 43 00:03:13,476 --> 00:03:16,476 Speaker 1: Douglas when he ran for the Senate in eighteen fifty eight, 44 00:03:17,036 --> 00:03:19,956 Speaker 1: and in it Lincoln said, quote, I have no purpose, 45 00:03:20,356 --> 00:03:24,276 Speaker 1: directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery 46 00:03:24,436 --> 00:03:27,316 Speaker 1: in the states where it exists. I believe I have 47 00:03:27,476 --> 00:03:30,196 Speaker 1: no lawful right to do so, and I have no 48 00:03:30,356 --> 00:03:34,676 Speaker 1: inclination to do so. The reason for that was straightforward, 49 00:03:35,836 --> 00:03:40,356 Speaker 1: Southern secession needed to be reversed. Lincoln saw his goal 50 00:03:40,476 --> 00:03:44,716 Speaker 1: as recreating the Union. The Union had always existed on 51 00:03:44,756 --> 00:03:48,356 Speaker 1: the basis of a compromise over slavery, and he had 52 00:03:48,436 --> 00:03:52,876 Speaker 1: no idea of any possible mode of recreating the Union 53 00:03:53,156 --> 00:03:58,116 Speaker 1: without recreating the compromise over slavery. His promise in the 54 00:03:58,156 --> 00:04:01,756 Speaker 1: Inaugural Address to respect the institution of slavery was therefore 55 00:04:01,796 --> 00:04:04,516 Speaker 1: a crucial part of his vision of how to restore 56 00:04:04,836 --> 00:04:10,076 Speaker 1: the Union. This view continued through the first months of 57 00:04:10,116 --> 00:04:14,836 Speaker 1: Lincoln's presidency. At the end of August of eighteen sixty one, 58 00:04:15,156 --> 00:04:18,116 Speaker 1: John C. Fremont, who had been the eighteen fifty six 59 00:04:18,276 --> 00:04:21,956 Speaker 1: Republican presidential candidate and whom Lincoln had made a general 60 00:04:21,996 --> 00:04:26,076 Speaker 1: in Missouri, announced that he was freeing the slaves of 61 00:04:26,116 --> 00:04:30,956 Speaker 1: all rebels found in his territory. This, in short, was 62 00:04:31,036 --> 00:04:36,476 Speaker 1: pretty fundamentally similar to what would be Lincoln's active emancipation. 63 00:04:36,876 --> 00:04:40,676 Speaker 1: More than a year later, Lincoln wrote to Fremont and 64 00:04:40,756 --> 00:04:45,436 Speaker 1: told him, no, you cannot do this. I am requesting 65 00:04:45,516 --> 00:04:49,916 Speaker 1: that you retract your emancipation order. Fremont said, I'm not 66 00:04:49,996 --> 00:04:52,436 Speaker 1: going to do that. If you want the order reversed, 67 00:04:52,716 --> 00:04:56,676 Speaker 1: you have to do it. So Lincoln fired Fremont and 68 00:04:56,796 --> 00:05:01,316 Speaker 1: reversed the order himself. In a letter that Lincoln wrote 69 00:05:01,316 --> 00:05:04,116 Speaker 1: to a friend just a few days later on September 70 00:05:04,156 --> 00:05:08,396 Speaker 1: twenty one, eighteen sixty seven, he stood behind his decision 71 00:05:08,636 --> 00:05:13,676 Speaker 1: regarding Fremont's emancipation order. The proclamation, he said, is and 72 00:05:13,756 --> 00:05:18,316 Speaker 1: I quote, simply dictatorship. It assumes that the general may 73 00:05:18,396 --> 00:05:21,676 Speaker 1: do anything he pleases, confiscate the lands, and free the 74 00:05:21,676 --> 00:05:25,796 Speaker 1: slaves of loyal people as well as disloyal ones. In 75 00:05:25,836 --> 00:05:29,436 Speaker 1: other words, Lincoln believed that for a general to use 76 00:05:29,516 --> 00:05:34,396 Speaker 1: his war powers to free slaves was an act of dictatorship, 77 00:05:34,676 --> 00:05:37,036 Speaker 1: and he was not using that term in the positive 78 00:05:37,036 --> 00:05:40,876 Speaker 1: sense of the word. For Lincoln, dictatorship was wrong, and 79 00:05:40,956 --> 00:05:46,556 Speaker 1: the Constitution did not authorize him or therefore the General's 80 00:05:46,596 --> 00:05:50,276 Speaker 1: working for him to free slaves as a matter of 81 00:05:50,356 --> 00:05:56,076 Speaker 1: military necessity. It took Lincoln more than a year for 82 00:05:56,116 --> 00:06:00,636 Speaker 1: his views to evolve and change. In the book The 83 00:06:00,676 --> 00:06:04,956 Speaker 1: Broken Constitution, I take the reader day by day, just 84 00:06:05,116 --> 00:06:09,276 Speaker 1: about sometimes even minute by minute, through the process that 85 00:06:09,356 --> 00:06:12,956 Speaker 1: Lincoln went through to shift his views from the view 86 00:06:12,956 --> 00:06:15,436 Speaker 1: that it would be an active dictatorship to free slaves 87 00:06:15,836 --> 00:06:19,356 Speaker 1: to the view that perhaps he ought to do so himself. 88 00:06:20,796 --> 00:06:23,156 Speaker 1: To summarize it here, I would say that there were 89 00:06:23,156 --> 00:06:27,036 Speaker 1: two major forces that push Lincoln in this direction. The 90 00:06:27,116 --> 00:06:32,436 Speaker 1: first was a circumstantial one. He gradually realized that it 91 00:06:32,436 --> 00:06:36,396 Speaker 1: would be difficult or impossible for him to win the 92 00:06:36,436 --> 00:06:41,076 Speaker 1: war by creating a sufficient incentive for the Southern States 93 00:06:41,276 --> 00:06:45,996 Speaker 1: to rejoin the Union voluntarily. As long as Lincoln thought 94 00:06:46,036 --> 00:06:50,196 Speaker 1: that the Southern States might voluntarily rejoin, it was necessary 95 00:06:50,316 --> 00:06:54,116 Speaker 1: to maintain the possibility of compromise, and that compromise, in 96 00:06:54,156 --> 00:06:58,516 Speaker 1: turn required preserving slavery. But if it turned out that 97 00:06:58,556 --> 00:07:01,556 Speaker 1: the Southern States were not going to compromise, We're not 98 00:07:01,636 --> 00:07:04,956 Speaker 1: going to return voluntarily, then what followed from that was 99 00:07:04,996 --> 00:07:08,276 Speaker 1: that it was at least possible to impose an outcome 100 00:07:08,316 --> 00:07:12,196 Speaker 1: to the war on them. If that solution were therefore 101 00:07:12,236 --> 00:07:16,436 Speaker 1: to be imposed by military force, Lincoln had the possibility 102 00:07:16,516 --> 00:07:19,796 Speaker 1: at least of changing the situation with respect to the 103 00:07:19,836 --> 00:07:24,156 Speaker 1: compromised Constitution as it existed before the war. The new 104 00:07:24,276 --> 00:07:28,156 Speaker 1: constitution that would then have to emerge would no longer 105 00:07:28,236 --> 00:07:31,916 Speaker 1: be based on a compromise. It would instead be based 106 00:07:31,996 --> 00:07:36,316 Speaker 1: on a principle, and indeed on a moral principle, namely 107 00:07:36,356 --> 00:07:39,476 Speaker 1: the moral principle of the end of slavery and the 108 00:07:39,556 --> 00:07:44,116 Speaker 1: equality of African Americans. Lincoln did not deceive himself into 109 00:07:44,116 --> 00:07:46,756 Speaker 1: thinking the Southern States would ever agree to this. This 110 00:07:46,836 --> 00:07:49,876 Speaker 1: