Lincoln
February 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Today is of course the anniversary of the birth of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom at the exact moment when the country was on the threshold of abandoning what he called its “ancient faith” that all men are
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February 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Abraham Lincoln stands not only as America’s greatest president but also as its greatest lawyer. At the time of his election to the presidency in 1860 he was the most prominent practicing lawyer in the state of Illinois. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom
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January 25, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Nicholas Eberstadt is the author of A Nation of Takers: America’s Entitlement Epidemic. The book, it should be noted, includes dissenting essays by Yuval Levin and William Galston. President Obama seems to have been responding to Eberstadt in a key passage of his second inaugural address: “The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us.
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January 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I think it would be a serious mistake to ignore or fail to attend closely to President Obama’s second inaugural address. It speaks to his ambition, his assault on the founding principles, and his attempt to realign the electorate on a misreading or misinterpretation or misrepresentation of the meaning of the founding principles. Attention must be paid. See, e.g., Yuval Levin’s “Obama’s second inaugural.” As R.J. Pestritto has demonstrated, the
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December 2, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
When Hollywood does history, I usually avert my eyes. But on Scott’s recommendation, I saw “Lincoln” today. I concur with Scott’s glowing appraisal of the film. On the way home, my wife asked me whether the movie got the history right. I said that I thought so, but I don’t know enough about the few months in 1865 depicted in “Lincoln” to say for sure. More importantly, though, I believe
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December 2, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I still haven’t got out to see the new Lincoln movie yet—perhaps this week—so I’ll have to let it rest with Scott’s review here, with the caveat that I’m tempted to weigh in on his mention of Richard Hofstatdter, whose views on Lincoln are inadequate and defective in important ways. (But for a fragment of the argument against Hofstadter, see this old post.) Here’s what Churchill had to say about
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November 26, 2012 — Scott Johnson
We went to see the film Lincoln this past weekend. Until reading David Brooks’s obtuse column about the film, I was unsure that I knew enough to comment intelligently about the film. I apparently know at least as much as Brooks, however, and therefore offer the following in the way of notes for interested readers. Let me say up front that the film deserves to be seen and, in my
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July 4, 2012 — Scott Johnson
On July 9, 1858, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas gave a campaign speech to a raucous throng from the balcony of the Tremont Hotel in Chicago. Abraham Lincoln was in the audience when Douglas prepared to speak. Douglas invited Lincoln to come join him on the balcony to watch the speech. In his speech Douglas rang the themes of the momentous campaign that Lincoln and Douglas waged that summer and fall
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February 19, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Professor Douglas Wilson is the author of Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln, a biographical account of Lincoln’s young adulthood (1831-1842), his early career in politics and “his emergence as a man to be reckoned with.” It is to a substantial extent based on the testimony of “Herndon’s informants,” the first-hand accounts collected by Lincoln’s law partner in the immediate aftermath of Lincoln’s death. Together with Rodney Davis, Wilson
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