Dividing the House: The Gnosticism of Lincoln's Political Rhetoric

8/14/2019 Dividing the House: The Gnosticism of Lincoln's Political Rhetoric

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D ividin g the House: Theof Lincolns Political

M. E. B R A D F O R DAFTER VER one hundred years it continues tobe almost impossible for us to ask certain basicques tions about the role of Abraham Lincoln inthe form ation of a characteristically Americanpolitics. At every appropriate point of inquirythe Lincoln myth obtrudes. Sinc e 1865no onehas denied the extraordinary purchase of thatimaginative construct upon the idiom andcha racter of our pub lic life. Yet few Am erican sof any influence hav e attempted to coun ter thiseffect, even though in the works of the biog-raphers and historians, material for such anegation has long been available. The truthabout the life and death of Lincoln seems toma tter very little when it is confronted by themyth. Indeed, the iconic presence of theEmancipator , wrapped up in rel igious im-agery, ten ds to swallow u p any sim ple narrativeof the facts. Writes Don E. Fehrenbacher:

Lincolns symbolic importance transcendsh i s ow n l if e a n d t im e . H e h a s b e e nabstra cted from history to ser ve as the rep-resentat ive American, and as a conse-quence, much of the nations self-image isvisible in the image of Abraham Lincolnt h a t s u c c e s s i v e g e n e r a ti o n s h a v efashioned.

The poet James Russell Lowell called him ourfirst American.2 And for his devoted secre-t a ry J o h n H ay-in t h i s s p e ak i n g fo rmillions-he wa s the greatest char acter sin ceC h r i ~ t . ~n the life and death of Lincoln therest of our common experience as a peoplefinds i ts sanction and authority. Father Abra-ham overshadows o ur perc eption of th e legiti-mate origins of the Republic in the era of theRevolution. H e is also the measure app lied to

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all of our leaders who have appeared on thenational stage since the violent conclusion ofhis career, which m akes of him th e only viab les y m b o l o f a u t h o r i t y i n o u r p o l i t i c a ldiscourse-plus something else beyond merequestions concerning policy an d the b est re-gime. Yet al l of this inflation ha s com e topass even while we w ere beginning to recognizethe dangers inherent in such quasi-religiousmyths, th e abu ses and disruptions in our civiclife which have found in their hegemony amagic for converting reflexive disord er into apositive good, or perhaps e ven into an obli-gation. It is thu s fortunate that recent ntiidies nfthe nature and origin of millenarian thoughthave put into our hands the rhetorical andtheoretical instruments necessary to a belatedreduction or defusion of Mr. Lincolns bale-ful example to i t s r ightful proport ions-instruments which enable u s to ask what he ha sreally done for his country.There i s of course a part of the Lincoln mythwhich is, on its face, harmless enough: thelegend of the shy young man who did his rea d-ing by firelight, who was unlucky in love, andwho lea rne d from h is grief. In this version the reis some truth and much fancy.4 But what sig-nifies is its relation to the basic Am erican storyof the youth who m ad e something of himself,on the model of Horatio Alger, with a lostsweethea rt included for sentiments sak e. Th erem ainde r of the Lincoln narrative draws muchof its au thority from some of the se hom ely ma-terials. But the legend of the poor boy who issel f- t ransformed becomes another kind ofmodel when it is generalized in a certain way:when i t is merged with other, essentially gnos-tic myths of self-invention, and detached

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Republic invoked through a concluding saluteto the living mem ory of Washington an d that itdraw s almost none of its authority from reasonin proposing ostensibly reasonable change. leThis is trickery enough, but Lincoln is notthrough. He has saved something for last, acontradiction to the tenor of his entire add ress,which he expects to round off hi s seq ue nc e ofconflations an d elevate his m atter beyond thereach of close inquiry. Even in concluding,Lincoln says one thing while he means another.For his last words as healer, prophet, andfounder of the new regime are that, if it befaithful to Reason, the g ates of he ll sha ll notprevail against it. This lang uag e is, of course,from the promise made by Chris t to theChurch. l7 But its guar antee belongs not to themind but the spirit. He re the rational society ofHigh Federalism, w here liberty has its altar inthe temple of philosophy, dra w s authority fromits institutional antitype. This may seem sur-prising. Yet we must believe th at Lincoln knewwhat he was about. His strategy reflects notmere confusion or opportunism b ut consciouschoice. A succ essfu l political religion mustreplace Church with State, o r els e must absorbthe former into the latter, an d borrow the sanc-tion for its sacrilege from th e ciuitus dei. In thesecular Puritanism of New England politicalthought something of this sort had take n rootduring the first years of ou r nationa l existence.The pattern of transformation was already anold one when Lincoln appeared. His specialachievement was in institutionalizing it as theAmerican political rhetoric for occasions ofgreatest moment. In this craft he was themaster-with consequences w e sha l l sub-sequently explore.But this is to anticipate. It i s anothe r sixteenyears, or perh aps anothe r twenty, before Abra-ham Lincoln loses himself completely in anidiom for calling forth the New Jerusalem. Inthat interval, while he rem ains a rathe r conven-tional right-wing gnostic or progressive,he perfects his skill in the use of the moreconventional persuasive tools-forensic an ddeliberative weapons which h e will later com-bine w ith the epide ictic assertio n of his righ-teous Republican matuhty.18 It is easy toforget when we read the life of Lincoln back-

ward, from the martyrdom, that for most of hispolitical career he w a s an orthodox Whigwho accepted his partys principles: hightariff, internal improvements financed by thenational government, a national bank, protec-tion of the in tere sts of property a nd of people ofwealth, land policies which served the advan-tage of speculators rather than settlers, andgeneral sympathy with the business and pro-fe ssio na l c l a s ~ e s . ~he idea that property,poli t ical order, and personal l iberty comedown from the top was, from th e beginning, apart of Lincolns chosen intellectual inher-itance. Add to this the romantic doctrine ofUnion, a highly charged nationalism of thevariety preach ed by Da niel Webster,O an d youhave a highly volatile mixture.As a promising young centralist, Lincolnplayed the role of cham pion for what ProfessorOakeshott has called the enterprise associa-tion theory of the state.l W hile serving as theelected representative of Sangamon (1834-1842), he first made a name for himself byenacting this part. Joining with other soon-to-be forefathers of the Republican Party, theyouthful projector had his first political victorywith the ten mil l ion do l l a r In te rna l Im-provements Act of 1837. In effect, this legis-lation borrowed Illinois into an immediatebankruptcy, and left upon the shoulders ofeach citizen of the state an obligation greaterthan his average an nu al income-a de bt notfinally retired until 1882. It was difficult forLincoln to give up this dream of terrestrialbeatitude brought about through fiat money,as , to be fair, was the case with many of hisneighbor^.'^ A peculiar feature of the legisla-tion w a s that it actually d iscouraged free enter-prise and private effort, though, thanks to itsoperations, many enterprising, private men(mostly Whigs) got rich. In th e Illinois GeneralAssembly Lincolns preoccupations were spe-cial interest and local bills, log rollings andother things that government could do for acommunity of people, [that] they need to havedone, but can not do , at all, or can not, so well

do, for themselves. . . .* In this helpfulspirit, Lincoln loved a friendly bank, andlearned how a pork b arrel m ight best be filled.He became a master of patronage and influ-Modern Age 13


