Leadership – the action of leading a group of people or an organization.
Oxford Languages

Let’s face it. It’s not easy being a “leader.” It requires a certain fearlessness to not be afraid of making difficult decisions and charisma to get others to support those decisions. Not everyone has the fearlessness and charisma to be considered a successful leader. Most in our society shy away from leadership positions, often for fear of failure.

It seems people love to criticize our leaders for their decisions once the results of those decisions are known. Sports fans refer to the “Monday Morning Quarterback” as one who criticizes, often viciously, the decisions of the coach or quarterback of their favorite team after a loss. The decision not to punt on fourth and two or kicking a field goal instead of going for the touchdown are typical decisions routinely made in the course of a football game, but become easy targets for second-guessing and criticism, especially if the team loses.

In many ways, historians are like Monday Morning Quarterbacks. We analyze and often criticize the actions of those in positions of leadership. We examine the decisions of everyone from military leaders, heads of state, and even the actions of those leading social movements. Sometimes the criticism is warranted, for example, George Custer’s decision to engage a coalition of Native Americans ended poorly for the 7th Calvary. Still, when historians assess a decision from decades ago, or centuries ago, they have the benefit of information the decision-maker probably didn’t have in real-time. Also, it is too easy to determine the effectiveness of a decision after the ramifications of those decisions are realized.

It is with that lens, having the benefit of seeing the impact of decisions, that I hesitate in criticizing Abraham Lincoln for his mismanagement of the Confederacy. I’m not referring to his actions as the commander in chief of the Union armies. Historians understand that Lincoln’s main goal, especially at the onset of the conflict, was saving the Union. He considered secession illegal.

But Southerners saw themselves as the founding fathers of a new nation. Like the Revolutionary generation, they believed the government of the US had become destructive of their personal freedoms. Especially the freedom to own slaves. It seems very oxymoronic to speak of “freedom” and “slavery” in the same sentence.

As the first state to leave the Union, officials from South Carolina tried to justify their actions. Just as Jefferson did 85 years earlier, South Carolinians thought their actions were noble and just. South Carolina’s Declaration of the Causes of Secession was clearly written in the tone of the original Founding Fathers. However, whereas slavery was suspiciously absent from the final version of Jefferson’s tome, it’s clear that South Carolinians believed the right to own slaves was their right.

John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators failed in using assassination as a political tool. They did, however, end Lincoln’s life and prevented him from seeing the restoration of the Union. Based on his plan of reconstruction, Lincoln was not going to punish the South, or its leadership, for committing treason. He had a choice, and he chose to ignore the obvious for what he believed to be the greater good.

This is where the Monday Morning Quarterback steps in. The contentious racial environment we’re experiencing in 2020 is because Lincoln and the Republican Party failed to punish the South and its leadership for treason. In their haste to move past the Civil War, they allowed the South to never admit they were wrong for 1) secession and 2) wanting to maintain slavery. As a result, the Lost Cause mythology appeared and took root in the revisionist history of the Civil War at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Throughout the years of Jim Crow, white supremacists successfully wrapped themselves in Confederate symbols and monuments in plain sight of the Federal government. Even after the supposed eradication of Jim Crow with the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts, white supremacists continued to argue their right to embrace Confederate ideology. They used words as “culture” and “Constitutional rights” to justify their actions and beliefs. Again, all in plain sight.

The Monday Morning Quarterback now blames the decisions of Lincoln and the Republican Party. In football parlance, they settled for the win instead of going for that last touchdown. That last touchdown would have proven to the world, and white supremacists, that racism has no place in this country, then, or now. Instead, they allowed the Confederacy/white supremacists to believe that they could have won if just a few plays had gone their way.

Therein lie the problem with historians. Second-guessing the decisions and actions of others makes for interesting conversations at Starbucks. We can play “what if” from now on. Only in Marvel comics do we explore the realities of an alternate universe. In this existence, Lincoln hoped the goodness of man would prevail over racism. Well…

There’s no doubt that being a leader, at any level or capacity, is difficult. Maybe more so in a pandemic. Abraham Lincoln’s leadership saved the continuity of this country. But in doing so he acquiesced the continued existence of racism that continues to inflame our society 155 years later. It’s not fair to second-guess decisions, but that’s what historians do. Most of our leaders, especially our political leaders, understand that they will be judged by history and historians for what they do today. That’s probably not fair, but it’s the price of leadership. You’re either “the greatest of all time” or the one who ‘failed to live up to expectations.” Sadly, it’s the Monday Morning Quarterback that will write that story.

Later.