Leadership and Lincoln 08/27/2009

WHAT IS JUSTICE?
 We mistakenly equate justice with fairness
 The Biblical golden rule is a pretty good measure of justice
 Are we the ones imprisoned in the cave
What is Plato telling us about education and why has it lasted?
How do we change society and show them the truth?
 How do we understand the human condition?
 Why do we find comfort in similarity?
 How do we let the bold original thought manifest itself?
o Lincoln said public sentiment was everything.
 Know your audience

THE IDEAS
 We are trying to describe things that are transcendent
 We see shadows and hear echoes
o They are not untrue, but we don’t see the whole
 How do we deal with our inability to accurately know?
o How do you come to know the difference between your
opinion and what you know is true?

THE SUPREME GOOD

 The idea of the good and the perfection
 There is the quest for the transcendent good
 Some of the ways to the good are corrupting
o Hoarding money versus charity
 Human beings are not perfect
o They partake of animal instinct and the ideas of transcendent
God
 ETHICS IS THE STUDY OF POLITICS
o A relationship between politics and ethics
 Ethics help in politics
o Politics is what fulfills mans nature as human beings
o Its perfection is brought to the floor through the political
universe
o It is the ability to argue about justice and the supreme good

The Polos
 Political community: seeking the good life
 Man has perception of good & bad and right and wrong
 Speech makes man the political animal
o We can opine and debate over serious issues
o We can move ourselves as a community to a higher level
o Animals don’t do that
 We have thoughts and judgments
  Thus we are higher and nobler just by speech
 The inclination to pursue the good concretely: preface to
action=politics
 This is what it means to be a human being
 So humans can use all our “gifts” for evil
o Not what they are intended to do
o Virtue is the perfection of the human nature
 Devoid of virtue is awful for man
 Speech in human being leads to laws and processes
o The things which governs are lower passions and urges

Leviathan
 What is man like in its most primitive state?
 What are humans like before prejudices and tradition
 IT IS A DANGEROUS PLACE
 Human would rely on their self interest
 A war of every man against every man
 Our opining of justice gets deluded
o Everybody can dress up what they do with justice
 Hobbes doesn’t want to die
 Life in a state of nature and said it was cruel, brutish, and short
 The way to control the people is to scare everyone and hold them in
awe
 o The punishment must be so awful that it overwhelms the joy
so no one wills to risk it
 Hobbes thinks justice is peace and safety
 Man comes together and forms the power that protects us
individually
 We create a government from below out of self interest to be safe
and secure
 Once we consent to it it is absolute. It is it what scares us into
submission
 Passion versus reason
o Reason versus instinct
o Passions always overwhelm reason according to Hobbes
o The fearful punishment holds at bay
 Because we are scared
 The most durable aspect of human nature: passion and
self intrest
 Outside the civil society justice and injustice has no meaning
 Justice is law abidingness
 To survive is the most basic impulse of humanity
 Allow people to come together and allow people to have a
commodius life: to have things and be inquisitive
 All a matter of private property
 We don’t want mere life we want a commodius life of stuff
 We have stuff and it distinguishes us
 We want to aspire to things
 Better to fear the government then your other man
o But we as people limit our government through consent
 Problem with Hobbes is that he is simple
o There is a risk with bad gov. hence constitutional law
 We build up things that define us
 Hence the declaration’s pursuit of happiness
 Law is not oppressive it is like hedge mazes
o It keeps us in the right path, limits how far we exercise our
free will
 Much more restricted view of justice than Plato and Aristotle
 The Leviathan is the government the power over us
 God’s delayed punishment versus
 Locke tries to correct Hobbes
 So is law completely subjective
 Locke has a problem with the single sovereign
o What if it is corruopt
o Locke fixes this
 Hobbes thought that organized religion could manipulate the simple
people
 People could use the word of God to cover up their own duplicity
and machinations

