Legal Commentary

From The Pols Are Pols File . . .

By Big Tent Democrat

The great historian Sean Wilentz:

When [Franklin] Pierce ran for president in 1852, Lincoln, naturally, campaigned against him. . . . Lincoln limited himself to a long speech in Springfield . . . The speech did nothing to affect the outcome of the election, in Illinois or in the country at large. But it deserves to be remembered in these days of Lincoln idolatry, because it can be disturbing reading to anyone inclined to worship Father Abraham.

[MORE . . .]

. . . Lincoln attacked Pierce not as a slaveholders' tool, but as a Yankee who had flattered anti-slavery northerners. Lincoln specifically charged that Pierce had expressed a "loathing" for the Fugitive Slave Law . . . . [Pierce] did so, Lincoln charged, in an effort to pick up votes outside the Democrats' base in the deep South. Lincoln even claimed that the northerner Pierce's "efficacy" at winning anti-slavery votes "was the very thing that secured his nomination."

. . . My point in re-telling this story is not to try, yet again, to debunk Lincoln's reputation for probity and sagacity, and for perfect enlightenment on racial issues. The defamatory image of Lincoln as a conventional white racist, whose chief cause was self-aggrandizement, is even more absurd than the awestruck hagiographies that have become ubiquitous in this anniversary year. My point is simpler and larger. It is that Abraham Lincoln was, first and foremost, a politician.

(Emphasis supplied.) Indeed. Pols are pols and do what they do.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 03, 2009 (boomark / email).