Snapshot: Guidance from Washington and Lincoln

A few words from these two great Americans on Election Day 2024

Abraham Lincoln from 1860 and George Washington from 1805 painted by Gilbert Stuart. (Both via Getty Images)

The fact that there is a sizable population of American voters who still do not grasp the urgency of this moment—the danger to democracy and our democratic way of life—is alarming. This alarm is only surpassed by the fact that there is a percentage of Americans who recognize that their vote can usher in a dictatorial regime—and they want it. Both realities strike me as aspects of an emergency, one that jeopardizes the survival of our constitutional democracy and the promise of self-governance and a better life.

I take solace in the assumption that these Americans represent a minority within our diverse and devoted whole. I dearly hope that their will does not determine the outcome of today’s election. And yes, let me assert again, I expect that with strong turnout, Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States.

But in this moment, let’s turn back for a second to the wisdom of two of our greatest presidents—for guidance and for comfort that men of this caliber have wrestled with these questions before. Longtime readers of America, America will recognize my habit to seek out the words of George Washington from his Farewell Address and Abraham Lincoln from his Gettysburg Address.

In Washington’s words, published on September 19, 1796 and aided primarily by the writing of Alexander Hamilton, we witness his fear about the permanence of our union and the threats to the survival of a popular government that served the whole. He worried about the potential of despotism resulting from the toxic threat of factionalism and the will of a party “to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

Our first president saw over two centuries ago—as he was leaving office after two terms, activating the sacred tradition of the peaceful transfer of power—how a faction “sharpened by the spirit of revenge” can spur disorder and “incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.” Washington saw how the “chief of some prevailing faction” could exploit “this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.” He saw—in startling precise and prescient terms—how a despotic and passionate minority “foments occasionally riot and insurrection” and “opens the door to foreign influence and corruption.”

His advice on how to respond to this dark trajectory? In short, education. Any “sincere friend” of free government would promote “as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge.” His equation: “In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”

I would humbly suggest that—if we do indeed survive this current threat to self-governance—that President Harris takes Washington’s guidance and expands the study of civics, both in our school and in our communities, and strengthens the nation’s commitment to and belief in the value of education more broadly.

Sixty-seven years after Washington’s parting words, President Abraham Lincoln stepped onto the blood-soaked grounds of the newly dedicated Gettysburg Civil War Cemetery on Nov. 19, 1863. Lincoln could have used that sad day—barely four months after over 51,000 Union and Confederate soldiers lost their lives—to expand the enmity between the states and unleash additional fury by blaming those who had brought the country to that calamitous moment.

Instead, he redoubled his belief in self-governance and “the proposition that all men are created equal” and asked his audience to ponder whether “any nation so conceived…can long endure.” And while Lincoln spoke to some 15,000 people in attendance that day in Pennsylvania, his reflections serve as an inspiration and a reminder of our responsibilities today. Literally today, Election Day.

In a speech of just 272 words, Lincoln talked about our need to be dedicated to “the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” He went on:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

If you haven’t voted yet, please do. If there’s a family member, a neighbor, a friend or a stranger that you may communicate with today and ask if they’ve voted, please do. As Americans, we still have the power to decide our fate. Today we can prove that we are committed to the survival and the future of our democratic republic.

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