第58章 DEFINING THE ISSUE(4)

Lincoln did the natural thing.He fastened upon the tendencies in Northern thought that supported his own faith.Chief among these was the idea that sovereignty passed to the general congregation of the inhabitants of the colonies--"we,the people"--because we,the people,were the real power that supported the revolt.He had accepted the idea that the American Revolution was an uprising of the people,that its victory was in a transfer of sovereign rights from an English Crown to an American nation;that a new collective state,the Union,was created by this nation as the first act of the struggle,and that it was to the Union that the Crown succumbed,to the Union that its prerogative passed.To put this idea in its boldest and its simplest terms was the crowning effort of the message.

"The States have their status in the Union and they have no other legal status.If they break from this,they can only do so against law and by revolution.The Union,and not themselves separately,procured their independence and their liberty.By conquest or purchase,the Union gave each of them whatever of independence and liberty it has.The Union is older than any of the States,and in fact,it created them as States.Originally some dependent colonies made the Union,and in turn,the Union threw off this old dependence for them and made them States,such as they are."[9]

This first message completes the evolution of Lincoln as a political thinker.It is his third,his last great landmark.

The Peoria speech,which drew to a focus all the implications of his early life,laid the basis of his political significance;the Cooper Union speech,summing up his conflict with Douglas,applied his thinking to the new issue precipitated by John Brown;but in both these he was still predominantly a negative thinker,still the voice of an opposition.With the first message,he became creative;he drew together what was latent in his earlier thought;he discarded the negative;he laid the foundation of all his subsequent policy.The breadth and depth of his thinking is revealed by the fulness with which the message develops the implications of his theory.In so doing,he anticipated the main issues that were to follow:his determination to keep nationalism from being narrowed into mere "Northernism";his effort to create an all-parties government;his stubborn insistence that he was suppressing an insurrection,not waging external war;his doctrine that the Executive,having been chosen by the entire people,was the one expression of the sovereignty of the people,and therefore,the repository of all these exceptional "war powers"that are dormant in time of peace.Upon each of those issues he was destined to wage fierce battles with the politicians who controlled Congress,who sought to make Congress his master,who thwarted,tormented and almost defeated him.In the light of subsequent history the first message has another aspect besides its significance as political science.In its clear understanding of the implications of his attitude,it attains political second sight.As Lincoln,immovable,gazes far into the future,his power of vision makes him,yet again though in a widely different sense,the "seer in a trance,Seeing all his own mischance."His troubles with Congress began at once.The message was received on July fourth,politely,but with scant response to its ideas.During two weeks,while Congress in its fatuousness thought that the battle impending in Virginia would settle things,the majority in Congress would not give assent to Lincoln's view of what the war was about.And then came Bull Run.In a flash the situation changed.Fatuousness was puffed out like a candle in a wind.The rankest extremist saw that Congress must cease from its debates and show its hand;must say what the war was about;must inform the nation whether it did or did not agree with the President.

On the day following Bull Run,Crittenden introduced this resolution:"That the present,deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the Disunionists of the Southern States,now in arms against the constitutional government,and in arms around the capital;that in this national emergency,Congress,banishing all feelings of mere passion and resentment,will recollect only its duty to the whole country;that this war is not waged on their part in any spirit of oppression or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation,or purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of these States,but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution,and to preserve the Union,with all the dignity,equality,and rights of the several States unimpaired;and that as soon as these objects are accomplished,the war ought to cease."This Crittenden Resolution was passed instantly by both Houses,without debate and almost without opposition.[10]

Paradoxically,Bull Run had saved the day for Lincoln,had enabled him to win his first victory as a statesman.