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ence. But his special concerns were roads,railroads, and canals. These works remained(in most case s) unfinished; or, if partially com-pleted, they were underused and then sold at aloss. Yet by these disappointments the im-provem ent W higs were not soon deterred. Thepower of the legislator w a s a veritable cor-nucopia, running on the formula of tax andtax, spe nd and spend. Lincoln mocked thosewho saw danger to the commonwealth in suchadventurous , progress ive schemes, cal l ingtheir anxieties a His eyes werefixed on the bright sh ap e of Young Am erica inthe making-a com posite personag e whom helate r describes in his Second Lecture on Dis-coveries and Inventions:

physical, moral and intellectual nature, andhis susceptibilities, are the infinitely variousleads from w hich m an, from th e first, w a s todig out his destiny. From this im age he movedswiftly to describe the pecu liarly human anter-prise as a work of refinem ent after the orig inalextraction is complete. We are reminded ofinnu me rable gnostic tracts, eac h in its own wayco nc ern ed with the transform ation of reality bydiscovery of what is hidden and the inven-tion, through that discovery, of what is new.According to Lincolns Whig calculus, the al-chemical transformation of the modem worldby America is to be accomplished by appliedscience, ethical culture, and governmentalmanipulation: but especially by the last ofthese three, as directed by Whig statesmenwho are able to sell their countrymen on thetheologia civilis of high tariff, the Bank, andMr. Clays American System. Only throughtheir agency will the nation reach the thirdage of the Springfield Lyceum speech, theHappy day when . . . mind, all conqueringmind, sh all live and move the m onarch of theworld. Or come to declare in unison, Reign,F ~~ __ -_11 1,_:,,,,8I *baan aA1This Lincoln, the genial prophet of expan-sion, m odernization, and com mercial progressnever really disappears, even when the man isab sor be d into the m yth. But if the pro phet is tobe also the agent and harbinger of thesechanges, the ultimate miner and refiner, thenan attractive meliorist rhetoric must be devel-oped to enforce his designs. And the key to thatrhetoric would have to be the mythic articula-tion of a temp ting vision of deligh ts to com-or likely to come, if just a few attend ant sugges-Lincolns lan guag e in this period is, it is true,better su ited to persuasion than to coercion. Itis more carrot than st ick, a ppe als less to orderan d strength an d more to mendacity and oppor-tunism than its model, the nationalist rhetoricof the old Federalist forefathers. But the con-stitutional progressivism of Whig doctrine re-quired that it be so and also that it disguisesome of its essential implications, lest theirconflict with basic assum ptions given authorityby the Democratic opposition be recognized bythe many Am ericans devoted to another view of

We have all heard of Young Am erica. Heis the most current youth of the age. Somethink him conceited, and arrogant; but hashe not reason to ente rtain a rather extensiveopinion of himself? Is he not the inventoran d owner of thepresent, and the sole hopeof the htur e? . . .H e owns a large part of theworld, by right of possessing it; and all th erest by right ofw an ting it, and intending tohave it. A s Plato had for the imm ortality ofthe soul, so Young America has a pleasingh o p e - a fo nd desire-a longing after teri-tory [sic]. H e has a great passion-a perfectrage-for the new; particularly new menfor office, and the new earth mentioned inthe revelations. . . . In knowledge he isparticularly rich. He knows all that canpossibly be known; inclines to believe inspiritual rappings, and i s the unquestionedinventor of Manifest Destiny. His horror isand if there be any thing old which he c anendure, i t is only old whiskey and old to-bacco.26The tone of this passage is somewhat arch.But the content is a serious account of Lin-colns perception of the nation in his day, espe -cially when it is examined in the light of theprototype of th is address, the earlier FirstLecture on Discoveries and Inventions.2There he begins, All creation is a mine andevery man a miner. The whole earth, and allwithin it, upon it, and round about it, in his

for that is Old, particularly Old tions are honored by a bemused

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entire dispute , placed himself squarely on theside of the Yet he often identifiedhimself as a free soil man, and managed toget his share of the Yankee vote in theseventh congressional district.If we are careful to read the public life ofLincoln from the beginning, forward, this un-friendly report by an abolitionist should notsurprise. In these years th e futur: Em ancipatorran always with Southern W higs. H is presiden-tial preferences were always for slaveholderswho helped c ut down the Democratic majorityin the South-for Clay and W hite, Taylor andScott. In 1852 he praised his p arty for pacify-ing Southern fears, for refusing to claim a spe-

cial understanding of the Divine Will, and foravoiding all argume nts from definition, direc-tion by abolitionists, or origin al use s of presi-den tial power. 40 Moreover, he did not scrupkat condemning Martin Van Buren for entertain-ing too advanced a view of the rights of Ne-g r o e ~ , ~ r at bringing actions for the recoveryof runaway slaves in Illinois. De votees of theLincoln myth have a drea dful time with his rolein the celebrated Matson Slave Case of 1847.Their trniihle is thz! they &&fy his p&&swith freedom of the Southern Negro. And thatbelief leads them to misconstrue what was hislarger purpose, from the first.It was no inconsistency for Lincoln the or-thodox W hig, the protege! of John T odd S tuartand th e aristocratic Edwards clan, to go downto Coles County and seek there his fee forreturning Jan e Bryant and her four children toKen tucky: a p lace of bondag e from whence (weare le d to believe) they would soon thereafterh av e b een s h i p p ed d o w n t h e r i v e r i npunishment for the inconvenience they hadcaused.42 These Negroes were property. Andfor any good Whig, respect for the primacy ofproperty rights wa s an abso lute article of faith.Equality was no important part of their teach-ing, and received their lip service only in pass-ing, when it was time to vote. F or the ordinaryWhig, equality signified economic opportunityfor citizens, with t h e meaning of that statusbein g define d by law. Slavery agitation dividedAmerican citizens, and precluded the devel-opment of a more perfect unity through com-mercial exchange: a development encouraged