was an outcome they would have to be imposed by 111 00:07:49,996 --> 00:07:56,436 Speaker 1: military force. The second element that contributed most fundamentally to 112 00:07:56,476 --> 00:08:00,316 Speaker 1: Lincoln changing his views was the depth of his embrace 113 00:08:00,556 --> 00:08:05,716 Speaker 1: of the idea that, through military necessity, he was authorized 114 00:08:05,716 --> 00:08:09,756 Speaker 1: by the Constitution to do whatever it took to win 115 00:08:09,836 --> 00:08:15,036 Speaker 1: the war. Here, his suspension of habeas corpus and his 116 00:08:15,156 --> 00:08:20,116 Speaker 1: suspension of the free press were actually the groundwork for 117 00:08:20,196 --> 00:08:24,076 Speaker 1: Lincoln's realization that if he could do that, he could 118 00:08:24,076 --> 00:08:28,396 Speaker 1: do anything, and anything included breaking the Constitution as he 119 00:08:28,436 --> 00:08:34,916 Speaker 1: had always understood it, and that included emancipating slaves. Remember that, 120 00:08:34,996 --> 00:08:37,396 Speaker 1: all the way back early in his career, in eighteen 121 00:08:37,476 --> 00:08:40,556 Speaker 1: thirty eight, in his Lyceum address which I mentioned in 122 00:08:40,596 --> 00:08:44,596 Speaker 1: Episode one, Lincoln had said that what made a dictator 123 00:08:45,036 --> 00:08:49,076 Speaker 1: a caesar or a Napoleon was the act of emancipating 124 00:08:49,156 --> 00:08:54,036 Speaker 1: slaves or enslaving freemen. Gradually he had come to the 125 00:08:54,116 --> 00:08:57,396 Speaker 1: view that that act, which was he said in eighteen 126 00:08:57,476 --> 00:09:00,996 Speaker 1: thirty eight, a fundamental violation of the principles of the Constitution, 127 00:09:01,716 --> 00:09:07,956 Speaker 1: was permissible to him in wartime, because in wartime, and 128 00:09:08,236 --> 00:09:12,196 Speaker 1: under the circumstance senses of the broken Constitution, he could 129 00:09:12,276 --> 00:09:16,516 Speaker 1: then further break the Constitution in order to win the war. 130 00:09:18,596 --> 00:09:22,756 Speaker 1: Lincoln first introduced this idea to his colleagues in the 131 00:09:22,796 --> 00:09:27,876 Speaker 1: cabinet on July twenty second of eighteen sixty two, a 132 00:09:27,996 --> 00:09:31,356 Speaker 1: year and several months after he had assumed the presidency. 133 00:09:32,236 --> 00:09:35,076 Speaker 1: At the time, he still hoped that there would be 134 00:09:35,196 --> 00:09:40,036 Speaker 1: some way to introduce compensated emancipation money to be paid 135 00:09:40,276 --> 00:09:43,236 Speaker 1: to those people who were not disloyal and still had 136 00:09:43,276 --> 00:09:47,276 Speaker 1: their slaves taken. When he introduced the idea to his cabinet, 137 00:09:47,316 --> 00:09:50,916 Speaker 1: the cabinet was so shocked that it essentially reacted by 138 00:09:50,996 --> 00:09:55,876 Speaker 1: telling him that emancipation would be a terrible mistake. From this, 139 00:09:56,076 --> 00:09:59,836 Speaker 1: Lincoln realized that he needed to do more to introduce 140 00:09:59,876 --> 00:10:03,236 Speaker 1: the idea of emancipation, not only to his cabinet, but 141 00:10:03,356 --> 00:10:07,396 Speaker 1: to the country, which he knew would hold similar views 142 00:10:07,596 --> 00:10:10,996 Speaker 1: to those of the cabinet. He spent the rest of 143 00:10:10,996 --> 00:10:15,716 Speaker 1: the summer and the fall of eighteen sixty two gradually 144 00:10:15,796 --> 00:10:22,116 Speaker 1: introducing ideas associated with emancipation into the public eye. The 145 00:10:22,236 --> 00:10:25,156 Speaker 1: way he did that, seen in our terms, is not 146 00:10:25,396 --> 00:10:31,276 Speaker 1: necessarily very appealing. Here, Lincoln the politician was not acting 147 00:10:31,516 --> 00:10:36,036 Speaker 1: as Lincoln the moralist. An exemplary and dramatic moment in 148 00:10:36,076 --> 00:10:39,516 Speaker 1: Lincoln's efforts to acclimate the country to the possibility of 149 00:10:39,516 --> 00:10:44,436 Speaker 1: emancipation came in August of eighteen sixty two, when Lincoln 150 00:10:44,476 --> 00:10:48,316 Speaker 1: held a meeting with a five member delegation of African 151 00:10:48,356 --> 00:10:52,596 Speaker 1: Americans in the White House. The men he invited were 152 00:10:52,916 --> 00:10:58,556 Speaker 1: part of the city's educated black elite. One Edward Thomas, 153 00:10:58,756 --> 00:11:01,276 Speaker 1: the chairman of the delegation, was a member of one 154 00:11:01,276 --> 00:11:04,596 Speaker 1: of the city's black debating societies, a collector of fine 155 00:11:04,676 --> 00:11:07,396 Speaker 1: art and rare coins, and the proud owner of a 156 00:11:07,516 --> 00:11:12,076 Speaker 1: library of six hundred books, an enormous library for the time. 157 00:11:12,716 --> 00:11:17,036 Speaker 1: The others had similar elite status. Lincoln brought them into 158 00:11:17,076 --> 00:11:20,716 Speaker 1: the White House, and instead of asking them what their 159 00:11:20,796 --> 00:11:23,996 Speaker 1: views were about the possibility of emancipation, or how he 160 00:11:24,036 --> 00:11:26,796 Speaker 1: should do things going forward, or really listening to them 161 00:11:26,796 --> 00:11:31,076 Speaker 1: at all, Lincoln talked at them. And what he told 162 00:11:31,116 --> 00:11:36,676 Speaker 1: them was nothing short of astonishing to our ears. What 163 00:11:36,796 --> 00:11:40,396 Speaker 1: Lincoln told them had two parts. The first was that 164 00:11:40,476 --> 00:11:43,836 Speaker 1: the long term solution to the problem of slavery was 165 00:11:43,916 --> 00:11:47,436 Speaker 1: not merely to free black people, but for black people 166 00:11:47,476 --> 00:11:53,196 Speaker 1: to voluntary leave the United States and be resettled somewhere else, 167 00:11:53,636 --> 00:11:58,956 Speaker 1: either in Africa or in Central America, in circumstances where 168 00:11:58,996 --> 00:12:02,276 Speaker 1: they would be far from white people and where the 169 00:12:02,476 --> 00:12:05,876 Speaker 1: hatred that subsisted between the two races, according to Lincoln, 170 00:12:06,236 --> 00:12:11,716 Speaker 1: would be resolved by effectively a kind of divorce. The 171 00:12:11,836 --> 00:12:16,556 Speaker 1: delegation of African Americans listened with a stony silence, like 172 00:12:16,796 --> 00:12:21,676 Speaker 1: essentially all African Americans, at the time and the overwhelming majority, 173 00:12:21,796 --> 00:12:25,516 Speaker 1: since they had no interest in leaving the United States, 174 00:12:26,196 --> 00:12:29,076 Speaker 1: they had no interest in participating in a plan to 175 00:12:29,116 --> 00:12:32,276 Speaker 1: go to Liberia or somewhere else. That view had been 176 00:12:32,316 --> 00:12:36,476 Speaker 1: a fantasy of white, anti slavery Americans of a certain 177 00:12:36,596 --> 00:12:39,796 Speaker 1: kind all the way since the beginning of the nineteenth century. 