Analyzing the Leadership Qualities of Abraham Lincoln during Crisis Situations and Racial Legal Issues: Future Studies and Recommendations

1. Introduction

In the realm of leadership, few figures stand as tall in the hearts and minds of Americans than Abraham Lincoln. The 16th President of the United States, he is often referred to as the “Great Emancipator” and “Savior of the Union.” As popularly quoted, he preserved the Union and emancipated the slaves. Yet, it should be noted that many have viewed him as a tyrant, a usurper, a dictator, who waged a war of aggression against his former states on behalf of the Northern aristocracy, who conspired to centralize the government and mount a “radical” reconstruction and emancipation plan that was doomed to failure. Most of the coverage of President Lincoln’s leadership qualities during adverse events analyzes how he handled hostile situations with rebellious states and dealt with the racially divisive issues of slavery and emancipation.

Lincoln was the first president to administer a government in a time of rebellion and war fought on such broad scales on equal footing with commercial states; the historical case and the momentous changes of the times are without precedent. The wars fought by his administration were of unprecedented magnitudes in world history. Never have such immense armies been positioned by a state to idle before an aggressor without a similar state of peacefulness coexisting. The population of the fighting European states at the time was in the twenties of millions. Lifted by a population of 37 million people, the massive task of raising and fielding over 2 million men was incomprehensible. On an even more unthinkable scale, the printing of currency and borrowing of European funds in outpourings that at the time rocked even the strongest states was enacted. At the end of the day, Lincoln preserved the government works, the nation, and the Constitution, by employing the very suspension of legalities he vowed to protect. (Cox, 2021)

While dealing with rebellious states and commanding an all but ragtag unrehearsed army in an all out war of centuries forward, Lincoln prevailed remarkably by protecting the legality of his government through palliations to state areas of concern. Racial divisiveness in his handling of slavery and emancipation as president addressed previous long term lack of rights racially via colonization proposals, negotiated state uniting before a war, and unprecedented freedom of petitioning from the North Full Freightedly Kilkenny Cats. The mapping of a course to conservatively preserve patience and prevent escalation was conducted similar to problem formulation and processes as viewed by systems dynamics. In thought of Lincoln’s seventeen years as a postulate before presidents of a whole nation fitting a loose knit composition of American states, it is but a mystery that this witty country lawyer became President of the United States.

2. Historical Context of Abraham Lincoln's Leadership

Abraham Lincoln is one of the most prominent and admired presidents in the history of America, known for holding the country together during one of the biggest crises it has ever faced. Studying how he handled that crisis, along with other legal and racial issues that emerged during his leadership, can yield useful insights and future recommendations that may minimize the chance of similar events occurring in the future, as well as useful leadership strategies to employ in the event such scenarios play out again. This paper endeavors to analyze Abraham Lincoln’s leadership qualities during crisis situations and racial legal issues from a historical context perspective. To facilitate this analysis, key contexts in his political career and the social environment of America at the time will first be established. (Rayimjonov2023)

Historically significant events prior to Lincoln’s presidency paved the way for him becoming president in the first place, as well as the developments he pursued as president. He was born in 1809 and grew up in Indiana and Illinois, and through hard work, he gained some education and developed a keen interest in storytelling, reading, and rhetoric. His early political career began in Illinois, where he served in the State Legislature after being elected as a Whig, a political party that emerged in the 1830s to try and counter the persistent political force of the Democratic Party. The party’s agenda included shaping a national bank and government-funded internal improvements. Lincoln quickly gained popularity and notoriety as a “self-taught, politically savvy, and charismatic individual” during his first term at the Legislature, and later served for a term in the United States House of Representatives at 1846. (Rayimjonov2023)(Zuckert, 2020)

He desired to improve infrastructure for trade and transportation but clashed with Democrats and free-trade factions who had different priorities. After one term at the House, he assumed the role of a private lawyer and returned to Illinois. He was still active in politics and opposed expansionist policies and the Mexican-American War in speeches, correspondence, and debates. Following the collapse of the Whig Party in the mid-1850s, he successfully joined and became the dominant leader of the newly-formed Republican Party, which adopted a strong anti-slavery platform. Through conclusion of political machinations and language arts skills, Lincoln won the nomination for the presidency in late 1860 and the election a month later. (Ginsberg, 2021)

