The Parallel Lives

 When driving to destinations from home and back, I occupy my time by listening to YouTube videos of Civil War historians on my mobile phone. I am curious to hear their ideas and stories. 

     The best crop of Civil War historians today, in my estimation, include: Eric Foner at Columbia, Gary Gallagher at the University of Virginia, David Blight at Yale, and Allen Guelzo now at Princeton, but formerly at Gettysburg College. Each has a collection of videos.

     Plus, each possesses that innate ability to bring to life the war, its people, its clash of ideas.

     Last week, I listened to a sixty-minute interview with Allen Guelzo, about his book, published last February, “Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment.”

     Guelzo found his title in Lincoln’s speech at Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, when he first said, “my ancient faith,” but then later in that speech, Lincoln changed the phrase.

     He said, “I have quoted so much at this time to show that according to ‘our ancient faith,’ the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed.” 

     Lincoln changed “my ancient faith” to “our ancient faith,” meaning, it includes all Americans.

     For Lincoln, “our ancient faith” is Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, James Madison’s Constitution, and George Washington’s words when he presided over thirteen states.

     Guelzo says that each generation must teach the next generation the principles of “our ancient faith.” He says that we need their lessons. We must develop a reverence for their ideas.

     Also, Guelzo says that Lincoln was devoted to the idea that popular sovereignty within a democracy resides with the people, in other words, “from the consent of the governed.”

     At Gettysburg, Lincoln finished his Address with the words, “that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

     Guelzo points out that the phrase “of the people” indicates that a democratic government comes out of the people, that they select representatives who must act on the people’s behalf.

     The second phrase “by the people” according to Guelzo, indicates that people can take charge of their own lives, and that people are competent enough to govern their community’s affairs.

     The third phrase “for the people” indicates that the benefits and rich rewards spilling out of democracy and self-government will flow back to the people themselves.

     Guelzo points out that Lincoln’s ideas contradict those of a monarch, a dictator, or a tyrant, who believes the people are unwashed masses of ignorance, born with saddles on their backs and bits in their mouth, ready to be ridden, incapable of self-government or any display of wisdom.

     In the second chapter of the book, Guelzo discusses “Law, Reason, and Passion.”

     Lincoln understood that “passion” can sway people, carry them off the rails. For him, passion includes anger, impulsiveness, and revenge. It leads to lynch mobs, riots, and some very stupid decisions, like granting power to a dictator to set things straight and to drive away the chaos. 

     For Lincoln, the solution was “reason,” that ability to set aside the emotion and instead think toward an appropriate response that will reduce the temperature. Less heat and more light.

    The best means to reason was the “law.” The law is about reason. A reverence for the law will keep people’s passions under control.

     The last thing that Guelzo explains, at the end of the hour, is that democratic government is resilient, more so than a dictatorship.

     Guelzo says that a dictatorship may appear powerful, but once it slams into a brick wall, it disintegrates and dies. A democracy is like Rocky Balboa, who keeps getting knocked down flat again and again, but keeps getting back up to fight another day.

     Our American democracy can absorb a punishing lot of abuse and torment. It has in the past, will do so in the present, as well as into the future. Guelzo finishes, “We have been here before.”