by a benevolent government authority. TheWhigs recognized that slavery itself had fos-tered sectionalism. Therefore they expressed apro onna interes t in systems of voluntary man-umission, if linked (where necessary ) to com-pensation and also (in every case) to Africanrepatriation. The Whigs were uniformitariansto the core. And onc e the Negroes were gone,the South might be less uneasy about concen-tration of federal power and more concernedwith commercial expansion: less provincialand agrarian. Local feeling and variety werethe enem ies of the Whigs. They connected bothwith the passions; and passion forestalled theevolution of the Union w hich, in stan dard pro-gressive fashion, they defined more by what itcould be than by what it w a s or had been. Butthe Constitution had made us half slave andhalf free. And to a rgue from definition againsta part of. hat settlement could only aggravatethe situa tion w hich they officially deplored.It is tru e that th e Whig vision of th e nationalfuture had more in common with Pleasure Is-land in Pinucchio han with the old Pu ritan C ityon a Hill. (At times, in speaking of it, evenL.in.c!nfrozen agains t the window of the candy store.)But as a sec ula r utopia, i t comm anded theallegiance of many Americans, certain thatdestiny was on the ir side, that o ur nation couldbring all history to a rational apotheosis. Th ere-fore they could afford to wait. A ccomm odationwas their watchword in dealing with certainunreasonable particularities. In the end, ra-tional arguments of enlightened self-interestwould prevail. They were ready to describetheir conservative opponents as wrong, butthey would not call them wicked. For suchhigh profile argum ents heated up the politi-cal atmo sphere a nd turned attention away fromt h e c o n s i d e r a t i o n s to w h i c h t h e y g a v epriority-away from trade. Unlike the ir rhetor-ical modus vivendi, these contentions delayedthe destined surrender of their countrymen tothe teleocratic sta te, kept alive centrifugal im-pulses in th e body politic, an d kept the Demo-crats in pow er. T he political rhetoric of Abra-ham Linco ln prior to 1854 conforms entirely tothese Whig presuppositions. He had playedthe game b y their rules. But by that time the

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sectional issues had clearly ruined the hop es ofthe W higs in the South. They could not outbidthe hated Locos there, for these astuteenemies had done their best w ith th e raw m ate-rial of Southern ambition and Southern fear.The alternate strategy was to bu ild a party witha regional base in the North, drawing itsstrength from former Whigs an d former Demo-crats who resented what Southern demandshad done to the house of their fathers: tomake capital out of what appeared to be adisadvantage. This procedure would involvean almost total violation of the reasonable pre-cep ts of th e Whigs. It would work openly on thepassions and diminish national feeling-atleast for a while, until one sid e had won a totalvictory. Yet as an extremely partisan politi-cian, a man who would do almost anything todefeat th e Democrats, Lincoln w a s not likely toignore this situation, or to misjudge where itled.44 As early as 1848 he had agreed withWilliam Seward that if one had no hope ofgetting elected on the internal improvementsissue, one other issue offered opportunity. Ireckon you are right, Senator. W e have got todea l with this slavery question , and got to giveit more attention hereafter than we have beendoing 45 The Kansas-Nebraska Act gave himthat opportunity.Stephen A. Douglas, United S tates Senatorfrom Illinois, w as the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas was Democratic leaderin Congress. T he bill was a D emocratic mea-sure, repealing the Missouri Compromise of1820, and leaving the status of the undevel-oped terri tories to be set t led by popularsovereignty-first upon the ir organization, an dthen again upon their application for state-hood. It denie d any role to th e federal govern-ment in making these determinations, andthereby it attempted to close out th e possibilityof future political deb ate over th e institution ofslavery. Senator Douglas hoped that it wouldlaunch him upwards, into the White House.Ins tead , it revived the faltering political careerof Abraham Lincoln, a nd gave him the issue h erequired to become thepoliticus of his youthfulspeculation^.^^ The method employed byDouglas old adversary in exp loiting the ang erof the people of the North at the opening to

Southern development of lands which theythought were reserved for their use was ex-tremely artful. It seized upon th e fact that theissue in dispu te was one of cultural identities,and that slavery was only the circumstancewhich a l lowed for i t s unfold ing. And i texploited that opportunity to the hilt.Northern outrage at the Kansas-NebraskaAct developed swiftly. Lincoln recognized itsdimensions almost at once. And he began toconvert it to Douglas (and the Democrats)disadvantage, to the developm ent of a Northernsectional party, in his Peoria ad dre ss of Octo-ber 16, 1854.47Though it sounds many newnotes, its rhetoric is in some respects transi-tional. It makes a conventional nod to theexam ple of his bea u ideal, Henry Clay an d tothe moderate example of his Springfield pre-ceptors. T heir opinion is acknowledged in Lin-colns reference to compromise, and con-cessions or equivalents as a normative con-cept in previous quarrels between the sec-t i o n ~ . ~ ~incoln admits that the Constitutionitself rests upon that prin cip le-in recognitionof the original, unnegotiable variety of theUnited S tates.49 It is therefore Stephe n Doug-las and not his critics who has broken with theauthority of precedent. The rest of Lincolnsargument in this pivotal address does not con-sort wel l with this complaint against innova-tion, though he pretends here to be only thehonest citizen alarmed at change-theforensic good man, speak ing well of Cicerosdefinition.For th e great difficulty with Lincolns Peoriapresentation is that it finally refuses accomm o-dation, the sa crosan ct princ iple of Clay and ofthe Founders , and in i ts place threatensapocalypse if the alternate principle of exclu-sion is not applied to all the Western tem tori esof the R epublic. To accep t the notion that thereis any policy superior to these alternatives iscalled both mo nstrous a nd worthy of ha te.We are now returned to the false dilemma.Ordinary persuasion is forsworn. A new politi-cal religion is implied. And though Lincolnstill preten ds civility and claims not to ques-tion the patriotism or to assail the motives ofany man, or class of men, we are well on ourway to a full-fledged Puritan rhetoric of per-

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petual war against the powers of darkness:two universal armed camps, engaged in adeath struggle against each other.50 Thespeech is rambling, full of historical errors,and, as Professor Riddle has observed, moredistinguished for its intensity than for the m ud-dle ofw hat it contends.51 But its burden cannotbe misunde rstood: the Northwest Ordinance of1787 should be applied to all the undevelopedportions of the U nited States, in the sp irit of theWilmot Proviso, and therefore the balance ofthe sections forever destroyed. Otherwise, ac-cording to his new bugbear, slavery will bereleased and encouraged to spread throughoutthe land. And all of this to come to pass be-cause of Stephen A. Douglas and his declaredindifference, but as I must think, covert realzeal for suc h a change.52T h u s L i n c o l n c r i e s c ~ n s p i r a c y , ~ ~notewhich becomes stronger and stronger in thespeeches that are still to com e. We ar e divertedby his tone, as we are by the stridency of hiscen sure upon a people toward whom h e has noprejudice, and against arrangements that are in th e C o n ~ t i t u t i o n . ~ ~et it points us towardw h i t wzs fn&y st stake in his effne tn r e p a lthe Kansas-Nebraska Act and in the entirediscussion of the territorial expansion of theslave power. As I noted above, Lincoln makesuse of a fallacious argum ent from history, and aparticu lar ap pe al to the authority of the North-west Ordinance . These new politics undertookto thre aten the se nse of identity in the peo ple ofthe Midwest. They felt that the lands to theirimmediate west were symbolically marked a stheirs by the old line of compromise and thelabel free soil. Such had been the true pur-pose of the Northwest Ord inanc e at the time ofits adoption.55 But in the dialectic set in mo-tion in Peoria that promise could not be madesecure unless all open lands were covered bythe Ord inance, or its near equ ivalent, with thebalance of power designed by the Fathers tiltednorthward and against the Dem ocrats. At timesLincoln seem s to moderate this demand in hisfirst attack on slaveryas polity, but the conces-sions are only for effect, particularly as heapproaches the Illinois senate race of 1858.The House Divided Speed? is the wa-tershed of Lincolns political career.56 In this

