The Black Republican

In the current issue of American History magazine, Dinesh D’Souza analyzes the tripolar historical kerfuffle perpetually raging over the most effective political mind in the history of our Republic, and the touchstone for this website: Abraham Lincoln, the Statesman.

Lincoln was a case-study in dichotomy. He was an abolitionist willing to maintain the institution of slavery. He was a libertarian who violated some of our most cherished rights under the Constitution. He was a liberal who sought to conserve more than reform. Most of all, he was an idealist with the most overwhelming grasp of practicality our Nation has been fortunate to send to the White House.

Lincoln knew that the statesman, unlike the moralist, cannot be content with making the case against slavery. He must find a way to implement his principles to the degree that circumstances permit. The key to understanding Lincoln is that he always sought the meeting point between what was right in theory and what could be achieved in practice. He always sought the common denominator between what was good to do and what the people would go along with. In a democratic society this is the only legitimate way to advance a moral agenda.

As they have since his death, historians today are not divided on Lincoln simply in terms of pro and con, but in three camps: between those who thought him a radical tyrant who destroyed the Constitution, those who consider him a hypocritical opportunist who turned his back on the Negro, but the vast majority of Americans know him as Preserver of the Union, The Emancipator of Slaves, and a flawed human being who deftly performed the impossible: he prevented an irresistable force from destroying the American Democracy as it collided headlong into an immovable object. That this was a formulated plan is a testament to a brilliant intellect.

One cannot understand Lincoln without understanding why he agreed with (Senator from Massachusetts, Charles) Sumner's goals while consistently opposing the strategy of the abolitionists. The abolitionists, Lincoln thought, approached the restricting or ending of slavery with self-righteous moral display. They wanted to be in the right and - as Sumner himself says - damn the consequences. In Lincoln's view, abolition was a noble sentiment, but abolitionist tactics, such as burning the Constitution and advocating violence, were not the way to reach their goal.

America would have been fortunate if we could have seen these philosophies played out in peacetime as he practiced it in war. But it is not a strategy that should be relegated merely to history books and articles in magazines. It is the template for how American politicians should go about fulfilling their Constitutional duties. Some men and women even today remember Lincoln, and try to live up to his example. And if you're reading this, you know our name.