It can be said that the United States is showing the world what our basic values and principles are all about as a former president stands trial on a bevy of felony charges. No one is above our nation’s law, which is a mighty important lesson to impart around the globe. Following an exhaustive investigation Donald Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records and sits in a courtroom for what promises to be a six-week trial. This process will be time-consuming and make for an even hotter political stew as partisans take their positions in an already too rhetorically driven nation.
Like everything else in the Trump orbit, some gleefully carry water for him, such as the right-wing channel Fox News, which turned a blind eye to the trial for much of Monday, choosing to instead cover anti-Israel protests in major American cities. By the end of the day, conservative talking heads were trying to convince their viewers that The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman was not a solid journalist. (As if viewers of conservative outlets had ever heard of the woman.) The painted word image from one of the nation’s top journalists describing Trump falling asleep in the New York courtroom has now become a part of the larger narrative about the court process underway. A process that very likely could land Trump as a convicted felon.
As I watched some of the daytime coverage on television and followed a few running blogs on news sites, the historic moment was being made in front of the nation’s eyes. On the one hand, it was momentous and charged with energy while on the other hand, it was a sad commentary on what our nation fell for when a large section of the electorate buckled to Trump. As I sat for a few minutes watching CNN my mind landed back on one of my heroes from our national story. President Abraham Lincoln. Since Trump wandered into a word salad about Gettysburg this past weekend the story of the 16th president seems most appropriate. But with Lincoln, this story showcases what character and integrity look like.
In 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, the House Judiciary Committee investigated how a message from President Lincoln had leaked to the press. Rumor had it that First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln had passed it to a middleman, which increased the rumor mill that the First Lady was treasonous to the North since her Southern family had different views on the war and related issues. But the middleman refused to say what he knew. Then a surprise witness showed up to answer the committee’s questions: Lincoln himself.
“President Lincoln today voluntarily appeared before the House Judiciary Committee,” reported the New York Tribune, “and gave testimony in the matter of the premature publication in the Herald of a portion of his last annual message.” Lincoln’s message to Congress in December 1861 had been published in the New York Herald on the same morning that it was sent to Capitol Hill. The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by John Hickman investigated the leak and called Herald correspondent Henry Wikoff to testify. Wikoff refused to divulge his source, citing “an obligation of strictest secrecy.” Given Wikoff’s close friendship with Lincoln’s wife, many assumed that the correspondent was protecting the First Lady. The committee ordered the sergeant at arms to hold Wikoff.
But then the President went to the Capitol for a private meeting with Judiciary Committee members, walking in silently and holding his hat. Carl Sandburg writes that no one heard him enter and all of a sudden, the President was in the room. He assured them that no member of his family was involved and that no treasonous thoughts were a part of his family. The next day the committee released Wikoff. The leaker was soon identified as a White House gardener.
Facing charges head-on and acting with character is not what we have ever witnessed from Trump. Hiding behind an army of lawyers (who sometimes get paid) is the only way Trump has ever faced any hardship. Lincoln, however, with a decades-long record of being a fair man with guiding principles that could never be questioned only needed to assert himself with his word as his bond. This slice of the former president’s life is not likely to become a talking point at Trump rallies. But the account of that day in the Judiciary Committee in 1862 is what our nation needs to recall as to how our political culture once looked like, and how it operated. Trump reminds us, as this trial continues, of how much we have lost.
