News

AHI lecture reflects upon Lincoln’s leadership

By Ilana Schwartz ’17

How does a good leader become a great leader? There have been many great leaders throughout America’s history, but for many, Abraham Lincoln stands out as one of the greatest. According to former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, Frank Williams, there have been over 16,000 books written on Lincoln alone and over 65,000 on the Civil War, which means that there is approximately one book for each day that has passed since the war ended. One of these books is called Abraham Lincoln, Philosopher Statesman, published in 2014 by Joseph R. Fornieri, a professor of political science at Rochester Institute of Technology, who specializes on the ideology of Abraham Lincoln. Fornieri, an Alexander Hamilton Institute Senior Fellow, was invited by the AHI Undergraduate Fellows to give a lecture on President Lincoln this past Monday, Nov. 3.

Fornieri takes a different approach in his book from other authors, because he analyzes Lincoln as a “philosopher-statesman” rather than just as a statesman. Fornieri consults the teachings of ancient philosophers and applies these teachings to the ways in which Lincoln led America. He claims that Lincoln found a way to “unite greatness of thought and action,” which was crucial during the Civil War. Fornieri defines six dimensions that create a framework of understanding for Lincoln’s philosophy, which are theoretical wisdom, prudence, duty, magnanimity, rhetoric and patriotism.

After Fornieri finished his lecture, there was a short panel discussion with Justice Williams and Dr. David Frisk, a founding chairman of the Lincoln Forum. Williams discussed Lincoln’s political courage and focused specifically on the patriotism chapter of Fornieri’s book. He made it clear that one of the reasons Lincoln was such a great leader was because he truly loved his country; he “gave his last full measure of devotion through his own assassination,” and this kind of sacrifice and passion is lacking among Americans today.

Frisk discussed the fact that Lincoln was a great political manager and had a large intellectual range, despite his lack of a formal education. Frisk also spoke about how Lincoln’s religious faith affected his politics, a concept Fornieri did not mention in his book. During his early years, Lincoln tended towards atheism, and Frisk questioned whether this helped him think through issues more rationally than other leaders. Fornieri believed, on the other hand, that Lincoln’s religious beliefs did not greatly affect his political thinking.

Professor Douglass Ambrose, the moderator of the discussion, disagreed with Fornieri in some respects because it is crucial to consider the context of leadership. Time and place are important when judging how a person chooses to lead, which is why Ambrose was “wary of abstracting from historical subjects general principles and making them transferrable” to other time periods. Despite this differing opinion, Ambrose agreed that there are certain qualities of a leader that are not time-and-place specific, including wisdom, prudence, duty, magnanimity, rhetoric and patriotism.

Elizabeth Barry ’17 said that this talk taught her that it’s crucial to “hold our politicians to a higher standard of statesmanship. We need to choose our political candidates based on the quality of their moral character instead of on whether they are Republican, Democrat, or Independent.”

Fornieri’s book describes what makes a truly great leader, which is being a philosophical statesman. Philip Parkes ’17 said “Professor Fornieri’s portrait of Lincoln provides a serious framework for leadership at a time when the word is often used lightly or without substance.” It is crucial to consider when the last time was that the U.S. had a politician who truly exemplified all of six dimensions of Lincoln’s philosophical statesmanship.

No comments yet.

All News