By Philip Nicolosi

There is certainly no shortage of information or resources on our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, but, as a result, teachers often have trouble selecting which resources they wish to use in the classroom. Time and curricular restraints only exacerbates the problem.  While we find ourselves with this dilemma, teachers certainly agree that there are at least two core Lincoln documents that must be taught – The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. 

The classroom approach to these documents varies greatly. In some cases, teachers ask students to analyze them as historians might; in others, they use them to reinforce previously taught concepts and content. Sometimes teachers have students read them silently or aloud and then answer specific content questions about them. Other teachers have students memorize Lincoln’s eloquent words or make modern language translations.  No one knows our students better than we do and no one particular method of teaching these documents is superior to another. Our goal remains the same:  to help our students appreciate not only the importance of these speeches in American history, but to understand what Lincoln was saying and why he was saying it. We can achieve this by making these documents centerpieces in any US history course, rather than teaching them in isolation from the larger sweep of American history. They are too important to suffer the fate of many other documents used in the classroom whose words and concepts are flushed from students’ memories after the test. 

Introducing a document like the Gettysburg Address at the beginning of a US History course will undoubtedly arouse student curiosity: why are we studying this Civil War speech when the topic is the settlement of Jamestown or the American Revolution?  The answer lies in a theme historians often stress:  freedom is an evolving concept, changing shape throughout our history.  Asking students why Lincoln used the phrase “a new birth of freedom” could spark a conversation about how each generation defined that term and how we, in the modern era, are still struggling with its meaning.  What can follow is a discussion of  how our Founders defined liberty “four score and seven years” before Lincoln’s era;  how Jefferson’s claim in the Declaration of Independence “that all men are created equal” took on a drastically new meaning that emerges in Lincoln’s Address; and what equality means in our world today. 

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural offers another important opportunity. It allows us to make the critical point that historical events are not inevitable and outcomes are never certain. Students of history need to realize that hindsight is certainly in our favor. After the war, Lincoln’s intention was to pursue a policy of “malice towards none” and “charity for all.”  The speech can also be used to provide students with some insight into Lincoln’s views on slavery and how he perceived it as a cause of the war and as a reason for divine punishment.  From this rather brief address, students can gain an appreciation of the reelection challenge Lincoln faced in 1864 while the end of the war remained elusive. This lesson – that history must be read forward rather than studied in hindsight – will be valuable when the class looks at other historical decisions and their unexpected consequences.

Lincoln’s words hold a central place in our nation’s history. Using these two documents throughout the year in our classrooms not only teaches students about Lincoln, but also why history proved him wrong when he said the “world will little note, nor long remember” his words and deeds.

Image: Broadside of the Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (The Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC06044)

Abraham Lincoln’s speeches and letters have been written about and analyzed more than those of any other politician in American History.  His evolution from obscure frontier Whig to Civil War president is also the evolution of the mind of a transformational leader. Words, phrases, and delivery of Lincoln’s numerous public and private musings have been analyzed under the microscope of historians. An intensive examination of Lincoln’s words in the classroom presents several challenges, especially because of their length and volume. In the world of the nineteenth century, a public presentation could go on for hours. Thus what audiences in Lincoln’s day would find eloquent, today’s students, members of the sound byte generation, are certain to see as overkill—as they might the sheer volume of documents Lincoln produced over his career.

The classroom teacher can, however, overcome these obstacles. Using representative segments of Lincoln’s words from a variety of documents or dividing readings up into sections empowers the classroom teacher to both incorporate a wide variety of Lincoln’s words and to reduce student’s anxiety about utilizing long documents. Lincoln’s October 16, 1854 speech in Peoria, Illinois illustrates these challenges and opportunities.At over 17,000 words the Peoria speech is beyond the scope of the time, curricular demands, and attention spans of most high school students.  Nevertheless, the document merits consideration for classroom use. To make effective use of the speech teachers should excerpt passages that provide insight into Lincoln’s thoughts on the major issues of the day, such as the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Popular Sovereignty, union, and slavery.

Divided effectively, the speech can also serve as a point of comparison for students when they encounter Lincoln’s reaction to John Brown’s raid, the Dred Scott decision, and his decisions between the election of 1860 and the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.The speech can also be used to introduce the events of the 1850s, helping students to understand its context. Lincoln gave the speech immediately following congressional passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, which negated the Missouri Compromise. Determined to defend the Missouri Compromise and highlight the threat posed to civil peace for thirty years, Lincoln foreshadows many of the arguments made four years later in the more famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Within the speech students can find the core arguments that define Lincoln’s views as congressional candidate, Republican nominee for president, and Civil War commander-in-chief. His opposition to the extension of slavery, his moral rejection of the institution of slavery, his reflection of the racial views of the time period, and his more Whiggish than abolitionist view of how to resolve the conundrum of slavery are all apparent in the speech.

Image: Photograph of Abraham Lincoln, taken in 1859. (The Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC03950)