address, given to the Republican s tate conven-tion that nominated their tall compatriot fromSpringfield to take the Little Giants place,there are no echoes of Henry Clay. It was theopening gun of Lincolns campaign to depriveDouglas of his seat. Here he begins to reachafter the b iblical note. He calls for the first timefor the ultim ate extinc tion of slavery-whichSoutherners, upset by the propaganda of theserious abolitionists, translated to mean theirabsolute subjec tion to government by a hostilemajority. Slavery was a way of marking aboundary between political philosophies andways of life. It could m ean very little else in adebate between cultures which agreed on theinability of the Negro to become a part of thepolitical, economic, or social life of the na-t i ~ n . ~ he central passage in this address fliesdirectly in the face of the Northwest Or dina ncean d t h e l e t t e r o f t h e Co n s t i t u t i ~n .~~or , asLincoln had e arlie r admitted, there was noprovision for the ultimate ex tinction of slaverythere. But the E mancipator leaves a s the alter-native to war on slavery possibilities evenworse tha n those outlined at P eoria: The spreadof hnndage ( m r l Negnes) throughout the freestates and, therefore, the political and socialsubjec tion of the N orth to Slave power. F or, a she had suggested four years earlier, if slaves(hateful in their own right, in being Negroes)entered Nebraska and Kansas, the spirit ofdespotism would come with them, excludingother people who did not own slaves, increas-ing the influence of the South in Washington.And this influence could, in its turn, be con-verted into control of the entire country. Theequation came down to this: where slaverywent, power followed.This amounts, to be sure, to a dreadful il-lustration of scare tactics. It led to Douglascharge that Lincoln was trying to abolitionizethe old-line Whigs.59 And Douglas was cor-rect, though Lincoln would accomplish thatpurpose with an anti-abolitionist electorateonly by his usual conflation of one thing withanother. In particular, his scenario frightenedforeign immigrants to the upper Midwest, andthe new settlers from the Northeast who were,unlike t he early inha bitants of this region, eas-ily ala rm ed by the proximity of South ern modes

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a n d o r d e r s , t h e p r o s p e c t o f a S o u t h e r nhegemony.60 For, as Lincoln recogn ized, I1-linois and the other states above the Ohio wererapidly chang ing in their political composition.The Southemization of the Democratic Partyunder Pierce and Buchanan accelerated theprocess. As did the High Courts decision inthe c ase of Dred S cott. But to finish th e job ofalienating them from a Democratic positionowing too m uch to the influence of the S outh,he sharpened the dilemma of his intend ed au-dienc e even further, and finally forced it uponthem by predicting that a fa ilure to confine andabolish th e institution of slavery would result inthe enslavement of white men.61 Reinforcingthese dem agogic humbugs was th e lofty flavorof the speechs opening lines:

If we could first know where we are , a ndwhither w e are tending, we could then bette rjudge what to do, and how to do it.We are now far into thefijih yea r, sin ce apolicy w a s initiated, with the avowed ob-jec t, and con$dent prom ise, of putting anend to slavery agitation.Under the operation of that policy, that

agitation has not only, not ceased, but hasconstantly augmented.In my opinion, it will not cease, until acrisis shall have bee n reach ed, and passed.A house divided against itself cannotstand.I believe this government ca nno t end ure,permanently half slave an d halffree.I d o n o t e x p e c t t h e U n i o n t o be

dissolved-I do not ex pe ct th e house tofall-but I do expect it will cease to bedivided.It will become all one thing, or all theother.Either the opponents of slavery, will ar-rest the further spread of it, and place itwhere the public mind shall rest in thebelief that it is in cou rse of ultimate extinc-tion; or its advocates w ill push it forward, tilli t shall become a like lawful in al l the States,o ld a s w ell a s n e w 4 o r t h as well a s South.Have we no tendency to the latter condi-tion?

After such a notable beginning it seemscurious that Lincoln devotes most of the re-mainder of the speech to an unfolding of histheory of conspiracy.62 But not when we lookbac k at the progression of effects and sequ enc eof masks o rpers ona e which a re the underlyingstru ctu re in this ana lysis of his political devel-opment. For proof of the conspiracy justifiesthe outrage which through a m etastatic processtransforms the vir bonw of Peoria into an OldTestament prophet publ icly declar ing, bymanner and by content, that God is withus.63This is the Lincoln which w e hear in thecen tral passages of the de bates w ith Douglas inthe summer of 1858

It is the e terna l struggle between these twoprinciples-right an d wrong-throughoutthe world. They a re two princip les that havestood face to face from the beginning oftime; and will ever continue to struggle.64And the Lincoln who writes in h is Fragmenton Sectionalism that accommodation such asmade the Union, in the form of a few add itionalSouthern senators, would now degrade it, andtha t moral considerations sho uld obtain, what-

ev er th e cost.65 Th e new Lincoln of the H ouseDivided address is, by the agreement of mostauthorities, the most radical and Garriso-nian to have appe ared th us far.66 If we ar e tobelieve the ac cou nts of reliab le witnesses, theshift leftward embodied in these rem arks was amatter of conscious choice. For in the weeksprior to the convention where it was delivered,Lincoln warned friends . . . he might fatallydamage the Republican Party by making itsexistence synonymous with a destruction of thegovernment. . . But h e was persistent. . . H ebelieved he could discern the scope and readthe des t iny o f impending sec t ional con-troversy. He was sure he could see far beyondthe presen t a nd he ar the voice of the future.6He nce the word crisis in the lin es which I havequoted, what he c alls elsewhere the tug.6* Adestruction of the government a s it had beenwould indeed be necessary, perhaps a smallwar. But Lincoln as Man of Destiny could notscrup le at such slight inconveniences. All thatrem ained of his evolution was a claim to direc tcommunication with the god of history, of