178 00:12:40,356 --> 00:12:44,156 Speaker 1: The idea, which was called colonization was the policy of 179 00:12:44,156 --> 00:12:47,516 Speaker 1: a group of people who formed the American Colonization Society, 180 00:12:48,036 --> 00:12:51,316 Speaker 1: a group of which James Monroe had been president and 181 00:12:51,516 --> 00:12:55,956 Speaker 1: of which Henry Clay, the Great wig compromiser and Lincoln's idol, 182 00:12:56,276 --> 00:13:01,316 Speaker 1: had been another leader. At no time was this view realistic, 183 00:13:01,596 --> 00:13:04,516 Speaker 1: and at no time that it enjoys support from any 184 00:13:04,596 --> 00:13:09,036 Speaker 1: number of African Americans. But certainly by eighteen sixty two 185 00:13:09,356 --> 00:13:13,236 Speaker 1: the view was nothing more than a preposterous and frankly 186 00:13:13,276 --> 00:13:18,236 Speaker 1: offensive fantasy. The reason Lincoln was talking to this group 187 00:13:18,276 --> 00:13:22,916 Speaker 1: of African Americans about colonization was not that he expected 188 00:13:22,916 --> 00:13:25,156 Speaker 1: them to listen to him. In fact, he wasn't really 189 00:13:25,156 --> 00:13:28,636 Speaker 1: talking to that group at all. Lincoln was talking to 190 00:13:28,756 --> 00:13:31,756 Speaker 1: white America, and he was trying to set up an 191 00:13:31,836 --> 00:13:35,636 Speaker 1: argument that even if emancipation should occur, there was no 192 00:13:35,756 --> 00:13:39,036 Speaker 1: need for white Americans to worry about any possibility of 193 00:13:39,076 --> 00:13:43,036 Speaker 1: integration or living alongside African Americans towards whom he knew 194 00:13:43,236 --> 00:13:47,596 Speaker 1: white people harbored intense racial prejudice. He was, in short, 195 00:13:47,676 --> 00:13:51,676 Speaker 1: suggesting that it would be possible to emancipate without creating 196 00:13:51,716 --> 00:13:54,716 Speaker 1: a race problem in the United States by sending all 197 00:13:54,756 --> 00:13:59,076 Speaker 1: black people out of the country. The other thing that 198 00:13:59,156 --> 00:14:03,956 Speaker 1: Lincoln told the assembled group of African American dignitaries was 199 00:14:04,356 --> 00:14:08,396 Speaker 1: if it's possible. Even more shocking, here's what he said, 200 00:14:09,476 --> 00:14:12,356 Speaker 1: but for your race among us, there could not be war, 201 00:14:12,796 --> 00:14:15,276 Speaker 1: although many men engaged on either side do not care 202 00:14:15,316 --> 00:14:18,236 Speaker 1: for you one way or the other. Nevertheless, I repeat, 203 00:14:18,556 --> 00:14:21,796 Speaker 1: without the institution of slavery and the colored race as 204 00:14:21,836 --> 00:14:26,996 Speaker 1: a basis, the war could not have an existence. That 205 00:14:27,116 --> 00:14:29,876 Speaker 1: quotation is so astonishing that it may take a moment 206 00:14:29,916 --> 00:14:33,236 Speaker 1: to explain it. In essence, what Lincoln was telling the 207 00:14:33,276 --> 00:14:36,316 Speaker 1: black people in front of him was that the war 208 00:14:36,716 --> 00:14:42,356 Speaker 1: was their fault. Instead of blaming the war on southern slavery, 209 00:14:42,636 --> 00:14:46,876 Speaker 1: or Northern hypocrisy, or the inability of the compromise between 210 00:14:46,876 --> 00:14:50,756 Speaker 1: North and South over slavery to subsist, Lincoln was saying 211 00:14:51,516 --> 00:14:54,996 Speaker 1: that black people were themselves the but for cause of 212 00:14:55,036 --> 00:14:58,996 Speaker 1: the war, and were therefore in some sense responsible for it. 213 00:15:00,356 --> 00:15:02,676 Speaker 1: If you think that I'm making that up, listen to 214 00:15:02,676 --> 00:15:05,716 Speaker 1: what Frederick Douglas said when he heard the reports of 215 00:15:05,756 --> 00:15:10,756 Speaker 1: that conversation. Lincoln was showing all his inconsistencies, Douglas wrote, 216 00:15:11,276 --> 00:15:14,516 Speaker 1: his pride of race and blood, his contempt for negroes, 217 00:15:14,716 --> 00:15:18,676 Speaker 1: and his canting hypocrisy. How an honest man could creep 218 00:15:18,676 --> 00:15:21,596 Speaker 1: into such a character as that implied by this address, 219 00:15:21,916 --> 00:15:25,836 Speaker 1: we are not required to show. Douglas went on. He 220 00:15:25,876 --> 00:15:28,356 Speaker 1: said that Lincoln was like a horse thief or a 221 00:15:28,436 --> 00:15:31,916 Speaker 1: highway robber who was blaming his crime on the horse 222 00:15:32,316 --> 00:15:36,876 Speaker 1: or the traveler's purse. No, mister President, Douglas said, it 223 00:15:36,996 --> 00:15:39,156 Speaker 1: is not the innocent horse that makes the horse thief, 224 00:15:39,476 --> 00:15:42,276 Speaker 1: not the traveler's purse that makes the highway robber. And 225 00:15:42,356 --> 00:15:44,876 Speaker 1: it is not the presence of the negro that causes 226 00:15:44,916 --> 00:15:49,316 Speaker 1: this foul and unnatural war, but the cruel and brutal 227 00:15:49,396 --> 00:15:52,956 Speaker 1: cupidity of those who wish to possess horses, money, and 228 00:15:53,236 --> 00:15:58,316 Speaker 1: negroes by means of theft, robbery, and rebellion. What was 229 00:15:58,396 --> 00:16:03,596 Speaker 1: behind Lincoln's conversation with the African American delegation, however, was 230 00:16:03,716 --> 00:16:07,716 Speaker 1: not to make a reasonable point. He was instead again 231 00:16:08,076 --> 00:16:11,676 Speaker 1: trying to prepare the ground for the possibility of emancipation 232 00:16:12,276 --> 00:16:17,796 Speaker 1: by convincing white Americans that he had no particular solicitude 233 00:16:18,196 --> 00:16:22,996 Speaker 1: or care for black people. He was trying to make 234 00:16:22,996 --> 00:16:26,476 Speaker 1: the argument that the reason to end slavery was to 235 00:16:26,596 --> 00:16:30,436 Speaker 1: end the war and to end the controversy and conflict 236 00:16:30,636 --> 00:16:35,356 Speaker 1: between Northern whites and Southern whites about the question of race. 237 00:16:37,116 --> 00:16:41,516 Speaker 1: Did Lincoln mean everything he said? This is a question 238 00:16:41,636 --> 00:16:45,716 Speaker 1: that still engages historians, and one again that I discuss 239 00:16:45,796 --> 00:16:48,876 Speaker 1: in a great deal of detail in the book The 240 00:16:48,956 --> 00:16:53,836 Speaker 1: Broken Constitution. I would say that on the whole my 241 00:16:53,916 --> 00:16:58,716 Speaker 1: answer is yes. Listen to what Lincoln said in an 242 00:16:58,756 --> 00:17:01,796 Speaker 1: open letter to Horace Greeley, the editor of the New 243 00:17:01,876 --> 00:17:06,356 Speaker 1: York Tribune, just a week after he had spoken to 244 00:17:06,396 --> 00:17:10,356 Speaker 1: the group of African Americans in his office. My paramount 245 00:17:10,436 --> 00:17:14,436 Speaker 1: object in this struggle, Lincoln said, is to save the Union, 246 00:17:14,876 --> 00:17:19,356 Speaker 1: and is not either to save or destroy slavery. His 247 00:17:19,516 --> 00:17:22,996 Speaker 1: emphasis on those words, if I could save the Union 248 00:17:23,036 --> 00:17:26,916 Speaker 1: without freeing any slave, I would do it. And if 249 00:17:26,916 --> 00:17:29,716 Speaker 1: I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I 250 00:17:29,756 --> 00:17:31,436 Speaker 1: would do it. And if I could save it by 251 00:17:31,476 --> 00:17:34,596 Speaker 1: freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. 