Young Mr. Lincoln' in John Ford's Theater: Greatness, Democracy, and the Rule of Law (original) (raw)

2010

Abstract

As a young statesman, Lincoln articulated his fear that demagoguery and the "mobocratic spirit" threatened to undermine the rule of law in the American polity. In Young Mr. Lincoln John Ford and Lamar Trotti tell a story that captures with striking clarity this central them in Lincoln's statesmanship and political thought. Portraying Lincoln as an emerging lawyer and politician in Springfield, Ford and Trotti resolve the tension among individual greatness, democratic politics, and the rule of law in the same way that Lincoln himself resolved it in his Lyceum Address: by modeling the way in which individual greatness and ambition can serve the rule of law and tame the passions of the mob. Thus, democratic leadership need not be caesarism.

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