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The below article appeared on Orrin Woodward's leadership blog.
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by Orrin Woodward
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had a series of debates during the senatorial elections of Illinois in 1858. These debates were extremely popular and catapulted Abraham Lincoln into a national level politician. He may have lost the battle for senator, but he won the war of ideas and was elected president in 1860. There were many subjects up for debate, but let me discuss the main issues of slavery and popular government. Author David Donald wrote an excellent book called Lincoln. Let’s start with quoting for Donald’s book.
One way to formulate that difference was to see Douglas as the advocate of majority rule and Lincoln as the defender of minority rights. In Douglas view there were virtually no limits on what the majority of the people of a state or a territory could do—including, if they so chose, holding black-skinned inhabitants in slavery. While Lincoln also valued self-government and would make no attempt to end diversity on, say, cranberry laws in Indiana and Illinois, he felt passionately that no majority should have the power to limit the most fundamental rights of a minority to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This is a powerful paragraph and filled with meaning that has importance in the modern world. Stephen Douglas was arguing from the law of the land and holding as his highest principle the right of people to vote in a government of their choice. Abraham Lincoln believed in this principle, but held a higher principle. The higher principle was tied back to his Biblical beliefs that all men were created equal before an Almighty God. This is the essence of wisdom—to build a hierarchy of beliefs for which you stand. All beliefs cannot be equal. For example, I believe in representative government and the rights for people to vote for their representatives. But if the people voted by a 51% margin to perform euthanasia on anyone over 80 to reduce taxes should we go along with this? If we objected, by what principle would we object? Lincoln objected to the law of the land by a higher law, an absolute law derived from Biblical teaching. In our government, one person with the truth can back down a majority. Majorities can be wrong and we must follow the rule of law if it conflicts with the law of the land.
What makes the Civil War so tragic to me is good people on both sides, neglected higher principles and attempted to settle the dispute on lower principles. I believe the person who throws the first punch has shifted from reason to emotion. As a country we must let reason and let principles rule our choices. Both Lincoln and Douglas were holding on to different aspects of truth. Lincoln had a higher truth and if reasonable men would have discussed the issues, a Civil War could have been avoided. Instead passion ruled the day and honorable men and women on both sides were hurt. Both sides used force to settle the discussion and force is a terrible principle to use to settle a disagreement. Douglas used reason, but had a myopic vision of the world as it was. Lincoln used reason, but with a larger vision, he saw the world of absolutes and the hierarchy of principles. The mass of people used passion and war resulted with terrible losses for everyone. Every truly great leader must be a person of principle. They must be willing to go against the majority, company, state or even country if the majority is violating an absolute principle. Lincoln was great leader and had both sides come to the table and reasoned together the posterity of many men and women would be alive today.
Do you believe there are absolutes even above majority rule? If you do, where did you get those absolutes? Every country must have a rule of law that the people agree to or chaos will ensue. If the majority of you club, organization, state, or country are going against the absolute principles—will you make a stand? Lincoln made a stand and history remembers him. God Bless, Orrin Woodward
