Episode 055 - Safety in His Atmosphere

Stop Making Yourself Miserable

March 4th of 1865 was a truly monumental day in American history. In the afternoon, the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President took place. And that evening marked the first time that a person of color attended a social event at the White House as an invited guest. It had never happened before. The guest was Frederick Douglass and it very nearly didn’t happen at all.

Now most American citizens knows who Abraham Lincoln was. And although many people have heard of Frederick Douglass, most don’t know all that much about him other than the fact that he was a former slave who became one of the primary leaders of the abolitionist movement, both in America and abroad as well.

Of course, there is much more to the story of Frederick Douglass than this. He was truly a major figure in American history, but his vast stature isn’t what this episode is about. This is about a statement that Douglass once made about Lincoln. We’ll get to that statement a little later, but first let’s lay a little groundwork about these two giants of their time.

Prior to the inauguration Lincoln and Douglass already had a significant, ongoing relationship. It had begun on somewhat tenuous grounds, but quicky grew into one of enormous mutual respect and Lincoln had invited Douglass to attend the inauguration. Douglass, who was one of the most talented writers of the 19th century, has written a vivid description of what happened on that critically eventful day.

“I was present at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, the 4th of March, 1865,” he wrote. “I felt then that there was murder in the air, and I kept close to his carriage on the way to the Capitol, for I felt that I might see him fall that day. It was a vague presentiment.

“At that time, the Confederate cause was on its last legs as it were, and there was deep feeling. I could feel it in the atmosphere. I did not know exactly what it was, but I just felt as if he might be shot on his way to the Capitol. I cannot refer to any incident, in fact to any expression that I had heard. It was simply a presentiment that Lincoln might fall.

“That day I got right in front of the east portico of the Capitol, listened to his inaugural address, and witnessed his being sworn in by Chief Justice Chase. When he came on the steps, he was accompanied by Vice President Johnson, and looking out in the crowd, he saw me standing nearby and I could see he was pointing me out to Andrew Johnson.

“Mr. Johnson, without knowing perhaps that I saw the movement, looked quite annoyed that his attention should be called in that direction. So, I got a peep into his soul, and as soon as he saw me looking at him, suddenly he assumed rather an amicable expression of countenance. I felt that whatever else that man might be, he was no friend to my people.

“I heard Mr. Lincoln deliver his wonderful address,” Douglass continued. “It was very short. And he answered all the objections raised to his prolonging the war in one sentence. And it was a remarkable sentence. ‘Fondly do we hope, profoundly do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away. Yet if God wills it to continue until all the wealth piled up by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, we will still say, as was said three thousand years ago: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”

Douglass was deeply moved by the profound nature of Lincoln’s enlightened perspective and later wrote that his speech sounded more like a sermon than an inaugural address.

Later that evening, the formal ball was held in the White House. Even though the idea of a black man attending a social function at the nation’s Grand Mansion was socially out of the question at the time, Lincoln had invited him anyway. And Douglass was happy to attend.

According to Douglass’s description, “For the first time in my life, and I suppose the first time in any colored man’s life, I attended the reception of President Lincoln on the evening of the inauguration. As I approached the door, I was seized by two policemen and forbidden to enter. I said to them that they were mistaken entirely in what they were doing, that if Mr. Lincoln knew that I was at the door, he would order my admission. And I bolted in by them.

“On the inside. I was taken charge of by two other policemen, to be conducted, as I suppose, to the President. But instead of that, they were conducting me out the window on a plank.

“Oh,” I said. “This will not do, gentleman.” And as a gentleman was passing in, I said to him, “Just say to Mr. Lincoln that Fred Douglas is at the door.”

He rushed in to President Lincoln, and almost in less than half a minute I was invited into the East Room of the White House. A perfect sea of beauty and eloquence too, it was. The ladies were in very fine attire and Mrs. Lincoln was standing there.

“I could not have been more than ten feet from him when Mr. Lincoln saw me. His countenance lighted up and he said in a voice that was heard all around, ‘Here comes my friend Douglas!’”

“As I approached him, he reached out his hand, gave me a cordial shake, and said, ‘Douglass, I saw you in the crowd today listening to my inaugural address. There is no man’s opinion that I value more than yours. What did you think of it?’”

“Mr. Lincoln,” I said. “I cannot stop here to talk with you, as there are thousands waiting to shake you by the hand.”

“But,” he said again. ‘What did you think of it?’”

“I said, “Mr. Lincoln, it was a sacred effort,” and then I walked off.

“I’m glad you liked it,” he said. That was the last time I saw him to speak with him.”

