12 February 2009

Historian Links Roles of Lincoln, Douglass in Advancing Racial Justice

United States celebrating bicentennial of Civil War president’s birth

An undated photograph of the abolitionist Fredrick Douglass.

By Ralph Dannheisser
Special Correspondent

Washington — When people link the names Lincoln and Douglas, they usually are talking about the classic 1858 debates between the powerful senator from Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, and a relatively little-known Abraham Lincoln — the debates that propelled Lincoln on his path to the presidency.

But now, author John Stauffer has explored the compelling link between Lincoln and another Douglass — the former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass — as allies in ending slavery in the southern United States.

He says their development from lowly beginnings to greatness was similar and their joint effect on history profound, with each of their legacies carrying forward to the present-day presidency of Barack Obama.

Stauffer, a professor of English at Harvard University, outlined the thesis of his joint biography of the two 19th century leaders, Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, in a lecture at Washington’s National Archives on January 22.

The National Archives is presenting a series of programs to celebrate the 200th anniversary on February 12 of Lincoln’s birth. Lincoln is often ranked as America’s greatest president in polls of both historians and the public. (See “What Abraham Lincoln Means to Americans Today.”)

Stauffer sees Lincoln and Douglass as “the two pre-eminent self-made men in American history.”

Lincoln, raised in backwoods areas of Kentucky and Indiana before settling in Illinois, had no more than 18 months of formal schooling. Douglass’ circumstances were even more constrained: He grew up as a slave on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, never attended school, and learned to read from a master’s wife who defied the law against educating slaves.

“More than any other factor, they were able to rise up because they learned how to use words as weapons,” Stauffer said. “They knew the importance of literacy, of being able to articulate their thoughts in order to convert their audiences to their cause.”

President Abraham Lincoln poses for a portrait in this undated photograph.

For Douglass, his escape to the free state of Massachusetts in 1838, when he was 20, presaged a life fighting for racial equality, women’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery. “He was seen as one of the greatest writers and orators of his day,” Stauffer said, “and he became the most famous black man in the world before the age of 40.” (See “The Pen of Frederick Douglass.”)

Lincoln, meanwhile, was elected to the first of four terms in the Illinois Legislature in 1834 and, in 1846, won a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Influential in founding the anti-slavery Republican Party in 1854, he lost his Senate race against Stephen Douglas, the Democratic candidate, in 1858. But in 1860 he defeated Douglas for the U.S. presidency — a victory that helped trigger secession of the southern states intent on preserving slavery, and the ensuing Civil War.

Those developments, Stauffer said, prompted Lincoln and Frederick Douglass to form a friendship and to work together to achieve their different but compatible goals. Lincoln, while opposed to slavery, preferred a gradual approach to ending it, and “was pushed by circumstance to a place where he would otherwise not have gone.” (See “Lincoln as Emancipator.”)

Lincoln, mainly focused on preserving the Union, “needed Douglass to help him destroy the Confederacy, and Douglass knew that Lincoln could help him end slavery.” But by the end of the war, Stauffer said, “they also genuinely liked and admired each other ... in part because of their enormous respect for each other as self-made men.”

Partly at Douglass’ urging, Stauffer said, “Lincoln ultimately came to recognize the military validity of emancipating slaves as a war measure, which is precisely how the Emancipation Proclamation [he issued in 1863] was phrased.”

Stauffer wrote that Lincoln asked Douglass what he thought of his second inaugural address, adding, "There is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours." He quoted Douglass as replying, “Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort.” (See “The Words That Moved a Nation.”)

Stauffer said President Obama has been deeply influenced by both men.

Obama emulates Lincoln, he said, in his pragmatism and his keen sense of public opinion and the need to “understand the diverse views of the public and, through eloquence, inspire them to move toward a common goal.” Douglass was “a prudent revolutionary” who, like Obama, “sought to move beyond the division of race and reach a common understanding between blacks and whites.”

“In many respects, Frederick Douglass is the most direct [forebear] … of Barack Obama. Both men are children of one white, one black parent; both men became world famous almost overnight on the strength of their autobiography; both men are among the great writers and orators of their day,” he said. (See “President Barack Obama In His Own Words.”)

“Douglass and Lincoln, like Obama today, function more than anything else as inspiration,” he said. “They inspire us, as Obama has continually said he hopes to do, to bind up national wounds, to complete the unfinished work of the nation, and to fulfill the ideals of freedom and equality of opportunity for all Americans.”

For more information, see Black History Month and “Abraham Lincoln: A Legacy of Freedom.”