Lincoln and the American Founding

by Lucas E. Morel

Overview

In this persuasive work of intellectual history, Lucas E. Morel argues that the most important influence on Abraham Lincoln’s political thought and practice was what he learned from the leading figures of and documents from the birth of the United States. In this systematic account of those principles, Morel compellingly demonstrates that to know Lincoln well is to understand thoroughly the founding of America.
 
With each chapter describing a particular influence, Morel leads readers from the Founding Father, George Washington; to the founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution; to the founding compromise over slavery; and finally to a consideration of how the original intentions of the Founding Fathers should be respected in light of experience, progress, and improvements over time. Within these key discussions, Morel shows that without the ideals of the American Revolution, Lincoln’s most famous speeches would be unrecognizable, and the character of the nation would have lost its foundation on the universal principles of human equality, individual liberty, and government by the consent of the governed.
Lincoln thought that the principles of human equality and individual rights could provide common ground for a diverse people to live as one nation and that some old things, such as the political ideals of the American founding, were worth preserving. He urged Americans to be vigilant in maintaining the institutions of self-government and to exercise and safeguard the benefits of freedom for future generations. Morel posits that adopting the way of thinking and speaking Lincoln advocated, based on the country’s founding, could help mend our current polarized discourse and direct the American people to employ their common government on behalf of a truly common good.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809337859
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	06/22/2020
Series:	Concise Lincoln Library
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Lucas E. Morel is Professor of Politics and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University, and Honored Visiting Graduate Professor in the Master of Arts program in American History and Government at Ashland University in Ohio. His previous publications include Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages and Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government. He is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, and member of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which will plan activities to commemorate in 2026 the founding of the United States of America.
 
 

Read an Excerpt

Introduction: Looking to the Past for the Sake of the Future
 
The best guides to understanding Lincoln’s political philosophy, next to a close reading of his own speeches and writings, are the principles of the American founding and the political institutions they established. Key among the founders are George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and the most influential political documents are the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Lincoln also found subsequent political figures useful to his think­ing: Henry Clay, Lincoln’s professed “beau ideal of a statesman,” and Daniel Webster, who championed “Union and liberty, now and for­ever, one and inseparable,” come readily to mind. Even John Quincy Adams, with his devotion to the Declaration of Independence, could be said to have directed Lincoln’s attention to important political principles for the looming crises of his day. However, the salient figures and documents of the American founding generation exerted the greatest influence on Lincoln as he addressed the disputes and controversies that threatened to divide the American Union.
 
For Lincoln, reverence for the American founders was no mere exercise in nostalgia, a trip down memory lane every Fourth of July by succeeding generations to give a collective pat on the back for their association—by blood or citizenship—with a generation who for their time achieved great political ends. Instead, Lincoln believed that the best way to honor the founding was to recognize how much the current generation owed to their achievement, and therefore to be vigilant in their perpetuation of the institutions of self-government. This involved not only handing down the Constitution and laws bequeathed to them but also understanding the principles and practices that inform those political institutions. The prosperity of future generations, what the preamble to the Constitution calls “the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” depended on this public practice of looking back.
 
According to Robert Bray, Lincoln read preceptors containing speeches from the American Revolution and the early American republic and consulted several volumes of Thomas Jefferson’s Works, as well as biographies of George Washington, which contained some of Washington’s speeches. Of course, the clearest evidence of Lincoln’s familiarity with the founders’ writings comes from his own speeches and letters. In addition to Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln cited James Madison as among “those noble fathers” who, while respecting state authority over the institution of slavery, made “no allusion to slavery in the constitution . . . that future generations might not know such a thing ever existed—and that the constitution might yet be a ‘national charter of freedom.’” Add to these sources the speeches and writings of the founding era that were in the public domain, from Washington’s well-known Farewell Address to Madison’s less familiar notes of the debates in the Constitutional Convention, and Lincoln had a fount of wisdom and deliberation about the American regime from which to draw inspiration for the political challenges of his own day.
 
his book presents the influence of the American founding on Lincoln’s politics in a fairly systematic way, with each chapter tracing a particular influence chronologically (for the most part) and drawing heavily on Lincoln’s own words rather than secondary sources to demonstrate his reliance on the American founding for his statesmanship. Chapter 1 focuses on the founder par excellence, George Washington, and how his political vision and exemplary character shaped Lincoln’s devotion to the union of American states and the liberties to which that union was committed. It also explores Lincoln’s frequent appeal to “the fathers” in general and what he thought “those old-time men” should mean to Americans several generations removed from the founding.
 
