Spielberg’s Lincoln
I have no talent for creating plots and characters, and so I must leave it to God to do that job for me; I write history instead of fiction. Fortunately, He is very good at plots and characters. Has...
View ArticleCall Us Blessed
This year marked the 150th anniversary of what David Von Drehle calls the most perilous year in our country’s history. As 1862 dawned, Von Drehle writes in his marvelous book Rise to Greatness: Abraham...
View ArticleThe Hinge of Fate
On July 4 we celebrate the 237th birthday of the United States. And celebrate it we do—as, indeed, we should—with parties, parades, concerts, fireworks, “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” and flags...
View ArticleWhat Conservatives Shouldn’t Be Watching
The recent dustup over the presence of a “pro-secessionist and neo-confederate” activist on the staff of Senator Rand Paul raised the danger that some oddball extremists interested in refighting the...
View ArticleKerry’s Syria Conference Is Falling Apart
The desire to be a great–or at least memorable–secretary of state is a classic “be careful what you wish for” bind. When William Seward finally agreed to accept Abraham Lincoln’s offer to serve as his...
View ArticleMadison’s Moment
He may not have a grand monument like Thomas Jefferson; the pop culture revival of John Adams; a name synonymous with courage and heroism like George Washington; or the institutional legacy of...
View Article“The One Man Who Had Quite Purged His Heart and Mind from Hatred or Even Anger”
Two hundred and five years ago today Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Lincoln was our greatest president, for reasons too numerous to recount here. But there is one element of...
View ArticleCorrecting DeMint’s Historical Confusion
Former Senator Jim DeMint gave an interview that requires some correction and amendment. Senator DeMint was asked what he would say to a liberal who argued, “That Founding Fathers thing worked out...
View ArticleThe Greatest Name Associated with the Cause of Popular Government
I first learned about Lord Charnwood’s 1916 masterpiece Abraham Lincoln while recently reading a book by the constitutional scholar Walter Berns. (Berns called it “the best of the Lincoln...
View ArticleAlonzo Cushing
On July 3, 1863, Brevet Major Alonzo H. Cushing commanded an artillery battery on Cemetery Ridge outside the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The fate of the Union hung in the balance as Pickett’s...
View ArticleLincoln’s Second Inaugural
One hundred and fifty years ago today, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Speech from the steps of the Capitol. Inaugural speeches, with rare exceptions, are not memorable. They tend to be...
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