However, enmity against the Republican Party led to ever-bolder and more thorough-going pro-slavery acts in the South, as many Southern states seceded from the Union. The insurrection was formally named the Confederate States of America in February 1861, and Lincoln was still determined to keep the Union intact as president, despite lacking formal power and authority until Inauguration Day on March 4. Weakened but still resolute, he took the official oath of office in the Capitol at noon before Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, clutching the Bible in a solemn pledge to protect and defend the Constitution. (Cole, 2023)

2.1. Early Life and Political Career

Abraham Lincoln, born on February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin, descended from a family of yeomen farmers in Virginia’s backcountry. At seven, he and his family crossed the Ohio River and settled in Perry County, Indiana, where they faced hardships due to rugged terrain and dense forests. Well-educated for his time, Lincoln only received a formal education of less than a year. Growing up, he developed habits of reflection and reading from widely available books, including the Bible, Aesop’s Fables, and works by Shakespeare and Plutarch. He developed an intense dislike for slavery from his childhood church, the Separate Baptists, which viewed slavery as a sin against “God and man.” (Arnold, 2022)(Meacham, 2022)

Lincoln’s first job was as a rail-splitter on a flatboat, later returning to New Salem, a former Indian village, where he became a clerk with the aid of his mother. After an unsuccessful courtship, he fell in love with a woman of lower stature, but life in New Salem became untenable. During a trip to Washington D.C., he was impressed by the discriminatory laws against colored folk, igniting his dream of America as a Jeweland. Lincoln’s complex relationship with slavery and race, an issue with which he struggled throughout his life, profoundly influenced his political development. After returning to New Salem, he formed a close friendship with Mentor Graham, who became his first real teacher. (Cox, 2021)

Under Graham’s tutelage, Lincoln read the classics and current debates about slavery. During the 1830s, Lincoln’s youth was riddled with poverty, unrequited love, and a tragic death in his family, which intensified his interest in books and politics. Lincoln became a Whig activist after being elected captain of a militia company to fight against the British, elected to the Illinois State Legislature, and later to Congress, where he strongly opposed slavery. In his 1847 “Spot Resolutions,” Lincoln challenged President James K. Polk’s war policy against Mexico. The war’s intensity disturbed Lincoln, who viewed it as a land grab that would extend slavery. (Arnold, 2022)(DiLorenzo, 2020)

While serving in the House of Representatives, Lincoln faced an existential crisis. Upon returning to Illinois, the Whig Party’s decline and his failure to secure a postmaster position in Springfield led Lincoln into the political wilderness. He avoided public questioning about his racial views and concerns over resuming office-holding altogether. After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 proposed bringing Nebraska into the Union, soyabeans and corn made Illinois politically vital. The South sought to extract price advantages and alter the Senate’s balance of power through the extension of slavery into Nebraska, with President Franklin Pierce’s favorable “penny a pound” design. Lincoln joined the political fray for the first time in a decade. The age of railroads had arrived, spurring dreams of Chicago, a city of ethnic power. (Meacham, 2022)

2.2. Civil War and Crisis Situations

Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865, a span that included the American Civil War. As president, he successfully led the nation through the country’s greatest internal crisis, preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, and modernizing the economy. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Lincoln faced the immediate task of unifying a splintered nation, restoring a sense of normalcy, and re-establishing the role of the federal government. Nevertheless, the demands of wartime leadership would complicate these general objectives. In the following months, Lincoln struggled with the challenge of waging an effective war while maintaining civil liberties, and faced a bitter rival within his own party who disrupted war efforts. Regardless of these trials, Lincoln grew into the office through perseverance, patience, and trust in his own judgment. (Raymond & Carpenter, 2022)

