Abraham Lincoln: Friend or Foe of Freedom?

The Heartland Institute hosted its 23rd Anniversary Benefit Dinner on October 25, 2007. Nearly 500 people gathered at the Hilton Chicago Hotel to hear outstanding presentations delivered by two remarkable individuals.

Many of us grew up and grew older regarding Abraham Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents. He preserved the Union against the rebels, he freed the slaves, he urged reconciliation during Reconstruction, he was humble and a leader of enormous charisma, and persistent.

In recent years, however, others have challenged those assumptions. Yes, he preserved the Union but where in the Constitution does it prohibit states from seceding? And by what legal right did Lincoln prosecute the Civil War or, as one of our debaters tonight calls it, the war between the states, or, when he gets really personal, Lincoln s war?

Yes, the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, but only the slaves in the secessionist South, where the proclamation had absolutely no force of law. Where the proclamation could have had some force of law, in the border states that didn t secede, such as Maryland and Kentucky and Pennsylvania, it specifically permitted slavery to continue.

Humble? Yes, Lincoln in his speeches and his personal life dramatized an innate humility. But politically, when he won the presidential nomination in 1860 here in Chicago, he had demonstrated the political savvy and cruelty that exploited the moment of the instance that he was nominated.

Reasonable people can discuss and disagree about Lincoln and his legacy. But we don t have to be disagreeable. We all share a common respect for individual liberty, small government, the rule of law, and firm property rights.

This book presents the remarks of two articulate and informed scholars about whether and how those values played out in the life of Abraham Lincoln.