What is Leadership & Its Studies

 What is leadership?
o Ideas of justice (asscociated with leadership) become
problematic when we decide to sort it out
o Humans by nature are ambitious, vindictive, and perpacious
  Hamilotn’s view in Fed No. 6
 Immediate gratification dominates our ideas of remote
justice: we lie to ourselves as what is good
 This is wahy opinions become so intractable: we think
its just and that we are right
 Some notions of justice are better than others
o What about the example of the Andes mountain incedent?
 How do we take advantage of a situation?
 What if the preservation of life is the single most
important thing?
 WHY DO WE BEHAVE DECENTLY?
 Why are we charitable?
 Mabey Hobbes is wrong: but we also want commodius
living
 What is the role of self intrest in the way we calculate
whats right and whats wrong?
o Capatalisim is a prime example
 Self intrest drives common good
 If you go out and do good there is a certain nobility to
that
 There CAN be self intrest in that
 Some people can be completely selfless
 How do we explain self-sacrafice?
 Where we would die to save for someone else
 Its probably true
 The case of war: Dying for your country
 Give your life for your country
  How do persuade people to defend your country?
 If you calculate that people are always bad even if its
not the case what happens?
 Empathy & Compassion
o You want fellow citizens who are going to be empathetic &
compassionate
o A perfect polis would be where we are all best friends
o If friendship was the basis of community we would have
earthly paradise
o Human nature is a volatile mixture: you have benevolence
and malevolence
o How do you draw them all together into one group

Barrack Obama and healthcare reform is a prime example

 Convince some republicans
 Convince conservative democrats
 Hold the liberal democrats
 It is an extrodinary achievment
o His campaigne success yet he faces challenges
 How do we do this?
 Majority rule is the best alternative to chaos
 So we have to use incremental compromise
o Timing is everything
 Change does not happen overnight: how do we save ourselves from
being an ordinary politician
 Have we placed to much hope in one man in the American gov.
 o It’s the beauty of the system: it has slowed him down
 Have we all lost are minds
 Enable the government to control the governed then oblige it to
control itself
 Obama should have understood that he would face fierce opposition
from his own party
 Our politicans should have been prepared for this
 How do we knit and transcend self interest and different ideas
 We rest on the assumption that most people are selfish
o But people hold opinions because they think its right
 We have to think through whether or not we are right with the
opinions we hold

Ugly Baby Problem

 NEVER give an honest opinion of how someone’s baby looks like
 This is what defines us: we love our children and think they are
perfect
 How do we change people’s views
o Everyone has their own inclinations
o What truly serves our interests

Federalist #10
 The problem of faction
o A group like the KKK are factions
 Motivated by ideas that are adverse to the community
and detrimental to its health
 The reciprocal relationship between opinions and
passions
 Never talk politics and religions at cocktail arties 
 One has to realize that the problem of opinion is
intractable
o Freedom: freedom of the will
o We are built the wrong way
 We are inclined to be divisve than inclusive
 Our views on the common good are radically
different
 We must institutionally bring opinions and force
them together
 A sries of successive filtrations
 We purify and find what is common to all
those intrests
 We take all the raw stuff and force them into institutional
arrangments and create a common ground and common good
 From the outset the great hope of the partyless society fails: epic
fail 
 Extremism has been boiled off
 Lauren hatch
 In fed 71 we learn that we have to be mindful of the difference
between interest and inclinations
 Why do we want an independent executive?
o Pg 430 to serve them at the peril of the displeasure of the
constituency
o We demonstrate that people are mistaken over inclination and
interest
 This is what Lincoln faces
 How do you as a leader resist being a weathervane
 How do you stand up against poplular demand if you know that its
wrong
 Pg 382: the people need a single ruler
o People need the incoviences of the legislature
o We need a bicameral legislature: we need checks & balances
o The ultimate folly: hemlock on one side and statues the
other: HUMAN NATURE
o Condemnation and adoration
 It’s a matter of rhetoric
o Look at lincoln’s rhetoric
o Speeches have their place in humanity
 Educating people into the ways you think right
 Rhetoric to passion and rhetoric to reason
o Those are the two ways to appeal to human nature
 How do you heard many different opinions into one group
 Be a transformative leader not transitory (my opinion)
 Obama is transitory
 Politics is a give and take business

