272 Words

My contribution to a larger project on the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address: It is surely among the great paradoxes of the human condition that liberty attains its clearest meaning at its most imperiled hour. At its safest moments, liberty is lived and acted upon and enjoyed and praised, and yet largely unrecognized. It is …

272 Words Read More »

The mystery of John Scoble’s disappearance

Though little noticed today, John Scoble (1799-??) played an early leading role in the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society as its secretary from 1842 to 1852 and as an important British link to the American abolitionist community in its formative years. An eccentric and somewhat irascible fellow, he had a habit of inserting himself into factional …

The mystery of John Scoble’s disappearance Read More »

Clearing the air on secession

The libertarian Cato Institute recently released a admirable video project addressing some of the philosophical implications of the Civil War and critiquing libertarian support for the Confederacy. I was pleasantly surprised by the direction it went, having previously criticized its narrator Jason Kuznicki for a counterproductive and somewhat philosophically troubling foray into this same issue …

Clearing the air on secession Read More »

If not Frederick Douglass, who was the first black visitor to the White House?

This weekend marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s first meeting with Frederick Douglass, an encounter summarized here and detailed in multiple published accounts by Douglass himself. While Douglass was probably the most famous African American visitor to the Lincoln White House, he was not the first to be received in an official capacity despite …

If not Frederick Douglass, who was the first black visitor to the White House? Read More »

An abolitionist’s take on the NSA email surveillance program

In light of the recent revelations about the NSA’s massive email spying programs, I’m reminded of this passage from my favorite abolitionist Lysander Spooner in his own response to the postal monopoly of his day. Keep in mind that at the time he wrote this, the privacy of the mails was a contentious political issue. …

An abolitionist’s take on the NSA email surveillance program Read More »

On libertarian stupidity and the Civil War

Ideologically-driven history begets bad historical interpretation, typically of the type that selectively casts about for bits and pieces of a story to confirm a fixed bias. Or that which carelessly passes over complications to the same. In either case a desired narrative leads the evidence, sometimes unwittingly. Yet ideological constructs are also informed by history, …

On libertarian stupidity and the Civil War Read More »

History and the “Social Justice” debate

At risk of venturing into political philosophy, I have to admit my intrigue with an ongoing dialogue between David Friedman and a group of commentators for the always-insightful Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog on the question of “social justice.” As an advance warning the debate is primarily philosophical and addresses this concept in the abstract. Though the …

History and the “Social Justice” debate Read More »