Posted on 04/03/2012 5:18:40 AM PDT by iowamark
At the heart of the American constitutional crisis of the mid-nineteenth century stood the moral, social, and political evil of slavery. At stake in this crisis was the future of republican self-government.
Abraham Lincoln saw the dilemma facing the nation as the “crisis of a house divided.” While the American Founders worked to put slavery, as Lincoln said, “on the course of ultimate extinction,” the institution had instead flourished in the first half of the nineteenth century. By the 1850s, efforts to expand slavery threatened to tear the nation apart.
Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas championed the idea that Americans living in the territories should choose whether or not slavery should be legal there. “Popular sovereignty” eventually became the law of the land with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
For Lincoln, “popular sovereignty” was an abandonment of moral principle. Man does not have a moral right to choose a moral wrong. Self-government cannot mean ruling other human beings without their consent. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, although disguised in the language of liberty and self-government, was in fact at odds with the core principles of the American regime.
The Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision marked a further departure from the principles of the American Founding. Writing for the majority in 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that the Founders never intended for the principles of natural right enunciated in the Declaration to apply to blacks—whether enslaved or emancipated. Furthermore, Congress had no right to ban slavery in the territories. For Lincoln and the opponents of slavery, this decision was not only constitutionally and historically wrong, but it also further enabled the legal expansion of slavery nationwide.
Lincoln and Douglas debated both popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision in their Illinois Senate race of 1858. Douglas maintained that self-government and slavery were compatible and mutually beneficial in certain climates, and it was up to the majority of citizens to determine whether or not the conditions prevailing in their territory or state made slavery useful. Lincoln countered that republicanism and slavery could never exist in harmony, and that self-government could never be compatible with the denial of consent. America, he held, could not long exist half slave and half free; it must become one or the other.
Will Morrisey is the William and Patricia LaMothe Chair in the U.S. Constitution and Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, where he has taught since 2000. He teaches courses in American politics, political philosophy, and comparative politics.
Dr. Morrisey is the author of eight books on statesmanship and political philosophy including Self-Government, The American Theme: Presidents of the Founding and Civil War; The Dilemma of Progressivism: How Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson Reshaped the American Regime of Self-Government; Regime Change: What It Is, Why It Matters; Culture in the Commercial Republic; and Reflections on DeGaulle. He is currently working on a study of the geopolitical strategies of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Times, the American Political Science Review, the Claremont Review of Politics, and Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, of which he has served as an editor since 1979. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Kenyon College, and his Ph.D. in political science at the New School University.
Get started on readings for Week Eight, “Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution.”
Readings for Week 8:
Q&A Reminder: You may submit questions from Monday at noon when the new week's material is available, until Wednesday at noon. “Question & Answer” videos will be posted on Thursdays. Like the lectures, these sessions are not live, and are available to view at your convenience.
You may submit questions to constitution@hillsdale.edu, or via Facebook or Twitter. Please include your name, city, and state with your email so we can identify your question. We will do our best to answer as many questions as possible during the time allotted, but we will not be able to answer all questions.
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Study Questions
1. What was the central policy of the Missouri Compromise? How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act undo this?
2. What is “popular sovereignty”?
3. What is Article IV, Section Four of the Constitution? How does it bear upon the question of slavery?
4. How did Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney misinterpret the Declaration of Independence in the Dred Scott decision?
5. The Republican Party was founded at the height of the sectional crisis in 1854. For what purpose was it founded?
Discussion Questions
1. Why is popular sovereignty incompatible with self-government and the consent of the governed? What effects does it have on constitutionalism?
2. Abraham Lincoln argued that although the Supreme Court’s decision in the particulars of Dred Scott had the force of law, its unconstitutional decision did not have the power of precedent. How does this line of argument relate to the debate about judicial supremacy today?
3. Should American citizens have a right to do wrong? Are there some matters that should be beyond the reach of majority vote?
4. Does America have a constitutional crisis today? How is this crisis similar to the crisis of slavery?
In the book “Left Behind,“ a snake-oil salesman named Carpathian brings the World to ruin.
Dictator Baby-Doc Barack is our Carpathian as he tries to bring America to ruin.
Dr. WIll Morrisey: Constitution 101 - Week 7 Q&A (22 minute video)
Will Morrisey is the William and Patricia LaMothe Chair in the U.S. Constitution and Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, where he has taught since 2000. He teaches courses in American politics, political philosophy, and comparative politics.
Next Tuesday:
"Obamacare's Assault on Religious Liberty" Paul A. Rahe, Professor of History, Hillsdale College Live Webcast - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST
Paul A. Rahe holds the Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in Western Heritage and is Professor of History at Hillsdale College. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University and has taught at Cornell University and the University of Tulsa. He blogs on Ricochet.com and has authored several books, including Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift and Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Please note that this month’s program will take place on a Tuesday in deference to Good Friday.
Please RSVP!
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