A loyola professor. This took place at fords theater. It is about 50 minutes. Good afternoon. My name is michael burlingame. I teach at the university of illinois springfield and i bring you greetings from the holy land. When i saw this set, i was startled. When i came into the theater, i saw the title of the show that is being done tonight, 110 in the shade. I assumed it was a musical about washington dc in august. It kind of fit. It is my pleasure to introduce thomas carson, professor of philosophy at Loyola University in chicago. He is a graduate of Saint Olaf College and brown university. Professor carsons teaching and Research Focus on ethics, as his book titles suggest. The status of morality, value and the good life, and lying and deception. Professor carson has a lifelong interest in history, which led him to write his most recent book, lincolns ethics. I had the pleasure of reading it in manuscript. I commend it to your attention. I must admit, i was a bit skeptical when informed that i philosopher, not an historian or political scientist, was writing about lincoln. I have long shared the view expressed by henry adams, who said philosophers offer unintelligible answers to unsolvable problems. I assure you that lincolns ethics offers highly intelligible answers to eminently soluble problems of great interests to students of our 16th president. Please join me in welcoming tom carson. [applause] prof. Carson thank you, michael. Im am pleased and honored to speak to you here today. I want to thank everyone who is here. Thanks for coming, and thanks especially to some of my very old and dear friends who are here. I should mention, there is a handout, i hope everybody has a copy of it. They are towards the front on the side. You can follow the talk, along with a handout, and you will need the handout near the end of the talk. My talk is based on the second half of my book, lincolns ethics, which discusses lincolns character. I will summarize the first half which addresses moral questions about lincolns most controversial actions and policies. I discuss a number of cases where many have thought he acted him morally, including the following. Lincoln was not an abolitionist until 1864, when he ran for reelection. During his long career in illinois before becoming president , he never publicly opposed the state exclusion laws. He publicly endorsed other unjust laws that were part of illinoiss black codes, including laws forbidding blacks to vote, serve on juries, or marry whites. He never considered giving civil rights to africanamericans. When he ran for the senate in 1858 and ran for president in 1860, he opposed further extension of slavery, but did not advocate its immediate abolition. In his inaugural address, he promised he would not interfere with the institution of slavery where it already existed. He rescinded general fremonts order for partial emancipation in the state of misery in 1861, and a similar order by another general for the states of south carolina, georgia, and florida in 1862. The emancipation proclamation was seemingly halfhearted. It did not free slaves and border states or confederate territory occupied the union army. Many criticized him for not issuing it earlier. President lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the civil war, and imprisoned thousands without due process of law. He supported the colonization of africanamericans outside the united states. His actions and policies as commanderinchief can be questioned because their moral status depends on the justice of the American Civil War and the union cause, which is open to question. The abolition of slavery was not a union worry in 1861. The reasons to question whether the union was morally justified in fighting the American Civil War at the beginning of the war, it is debatable whether the union had means to fight the war. Lincoln bears considerable personal responsibility for the conduct of the war and the union armys treatment of confederate civilians. I defend lincolns actions in almost all these cases. I argue that most of his actions were justified on utilitarian grounds. They were necessary to bring about the best consequences in the long run. I argue that in practice, lincoln was utilitarian, but my defensive lincoln does not propose the truth of utilitarianism. Some of the actions critics claim lincoln shouldve performed, like declaring the complete abolition of slavery in all the states at the beginning of the American Civil War, would have been selfdefeating. We dont need to be utilitarians in order to reject these criticisms of lincoln. Lets turn to lincolns character. Unlike most other important leaders and historical figures, Abraham Lincoln is generally regarded as a singularly good and virtuous human being. The mythical lincoln many of us learned about as schoolchildren was honest abe. He walked to a store to return pennies to someone who had been overcharged. He was a kind person who was moved by compassion and a sense of justice to become the great emancipator. Lincoln was a resolute and determined commander in chief, despite his great awareness and compassion for the men suffering because of the civil war. The mythical lincoln was a wonderful human being, but how much of the myth of lincolns moral goodness is true . Does he deserve his reputation as a morally good person . My book addresses this question at great length. Today, i will give you the short of it. Lincoln possessed many imported moral virtues, some such as kindness and magnanimity, to a high degree. Many people deny that he was an unusually good human being. There are reasons to question the goodness of his character, the most damning criticism is the charge that he was a racist. My conclusion is that the lincoln of myth is accurate for the most part. Cynics would be surprised and confounded by how much truth there is the myth. In some ways, the myth understates his goodness and virtue. To the contrary, lincoln is in most respects a moral exemplar. Worthy of our admiration and imitation. I will begin by describing four important moral virtues that lincoln possessed to a high degree. Lincoln was an unusually kind, compassionate, benevolent and tenderhearted person. He was deeply moved and distressed by human and animal suffering. His kindness was the foundation of his opposition to slavery. This trait was pronounced