"The Lincoln Prayer"; Or, A Pledge of Alliance to the Truth, for Adults and School Children

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In the repost of Pride; Or, What’s the Point? yesterday, I closed with a passage written by Abraham Lincoln to newspaper powerhouse Horace Greeley. Lincoln’s passage was first exposed on the topic “The Primary Objective,” at Lincoln Leadership Dilemma. (As to “The Primary Objective,” there is an entire set of articles, some curated at the article repository.)

The focus of The Primary Objective is about determining the one thing against which all other things must yield. The “get your guy out of the jungle before smoking a cigarette” objective. Without knowing what must yield to what, we wallow in indecision, with clamoring competing interests fighting with each other.

The example used in the article was that Lincoln was willing to concede slavery for the Union, and Frederick Douglass was willing to concede the Union for slavery. Different men, different primary objectives. Lincoln got both, because he knew which to get first. He understood priorities and logistics, and he had the courage, temperance and balance to achieve them both, in due time.

But back to yesterday’s repost. The subject of Pride; Or, What’s the Point? is distinguishing different types of “pride,” as well as, for example, the distinction between confidence and stubbornness. Confidence and stubbornness may look the same superficially, but they are very different. The former is a virtue, the latter is a vice, each conflated, confused and homogenized with the other by manipulative rhetoric. “Everyone pushes over a falling fence,” says the proverb. We might say that the trick of it is to be a solid fence, but with a gate—locked, but accessible, with an acceptable key.

What resonated with me overnight was that Horace Greeley was pressing Lincoln for clarity of a policy in the horns of a dilemma. In the repost blurb, I characterized this Lincoln passage as “perfect,” such as it is. I thought that such perfection deserved to be extracted, branded by name, and isolated discretely for study. If children said this “Lincoln Prayer” or perhaps his “Lincoln’s Pledge of Alliance” every day in school, the World would be such a better place. It’s not that complicated.

1. Determine the Primary Objective wisely; 2. maintain the self-confidence, fortitude and temperance not to be pushed over or around; 3. continue to consider the question with an open and flexible mind; and 4. allow others to persuade us with valid arguments. Listen to Lincoln’s words carefully: Supple confidence. Consider saying this “prayer” each day. Better yet, consider teaching “Lincoln’s Prayer” to our children:

“I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln [Steven Spielberg] [MUID46X] – The Untempered Version, In the Course of Time, Lincoln and Stevens [Ed. Note: A sublime clip in judgment and civic virtue. Yet another gift from Steven Spielberg.]

* Gregg Zegarelli, Esq., earned both his Bachelor of Arts Degree and his Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His dual major areas of study were History from the College of Liberal Arts and Accounting from the Business School (qualified to sit for the CPA examination), with dual minors in Philosophy and Political Science. He has enjoyed Adjunct Professorships in the Duquesne University Graduate Leadership Master Degree Program (The Leader as Entrepreneur; Developing Leadership Character Through Adversity) and the University of Pittsburgh Law School (The Anatomy of a Deal). He is admitted to various courts throughout the United States of America.

Gregg is Managing Shareholder of Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC. He is nationally rated as “superb” and has more than 35 years of experience working with entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes, including startups, INC. 500, and publicly traded companies. He is author of One: The Unified Gospel of Jesus, and The Business of Aesop™ article series, and co-author with his father, Arnold Zegarelli, of The Essential Aesop: For Business, Managers, Writers and Professional Speakers, and The Proseuche (The Prayer of Socrates). Gregg is a frequent lecturer, speaker and faculty for a variety of educational and other institutions. Gregg’s article repository website is https://www.greggzegarelli.com.

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“The Lincoln Prayer”; Or, A Pledge of Alliance to the Truth, for Adults and School Children