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. Well,after all, Judge, I think I must put this with my leg cases, Lincoln remarkedon one occasion to Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt: 40 abrahamlincoln and the doctrine of necessityThey are the cases that you call by that long title, cowardice in the face ofthe enemy, but I call them for short, my leg cases. But I put it to you,and I leave it for you to decide for yourself: if Almighty God gives a man acowardly pair of legs how can he help their running away with him?68 This philosophy as a whole will account for much of the facts and laws of hissplendid life, promised Herndon, and that promise may also include Lincoln smost eloquent statement on the meaning of responsibility, in the third para-graph of the Second Inaugural.Almost by custom, the attention commentators devote to the SecondInaugural is drawn largely to the final paragraph, with its benediction-likeexhortation to end the Civil War with malice toward none; with charityfor all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right. What isfrequently missed is how, in the preceding paragraph, Lincoln had expressedgrave reservations about how much of the right God had actually givenpeople to see.Even though the Confederate cause had been dedicated to apalpable injustice that of wringing their bread from the sweat of other men sfaces even this injustice had been part of the Almighty s purposes, andLincoln was loath to pass too severe a judgment of his own on Southernerswhen it was those purposes which were the ultimate cause of their misdoings.Much as he might pray that this mighty scourge of war might pass away, Lincoln could not escape the sense of necessity in the four years of bloodshedthat the war was something which God wills to continue. Faced with theinscrutability of that necessity, Lincoln warned, let us judge not that webe not judged in dealing with each other; and let us not judge God, whosemysterious purposes are still, above any human willing or judgment, trueand righteous altogether. This is not so much a declaration of forgiveness asit is acquiescence in the face of a necessity which forbids the imputation oftoo much praise or blame.Even at the end, Lincoln s fatalism had managedto have the last word.And yet, Lincoln the fatalist, who had no assurance that the will of anyperson was free, is also the great giver of liberty, the emancipator of millionsand the rebuilder of a sundered Republic.There is no greater paradox inLincoln s life than the one arising from the juxtaposition of these two images,for there seems no easy way to reconcile the man who believed that all humanaction was decided by powers beyond human control, and the president whoreiterated his faith in the capacity of individuals to improve themselves viaa free-labor system which gives hope to all, and energy, and progress, andimprovement of condition to all. 69 Unhappily, paradoxes tempt the curiousto resolve them into their separate parts; in Lincoln s case, the paradox of theGreat Emancipator and the Fatalist has more significance for us if we leave itstanding and ask what purpose the paradox might have served.In the most abrahamlincoln and the doctrine of necessity 41general sense, the paradox of Lincoln s fatalism falls into a pattern that hasreappeared throughout modern Western history, and it arises from the peculiartendency of determinists, from Oliver Cromwell to Karl Marx, to preach divineor material inevitability at one moment and then turn into the most avowedrevolutionary activists at the next.The significance of Lincoln s paradox may,in that light, be that doctrines of necessity possess a strange psychological dy-namic of their own, one that ironically promotes action rather than passivity,construction rather than indolence, persistence rather than hopelessness [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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. Well,after all, Judge, I think I must put this with my leg cases, Lincoln remarkedon one occasion to Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt: 40 abrahamlincoln and the doctrine of necessityThey are the cases that you call by that long title, cowardice in the face ofthe enemy, but I call them for short, my leg cases. But I put it to you,and I leave it for you to decide for yourself: if Almighty God gives a man acowardly pair of legs how can he help their running away with him?68 This philosophy as a whole will account for much of the facts and laws of hissplendid life, promised Herndon, and that promise may also include Lincoln smost eloquent statement on the meaning of responsibility, in the third para-graph of the Second Inaugural.Almost by custom, the attention commentators devote to the SecondInaugural is drawn largely to the final paragraph, with its benediction-likeexhortation to end the Civil War with malice toward none; with charityfor all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right. What isfrequently missed is how, in the preceding paragraph, Lincoln had expressedgrave reservations about how much of the right God had actually givenpeople to see.Even though the Confederate cause had been dedicated to apalpable injustice that of wringing their bread from the sweat of other men sfaces even this injustice had been part of the Almighty s purposes, andLincoln was loath to pass too severe a judgment of his own on Southernerswhen it was those purposes which were the ultimate cause of their misdoings.Much as he might pray that this mighty scourge of war might pass away, Lincoln could not escape the sense of necessity in the four years of bloodshedthat the war was something which God wills to continue. Faced with theinscrutability of that necessity, Lincoln warned, let us judge not that webe not judged in dealing with each other; and let us not judge God, whosemysterious purposes are still, above any human willing or judgment, trueand righteous altogether. This is not so much a declaration of forgiveness asit is acquiescence in the face of a necessity which forbids the imputation oftoo much praise or blame.Even at the end, Lincoln s fatalism had managedto have the last word.And yet, Lincoln the fatalist, who had no assurance that the will of anyperson was free, is also the great giver of liberty, the emancipator of millionsand the rebuilder of a sundered Republic.There is no greater paradox inLincoln s life than the one arising from the juxtaposition of these two images,for there seems no easy way to reconcile the man who believed that all humanaction was decided by powers beyond human control, and the president whoreiterated his faith in the capacity of individuals to improve themselves viaa free-labor system which gives hope to all, and energy, and progress, andimprovement of condition to all. 69 Unhappily, paradoxes tempt the curiousto resolve them into their separate parts; in Lincoln s case, the paradox of theGreat Emancipator and the Fatalist has more significance for us if we leave itstanding and ask what purpose the paradox might have served.In the most abrahamlincoln and the doctrine of necessity 41general sense, the paradox of Lincoln s fatalism falls into a pattern that hasreappeared throughout modern Western history, and it arises from the peculiartendency of determinists, from Oliver Cromwell to Karl Marx, to preach divineor material inevitability at one moment and then turn into the most avowedrevolutionary activists at the next.The significance of Lincoln s paradox may,in that light, be that doctrines of necessity possess a strange psychological dy-namic of their own, one that ironically promotes action rather than passivity,construction rather than indolence, persistence rather than hopelessness [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]