The greatest trial of the republic began just after Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861. The South, angered by the election of a Republican president pledged to restrict the expansion of slavery into the western territories and states, rebelled. Within six weeks after his inauguration, South Carolina had seceded from the Union and seized Fort Sumter, a Union fort within Charleston harbor. In response, Lincoln called for Massachusetts volunteers to march to Washington, to protect the capital and suppress the rebellion. His call to arms prompted a further wave of secessions, and by the summer, the South was braced for war with a Confederacy of eleven seceding states. These included Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, among others—all states with deep colonial roots, heavy slave populations, and vested interests in the plantation system of agriculture. Despite the earlier panic in Washington, by summer, the Confederacy had established its own form of government, complete with a Constitution, a Congress, a Cabinet, a Supreme Court, an army, a navy, and a president. (Gaughan, 2022)

Responding to the Southern challenge was a daunting task. Lincoln faced the immediate need to unify panic-stricken Northerners, to give the American people a sense of purpose, and to re-establish the customary role of the federal government in day-to-day affairs. Trophic responses to war are often based on what happened during the last war. Unfortunately, for Lincoln, the only precedent was a conflict between the first-generation colonies and Great Britain. With independence at stake in that struggle, the American people had rallied to Washington’s army and willingly sacrificed blood and treasure to the cause. However, the present conflict entailed a far more complex situation. The revolt was not against the British crown or a foreign monarch but against the very fact of majority rule and a representative democracy. In such circumstances, preserving the Union was far less certain than establishing an independent nation. (Mersmann, 2022)

In order to grapple with the demands of his own office, on March 31, Lincoln appointed William Henry Seward to be his secretary of state. Like Lincoln, Seward was an astute politician. He possessed a temperament both unusually cautious and confident; part of his promise was that he could help navigate Lincoln through particularly complicated Northern political waters. Nevertheless, in the opening weeks of the war, Seward lost some of his influence and prestige as president, mostly due to low public approval ratings, stubborn confidence, and misguided communication regarding foreign relations. Ultimately, Lincoln subjected Seward’s plans to careful scrutiny and emerged with a broader sense of purpose. Attending initially to minor matters in early April, Lincoln next turned to foreign relations, carefully reading dispatches regarding crop failures in England and other nations, worrying that Southern cotton would spur foreign intervention in the war.

2.3. Emancipation Proclamation and Racial Legal Issues

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, is considered one of the most important documents in American history. It declared that all enslaved people in the Confederate states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free,” changing the purpose of the Civil War from saving the Union to ending slavery. This landmark document also profoundly affected Lincoln’s political life and shaped his public image as the Great Emancipator. Lincoln maintained that Union was preserved at all costs, and before the war, he loathed the idea of emancipation. “Turning loose the dogs of war” against slavery, as he derisively commented, was unacceptable. He was committed to pursue the war as he had promised to his constituents in 1860 and 1861 and gradually adopted military action to achieve that end. Lincoln’s public image, compared to his profound thoughts on slavery, was that of a reserved, aloof, and distant statesman during the war. A wartime letter to an office-seeker poignantly illustrated this image: “I do these things for the sake of the country and not for the sake of individuals.” The letter revealed Lincoln’s rigid and formal style of public communication, which contributed to his political isolation during the first two years of the war. However, he also wrote back to constituents addresses brimming with soft human attachments. As a largely unknown figure on the national stage, personal approach and self-ridicule were his only means to solicit public support. Lincoln resolutely believed that that is what honesty and sincerity are about: “Tell the truth, and shame the devil”. (Cole, 2023)(Coles)

On the other hand, Lincoln’s cautiousness, restraint, and ability to endure loneliness were essential traits for weathering storms and preserving the country. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation marked a turning-point in the military, political, and social engenderment of the war. On military ground, the Emancipation Proclamation heralded the formation of the United States Colored Troops which was instrumental in putting the Union armies in a strong position. On political ground, it successfully swung the political balance of the war in favor of the North. The fear for slave insurrections in the South provoked by the proclamation compelled Confederate states to devote scarce military resources to internal security, inhibiting their battle ability. “Throughout the war, government policy toward the slaves was essentially that of intrusion and blockade, of obliterating the right to hold slaves without a blow being struck” (Davis). The inability to free or arm slaves represented a critical loss of the Union’s moral authority in the eyes of the world. On social ground, Lincoln’s faith in the providence of God was poignantly illustrated in the proclamation. The willingness of African Americans to sacrifice their lives on the side of the Union convinced Lincoln that the sufferings in slavery were part of a divine plan for them to be free. The proclamation’s firm belief that “if the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His infinite wisdom and goodness, will so long permit this mighty scourge of war to continue” implies Lincoln’s resignation and hope in the course of social development itself. (Jones, 2024)

