Here’s a cause close to my heart: public and semi-public speech. I mean occasions when we are addressed by our political leaders on grand occasions of concern to the whole republic, and times, like the present, when we choose to come together to hear what someone invited to do so says about a matter of [...]
“I don’t believe we can have an army without music.” —Robert E. Lee “If we’d had your music, sir, we’d have whipped you out of your boots.” — A Confederate officer at Appomattox to his Union counterpart It would be hard to overestimate the ubiquity and importance of music during the American Civil War. In [...]
Jackson had remained generally aloof from national politics. As a slaveholder, he was aware of the congressional debate over slavery in the territories, but not deeply versed in it. He was like many ordinary Virginians of his day: a moderate states’-rights Democrat who favored keeping Washington’s nose out of Virginia’s business and working within the [...]
After removing family and religion from his life, Abraham Lincoln’s chief object of devotion remained the American nation alone. Shoppers looking for presents at large American book stores have been greeted by a plethora of biographies on Abraham Lincoln recently. Three books have added to the already behemoth historiography of the sixteenth president: Richard Brookhiser’s [...]
What are the final implications of the political example of Abraham Lincoln? And what the enduring consequences of his sanctification as our only Father and preceptor in times of national crisis? The “House Divided Speech” is the watershed of Abraham Lincoln’s political career.[56] In this address, given to the Republican state convention that nominated their tall [...]
As a promising young centralist, Abraham Lincoln played the role of champion for what Professor Michael Oakeshott has called the “enterprise association” theory of the state.[21] While serving as the elected representative of Sangamon (1834—1842), he first made a name for himself by enacting this part. Joining with other soon-to-be forefathers of the Republican Party, [...]
Lord, Remember Me O Thou, from Whom all goodness flows, I lift my soul to Thee; In all my sorrows, conflicts, woes, Good Lord, remember me. If on my aching, burdened heart, My sins lie heavily, Thy pardon grant, Thy peace impart; Good Lord, remember me. […]
After over one hundred years, it continues to be almost impossible for us to ask certain basic questions about the role of Abraham Lincoln in the formation of a characteristically American politics. At every appropriate point of inquiry, the Lincoln myth obtrudes. Since 1865 no one has denied the extraordinary purchase of that imaginative construct upon the idiom and [...]
Major Robert Anderson, the commander of Fort Sumter, was a virtuous man caught in a terrible spot. While his personal but generally private loyalties lay with the South, his duty as he saw it was to the United States government. In the early evening of December 26, 1860, at Fort Moultrie, Charleston, South Carolina, Captain [...]
Abraham Lincoln reflected the worst of northern excesses, South Carolinians believed. His election, one Charlestonian averred, “was simply a sign to us that we are in danger, and must provide for our own safety.” The finest of gentlemen founded South Carolina, informants assured the famous London Times correspondent, William Howard Russell, upon his arrival in [...]
"There are two or three different people in every man's skin. Who shall draw a line and say here genius ends and madness begins?" —Clara Morris, actress and friend of John Wilkes Booth The assassination of Abraham Lincoln on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., is one of the most [...]
With the time and manner of his death Abraham Lincoln, as leader of a Puritan people who had just won a great victory over “the forces of evil,” was placed beyond the reach of ordinary historical inquiry and assessment. Through Booth’s bullet he became the one who had “died to make men free,” who had [...]
Come, stack arms, men! Pile on the rails, Stir up the campfire bright; No matter if the canteen fails, We’ll make a rousing night! Here Shenandoah brawls along, And burly Blue-Ridge echoes strong, To swell our brigade’s rousing song Of “Stonewall Jackson’s way.” We see him now—the old slouched hat, Cocked o’er his eye askew; [...]
Equality as a moral or political imperative, pursued as an end in itself is the antonym of every legitimate conservative principle. Contrary to most Liberals, new and old, it is nothing less than sophistry to distinguish between equality of opportunity and equality of condition. I Let us have no foolishness, indeed.* Equality as a moral or [...]