Chapter 2 shifts from the founding fathers to the founding document—the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration stands as the most formative influence on Lincoln’s political thinking—in particular, his understanding of the connection between the rights of humanity and the purpose of government. Lincoln saw the Declaration as the fundamental charter of American self-government, and his political philosophy comprised key principles such as human equality, individual rights, government by consent of the governed, and the right of revolution. These tenets of Lincoln’s political faith also led him to emphasize self-improvement, free labor, and “the right to rise” as necessary implications of the Declaration’s account of legitimate government.
 
Chapter 3 shifts from founding ends to founding means as it explores Lincoln’s reverence for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law by which it secures the liberties of the people. This chapter traces Lincoln’s devotion to the Constitution from his days as a Whig Illinois state representative to his tenure as the nation’s first Republican president. Lincoln saw the Constitution as a means of securing the ends spelled out in the Declaration of Independence. His respect for the rule of law entailed a respect for the constraints that federalism imposed on efforts to make American practice align more closely with American principle, with slavery in the states constituting the chief contradiction to the “more perfect union” established by the Constitution. Last, Lincoln’s constitutionalism entailed an aversion to amending the fundamental law of the land.
 
Chapter 4 examines what Lincoln learned from the founding generation about how to address the problem of slavery, America’s pre-existing condition and signal inconsistency with the human equality that formed the basis of the nation’s existence. This chapter explores Lincoln’s many references to how the founding generation intended slavery to be put on “the course of ultimate extinction” and how this should guide Americans in dealing with the increasingly divisive controversy in the 1850s. It answers the question of why Lincoln insisted he was “naturally anti-slavery” but never called himself an abolitionist. His approach to dealing with slavery within a federal system of government posed an alternative not only to the typical abolitionist demand that Congress ban slavery immediately, whether in territories or states, but also to Stephen A. Douglas’s neutral policy of local “popular sovereignty” (or congressional noninterference), to say nothing of the “positive good” school espoused by John Calhoun and his adherents.
 
Chapter 5 discusses Lincoln’s understanding of the original intent of the founders and its relevance to his own times. Although he never used the phrase “original intent,” he made frequent reference to “the opinions and policy of our fathers” and similar expressions. While every chapter of this book explores a specific aspect of Lincoln’s dependence on the founding fathers, Chapter 5 examines Lincoln’s understanding of original intent in general and how Lincoln understood his own reverence for the American founding in light of progress, experience, and the responsibility of succeeding generations to govern themselves.
 
If there was an abiding political question that Lincoln wrestled with in his public life, it surfaced early in his political career: namely, how to perpetuate self-government. He did not take for granted that the freedom achieved at the founding of the United States would be secure for all future generations. In particular, he did not think doubts about its survival owed chiefly to foreign threats. With prescient insight, Lincoln anticipated that the challenge of perpetuating republican government would come not from abroad but from within. He thought freedom could be lost through its misuse by the citizens themselves and therefore appreciated what the founders had established in terms of principles, practices, and institutions that could help successive generations preserve a self-governing way of life.
 
In addition, because Lincoln believed that the rights of the people were fixed or rooted in nature, he thought the founders were correct to establish a government that would operate according to principles and mechanisms that were also fixed and not susceptible too readily to change. The modern notion of “a living constitution,” which adapts to changes in society through a class of rulers who discern the needs of the people not so much by consent and civic debate but rather by their own expertise and vision, would likely trouble Lincoln. He would have disagreed, for example, with Woodrow Wilson’s understanding of self-government as an evolving political apparatus. “That we have come to a new age and a new attitude towards questions of government,” Wilson said, “no one can doubt.” He thought this new mindset justified “new definitions of constitutional power, new conceptions of legislative object, new schemes of individual and corporate regulation.” Wilson believed the founding fathers spoke and acted for only their generation and time, and considered every Fourth of July the occasion “for determining afresh what principles, what forms of power we think most likely to effect our safety and happiness.” Unlike Wilson, who believed “each generation must form its own conception of what liberty is” and argued that the Declaration of Independence was applicable only to its time, Lincoln looked back to the founding generation and saw fixed ideals of human nature, civil society, and legitimate government “applicable to all men and all times.”4 Only by reference to these universal principles, and by following the structures deriving from them, he believed, could the rights possessed by all human beings be secured from generation to generation. His constitution was the founders’ constitution, which he thought would operate best by remaining as fixed in its restraints on the rulers as the rights they were empowered to protect.
 