Despite abundant positive impact on the war and the nation, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation still had many faults in its conception and implementation. First of all, the proclamation hampered cases in which pro-slavery decisions were passed by Federal courts. On September 4, 1861, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of the Supreme Court ruled in the McLeod Case, “a war proclamation would not free one slave.” Although Taney’s decision was partly overturned by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1862, it was the proclamation that undermined the protection of personal liberties when the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton ordered that free-born black U.S. citizens be returned to slavery: “They ought to be sent South if they are free.” Lincoln’s reliance on the military also backfired. For two years, there was a general uneasiness of the war department’s exercise of powers after the suspension of habeas corpus in 1861, which he ascribed to the threat posed by Mcclellan’s pursuit for generalship. Even the New-York Times, a pro-Union and favorable publication of Lincoln, warned early in 1862 against the dangers of the military usurpation of power on both domestic and foreign matters.

3. Key Leadership Qualities of Abraham Lincoln

The title of this capstone project suggests a focus on the leadership qualities of Abraham Lincoln, one of the most celebrated presidents of the United States. In modern society, the preservation of the union of states and the legal rights of citizens regardless of race are significant issues that are commonly contended with. This is particularly true regarding issues such as arrest, detainment, and constitutional liberty rights, owing to the number of persons of color arrested and in prison compared to the population in the United States. These issues were all experienced by the executive branch of the United States Open from the Lincoln administration during the mid-1800s, when states wished to separate themselves from the Union, and onslaught took place by the southern states. These issues were all experienced by the executive branch of the United States Open from the Lincoln administration during the mid-1800s, when states wished to separate themselves from the Union, and onslaught took place by the southern states. To analyze the leadership qualities of Abraham Lincoln during these crisis situations and in these racial legal issues, it is important to analyze them in light of the current excellent attributes and weaknesses of various presidents over time. (Handlin & Handlin, 2021)(McCarthy, 2022)

The key leadership qualities of Abraham Lincoln during times of crisis and with the issue of race-based legal ability are empathy and compassion, strategy and decision-making, and communication skills. Empathy and compassion will first be analyzed concerning political rivals before and after election and during the southern state assault. The focus will then be on the strengths and weaknesses of Lincoln's strategy and decision-making with both the official president only opposition system and the personal opposition of the former secretary of war. The last focus will be on the policies of the federal writ of habeas corpus suspension and other emergency powers provided to the president. This will be followed by an analysis of campaign speeches made when requesting re-election to a second term as president, along with public speeches addressed to both Congress and the public after the signing of the thirteenth amendment, which abolished slavery.

3.1. Empathy and Compassion

Lincoln’s compassion and empathy towards the human condition remains unquestioned in terms of the laws and policy decisions he took in consideration of the civil rights of African Americans. However, there are arguments that Lincoln’s intentions towards African American civil rights were not entirely free from concerns towards the reactions of the Caucasian society at large. Certain contemptible racially denigrating expressions made by Lincoln have given rise to debates over his lack of adequate empathy and compassion towards the African Americans. Examples of such expressions include his argument to the African Americans, “Are we not then a slave-holding nation?” Furthermore, Lincoln was once heard expressing a wish for the African Americans to return to their “original home” once slavery was abolished. Lincoln’s expressed wish that the African Americans be treated as humans, but not citizens, is cited as a justification for the scepticism over Lincoln’s legacy of emancipation (Newman, 2006).

In spite of the arguments to the contrary, it cannot be denied that Lincoln indeed possessed a solid empathy and compassion for the African Americans as could be discerned by the gradual evolution of his views towards the civil rights of the African Americans. The movement of the legal criteria concerning the citizenship of the Native Americans in the US also offers a useful parallel to assess Lincoln’s empathy and compassion towards the African Americans. Like most of his predecessors Lincoln took a hard line stance against the emancipation of the African slaves fearing the violent reactions it would provoke among the Caucasian Americans. Lincoln had rather indicated the hope of shipping away the Negroes in consideration to fears of violent social unrest among the Caucasian society at large fearing a competition in jobs, wealth and social status (Hossain, 2021). As far as Lincoln’s views regarding the human rights of the African Americans were concerned, he had settled for a position that would take away the pain and indignity of slavery, but quite essentially keep the status of an African American free.

