An Election Day Message: Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Phillips

By Alex Milnikel

On this Election Day, I wanted to offer our readers something different than our usual fare. I’ve found it oddly comforting in my life to lean on stories of our past. To see what struggles and challenges those who came before us dealt with and overcame, to learn from their example, and to know that so many of the things they struggled against aren’t so different from our own challenges today.

I don’t think any American would say that there’s any shortage of incredible lessons to be learned from the life and example of Abraham Lincoln. A genuinely American spirit, when we read his words we recognize not simply his brilliance but also his humanity. And so, if I may, I’d like to offer you all, be you Democrat, Republican, Independent, or whatever, a small lesson offered to us by President Lincoln and another fellow citizen, John Phillips.

Now, I’m guessing most of you have never heard of John Phillips, and that’s perfectly understandable. Mr. Lincoln himself didn’t know who John Phillips was until after his re-election in 1864, and he probably never met the man in person. You see, John Phillips was 104 years old when he cast his ballot for Abraham Lincoln in 1864, 72 years after he cast a ballot for George Washington in 1792.

John Phillips was a lifelong resident of Sturbridge, Massachusetts. He was a farmer, a deacon, and in 1776 a militiaman serving the fledgling state of Massachusetts in the American Revolutionary War. After helping to secure the freedom and future of his new nation, Phillips spent most of his life devoted to his “citizen’s duty” to vote in the elections for his nation’s chief executive, and although his voting record wasn’t perfect, Phillips took pride in voting, and his neighbors in turn took pride in his devotion to his duty.

After casting his ballot for President Lincoln in his contentious re-election of 1864, Phillip’s minister, the Reverend Mr. F.W. Emmons wrote to the White House the following in description of him:

‘He is a Democrat of the Jeffersonian School; voted for Washington as President of the United States; and, yesterday, voted for your re-election to the honorable and responsible place… He has been, for several years, the oldest citizen of this town; and is now, probably, the oldest man in the commonwealth.’

In reply, President Lincoln penned a short letter to Phillips on November 21, 1864, writing:

‘My dear Sir,

I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, in which you bore so honored a part, and I take the liberty of writing to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable.

The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have already extended an average life time beyond the Psalmist’s limit, cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself only, but for the country which you have in your sphere served so long and so well, that I thank you. Your friend and Servant.’

Lincoln, like many of our greatest public figures, took joy in the small miracles that make our democracy work. He didn’t look upon our history and think that the American experiment simply boiled down to “great men doing great things” every step of the way; rather, he understood that it worked because of normal people humbly, quietly, and diligently fulfilling their duties as citizens. That is, abiding by and remaining loyal to the Constitution, lawfully and peacefully objecting to injustice where they saw it, and perhaps most importantly of all, using their voice at the ballot box to enact change where it was needed.

On this Election Day, if you haven’t already, please… vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote.

• Vote for your family.

  
  

• Vote for your neighbors.

  
  

• Vote for your home.

  
  

• Vote for the stranger whom you may never meet, but whose life matters all the same.

  
  

• Vote for your country, including the corners you may never set foot in.

  
  

• Vote in honor of those many millions who came before and sacrificed so much to give you that vote and that voice.

  
  

• Vote for the promise that, no matter what happens, tomorrow will still come, and we will still embrace those who disagree with us as neighbors.

  
  

• Vote to drive out hatred and malice from our politics.

  
  

• Vote to give hope to the oppressed, both in this country and around the world. You may think your voice is small and your vote but one, but there are hundreds of millions around the world who take hope in seeing our system work.

  
  

• Vote for the women in your life. Your mothers. Your daughters. Your sisters. Your granddaughters. Your grandmothers. Your teachers. Your friends. Your neighbors. The scores of women who helped raise us, whether or not they were our mothers or mothers themselves. Vote that they may know that in this country their lives are just as valued as everyone else’s.

  
  

• Finally, vote for yourself and your conscience. Ultimately, you must choose what you truly believe is best for our community and country. And whatever that is, the beautiful thing about this country is that you can.

Shout the battle cry of freedom and vote!

Happy Election Day, everyone. Stay safe, stay strong, and please, if you haven’t already… vote.

"With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." -Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865