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which w e he ar a great de al once Lincoln got thecrisis which he wanted.I will not dwell here on th e overt and im plicitblasphemy of portions of Lincolns Presidentialoratory. Though my remarks on this subjectthat are now a matter of record are not thecomplete treatment which 1 intend.69 It isenough for this occasion to observe that theaffected Puritanism of the period after 1854was quite likely to prope l Lincoln as Lord Pro-tector and Judge over a Northern Israel intobelieving his own prophecies-especiallywhen we remem ber that th e powers of calcula-tion which h ad brought him to the highest officeof the Re public did not seem to suffice once hewas there a nd that h is own image for his situ a-tion as w a r leader, summoned up from thedep th of his dream s, was that of a man movingthrough darkness in a ship under anotherscontrol, he adin g toward a destination he cou ldnot foresee. 70 But one Puritan device rem ainedin his arsenal: in the midst of his ordeal thetechn ique of sorting out or disce rning the prov-idenc es after the fact. In the months precedingthe Emancipation Proclamation, and again atthe very and of the We. Between the Stntes,Lincolns faith that he w a s able to perform thisprophetic, teleological task took hold of hismind.71Much of the evidence of Lincolns directattribution of the decision to free those slavesstill in So uthern possession to a sign or a lead-ing from God appe ars in his correspondenc e of1862-63.72 Some of the rest is in privatememoranda to himself and in records of con-v e r ~ t a i o n s . ~ ~ut though he also spoke of theProclamation as a gambit in the games of warand inte rnationa l politics, we should take se ri-ously the reports of members of his cabin et andleaders of the Republican Party in Congressthat h e saw in the U nion victory at Antietam adire ct com mun ication from on high.74 Prior tothat event, his language echoes Cromwells inthe period leading up to the execution ofCharles I. As did his prototype, the Eman-cipator declares that he has preconsultednothing and that whatever shall app ear to beGods will, I will do.75 And again, after thedecision has been made, he sounds the Crom-wellian note, ech oing Old Nolls disc laim er, I

have not sought thes e things; truly, I have beencalled unto them by the Lord.76 Long beforeLincoln in his Second Inaugural discuss es theprovidential meaning of the chapter of historycompleted at Appomattox and sets himself asthe godded man, beyond most of the radicalRepublicans in his understanding of theseevents as part of universal history, the dire c-tion of the United States toward whatever ism eant by finish the work has fallen into theh a n d s of Gods n ew Mes s i ah , t h ehom ema de J esu s of the Lincoln myth.77 Lin-colns apotheosis through martyrdom servedonly to put a divine seal of approval on hisunderstanding of himself. Or so we should bepersu aded by what his fellow Americans madeof the assassination and funeral, coming asthey did at the end of a civil war78 and sur-rounded a s they w ere in a language promisings a l v a t i o n t h r o u g h s o c i a l a n d p o l i t i c a lchange.79What then are the final implications of thepolitical example of Abraham Lincoln? Andw h a t t h e e n d u r i n g c o n s e q u e n c e s of h i ssanctification as our only Fathe r and preceptorrative of his development as rhetorician in-ten ds to suggest that his public c areer must besubdivided if w e are to make a proper reply.The Lincoln of the Whig years is clearly theheir of Enlightenment intellectuality as de-scribed for us by Professor Voegelin and Pro-fessor Niemeyer.80 While in this role he re-mained within the boundaries established in1688 and 1776: a part of the Anglo-Americantradition of aristocratic parliamentism.81 Forthis Lincoln, law is law and scripture scripture,with n o conflation of th e two.82 It is po ssible tocontend with him on the ordinary politicalgrounds, within the forensic and deliberativemodes. But there a re two elem ents in this Lin-coln which mark him a s a dangerous man. Thefirst is his faith in necessity, and his suspiciontha t he knows its disposition for the future. Thispseudo-philosophical reduction of the old Cal-vinist doctrine surfaces at regular intervalsthroughout his life. The second ingredient is astre ak of rhetorical dishonesty, located primar-ily in his use of an ad hominem mask.Th e seco nd Lincoln, the artificial Puritan of

. .::: X X S of iia:ioid &&? The piecedifig iiai--

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the period between 1854-1861, is altogethergnostic in his pu rchas e on American politics.H e has become the dreadful Caesar wamed ofin his Springfield Lyceum address, the manwho writes and s pea ks wholly for effect. H ispolitical idiom is drawn from the En gland of thelaos , and no constitutional orde r could sur-vive und er its unremitting pressure. He re thema nn er of Lincolns spea kin g becom es its mat-ter. Social peace a nd g radu al reform becomeimpossible; and the core of policy which ishidden beneath the sen se of destiny, the falsedilemm a, and the righteous mask is difficult toperceive. Yet, on reflection, we shou ld recog-nize the operation of a formula which drawsupon the mixture of Ch ristian and demo craticfeeling in his audience. By implication, saysthis Lincoln, I am an ordinary, humble man.And if this be so, my ideas are not the productof my own intellect or sensibility. Hence theymust come from some other source, either thecommon feeling of my p eers or the leadings of ahigher a u t h ~ r i t y . ~ ~But th e final Lincoln is th e worst. For by himth e real is defined in terms of what is yet tocome, an d the m eaning of the present lies onlyin its pointing thither. This posture, when

*This article is based on a pape r given at the conferenceon Gnosticism and Reality, held at Vanderbilt Universityin April of 1978 unde r direction of Dr. Richard J. Bishir-jian and Dr. William Havard. Sponsors were the EarhartFoundation, the Vanderbilt Research Council, and theIntercollegiate Stu dies Institute, Inc. Th is article willsubsequently appear as a ch apte r in a book to be publishedby the Louisiana State University Press.Don E. Fe hrenbacher, The Changing Image o fLincoln

in American Historiography (London: Oxford UniversityPress , 1968), pp. 3-4. 2Quoted from Lowells Ode Re-cited at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865, l ine208 .1 cite the edition of H arry Hayden Clark a nd NormanFoerster, James Russell Lowell: Representative Selections,with Introduztwn, Biblwgraphy, and Notes (New York:American Book Company, 1947), p. 145. 3Quoted on p.93 of Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Trudi-tion (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948). 4The Ann Rut-ledge story hides the coldness and calculation, the linea-ments of the country hustler, and darling of the rich. 5SeeRichard H. Luthin, TheRealAbraham Lincoln (New York:Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1960), pp. 141-144.61 refer here tothe ea rly admission of Lincoln into tht be st social circle s ofSpringfield, and the reafter into the elite, largely Southerninorigin, of hi s state.This commerce led to the charge thathe was the mouthpiece of aristocracy. Lincoln followed

