By Jeff J. Horn – Divorce Attorney
Late September 2001 the airlines had resumed commercial flights.
We arrived at the Rapid City, South Dakota airport to be met by pimple-faced, automatic rifle toting National Guardsmen. He must have been 19. 9/11 was still very real.
Susie and I had planned a vacation. Our first vacation since our son had been born in July 2000. Due to the horrors visited upon our country, we considered canceling this short trip. The plan was to see Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the Badlands. Susie’s parents were locked into watching our (14) month old baby, so, we decided to go for it.
We visited Mount Rushmore twice in one day – – the regular tourist experience during the day and a spine-tingling display of patriotism at night, a spectacular light show. The spirit of unity gripped and bonded the small group of visitors.
Still, people in rural South Dakota are different from us, right? Wrong. We set out on a bike ride from Rapid City to Hill City, South Dakota on the George Nicholson trail (26 miles each way). Not knowing what to expect – we were thrilled to see house after house and cabin after cabin flying the American flag alongside of “Never Forget” signs all over this rural zone.
It was then that I became a fool. A fool for unity. A belief that the noise that divides us is weak compared to our foundation of unity and thirst for freedom.
I remain that fool. We need leaders. In fact, that is why I stand before you as a candidate for elective office.
Our country, our state, our 10th Legislative District – on the surface – seems quite fragmented, and some issues of division are real. By and large, I believe we are all fools, fools for a better life for ourselves and our families steeped in traditions to be proud of and challenged to do better. Leaders are needed.
I know we can do better. While stuck at home, during the pandemic, I reread Doris Kearns Goodwin’s classic book about the Abraham Lincoln candidacy and presidency, “A Team of Rivals”. Indeed, my copy of that book is a twisted mess having been opened, flattened and annotated so many times. What did Lincoln teach us? So many powerful lessons.
First, surround yourself with the best and brightest. His cabinet included his three head to head rivals in the 1860 presidential election. New York Senator William Seward had been the fledgling Republican Party’s clear favorite. His loss at the national convention to Lincoln was devastating. Nonetheless he answered the call when President Lincoln invited him to serve as Secretary of State. In spite of losing to a virtual unknown in his long quest for the presidency, Seward co-piloted the country through the Civil War and Lincoln and Seward developed the closest of relationships.
Salmon Chase had been governor of Ohio and an extremely hungry presidential candidate. His credentials were impeccable, one of the leaders of his time. His disposition was a bit sensitive and prickly. When he lost to Lincoln, he truly believed that he had been defeated by a far inferior man. However, Chase’s brilliance in government finance prompted Lincoln to appoint him Secretary of the Treasury. His ability to creatively raise money for the Civil War enabled the North to prevail and ultimately reunite a nation.
Lincoln’s Attorney General Edward Bates was a conservative counterweight to Seward and Chase in snuffing out the dimming light of slavery. He had been an important lawyer in the frontier State of Missouri. Bates had been a slaveholder until 1851. His family typified the wrenching fraternal nature of ending slavery, state’s rights, and viability of the United States. While loyally serving, the Union, and his country, Edward’s own son Fleming Bates was an officer in the Confederate Army and his youngest son Charles Bates was a student at West Point. Unquestionably, Seward, Chase and Bates all had higher profiles and greater political reputations than Abraham Lincoln.
Finally, his Secretary of War, attorney Edwin Stanton, in 1855, retained Lincoln as a local Illinois counsel in a huge case. Stanton mistreated Lincoln. He dismissed his written work publicly and refused to even speak with Lincoln. Nonetheless, Lincoln saw past the personal and harnessed Stanton’s organizational genius and work ethic to win the war and save the Union.
In spite of his perceived inferiority, Lincoln brought his political rivals together and through incredible and underappreciated leadership skills, synthesized the energy and capability of his political enemies to create a government that withstood our country’s greatest challenge.
Even though he had never managed a large organization, Lincoln stitched a cabinet together and in so doing, re-cemented our fractured country. He did so with compassion and confidence, becoming one of the nation’s great leaders.
In an environment where elected officials of the opposing party publicly and boorishly hope for our Presidents to fail, look to Lincoln’s strengths and equanimity as grounds for hope and a guide for action for today’s leaders.
In modern New Jersey law and politics there is one giant. He stands as the Abraham Lincoln modern of New Jersey politics. His name adorns the building that houses the New Jersey Supreme Court. His statue stands at the front door of the New Jersey State Bar Association building in New Brunswick. He is the only person to serve as governor and Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. He is Richard Hughes. In 1967 he went from hosting the Glassboro summit between Pres. Lyndon Johnson and Premier of the Soviet Union Alexei Kosygin to wade into the conflict known as the Newark Riots.
His father always instructed that if the Republican candidate was the better person that he would vote for the Republican. He goes on to say, “Now would you believe it, I’ve been voting 42 years and that problem has never come up.” This quote is from Professor John B. Wefing’s great book “The Life and Times of Richard J. Hughes: The Politics of Civility.” Although Hughes was a political partisan, as governor, he reached across the aisle to accomplish big things for the State of New Jersey. His powers to write were so great and apparent that Republican Governor William Cahill appointed Hughes to serve as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Both Lincoln and Hughes stand out as elected leaders worth studying and modeling.
Thanks to Horn Law Group, LLC intern Noah Hilsdorf.