252 00:17:35,196 --> 00:17:37,956 Speaker 1: What I do about slavery and the colored race, I 253 00:17:38,076 --> 00:17:41,116 Speaker 1: do because I believe it helps to save the Union. 254 00:17:41,476 --> 00:17:44,836 Speaker 1: And what I forbear, I forbear because I do not 255 00:17:45,036 --> 00:17:49,516 Speaker 1: believe it would help to save the Union. There in 256 00:17:49,556 --> 00:17:54,756 Speaker 1: a nutshell was Lincoln's public position about emancipation. On his 257 00:17:54,836 --> 00:17:58,236 Speaker 1: way to September of eighteen sixty two, when he announced 258 00:17:58,276 --> 00:18:03,156 Speaker 1: a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln was saying, in 259 00:18:03,196 --> 00:18:07,476 Speaker 1: words too simple to mistake, that he did not want 260 00:18:07,556 --> 00:18:09,996 Speaker 1: to base the decision to a man incipate at that 261 00:18:10,076 --> 00:18:14,276 Speaker 1: moment on the immorality of slavery, but rather on the 262 00:18:14,316 --> 00:18:19,476 Speaker 1: necessity of saving the Union. No doubt, Lincoln felt it 263 00:18:19,556 --> 00:18:22,796 Speaker 1: necessary to speak this way in order to convince white 264 00:18:22,796 --> 00:18:28,596 Speaker 1: Americans of the plausibility of emancipation, and also because he 265 00:18:28,716 --> 00:18:32,156 Speaker 1: knew that he was breaking a constitutional compromise that had 266 00:18:32,196 --> 00:18:36,676 Speaker 1: always been based on slavery. Nevertheless, if Lincoln had wanted 267 00:18:36,796 --> 00:18:41,556 Speaker 1: to speak directly about the immorality of slavery itself as 268 00:18:41,636 --> 00:18:46,636 Speaker 1: part of his act of emancipation, he could have done so. 269 00:18:47,396 --> 00:18:51,836 Speaker 1: The Emancipation Proclamation evolved in the course of three versions 270 00:18:51,876 --> 00:18:54,676 Speaker 1: of the document. The first was the one that Lincoln 271 00:18:54,676 --> 00:18:58,396 Speaker 1: suggested to his cabinet in the summer of eighteen sixty two. 272 00:18:59,116 --> 00:19:02,756 Speaker 1: The second was the preliminary declaration that Lincoln made public 273 00:19:02,996 --> 00:19:07,196 Speaker 1: in September. The third and final one was the formal 274 00:19:07,276 --> 00:19:13,876 Speaker 1: Emancipation Proclamation, into effect on January first of eighteen sixty three. 275 00:19:14,596 --> 00:19:19,116 Speaker 1: In none of these did Lincoln expressly say that the 276 00:19:19,196 --> 00:19:24,236 Speaker 1: point of emancipation was to end a moral wrong. Indeed, 277 00:19:24,396 --> 00:19:29,636 Speaker 1: these documents were written in fairly legalistic tones. Karl Marx, 278 00:19:30,076 --> 00:19:33,836 Speaker 1: a contemporary of Lincoln's, as we sometimes forget, who watched 279 00:19:33,916 --> 00:19:37,556 Speaker 1: events in the United States with great interest, did consider 280 00:19:37,596 --> 00:19:41,316 Speaker 1: the Emancipation Proclamation to be quote, the most important document 281 00:19:41,436 --> 00:19:45,196 Speaker 1: in American history since the establishment of the Union, tantamount 282 00:19:45,276 --> 00:19:48,876 Speaker 1: to the tearing up of the old American Constitution. Yet 283 00:19:48,916 --> 00:19:52,876 Speaker 1: at the same time, Marx derided the language of the 284 00:19:52,916 --> 00:19:56,716 Speaker 1: proclamation as devoid of morality. He said it had been 285 00:19:56,756 --> 00:20:01,476 Speaker 1: intentionally drafted to sound like, quote, an ordinary summons sent 286 00:20:01,596 --> 00:20:05,476 Speaker 1: by one lawyer to another. That was true of the 287 00:20:05,516 --> 00:20:11,116 Speaker 1: body of the proclamation. The only place where Lincoln hinted, however, 288 00:20:11,156 --> 00:20:15,796 Speaker 1: in the emancipation Proclamation at some potential moral purpose was 289 00:20:15,876 --> 00:20:21,476 Speaker 1: in its final paragraph. There he wrote, and upon this act, 290 00:20:21,956 --> 00:20:25,876 Speaker 1: sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by 291 00:20:25,876 --> 00:20:31,156 Speaker 1: the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment 292 00:20:31,196 --> 00:20:36,876 Speaker 1: of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. This 293 00:20:36,916 --> 00:20:41,676 Speaker 1: paragraph did include a repetition of Lincoln's insistence that his 294 00:20:41,756 --> 00:20:45,796 Speaker 1: act was justified by the Constitution because of the military 295 00:20:45,836 --> 00:20:49,156 Speaker 1: necessity of doing so. In other words, that the reason 296 00:20:49,196 --> 00:20:52,636 Speaker 1: emancipation was permissible under the Constitution, despite it being a 297 00:20:52,676 --> 00:20:55,956 Speaker 1: breaking of the Constitution as it had always been understood before, 298 00:20:56,556 --> 00:20:59,756 Speaker 1: was that there was a military necessity to do so. 299 00:21:00,236 --> 00:21:03,556 Speaker 1: He needed to emancipate the slaves in order to win 300 00:21:03,636 --> 00:21:08,036 Speaker 1: the war. And yet if that were the only reason, 301 00:21:08,396 --> 00:21:11,716 Speaker 1: there would be no significant basis for Lincoln to invoke 302 00:21:11,836 --> 00:21:16,076 Speaker 1: the judgment of mankind, much less the gracious favor of God. 303 00:21:16,916 --> 00:21:19,916 Speaker 1: By thinking of the judgment of mankind, Lincoln was referring 304 00:21:19,956 --> 00:21:23,916 Speaker 1: back to the Declaration of Independence, which had also appealed 305 00:21:23,956 --> 00:21:27,876 Speaker 1: to the opinions of mankind and referred to a creator 306 00:21:28,076 --> 00:21:32,356 Speaker 1: who endowed men with inalienable rights, including the right to liberty. 