from his childhood, and was observed by many people on many occasions. Lincoln was exceptionally kind to animals. As a boy, he preached a youthful sermon. He rescued a hog from drowning in the mud. One person recalled lincoln rescued two little birds, who had been blown from their nest in a storm. Lincoln said he placed the birds in the nest provided by their mother, and he could not have slept if he had not given those two little birds to their mother. He was equally kind to his fellow human beings. When he lived in indiana, he would often visit and comfort sick children. He was deeply moved and distressed by the suffering of slaves in his trips to the south as a young man. Many years later, in a letter to joshua speed, his close friend, a man who owned slaves and defended the institution of slavery, lincoln wrote that the site of shackled slaves was a continual torment, and slavery continually exercises the power of making me miserable. One important qualification needs to be added. As a young man, lincoln enjoyed mocking and ridiculing his political opponents and often did this in anonymous letters to local newspapers. Once on a political stump, he reduced a local politician to tears, and on another occasion, in an anonymous letter, he wrote, let the auditor of illinois challenge him to a duel. He did not give up his penchant for denigrating until middleage. But during the last part of his life, after he reentered politics, he was an exceptionally kind person without qualification. The second salient moral virtue was magnanimity. To be magnanimous means to be generous and overlooking injury and insult. Alternatively, that means generous disregard to slights. Lincoln possessed the virtue of magnanimity to an extraordinary degree. Seward said his magnanimity was superhuman. He did not hold grudges, even when he was insulted and treated badly. For example, lincoln and Edward Stanton were members of a legal team who worked on a case involving the mccormick reaper several years before the civil war. Stanton treated lincoln badly, refused to talk to him. Stanton was contemptuous of lincoln. At their initial meeting, lincoln wanted to discuss ideas for the case. Stanton walked away, muttering to another companion, why did you bring that guy . He does not know anything and can do you no good. Lincoln admired stanton. When he had to find a successor to simon cameron, secretary of war, lincoln consulted george hardy, who he had met at the trial. Harding said he thought stanton would be the best person for the job, but he said, i know you could not and would not appoint him after the outrageous way he has insulted you and behave towards you. Lincoln replied, now, mr. Harding, this is not a personal matter. I desire to do what is best to the country. And so he did. Stanton did a superb job as secretary of war and played a crucial war in the union war effort. The second example is that of Lyman Trumbull. In 1854, lincoln ran for the senate. In one of his rivals, the democrat Lyman Trumbull was opposed to the kansasnebraska act and any extension of slavery into new states. On the first ballot in the state legislature, lincoln received 45 of 51 votes needed to win the election. Trumbull received five votes on the first ballot. Together, he and lincoln controlled almost enough votes to win the election. I should add here, this time, senators were elected by state legislators, not the voters. In subsequent ballots in the legislator, trumbull and supporters refused to support lincoln because lincoln was a whig. When it appeared that a candidate was supported the kansas nebraska act would be elected, lincoln urged supporters to support antislavery by voting for trumbull. Trumbull was elected to the senate. Mary lincoln was bitter about this. Afterwards, she was never again on speaking terms with trumbulls wife, julia, who had been a close friend. Trumbull became an important republican senator, and later helped engineer lincolns nomination for president. Trumbull also coauthored the 13th amendment to the constitution. Magnanimity is an important moral virtue and an important virtue for any leader. Had lincoln not been magnanimous, he would not have enjoyed the services of the best people working for him, he would have been greatly distracted by the numerous flights and slanders which assailed him, and he would not have succeeded in the difficult tasks of his presidency. Some underappreciated feature of lincolns character are nonconformity, skepticism, and openness to criticism. He questioned many of the conventional values of his time. He was a singular and unconventional person. Let me read you a quote from william lee miller, which you have in your handout. He writes, in an atmosphere soaked with hostility to indians, lincoln resisted it. In a time and place in which the great mass of common men in the west supported andrew jackson, lincoln supported henry clay. Surrounded by democrats, lincoln became a whig. In a Political Party with a nativist undercurrent, lincoln rejected the prejudice. In a southern flavored setting soft on slavery, lincoln opposed it. In a white world with strong racial antipathies, lincoln was generous to blacks. In an environment indifferent to education, lincoln cared about it intensely. In a family active in church, lincoln abstained. When evangelical christianity permeated the western frontier, lincoln raised questions and give different answers than his neighbors. Lincoln was skeptical about the common prejudices of his own time. Including the prevailing racial prejudices against second americans. He said those prejudices might or might not be wellfounded. He never endorsed the common view that whites were intellectually and morally superior to blacks. He abandoned prejudices in light of evidence. He was reluctant to permit black soldiers to serve in the union army. He was motivated by his worries about the prejudices of white soldiers in the general public. He worried that blacks might not make good soldiers. Once it became clear that black soldiers were acclimating themselves well to battle, lincoln went out of his way to acknowledge their value. He subjected his views to criticism, and appointed strong people to his cabinet, and sought their criticism of his ideas. He learned from the abolitionists, even though they criticized him very harshly and often unfairly. Some