On forgiveness and brilliance

In his sermon "Loving Your Enemies," Martin Luther King, Jr., described an event from history: When Abraham Lincoln was running for the presidency of the United States, there was a man who ran all around the country speaking ill of Lincoln. He said a lot of unkind things. "You don’t want a tall, lanky, ignorant man like this as the president of the United States!" However, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. When the time came for him to choose the Secretary of War, he looked across the nation, and decided to choose a man by the name of Mr. Stanton. When the president made this proposal before his advisors, they were surprised: "Mr. Lincoln," the senior adviser said, "Are you a fool? Do you know what Mr. Stanton has been saying about you? Did you read all of those derogatory statements that he made about you?" Abraham Lincoln stood before the advisors around him and said: "Oh yeah. I know about it; I read about it; I’ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I find that he is the best man for the job."

Mr. Stanton did become the Secretary of War. Later, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, one of the greatest statements ever made about him was by this man Mr. Stanton. After describing the nobility of the president, his spirit of unconditional forgiveness and the integrity of his character in superlatives, Stanton emphatically added, "Now Abraham Lincoln belongs to the ages." If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, and acted accordingly, Stanton might well have gone to his grave hating Lincoln and Lincoln might have gone to his grave hating Stanton.