Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Feb. 12, 1937, edition 1 / Page 7
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X IN IVw AMENDED ihc CONSTITUTKjN f ! "-3 l'A\ a^L ■■'- W 1 aM & tt? ■' W4'&£jk\ '{d'^tj' \ ; ■' ■■ i s-W&f ■ /. ' ifllfr' fljif ijT M • fejyMißMfc IPs Aafflr'■JMßfc wbat tub rnmi or m ou> «oiu none or -mi 1 mmt ■»• "Wrltf .^/^/ America was an oasis of democracy in a sea of monarchism, at the time of the Civil War. This cartoon from Harper's Weekly of Dec. 1, 1869, shows European monarchs chortling over democracy’s crisis. By Henry W. Lawrence Professor of History and Political Science, Connecticut College IS President Roosevelt now getting ready to deal with “rugged individ ualism’’ in somewhat the way that President Lincoln dealt with hu man slavery? Is Roosevelt about to at tempt a constitutional amendment by methods as ruthless as those employed by Lincoln? The problems which faced these two presidents were strangely alike at bot tom, though strikingly different on the surface. In Lincoln’s day the United States was the only large-scale experiment in government by the people under re publican forms anywhere in the world. If it fell, the cause of political democ racy was probably lost, at least for sev eral generations. Both Lincoln and Roosevelt were in sistently advised to abolish outright a system that might fairly be called 100 per cent American; a system that had ante-dated the nation and grown up with it, contributing largely to its pros perity. In Lincoln’s case this system was the well-established practice of human slavery; in Roosevelt’s it is the equally well-established practice of “rugged individualism.” In the 1860’s the Union was pre served and an outworn economic sys tem —that of plantation slave labor— was overthrown. It is still too early to say that anything like a parallel solu tion will be found for the problems of the 1930’5. But if President Roosevelt should decide to make important and permanent changes in the economic order, he would straightway be con fronted by the problem of amending the Constitution, and it is this problem which Lincoln’s experience during the PIC PIC A copy of Thomas Johnson’s fa mous dry point etching of Abra ham Lincoln. great Civil War crisis so strikingly il luminates. In some respects, the difficulties in the way of amending the Constitution were greater in Lincoln’s day than in our own. There had been no amend ment of dny kind for 60 years, when suddenly President Lincoln felt obliged to urge one of a very fundamental character, namely the 13th, by which a terrific blow was struck at property rights and states’ rights. 'T'HIS riding roughshod over the an ■*- cient rights of the states and of pri vate property was not to be accom plished, however, without the greatest difficulty. “It is impossible,” said Congressman Pendleton, speaking in the House of Representatives, “that the amendment proposed should be ratified without a fraudulent use—l select the term ad visedly—without a fraudulent use of the power to admit new states or a PIC fraudulent use of the military power of the federal government in the seceded states.” The condemned act seemed justifi able, nevertheless, as an indispensable means for saving the Union, and as a fulfillment of the mandate given the administration in the presidential elec tion of 1864. Said President Lincoln, in his message to Congress on Dec. 6: “It is the voice of the people now for the first time heard upon the question In a great national crisis like ours unanimity of action among those seek ing a common end is very desirable Yet no approach to such unanimity is attainable unless some deference is paid to the will ot the majority simply be cause it is the will of the majority.” By which he seems to have signified his intention to apply both military coercion and political corruption to achieve this desired change. At any rate, both were applied: the federal generals, under orders of course, made the unreconstructed states vote right; and Lincoln himself took charge of some of the necessary politi cal corruption, for example in the mat ter of securing the admission of Nevada to statehood, notwithstanding its ab surdly small population. 'T'HIS astonishing bit of bribery, au thorized by the president of the United States for the purpose of saving the Union, is described circumstantially by Charles A. Dana (“Recollections of the Civil War,” pp. 174-177). Discussing the anti-slavery amend ment which Lincoln sought in the spring of 1864 —a measure which would help the North as much as a whole new army—Dana recalls how Nevada was admitted as a state to gain a needed vote for the amendment. Lincoln’s an swer to criticism of this step, Dana says, was, “It is easier to admit Ne vada than to raise another million sol diers.” Lincoln visited Dana when the law In 1864, Lincoln went to Charles A. Dana, assistant secretary of war, named three congressmen whose votes he needed, and authorized Dana to promise anything to get them. He got them. making Nevada a state was pending. Here is Dana’s account of what fol lowed: “ ‘Dana,’ he said, ‘I am very anxious about this vote. It has got to be taken next week. The time is very short. It is going to be a great deal closer than I wish it was.’ “ ‘There are plenty of Democrats who will vote for it,’ I replied . . . “ ‘But there are some others that I am not clear about,’ he said. ‘There are three that you can deal with better than anybody else, perhaps, as you know' them all. I wish you would send for them. “He told me who they were. “ What w'ill they be likely to want?’ I asked. “‘I don’t know,' said the president. ‘I don't know. It makes no difference, though, what they want. Here is the alternative: that we carry this vote, or be compelled to raise another million, and I don’t know' how' many more, men, and fight no one knows how long. It is a question of three votes or new armies.’ “I sent for the men and saw them one by one. I found that they were afraid of their party. They said that some fellows in the party w'ould be down on them. “Two of them wanted internal rev enue collector's appointments. ‘You shall have it,’ I said. Another one wanted a very important appointment about the custom house of New York. “Well, these men voted that Nevada be allowed to f 'ame a state govern ment. and thus they helped secure the vote that was'required.” 1F President Roosevelt should decide 4 that the curtailment or abolition of “rugged individualism” is the indispen sable next step toward saving Ameri can democracy, he would have, as the foregoing narrative has shown, the ruthless and undiscourageable action of President Lincoln as an example to aid him in forcing through whatever con stitutional amendment is necessary.
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
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Feb. 12, 1937, edition 1
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