I use the term as a joke a lot, but I really don’t like throwing around the term problematic fave in a serious manner. That said, Lincoln…. definitely fits that category.
Do I love him? Absolutely. Do I respect him and consider him to be one of our greatest presidents? Yes, yes I do. I am constantly inspired by all he accomplished in his life. From such a humble and honestly terrible background, he is the epitome of a “self made man”. I adore his sense of humor, and the little stories he would always tell to the delight or annoyance of friends and cabinet staff. I love his love of kittens, and how he would try to get Charles Sumner to shut up by distracting him with height contests and sing alongs. I respect, unpopular though this opinion is in half of the United States, that he felt it was his duty to preserve the union at all costs, and did what he had to do to bring the south back. I am touched by how much this man struggled with depression his whole life, had one of (if not THE) biggest crises in American history, and fought through it all with fierce determination. I love that, when it was clear the war was almost done, he wanted full reconciliation. The “tyrant” wanted to welcome everyone back with open arms and “malice towards none.”
But was he perfect by any means? Was he all that the school system makes him out to be? Of course not.
Did he handle the war perfectly? God no. Some of his decisions were flawed, and he had a habit of letting politics get in the way of the military AND letting the military get in the way of politics. Was his views on slavery great? Absolutely not. It’s a really rough mixed bag there. There is no defending that. Lincoln is absolutely not the holy beacon of light and love that wanted to end slavery and bring equal rights to all. If I’m not mistaken, he was even pretty chill with the idea of sending African Americans back to Africa at one point as a solution to this question. Which of course leads us to: Was he racist? Fuck yes. You can’t get around that. He was extremely racist. Being anti-slavery does not make you an abolitionist, and being an abolitionist does not make you magically not racist.
Did his views evolve, though? They did, and there is something to that too. I am all about seeing the full picture of historical figures. And to his credit, his views evolve. His whole platform was based on the belief that slavery would not expand, but could still exist where it currently was. Then he eventually pushed through emancipation as a war measure. Then, in his second term, he actively pushed to make emancipation a constitutional amendment. Like, I feel that’s something people can’t (or at least shouldn’t) take away from him. He was human. He fucked up, he had terrible views, but even he learned from some of them. And maybe the war could have been handled better, but I don’t know who would have done so. He was the president we got, and I think he did a pretty good job, overall.
So if it’s not totally obvious: I love Abraham Lincoln. A lot.
“Close by me
you will find
you will find me”“I care for you still and I will forever
that was my part of the deal, honest”