Constitutions
 Locke on Perogative
o Persecution in the art of writing
 Locke knew he was being spied on
 Saw the troubles that befell Hobbes
 o His famous works: on human understanding
 Made him famous
 Wrote his treatises on government anonymously
 Advocated government by consent
 Influenced the founding of the American
government
 Locke begins with an attack on Robert Fillman
 Argued that the existing order of things was seriously
flawed
 Political power is the right of making laws under the penalty of
death all of this is only for the public good
o Political power rightfully understood ahs one end: the good of
people
o Locke seems to be almost idyllic at first in his idea of nature
but it quickly becomes like Hobbes view
 Nothing to prevent man from being his own judge and
executioner
o Locke is clear that the state of nature is missing clear
elements
 A established known law and commonly consented upon
 An agreed upon standard
 Known and indifferent judge who can interpret the
established law and resolve conflicts
 Power to back and support the law when it is in right
 If you have a law that prohibits there must be
force to back it up
 How do you overcome the state of nature
o Legitimacy comes from the ground up
o All men are created equal and can govern themselves
 A legitamte government over people exists by consent
  Because we are free and equal one person cannot rule
many without consent
 All men everywhere need governing
o Government without law and order is tyranny
o Governments must have instituions
 You have the legislature, executive, and judiciary
 Replaces the void in the state of nature
o We hold these truths to be self-evident
o The declaration of independence sums up Locke’s treatises on
government
 Locke creates a way to get rid of the great leviathan if it’s a bad
leviathan
o Locke says you have the right to revolution
o Hobbes thought a bad government is better than none
 Locke understands that what makes life in the state of nature so
dire is being ruled arbitarlly by the wills of others
o What if you were rulled by someone elses whims?
 Put together a system to govern the people and there will be laws
and punishments
o The rules come from the legislature and the legislature comes
from the people
o And we have gradations of crime and punishment
 Due process of law as a matter of your right
 The end sought of government is the common good
o The common good is: peace
o How does this all work
o How does society stay together?
  It works as Locke and Hobbes designed and the
founders created
o It is through instituions that man’s nature is tamed
 No absolute depotic and arbitrary power
o What law is not is a complete domination of the individual
 Laws are like hedges in a maze they keep you on the path and
direct you in a certain way
o We have the freedom to do want we want to do
o We can do what we want under certain limitations
 The ancients were interested in how one could use government to
perfect human beings
o Modernists is not to make humans virtuous but make the free
through ordered liberty
 That is what Locke is about
 Law is restrained but consentented to by the contrained
 No force without authority
 There are check offs: people up above check the actions of the
people on the lower tiers
 We have to establish the institutions that make the laws, enforce
the laws, and interpret the laws
o You have to have the three but their format is not specific
 The legislative power has its limitations
o It will always be partial: based on past experiences and what
about future experiences
o Locke’s problem is that the rule of law is not necessary for big
government but needs more
 It requires the rule of men: someone who excercises
judgment
 Law is ambiguous:
 Distinguished by its generality
  One law for many possible circumstances
 How do deal with human behaviour and its
unpredictability
 You need someone who needs to exercise
judgment
 Executive power is not simply limited
 Ie: George W Bush grounding all airlines
during 9/11
 Steel seizure case during the Korean war by Truman
o Truman nationalized the Steel mills
o The supreme court decide that this exceeded his authority
 He was able to do it and disrupt the inconvenience with
no written authority
 The reaction is the one Locke predicted
 At the end of the day Truman was able to do this
 The people can become outraged
 The supreme court restricts him
 But in the end the public good is served
 The restriction on perogitive continues to
serve the common good
o Perogitive is not simply arbitary
The only legitamite object of perogitive is the public
good
 Perogitive can only be excercised in the pursuit of the
public interest
 Doing something to serve the public good if there is a
law against it
 Ie: Lincoln suspending Habeus Corpus
o The executive power is to enforce the laws passed and fufill
its dictations
  During exceptional circumstances the executive can
step over the law
 Perogitive can lead to bad and awful things too
 Good leaders can give this a bad name
more so than bad rulers
 There is a thin line that seperats perogitive and
tyranny
 Locke on tyranny
 Usurpation and the exercise of power beyond
right and the usage of power for his own
advantage
 It is misuse of power and not for the common
good
Discretion and perogitive is for the public good
 Exceptional power under times of war or
emergency
 How do we deal with discretion
 To act on our intrests with or against the
rule of law

