A Stroll to the Theater with President Lincoln

One day, while sitting for his portrait, President Lincoln chatted with the artist, Frank B. Carpenter. He described the Cabinet meeting of July 22, 1862, when he decided upon emancipating the slaves.

"Things had gone from bad to worse until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing, that we had about played our last card, and must change our tactics or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy, and without consultation or knowlege of the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the subject. I said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to which would be in order, after they had heard it read. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks. Mr. Blair deprecated the policy, on the ground that it would cost the administration the fall elections.

"Nothing, however, was offered that I had not fully anticipated and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said, in substance, 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.'

"His idea was that it would be considered our last shriek, on the retreat.

'Now,' continued Seward. 'While I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war.'

"The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked."

I am a playwright. I often attend public readings of new works. These readings are usually followed by an audience critique. I have seen wonderfully useful criticism utterly ignored by aspiring playwrights. So many of them - keenly aware that no member of the audience has thought as deeply upon the plot, theme, and characters of their play as they have - dismiss the criticism. They would do well to consider President Lincoln's close attention to the input of his Cabinet. No doubt, he was the moral and intellectual superior of his several Department Secretaries. He had thought much more deeply upon emancipation than any of them. Yet, in all that deep thought, he had missed a huge piece of the puzzle - picking the best time for publication. Had he gone forward full steam ahead, Emancipation would have failed.

A great playwright, determined to pen a masterpiece, must have both qualities possessed by President Lincoln - moral autonomy and purposive humility. And a finely tuned ear to the input of others.