45 pages • 1-hour read
Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution
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Chapter 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Hedgehog and the Foxes”
The Greek poet Archilochus wrote that “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing” (113). Interpreted by Isaiah Berlin to mean that the hedgehog is a thinker with a single central vision and the fox pursues many unrelated goals, this passage also reflects on Lincoln, who governed the United States during the Civil War with a firm centrality of vision. This vision is expressed in the Gettysburg Address: “This nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal […] shall not perish from the Earth” (114). Lincoln wished to preserve the American republic as democratic nation focused on liberty for all people.
Lincoln allowed his hedgehog quality to govern his military policy, and it characterized his skill as a lawyer before becoming president, being a slow and methodical analyst of cases who would often yoke his entire argument on a single, simple point. In politics Lincoln brought his goal of maintaining America as the nation embodying the original ideals of freedom and democracy into each of his decisions. Though Republican cabinet member Horace Greeley advised to allow secession in 1861, Lincoln understood that if the Union broke, it could never be mended. Though Secretary of State William Seward advised conciliatory extensions of slavery through the Crittenden Compromise, Lincoln gave no ground. Both “foxes,” concocting complex plans for Republican victory, were forced to accept the superiority of Lincoln’s thinking when their own plans unraveled.
Seward wished to be Lincoln’s premier, and in this pursuit instructed forces to cede Fort Sumner to the Confederacy, only then advising Lincoln that such a tactic would be best. To bolster his claim, Seward even suggested starting a war with France and Spain to unify the Southern and Northern states. Lincoln largely ignored this plan, restating his policy on the forts to Seward: “to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government” (120). The forts held and Seward, seeing his errors, eventually became a faithful follower of Lincoln’s plans.
When in 1864 prospects of winning the war were bleak, Lincoln still held to his cause of “preserving the Union by winning the war” (121). Greeley advised peace to the president, but Lincoln remained steadfast until the war turned in his favor. When Greeley pressed his point, Lincoln humiliated him by instructing him to visit with Confederate leaders and secure petitions of peace from them, knowing that none would offer it. Greeley came to understand Lincoln’s resolution was the correct tact.
Lincoln considered emancipation a “solemn promise” (124), necessary to military victory and the continuation of American liberty. Though he had seen the prolongation of slavery at the cost of Confederate defeat as acceptable in 1862, this was not in contradiction to his overall goal of Union victory. Prior to the war and his presidency, Lincoln was a proponent of emancipation, and therefore his activity during the presidency largely intersected with his own personal beliefs. His intermittent wavering on the point was a response to the primary responsibility of his office to protect the Constitution. It was, in the end, the exigences of war and the blow emancipation would deal to Confederate forces that allowed Lincoln to pursue this personal and political victory over slavery.
Chapter 6 Analysis
Like Lincoln, McPherson writes each of his essays with a single central vision, to depict Lincoln as a leader of untouchable stock who governed the United States with unique wisdom and unitary thought, leading to successes that few of his contemporaries could accomplish. In this chapter Lincoln is characterized as having a “slow but tenacious” (114) mind. This continues the earlier readings of Lincoln as a champion of rural values and thought in application to the complex problems of politics (Chapter 5), an ingenious military strategist (Chapter 4), a moral champion of liberty (Chapter 3), and a pragmatic revolutionary (Chapter 2).
This chapter exposes how Lincoln’s steadfastness and clarity of vision was complicated by alliance with “incompetent or irresolute” (137) men. The issue was exemplified earlier in Lincoln’s dissatisfaction with the cowardice of many of his generals before promoting Grant, but here these incompetent men are given specific form in the historical personages of William Seward and Howard Greeley. These are the foxes to Lincoln’s hedgehog.
As covered in the chapter summary, Seward, who lost the Republican nomination to Lincoln, wished to become the premier of his cabinet and so offered several ill-thought advices to Lincoln. Greeley, on the other hand, was so obstinate in his demands that Lincoln was forced to humiliate him. These individuals are shown as ineffective diversions against Lincoln’s overall goals, their focus on personal advancement standing in stark contrast to Lincoln’s resolute and highly moral qualities as a leader. They are, for all intents and purposes, identified as lesser men, not as worthy of their history. McPherson draws attention to how resolute Lincoln could really be in his dealings with these men and his solemn promise to win the war.
The previous chapter outlined Lincoln’s ability to construct effective analogies through animal metaphors and fabliaux. This chapter employs that same technique—McPherson uses the animal qualities of foxes and hedgehogs to make a very specific point. The chapter repeatedly connects the figures of the fox and hedgehog to other stock animals of fabliaux. Foxes, though here characterized as flighty, are at other times conniving, wily, and predatory. The hedgehog compares to the tortoise racing the hare, who wins not by speed but tenacity. While either of these animal characterizations would work just as well for McPherson, the image of the fox and hedgehog is chosen to depict two completely different styles of pursuit of a goal. While slow, it is Lincoln’s clarity of vision that shines through; this clarity allows him to repel the more slippery maneuvering of even his own allies. Like Lincoln, McPherson carefully chooses his metaphor.
In discussion of Lincoln’s wavering relationship to emancipation based on the priority of preserving the Union, the president emerges as a figure who could orient himself by singular principles and make subordinate decisions based only on these higher priorities. In 1864 Lincoln was fully committed to the emancipation of all slaves, but in 1862 he wrote, “if I could save the Union without freeing any slaves I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it” (125). This is perhaps the best example of Lincoln’s tenacity; he was willing to sacrifice his own deep moral convictions to reach the goal he knew was best for the nation.
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