{"id":757,"date":"2026-05-27T04:14:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757"},"modified":"2026-05-27T04:14:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:14:41","slug":"opinion-abraham-lincoln-and-the-lost-art-of-persuasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It is all too easy to bemoan the abysmal rhetoric of our times. Strident and shrill, caustic and toxic, illogical and semiliterate \u2014 we ransack the thesaurus to describe its depths.<\/p>\n

Read more President Johnson meets governor of Maryland, discusses service priorities<\/a><\/p>\n

One recent study charts the rise of \u201cconflict entrepreneurs\u201d in Congress \u2014 national legislators whose desire for greater media visibility spurs their frequent resort to personal insult. Profanity and vulgarity from another branch of government is on the rise as well. All too often, we shower upon these conflict-mongers precisely the attention they crave. <\/p>\n

As troubling as all this is, the real problem with much of today\u2019s rhetoric isn\u2019t just that it\u2019s awful. It\u2019s that it isn\u2019t rhetoric at all.<\/p>\n

For decades now, rhetoric has been given a bad name. \u201cRhetoric\u201d is leveled as a term of abuse, denoting something tinseled and showy, insubstantial or downright deceptive. <\/p>\n

But rhetoric has a noble tradition and a lofty aim. Aristotle defined it as discovering \u201cthe available means of persuasion\u201d in any given case. <\/p>\n

Much of today\u2019s discourse, by contrast, does not aim to persuade. It vilifies and denounces, flatters and incites \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t persuade. <\/p>\n

Rhetoric, in its highest sense, is the art of persuasion. It is the craft of appealing to the reason \u2014 not just the emotions \u2014 of those we regard as our civic equals. A democracy that loses this art is doomed.<\/p>\n

The United States has never had a greater rhetorician or more powerful persuader than Abraham Lincoln. He had a rare power, cultivated across a lifetime of study and practice, to move human hearts. <\/p>\n

For generations, American schoolchildren learned his most famous words \u2014 the majestic cadences of the Gettysburg Address, the unobtrusive eloquence of the Second Inaugural \u2014 by heart. For the most part, this no longer happens. Memorization, like rhetoric, has fallen out of favor. But the loss, on both counts, is ours. <\/p>\n

Lincoln was once our great national teacher of persuasion. His power to change hearts stemmed from his relentless insistence on appealing to reason. We would do well, in these troubled times, to remember his example.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Lincoln taught persuasion by precept as well as example. In one of his earliest preserved speeches \u2014 an address to the Washingtonian Temperance Society of Springfield, Illinois, delivered in February 1842 \u2014 Lincoln explored not only his assigned topic of temperance but also the broader topic of persuasion.<\/p>\n

The Washingtonian Temperance Society movement was named after the first U.S. president, who was an exemplar of virtue and self-control, if not a teetotaler. The organization was in some ways a 19th-century antecedent of Alcoholics Anonymous. Only in this case, the alcoholics were not anonymous. The Washington Society relied on reformed drunkards to evangelize its temperance message \u2014 calling on people to abjure liquor and other strong drink. <\/p>\n

Speaking to the society\u2019s Springfield chapter on its namesake\u2019s birthday, Lincoln addressed what he saw as the secret to its success. That secret, he explained, lay in the principle and the power of persuasion.<\/p>\n

Earlier efforts to promote temperance had failed, Lincoln noted, because they ignored key principles of persuasion. They relied on \u201cpreachers, lawyers, and hired agents\u201d to share their message \u2014 speakers who evinced \u201cno sympathy or feeling or interest with those very persons whom it is their object to convince and persuade.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more How Rocky Mountain Power plans to handle a potentially active fire season<\/a><\/p>\n

These unsympathetic orators spoke \u201cnot in the accents of treaty and persuasion, diffidently addressed by erring man to an erring brother, but in the thundering tones of anathema and denunciation, with which the lordly judge often groups together all the crimes of the felon\u2019s life, and thrusts them in his face just ere he passes sentence of death upon him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, people beset by drink were rarely persuaded by those who thus attacked them. Lincoln intuited what modern neuroscience has confirmed: The human mind responds to external assaults by throwing up its defenses. <\/p>\n

