Frank J. Williams, William D. Pederson Lincoln Lessons, Reflections on America's Greatest Leader (2009)

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.6When I look back to those first Lincoln book purchases made with savedlunch money, it s hard to believe that they were the precursors to today sFrank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana.The collection nowincludes some 12,000 books and pamphlets about the Civil War and on Lin-coln himself; 20,000 items related to the Civil War, like sculptures, paintings,prints, numismatics, philately, campaign tokens, photographs, and manu-scripts; and 40,000 newspaper clippings.I am proud to say that it is the mostcomprehensive collection of its type remaining in private hands.And I meven prouder to report that it remains available as a resource to any scholarwho desires to use it for research purposes.Many, many have done so.lincoln lessonsI have synthesized what I have learned from my lifetime of collecting, re-searching, and speaking and writing about Lincoln into four primary lessonsthat I believe he teaches us.First, the ideal of American opportunity.As I now look back over my lifewith Lincoln, it seems to me that I was initially attracted to him because hesymbolized the successful life a poor boy, like I was, could attain throughhard work.I wanted to emulate him.As a youth, I became an Eagle Scout,and the Scouts use Lincoln as an example of morality.If the Great Com-moner could become a self-made man, I had hope for becoming the same.I suppose that my appreciation of military life and its code of conduct in163Frank J.Williamssome way reinforced my desire to work hard and abide by the rules of fairplay.In many ways, I appropriated the Lincoln standard of behavior as mypersonal moral compass.Second, listen to others, even when you initially disagree with them.Lin-coln surrounded himself with people and, as he put it, took public opinionbaths during his presidency.He was open to what others thought.Thistakes patience, and Lincoln s reservoir of patience was uncommonly deep.Our judicial system is criticized frequently for taking too long to resolveissues, but that very characteristic is among its greatest virtues, for it al-lows time for passions to cool while issues are fully explored.As a productof New England, I have come to appreciate the region s town hall meetingtradition, which provides a public forum in which individuals can expresstheir views.It is a vital part of the great democratic tradition that Lincolnembodied.One of the principles applied to the Frank and Virginia WilliamsCollection is that it should not be a museum but a working collection opento those seeking to learn more about Lincoln.Our perspective is that oursis truly a people s collection.Third, the Lincoln example helps to keep life in perspective.Judges andlawyers have to separate facts from the obiter dicta of life to which we allare subject, especially in the modern media age.I think of the wisdom ofgreat Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who argued that thelife of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. 7 Unfortunately, Ihave known the occasional critical individual who became lost in either thelaw or the facts. Such a person becomes, for me, a sad example of VictorHugo s Inspector Javert in Les Mis�rables, an individual who inflicts greatdamage on himself and others in his grand, ill-advised, personal crusade fora mythical kind of justice.Fourth, Lincoln is the classic example of someone who did not become aone-dimensional person but who evolved and grew.The energetic local lawyerbecame a prominent attorney; the state legislator developed into America sgreatest president.If only to a small degree, I hope that my transition fromcollecting Lincolniana and speaking about Lincoln has been commensuratewith my transition from lawyer to judge.I know I have heeded Lincoln sadvice to would-be lawyers: work, work, work. 8notes1.Volk s beardless Lincoln eventually morphed into my monograph with HaroldHolzer, Lincoln s Deathbed in Art and Memory: The Rubber Room Phenomenon(Gettysburg, Pa: Thomas Publications, 1988).2.Frank J.Williams, Individuality and Universality, in The Universal Lincoln, ed.Yu-Tang D.Lew (Taipei: Lincoln Society of Taipei and Chinese Culture UniversityPress, 1995), 266 75.164The Compleat Lincolnator3.Frank J.Williams, William D.Pederson, and Vincent J.Marsala, eds., AbrahamLincoln: Sources and Style of Leadership (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994);Frank J.Williams and William D.Pederson, eds., Abraham Lincoln Contemporary:An American Legacy (Campbell, Calif.: Savas Woodbury Publishers, 1996); and FrankJ.Williams and William D.Pederson, eds., Special Issue on Abraham Lincoln,Quarterly Journal of Ideology 17, nos.1 2 (June 1994).4.For example, see Mark J.Rozell, William D.Pederson, and Frank J.Williams,eds., George Washington and the Origins of the American Presidency (Westport,Conn.: Praeger, 2000); William D.Pederson and Frank J.Williams, eds., FranklinD.Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln: Competing Perspectives on Two Great Presiden-cies (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E.Sharpe, 2003); Stephen K.Shaw, William D [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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