Group Intelligence
At the very least we know that groups can often do better than single operating individuals in solving problems – even when there is one particularly gifted member of the group. A smart female lion is always to be welcomed—but not if she tries to disrupt the coordinated planning of her female colleagues. Applied to human being, we know from research on something called “collective intelligence” that when groups of people work together in any effective manner, they create intelligence that cannot exist on an individual level (Malone, 2004). While Lincoln might have been a gifted speaker, compelling visionary or even fairly smart military strategist, he certainly didn’t have all of the “smarts” needed to conduct business in a complex political environment with many interwoven parts.
Looking for Assistance
From the very first (when drafting his first inaugural address), Lincoln looked for expertise among those he had appointed to his cabinet. Kearns Goodwin (2005, p. 326) notes Secretary Seward’s contributions to Lincoln’s drafting of this address:
“Seward’s greatest contribution to the tone and substance of the inaugural address was in its conclusion. Lincoln’s finale threw down the gauntlet to the South: ‘With you, and not with me, is the solemn question of Shall it be peace, or a sword?’ Seward recommended a very different closing, designed ‘to meet and remove prejudice and passion in the South, and despondency and fear in the East. Some words of affection–some of calm and cheerful confidence.’ He suggested two alternate endings. Lincoln drew upon Seward’s language to create his immortal coda.
Seward suggested: ‘I close. We are not we must not be aliens or enemies but fellow countrymen and brethren. Although passion has strained our bonds of affection too hardly they must not, I am sure they will not be broken. The mystic chords which proceeding from so many battle fields and so many patriot graves pass through all the hearts and all the hearths in this broad continent of ours will yet again harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the nation.’
Lincoln proceeded to recast and sharpen Seward’s patriotic sentiments into a concise and powerful poetry: ‘I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.’ Most significant, Seward’s ‘guardian angel’ breathes down on the nation from above; Lincoln’s ‘better angels’ are inherent in our nature as a people.”
We thus see the influence of Seward not only on the timing of Lincoln’s proclamation of emancipation, but also on his initial address to the nation having been elected president. I would note that Lincoln’s comment that “we are not enemies, but friends” applied to not just his Southern combatants but also members of his cabinet – his team of rivals.
