BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, a man who can arguably be called one of the most important men in the history of the nation. Historians have debated his wisdom, his politics and his intentions for more than a century. But what, in essence, is the legacy Lincoln left behind? Those close to Illinois Wesleyan University offer their insights.
“Without Lincoln, the Civil War would have ended the American experiment on a rather sad note,” said Robert S. Eckley, president of Illinois Wesleyan from 1968 to 1986. Eckley, who served as president of the Abraham Lincoln Association and was honored with their Logan Hay Medal in 2007, is completing a book on Bloomington attorney and Lincoln friend Leonard Swett. “Lincoln was a master politician and strategist. He held us together as a nation and started an emancipation that has not been carried through to finality even to this day, but we are getting closer,” he said.
Lincoln’s efforts as the Great Emancipator have a direct affect on current lives and politics, said Professor Robert Bray, Illinois Wesleyan’s R. Forrest Colwell Professor of English. “I can give you Lincoln’s legacy in one word — Obama,” said Bray, who co-wrote the play Lincoln’s in Town!, based upon Lincoln’s famous “lost speech” given in Bloomington. “Lincoln and his Congress started the road to civil rights, which culminated in the election last November of Barack Obama.”