Abraham Lincoln's and the Civil War

Introduction

Abraham Lincoln's contribution to political theory may be analyzed in terms of the theoretical, practical, and historical implications of his thought and leadership. Theoretically, his speeches and writings provide one of the greatest moral justifications of democracy ever given to the world. Practically, his actions provide a model of prudent statesman-ship—that is, the ability to apply moral principles correctly under the legal, social, and political circumstances of the time. Historically, he is at the center of America's national myth, the sustaining narrative that defines us as a common people based not on blood, but on fidelity to the principles of the Declaration. As the embodiment of the American experiment, Lincoln has represented the following things to the American people: the savior of the Union, the great emancipator, man of the people, the first American, and the self-made man.

Discussion and Analysis

Although he was not a political theorist per se, Lincoln articulated some of the most profound and enduring insights about the nature of equality, liberty, democracy, constitutionalism, and the meaning and destiny of the American experiment in self-government. His Gettysburg Address, which distilled the essence of the American creed, famously defines democracy as a form of government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Lincoln probed the moral foundations of democracy to vindicate the American regime from the hypocrisy of slavery. He compelled to provide a coherent understanding of democracy and its core principle of equal consent in response to the twin threats of slavery and disunion. Lincoln maintained that equality was “the central idea” of the American regime and “the father of all moral principle.” he viewed equality as an inclusive principle that applied in the abstract to all individual human beings at all times. Moreover, his view of equality appreciated both the dignity and depravity of our common human nature. Given that all human beings are all equally imperfect, “no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle—the sheet anchor of American republicanism,” he said in a speech, “The Monstrous Injustice of Slavery,” on October 16, 1854. Thus, no one can be entrusted with absolute power over another. In sum, Lincoln emphasized that the core principle of democracy, equal consent, was utterly incompatible with slavery. (Sam, 290)

Fig: Abraham Lincoln and Civil War

Lincoln's view of equality was informed by the natural law teaching of the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, Lincoln interpreted the Declaration as a moral covenant that promulgated the first moral principles of a just government. Given this understanding of the Declaration as a moral imperative, Lincoln rejected the moral relativism implicit in Douglas's notion of popular sovereignty, which taught that the justice or injustice of slavery was determined by the preferences and choices of territorial settlers.

Lincoln trusted in reason's ability to discern self-evident truths about politics and universal laws of nature. It was in view of this trust that he considered the principles of Jefferson to be “the axioms and definitions” of free ...