(Wonderful images provided by the Drifter and Drifter Boo)
What Would Abraham Lincoln Do Now?
September 27, 2025
In “the year of our Lord” 1909, Count Leo Tolstoy was one of the most famous humans on Planet Earth, by far.
He was a person who had survived into the twentieth century in a very vital way from another era, a man who had been born into the age of serfdom (or Russian slavery) in his own land and seen it fall (around the same time American slavery fell), a man who was as well-known then as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., would later become (and a man who had already corresponded with Gandhi, famously), a man who was known for educating, and attempting to free, the serfs on his own land before the national reforms came along, a man who had started a globally-known peace movement called Tolstoyism based on the real and true teachings of Jesus Christ taken directly from the Gospels, and a man who, if the world had listened to him back then, could have solved ALL of the world’s current problems today via the solutions he was offering at the time, a man so well-known and so accomplished that he deserved not just the Noble Prize in Literature (see the list at the end of this essay) but also the Nobel Peace Prize, like very few others in history (except, perhaps, figures like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Bob Marley and Martin Luther King, Jr., all of whom could have been awarded the Literature prize as well as the Peace prize based on their work in both fields).
1909 was also the centenary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. A reporter came to ask Tolstoy to write something about Lincoln for this event. He found the great, long-bearded, long-haired, physically frail and elderly man and writer too sick to rise from bed or pick up a pen for long, but somehow still able to think and talk just as clearly as ever.
Tolstoy surprised the world, just a little bit, by what he told the reporter that day, when he called Lincoln the greatest national hero and national leader of all time, a man who would, in a couple of centuries, make all other national heroes and leaders look like nothing compared to him. “Of all the great national heroes and statesmen of history Lincoln is the only real giant,” Tolstoy said.
Tolstoy listed “depth of feeling, greatness of character, and a certain moral power” as the qualities that made Lincoln so much greater than the other heroes and leaders. Tolstoy said, “His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.” He said that Lincoln’s “supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar moral power and in the greatness of his character.” He said that Lincoln, “wanted to be great through his smallness.”
Tolstoy said of Lincoln: “He was what Beethoven was in music, Dante in poetry, Raphael in painting, and Christ in the philosophy of life. He aspired to be divine – and he was.”
***
America is on the verge of its next civil war, or is already in the beginnings of it.
Because this new civil war won’t be a “Civil War” with capital letters like the last one was.
It will be (for the most part) a much more insidious and secret affair, many or most of the battles playing themselves out within the battlefield of the human heart.
There won’t be huge lines of gray and blue soldiers blowing each other to smithereens across a river until kingdom come like the first time.
But there will be, and already is, great hatred involved, great contempt for one’s fellow human beings, great nastiness and moral decrepitude even among the youth of America, a great bitterness and a great belittling of each other, utter small-mindedness and small-heartedness on both sides as we stare each other down and hate each other’s guts and hope someone else will come along and do our sporadic killing for us, and then applaud when they do so while we execute them in return, smiling bitterly all the while and cursing the world in our hearts while taking responsibility for none of it.
So it’s worth asking, at this great and terrible point in American history, “What would Abraham Lincoln do if he were here now?”
After a lifetime (on and off) of studying Lincoln, both his life and his writings, from his home ground in Illinois, I believe I know the answer to this question. And I can break it down into three key points, very briefly.
Read on to find out.
***
ONE: He would rise above the fray. He would not take sides. He would try to look at the truthful aspects of both opposite points of view and leave all the lies and bad “information” lying in the dust. He would see it from everyone’s level, no matter who they are.
HE WOULDN’T BECOME PETTY WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH. AND HE WOULDN’T START THROWING STONES AT HIS NEIGHBOR, NO MATTER WHO THAT NEIGHBOR IS, OR WHERE THEY CAME FROM.
NO EXCEPTIONS.
TWO: He would resist the totalitarian impulse, which crushes genuine humanity, at all levels, but he would resist it within himself first.
