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different purposes the government in Washington defined it both ways.
Similarly, when the fighting began, the announced aim of the North was
to preserve the Union, but after the Emancipation Proclamation the
emphasis shifted to ending slavery. Meanwhile, through all Lincoln's
major pronouncements ran yet another interpretation. "A people's
contest," the war for American democracy: if anything, that would
remain for him the central meaning of the Civil War - and its ultimate
justification.
By embracing democracy as wholeheartedly as he did, Lincoln was
setting himself apart from a long line of distinguished political theorists,
not the least of whom was James Madison. In
Federalist 10
Madison had
paired his defense of republican government with an unequivocal attack
on democracy, which he defined as government conducted directly
by
citizens meeting together in person for that purpose. Unlike republican
government, which worked through representation "to refine and en–
large the public views," direct action by the people invariably led to dis–
aster. "Such democracies," declared Madison, "have ever been spectacles
of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible
with
personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as
short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."
For Madison, republican and democratic forms existed in sharp op–
position to one another. Like the canny lawyer he was, Lincoln hazarded
less on the subject, but increasingly a combination of his own convictions
and the logic of the situation led him to take positions that were, at
bottom, distinctly un-Madisonian. Eager in his first Inaugural Address to
allay Southern fears, he concentrated on making clear his determination
to abide by all the guarantees afforded minorities in the Constitution.
But for all the measured forbearance of his assurances, on one point he
was emphatic: if the Constitution stood mute on a particular issue - as it
did on many of the questions dividing the North and South - then the
only way to resolve the issue in the case of a minority/majority division
was for the minority to yield. Otherwise the government would cease.
"A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and
always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and
sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people."
Once the war began, Lincoln could be more open about his views,
and he quickly moved to challenge head-on the fundamental elitism of
Madisonian republican government. In
Federalist 10
Madison had spoken
of representatives elected for their "established characters," who would
act independently of the popular will. But as Lincoln saw it, the entire
secession movement was the product of just such a system. It was "the
politicians" - not the people - who had carried the day for disunion.
