By R. MARK FREY
AAP guest columnist
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I went to see Steven Spielberg’s iconic Lincoln.
I watched with interest the large number of theatergoers slowly filtering into the auditorium which, by the time the lights dimmed, packed the theater to near capacity. By the end of the 2 1/2 hour film, there was a hushed silence in the theater and we all slowly walked out mulling over the events portrayed in the film as well as Spielberg’s John Ford-like presentation of Lincoln in mythic proportions.
For several days now, I’ve pondered over the film and Lincoln’s Herculean task of holding the country together while pushing for passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which abolished slavery in these United States. A remarkable achievement.
Today our country lies in a period similar to that in Lincoln’s time marked by bitter and vehement disagreement over many issues ignored for far too long. One of the key issues forming part of our nation’s current conversation is immigration.
Unfortunately, it was only briefly discussed during the recent presidential campaign and left concealed in the Republican and Democratic campaign platforms. (In a previous essay, I discussed the two platforms while noting their objectives and differences which served to give a good idea of their perspectives).
And, what did Lincoln think about immigration? Was it a good thing? Should it be restricted to certain ethnic groups? Did he ever specifically address the issue?
Lincoln was known to be a vigorous opponent of the nativist Know Nothings and their xenophobic, anti-immigrant agenda. Interestingly, he also observed during a July 10, 1858 Chicago speech devoted in large measure to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott Decision (i.e., slaves are property, not citizens) that regardless of our divergent backgrounds we are all connected to the Founders by our shared belief in the American experiment.
If they [immigrants] look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none. They cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” The moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men — that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration, and so they are.
That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together. It will continue to link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.
In the immediate aftermath of the election, it appears both parties now recognize that immigration needs to be addressed and seem intent on passing some form of comprehensive immigration reform in 2013. While there appears to be agreement that the system needs to be fixed, the devil is in the details and it remains to be seen how each party will approach comprehensive immigration reform and whether they can craft a suitable piece of legislation.
This is where Lincoln comes back into play.
The film is a fascinating study of the political maneuvering involved in the passage of the 13th Amendment. It becomes clear that while grand ideas may be easy for discussion and debate, the reality is that one has to get into the thick of it and wrestle with those ideas and others to see them come to fruition.
If the 13th Amendment, one of the singular achievements for civil rights in this country’s history, can be passed while our country is engaged in a Civil War, then surely our legislators today can find common ground to construct a system to deal more effectively with current immigration issues as well as realistically contemplate future ones. That’s the rub. How that will play out will be the subject of several columns over the course of the coming year.