He wouldn’t let himself be seduced by the urge to crush, or even think less of, those who are weaker than or “different” from himself.
As Kahlil Gibran said in The Prophet, “And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.”
THREE:
HE WOULD LOVE. The tragic irony here is that anyone who can understand this third point is already doing it.
And the final tragic irony of this column is that Lincoln is no longer a hero for either side.
The Drifter on Tolstoy’s short works: Tolstoy is the author of two short stories and one small autobiographical nonfiction book that deserve to be studied by anyone on the Planet who wants to turn themselves into a better person during these horrible times.
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is about a man who discovers he’s held the wrong materialistic, selfish, Scrooge-like values his entire life, right before he dies. Ironically, it’s his illness and his approaching end that make him see the light and saves him (just in time).
“Master and Man” is one of the most life-affirming stories about self-sacrifice ever written. No spoiler alerts. But the horse in this story is more alive than the humans in almost everyone else’s fiction.
“A Confession” is an autobiographical nonfiction tale that influenced Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., as they developed and extended nonviolent resistance, just as Tolstoy himself had been influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Henry David Thoreau before him.
Tolstoy suffered from Depression, the modern variety. This book shows you what it’s like if you’ve never been in it; and how to get out of it if you have.
Saragun Springs 
Hello Drifter
It must be written in our DNA for our race to come together (enough) and do great things only when under duress; the rest of the time we are mean and petty and grabby.
Our worst ongoing fault in times high and low is our need to blame others for our problems. Stupid people do that. I believe we get the “leaders” we deserve (gods included). And the only reason why a horror show like Trump is in office (twice) is because the professed progressive politicians failed to do anything except make efforts to disqualify him from running (we saw how that played out). It is depressing because it appwars there is no one able to get the money to run worth voting for.
You put it forth trutfully and with your typical, lyric eloquence,. Tolstoy and Lincoln suffered from depression. I understand why. Lexapro won’t be getting us out of this one.
Leila
P.S. Boo looks thoughtful. Deep.
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Leila
Thanks for saying I told the truth with lyric eloquence. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do and receiving this Sunday confirmation from you is worth everything. And, “lyric eloquence” is a great phrase! Thanks!
Tressa and Elina say that Boo has “wise eyes.” And, truthfully, to say that he picks up on the emotional content of the humans around him would be a huge understatement. He even catches the vibe of the strangers we drift by on the street (big time). Wouldn’t be surprised if the guy sees auras or something. He barks angrily at angry people (as if telling them to wake up). And he’s so happy and friendly with happy people it can’t help but make them even a little happier, I do believe. Really a magical animal with people skills that far outshine the average industrial psychologist.
D
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Fine post, Dale. Tolstoy was a giant who re-built his own life, brick by brick; the professional soldier who became a pacifist, the great landowner who worked the ground like a peasant. A great friend of mine became a Tolstoyan after reading ‘Master & Man.’ If Tolstoy thought Lincoln was a fellow giant, that’s good enough for me. bw mick
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Mick
Thanks for these extra descriptions of Tolstoy. In few words, you portray him and what he was while adding things I left out of the essay that deserve to be in it. Thanks again!
Also, it shows great wisdom to take the advice of the great earlier humans. Their names and their wisdom have survived because they knew what was going on and if we as a collective society would listen more, we could solve so much, from the ground (and the groundlings) on up.
And thanks for the story about your friend becoming a Tolstoyan after reading “Master and Man.” WOW! This will stick with me.
Dale
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Hey Drifter!
Great subject! Love all the historical context in your writing! Sometimes I think you are a historian as well as a literary professor, writer, critic, and all around cool dude! The picture shows this and the Boo-ster being cool too!
Which rises to the top of this? I think you would want to be called WRITER. You’ve certainly earned it!
My mind gathered around the word Serf. A term I first heard in 7th grade social studies. I see why you compare them to slaves. About the only difference–serfs couldn’t be sold as chattel.
