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 […]
Abraham Lincoln’s interest in the policy of colonization likely dates at least to the mid 1840s when he picked it up from his political hero Henry Clay. He also delivered at least two speeches to the state colonization society in Illinois and was elected one of its managers in 1857. It might therefore come as
The day Lincoln joined the American Colonization Society Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Here’s a short piece I wrote for the Daily Caller in which I take a look at the use and abuse of Abraham Lincoln to form modern political arguments. There are plenty of culprits both favorable and hostile to Lincoln, as well as on the political left and right alike. Excerpt: “A casual observer might wonder
The Politics of Remembering Lincoln Read More »
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 »
May 26, 1854 marks the 159th anniversary of the Burns Affair wherein a group of Boston abolitionists attempted to free Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave, from federal custody on the eve of his return to his owner. The plan to liberate Burns was initiated under the cover of a large anti-slavery rally at Faneuil Hall
A lesser known Memorial Day Read More »
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 »