There was, Lincoln said, a better way. \u201cWhen the conduct of men is designed to be influenced,\u201d he explained, \u201cpersuasion\u201d (which he qualified as \u201ckind, unassuming persuasion\u201d) \u201cshould ever be adopted.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lincoln reinforced the point with a homey adage: \u201cA drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.\u201d Humans, in this image, were like flies. \u201cIf you would win a man to your cause,\u201d Lincoln continued, \u201cfirstconvince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln was not proposing that we feign friendship with others in order to manipulate them. He was championing real friendship and gentle persuasion as the only path toward \u201cconvincing (another\u2019s) judgment\u201d \u2014 the very opposite of manipulation. Lincoln acknowledged but never manipulated the passions of his hearers. He labored instead to convince their reason. And that was possible only through friendship and persuasion.<\/p>\n

For Lincoln, this required taking people as you found them and giving due weight to public opinion. It required viewing your fellow citizens and even your political adversaries (for Lincoln, this included even Southern slaveholders) as fellow human beings, endowed with reason and amenable to persuasion. It required speaking and writing in a manner calculated to convince adaptable minds.<\/p>\n

Too few of us speak and write this way today. (Too few, in this age of AI, do their own writing at all, but that is a topic for another essay.) Too many see differences of opinion on deeply felt matters as cause for denunciation and avoidance, not for engagement and persuasion. <\/p>\n

One of today\u2019s wisest civic thinkers, Yuval Levin, has suggested that being a moderate does not mean holding middle-of-the-road positions. It means treating with moderation those you disagree with, regarding them as reasonable people worth trying to persuade, not as moral monsters to be demonized and dismissed.<\/p>\n

One might be tempted to think that, for all Lincoln\u2019s great faith in persuasion, the Civil War pronounced persuasion\u2019s failure. But for Lincoln, it wasn\u2019t the war that renounced persuasion; it was secession. By seceding against the results of a free and fair election, the slaveholding South was rebelling against governance based on reason, persuasion and consent \u2014 government, to borrow a phrase, of the people, by the people and for the people.<\/p>\n

As for Lincoln, his faith in reason and devotion to persuasion never flagged. \u201cHappy day,\u201d he declared in his temperance speech\u2019s closing words, \u201cwhen, all appetites controlled, all passions subdued, all matters subjected, mind \u2014 all-conquering mind \u2014 shall live and move the monarch of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln continued, \u201cAnd when the victory shall be complete \u2014 when there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth \u2014 how proud the title of that land, which may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those revolutions that shall have ended in that victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

May we heed these lessons from Lincoln. May we recover the lost art of persuasion. May Lincoln\u2019s example persuade us still.<\/p>\n

Read more President Oaks tours new Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center ahead of public opening<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we give up on the idea that the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens can be moved by our best argument, we let go of something precious to our democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-perspective"],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion - American Movers Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we give up on the idea that the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens can be moved by our best argument, we let go of something precious to our democracy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Movers Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-27T04:14:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b68c8483906c0d2987f271455f0177af\"},\"headline\":\"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-27T04:14:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757\"},\"wordCount\":1233,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/4d33a44bf90a5434d8536551e1788878.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Perspective\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757\",\"name\":\"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion - American Movers Hub\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/4d33a44bf90a5434d8536551e1788878.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-27T04:14:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b68c8483906c0d2987f271455f0177af\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/4d33a44bf90a5434d8536551e1788878.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/4d33a44bf90a5434d8536551e1788878.avif\",\"width\":630,\"height\":331},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?p=757#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"American Movers Hub\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b68c8483906c0d2987f271455f0177af\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanmovershub.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion - American Movers Hub","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion - American Movers Hub","og_description":"When we give up on the idea that the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens can be moved by our best argument, we let go of something precious to our democracy.","og_url":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757","og_site_name":"American Movers Hub","article_published_time":"2026-05-27T04:14:41+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b68c8483906c0d2987f271455f0177af"},"headline":"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion","datePublished":"2026-05-27T04:14:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757"},"wordCount":1233,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4d33a44bf90a5434d8536551e1788878.avif","articleSection":["Perspective"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757","url":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757","name":"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion - American Movers Hub","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4d33a44bf90a5434d8536551e1788878.avif","datePublished":"2026-05-27T04:14:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b68c8483906c0d2987f271455f0177af"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4d33a44bf90a5434d8536551e1788878.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4d33a44bf90a5434d8536551e1788878.avif","width":630,"height":331},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=757#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Opinion: Abraham Lincoln and the lost art of persuasion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/","name":"American Movers Hub","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b68c8483906c0d2987f271455f0177af","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/americanmovershub.com"],"url":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}