Federalist Papers
 Governments are designed by reason (See Federalist 1)
 Lincoln understood that the American Political began with the
declaration and was fulfilled with the constitution
o Lincoln hates Douglas’s idea that popular sovereignty is the
idea the founders intended and wanted
o Lincoln calls the declaration a “merley revolutionary”
documenet
 It advocates seperation with Britain and to hold the
union together
 It permamently leaves an abstract truth to be dealt with
and prevents tyranny
 It is that all men are created equal
 This is something that Lincoln comes back
too a lot
 At what level is everyone equal?
 Everything that derives therefrom too
The Declaration (see handout for more notes)
 Lays out why Britain is tyrannous and why men and in particular
the American people have the right to revolt
 What is the argument that Jefferrson lays out in paragraph 2?
o What is a self evident truth?
o The self evident truths are like the laws of gravity: they exist
and one does not have to recognize it
 Its out there and is already true
 There are truths that are out there and do not require
acceptance or popularity
 Lincoln returns here time and time again
 Humans are ENDOWED with certain unalienable rights
 Its from God and directly from him
 However nature is paradoxical: some of these rights are
very alienable
 It is to say that you cannot take these rights
justly
 The clencher is: men have to fashion governments
o Derives there power from the governed: government is a
necessity
 Means that consent is the recipracal of equality
 We have to cosent to be government since we are all
equal: a matter of choice and free will
 Slavery: mens rights are not secured and have no
consent to live that way
 The people have the right to destroy a tyrannous and destructive
government
o People do not concede their power once they form a
government: (from Locke)
 o Man has the constant power to revise and destroy
government when it fails to secure these rights
 And its not democracy it is any FORM that can get the
job done (shadows of Hobbes)
 Desire for peace & happiness is supreme objective
 You do not do these things lightly: it is when tyranny begins to
become a clear object
o History is replete with examples of unequal human beings in
society
 One fights revolutions over the design to reduce the people to
oppression: against a government that is UNJUST
o This inspires Lincoln
 Lincoln’s problem is Stephen Douglas and popular sovereignty
o Why not think that slavery is a issue of moral indifference and
we can vote in and out other people’s rights
 The declaration is very specific: All men are created equal. And if
we take that seriously then we cannot except Douglas’s theory
 Jefferson is the great advocate of states rights and nullification:
Lincoln is fascinated by this
o Also Lincoln admires and returns to Jefferson even though
this degenerates into popular sovereignty and the right to
form the CSA

Institutions in the Federalist Papers

 Fed 10 the problems are mostly at state level and the national
government has no power and should be devoid of the state
problems
o How federal should the national government
 Constitution is between federation and confederation
o Madison says it is a hybrid: it is both
 The civil war comes from the problem between national and states
o One needs to be highly suspicious of the legislative power
 It is the impetous vortex and likes to become tyrannous
 So the L branch needs to be bicameral
The L needs an independent J and E to keep the
legislature in place
 The president needs to be energetic
 So we have a series of successive filtrations
 `see Obamas’ helath care speech
 one wants o government that can work itself

Cooper Union
 Lincoln’s do or die political moment
o Had now idea on presidency
o Rallied northerners and a speech on ills of slavery
 Notice “our fathers”

The American Presidency (Creation) 08/27/2009
Thatch’s Point (in the book)
 Do not have multiple people in the executive branch
o Experience must be our only guide

Obama and the joint session

 He showed that he was in control of the argument
 What would thatch think of last night’s speech