linked to one of the regnant abstractions ofmod em politics, ca n have no other result than atotalitarian order.84 In its train it has left US, asa nation, with a series of almost insoluble prob-lems in our social, economic, and politicalpolicy, to say nothing of our foreign affairs:with a series of promises impossible to keep.For approaching these dilemmas, Lincolnleaves u s with nothing but deform ations of ex-perience, cut off forever from the real-andwith an inability to cal l a political question byits proper name. It is a peculiar ch aracteristicof Anglo-American politics since the begin-ning of the m odem era that o ur leaders tend sooften, when put to the test, to revert from themild an d m aterialist meliorism or gnosticism ofthe New Whigs to the activist and sectarianarrogance of their forefathers of that other Is-rael; though they rightly sen se that in that rolethey are, for an electorate formed within atradition of bibliolatry, difficult to resist.85 Re-grettably, whenever they su ccu m b to this temp-tation, to take the easy way to power, theypartake as heirs i n th e legacy of Abraham L in-coln and join with h im in o nce again dividingthe house. *the example of his law partner, the austere Kentuckian,John Todd Stuart. See David Donald, Lincolns Herndon(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948), p. 269. He quotesLincolns faithful friend, Ward Hill Lamon. Elbid. , pp.205 and 210. gSee The New Science of Politics (Chicago:University of Chicago P ress, 1952), pp . 124132; also pp.96-98 in Voegelins Science, Politics and Gnosticism(Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1968) for the pre ciselanguage which I quote. Osee pp. 108-115 of Vol. I of RoyP. Baslers edition of The Collected Works of AbrahamLincoln (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutg ers University Pre ss,1953). Furth er refe rence s in this pape r to Baslers editionwill be abbreviated to Collected Works. My reading of thisspee ch is in some resp ects a reply to H any V. Jaffascommentary on it, found on pp. 183-232 of his Crisis of theHouse Divided (Seattle: University of Washington Press,1973). Lincoln w a s a leader in the successful effort tomove the ca pital of Illinois from V andalia to his new home,Springfield. Th is relocation was voted in 1837 and accom-plished in 1839. There is some evidence that politicalhorsetrading made a part of the transaction. Apocalypticprophecies concerning disorders caused by the localism ofthe Democrats were a part of the rhetoric of Federalism.Throughout his life Lincoln w a s fascinated by the careersof great dictators, and especially be the career of Napo-leon. The absence of a strong central authority in theFrance of the Directory had certainly helped along that

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self-made emperor. I3Even though Lincoln speaks con-stantly of Washington as a living force in his own genera-tion. And i n particular in the conclusion of this speech,thus confirming a truth he h a s systemically den ied.Tollected Works, I, pp. 113-114. Lincoln clearly

knows the Lreed lie describes too well to be w riting on thebasis of mere speculation. The ironic prophecy of theselines is d ifficult for us to mistake. Though he disgu ises hisfascination with such figures by speaking of his favoriteexcuse for em ulating their exam ple, in the role of a patriotconcerned w ith the capab ility of a people to govern them-selves. That is, with the proper direction. 15Lincolnhere verges on ideological politics. What he rejects is aregime of custom, based on loyalties, habits, and a com-mon memory-what Professor Michael Oakesh ott callsnomocratic politics. See his On Human Conduct (Lon-don: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp . 199-206. Seealso Professor Voegelins remarks on Roman compact-nesdon pp. 86-92 ofTheNnuScienceofPoldics. l6Wash-ington here is conflated with the rule of the rationalistphilosopher. A s he is in Lincolns Temp erance A ddressof February 27, 1M2, Collected Works, I, pp . 271-279.Lincolns conn ection of moral and political reform is herevery curiously drawn. Matthew, 1618. Upon the rock ofsuch faith as hat of Saint Peter the Church is thus secure.A few lines above, his description of the history of theRevo lution of 1776as a scripture h e hopes will be equiva-lent to that in the Bible in its hold on the reverence ofAm ericans further foreshadow s the role of secularized reli-gious rhetoric in his political religion . In this fashion theDerlaratinn nf I n r i e p e ~ d e ~ c e _he P!PY=!P~ intn th estatus of a dogma, with the statesman as a theologian,unfolding its hidden significance. S ee TheNew Science ofPoldics, p. 136: If a mov emen t, lik e the Puritan , relies onthe authority of a literary sourc e, th e leaders will then haveto fashion the very no tions and conceits of mens mind s insuch a sort that the follow ers will automatically associatescriptural passages an d terms with their doctrine, howeverill founded the association may be, and that with equalautomatism they will be blind to the content of Scripturethat is incompatible with their doctrine. (Voegelin here isquoting Richard Hooker.) *See TheNew Science of Poli-tics, p. 175, In every wave of the Gnostic movement theprogressivist and utopian varieties will tend to form apolitical right wing, leaving a good deal of the ultimateperfection to gradual evolution and compromising on atension between achievement and ideal, w hile the activistvariety will tend to form a political left wing, tak ing violentaction toward the complete realization of the perfectrealm. lD Quoted rom p. 16 of Donald W. Riddles Con-gressman Abraham Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinoispress, 1957);also G. S. Borit, Lincoln and the Economicsof the American Dream: The Whig Years, 1832-1854(Ph. D. dissertation, Boston University, 1968). 20For asurvey of this teaching see Paul G. Nagels One NationIndivisible: The Union in American Thought, 1776-1861(New York: Oxford University Press, 1964). 2 1 0 nHumanposed to what he calls a civil association. 22Paul Simon,Lincolns Prepa rationfo r Greatness: The Illinois LegislativeYears (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971), pp.

Conduct, pp. 114118, 157-158, an d 315-317. AS OP -

48-53. 23Though not true of thoughtful men like GovernorJoseph Duncan. 4Colkcted Works, 11, p. 220. 25Simon, p.262. As he later mocked those who saw in his campaign athreat to the Union. See his speeches from Nov. 1860-April of 1861. 8Collected Works, II1,pp. 356-357. YoungAmerica was a progressive movement, expansionist,chauvinistic, and usually Democratic. 2Colkcted W orks,11, pp . 437-442. 28Collected Works, I, p. 279. The perora-tion of the Temperance Address.2D C onve n ie n t l y a va i l a b l e on pp . 65-66 of LordCharnwoods Abraham Lincoln (New York: Hen ry Ho lt an dCompany, 1917). 30H ofstadter, p. 94; se e also Luthin, p.37. 31See p. 4 of Stephen B. Oates, WithMalice TowardNone: The Lije of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Harper &Row, Publishers, 1977); alsoCollected Works, 111, p. 511.32See Luthin, p. 229. 33Those who d id not failed-be latedFederalists like Lincolns sponsors, Ninian Edwards andJohn Todd Stuart. W o l l e c t e d Works, I, pp . 9495; Letterof Aug. 16, 1837. S5Collected Wor ks , 1, p. 301;Memorandum of Duel Instructions to Elias H. Meny-man, Sept. 19,1842. 3 8 C ~ l l e ~ t e d o r k , I , pp . 294296.The Rebecca Letter , Aug. 27, 1842. 37ColkctedWorks, I, p. 382; July 31, 1846. See also Luthin, p. 169,where we see Lincoln pretending rigid Christian or-thodoxy, for effect. 3BCoZlected Works, 11, pp . 20-22; se ealso Riddle, pp. 162-180. 38See p. 260 of George Wash-ington Julians The Lije ofJos hu aR. G iddings (Chicago : A.C. McClurg and Company, 1892). The book is very usefulto students of Lincolns views on slavery. 4oCollectedWorks, 11, pp. 135-157, Speech to the Springfield Scott41Simon, p. 136. In this campaign Lincoln made race-baiting speeche s al l through Egypt--the lower countiesof Illinois. See alsoCollected Works, I, pp . 209-210. 42Seepp . 130-149of John J. Du ffs judiciousA . Lincoln: PrairieLawyer (New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc. , 1960).This is an instructive narrative of the entire 1847 case forthose who are inclined to take seriously L incolns state-ments on one man living by the sweat of another mansbrow. Lincoln tried his best to do a bit of that living.43Also part of the plan was to push th e Dem ocrats stillfurther South, by driving the Southernen, to mak e greaterand greater dem ands upon their party. for aninstance Collected Works, 111, p. 330-Lincolns lett er toNorman B. Judd, Oct. 20, 1858. There he advises hisassociate on how to steal illegal Irish votes. 45Quoted byRiddle, p. 246. 461bid., pp . 245-249. 4Collected Works,11, pp. 247-283. @Ibid., pp . 259and 272. 481bd . , p. 272.It is to the point that Northerners, in 1787, had, withoutmoral outrage, agreed to slavery in the South. And couldnot thereafter develop an outrage with that portion of thecontract between the states without acknowledging thattheir anger broke the bond. Especially if this belatedmorality w as to their political and economic advantage.And had com e upon them on ly after they were convincedthat the Union was not subject to dissolution. Under thepressure of such convenient outrage Southerners werequite naturally distrustful of attendant as suran ces that theletter of the contra ct would be observed. The form of thesedisclaimers of innovative intent w as their meaning. Hadthe North in 1787accepted slavery in this way, there would

