Historian James McPherson visited Cornell to celebrate the opening of Kroch Library's impressive exhibit.

By: Zachary Newkirk

On October 20, 2009, historian James McPherson spoke to a large crowd in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall. His talk marked the beginning of the Cornell library’s exhibition on Abraham Lincoln, celebrating his 200th birthday.

McPherson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, most famous for his book The Battle Cry of Freedom. He was described as one “who knows more about the era [the Civil War] than almost anyone else.” McPherson gave his lecture to an overflowing and diverse crowd, comprised of everyone from Provost Kent Fuchs and former President Hunter Rawlings to local elementary school children.

His lecture was entitled “Stretching the Constitution: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief” and he spoke about the challenges President Lincoln faced when he took office, particularly in regards to his general policy, national strategy and wartime strategy. According to McPherson, Lincoln’s primary policy was the preservation of the Union based on majority rule. To Lincoln, secession was the “essence of anarchy.” McPherson said that Lincoln lived by German military theorist Carl von Clausewitz’s idea that war is the means to a political objective.

Lincoln’s national strategy was complicated but boiled down to maintaining public support for the war. He did this in two primary ways. First, he used what McPherson called “political generals,” politicians appointed from certain areas or ethnicities for the sole purpose of mobilizing their constituencies. This worked to some extent. By 1862, over 670,000 soldiers had volunteered for the Federal Army, although on the other hand many political generals were militarily inept.

Lincoln also maintained public support later in the war by appealing to the Republicans and anti-slavery activists who originally elected him. While at first he sought support from Democrats, especially in the slave states that stayed in the Union such as Kentucky and Maryland, he later shifted toward an anti-slavery stance. This shift occurred after Republicans grew louder in their opposition to slavery and Confederate victories required bolder action.

McPherson discussed one of the more controversial aspects of Lincoln’s administration, his expansion of presidential war powers, in a neutral tone. Among his powers were his declaration of a blockade, increasing the military and ordering the Treasury for more money without the consent of Congress, and of course, the suspension of the writ of habeus corpus. Lincoln loosely interpreted the constitution by implementing these powers by viewing them as inherent to his position as Commander-in-Chief and in his duty to preserve and protect the Constitution. More famously, he compared this situation to a surgeon – it is better to lose a limb to save a life but “never a life is given to save a limb.”

The war strategy Lincoln employed evolved throughout the war. With little military background, Lincoln at first deferred to his senior general, Winfield Scott, but after his retirement began to learn military matters himself. For example, he urged his generals to defeat enemy armies rather than occupy their territories and indeed viewed Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s invasions of the North as opportunities rather than threats.

McPherson’s lecture was overtly apolitical and served as an eloquent beginning to a fascinating exhibition on the life and times of our sixteenth president. I encourage everyone to check out the exhibition in Kroch Library that includes a copy of an original Gettysburg Address in possession by Cornell University (one of only five in existence), a copy of the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Emancipation Proclamation. In addition, the exhibition displays many photographs and memorabilia of Lincoln’s political life. It is an admirable collection for his bicentennial.