Annette John-Hall: The unseen hero: Frederick Douglass

Let's face it. Tuesday's inauguration, for all its buildup, pomp and celebration, is not about President-elect Barack Obama.

It's about we, the people.

Sure, the Whistle Stop Express, his historical re-creation of another famous presidential rail journey, is equal parts populist positioning and P.R. ploy. Tomorrow's photo op at 30th Street Station, the first stop on his route to the White House, is an orchestration if ever there was one.

The fear factor in me wishes Obama would just stay put at Blair House in D.C. until the big day. Shoot some hoops, work on his speech. Pick a puppy. Anything but ride the public rails into the capital.

At the same time, it's not surprising that he's taking this train ride. Not if you understand what's been apparent for a long time: Barack Obama has a serious thing for Abraham Lincoln.

Our 16th president made the same train trip in 1861 on the way to his first inaugural.

Short of wearing a stovepipe hat, Obama's nods to his American idol have been many.

Let's count the ways: Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield, Ill., Lincoln's hometown. Check.

He's borrowed lines from Lincoln's speeches and quoted them in his own numerous times. Check.

He's even taking the oath of office on the same Bible Lincoln used. Check.

No indication yet that he will be sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom.

Oh, the symbolism.

But the truth is, Lincoln, with a legacy of a dignified and thoughtful statesman who managed to unite a nation ripped apart by the horror of slavery, is more than a symbol for him. Lincoln's presidency is the lens through which Obama views his own.

Lincoln believed in "a team of rivals," people on either side of the aisle who voiced their opinions even in opposition. In the end, they pushed him to greatness.

For Abraham Lincoln, a prime rival turned ally was Frederick Douglass.

Author, public intellectual, staunch abolitionist, Douglass played for Lincoln the role Martin Luther King had with Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the outside agitator, the conscience-tweaker.

And nobody respected Douglass more than Lincoln. The proof is in a letter written by Lincoln on Douglass' behalf, one of more than 400 items on display at the "America I AM" exhibit that opened yesterday at the National Constitution Center.

Eloquent in its brevity, it reads:

To whom it may concern,

The bearer of this, Frederick Douglass, is known to us as a loyal, free man, and is, hence, entitled to travel, unmolested. We trust that he will be recognized everywhere, as a free man, and a gentleman.

Respectfully,

A. Lincoln

It's funny that even though Obama patterns himself after Lincoln, there are plenty of comparisons to draw to Douglass.

Both Obama and Douglass are brilliant writers. Both biracial - Douglass, born a slave, was the product of a white master and a black mother. And both mastered the art of mesmerizing oratory.

"Plenty of Americans, before they saw Barack Obama, said, 'I can't see myself voting for a black man.' Then they see his artistry and think differently. . . . Douglass did that all the time," said Harvard professor John Stauffer, author of

Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln

.

Douglass loathed Lincoln at first. After Lincoln defended slavery in his first inaugural address in 1861, Douglass called him a "slave hound."

But Douglass hounded Lincoln instead, and persuaded him that the only way to preserve the Union was to end slavery. After Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, African American soldiers fortified the Union army and eventually brought down the Confederacy.

Does Obama need a conscience-tweaker, an agitator?

"People see Lincoln as perfect," Stauffer said, "which is to create a myth, not a man."

A cautionary tale for us - and Obama.

So in the end, it is about us. We can all stand to take a cue from Frederick Douglass and hold our president accountable to the nation.

And from what we've seen so far, that's what Obama wants us to do.