Atticus Finch: A Southern Lincolnian?
Reflections on Flawed Courage
Perhaps you are wondering why I am focusing on Atticus Finch and Abraham Lincoln when I normally talk about Baptist history and identity. Many might not realize this, but Lincoln was the first American president raised in a Baptist environment. While the purpose of this article is not to explore that dimension of Lincoln, Lincoln’s Baptist family is a topic that I am happy to talk about at any time! Since my interest in presidential history began in the second grade, Lincoln has fascinated me in so many ways. I live fifty minutes north of his birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky, and take friends there frequently to explore the Kentucky roots of the sixteenth president.
Though not a real historical figure, Atticus Finch has impacted me in a few ways. Finch is a chief character in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee’s novel is my favorite work of fiction. When I reread the book upon moving out of the Deep South, Finch’s courage deeply impressed me more than when I was in high school. Standing for the equality of African Americans in the Jim Crow South of the 1930s demanded a courage and fortitude often lacking today. From my perspective, an argument can be made that Finch embodied a sort of Southern Lincolnianism.
Allen Guelzo writes that “Lincoln did not merely espouse democracy; he looked like democracy. He was as common-looking and homely as a democratic people were themselves common and homely.”[1] At its core, a Lincolnian vision emphasizes the essence of equality drawn from natural rights and the truth that all men are made in the image of God. In one of the more striking statements made by Lincoln during his debates with Stephen A. Douglas, the rail-splitter stated, “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”[2] Lincoln attacked slavery as being totally inconsistent with democracy because democracy demanded the consent of the people.
Referring to “our ancient faith,” Lincoln argued “that no man is good enough to govern another man, without the other’s consent. I say that is the leading principle—the sheet anchor of American republicanism.”[3] Lincoln argued that democracy demands that each citizen be allowed a voice and a vote. He abhorred the slave system both because it deprived men of their rights and it provided a code of living that was rooted in hypocrisy. Slave masters demanded their slaves to live by rules that the masters themselves would never have submitted to.[4] Lincoln’s vision required all men be treated equally and that a democracy must be rooted in reason as well as virtue.
Mob rule was the antithesis to a healthy democracy because mobs feed upon unchecked passions. A democracy consists of citizens, which is the greatest title any American can possess. Lincolnianism exalts the term citizen which causes “the hierarchies of race, blood, and soil erected the Romantic nineteenth century [to] shrink to irrelevance.”[5] Lincoln was not perfect, yet Guelzo describes Lincolnian democracy as embodying “Lincoln’s own virtues—resilience, humility, persistence, work, and dignity.”[6] I would add one more: courage. While there are many areas where we might find Lincoln to be lacking by our standards, he demonstrated courage repeatedly in the face of great hostility. That Lincolnian mindset of humility, dignity, and resilience is typified in the fictional country lawyer who exhibited great courage in the face of a mob: Atticus Finch.
When Atticus instructs his son Jem to visit an old lady named Mrs. Dubose and sit with her, Jem could not understand why his father made him visit a lady who said horrible things about him. Atticus told his son that he “wanted you to see real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.”[7] Throughout the novel, the traits of Lincolnianism are discernible in the life of Atticus. If you are familiar with the novel, then you know the climax of the book’s narrative is the persistent defense Atticus provides for a wrongfully accused African American, Tom Robinson. Friends and family alike pour scorn out on Atticus for not only defending Robinson as a public duty but out of conviction of his innocence.
In a humorous yet poignant exchange with his daughter Scout, Atticus explains that “this time we aren’t fighting Yankees, we’re fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they’re still our friends and this is still our home.”[8] Like Lincoln, Atticus knew what it was like to face down a mob in the defense of man’s natural rights as enshrined in the constitutional order. In explaining to his children the ramifications that would come from his defending an African American man, Atticus stated that he hoped his children would “look back on this with some compassion, and some feeling that I didn’t let you down. This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience—Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man.”[9]
When he stood before the jury at the end of the trial, Atticus appealed to the natural equality that exists among all men. That equality was given by God and set forth in the words of Thomas Jefferson. He closed his defense arguing that “in our courts all men are created equal.”[10] Appealing to their duty before God and the community, Atticus called on his community to rise above the passions of a mob and remember the law of the land shaped by common bonds.
Throughout the entire narrative, the traits of Lincoln can be seen in Atticus’ explanations for his defense of Tom Robinson. If we were there in 1935 in rural Alabama, no one would have believed that Robinson would be found not guilty. Both Lincoln and Atticus remembered who their constituents were and showed no malice towards them. Yet, they were not going to be moved away from their core convictions. Atticus is a hero to me because he demonstrated what real courage looks like. It is not brawn nor is it in a pseudo-macho keyboard warrior. True courage is the ability to look others in the eyes and make a reasoned case for your beliefs regarding what is true, right, and good.
The case Atticus made to the mob, to the court, and to his children was that there are things worth fighting for and that one ultimately lives with their conscience before the Lord. Atticus’ view of citizenship could be taken as flowing out of a Lincolnian vision. I doubt Atticus would call himself Lincolnian because of the baggage such a term would carry in the South. However, I believe that the heartbeat of Lincolnianism was in Atticus Finch, for both men were committed to a courage of convictions regardless of the consequences. In the history of my beloved South, we have been short at times of Lincolnian men and women. May we find new inspiration in a heroic president and a heroic character for our modern times.
[1]Allen Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and The American Experiment (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2024), 24.
[2] Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith, 25.
[3] Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith, 26.
[4] Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith, 27.
[5] Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith, 170.
[6] Guelzo, Our Ancient Faith, 171.
[7] Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 128.
[8] Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 87.
[9] Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 120.
[10] Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 233.