Few remember this (well, nobody actually remembers it personally, but remembers it from history class) that Lincoln was a lawyer.
When he became President, however, he didn’t put that mindset behind:
Professor Paul Finkelman of Albany Law School has written an enlightening law review article about what President Abraham Lincoln did when 303 men who were members of the Dakota nation were sentenced to die for atrocities committed against white settlers. Much to the chagrin of even Lincoln’s political allies, Lincoln decided that he and his staff were going to review each of the convictions. Lincoln found that, among other things, claims of mass rape were vastly overstated and mostly false. Ultimately, Lincoln reprieved 265 of the 303 men convicted; only thirty-eight were hanged. That is, seven out of every eight who were condemned were reprieved. It was the largest mass clemency of people sentenced to death in American history.
Lincoln was a badass on all fronts, so it’s so surprise he stood up for the wrongly-accused.
Who in politics today would have such character?