abolitionist even made bigoted comments about lincolns family. An ohio senator said lincolns attitudes towards slavery could only have come from someone born poor white trash. William lloyd garrison said lincolns education with and among the white trash of kentucky was most unfortunate for his moral development. Lincolns capacity for self criticism came to be appreciated by many of his abolitionist critics. Wendell phillips described lincoln as a growing man whose views changed in light, and might change again. Before his death, the abolitionist lydia child wrote, i think we have reason to thank god for Abraham Lincoln. With all his deficiencies, it must be admitted that he has grown continuously. It was good luck to have the people elect a man who was willing to grow. Frederick douglass noted lincolns willingness to listen to criticism, and said he was patient under reproaches. Lincolns openness to criticism was closely connected with his magnanimity. He learn from people who spoke harshly and unfairly of him. Miller aptly describes lincoln as someone who had strong moral convictions and gave strong arguments about the morality of slavery without being moralistic or selfrighteous. Lincoln frequently make judgments about the rightness and wrongness of actions and the justice or injustice of institutions, but he seldom condemned other people. He condemned the institution of slavery in the strongest terms, but he called it a monstrous injustice and said he hated it, but he did not condemn slaveowners or southerners. He hated slavery, but unlike many abolitionists, he did not disdain the sinners. So many people who have strong moral convictions are selfrighteous and betray considerable hostility in condemning others. His nonselfrighteous conserver concern for moral questions was virtuous. I will mention another few virtues he possessed. First is what i call his honorable ambition. Ambition is a vice and many people. But lincolns ambition was morally virtuous. He wanted to gain the esteem of others by rendering himself worthy of their esteem. In his first written political statement from 1832, lincoln wrote, every man is set to have his own peculiar ambition. I can say, for one, that i have no other so great as being truly esteemed by my fellow man, by rendering myself worthy of that esteem. Lincoln was also an extremely temperate and selfcontrolled person. He abstain from alcohol and tobacco. He was faithful to his wife despite having strong sexual desires and many opportunities to stray from his marriage vows during his travels. He was exceptionally selfcontrolled in expressions of anger. Despite the pressure of his office, the vicious criticisms he received from many quarters, the blunders of his generals, president lincoln kept his anger out of important decisions and policies. He controlled his anger with his wife, who frequently tried his patience. Now, i will turn to the criticisms of lincolns character. Despite lincoln has many virtues, there are grounds for questioning the goodness of his character and his status as a moral exemplar. Something lincoln entered into a loveless marriage to a woman from a prominent family in order to further his political ambitions. He is criticized for neglecting his family by spending too much time away from home, for being cold and ungrateful to friends, and for his relationship to his parents. The most serious criticism of lincoln is the claim that he was a racist. My book discusses these criticisms in great detail, but today, i will only talk about the issue of racism. Was lincoln a racist . The answer depends on what we mean by racism, and by what times in his life we are talking about. I will present you with six different definitions of racism, and given three of these definitions, being a racist is a great moral failing. Lincoln was very clearly never a racist in those senses of the term in which being a racist is a grave moral failing. He was a racist according to two a of the other definitions, but when he died, it is unclear to me that he was a racist according to any of these six definitions, and i will read to you the first three definitions. You will need to follow on your hand out. I will refer to these definitions by number. Number one, racism is the believe that certain races of people are inferior to others, and that it is permissible for members of, quote, superior races to enslave members of inferior races. Number two, racism is racially motivated ill will towards members of certain races. Number three, racism is racially motivated indifference to the welfare of members of a certain race of people. Being a racist according to any of these definitions is a moral failing. It is clearly clear that lincoln was never a racist according to any of these three definitions. He never thought that anyone was justified in exploiting or enslaving members of certain races, and he was never hostile or indifferent to the welfare of blacks or members of other races. There is evidence to the contrary. A fourth definition of racism is as follows. Racism is the belief that certain races are morally or intellectually superior to other races. It is unclear whether or not lincoln was a racist in this sense. Nowhere in any of his writings or speeches does he say that whites are inherently morally or intellectually superior to blacks. But nowhere does he explicitly deny us. We do not know if you visit racist in this sense. But lincoln clearly endorsed unjust Racial Discrimination during most of not all of his political career. He defended unjust laws that denied free africanamericans full social and political rights. His most wellknown statement about this came in his debate with douglas in charleston in 1858. Lincoln said, and this is on your handout, i am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way to social or political equality of the white and black races. I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes or qualifying them to hold office or intermarry with white people. There is a physical difference between the races which i believe will forbid the two races living together in terms of social and political equality and inasmuch as they can so not live, while they remained together, there will be the position of superior and inferior im in favor of having this appear he or position assigned to the white race. In this statement, he was