By Michael Hill
Correspondent
One hundred fifty years ago on April 11, President Abraham Lincoln for the first time told a crowd he supported the right for some blacks to vote.
“This was a very controversial issue in American society. It was one thing to emancipate the slaves, now to give educated African-Americans and those who served in the Army, he made it clear those were the two categories the right to vote, took it to another level,” said Lincoln’s Last Speech author Louis Masur.
Rutgers historian Masur’s just-published book about Lincoln’s last speech chronicles the president’s reconstruction conditions and in the audience: John Wilkes Booth.
“Wilkes turns to his friend William Powell and he said, ‘That’s the last speech he will ever give.’ And indeed, three days later he made good on that threat,” Masur said.
Lincoln had been threatened plenty of times but Masur says he felt it was out of his hands, hoping he would survive a second term but focusing on conciliation even to the point of angering members of his own party who wanted him to deal harshly with southern states.
“They articulated doctrines of state suicide and conquered territories and Lincoln had no patience for that for him. They were all pernicious distractions as he called them. As far as he was concerned, secession was illegal,” said Masur.
Some may have accused Lincoln of flip flopping on the issues but Professor Masur says Lincoln didn’t concern himself with labels, he had much weightier issues than that, such as reconstructing the United States.
“He thought through issues and changed his mind over time. I think that’s ultimately the element of his greatness and I think that’s ultimately what we want to see in any of our leaders — that they may have a position but rather those positions become rigid over time that they consider changing circumstances and evolve their own positions,” Masur said. “So Lincoln changed from not wanting to enlist black soldiers to enlisting black soldiers. From being opposed to giving black men the vote to giving black men the vote. To a number of different policies that he realized the times required. I think that’s the lesson to learn from Lincoln — that he was always evolving and he was always becoming. And to the extent today that we can have political leaders who can be responsive in that way and not doctrinaire I think then they are following in the footsteps of sort of Lincoln’s greatness.”
Lincoln’s last speech is the professor’s second book on the 16th president inspired by the question what would have happened if Lincoln had lived.