307 00:21:33,036 --> 00:21:36,436 Speaker 1: Lincoln was suggesting to an international audience, not to the 308 00:21:36,516 --> 00:21:43,276 Speaker 1: US audience, that there was value in the freeing of slaves. Similarly, 309 00:21:43,316 --> 00:21:48,756 Speaker 1: by invoking God, Lincoln was hinting, but only hinting, that 310 00:21:48,876 --> 00:21:53,516 Speaker 1: in the eyes of the ultimate judge of morality, there 311 00:21:53,756 --> 00:22:01,676 Speaker 1: was good reason to free enslaved African Americans. By emancipating 312 00:22:01,716 --> 00:22:07,676 Speaker 1: African American slaves, Lincoln fundamentally changed the possible outcomes of 313 00:22:07,676 --> 00:22:11,996 Speaker 1: the war, and in the process, he fundamentally transformed the 314 00:22:12,036 --> 00:22:16,636 Speaker 1: meaning of the Constitution. That was because by doing so, 315 00:22:17,036 --> 00:22:21,636 Speaker 1: Lincoln blocked once and for all, any possibility of return 316 00:22:22,036 --> 00:22:26,836 Speaker 1: to a constitution based on compromise. The compromise constitution had 317 00:22:26,876 --> 00:22:31,236 Speaker 1: always been a compromise based on slavery. By announcing that 318 00:22:31,516 --> 00:22:34,956 Speaker 1: enslaved people in the South would not be returned to 319 00:22:34,956 --> 00:22:38,036 Speaker 1: their owners when the war was over, by announcing that 320 00:22:38,076 --> 00:22:40,436 Speaker 1: there would not be slavery in the South when the 321 00:22:40,436 --> 00:22:44,436 Speaker 1: war was over, Lincoln was guaranteeing that there would not 322 00:22:44,636 --> 00:22:48,676 Speaker 1: be the possibility of future compromise, at least if he 323 00:22:49,076 --> 00:22:52,756 Speaker 1: were re elected president. He knew that he might lose 324 00:22:52,836 --> 00:22:57,116 Speaker 1: the presidential election in eighteen sixty four, and if that happened, 325 00:22:57,156 --> 00:23:00,876 Speaker 1: He realized a new president might reoffer some version of 326 00:23:00,876 --> 00:23:03,676 Speaker 1: a compromise to the South, but as long as he 327 00:23:03,796 --> 00:23:06,956 Speaker 1: was president, he was insisting there would not be a 328 00:23:06,996 --> 00:23:13,476 Speaker 1: compromise by this Emancipation Act. Therefore, Lincoln broke any possibility 329 00:23:13,716 --> 00:23:17,316 Speaker 1: of return to the Constitution of seventeen eighty seven, as 330 00:23:17,356 --> 00:23:20,716 Speaker 1: it had been shored up and rebuilt by a series 331 00:23:20,716 --> 00:23:24,396 Speaker 1: of quasi constitutional compromises in the year before the war. 332 00:23:24,996 --> 00:23:29,796 Speaker 1: He was taking slavery off the table. In so doing, 333 00:23:30,076 --> 00:23:33,996 Speaker 1: Lincoln was also opening up a new possibility, one we 334 00:23:34,036 --> 00:23:37,556 Speaker 1: are familiar with today, but that had not existed before. 335 00:23:38,196 --> 00:23:42,356 Speaker 1: That was the idea of the Constitution as a constitution 336 00:23:42,596 --> 00:23:47,636 Speaker 1: genuinely in keeping with morality, a moral constitution that could 337 00:23:47,636 --> 00:23:53,316 Speaker 1: itself be considered a higher law. The Constitution had never 338 00:23:53,436 --> 00:23:56,796 Speaker 1: been considered a moral document in the years before the 339 00:23:56,836 --> 00:24:00,916 Speaker 1: Civil War because it entailed a compromise with slavery. Even 340 00:24:00,956 --> 00:24:03,516 Speaker 1: those who like Lincoln believed there was a moral duty 341 00:24:03,636 --> 00:24:07,276 Speaker 1: to follow the Constitution believed that that flowed from a 342 00:24:07,316 --> 00:24:10,556 Speaker 1: promise that had been made to follow it, not from 343 00:24:10,596 --> 00:24:14,276 Speaker 1: the morality of the Constitution itself, which was a compromise 344 00:24:14,436 --> 00:24:18,516 Speaker 1: with immorality. But if the Constitution would no longer be 345 00:24:18,556 --> 00:24:22,436 Speaker 1: a compromise over slavery. Then it could be a moral document. 346 00:24:22,956 --> 00:24:25,356 Speaker 1: It could be a moral document based on the principle 347 00:24:25,436 --> 00:24:29,356 Speaker 1: of liberty for all, and by implication, also based on 348 00:24:29,356 --> 00:24:34,796 Speaker 1: the principle of equality. Liberty and equality were moral concepts. 349 00:24:35,276 --> 00:24:38,556 Speaker 1: Compromise was a concept that was at best a moral 350 00:24:38,916 --> 00:24:42,476 Speaker 1: and at worst immoral to the extent it entailed an 351 00:24:42,516 --> 00:24:48,116 Speaker 1: agreement to preserve slavery. The Gettysburg Address is the archetypal 352 00:24:48,236 --> 00:24:52,436 Speaker 1: moment when Lincoln introduced this idea to the United States. 353 00:24:53,876 --> 00:24:57,436 Speaker 1: He gave it on November nineteenth, eighteen sixty three, and 354 00:24:57,516 --> 00:25:01,156 Speaker 1: already in its first sentence, Lincoln spoke of a new 355 00:25:01,236 --> 00:25:05,996 Speaker 1: nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that 356 00:25:06,196 --> 00:25:10,916 Speaker 1: all men are created equal. The nation was new because 357 00:25:10,916 --> 00:25:14,956 Speaker 1: the Constitution of seventeen eighty seven was gone. This new 358 00:25:15,036 --> 00:25:18,716 Speaker 1: nation was conceived in liberty, which could never be said 359 00:25:19,036 --> 00:25:22,756 Speaker 1: of the Constitution of seventeen eighty seven because it entailed 360 00:25:22,756 --> 00:25:27,116 Speaker 1: a compromise over liberty by assuring the continuation of the 361 00:25:27,196 --> 00:25:31,716 Speaker 1: enslavement of African Americans and the core proposition that all 362 00:25:31,756 --> 00:25:35,836 Speaker 1: men are created equal, though it existed in the Declaration 363 00:25:35,836 --> 00:25:39,916 Speaker 1: of Independence, had not been morally present in the Constitution 364 00:25:40,316 --> 00:25:46,116 Speaker 1: because it had explicitly excluded people of color. In the 365 00:25:46,116 --> 00:25:50,116 Speaker 1: course of the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's introduction of the idea 366 00:25:50,156 --> 00:25:55,196 Speaker 1: of morality started to take on biblical overtones. You can 367 00:25:55,276 --> 00:25:57,836 Speaker 1: hear that in some of the language of the address 368 00:25:58,276 --> 00:26:01,956 Speaker 1: four score and seven years ago a formulation hinting at 369 00:26:01,996 --> 00:26:06,076 Speaker 1: the Bible shall not perish from the earth more language 370 00:26:06,076 --> 00:26:11,036 Speaker 1: from the Bible. But Lincoln's religious description of the meaning 371 00:26:11,156 --> 00:26:14,796 Speaker 1: of the end of slavery came most famously in his 372 00:26:14,916 --> 00:26:18,916 Speaker 1: second inaugural address, which he gave on March fourth of 373 00:26:19,036 --> 00:26:24,876 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five. In that famous address, Lincoln offered nothing 374 00:26:24,996 --> 00:26:28,876 Speaker 1: less