By appealing to the American founding, Lincoln thought he could help Americans of his and subsequent generations preserve the freedom and equality all human beings deserved. In studying his appeal to the founders, one finds both a history lesson and civics lesson of the highest order. Lincoln had to do his history well because he was not the only politician who leaned on the founders for authority on issues of public moment. From his Democratic rival Stephen A. Douglas to South Carolina’s secession ordinance to Confederate president Jefferson Davis, a variety of public men and documents cited the founders in support of policies antithetical to those Lincoln proposed. This became most important when the country heard op-posing proposals to deal with the growing agitation over the future of slavery in America, most of which claimed support from the founders. The lesson from Lincoln was that getting the founders right would not only get America right during his time but also point the way to lasting freedom for the rest of the world. This book was written in hopes that Lincoln’s lessons from the American founding still hold true today.
 
[end of excerpt] 
 

Table of Contents

Introduction: Looking to the Past for the Sake of the Future 1

1. Lincoln, George Washington, and the Founding Fathers: An Appeal to the Founder Par Excellence 

2. Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence: An Appeal to the Founders’ Ends 

3. Lincoln and the Constitution: An Appeal to the Founders’ Means

4. Lincoln and Slavery: An Appeal to the Founders’ Compromise 

5. Lincoln and Original Intent: An Appeal to the Founders’ Relevance 

Conclusion: Lincoln as Conservative Liberal or Liberal Conservative?

Acknowledgments 

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"This highly readable volume deserves a place in every Lincoln library."—William D. Pederson, The Lincoln Herald

"[This book] is densely packed with astute observations beneficial to general readers and Lincoln scholars alike. Morel's cogent writing style makes the book eminently readable and he wisely employs a policy that other historians should emulate which is to let Lincoln himself do most of the talking."—David J. Gerleman, Civil War Book Review

"[Morel] shows how Lincoln sought to emulate George Washington, a man whose life encompassed both wartime trials and peacetime politics and a leader who was resolute when necessary but flexible when compromise was the best path to success. . . . This volume is a concise, convincing assessment of Lincoln’s forward-looking administration, which remained loyal to the principles of the nation’s founders."—S. J. Ramold, CHOICE

“Lucas Morel’s Lincoln and the American Founding should bring a cooling cloth to fevered brows, since the Lincoln whom Morel lays out in five lapidary chapters—on the Constitution, original intent, slavery and its compromises, the founders’ goals, and Lincoln’s conservatism—is very much in the founders’ image.”—Allen C. Guelzo, Claremont Review of Books

“Morel showcases how the American founding had a profound effect on Lincoln, who was able to utilize the nation’s shared past to build a stronger future.”—Anne E. Moseley, Civil War Monitor

“It is impossible to come away from this book without a renewed respect for the man that fought so hard to preserve our union on the basis of equality and republican government.”—Krystina Skurk, The Federalist

“In a time when some Americans are vandalizing statues and other artistic representations of the Founding Fathers and even some of Lincoln and going so far as portraying the men of the founding generation as villains, Morel’s book is vital reading. . . . This is a gem of a book by a scholar for a general audience in need of an understanding of how the founders influenced Lincoln and, thereby, all of us.”—Hope J. Leman, New Books Network

“Out of collapse, renewal: Lucas E. Morel shows how, in our darkest hour, Abraham Lincoln drew on our previous darkest hour for inspiration and wisdom.”—Richard Brookhiser, author of Give Me Liberty: A History of America’s Exceptional Idea
 
“With admirable clarity and conciseness, Morel explores Lincoln's political philosophy and its roots in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The discussion of how Lincoln used these iconic documents in his treatment of the issue of slavery is particularly incisive and valuable. This is an important contribution to the literature on the sixteenth president.”—James M. McPherson, author of The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters
 
“It is instructive to be reminded that Abraham Lincoln thought Constitutional restraints were to be taken seriously, political decisions were to be made by officials accountable to those whose lives are affected by those decisions (i.e., voters), and mob rule posed a grave threat to American freedom. Morel’s thoughtful, convincing book shows how profoundly Lincoln’s political thought was rooted in his reverence for the wisdom of the Founders as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”—Michael Burlingame, editor of Sixteenth President-in-Waiting: Abraham Lincoln and the Springfield Dispatches of Henry Villard, 1860-1861
 

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