The Role Of Lincoln In Machiavelli's The Prince

Although it may seem rather trite to boil down Machiavelli’s entire political theory down into one idea, it can be said that he creates the image where a successful prince is one who is willing to employ any means necessary to achieve his ends. Even if a leader wants to promote good, they must be able to get their hands dirty, or rather, “it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain himself to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge or not to use it according to necessity” (Machiavelli, The Prince, 53). According to Machiavelli, it is an obvious truth that a leader must disregard the rules of morality and justice to achieve his ends at times. Yet there needs to be a distinction made here that shows he was not completely in favor of a prince acting in an evil manner. A prince must know how to do the right thing when he is able to, but he also must be prepared to do evil when it is a necessary to uphold political greatness. This idea can be seen when he says that, “And so it …show more content…
Both technically used unethical means to achieve their goal, but with Machiavelli the goal is usually affiliated with the ruler’s desire to maintain their power. Lincoln doesn’t seem to uphold this Machiavellian idea as he seeks to help the future than his own political needs. He did not seek absolute control and dictatorship which is something Machiavelli would have criticized as he would have said that Lincoln was doing everything right besides seeking that his power is maintained for the future. He was using the right amount of corruption to pass his political goals but the problem was that he wasn’t using the corruptive tactics to maintain his power for the future, a major difference from the advice of