C!d?, ag 14, 1852-perh2p3 Lizcc!zs ! k z : speech.

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have been no Union. 5oCollected Works, 11,248; The NewScience ojPo litics, p. 151. lRiddle, p. 249. 52CollectedWorks, 11, p. 255. 53See David Brion Davis, The SlavePower Conspiracy and the Pa ranoid Style (Baton Rouge:Lou isiana State University P ress , 1969). 54CollectedWorks, 11, pp. 25 4 and 269. 55See pp. 231-232 of TheAntislavery Vanguard:New Essays on the Abolitionists, ed .by Martin Duberm an (Princeton: Prince ton UniversityPress, 1965). The passage which I cite is from StaughtonLynds essay, The Abolitionist Critique of the UnitedState s Constitution. In it he observes that most of theFathers expected the South to outgrow and outp opulate theNorth. The South also held rights to most of the Westernterritories. To set aside the Old Northwest for non-slaveholders w as a way of giving the North a reason to jointhe Union-a sta ke in its future and a way of extendingthe principle of balance of the sections into the future,while at the sam e time ass uring that the new nation (withthe slave trade still in operation) would not become al-togethe r surfeited with slaves, to the decrease of their valueand the increase of social danger. The very Southernerswho adopted the Northwest Ordinance spoke repeatedly oftheir expectation that slavery would go into the West. Andso voted, with many Yan kees, in th e Southwest Ordinan ce.(Jefferson himself endorsed suc h a distribution .) Lincolnsread ing of the se eve nts is ridiculous-and borrowed fromSalmon Chase of Ohio. To argu e that th e South voted toextinguish itselfin 1787 is to ask that we belie ve a thing notin nature.56Collected Works, 11, pp . 461-469 A House Di-vided: Spee ch at Spring field, Illinois, June 16, 1858.570n the racial attitudes of the North in the 1850s, Irecommend V . Jacqu e Voegeli, Free B u Not Equal: TheMidwest and the Negro During the Ciuil War (Chicago:University of Chicago Pre ss, 1967); Eugene H. Ber-wanger, The Frontier Ag ainst Slave ry: Western Anti-NegroPrejudice and the Slavery Extenswn Controversy (Urbana:University of Illinois Pres s, 1967);James A. Rawley, Raceand Politics: BleedingKansas and the Com ing oj the CivilW ar (Philadelphia: J. B. L ippinco tt Company, 1969); andLeon F. Litwack, North ojslav ery : The Negro in the FreeStates, 1790-1860 Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1961). This is only a sample of a growing literature, all of itdemonstrating how nonegalitarian and racist all of theeffective American political opponents of slavery had toapp ear to be in the years before the conflict came. Whichraises serious questions as to what the antislavery causewas all about. With only a few apolitical abolitionists asexceptions. The problem of the Re publ ican was in beingagainst both the slave-owner an d th e slave-the latter inparticular, should he become free; the former in that hemust beforced to free the latter, and still kee p him in theSouth. Their posture shifted between 1854 and 1877,depe ndin g on which of these two they hated most. Hen ceabolition could be only a war measure. 58Max Farrandwrites on p. 130 of his The Fathers ojthe Constitution: AChronicle oj th e Establishment of the Unwn (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1912) that the ar chite cts of theRepublic regarded slavery as an acce pted institution, aspart of the established order. Lincolns argument that theFa th en put slavery on the road to extinction rests on almost

nothing. 59Douglas, as quoted on p. 5 of Collected Works,111: from the Aug. 21, 1858, debate at Ottawa, Illinois.6oEven though they had lived und er su ch an hegemony-unknowingly-throughout th e ant ebe llum period. 61Thekind of thing he could most easily tell immigrants-especially through his German language newspaper, theIllinoisStaats Anzeiger, whose suppo rt Lincoln bought in1859. See Collected Works, 11, pp . 341 ,385 , and 553; 111,p 95. On the impact of immigrants on Midwestern politics,se e Donna1 V. Smiths Th e Influence of th e Foreign-Bornof the Northwest in the Election of 1860, The MississippiValley Historical Review, XIX (Sept., 1932), 192-204.62An interesting d iscussion of the divisions of the speechappears on pp. 82-83 of Don E. FehrenbachersPrelude toGreatness: Lincoln in the 1850s Stanford, Calif.: StanfordUniversity Press, 1962). 63Collected Works, 11, p. 385.Wo llec ted Works ,111,p. 315. Lincolns kind of argum entfrom definition belongs properly only to the inception-the pla nning stage in the history of a regime. Its successfu lintroduction into the political d iscourse of a people alwaysmeans that a refounding is in prospect. 6sCollected Works,11, pp. 349-353.. H e late r bac ked away from this-when itwas too la t e a n d accepted the idea of the Indian ter-ritories asa slave state, plus a plan to adm it New Mexico onthe sam e terms. But thes e concessions were only modifica-tion s of a basic hostility to th e South-part of hispretense ofmoderation, the mask which he never dropped entirely.See Oates, p. 124. s6See Luthin, p. 193; also Fehren-bachers Prelude to Greatness, p , 72 ; and pp. 107-109 ofVol. I of James G. Randalls Lincoln the President:Springfield to Gettysburg (NewYork: Dodd, Mead andCompany, Inc., 1945). Voegelin describes the develop-ment of this spec ies of persona on pp. 135-136 of The NewScience ofPoli t i ts . s7Quoted from p. 146of Vol. I of JamesG. Blaines Twenty Years of Congress: From Lincoln toGat$eld (Norwich, Conn.: The Henry Bell PublishingCompany, 1884). Benjamin P. Thomas uotes Orville H.Browning to the same effect on p. 61 of his Portrait fo rPosterity: Lincoln and His Biographers (New Brunswick,N. J. : Rutgers University Press, 1947): I know Mr.Lincoln was a firm be liever in a supernatural and overml-ing Providence and in supernatural agencies and events. Iknow that he believed the des tini es of men were, or atleast, that his own destiny, was shaped and controlled byan intelligence greater than h is own, and which he couldneither co ntrol nor thwart. Browning, however, ca n attri-bute no other religious beliefs to his friend.9 e e Benjamin P. Thomas, Abraham Lincoln: A Biog-raphy (New York: Modern Library, 1968), p. 230. Lincolnadmonishes Senator Trumbull, The tug has to come. Asmall rebellion, easily subdued, Lincoln may have ex-pected as early as 1858. O rat least Southern m isconduct ofa sort that would ruin t he Democrats for years to come. Andmake possible a refounding. The questio n of Lincolnspart in b ringing on Secessio n is central to the reading of hiscareer. There is no evidence that he expected so large astruggle as the one that occurred. Which reflects to thecredit of hi s character-and to the discred it of his judg-ment. For a criticism of the impact of Lincolns Presidencyon constitutional government in the nations subsequenthistory, se e pp. 17-62 of Gottfried DietzesAmericas Polit-

