“Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
A newly sworn president of the United States from Illinois, of relatively little governing experience, closed his inaugural address with those words on March 4, 1861. The partisan passion he addressed would soon lead to civil war. It is no small blessing that, in this century, America’s partisan passions lead only to angry words, outlandish accusations and hard feelings — sometimes between the best of friends and often between people who should know better.
Some of us employed in a profession that requires the reading of letters and Web postings hurled across the political divide like cannon balls at Gettysburg, are prone to a kind of battle fatigue. As much as real combat literally defines a world gone mad, the political warfare of national political campaigns in America includes the spectacle of grown men and women who seem congenitally incapable of civil discourse and respectful debate. The “other” candidate and his or her supporters cannot be granted the role of well-meaning citizens who merely hold a different opinion. They must be demonized as evil or scorned as dupes, held unworthy of simple courtesy and even denied the assumption of allegiance to their own country.
Such demented antics make a national political campaign an unlikely stage for the “better angels” of anyone’s nature. Yet no presidential campaign, including the one just ended, is without those moments when that personal grace so perfectly characterized by Abraham Lincoln touches even the combatants.
There was Sen. Barack Obama, firmly declaring the pregnancy of Gov. Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter “off limits,” telling reporters: “You know my mother had me when she was 18.”
There was Sen. John McCain’s chagrined but sincere response to the extreme remarks of two supporters at a Minnesota rally: “I have to tell you, Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States.”
And finally, last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, there were those exceedingly gracious congratulatory remarks to President-elect Obama by Sen. McCain and by President George W. Bush — both acknowledging the historical significance of his victory and its special meaning to Americans of color. While this last point is lost on some and unaccountably resented by others, it was clearly appreciated and celebrated by the vast majority of Americans in recent days, whether they voted for Mr. Obama or not.
So we are left with a hopeful thought. Surely a nation that could bind itself up, however imperfectly, after a bloody civil war and travel so far toward the redemption of its most bitter legacy can find a larger role for the better angels of its nature in the conduct of its politics.

