President Barron presented to our class and recommended that we select a specific lens that we analyze and read the book with. After several events that have happened over the past few weeks and months, I’d like to look for specific instances of Abraham Lincoln and his team of rivals taking morally and ethically sound action.
I’d like to recall examples of ethical decision making from Chapter 3 to start. On page 85, the author told the story of a twenty-three-year-old black man named William Freeman. The gentleman was released from jail after serving five years for a crime that he did not even commit. In the 5 years that he spent in prison, he dealt with a series of floggings that caused him to be deaf and deranged. The court asked if anyone would defend him and Seward stood up to serve as his lawyer until he died.
Although most of his friends and family criticized his action, Frances Seward, his wife, stood by his side through it and he will do the right thing through it all. This story taught me that William Seward is not afraid to do the right thing. He will make sacrifices to do for mankind. That is incredibly admirable.
What touched me most was what he told the court. He said “He is still your brother, and mine…hold him then to be a man” and “there is not a white man or white woman who would not have been long since from the perils of such a prosecution.”
Although this story was printed across the country, and he did receive warm regards for his work for Freeman, I believe that he did what was right.
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