Lincoln’s Laws

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Despite the fact that the license plates on my parents’ cars always proclaimed “Land of Lincoln,” merely growing up in Illinois did not give me any inherent insights into its favorite son. It wasn’t until one of our longtime, retiring city councilmembers presented the mayor with Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, Team of Rivals, that my interest in President Abraham Lincoln bloomed.

As an assistant city manager, I was curious about why this book on Lincoln would be a valued gift from one veteran elected official to his closest colleague. After I read it, I was surprised and delighted to find a distinct set of traits, practices, and beliefs that guided Lincoln’s day-to-day decision making and leadership. What emerged for me was a sort of handbook of best practices for local government managers and other top local government executives.

Lincoln, of course, was an elected official and not a manager. How he led his life has much to offer elected officials, including how to win an election, but his life may have even more to offer city and county administrators. Here I have assembled 10 “Lincoln laws” that are as relevant today as they were in 1860 when Lincoln was elected president, eggs were 18 cents a dozen, and the top iTunes download would have been “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”

1.    Create Your Own Team of Rivals

After Lincoln first won the presidency, he made the surprising decision to fill his cabinet with his fiercest rivals, whom he had just outmaneuvered to win the top position. Goodwin notes, “Every member of his administration was better known, better educated, and more experienced in public life than Lincoln. Their presence in the cabinet might have threatened to eclipse the obscure prairie lawyer from Springfield.”

But Lincoln’s self-confidence allowed him to choose the best and brightest for this crucial time in American history instead of surrounding himself with sycophants or yes-men. He often felt his policy or intended direction was not truly ready until it was dashed against the rocks a few times by his challenging cabinet.

He would then be quite confident in his final version because it had already been scrutinized from every perspective. No matter whom a manager thinks of as a local government cabinet—such as department directors or key community leaders—it is important to seek out and listen to advisers with dissimilar backgrounds, insights, and opinions.

2.    Don’t Sweat the Detractors

Lincoln is not unlike today’s managers in that he was revered and adored by some but was constantly under fire and ridiculed as incompetent by others. Even the man who would become his secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, said of Lincoln after their first meeting, “Why did you bring that gawky, long armed ape here? . . . He does not know anything and can do you no good.”

Stanton later became one of Lincoln’s truest friends and admirers. Managers make decisions every day that are popular with some and reviled by others. Lincoln tried not to get caught up in negative sentiments. He remained focused, resolute, and calm, and he once said, “If I do get up a little temper I have no sufficient time to keep it up.”

3.    Allegiance Pays Dividends

As Lincoln managed his political career leading up to the presidency, his successes provided him with followers, but how he handled his defeats created his most loyal supporters. In 1855, the Illinois state legislature was charged with choosing, by majority vote, one of its members for the U.S. Senate.

The legislature was deadlocked with Lincoln in the lead, only four votes shy of victory. After nine ballots, he still had the most votes but could not reach the majority mark. Although he wanted the Senate seat for himself, he had even more allegiance to the antislavery cause, and therefore he swung all the votes for himself to his like-minded colleague, Lyman Trumbull. This gave Trumbull enough votes to secure the majority.

Trumbull and his key supporters never forgot Lincoln’s magnanimity, and they developed a devoted allegiance to him. They went on to support Lincoln in his U.S. Senate bid in 1858 and played a critical role in his selection as the presidential candidate in 1860.

Local government managers also experience victories and defeats, and it is important to remain true to the cause and to elected officials, senior staff, community leaders or groups, and so on. As they did for Lincoln, integrity and sense of duty come back to help when they are needed the most.

4.    Proceed Only When You Can Succeed

Lincoln was keenly aware of public opinion. Goodwin writes that Lincoln long believed that “with public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” For this reason, he strategically unveiled his concepts to the public only when the time was right.

Lincoln waited for the right time to release his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves within all states fighting the Union. Lincoln feared that if this proclamation had been issued even six months too early, he would have lost the support of the border states and therefore he would have lost the war.

If he had waited six months too long, he would have lost the morale boost that the proclamation provided. Managers must also constantly gauge public perception to know when to hold back and lay the foundation and when to take action.