More on Thatch
 The three influences helped shape how people think about politics
o Colonial Heretige: had assemblies, charters, English common
law
 Self government traditon: rep. government
o Revolutionary War: they won and no one could have guessed
that
 They stood up and won against Britain: it gave them
confidence
 Democracy became the catechism of American
Politics
 Continental congress: a national assembly
 Declaration establishes what a good
government should be
 It is primarily an English affair
o Furthered by English enlightenment
writers
o Came out of the revolution with an
intellectual “buzz”
o The Emergance of the newly independent states
  Each of the colonies ceased to be a colony
 New governments turned to written constitutions
 Saw unwritten constitution of Britain was a
problem
 A democratic republic forms and becomes the
form of government for the nation and state
 Bicameral legislatures arise as a way to
make the legislature safe
 How do you reconcile liberty and equality?
 A fear of executive became instilled in the early
constitutions
 They wanted weak and chained down
executives and a dominative legislatures
o NY had the only strong governor

Articles Era
 Two more major influences appear: exerpience must be our only
guide leads them during this time
o Look at the independent states: they have some anit-union
tendencies which are contrary to the whims of the
government
 They were all founded seperatly: each thought they
were autonomous: Many thought they were citizens of
their state before being an American
 The are geographically separated
 Economically separated too
 There is an effort to stop the tendency of the
states to disunite
 The founders wanted a constitution that would make a
less state central government
o There are union tendencies too
 Common religion: christianity
 Won the war together
  Speak the same language
 On the whole a democratic republic is the least
offensive government too them
 What’s wrong with the articles of confederation?
o Its not a nation and was never intended to be a nation
 It was to be a firm league of friendship
 Difficulty was the states remained soverriegn
 Had to go to the states for money
 it was never expected to be a government: it was
flawed at its core
 LOOK AT THE UNITED NATIONS
 They won the revolution but what happens if Britain,
Spain, and Quebec France come to fight
 The states just wanted enough union for the
common defense
 An argument came about that the small republic and
that America should remain as one
 Montisque had a theory that liberty could only
exist in small republics
 Everyone could be represented: every voice
could be heard
 Small republics were easy to manage and
prevent Tyrants
 Space an largeness of interest becomes a good thing
 It can solve the problem of faction
 Hence a large republic says Hamilton is the
key to stopping faction
 Faction was a huge problem
 Anti-federalists did not like the idea of a large
government
 The federalists wanted one
  The Antis were afraid of a standing army which is
needed to maintain control in a large nation
 A small republic did not need a standing army
 Madison says Montisque is flawed
 The states as they already exist are much larger
than the republics montisque intended
 Now the federalists say that liberty can ONLY be safe in
a large republic
 Congress was the only power in the articles
government
 Of course this was flawed too: it also did
not have much power either
 Whats the legacy of this period?
o This is the first step at a national constitution
o What did this achieve? They won the war
Opened diplomatic conventions
 Jefferson and Adams were ambassadors
o Opened the door for expansions
 Northwest ordinance
o Opened the question of union
 How tightly knit should the union be?
o Showed how to make a constitution and how to give power to
branches of government
 Give branches certain liberties
 The bigger defects of the articles drive the states to the constitional
conventions
o No control over citizens
 No enforcement
 o No more does the government have to beg the states for
money
o No control over commerce
 States could disrupt commerce throughut the nation
o Overwhelming omnipotent Legislature had no executive and
no judiciary
o States wanted to pull apart
 E,L, and J branch all draw their sovereign powers from
the people directly in the new constitution
 The states are jumped over
 The articles were a step in the right direction
o The republic was always looked at an experiment: no one
knew how long the republic could last
 Many thought it would break up
 The articles were not a total failure by any means: there were many
good things that came out from this
o Madison did his research to lecture and inform everyone on
how the articles are not good enough and cannot be made
good enough
 The Annapolis convention failed ultimately but they came out with
the determination for a Philadelphia constitutional convention
o Looming here is the absence of an executive power
o Shay’s rebellion had just happened and highlights a severe
weakness
o A major insurecction and the national authorit had no power
to stop it
 It spawned in the Americans a real fear of domestic violence and
terroism
 The dangers of a lack of executive becomes apparent here
o Government must first control the governed and it must
control itself also
o Unfettered power does not work: there must be a republican
slution
 Madison sees the essential affair is federalism
 o He comes prepared to deal with this and enlighten the other
delegates
o How does one delegate power?
o Madison is well researched on this
o HOWEVER: he has no notions and lack of preparation on
executive power
 They need to beef up the national government and don’t
incoportate the problems with the state government
o Fed 10 about problems with the state government