than a theology of slavery and what it meant 375 00:26:29,036 --> 00:26:34,276 Speaker 1: in America. According to that theology, slavery was an offense 376 00:26:34,396 --> 00:26:40,236 Speaker 1: against God, an original sin, and that sin had been 377 00:26:40,796 --> 00:26:46,876 Speaker 1: purged or atoned only through the violence and bloodshed of 378 00:26:46,916 --> 00:26:50,876 Speaker 1: the Civil War. He said, if we shall suppose that 379 00:26:50,916 --> 00:26:54,436 Speaker 1: American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the 380 00:26:54,476 --> 00:26:58,796 Speaker 1: providence of God must needs come, but which having continued 381 00:26:58,836 --> 00:27:01,836 Speaker 1: through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and 382 00:27:01,876 --> 00:27:04,396 Speaker 1: that he gives to both north and South. This terrible war, 383 00:27:04,756 --> 00:27:07,836 Speaker 1: as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, 384 00:27:08,516 --> 00:27:12,476 Speaker 1: shall we scern therein any departure from those divine attributes 385 00:27:12,516 --> 00:27:17,156 Speaker 1: which the believers in a living God always ascribed to him. 386 00:27:17,196 --> 00:27:22,116 Speaker 1: Lincoln was saying that the war had been inevitable, inevitable 387 00:27:22,276 --> 00:27:29,316 Speaker 1: because of the slavery compromise, which itself was a sin. Thus, 388 00:27:29,356 --> 00:27:32,156 Speaker 1: he said, the war might continue until all the wealth 389 00:27:32,276 --> 00:27:35,276 Speaker 1: piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of 390 00:27:35,396 --> 00:27:38,876 Speaker 1: unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 391 00:27:38,916 --> 00:27:41,876 Speaker 1: blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another 392 00:27:42,196 --> 00:27:46,236 Speaker 1: drawn with the sword. The blood of slavery would be 393 00:27:46,236 --> 00:27:51,156 Speaker 1: repaid by the blood of the Northern and Southern dead. 394 00:27:53,036 --> 00:27:56,876 Speaker 1: Through this atonement, an atonement that would have been familiar 395 00:27:56,916 --> 00:28:00,796 Speaker 1: to Americans of the time as the model of Christ's 396 00:28:00,876 --> 00:28:04,356 Speaker 1: sacrifice of his own blood to atone for original sin, 397 00:28:05,196 --> 00:28:09,436 Speaker 1: the United States could be healed. The result would be 398 00:28:09,516 --> 00:28:14,396 Speaker 1: a new Constitution that stood in relationship to the Old Constitution, 399 00:28:14,756 --> 00:28:18,916 Speaker 1: the way the New Testament stood in relationship to the Old. 400 00:28:20,996 --> 00:28:24,996 Speaker 1: Lots of scholars have talked about the difficulty that Lincoln 401 00:28:24,996 --> 00:28:28,396 Speaker 1: faced in his personal life. The death of his son 402 00:28:29,116 --> 00:28:33,996 Speaker 1: and as well the pain of seeing so many human 403 00:28:34,076 --> 00:28:37,956 Speaker 1: deaths on both sides of the war. But the truth 404 00:28:38,076 --> 00:28:41,556 Speaker 1: is that the most obvious explanation for Lincoln's turn to 405 00:28:41,636 --> 00:28:44,276 Speaker 1: religious language at the end of the war has to 406 00:28:44,316 --> 00:28:47,516 Speaker 1: do with his turn to the idea that the Constitution 407 00:28:47,596 --> 00:28:53,356 Speaker 1: could be remade into something newly moral. For nineteenth century Americans, 408 00:28:53,796 --> 00:28:59,356 Speaker 1: the fundamental language of morality was the language of religion. Thus, 409 00:28:59,556 --> 00:29:03,956 Speaker 1: by the emancipation of slaves, Lincoln changed the meaning of 410 00:29:03,996 --> 00:29:08,236 Speaker 1: the war itself from being a war for union to 411 00:29:08,436 --> 00:29:13,996 Speaker 1: being a war to end slavery. No longer would union 412 00:29:14,116 --> 00:29:18,436 Speaker 1: be grounded and compromised. Instead, union would be grounded in 413 00:29:18,476 --> 00:29:23,636 Speaker 1: a coercive military solution that ended slavery and assumed a 414 00:29:23,716 --> 00:29:30,156 Speaker 1: constitution that would ultimately be based on equality. Lincoln lived 415 00:29:30,196 --> 00:29:33,876 Speaker 1: to see the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery. 416 00:29:34,316 --> 00:29:36,436 Speaker 1: He did not live to see the ratification of the 417 00:29:36,476 --> 00:29:39,876 Speaker 1: Fourteenth Amendment, with its guarantee of equal protection, nor the 418 00:29:39,916 --> 00:29:44,756 Speaker 1: fifteenth with its enfranchisement of African Americans. But that did 419 00:29:44,796 --> 00:29:47,756 Speaker 1: not matter from the standpoint of the transformative effect that 420 00:29:47,836 --> 00:29:52,556 Speaker 1: Lincoln's actions had had on the Constitution. Once slavery was ended, 421 00:29:52,756 --> 00:29:55,876 Speaker 1: which Lincoln had done even without a constitutional amendment, at 422 00:29:55,916 --> 00:29:59,996 Speaker 1: least with respect to the South. He had fundamentally transformed 423 00:30:00,316 --> 00:30:06,876 Speaker 1: the constitutional order into something new. He had refounded America 424 00:30:06,996 --> 00:30:12,556 Speaker 1: on new principles, moral prin principles of freedom, and principles 425 00:30:12,596 --> 00:30:19,796 Speaker 1: of equality. His historical contribution would be permanent. Before I 426 00:30:19,956 --> 00:30:23,676 Speaker 1: end this episode, though, I want to point out that 427 00:30:23,796 --> 00:30:27,516 Speaker 1: although nothing could be neater than to end the story 428 00:30:27,636 --> 00:30:32,316 Speaker 1: of Lincoln and the Broken Constitution with its transformation into 429 00:30:32,356 --> 00:30:36,796 Speaker 1: a new moral constitution via the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Amendments, 430 00:30:37,636 --> 00:30:42,116 Speaker 1: the sad truth is that the planned effort to remake 431 00:30:42,156 --> 00:30:46,836 Speaker 1: the Constitution into something moral did not ultimately go as 432 00:30:46,876 --> 00:30:50,436 Speaker 1: Lincoln had hoped, And indeed, some of the reason for 433 00:30:50,476 --> 00:30:52,996 Speaker 1: that may simply have to do with the fact that 434 00:30:53,036 --> 00:30:56,996 Speaker 1: neither Lincoln nor anyone else had a detailed vision of 435 00:30:57,276 --> 00:31:01,196 Speaker 1: how a constitution that was based on moral principles of 436 00:31:01,236 --> 00:31:06,236 Speaker 1: equality and freedom could actually work in practice. As you 437 00:31:06,276 --> 00:31:09,996 Speaker 1: may recall from Episode one, General Winfield's Scott had told 438 00:31:09,996 --> 00:31:13,356 Speaker 1: Lincoln before the war began that if the North did 439 00:31:13,436 --> 00:31:16,396 Speaker 1: manage to conquer the South, it would have to rule 440 00:31:16,716 --> 00:31:21,196 Speaker 1: the South the way an imperial power ruled unruly colonies. 