We hold these truths

Everything true that I have learned about American politics has derived, more or less, from reading the works of Harry Jaffa and his most frequent subject, Abraham Lincoln. On the occasion of Lincoln’s birthday yesterday the Claremont Institute published Professor Jaffa’s reflections on the weakness of certain strands of conservative thought in light of the principles advocated by Lincoln: “American conservatism and the present crisis.” Professor Jaffa concludes by exhorting us to return the conservative movement “to its roots in the political thought and actions of the American Founders and Abraham Lincoln. Nothing is at stake but the soul of the American Revolution, and the salvation of Western civilization.”