Lincoln, the Politician. T. Aaron Levy
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T. Aaron Levy
Lincoln, the Politician
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066141264
Table of Contents
LINCOLN'S ENVIRONMENT IN INDIANA
THE POLITICAL HERO OF NEW SALEM
PARTISAN IN STATE AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS
LINCOLN OPPOSES THE INCEPTION OF THE MEXICAN WAR IN CONGRESS
LINCOLN'S ATTACK ON SLAVERY IN CONGRESS
THE PILOT OF THE NEW FAITH IN ILLINOIS
LINCOLN AND THE DRED SCOTT DECISION
LEADER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN ILLINOIS
THE DAWN OF NATIONAL LEADERSHIP
THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
PREFACE
Love of kind alone transcended Lincoln's political ambition. His career as President, Statesman, Emancipator is a mystery unless his preparation for leadership is demonstrated. He was no product of sudden elevation, no creature of opportunity. No American Statesman was better equipped to meet a national emergency. Lincoln the plain politician, the Illinois legislator, the congressman, and the prairie debater, was a child of the grocery store, of the pioneer gathering, of caucus and convention. It was this political training that determined the mode in which he breathed life into the momentous proclamation of the nineteenth century. The world that admires his charity is in equal need of his policy.
Until the coming of the industrial movement following the Civil War, the Commonwealth commanded the best heart and intelligence of the Republic. Captains of industry had not usurped the places of power. A degraded conception of devotion to the general welfare is in itself a sign of degeneration. A corrupt political system is incompatible with a healthy national existence. When individual aggrandizement is often preferred to the common good, when private institutions frequently allure the genius of a people, it is an inspiration to return to a politician who in simplicity and sincerity believed that civil service and patriotism are better than gold. An abounding demand of the day is a practical political philosophy.
In spite of golden vision, of saintly Grail, civilization still questions its real progress, and the sphynx of human suffering baffles understanding. Life has ever been a ceaseless compromise between spirit and matter, dream and reality, shadow and substance. In the never ending conflict between the hosts of darkness and of light, of radicalism and of conservatism, the battle often has been won by the use of superior strategy. Wasted energy, a lack of well directed idealism and indifference to the laws of human progress are the main obstacles to human advancement. There is an ever present need of a fine sense of proportion between vision and reality. The reformer needs more method, while the practical representative needs more vision. The solution of vexing governmental problems will be hastened by a clearer and more general comprehension of the gigantic difficulties that stand in the way of the domination of ideas over matter. High political success comes from a profound knowledge of the character of the hostility thwarting human progress. Patience as well as faith must be the guide. Society suffers from misdirected emotion on the one hand and from impervious apathy on the other.