Aristotle�s Ethics and Lincoln�s Life: The Tragedy, Liberation and Irony of Practical Wisdom (original) (raw)

Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages

Civil War Book Review, 2015

Essays on the Lessons of Lincoln Love of Abraham Lincoln is one thing that both conservatives and liberals each share. Many today, writes Lucas E. Morel in the preface to this informative and often provocative series of essays, are overly preoccupied with the 16th president's "openness to change" (ix). But to these contributors, Lincoln was "fairly well set in terms of his political philosophy" (xii). The essays in Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages "seek to understand Lincoln as he understood himself and attempted to make himself clear to his day and age" (xii), and illustrate that Lincoln still has much to teach us today. Indeed, there are insights here to broaden one's understanding of Lincoln for even the most seasoned scholar.

Debating the Great Emancipator: Abraham Lincoln and our Public Memory

Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2010

In this essay I analyze the debate over Abraham Lincoln’s role in the emancipation of African American slaves. Speaking both to contemporary public memory and the evidence of history, I contend that when Lincoln discussed or wrote about emancipation between 1860 and 1863, his rhetoric exhibited a dialogic form that shifted responsibility from the president to congressional leaders and common citizens. I conclude that Lincoln’s dialogic rhetoric does not signal his opposition to emancipation but rather his deep belief that emancipation would become meaningful only afer the considered deliberation and action of the American people.

Abraham Lincoln: Gradual Emancipator

Mount Royal Undergraduate Humanities Review, 2013

It has been a convention of American historical memory to position President Abraham Lincoln as the 'Great Emancipator.' This title invokes the Emancipation Proclamation and the notion that Lincoln pursued the wholesale abolition of slavery from the very beginnings of his political career, with the Emancipation Proclamation being the culmination of all his efforts up until its signing into effect on January 1 st , 1863. Lincoln, however, while certainly opposed to slavery from as early on as his service in the Illinois House of Representatives, initially sought to pursue gradual abolition. Rather than setting out to be the 'Great Emancipator,' Lincoln's aspiration was that of the 'Gradual Emancipator.' In this paper, I will examine how his views on the subject of slavery developed over time, gradually moving from the policy of gradual abolition until the events of the Civil War led to him penning the Emancipation Proclamation. This approach will allow for a clearer understanding of the transition in Lincoln's thinking on the question of abolition. There were some important developments that saw shifts-however subtle-in Lincoln's position on slavery. These developments include the debate on the Wilmot Proviso in the U.S. House of Representatives, the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and eventually the conduct of black soldiers during the American Civil War. Lincoln's admiration of Henry Clay also influenced his view on what the ideal form of emancipation would be. Nonetheless, Paul Finkelman wrote that there were some consistent foundations to the Gradual Emancipator's position on slavery, even as his arguments became more nuanced in the later years of his political career. Indeed, according to Finkelman, "as a public official, [Lincoln] had always supported limiting slavery in any way that was constitutional and never supported any resolution that sought to justify the morality of the institution." 1 Thus, while never having been a supporter of the institution of slavery, Lincoln had serious reservations toward any abolitionist proposal that might have been unconstitutional in nature. This view is most clearly reflected in a protest to the Illinois legislature delivered on March 3 rd , 1837 and signed by both Abraham Lincoln and Dan Stone. At the time, Lincoln was in the early stages of his political career, serving his first term in the Illinois House of Representatives when the protest was delivered. The text of the March 3 rd , 1837 protest sets out how Lincoln and Stone "believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia; but that that power ought not to be exercised unless at the request of the people of said District." 2 Thus, Lincoln placed State rights as a paramount concern in the debate over slavery, supporting abolition insofar as it did not infringe upon powers normally assigned to the States. Furthermore, Stone and Lincoln conveyed that "they believe that the institution of slavery 1

Lincoln and Emancipation: Constitutional Theory, Practical Politics, and the Basic Practice of Law

Journal of Supreme Court History, 2010

is, by any measure, our greatest President. Whenever we are asked to rank our Presidents, Lincoln comes out on top. This makes sense. His job, leading the nation through four years of Civil War, was the hardest of any President and he accomplished it so stunningly well: winning the War, preserving the Union, and ending slavery.

Democracy for All and All for Democracy: Lincoln as a Man of Hope

Many scholars have rightly been interested in Abraham Lincoln's thoughts on 'political religion.' His writings are glazed with his own individual religiosity---not that of any established church---making it a worthy and ambitious endeavor to pin down and articulate the components of Lincoln's conscience during the various phases of his life.

