Constitution Day lauds political lessons of past

Most Americans appear fed up with gridlock, partisan divide and ideological intransigence in our nation's capital. President Barack Obama's approval ratings have fallen, and voters rate Congress even lower. Standing for political principle seems to have given way to posturing; political compromise is apparently a lost art.

Tuesday is Constitution Day. On a day intended to celebrate the founding document in our nation's unique experiment in republican government, we should step back and ask ourselves if the problems in Washington, D.C., are exclusively the fault of the politicians we elect.

National organizations such as the Jack Miller Center have suggested that we revisit the original debates at the time of the Constitution's drafting. In doing so, we may rediscover that high principle and political compromise can go hand-in-hand, and that the Constitution itself is an act of principled political compromise.

We should remind ourselves that our national heroes such as Abraham Lincoln understood that principle and practical politics were not contradictory. As president during the Civil War with its horrific casualties, Lincoln faced political opposition within his own party and growing Democratic Party opposition in the North. His sole aim as commander-in-chief was to win the war, but he was an anti-slave Republican who increasingly understood that the war itself was about abolishing slavery. Here he stood on high principle.

In late 1862, as the war continued to go poorly for Union forces, Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves of rebels. This limited measure served military purposes and expressed Lincoln's deep belief that the war was about freeing the slaves.

Press notices about the forthcoming proclamation aroused Democratic opponents and cheered the radical wing of Lincoln's own party. The proclamation cost Lincoln votes in the midterm elections of 1862, when Democrats won 35 congressional seats, including Lincoln's home district in Illinois.

Elected to a second term in 1864 (much to his surprise), Lincoln feared that a hostile judiciary might overturn his Emancipation Proclamation; he sought passage of a constitutional amendment guaranteeing African-Americans permanent freedom. As the war concluded, Lincoln brought before Congress the 13th Amendment to formally abolish slavery throughout the United States. Radical Republicans wanted a more expansive amendment, but were defeated in committee. Working with friendly congressmen, Lincoln instructed that all stops be pulled out to ensure passage of the amendment. All stops meant patronage, political pressure, deals and direct appeals by Lincoln to reticent House members. Lincoln achieved his ultimate goal: the end of slavery and the realization that the Union would not endure half-slave and half-free.

Are today's youths learning such lessons about Lincoln and about constitutional democracy? A frequent complaint is that our schools and universities are no longer teaching civics. Instead, they have become hotbeds of political indoctrination, often around identity politics.

As a professor of history at Arizona State University, I have a different perspective.

My colleagues in history work hard in the classroom to ensure that students learn the most important lesson of the past: That while people and societies are not perfect, social, political and cultural changes do occur through human struggle and a desire to make their world better.

This commitment to education is most evident in an undergraduate program in Political Thought and Leadership recently established at ASU.

The program's purpose is to train a new generation of state and national leaders in the principles of constitutional government.

In celebrating Constitution Day, we -- the American voters and citizens of our great state of Arizona -- acknowledge the continuing presence of the past.

Donald T. Critchlow is a history professor at Arizona State University.

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