5.    Drop the Bureaucratic Language

Lincoln’s orations were the opposite of a dry political monologue. A colleague of Lincoln once said that his audiences were always riveted, “his anecdotes were always exceedingly apt and pointed, and socially he always kept his company in a roar of laughter.”

When Lincoln wanted to illustrate the difference between accepting slavery where it was but not allowing it to spread further, he used a masterful story about finding a snake (slavery) in a bed with children. He wanted to be careful to strike at the snake but not hurt the children.

He also certainly did not want to let the snake get into any more beds (new territories). He strove, as should we all, to use common language to reveal the plain truth behind complicated issues.

6.    Be Honest

This one is only slightly less obvious than “bring extra bodyguards to the theater.” But Honest Abe’s personal integrity was built on a lifelong sense of fairness, truth, and decency. Innumerable endearing stories are told of Lincoln walking a long distance to return a few pennies he accidentally overcharged when working as a retail clerk or returning legal fees when his clients needed the money more than he did.

7.    Remember to Laugh

Lincoln would advise today’s managers to seek out humor and joy in the executive role as a way to combat the difficulties. He sometimes irritated his colleagues, and enlivened others, when he took out a joke book and started reading it during stressful times.

Once, when Lincoln was taking a navy flagship to meet with his generals near the front, he refused the admiral’s quarters and chose, instead, an extremely small room. After one night, the admiral got carpenters to knock down a wall and also increase the size of the bed. Goodwin writes, “When Lincoln awoke the next morning, he announced with delight that ‘a greater miracle than ever happened last night; I shrank six inches in length and about a foot sideways.’”

8.    Don’t Cloud the Right Decision with the Personal

Salmon P. Chase was a longtime member of the Lincoln cabinet. He was a champion of many of the ideals Lincoln held dear, and he did a superb job running the U.S. Treasury. He also thought himself better equipped for the presidency and was constantly scheming to advance his personal interests. This caused Lincoln irritation and embarrassment.

When a vacancy arose on the Supreme Court for the position of chief justice of the United States, which Chase coveted, Lincoln appointed him to the position. Goodwin writes that Lincoln later commented that he “would rather have swallowed his buckhorn chair than to have nominated Chase.”

But, he remarked, “to have done otherwise I should have been recreant to my convictions of duty to the Republican party and to the country.” Local government administrators also serve their community better when personal feelings are set aside.

9.    Spend Time with the Troops

In local government, employees on the “front lines” are street maintenance crews, building inspectors, public safety officers, and the like. Lincoln visited the front lines of the Civil War as often as he could. The soldiers most often greeted him with heartfelt cheers.

Lincoln justified his presence by saying he “was not afraid to show himself among them, and willing to share their dangers here, as often, far away, he had shared the joys of their triumphs.” The triumphs of local government are many, and it is usually the troops who bring them about.

10. Leave a Legacy

Early in Lincoln’s career, in the winter of 1841, Lincoln experienced a devastating depression after a series of grave personal and political losses. Goodwin writes that his good friend, Joshua Speed, warned him “that if he did not rally, he would most certainly die.” Goodwin writes that Lincoln replied “that he was more than willing to die, but that he had done nothing to make any human being remember that he had lived” and he yearned to distinguish himself in a memorable way.

Although few of us will be able to claim a Gettysburg Address, an Emancipation Proclamation, or a 13th Amendment, we are uniquely positioned to leave a lasting impression in many ways. Our individual legacies might be working with elected officials on a new community center or library, a child care program or affordable housing, safer streets, or an exciting entertainment district. The potential legacies are as varied as the administrators creating them.

One person can’t do these things alone. Even someone with Lincoln’s talents knew he needed to surround himself with winners. When the top-ranked Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, first met Lincoln in person, the crowds showered all their affections on Grant. Goodwin writes that a young colonel present at the occasion noted that Lincoln was pleased and fully aware that the path to victory was wide enough for both men to “walk it abreast.”

And so it is in local government. The path to success is less strenuous and more rewarding when walking shoulder to shoulder with others.