So, instead of being barred entrance or thrown out, Douglass was welcomed as an honored guest by the smiling, 6-foot 6 tall giant, the center of attention of the entire room, who loudly and happily greeted him as a dear old friend. It was indeed a transformative moment and later Douglass wrote, “Now in this multitude of the elite of the land, I felt myself a man among men.”

That night was a truly historic event in the East Room, but tragically, just forty-six days later, Lincoln’s body was lying in state in the very same chamber, the result of the first assassination of an American president. Following the assassination, Douglass’s reaction to his friend’s death was simple, but profound. He stated publicly that it was a “day for silence and meditation: for grief and tears.”

Over the years, Douglass continued to express many of his deeper sentiments about Lincoln, culminating in the keynote address he made in Washington DC at the dedication of a statue in Lincoln’s honor on April 14, 1876, the eleventh anniversary of the assassination.

In that speech he said, “We are here to express… our grateful sense of the vast, high and preeminent services rendered to ourselves, to our race, to our country and to the whole world by Abraham Lincoln.

“He was a mystery to no man who saw him and heard him. Though high in position, the humblest could approach him and feel at home in his presence. Though deep, he was transparent. Though strong he was gentle.”

Then, about the issue of the abolition of slavery, Douglass offered a keen insight that he was in a most unique position to make. “Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull and indifferent. But measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment that as a statesman he was bound to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical and determined.”

And he continued, with a profound sense of how instrumental Lincoln would have been to the betterment of the freed slaves, as well as the rest of the black population throughout the nation when he added, “Whosoever else may have cause to mourn the loss of Abraham Lincoln, to the colored people of the country his death is an unspeakable calamity.”

He went on, “In all my interviews with Mr. Lincoln, I was impressed with his entire freedom from popular prejudice against the colored race. He was the first great man that I talked with in the United States freely, who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of color, and I thought that all the more remarkable because he came from a state where there were black laws.

Then he concluded, “I account partially for his kindness to me because of the similarity with which I had fought my way up, we both starting at the lowest round of the ladder.”

And this is quite true because they were both anomalies of their time. Lincoln, the esteemed and revered president, was born and raised in a one-room log cabin in the middle of the wilderness and had less than a year of formal schooling. And Douglass, a truly iconic human rights leader of global stature, as well as an internationally respected writer, publisher and orator, had endured an incredibly brutal life of slavery until he was able to escape at age twenty. And he acquired his vast intelligence completely on his own, against nearly insurmountable obstacles. So, the two men had defied all odds to achieve their lofty positions. And they both knew it about each other.

Then Douglass took it a step deeper when he wrote, “There was another feeling that I had with reference to him, and that was that while in his presence I felt I was in the presence of a very great man, as great as the greatest. I felt as though I could go and put my hand on him if I wanted to, to put my hand on his shoulder. Of course, I did not do it, but I felt that I could. I felt as though I was in the presence of a big brother. There was safety in his atmosphere.”

It was that last line that always got me and this is what I alluded to at the beginning of this episode. Let’s take a closer look at it.

“There was safety in his atmosphere,” he wrote. What an incredibly powerful idea, especially coming from Frederick Douglass, who was in his day, one of the most hated people in the entire South. And many in the North didn’t like him too much either.

This had been the darkest hour in American history, with almost six hundred and twenty thousand US soldiers killing each other over the course of the war which lasted four years, almost to the day. There was still a large and vicious group of rebels who would have loved to see him killed, or at least returned to slavery. Still in this truly dangerous time, Douglass expressed that he felt safe around Lincoln, that there was safety in his atmosphere.

The lofty statement seems to go far beyond the idea of just plain power. You can be around a lot of extremely powerful people and never feel safe with them. Quite the contrary, there is often danger around those whose lust for power is just a disguise that’s masking a deeper weakness of character.

Lincoln was different. At the time he was arguably the most powerful person on the planet, but look at the amiable, “big brother” picture Douglass painted of him. The former fugitive slave felt both comfortable and safe when he was near.

To me, this seems to bespeak the idea of something greater, that the person of power is also a manifestation of the most noble characteristics of humanity, and the feelings around such a person emanate from a much deeper, inner place, which elevates the entire atmosphere.

It seems that the next logical question would be - do we each have a higher part of our own inner nature that can exude this elevated atmosphere of true safety, both within ourselves as well as on the outside? Saints and sages throughout the ages have assured us that we do and that we can absolutely aspire to reach it. That’s an idea that has always appealed to me as a great thing to believe in, and an even better one to know.

Well, that’s the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened and let’s get together in the next one.