Abraham Lincoln and the preservation of democracy

With Election Day just around the corner, thoughts from historian Jon Meacham, whose new book chronicles the life and evolution of President Abraham Lincoln: He thought everything was over. It was the summer of 1864, and Abraham Lincoln believed his campaign for re-election amid the Civil War was doomed: The president was to be defeated, his policies repudiated by the people, his vision of America lost; but if the Democratic nominee, George McClellan, was in fact the choice of the electorate, then so be it. "This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected," Lincoln wrote. "Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President-elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration." A president devoted to justice and to the rule of law. A president willing to cede power graciously should he lose. A president who put the Constitutional experiment and the good of others above his own self-interest. Suc