The Mind and Art of Abraham Lincoln, Philosopher Statesman by Lowenthal David;Lowenthal David;

Author:Lowenthal, David;Lowenthal, David;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1466970
Publisher: Lexington Books

Interpretation

With something like the blast of a trumpet, the new Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate announces that the constitutional compromise over slavery developed by the founding fathers cannot continue: the country has to go fully toward freedom or fully toward slavery. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The quotation is from the Gospel According to St. Matthew, 12:25, where Jesus denies that he casts out demons “only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons,” since that would show Beelzebub to be divided against himself. It is rather by the Spirit of God that he casts demons out.

Casting out the demon of slavery is another story. As Lincoln sees it, the nation is in crisis, brought about by a combination of Judge Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1857. The former, far from ending the agitation over slavery, as promised, has resulted in its being “constantly augmented.” Beyond these, action by the president himself has added to Lincoln’s conviction that all were parts of a complex conspiracy. How else could the apparently unrelated actions dovetail so well? In the Dred Scott decision, Chief Justice Taney had made three rulings: 1) no “negro slave” can ever “be a citizen of any State”; 2) “neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature can exclude slavery from any United States Territory”; 3) the decision as to whether a black slave is made free by being taken by his master into a free state will be left to the state courts in slave states. This last opens up the possibility that large quantities of slaves can be brought into free states by their slave masters, without legal hindrance. Note that the first two provisions directly violate Douglas’ notion of “popular sovereignty,” since they strip from the people the right to exclude slavery from the territories and allow blacks to become citizens. To complete this plot, all that is needed is “another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state to exclude slavery from its limits.”

With this wave of changes strengthening slavery and the slave states in a possibly decisive way, Lincoln sees that moving back to the Constitution’s original compromise is no longer possible. Hence his conclusion: “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.” Bear in mind that the forces for freedom had received powerful setbacks from both Congress and the Supreme Court, assisted as well by the president, and were now drastically on the defensive. Lincoln had to rally the defenders of freedom: he had to make sure they understood the stark reality of their situation. And he had to call for concerted action.

To “meet and overthrow the power” of the “present political dynasty” is the object the Republicans must set themselves.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.