3.2. Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making

Strategic thinking and decision-making refer to the overall habits and mental models that govern choices made in the face of ideas, problems, dilemmas, challenges, and educational planning. It involves critically evaluating theories, asking good questions, and organizing a coherent plan to arrive at desired outcomes. Moreover, strategic thinking and decision-making deem vital concern during crisis situations and high-stakes events (Hargrove & Glidewell, 2017). This interest includes the experience and training of military planners, executives, and political leaders. Particularly noteworthy is the view espoused by many amateurs, political pundits, and attendees of “debate-watch parties” that strategic decisions made in crisis situations differ from those typically made during peacetime.

During his presidency, Abraham Lincoln found himself grappling with trying, violent, and frustrating situations. Examining his experience reveals unique approaches to forecasting public responses to new policies and decisions, persuading constituency members to work hard on behalf of new policies and decisions, and realizing that climate but not weather could be forecasted. This analysis sheds new light on decision-making under crisis and offers recommendations for future research. Consideration is given here to Lincoln’s unique approaches to decision making that became apparent during the Civil War. Attention is also given to experiences and insights of his few contemporary counterparts who grappled with equally trying events and situations, including both his predecessors and successors.

Events do not unfold as if they were scripted or choreographed. They are punctuated by surprises, frustrations, and disappointments, most of which arise out of the unintended consequences of officially planned action and inaction. After a new policy decision is adopted, those likely to be adversely affected typically resist compliance. Opponents of official actions that cause frustration or disappointment seek to change their consequences by complaining, whining, subverting policy implementation, or competing with a higher authority. Participants often explore legal recourse, exit strategies, or retaliation. Lincoln understood these pressures. He realized that speeches, proclamations, and the threat of force usually proved unpersuasive and counterproductive. He sought to find policies that achieved both desired ends and conditions for compliance.

3.3. Communication Skills

One of Lincoln’s remarkable characteristics was his ability to empower individuals as well as groups. Lincoln was good at obtaining information and opinions from a large variety of sources. He consulted his junior generals to hear what they thought. At times he even seemed to place more trust in them than in his own judgment. After McClellan’s failure to act during the winter of 1861-1862 and the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, the President began to doubt that General should take over the army, but it was not until he had heard the opinions of several other generals that he decided to do so. Recruiting generals and developing leaders were responsibilities of the Commander-in-chief but Lincoln shared enough of it to let subordinate commanders feel part of a team. A good and supportive staff is an advantage for any leader, especially in a critical situation. Lincoln’s secretaries, Stanton and Chase, were at first a discordant and difficult team that gave him worrying headaches. But after some initial friction, these two strong characters became his staunchest defenders, loyal supporters, and most competent aides.

Lincoln and his top generals once described war as a dance. It is a most chaotic and unpredictable dance with enemies and allies taking steps hardly foreseen beforehand and plans being hastily redrawn to adapt to the changed situation. A successful commander leads the dance, by losing or winning it, and chooses its shape. Lincoln was not only a successful commander but also the one who led and thoroughly coordinated the dance. Though somewhat exalted, this analogy expresses the task and activities of the wartime president better than many unsophisticated descriptions. Flexibility and adaptability of both sides in the negotiations are indispensable and there is danger that formal bargaining is dispensed with altogether. Although during the war Lincoln’s major target was to defeat the Confederacy, during the peace negotiations plans for a postwar order played a significant role in the decisions and actions taken. Lincoln initiated discussions of the postwar order with the Thirteenth Amendment at its center almost before the capture of Richmond. During the pursuit of the Confederacy’s last armies, he kept the factor of potential trouble-makers in mind. (Lawrence, 2020)

Lincoln’s crumbling of moderate proposals of national suffrage was a crucial step in the radicalization of his Reconstruction policies. The President’s secretiveness and desire to hold cards close to his chest made it impossible for outsiders to see the whole picture. It was also experienced by some trustworthy insiders like Chicago’s Ward and Cook County’s, both of whom thought wrongly that Lincoln was conducting an existential policy for Chicago.