The Bread She Earns With Her Own Hands: An Examination of Lincoln's Political Economy

This dissertation focuses on how Abraham Lincoln's idea of "liberty to all" affected his political thought about the intersection of government and the economy. It is a search for Lincoln's political economy. While contemporary economists focus on a single aspect of the person such as self-interest, Lincoln following thinkers such as Francis Wayland viewed economics as a moral science. I do this by examining the speeches and deeds of Abraham Lincoln. I explore topics such as what he meant by "liberty to all", his valuing of a commercial society over an agrarian one, and his understanding of the importance of free labor in terms of Lincoln's thinking on theology and natural rights. Additionally, I examine Lincoln on what the US Constitution allows the national government to do to promote economic prosperity and the role political parties play on these policies. Lastly, I consider several thinkers from the Progressive Era and how they understood Lincoln and considered themselves to be impacted by his administration. My goal is to understand not just what Lincoln was against, i.e. slavery but what Lincoln was for; free labor and what he thought the national government should do to support its cause. 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the good sense of mankind, and of the public conscience. This middle-class country had got a middle-class president, at last. Yes, in manners and sympathies, but not in powers, for his powers were superior. This man grew according to the need. His mind mastered the problem of the day; and as the problem grew, so did his comprehension of it. Rarely was man so fitted to the event. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Eulogy of Abraham Lincoln There is little doubt that the Civil War marks a dramatic moment in the political development of the United States and that Abraham Lincoln had much to do with these changes. Certainly, it is the end of slavery, the start of the national government exercising considerably more of its power, and the triumph of Northern free labor and capitalism. Lincoln is often appreciated as the man who insisted that the equality of "all men" in the Declaration of Independence included all men. He was also president when the national government began doing considerably more than it had previously done. The Lincoln Presidency marks the restart of national banking, along with the beginning of the transcontinental railroad, land grant colleges, the Department of Agriculture, and the homesteading act to name a few national government innovations. The sub-field of political theory, within political science, has developed a considerable amount of literature about Lincoln's dedication to the proposition that all men are created equal and his leadership in ending slavery. What has not occurred is an exploration of what these new actions of the national government, that are not related to slavery, had to do with the principle of liberty to all. In this dissertation, I seek the connection between this new role of the national government and the idea that all men are created equal and to place these notions within the American political tradition. While the actions are new, they are a long time coming. The Lincoln Presidency marks the triumph of the responsibility side of American politics that Karl

“My Ancient Faith”: Abraham Lincoln’s Response to the Jeffersonian Problem

Polity, 2022

In this paper I consider the "Jeffersonian problem": whether one generation has the right to bind future generations to an inherited constitutional order. Thomas Jefferson's challenge rests on fundamental democratic principles of equality and consent, and therefore-while there may be substantial pragmatic reasons to be wary of his argument-any response must also remain true to those moral ideals. I argue that through the crisis of slavery and the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was compelled to revisit the basis of the American political regime, and in doing so articulated a conception of democratic politics that answers Jefferson's challenge. He does so in two ways: first, Lincoln's political religion revives reverence for the ancestral in a democratic context; second, Lincoln's concept of rededication allows each generation to affirm that revered past while simultaneously manifesting its own sovereign power through novel applications of past principle. I conclude by arguing that the inclusion of generational obligations is essential to democratic politics and that Lincoln's approach provides the best means of doing so.

Lincoln's Romantic Political Thought: Law, Political Religion, and Slavery

Abraham Lincoln’s political thought is an important turning point in American political ideas and practices. For Harry Jaffa, Lincoln represented a return to the principles of the Declaration of Independence while Willmoore Kendall and George W. Carey saw him derailing the American political tradition. More recently Joseph R. Fornieri has portrayed Lincoln’s enduring legacy as a product of his status as a “philosopher statesman” rather than a pragmatist and Grant N. Havers has demonstrated the centrality of “charity” to his political religion. In a new book on his political thought, George Kateb has also added Lincoln to Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman as an innovator in the development of “democratic individuality,” and maintains the secularity of Lincoln’s political religion. What has not been addressed directly by political theorists, however, is the distinctly “Romantic” bent of Lincoln’s political thought. Despite his fidelity to the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln’s evocations of “natural” or “human” rights are quite limited and although he was deeply influenced by Enlightenment radicals like Paine and Volney, his unorthodox religious language has little in common with their anti-clericalism. Rather, Lincoln’s political thought should be understood in a mid 19th century intellectual context where Romantic political ideas could be found throughout American culture. The Romanticism of literary figures like Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, and its formative effect on the Transcendentalist movement and Second Great Awakening has been well documented, but its influence on American politics has been understudied. Lincoln was part of a generation of political thinkers and actors that was forced to rethink the Enlightenment and classical ideals of the Founders in the context of slavery. Liberal Enlightenment ideals like the natural right to property and the rule of law had been used to defend slavery intellectually while liberal and democratic institutions had been captured by slave power. Perhaps most disturbing to Lincoln and his generation was that this seizure was possible because of the legalism inherent in the liberal institutions of the founding. Lincoln’s political thought represents a Romantic renewal of Enlightenment liberalism in a time of crisis, one that reimagined law, rights, and democratic institutions as a kind of “political religion,” with an emotional and aesthetic appeal instead of a cold, impersonal, unlovely, and instrumental means for preserving liberty.