A Failed President - Then and Now

On this date, 160 years ago, Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1860. The Act was designed to promote westward expansion of the country by providing for the purchase of land for 25 cents per acre for hard working Americans who wanted to start new lives and opportunities. The Act had the support of Republican Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, but two days later the legislation was vetoed by President James Buchanan. The opposition to the legislation mostly came from Southern slaveholders who worried that the new lands would be dominated by Americans who did not support the institution of slavery and as a result the slave owning states would lose their political leverage. This was nothing new at the time as a progressive Republican (yes, Republican) Congress was routinely thwarted by southern votes or by a presidential veto. This veto by President Buchanan, however, emphasized that even doing the right thing with popular support could be stopped by a weak president taking into account primarily short term political considerations.

Caving into sectional strife and division is the essence of failed leadership. Months later, on November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential election. Commencing the following month, southern states seceded from the Union one-by-one. The incumbent President Buchanan, while asserting that these states had no right to secede, did very little and next to nothing to stop them. The problem and vacuum of leadership was left for the new President to clean up the mess and to ultimately be faced with the first shots of the Civil War.

160 years later we are faced with another President who lacks the fundamentals of leadership and seems unwilling or incapable of healing the divides in the nation. Much worse, this President actively exploits the fault lines that exist in the country for his own political advantage. Further, the President is unwilling or incapable of understanding the popular support for real change, pays lip service and uses simplistic tweets toward passionate issues and focuses his attention solely on how to benefit the short-term political goals of re-election. Disturbingly, he is also tone death to the divisive symbols of the Confederacy. At this moment, the tide for real action in enacting legislation that will address policing and social justice is a sweeping and powerful objective, but it is not likely that the short-term political challenges of the day will permit this to become a reality yet.

But, there is always hope. Almost two years after the Homestead Act of 1860 was vetoed, on May 20, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862. The new law allowed any American, including freed slaves, to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land. A few years later, President Lincoln also presided over the victory over the southern insurrection and an opportunity for correcting the wrongs and failings of our history.

Our nation, both with its good and bad, is still striving to overcome those wrongs and to pursue the ideals of a more perfect union. But, it takes real leadership. This November, the leadership question of who will occupy the White House will be placed in the hands of anyone reading this article and so will the consequences.

Michael Samuels