A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (with New Foreword)When it originally appeared, A New Birth of Freedom represented a milestone in Lincoln studies, the culmination of over a half a century of study and reflection by one of America's foremost scholars of American politics. Now reissued on the centenary of Jaffa’s birth with a new foreword by the esteemed Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo, this long-awaited sequel to Jaffa’s earlier classic, Crisis of the House Divided, offers a piercing examination of the political thought of Abraham Lincoln and the themes of self-government, equality, and statesmanship on the eve of the Civil War. “Four decades ago, Harry Jaffa offered powerful insights on the Lincoln-Douglas debates in his Crisis of the House Divided. In this long-awaited sequel, he picks up the threads of that earlier study in this stimulating new interpretation of the showdown conflict between slavery and freedom in the election of 1860 and the secession crisis that followed. Every student of Lincoln needs to read and ponder this book.”— James M. McPherson, Princeton University “A masterful synthesis and analysis of the contending political philosophies on the eve of the Civil War. A magisterial work that arrives after a lifetime of scholarship and reflection—and earns our gratitude as well as our respect.”— Kirkus Reviews “The essence of Jaffa's case—meticulously laid out over nearly 500 pages—is that the Constitution is not, as Lincoln put it, a 'free love arrangement' held together by passing fancy. It is an indissoluble compact in which all men consent to be governed by majority, provided their inalienable rights are preserved.”— Bret Stephens; The Wall Street Journal |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 86
Page xxiii
... federal aid to the recapture of fugitive slaves is a denial of that equality, and is to be remedied by the assertion of power in the form of secession. This America looked like nothing Lincoln had ever seen in xxiii Foreword.
... federal aid to the recapture of fugitive slaves is a denial of that equality, and is to be remedied by the assertion of power in the form of secession. This America looked like nothing Lincoln had ever seen in xxiii Foreword.
Page xxiv
... he had made thus far. “We recall,” he began, that Jefferson had originally perceived revolution as the principal means by which the right of an aggrieved people would be asserted, but that Jefferson had learned that xxiv Foreword.
... he had made thus far. “We recall,” he began, that Jefferson had originally perceived revolution as the principal means by which the right of an aggrieved people would be asserted, but that Jefferson had learned that xxiv Foreword.
Page xxv
... asserted, but that Jefferson had learned that in fact elections were the true path. Americans would always have differences of opinion, but these would never amount to differences of principle, and in that case, elections and not ...
... asserted, but that Jefferson had learned that in fact elections were the true path. Americans would always have differences of opinion, but these would never amount to differences of principle, and in that case, elections and not ...
Page 5
... asserted that the King's majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons of ... assertion of a right to exercise despotic power over them. They would have seen a vote to accept it as a vote to ...
... asserted that the King's majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons of ... assertion of a right to exercise despotic power over them. They would have seen a vote to accept it as a vote to ...
Page 10
... asserted this more categorically than George Washington, in his inaugural address. [T]he foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality . . . since there is no truth more ...
... asserted this more categorically than George Washington, in his inaugural address. [T]he foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality . . . since there is no truth more ...
Contents
1 | |
73 | |
Chapter 3 The Divided American Mind on the Eve of Conflict James Buchanan Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens Survey the Crisis | 153 |
Chapter 4 The Mind of Lincolns Inaugural and the Argument and Action of the Debate That Shaped ItI | 237 |
Chapter 5 The Mind of Lincolns Inaugural and the Argument and Action of the Debate That Shaped ItII | 285 |
Chapter 6 July 4 1861 Lincoln Tells Why the Union Must Be Preserved | 357 |
Chapter 7 Slavery Secession and State Rights The Political Teaching of John C Calhoun | 403 |
Appendix The Dividing Line between Federal and Local Authority Popular Sovereignty in the TerritoriesA Commentary | 473 |
Notes | 489 |
Index | 539 |
About the Author | 551 |
Other editions - View all
A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War Harry V. Jaffa Limited preview - 2000 |
A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War Harry V. Jaffa Limited preview - 2004 |
A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War Harry V. Jaffa No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln according Alexander Stephens American Revolution antislavery appeal argument Aristotle Articles Articles of Confederation assertion authority Becker become believed British Buchanan Calhoun cause citizens civil claim colonies common compact concurrent majority Confederate Congress consent constitutional right constitutionalism created equal crisis Davis debates Declaration of Independence denied despotism divine right doctrine Douglas Douglas’s Dred Scott election electoral ernment fact federal Federalist Federalist Papers Founding freedom fugitive slave Gettysburg Address God’s human idea inaugural individual institutions interest Jaffa Jefferson Jefferson Davis justice laws of nature liberty Madison majority rule man’s means ment mind moral nation natural rights nature’s Negroes opinion party popular sovereignty president principles proposition proslavery question race ratified reason republican right of revolution secede secession Senate slavery social society South Carolina Southern speech Stephens stitution Summary View Taney Taney’s territories theory tion truth tyranny Union United Virginia vote