Lewis E. Lehrman › Articles by…
- Lincoln of Illinois (February 12, 2008)
In 1860, two of the four candidates for president of the United States came from Illinois. The Republican, Abraham Lincoln, stopped all public communication in March after completing a tour through New York and New England. His Illinois Democratic opponent, Stephen A. Douglas, spoke out extensively. The quiet Republican won the presidency, maintaining a disciplined silence until he left Springfield for Washington on February 11, 1861. The Vermont-born Democrat, Senator Douglas, had broken political tradition by campaigning almost full time. It was his third try for the presidency.
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- Whither American History and American Capitalism (November 6, 2007)
We gather to think about American History, to consider the academic standing of our national patrimony, even to think about its adversaries. In President Lincoln’s final message to Congress, he admonished us that “[Our opponents] do not attempt to deceive us. [They] afford us no excuse to deceive ourselves…” Even the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Woodrow Wilson, warned us about academic politics - just as he was giving up the Presidency of Princeton University. Announcing his candidacy for Governor of New Jersey in 1912, it was reported he was asked by a reporter why in the world would you give up academic eminence at Princeton for the Governorship of New Jersey? Because, Wilson is supposed to have said, I wanted to get out of politics.
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- Lincoln Prize 2004: “To give all a chance” (April 14, 2004)
To read carefully the Lincoln economic parable of the ant (reprinted here) suggests a lost truth about our sixteenth president: during most of Abraham Lincoln’s political career he focused not on anti-slavery but on economic policy. Yet anti-slavery and economic policy, in his worldview, were tightly linked. As Lincoln explained, slavery was grounded in coercion. It was, and is, an involuntary economic exchange of labor. In commercial terms, slavery is theft: “The ant, who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest, will furiously defend the fruit of his labor, against whatever robber assails him…the most dumb and stupid slave, that ever toiled for a master, does constantly know that he is wronged.” Slavery differs from free labor as a beast does from a man. Thus Lincoln assailed slavery not only on moral grounds but also on economic principle. This principle, he asserted, is a truth “made so plain by our good Father in Heaven, that all feel and understand it, even down to brutes and creeping insects.” We must not be misled by Lincoln's simple metaphors, for one of the profound strengths of Lincoln's political philosophy was his self-taught and masterful grasp of economic theory; more sophisticated than that of any President before or since. This is, I think, an inescapable conclusion from any careful study of Lincoln's collected writings, speeches and state papers.
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- Abraham Lincoln (January 27, 2004)
To study Abraham Lincoln is to learn a lost truth about our first Republican president. And it is this… During most of Abraham Lincoln's political career he focused not on anti-slavery but on economic policy. Anti-slavery and economic policy, in his worldview, were tightly linked. As Mr. Lincoln explained, slavery was grounded in coercion. It was, and is, an involuntary economic exchange of labor. In commercial terms, slavery is theft. "The ant, who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest, will furiously defend the fruit of his labor, against whatever robber assails him…the most dumb and stupid slave, that ever toiled for a master, does constantly know that he is wronged." Slavery differs from free labor as a beast does from a man. Thus, Lincoln assailed slavery not only on moral grounds but also on economic principle. This principle, he asserted, is a truth "made so plain by our good Father in Heaven, that all feel and understand it, even down to brutes and creeping insects." We must not be misled by Lincoln's simple metaphors; for one of the profound strengths of Lincoln's political philosophy was his self-taught and masterful grasp of economic theory.
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- Lincoln and War Leadership (February 17, 2003)
“In a great national crisis, like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very desirable — almost indispensable… We are gaining strength, and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely.” Lincoln's last message to Congress, Dec. 6, 1864.
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- Lincoln and the Civil War (February 12, 2002)
In his annual message to Congress in 1862, Abraham Lincoln wrote, “In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not be responsible through time and eternity.”
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- Lincoln: Master of Man (February 19, 2001)
One of the keys to Abraham Lincoln's character was his discipline. In the last two decades of his life, it is difficult to find occasions when Mr. Lincoln did not carefully monitor his public comments or gauge their public impact.
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- Alexander Hamilton (March 31, 1999)
Richard Brookhiser, the celebrated author of Rediscovering George Washington (1996), intrudes again upon the specious present to hold up for the praise of men the character and achievements of Alexander Hamilton, (1999). "He is a great man" we are told. Indeed, "...a great American". This is so, according to Brookhiser, because "most men, who make it, provide for their families, thank fortune, and maybe give to charity." But Hamilton was different, Brookhiser insists, not because Hamilton (a prodigy like the younger Pitt) became America's first Secretary of the Treasury at 32; neither because he towered over all the other cabinet officers as the de facto first minister of the founding administration. But because, from his front position at the post, he designed, into his comprehensive program of economic growth and national institution building, "ways to bring light to the talents of other men as well as himself." In a word, magnanimity marked his essential character. His pathbreaking policies, though not populist, "would enable his countrymen to become conscious of their resources."
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- Lincoln: Man of Honor (February 15, 1999)
He was called “Honest Abe” for a reason, but he detested the nickname. None of his friends called him that to his face. But in a profession full of dissimulation, he came by the title honorably. It fit. As his wife once wrote, “Poor Mr. L. is almost a monomaniac on the subject of honesty.”
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- Lincoln: The Self-Made Man (February 20, 1995)
Pity poor Abraham Lincoln. Behind the legend, there was certainly much to lament. Lincoln's grandfather had been killed by Indians while tilling his field; his father had nearly been kidnapped in the same attack. Lincoln himself was born 186 years ago this month in a rustic Kentucky log cabin—surely substandard housing by anyone's definition.
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- Abraham Lincoln: An American for All Time (February 10, 1995)
Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday we celebrate on Sunday, is generally remembered for winning the Civil War and freeing the slaves. He should be. But the great lost truth about our 16th president is that during most of his political career he focused, not on slavery, but on a policy for economic growth and equal opportunity for the new nation. As Lincoln explained over and over, slavery was an involuntary economic exchange of labor, based on coercion; and, therefore, it was theft. Slavery, in short, was the antithesis of free labor, and thus Lincoln opposed it on moral and economic principle.
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- Money and the Coming World Order: The Creation of International Monetary Order (1976)
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