Chekhov’s story “Peasants” is a study of Russian poverty, beautiful in its mad scrabble. Not sure if it was set during serfdom, somehow I think it was right after this practice of feudalism.
There are a lot of impressive ideas and observations in this essay and prophecy.
What Tolstoy said about Lincoln is incredible! To have a foreign writer of his magnitude (one of the all time greats) giving Lincoln “his flowers” is magnificent! Not sure I like that term but it seems apt or easy.
How he said Lincoln wanted to be great through “his smallness” is so true. And how the ordinary person really couldn’t understand him is also probably true. He was a giant. A king in the most noble way. In a Jesus way.
Might have to add a part 2 to this… About the state of the nation. How I feel about my Trump neighbor. It really does divide a person when they’re online excoriating and condemning Democrats over Charlie Kirk. I look at him differently now.
I’m a Democrat and I’m all for debate. I say more power to the Charlie Kirks’ of the world. If I agree or not, some topics I do–some I don’t.
It’s “The First Amendment!” at stake. They didn’t allow open debate in Nazi Germany and many other oppressive states. You get the piano wire or the squad.
I also don’t like people labeling me as a liberal when I claim the Democratic party. I consider myself a moderate.
I read something online about how comparing Trump to Hitler is a stretch, but to General Franco, the old and terrible dictator of Spain–might not be. There seems to be quite a few insidious similarities.
Christopher
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Christopher
Thank you for this wonderfully wise, beautifully poetic, intellectually impressive, and generous commentary! You always rise to the challenge of what for other people might be difficult material, and your knowledge of Old Honest Abe and Russian Literature through a truly acute knowledge of Chekhov helped inspire this column, big time.
Chekhov and Tolstoy were great personal friends.
I have relatives in both Missouri and Wisconsin who, while not rabid “Make America Great Again” people, do not have the same rabidly negative feelings about Donnie the Dictator that I do. I love these people and wish them the best at all levels, and yet if we were to start discussing politics we would disagree on 95% of it all. So, I have personal experience with this sense of the country being torn apart by being on separate sides when it comes to thinking (or not thinking). I also have former friends (former just because I haven’t seen them in a long time) who are extremely far-left minority peoples (including Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and Black folks), and I can understand their side of things as well, even though, again, we might not agree on everything if we started discussing politics. “Politics” these days seems more like spitting in one another’s faces. Very very very little room for anything original there and almost all of them just regurgitate the party line, when it comes to politics. Totally moribund, like so much in this dying empire.
Your words about Lincoln are beautiful. You have a very great understanding of this man. If only a few more of your fellow Americans would join you in this knowledge!
In the meantime, we do what we can. The writer writes, and that is what the writer should continue doing even or ESPECIALLY when they’re trying to trample Free Speech down into the dust.
I think if I ever had a tombstone I would want WRITER placed upon it. I don’t want a tombstone, but if I ever did, that term is it for me. Thanks for your thoughts on that as well!
More later….I want to say a few more things about that word “prophecy” you used, not least because I think your own short stories have a truly prophetic element to them.
Most people don’t know what prophecy is. It isn’t (or isn’t primarily) Nostradamus sitting around with his crystal ball and telling everyone exactly what will happen when. There are illiterate prophets walking around in the streets of Chicago (or any city or town) right now….
D
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Another thoughtful post, Dale. Ivan Ilych was one of my first, favorite stories and I used to have a view of whst was once Lincoln’s law office in Springfield.
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Thank you, David!
I remembered from some of your earlier commentary that you are a Tolstoy person (and Emily Dickinson and Kafka if I remember correctly). That is to your credit at all levels. It takes a subtle and strong mind and spirit to truly understand the meaning of Ivan Ilych.
It must have been pretty wild having a view of Abe’s law office!!!
There’s a really cool poem by Vachel Lindsay called “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight in Springfield, Illinois” – about his ghost!
Looking forward to your stories later this week….
Dale
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