441 00:31:21,636 --> 00:31:23,996 Speaker 1: It would have to have an army of occupation, and 442 00:31:24,036 --> 00:31:27,236 Speaker 1: it would have to force its own control and power 443 00:31:27,316 --> 00:31:30,436 Speaker 1: onto the South. When field Scott thought that would be 444 00:31:30,556 --> 00:31:34,756 Speaker 1: very difficult or impossible to do, as it happened, that 445 00:31:34,916 --> 00:31:37,476 Speaker 1: is exactly what the North had to do when the 446 00:31:37,516 --> 00:31:42,596 Speaker 1: war ended. Reconstruction is the name for the military occupation 447 00:31:43,076 --> 00:31:46,876 Speaker 1: and the effort of social transformation that was initially undertaken 448 00:31:47,076 --> 00:31:50,676 Speaker 1: by the North, and that was then co participated in 449 00:31:51,156 --> 00:31:55,196 Speaker 1: by freed African Americans in the South who nobly and 450 00:31:55,276 --> 00:32:00,516 Speaker 1: by their own efforts, undertook to enfranchise themselves, to participate 451 00:32:00,556 --> 00:32:04,156 Speaker 1: in politics and to remake the society in which they lived. 452 00:32:05,516 --> 00:32:10,476 Speaker 1: Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's vice president, was very skeptical of Reconstruction 453 00:32:10,476 --> 00:32:14,516 Speaker 1: from the start and tried hard not to implement its provisions. That, 454 00:32:14,596 --> 00:32:16,236 Speaker 1: in fact, was one of the reasons that he was 455 00:32:16,316 --> 00:32:21,396 Speaker 1: ultimately impeached, though not convicted by the Senate. Johnson, however, 456 00:32:21,836 --> 00:32:25,556 Speaker 1: was replaced ultimately by Ulysses S. Grant, and Grant did 457 00:32:25,676 --> 00:32:28,356 Speaker 1: much more than Johnson had done to work with the 458 00:32:28,396 --> 00:32:34,476 Speaker 1: Republican Congress to impose Reconstruction on the South. The South, however, 459 00:32:34,676 --> 00:32:37,756 Speaker 1: and by that I mean, the White South resisted with 460 00:32:37,996 --> 00:32:44,076 Speaker 1: everything that it had. It fought a military insurgency characterized 461 00:32:44,116 --> 00:32:49,436 Speaker 1: by paramilitary guerrilla groups like the Ku Klux Klan. White 462 00:32:49,476 --> 00:32:53,796 Speaker 1: Southerners fought hard to resist the idea of African American 463 00:32:53,836 --> 00:32:58,556 Speaker 1: equality and enfranchisement in the social sphere, in the economic sphere, 464 00:32:58,716 --> 00:33:03,196 Speaker 1: and in the political sphere, and ultimately, over the course 465 00:33:03,276 --> 00:33:06,956 Speaker 1: of the first half of the eighteen seventies, white Northerners 466 00:33:07,356 --> 00:33:14,196 Speaker 1: lost the political moment to keep reconstruction going. The analogies 467 00:33:14,236 --> 00:33:18,716 Speaker 1: to American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are actually strong. 468 00:33:19,836 --> 00:33:22,916 Speaker 1: The United States may imagine that it can transform a 469 00:33:22,996 --> 00:33:26,876 Speaker 1: society entirely in the course of a military occupation, but 470 00:33:26,956 --> 00:33:30,836 Speaker 1: when it turns out to be difficult, expensive, and time consuming, 471 00:33:31,036 --> 00:33:34,556 Speaker 1: and when it turns out that many local people resist transformation, 472 00:33:35,156 --> 00:33:38,516 Speaker 1: eventually the United States is capable of running out of 473 00:33:38,556 --> 00:33:42,476 Speaker 1: steam on some level. That is the best account of 474 00:33:42,476 --> 00:33:47,316 Speaker 1: how Reconstruction ultimately failed. It wasn't that Southern African Americans 475 00:33:47,356 --> 00:33:50,156 Speaker 1: gave up their efforts to the contrary. They never stopped. 476 00:33:50,636 --> 00:33:55,196 Speaker 1: It was that white Northerners lost the political will and 477 00:33:55,316 --> 00:33:59,796 Speaker 1: the incentive to continue to try to impose social transformation, 478 00:34:00,156 --> 00:34:06,116 Speaker 1: economic transformation, and political transformation on white Southerners. The result 479 00:34:06,316 --> 00:34:10,516 Speaker 1: was the tragedy of what is sometimes called the Compromise 480 00:34:10,556 --> 00:34:14,956 Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy six or the Great Betrayal. This was 481 00:34:14,996 --> 00:34:18,396 Speaker 1: a process that emerged from the disputed eighteen seventy six 482 00:34:18,476 --> 00:34:23,156 Speaker 1: constitutional election, which produced a special commission and a set 483 00:34:23,196 --> 00:34:28,116 Speaker 1: of agreements that effectively embraced the reality of the collapse 484 00:34:28,196 --> 00:34:34,596 Speaker 1: of Reconstruction. To oversimplify significantly, the Republican Party, speaking on 485 00:34:34,636 --> 00:34:38,516 Speaker 1: behalf of northern whites, reached a compromise with the Democratic Party, 486 00:34:38,756 --> 00:34:44,556 Speaker 1: which incorporated southern whites, to end Reconstruction and to allow 487 00:34:44,836 --> 00:34:48,756 Speaker 1: the re emergence of a system of white domination in 488 00:34:48,836 --> 00:34:54,516 Speaker 1: the South, a system based on segregation and disenfranchisement. To 489 00:34:54,636 --> 00:34:57,996 Speaker 1: get there, the Supreme Court had to bless and validate 490 00:34:58,396 --> 00:35:06,676 Speaker 1: laws that effectively repudiated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Segregation 491 00:35:07,116 --> 00:35:11,476 Speaker 1: the principle of separate but equal will violated the Fourteenth Amendment, 492 00:35:11,716 --> 00:35:15,476 Speaker 1: but the Supreme Court pretended otherwise in the tragically awful 493 00:35:15,516 --> 00:35:20,716 Speaker 1: case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Similarly, laws designed to block 494 00:35:20,836 --> 00:35:25,956 Speaker 1: African Americans from voting were systematically upheld by the Supreme Court. 495 00:35:27,636 --> 00:35:33,516 Speaker 1: Lincoln's promise of a moral Constitution was betrayed, because although 496 00:35:33,556 --> 00:35:37,996 Speaker 1: the Moral Constitution remained on paper, it was effectively a 497 00:35:38,076 --> 00:35:43,076 Speaker 1: dead letter until the Civil Rights movement and Brown against 498 00:35:43,116 --> 00:35:47,716 Speaker 1: the Board of Education. What happened after the Supreme Court 499 00:35:47,916 --> 00:35:51,836 Speaker 1: repudiated the idea of separate but equal in the Brown versus. 