4. Impact of Lincoln's Leadership on American History

Abraham Lincoln's leadership qualities had a monumental impact on American history. Fearless and courageous, Lincoln stood his ground against those who sought to destroy the Union and maintain slavery. Lincoln’s strong moral compass allowed him to pursue a difficult path for promoting justice and equal rights for all, despite heavy political losses. His humility allowed him to recognize his shortcomings and failures, ensuring that his leadership team consisted of those better suited for the presidency, particularly during the Civil War. His ability to remain calm under pressure and address crises like the American Civil War showed his trust in a higher moral compass, reassuring the nation. Lincoln’s pursuit of reconciliation and nation-building is one of the most remarkable and restorative efforts in human history. Such leadership qualities would require profound wisdom and patience to create a legal framework for daunted races, individuals with complex cultural issues, and a fundamentally divided system of representation.

"All men are created equal…” 52 words in the Declaration of Independence. To Lincoln, these words were an invitation to the nation to renounce slavery, but the political ramifications were so great that it would require forever deepening the nation's commitment to the challenge of reconciling this principle with the reality of their existence. One by one the states of the South seceded, forcing Lincoln to make a fateful choice between the separation of the Union and the appropriation of the unparalleled legal power of the Constitution. The first choice would have been to abandon the ideal of a nation "conceived in Liberty" and committed to the proposition that "all men are created equal," to isolate that nation politically, economically, and morally, to forsake the heritage of the Revolution for a second rate nation derived from slavery; and, in particular, to leave to the men of slavery alone the legal right to define freedom's meaning in the nation under their control. The aggrandizement of slavery would have become the legal premise not just of some states, but of the nation itself. To have accepted the second choice would have placed against an equal antagonism the South's weapons of secession, capturing 90% of all government property, military arms, turns toward martyrdom and, finally, war. (Cole, 2023)

To have acquiesced in a Congressional amendment to forever protect slavery in the states would have been to concede the core meaning of the Declaration itself. To effectuate a single national law sustaining slavery's legal primacy throughout the Union would have completely undermined the constitutional and moral foundation itself of the nation's independence and sovereignty precisely as formed.

5. Future Research Directions and Recommendations

One avenue for future research of Lincoln's leadership could be to apply the lessons learned to current day political issues. Lincoln's both confidence and effectiveness is a reminder to leadership of such concerns that it is not enough to simply have positive attributes. There is a crucial distinction between being smart and clear about what to do, having the capabilities to do it, and being able to convince others, including oneself, to take this action. Lincoln was fortunate in having a time of national crisis that was primarily in the realm of strategy and technology, rather than in social dealmaking. In this context, he was able to correctly visualize the ability of the North to produce apparently endless amounts of improved technology to fight the war. This did all occur, but Lincoln did not describe how it could or would happen. In his time of crisis, he could perhaps produce only simple visions. Despite this modesty or limits, he became “Greater than Washington”, largely because he achieved the capability of bringing about what he imagined, while Washington could not do as Lincoln. This is an important but more subtle distinction, and thus Washington is usually called “Father of the Country” but not “Great Leader.” Future research could elaborate more on the depth and complexity of strategies that leaders hold, and how this relates to their success. Situations with social deals at a national scale can be hard for such mathematical models or computer simulations; “meta-models” that bridge between simple mathematical languages and social narratives might be best. Research could also analyze an expanded scenario of America’s Civil War, such as if there were no combat technology advantage for either side, but the North had the more advanced training, generalship, and disciplined professional army at the start. Here again, Lincoln’s initial military incompetence might have been fatal.

A second avenue for future research could be to analyze Lincoln’s leadership more in regard to changing institutions and incentives, rather than primarily in strategy and understanding. Future studies could examine the interaction between Lincoln’s belief in technology and the consequent decision to pass legislation to create a national railroad and telegraph. Starting with a radical change in the institution of how the situation was communicated, giving the capability to the North that facilitated a rapid change in strategy and the building and implementing of the telegraphs and railroads, would be far more profound than simply holding clearer visions or predictions.

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