“Abraham Lincoln: A Man and a Leader of Men”

By T. Elliot Gaiser

Presented at a debate sponsored by the Hillsdale College Republicans and the Fairfield Society in commemoration of President's Day

February 20, 2011

Today I am called by the President of the College Republicans, Baillie Jones, to address Abraham Lincoln's merits as a statesman.

You might be expecting this discussion to center on whether or not Lincoln was right in using war to prevent secession, which would open debate on the constitutional and philosophical justifications for secession and the historical facts surrounding 19^th century America.

Of these facts, my family has been personally aware. I am descended of the son of the son of Thomas Anderson Smith, a free plantation owner of southern Virginia and, as I am told, one of only hundreds to reach the crest of Pickett's charge in Gettysburg before falling to a near-fatal bayonet wound. I've walked the land, my family's land, that was lost to us in this tragedy of brother against brother. And my heart is really there, in the south, which I believe today represents much of what is good and chivalrous and hospitable in America.

Kirk on Abraham Lincoln, 1970

One hundred fifty years ago today, the Union—or, what was left of it—was in an uproar.  Two days earlier, after three days of debate, the South Carolina Convention declared itself independent of the American Union. 

Never before or since has a greater threat existed against the cohesiveness and integrity of the United States of America.  The hapless James Buchanan, a liar and a coward, sat in the Oval Office, impotent.  The incoming president would not take the oath of office for another three months. 

It seems appropriate, then, as we begin the 150^th anniversary of the events that led to the American Civil War, we turn to the intellectual and spiritual patron of this website, Russell Kirk, and consider his views on Abraham Lincoln, the man who would become so identified with the four-year noble tragedy.