The Problem with Abraham Lincoln

A political biography of Abraham Lincoln, exploring his potential re-founding of the United States via a 'baptism of blood' - as well as his evolving views on natural equality vs. political and social equality.

The Gettysburg Address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln November 19, 1863

0:00-01:07 Intro 1:08-18:36 Good v Bad Lincoln 18:37-1:25:33 Jefferson & Natural Equality 1:25:34-2:34:18 Lincoln Pre-Civil War 2:34:19-4:02:20 Political Lincoln 4:02:21-4:46:15 Baptism of Blood

Sources: Blackburn. Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln: An Unfinished Revolution. 2011. Boritt. The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows. 2006. Cotton. The Greatest Speech, Ever: The Remarkable Story of Abraham Lincoln and His Gettysburg Address. 2013. 1st edition. Dunlap et al. Long Remembered: Lincoln and his five.... 2011. 1st edition. Freedman. Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship. 2012. Hirsch & Van Haften. The Ultimate Guide to the Gettysburg Address. 2016. 1st edition. Jaffa. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. 1959. Jaffa. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. 2000. Johnson. Writing the Gettysburg Address. 2013. Kendall & Carey. The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition. 1970 (1995 Catholic University of America Press edition). McPherson. Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. 1991. Warren. Lincoln's Gettysburg Declaration: "A New Birth of Freedom". 1964. Wills. Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. 1992. The Art of Abraham Lincoln by McPherson. NY Review of Books Jul 16, 1992

Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln. Richard Brookhiser Abraham Lincoln. Redeemer President. 1999. Allen C. Guelzo Lincoln and the Radicals. T Harry Williams Team of Rivals. Doris Kearns Goodwin Lord Charnwood. Abraham Liincoln. Our One Common Country. James B. Conroy

primary sources speeches and letters: Lyceum Address January 27, 1838 Temperance Address February 22, 1842 Eulogy on Henry Clay July 6, 1852 Speech at Peoria October 16, 1854 Letter to Joshua Speed August 24, 1855 Speech on the Dred Scott Decision June 26, 1857 "House Divided" Speech June 16, 1858 "Electric Cord" Speech July 10, 1858 Fragment on Democracy c. August 1858 First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas August 21, 1858 Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas September 18, 1858 Fifth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas October 7, 1858 Seventh Debate with Stephen A. Douglas October 15, 1858 Letter to J. N. Brown October 18, 1858 Letter to Henry L. Pierce and others April 6, 1859 Cooper Union Address February 27, 1860 Address in Independence Hall February 22, 1861 July 4th Message to Congress July 4, 1861 Letter to Horace Greeley August 22, 1862 Annual Message to Congress December 1, 1862 The Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863 Letter to Governor Michael Hahn March 13, 1864 Letter to Albert G. Hodges April 4, 1864 Address at Sanitary Fair (Lecture on Liberty) April 18, 1864 The President's Last Public Address April 11, 1865

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