Quick Book Review: The Real Lincoln by Thomas DiLorenzo

I've had this book [The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War] in my queue for some time and just completed it. A very interesting read. Much of the information we've been fed about Lincoln for years us mistaken. And significant parts of other things have been either watered-down or simply ignored. This book gives insight into the true causes for the war between the states (I think the term 'Civil War' is improper when referring this war, the Confederacy wanted out, not control of the government) and the political movements behind them. Perhaps most important are the well-researched examples of Lincoln blatant disregard for civil liberties, states' rights, and the Constitution. It's really quite an appalling and disturbing story. Lincoln laid the groundwork for the large centralized state we have now along with emasculated states' rights. Lincoln's own quotes make it clear that he did not invade the Southern states in order to end slavery (an indefensible and abhorrent violation of individual liberty).

I have no real concerns about Dr. DiLorenzo's scholarship. The book is well-researched and the forward is written by Dr. Walter Williams, whose reputation is beyond reproach.

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."
-- Abraham Lincoln

The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War (Paperback) at Amazon.com

Lincoln and DiLorenzo by Walter E. Williams: "In 1831, long before the War between the States, South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun said, 'Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail.' The War between the States answered that question and produced the foundation for the kind of government we have today: consolidated and absolute, based on the unrestrained will of the majority, with force, threats, and intimidation being the order of the day.



Today’s federal government is considerably at odds with that envisioned by the framers of the Constitution. Thomas J. DiLorenzo gives an account of how this came about in The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War.

As DiLorenzo documents – contrary to conventional wisdom, books about Lincoln, and the lessons taught in schools and colleges – the War between the States was not fought to end slavery; Even if it were, a natural question arises: Why was a costly war fought to end it? African slavery existed in many parts of the Western world, but it did not take warfare to end it. Dozens of countries, including the territorial possessions of the British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, ended slavery peacefully during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Countries such as Venezuela and Colombia experienced conflict because slave emancipation was simply a ruse for revolutionaries who were seeking state power and were not motivated by emancipation per se.

Abraham Lincoln’s direct statements indicated his support for slavery; He defended slave owners’ right to own their property, saying that "when they remind us of their constitutional rights [to own slaves], I acknowledge them, not grudgingly but fully and fairly; and I would give them any legislation for the claiming of their fugitives" (in indicating support for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850).

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was little more than a political gimmick, and he admitted so in a letter to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase: "The original proclamation has no...legal justification, except as a military measure." Secretary of State William Seward said, "We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free. " Seward was acknowledging the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to slaves in states in rebellion against the United States and not to slaves in states not in rebellion.
...
The Real Lincoln contains irrefutable evidence that a more appropriate title for Abraham Lincoln is not the Great Emancipator, but the Great Centralizer."

The King Lincoln archive at LRC. The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War at amazon

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