The Chastisement of Our Peace

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In the early morning, on this date in 1865, Abraham Lincoln passed into memory.

For generations, historians and popular polls have esteemed Lincoln a great president, perhaps the greatest president. But why? Was he a "success"? He himself, as Commander-in-Chief, regarded much of his army's conduct of the Civil War as a fiasco, and the fact that the Union entered into the war at all might be considered a tragic failure and possibly a violation of the Declaration of Independence, denying the right of the South to "the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them."

The one enduring joyous achievement of the war is the end of slavery, but that wasn't Lincoln's goal. "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union," he said, "and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." (New York Tribune, August 22, 1862)

Was Lincoln successful in his own cause? Did he achieve Union? Or was the country torn apart?

But there is no success like failure, as Bob Dylan wrote. Mikhail Gorbachev, who in 1991 avoided the carnage of civil war and let the Soviet Union dissolve, is reviled by his own people. Lincoln, who prosecuted a war in which a million Americans were killed or maimed, is loved even by those Americans who still harbor bitterness over the war itself. He is loved like a father who failed, whose children know his heart, and love him even for his failure.

He is our greatest president, not for what he did, but for what he is. Franklin Roosevelt might be thought of as our most effective president, dealing with massive crises inside and outside the country, but when we look at his face we don't see the soul and the suffering of the country that Lincoln embodies. When we look at Lincoln we see steadfastness and faith and humor unbowed by exhaustion. America finds itself in him.

Isa.53
1] Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?[2] For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.[3] He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.[4] Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.[5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.[6] All we like sheep have gone stray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.[7] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.[8] He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.[9] And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.[10] Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.[11] He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.[12] Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.