Classical Liberalism: Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led the U.S.A. through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending the cause of the conflict; slavery.

Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate.

As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States,[1] Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. His tenure in office was occupied primarily with the defeat of the secessionist The Slave Holding Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Six days after the large-scale surrender of Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln became the first American president to be assassinated.

Lincoln had closely supervised the victorious war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including Ulysses S. Grant. Historians have concluded that he handled the factions of the Republican Party well, bringing leaders of each faction into his cabinet and forcing them to cooperate. Lincoln successfully defused the Trent affair, a war scare with Britain late in 1861. Under his leadership, the Union took control of the border slave states at the start of the war. Additionally, he managed his own reelection in the 1864 presidential election.

Copperheads and other opponents of the war criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on the slavery issue. Conversely, the Radical Republicans, an abolitionist faction of the Republican Party, criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery. Even with these opponents, Lincoln successfully rallied public opinion through his rhetoric and speeches; his Gettysburg Address (1863) became an iconic symbol of the nation's duty. At the close of the war, Lincoln held a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to speedily reunite the nation through a policy of generous reconciliation. Lincoln has consistently been ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of all U.S. Presidents.

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A. Lincoln, by Ronald C. White Jr.

p. 178 An Excerpt on Slavery

Lincoln continued to refine his thinking on slavery by writing on his steady supply of small slips of paper. The catalyst for one of his notes was reading “Slavery Ordained by God”, an 1857 book by Frederick A Ross, a Presbyterian minister from Huntsville, Alabama. The book, based on lectures and sermons, became an instant best seller among pro-slavery advocates. Ross argued slavery was a beneficent and ordering institution.

Lincoln began his musing with a question: “Suppose it is true, that the Negro is inferior to the White, in the gifts of nature?” He understood that most White Americans accepted the assumption of inferiority, but he did not stop there. Pondering that supposition, Lincoln wrote, “Is it not the exact reverse justice that the White should, for that reason, take from the Negro, any part of the little which has been given him?” Lincoln offered his answer. “Give to him that is needy” is the Christian rule of charity; but “take from him that is needy” is the rule of slavery.

Ross had argued that slavery was the will of God, to which Lincoln wrote, “certainly there is no contending against the will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases.” He then proposed a case. Dr. Ross has a slave named Sambo. Lincoln asked, is it the will of God that Sambo shall remain a slave, or be set free?” Lincoln pondered the options. “The almighty gives no audible answer to the question, and his revelation--the Bible--gives none--or, at most, none but such as admits of a squabble, as to its meaning.” Lincoln quickly added, “No one thinks of asking Sambo’s opinion of it.” Lincoln wrote that the last option was for Dr. Ross to decide. If he decided that Sambo was to remain a slave, “he thereby retains his own comfortable position.” If “ he decides that God wills Sambo to be free” it will mean that he “has to walk out of the shade, throw off his gloves, and delve for his own bread.” Lincoln asked whether Ross would be guided by “That perfect impartiality” which was the best means of making decisions. Lincoln anticipated Ross’s answer: “but, slavery is good for some people!!!” and rebutted that slavery is “peculiar” in “that it is the only good thing which no man ever seeks the good of, for himself.

This complex reflection on slavery was something Lincoln was not yet prepared to say in public. After carefully considering all the options, Lincoln’s anger boiled over in the conclusion of his note. “Nonsense! Wolves devouring lambs, not because it is good for their own greedy maws, but because it [is] good for the lambs!!!” The triple exclamation points revealed Lincoln’s deep feeling as he struggled with the immorality of slavery, especially as it was defended by religious leaders. Lincoln was ever alert to the mishandling of religion.

In a second note, written in this same period, Lincoln began, “but there is a larger issue than the mere question of whether the spread of Negro Slavery shall or shall not be prohibited by congress.” Lincoln asserted that even the Buchanan Papers, such as the Richmond Enquirer and the New York Day-Book, understood the issue. Both newspapers pointed to the assertion by Senator John Pettit of Indiana that the doctrine of equality in the declaration of independence was “a self-evident lie.” As for senator Douglas, Lincoln said he “regularly argues against the doctrine of the equality of men.” Lincoln concluded that the “common object” of Douglas and his allies was to subvert the clear avowal in the Declaration of Independence and ”to assert the natural, moral, and religious right of one class to enslave another.”

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Abraham Lincoln Quotes

"The Republican party, on the contrary, hold that this government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State."

"The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatable things, called by the same name———liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatable names———liberty and tyranny."

"It may seem strange that any men should dare ask a just God's Assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be no judged." A. Lincoln

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

-A. Lincoln
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Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class--neither work for others nor have others working for them. In most of the Southern States a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor masters, while in the Northern a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their families--wives, sons, and daughters--work for themselves on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class.
Again, as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these States a few years back in their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which if surrendered will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them till all of liberty shall be lost. -Lincoln's First Annual Message Dec 3 1861

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"In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party--and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose."

"Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came..."

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

"The intention of the lawgiver is the law"

"It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself."

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

“I certainly wish that all men could bee free.”

“You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you then, exclusively to save the Union. I issue the [Emancipation] proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Wheenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it swill be an apt time, then, for you to declare you will not fight to free Negroes.”

“Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that, among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost.”

"It may seem strange that any men should dare ask a just God's Assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be no judged." A. Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step over the ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! -- All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a Thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

"I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should first be those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on them personally."
A. Lincoln, by Ronald C. White Jr. p. 178
"Lincoln anticipated [Frederick A ] Ross’s answer: “but, slavery is good for some people!!!” and rebutted that slavery is “peculiar” in “that it is the only good thing which no man ever seeks the good of, for himself."

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Meditation on the Divine Will by Abraham Lincoln Washington D.C. September, 1862

This fragment was found and preserved by John Hay, one of President Lincoln's White House secretaries, who said it was "not written to be seen of men." Some of the thoughts expressed here, written after discouraging days of personal sorrow and military defeats, also appear in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address of 1865.

Hay said that in this writing "Mr. Lincoln admits us into the most secret recesses of his soul .... Perplexed and afflicted beyond the power of human help, by the disasters of war, the wrangling of parties, and the inexorable and constraining logic of his own mind, he shut out the world one day, and tried to put into form his double sense of responsibility to human duty and Divine Power; and this was the result. It shows -- as has been said in another place -- the awful sincerity of a perfectly honest soul, trying to bring itself into closer communion with its Maker."

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party -- and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true -- that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.
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Notes On Secession by Asderathos [LAW]

It is held that the Confederacy's attempt of disunion was pre-emptive to any unlawful action by Govt. and lacking any such sited responsible illegal cause for action, their Provocations & Usurpations cannot be defended.
Necessary lawful and Unanimous steps for disunion NOT Being necessary, based upon Acts (Exampled in history by The Stamp Act) as Illegal Self-Contradictory and Tyrannical.

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The question becomes what is Illegal when laws contradict; particularly in regards to Constitutional Amendments as well as modern legislation presuming the position that Govt. is the source of Individual Rights rather than their mere protector (which impunes the justification for the American Revolution);

Govt.s being instituted among Men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these being Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (Property Excluded solely to avoid endorsing slavery)

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Should not the dismissal of founding documents of law by officialdom; having not been changed by due process but reinterpreted, demand by those very documents' logic an abolition or succession?
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Emancipation was disallowed by necessitous due process of law until the formation of and attack by the Illegal Confederacy, it being deemed necessary as a Wartime Measure; The 13th Amendment being the domestic change in rule of law and the Emancipation Proclamation (Having no power of law within them) merely deemed escaped slaves from the Succeded States to be freed.

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Obama and Lincoln [Blog]

States do not have the right of Disunion by force of arms; any sweeping unlawful act by the federal govt (by branch, whole, or branch and compliance of the whole) would be an act of disunion on the Fed Govt.'s part not the states.The civil war was started by a series of illegal acts by slave holding states reacting to the lawful election of an Anti Slave Republican Party member who ran on a [legal & constitutional] gradual end to slavery, ticket.

The Confederacy's attempt of disunion was pre-emptive to any unlawful action by Govt. [any prospect of said action itself being a phantom of ignorance born of democrat party newspapers propagandizing against Lincoln contrary to his actual stances] Lincoln did not start the war.

The entire history of war shows that the seizure of property is 'lawful'. The Emancipation Proclamation was effective against "States in Rebellion" and thus a war act, Presidents holding special powers during a Civil War.

The current 100 year drift has been towards a disparate treatment comparable to those inequitable laws oppressing 'Englishman' laid upon the American Colonies by King George III.

King George & Jefferson Davis violated the letter of the law. Wilson Obama & Progressives in between, have so manipulated the perception of the law as to render it unrecognizable to the original spirit/intent. "The intention of the lawgiver is the law" -A. Lincoln [The lawgivers being the Founding Fathers]

Obama is not Lincoln, nor even Jefferson Davis, Obama is Wilson
One of Wilson's Men was Bernays who LITERALLY wrote the book "Propaganda".
Obama taught Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals".

[its ideology not conspiracy] Implementing "Positive Rights" being the epitome of progressivism and the antithesis of Constitutional libertarianism. 'Positive rights' [to house job medical etc] necessarily indenturing any person of any means demonized as the oppressor to the servitude of the deified victim to the aggrandizement of Governmental powers.

Not all that is legal is just.