Lincoln And The Lost Cause Analysis

WEEK FIVE- Lincoln and the Lost Cause Last week Lincoln was a patron saint, but in this week’s readings, anywhere from one to four decades after his assassination, the white southerners have denounced him a despot. Never before in our readings have we seen this view of Lincoln discussed, and it seems to me that they are blaming everything on Lincoln in order to scape goat all off the problems they had caused (did not want to admit they were at fault). They even go as far to say that Lincoln should be “bitterly ashamed” for what he has done (Minor, p. 18). Looking back on the aftermath of the Civil War, I could understand why white southerners would be distasteful of Mr. Lincoln: he took away their free labor source, had their lands destroyed,
and forced to rejoin a nation in which they shared little political and ethical faith in. However, I would think that after a couple decades they would get over their stubbornness, but their extreme hatred towards Lincoln has lead to the idea of the Lost Cause. In its simplest terms, the Lost Cause is a “heroic image of secession” for the Civil War in the South’s attempt to save their dignity after being defeated (Nolan, p.14). In the minds of the southerners, they had every right to succeed because it was written in the Constitution, and they were trying to protect their state’s rights. The part of the Lost Cause that upsets me that most is that the Southerners “denied that slavery had anything to do with the Confederate cause” (Nolan, p. 15). I can kind of understand that they were trying to exploit their state rights, but they only had to do so because of slavery. They would not have succeeded from the Union, thus instigating the war, if there was not such a divide on the issue of slavery. In my opinion, the Lost Cause was solely implemented so that the South could blame their problems on Lincoln and the North in order to salvage their precious ego. I also did not understand how people could believe this lie of the Lost Cause, but it made sense when we discussed it in class. When the slaves were freed, all of the poor whites in the north and south now how to compete with them for jobs and living space. Therefore, all poor to middle class whites now had someone to hate in union, which why I think they all began to agree on the horrible idea of the Lost Cause. Although these articles from this week seem distant in reference to previous weeks, the continual theme of the divide between memory and historical memory (facts). In this case the memory is what the Southerners constructed to be the Lost Cause and the historical memory is what actually started the Civil War, slavery.

WEEK SIX- Remember Lincoln at 100 Immediately, I would compare this week’s readings with week four’s readings.
Both of them seem to idolize Abraham Lincoln, but this week the readings put more thought into Abe than just being a martyr. If I had to choose one word to describe him this week, it would be timeless. It seems that anything written this week on Mr. Lincoln is in remembrance of all of his good-hearted qualities, most of them due to the time period of Lincoln’s 100th birthday, that we seem to see as stereotypes in today’s society. For example, he is described as someone who had an extreme “influence with the jury” (Tarbell, p. 359). Not only is he a great lawyer, but he can easily persuade people he does not even know to see things as he does. By demonstrating this trait Lincoln is being portrayed as an almost larger than life human, and he is described as the God-like person we saw in week four. Showing that he was inspirational back before he was president and while he was in office might definitely have had an influence as to why people today view him as one of the greatest presidents. Another trait/ stereotype of Lincoln that is evident this week is the idea of him being a storyteller. Not only did Abe just tell stories to pass the time, he actually used his “stories in pleading, using them as illustrations which demonstrated the case more conclusively than argument could have done” (Tarbell, p.361). If he could use stories to influence a group of jurors, what is to say that he did not do this
to the American people while campaigning for president. Speaking of influential, one of my favorite shows to watch is Criminal Minds and at the end of each show there is a quote that leaves you with a sense that all of the problems in that episode have come to a happy conclusion. In last night’s episode of one of the scariest shows yet, it ended with a quote from Lincoln about something in the “life in your years.” I finished that episode feel confident that everything was ok, and I feel that it was partially due to the stereotypical influence of Lincoln’s being telling me everything was going to be fine. By characterizing President Lincoln as both influential and a great story teller, the authors of this week have immortalized him as those two things and in doing so they have made those two characteristics some of the stereotypes we see in today’s world. A lot of these stereotypes are perfect examples of memories affected by bias, whereas the historical memory or facts are slightly altered to fill the needs of the authors writing on the one hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln.

WEEK SEVEN- Progressive Lincoln I would say that the readings this week are a mix between week’s five and two.
One article attacks Lincoln for all of his wrong doings (week five) while the other uses the figure of Lincoln to gain political advantage (week six). Instead of a tyrant that we saw in week five, Edgar Lee Masters says he is a “mongrel breed who new nothing and cared nothing about liberty and constitutional government” (Masters, p.8). This quote immediately reminded me of the Lost Cause and another southerner attempting to blame Lincoln and the North for taking away their rights. As Masters, surprisingly a northerner, continues his rant on the “hypocrite Lincoln,” I would say that the author is writing in such a horrible tone because at this time in the 1930’s blacks were starting to move North more and more, and I bet the author feel as though his “constitutional rights” were being evoked-not even close to being true (Masters, p. 484). On the flip side, in an address given by Woodrow Wilson, Lincoln is being manipulated in order to gain political ground which is a topic that we initially talked about in week two. Wilson talks about how democracy is something that we all have the power to exploit…. just like Abraham Lincoln did. Touching on Lincoln’s humble origins, he says, “This little hut was the cradle of one of the great sons of man” (Wilson, p.418). Not only is Wilson using Lincoln to justify the greatness of democracy, he is using the rare case of Lincoln being born of humble origins and
then rising to the top as President of America. In reference to a real-world application, one of the small towns around my hometown has a pharmacy that I work in. Held within the square of the town is a humungous center piece of Abraham Lincoln with his birth and death engraved on his pedestal. I began asking some of the locals what the meaning of the statue was, and all they could say was that they thought he has once visited their small town sometime and that the statue was used to resemble his greatness. If he actually stepped foot here, I have no idea, but just as Woodrow Wilson used Lincoln to justify democracy and freedom, this small town did the same. Again, both of these examples are a prominent example of my previous distinctions of memory and historical memory from previous weeks. President Woodrow and the people of the small town use the memory of Lincoln as symbol of greatness, but do not consider the historical memory: Woodrow never speaks of Lincoln freeing the slaves in fear of political ridicule, and the people of the small town do not want to admit that Lincoln might not have even been in their town.