Crisis Leadership
The story of Abraham Lincoln and American Civil War
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Those were the words uttered by Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the USA who was one of the youngest. The real test of the leadership does not occur when everything is smooth sailing. Rather, leadership is oftentimes tested during a crisis. The situation now is same as crisis and the way a leader acts will determine the course of state, people or country as a whole. There is no better example than the Classical American Civil War handling by the Abraham Lincoln to show how to handle a crisis during the darkest of times. We all would have read the same during the History classes of the School times. However, there is more to it than just the Civil War.
The prequel to the American Civil War was laid during the freedom of the American Independence struggle of 1776. The constitution framing was a much more generic and question-prone. The anti-slavery part was originally enticed in the initial Constitution, however, that was later removed due to the fear of southern states rebellion. The northern state was mostly industrial based states whereas the southern states were cotton and farmland based states. Due to these basic differences, the southern states were found of pro-slavery acts which is essential for their labour intensive productivity.
However, the northern states were against the use of labours. Then there came a man called as Abraham Lincoln who was self-taught and self-educated lawyer and used his wits and dad-jokes to set himself apart from others. He was also elected as a leader in the new republican party that was established in 1854. He was a man of honesty (he was nick-named as “Honest Abe”) as well as man of high moral values and hence he was always against the slavery. His rise to power didn’t go well with southern states as they do not share a common belief.
In the meantime, there was a brewing cold war between the northern and southern states as new states were added roughly the same between pro and anti-slavery states list. This kept the balance delicate between north and south states. However, when the presidential election of 1860’s took place the name of Abraham Lincoln didn’t even appear in most of the southern states yet he managed to score a massive win in order to procure his place as the President.
On seeing this, many southern states started to leave the union within few months ( read it as United states of America) and started to live as autonomous state. One man was watching all these scenes unfold knew it was his responsibility to preserve the Union. He was reaching the Washington DC under heavy disguise as there were death threats.
The war cry started during the capture of the union’s Fort Sumter in the southern state by the confederates (read as pro-slavery states) who formed their own army to put the northerner’s under submission. They thought that as soon as the news reached the president he would surrender and agree upon the terms set by southern states. However, Abraham, a man of resilience as he was, took upon the situation with caution and announced that he wouldn’t cede to the southerners. Southerners who were taken by surprise looked upon Jefferson Davies as their leader and Military General Strategist Robert E lee to take them to victory.
Abraham Lincoln who had many weak and feeble generals was unable to compete with Robert E Lee who made massive blows to the Union army even though Lee had very few army people at his disposal. Lincoln was taking defeat after defeat during the small battles. He had a General McClellan who had been way too cautious to make a step.
One thing that went in Abe way was the Ulysses S Grant who was tearing apart the Vicksburg supply line and captured one of the most important cities in the confederate states. He became Abe’s go to man and he took up the position as general to raid the Richmond (the capital of the Southern Confederates). The 2 most important decision that were made by Abraham Lincoln was the perfectly timed announcement of the emancipation and the Gettysburg speech.
Since the southern states were the source of the cotton to the European states, the union blockade by Abe cut the supply line and hence Europeans were in a thought of entering into the civil war sided with South states. However, Abraham Lincoln knew that if he could get major victory he could announce the Slavery Emancipation. With the help of Grant capturing the Vicksburg, he knew that the time was right to announce Emancipation proclamation. With this announcement Abe gave a new meaning to the civil war, he turned the game from fighting for the just preservation of union to the anti-slavery war. This master stroke ensured that European counter-parts stayed out of the Civil war.
Gettysburg speech was another master piece from him as he gave an assured speech that all men are equal and he was there not to claim the victory for his side but to end the internal terror which made Americans’ lose their life and preserve the greatness of American Union. Even personal tragedy too stuck him when on of his son died young due to illness .These two decisions were the ones which turned the game towards the Union side. This also made him the second time president (1864) where he defeated McClellan in presidential race where just before that he made sure that with capture of city of Atlanta just on time.
However just when things started to settle down, a visibly aged Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathiser. Around 3 million Americans fought during the civil war which by far the bloodiest battle fought by Americans, brothers against brothers. 750k people were killed during this war, however union was preserved at last with the African Americans who were never to be slaves again. This lead to the period of reconstruction where people like Vanderbilt, John D Rockefeller , JP Morgan, Carnegie and Ford had played a big part in reconstructing the American dream after this terrible period of Civil war.
In the modern America, the man who fought to preserve the nation and never gave up in the darkest of the times stands as the symbol of honesty, empathy, humility, perseverance and courage, a continuous reminder of what has forged America and what it must ever strive to be. This leadership enactment by Abraham Lincoln should be the inspiration with which the leaders around the world must follow.
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
— Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States
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