And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham

Abstract

Reviewed by: And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham Jon Diefenthaler And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. By Jon Meacham. New York: Random House, 2022. 676 pp. Do we need another book on Abraham Lincoln? Among the multitude of others, what makes And There Was Light stand out is Jon Meacham's remarkable effort to let America's sixteenth President provide an illuminating perspective on a nation that is currently as deeply divided and struggling to survive as a democracy as it was before and during the Civil War. As helpful as this book may be for any American citizen to read, I am motivated to review it for this church-related journal because I believe the historical insights this noted author provides are potentially useful to Lutheran clergy and other ecclesiastical leaders seeking to navigate these same troubled waters and to address the socio-political divisions that continue to wash into their congregations and church bodies. Aptly subtitled "Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle," Meacham's book covers most of the bases one would expect to find in a comprehensive biography, including Lincoln's family of origin, his hardscrabble upbringing, his first love Ann Rutledge, his turbulent marriage to Mary Todd and the loss of two of their progeny, his elections to office, as well as his anguished presidency and subsequent assassination. But in most every chapter on Lincoln's life, Meacham chooses to give us a measure of insight into the role religion played as the Illinois rail splitter sought to deal with the towering and divisive problem of slavery. At work in Lincoln's mind, in Meacham's estimation, were history, reason, and faith. For him, the Constitution, which viewed slaves as the property of their owners, took a back seat in America's history to the Declaration of Independence, which unequivocally stated that "all men are created equal." In contrast to historians who have stated that Lincoln's opposition to slavery evolved, Meacham provides ample evidence to substantiate the president's later [End Page 188] conscience-grounded claim that it was always in his nature to believe that "if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." As Meacham sees it, what evolved was Lincoln's continuous search for a reasonable political solution to the problem. While African colonization of slaves piqued his interest, this proposal quickly proved to be less than feasible. Recognizing that various legislative compromises would only extend the Southern slave empire, he felt compelled to oppose them. The political necessity of gaining the support of Whites in order to outlaw slavery prompted his willingness to concede that Blacks were an inferior breed. The "popular sovereignty" solution advocated by Stephen Douglas in his campaigns for office only seemed to fan the flames of self-interest and secession. What Meacham in fact demonstrates is that as Lincoln's reliance on reason waned and as "war came," his faith in God took on a much greater role. According to Meacham, Lincoln's "creed was of his own making—and it was always evolving with enormous consequences for the nation he led and for the nation he left behind" (xxxv). His piety included regular reading of the King James Bible and, at his most critical hours, getting on his knees to pray to God. At the same time, his reading of Thomas Paine's Age of Reason ("my own mind is my own church") made him a "doubting Thomas" among believers, and for this reason, he never became the member of a Christian congregation. Lincoln found some of the Evangelical Protestant beliefs featured by the Second Great Awakening, such as the divinity of Jesus, too difficult to embrace. Instead, he favored the brand of theology set forth by the New England Transcendentalists. Theodore Parker in particular helped him focus on Nature's God and to believe that the universe was inherently moral, and that its history arced in the direction of justice. Nevertheless, Meacham reveals elements of Lincoln's religion that coincide with those of the Christian faith. For one thing, he recognized the pervasiveness of human depravity. Persistent awareness of his own shortcomings prevented any consideration...