500 00:35:51,836 --> 00:35:55,396 Speaker 1: The Board decision in nineteen fifty four was the beginning 501 00:35:55,476 --> 00:36:02,116 Speaker 1: of a process of constitutional redemption. The redemption here was 502 00:36:02,236 --> 00:36:05,396 Speaker 1: not redemption of the original Constitution of seventeen eighty seven, 503 00:36:05,756 --> 00:36:10,036 Speaker 1: but of Lincoln's Moral Constitution, the constitution embodied in their 504 00:36:10,076 --> 00:36:14,676 Speaker 1: reconstruction amendments. The Supreme Court itself played a role an 505 00:36:14,676 --> 00:36:18,276 Speaker 1: important role by saying that separate could never be equal, 506 00:36:18,836 --> 00:36:22,396 Speaker 1: but the primary role was played by the Civil rights movement, 507 00:36:22,716 --> 00:36:26,316 Speaker 1: by African Americans, who, in the decade following Brown versus. 508 00:36:26,316 --> 00:36:31,956 Speaker 1: Board of Education, engaged in civil disobedience, in sit ins, 509 00:36:31,996 --> 00:36:37,396 Speaker 1: in nonviolent resistance, and in the whole series of dramatic 510 00:36:37,836 --> 00:36:42,276 Speaker 1: and heroic undertakings that ultimately led Congress to adopt the 511 00:36:42,356 --> 00:36:45,356 Speaker 1: Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four and the Voting 512 00:36:45,436 --> 00:36:50,076 Speaker 1: Rights Act of nineteen sixty five. In this process, Martin 513 00:36:50,156 --> 00:36:54,996 Speaker 1: Luther King Junior emerged as in a sense, the second Lincoln, 514 00:36:55,636 --> 00:36:58,796 Speaker 1: someone who stood from the moral Constitution, not from the 515 00:36:58,836 --> 00:37:01,796 Speaker 1: standpoint in this case of a government itself, but from 516 00:37:01,836 --> 00:37:06,556 Speaker 1: the standpoint of the people, and in particular of African Americans, 517 00:37:06,636 --> 00:37:11,716 Speaker 1: who had been oppressed. The institution of morality and equality 518 00:37:12,036 --> 00:37:16,076 Speaker 1: was therefore redeemed not by the conferral of a decision 519 00:37:16,196 --> 00:37:20,476 Speaker 1: from above, like Lincoln the dictator, but rather by the 520 00:37:20,516 --> 00:37:23,836 Speaker 1: actions of the people who were entitled to the very 521 00:37:23,956 --> 00:37:28,476 Speaker 1: rights that they were guaranteed under that constitutional order. It 522 00:37:28,596 --> 00:37:31,956 Speaker 1: was no coincidence that the iconic moment of Martin Luther 523 00:37:32,076 --> 00:37:35,996 Speaker 1: King's career took place at the March on Washington. Standing 524 00:37:36,396 --> 00:37:41,836 Speaker 1: in front of the Lincoln memorial. King was becoming a 525 00:37:41,956 --> 00:37:48,916 Speaker 1: second Lincoln, and because ultimately King was assassinated just as 526 00:37:48,996 --> 00:37:53,316 Speaker 1: Lincoln had been, the two men became linked as martyrs 527 00:37:53,676 --> 00:38:00,276 Speaker 1: of the new and moral Constitution. King's explicitly religious identity 528 00:38:00,796 --> 00:38:05,356 Speaker 1: as a minister played an important role in solidifying and 529 00:38:05,516 --> 00:38:10,636 Speaker 1: expanding Lincoln's theology of the Civil War. The blood of 530 00:38:10,676 --> 00:38:13,916 Speaker 1: the Civil War had atoned for original sin, but it 531 00:38:13,996 --> 00:38:18,116 Speaker 1: was the efforts of African Americans and King's own sacrifice 532 00:38:18,596 --> 00:38:23,436 Speaker 1: that redeemed Lincoln's Constitution from the betrayal it had undergone 533 00:38:23,956 --> 00:38:29,836 Speaker 1: in the years after the abandonment of reconstruction. Today, of course, 534 00:38:30,036 --> 00:38:35,476 Speaker 1: we know that that redeemed Constitution, with its moral principles 535 00:38:35,516 --> 00:38:41,316 Speaker 1: of equality and liberty, is not perfectly achieved. Everyone on 536 00:38:41,356 --> 00:38:46,396 Speaker 1: the American political spectrum today embraces in principle Lincoln's Constitution. 537 00:38:47,276 --> 00:38:50,556 Speaker 1: Everyone therefore should recognize today that we do not have 538 00:38:50,636 --> 00:38:54,116 Speaker 1: the Constitution of seventeen eighty seven, but we do have 539 00:38:54,556 --> 00:38:59,036 Speaker 1: the constitution that Abraham Lincoln brought into existence with emancipation 540 00:38:59,276 --> 00:39:03,396 Speaker 1: on January first, eighteen sixty three. At the same time, 541 00:39:03,956 --> 00:39:08,036 Speaker 1: we need to recognize that a written constitution embedding the 542 00:39:08,076 --> 00:39:11,556 Speaker 1: principles of a quality and liberty does not on its 543 00:39:11,636 --> 00:39:16,316 Speaker 1: own bring those moral principles into existence. We still have 544 00:39:16,476 --> 00:39:20,596 Speaker 1: persistent inequality in the United States, including inequality before the 545 00:39:20,676 --> 00:39:25,796 Speaker 1: law of the kind that the moral constitution prohibits. The 546 00:39:25,876 --> 00:39:30,876 Speaker 1: truth is that a moral constitution, like all constitutions, is 547 00:39:30,916 --> 00:39:35,156 Speaker 1: not an end state. It's a promise of an ongoing effort. 548 00:39:36,116 --> 00:39:40,396 Speaker 1: Through our moral constitution, we define our national project, but 549 00:39:40,836 --> 00:39:46,196 Speaker 1: we can never fully achieve it. Lincoln's ultimate legacy, then 550 00:39:46,396 --> 00:39:50,676 Speaker 1: is not the accomplishment of a genuinely moral constitution. It 551 00:39:50,796 --> 00:39:55,396 Speaker 1: is rather his act of breaking the compromise constitution and 552 00:39:55,516 --> 00:39:59,676 Speaker 1: the hope and the promise of a moral constitution that 553 00:39:59,796 --> 00:40:04,916 Speaker 1: will always be in the process of being redeemed. If 554 00:40:04,956 --> 00:40:09,436 Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode of The Broken Constitution podcast, I 555 00:40:09,476 --> 00:40:12,076 Speaker 1: can tell you with a great deal of certainty that 556 00:40:12,196 --> 00:40:19,516 Speaker 1: you're also going to enjoy the book itself, The Broken Constitution, Lincoln, 557 00:40:19,676 --> 00:40:23,436 Speaker 1: Slavery and the Refounding of America, will be out now. 558 00:40:24,196 --> 00:40:28,196 Speaker 1: Please enjoy reading it, and if you have thoughts or ideas, 559 00:40:28,596 --> 00:40:31,676 Speaker 1: I hope you will write to me about what you think. 560 00:40:32,436 --> 00:40:34,756 Speaker 1: The point of this book is to create a conversation, 561 00:40:35,436 --> 00:40:38,716 Speaker 1: and you, the listener of this podcast, are one of 562 00:40:38,716 --> 00:40:43,236 Speaker 1: the people from whom I wish to hear. The Broken 563 00:40:43,276 --> 00:40:47,516 Speaker 1: Constitution was produced by Nathan Sims and Quick and Dirty Tips, 564 00:40:47,716 --> 00:40:50,916 Speaker 1: a proud part of McMillan Publishers Home far Oar Straus 565 00:40:51,076 --> 00:40:54,356 Speaker 1: and Drew, who are publishing my book