Watchin' , 'Lincoln.' Again. Such a great film. Such a great political mind. Such a terrible tall hat.
The Cooper Union Address, the Second Inaugural Address, and "A House Divided" speech of 1858 each indicates in its particular way how Lincoln saw the institution of enslavement as a national rather than a sectional problem, and especially so, since the institution had the sanction of the law of the whole land.
In this slow moving film one is immediately arrested not only by incredibly pure set design and wood creaking, but by Lincoln's speeches and their political and philosophical depth. Lincoln's views on the American polity and how they compared to those of Jefferson, Madison, and other founders of the nation were unprecedented.
Lincoln repeatedly claims throughout his public life that his views on the American polity, especially regarding enslavement and government legislation over U.S. territories, was consistent with the views of the founders. One task for thinking is to show the ways in which his views harmonize with those of Madison and Jefferson; another task is to show how Lincoln's views differ from those of John C. Calhoun, a fierce proponent of slavery and states' rights. Lincoln's political thought is always emerging in the context of quarrels about what the Constitution really means and what the founding really was about, not abstractly, but in the context of living and concrete political situations.
In framing his argument against slavery in his speeches (and in this great film), Lincoln revisits again and again his understanding of the intentions of the founders. Lincoln is interesting because he argues that slavery is wrong not just by his own reasonable moral lights, but also by his American lights. Lincoln is also a great believer in the law, and he saw that the institution of slavery in the Southern states was legal. His strategic solution was to show that the founders were not willing to allow slavery to spread and that by keeping it in the South, it would be kept on 'the course of its final extinction.'
hear ye. hear ye. bye.