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r&mma (Baltimore: Johns H opkins University Press,,). -1 refer to the chapter Lincoln, the D eclarationSecular Puritanism: A Rhetor ic forContinuing Revo-on in my collection, A Bester Guide than Reasnrz:dies in the Amer ican Rmlrc t ion {LB S l l e , I l l i no i s :r e m o d S ug de n & Company, 1978).7%- 1detail 0 t he m n t f i of my objection tu Lincolns reading of the Amer;:an Revolution. Plus certain observations on th e irrationalq p e a l of quasi-biblical, epide ictic rhetoric--the attempt

at Gettysburg to imitate the tone of Holy Scripture. OnLincoln and biblical rhetoric , see also Cushing Strout, TheNe w Heavens andNew Earth:Polit ical Religion n America[New Yo&: Harper and Row, 19?4),pp. 193-200; nd p.194 f William J. Wolf, tincolns Religion {Boston:PilprimPress, 1970). oDiscussed by Oates, p. 316. See myremarks on Lincoln and scanning the providences in1W in The Heresy of Equality: Bradfond Replies toJaffa, Modem Age, XX (Winter, 197% 64-73. %eCollected Works, V, p. 478;V11, p. 282; p. 535;V I K p.356. 7 3 C ~ U e ~ e dorks, 11, pp. 403-404. Meditation o ntheDivine Will:. . CodwilIsthiscot~test,and iIh.thatit s h d l no t end yet. Se e p. 156 of William J. Wolfsf iw&s fbdigiunOT a w a g e ro m L. E. Chittendens&~&&ms qfPres&ni Lincoln ana ff sAdministration.There Lincoln is quoted: I am sa t i s fd tha t , when t h eAlmighty wants m e to do or not to do, a particular thing, h efinds a way of letting me know it. 7 % ~ l k ~ ~ e dorks, v, p.343: etter ofJuly 26, 1862, To Reuenly Johnson; alsoOates , pp. 318-323.Uncoln meant the Proclamation as awar memure ; he framed it to be minimal ly pni-N eW , butprofoundly anti-Southern; and he offered the freedmanalmost nothing to go with it, even in his plan s for Recon-struction. Yet h e still drew upon it for mora l capird . OnLincolns ind iference to what would happen to t h e formerslaves, seehis remark at the Hampton Rnadsconte=nm of1865 reported on p. 615, Vol. il., of Alexander H.Stephens, A Const$ucional View of h e War Between theStates; It s C a m s , C ha r m wr , Conduct and Resutts, Pre-s e d n Series of colkqt&a 5 8 Liberty Ha l l (Philadel-phia: National Publishing Company, 1870). %oLk?ctedWorks, V, p , 425:Reply toEmancipation Memorial Pre-sentedby Chicago Christian sof All Denominations, %pt.13,1862.ThereLincoln asserts that God would te ll him, if

He old any A merican of H is particular will {p. 420). e eThe New Science of,folitics, p. 93. On the para l le l ofLincoln and Gromwell, see my A Writ of Fire and Sword.The Politics of Oliver Cromwell, Oecaswml Review,I ssue3(Surnmer , 1975),61-80,especially pp,66,69-71.7SA Wr i t ofFire and Sword, p. 5 5 . 1 q u d c fro m p. 364

of Antonia Fmera Gromwell: The Lord Protector (NewYork: Knopf, 1974).770n the godded man, see pp,92-97 of Science,Politicsa d nastkism.; also t he e a d ie rdiscussion in The N a u Science of Politics, pp. 110-113.Lincoln is both prophet and leader of h is third age ofAmerica. But he is serious about the holiness of h i spolitics.Godsnew Meesiah is another q uote from JamesRussell L u w e U d h i s t im e fmm The Present Crisis, l ine23, ?$Fora f in e summary of this f irst stage in the evolutionof the Lincoln of legend, I e c om m e nd w or d Lewis Mg&Afcer Lincoln (New York: Harcoun, Brace & Company,1929). 7*See Voegelin on Camte and Turgut in FromEnlLghtenmnt to Reuohfbn (Durham: Duke UniversityPress,1975), di ted by John H. Md1oweIl. Th is promiseofc our se l e a d s to continuous warfare, conducted by m enwho profess an ardent desire forpeace, described onpp.1?1-173 f TheNew Science ojPolirics. 80See in partieu-lar pp . 44-75 of Niemeyers Between Nothingness andPw&& (Baton Rouge: L ouisiana State University Press,1871)--on the laws of history. sThe Ne w Science oPolitics, p. 18%. Th e language of th i s passage describesrather well Lincolns political enemies-the ante bellu mconservative Democrats, who were the least gno3tic ofAmericm polit ical parties. *21bid., p , 143. Pur i tans al-ways eplac e the common law by scriptu ral law. =Hofstad-ter, p. 111, %&The ew Science of Politics, p- 132 To-t&taSanism, defined as the existential rule of Gnosticactivists, is t he e nd a nd form of progressive ciuibation.The result of mposed freedom or equality is always en-s l a ve m e n t of both Comer slaver and former slave--enslavem ent by the state , s5This entire essay is in obviousd e b t 10 Professor Voege l ins d iscuss ion of R i c h a r dHookers cr it iqu e of he Puritan mind, The N e r ~ cience ofpolitics, pp. 133-152. For a contrary view of Lincolnsn w - p u r i t a n civil theoiogy, see Glen E. Thumw, Ahr5hamfirnola American Political Religion (Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press, 1976).

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Dividing the House: The Gnosticism of Lincoln's Political Rhetoric