a few weeks before one of the most consequential presidential elections in history, the republican candidate struggled with the possibility that he would likely lose. he had no choice but to face the ultimate decision: whether or not to accept the verdict, whatever it might be. the answer was quite different in 1864 than in 2016, because the presidential nominee then wasn<u+2019>t donald trump, but abraham lincoln, whom mr. trump professes to admire. if anyone ever had a reason to reject the will of the voters, it was lincoln in 1864, running for re-election against george b. mcclellan. the presidential campaign was taking place in the midst of a civil war, with freedom of the press and speech under suspension by the president himself, using what he called his <u+201c>war powers<u+201d> to limit dissent that might discourage military enlistment. half the country was in armed conflict with the other, and the casualties were already half a million souls. a state of emergency prevailed. military tribunals had sprung up in border states to supplant the civil judicial system. trying valiantly to quash rebellion, lincoln might have agreed to cancel or postpone the election. instead, he insisted that <u+201c>we cannot have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone, a national election, it, might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.<u+201d> the u.s. became the first nation to hold a popular election during civil war. that didn<u+2019>t stop the bleeding<u+2014>either on the battlefield or in public opinion. late in august, lincoln concluded that it was <u+201c>exceedingly probable<u+201d> that he would lose. knowing that a democratic successor might let the south leave the union and would almost certainly cancel the emancipation proclamation upon taking office, lincoln did two extraordinary things. first, he invited the african-american abolitionist frederick douglass to the white house. there, lincoln assigned him to craft a plan to use the time between election day and inauguration day (then march 4) to send official liberators into the deep south. there, they were to spread the word of emancipation to as many enslaved people as possible, guaranteeing their freedom <u+201c>then, thenceforward, and forever<u+201d><u+2014>and before the opposition took the white house and stopped the process. douglass drafted a blueprint for action, although the administration never had to deploy it. then lincoln prepared a concessionary memorandum of his own, signed sight-unseen by his cabinet, pledging not only <u+201c>to cooperate with the president elect,<u+201d> but <u+201c>to save the union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.<u+201d> whether the memo was legally binding, no one can be sure. but that it demonstrated that an all-powerful chief executive was willing to step down, cooperate and accept the will of the voters is indisputable. he wasn<u+2019>t too big to fall. donald trump has a great deal to learn from the man he called, in the second debate, <u+201c>the late, great abraham lincoln.<u+201d> mr. holzer, who won the 2015 lincoln prize, is director of the roosevelt house public policy institute at hunter college.
a lincoln lesson for donald trump - wsj
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