Federalist papers revisited

 See pg 30: How do we manage power: paradox of republican

government is this: energetic government secures liberty, but
power must be managed
 See pg 148: Governemnt requires power-Artiles gov could not call
in troops-no power
o Shay’s rebellion
o No power to collect money
 Seep pg 190: We need Lockean perogitive
o Madison does not understand executive
o A man by the name of Wilson understands fully the executive
branch
 Comes up with a popular pyramid theory of presidential
power
 Of all the opinions they are all filtered until the
chief executive officer
 He represents the entire whole
 It filters the already filtered legisature
 He enforces the laws of government
 o The delegates are concerned by how the executive is elected
 Term limits?
 Re-eligablitiy?
 How long does he serve?
 Veto power? Is that anti-democratic
o The three powers draws athuoirty not from eachother but
from the people
 Impeachment is a hard process:
 HOW do checks and balances work
 The legislature is the problem
o Split it up
o Hem it in by a strong executive
o And a strong judiciary
 See pg 432: because of the dangers of the legislature
o One needs an independent and energetic executive
 See pg 378: That is the only goal of good government
o Good must come from all
 Tyrannical aristocracies must be prevented
 Liberty is endangered by the abuses of liberty: faction
 True test of good government is its ability to form a good
administration
 Hemlock and statues: see federalist 71
o What you need is a president who can resist public passion
The Creation and design of the Constitution
 The kind of srtructure which the constittuiton creates for our
government
 One way was simply in language
o The real concern was in legislative tyranny: notice the
language of the beginning of article 1
o The excutive gets power vested in him
o The legislative gets powers granted
 Perhaps this is from Locke’s ideas on perogative
 The Execuitive has a PR problem so Hamilton makes the argument
that the executive is both republican and energetic
o Madison draws the executive example from the Governor of
NY: also highlights that there are political safety valves
 Impeachment & a new election
 Hamilton compares the powers of a Monarch and the President
o He easily shows that the Monarch is not like the president
 Hamilton makes the case for power and that it’s the security for the
stability of republican government
o “that a vigorous Executive is inconsistent with the genius of
republican government.”-Federalist 70
 Energy in the executive can make the government do what it needs
to do
o Ie: Obama’s speech on health care
 This is energy in the executive: infuses energy into the policy
making
 Gives the president the lead of directing public policy
 A general locus of power “vested in him” the president is the big
guy
 What are the ingredients of this power? Remember this power has
limits and answers to the people
 o Unity
o Duration
o Support
o Competent powers
o Dependence on the people
o Confidence on the people
 Being a single person gives you unity and power of the decision
o As a party of 3 and agreement it becomes far more difficult
o No secrecy, and dispatch
 Results in fast decsions
 Look at the example of Bush on 9/11: land all aircraft get airforce
to escort all planes, operation yellow ribbon
 The executive gets a cabinet but one w/o power
 It enhances responsabiltiy because one person has no place to hide
o He must stand up and take judgment: republican safety
o “Responsibility is of two kinds to censure and to
punishment.”-FED 70
 “It is evident from these considerations, that the plurality of the
Executive tends to deprive the people of the two greatest securities
they can have for the faithful exercise of any delegated power, first,
the restraints of public opinion, which lose their efficacy, as well on
account of the division of the censure attendant on bad measures
among a number, as on account of the uncertainty on whom it
ought to fall; and, secondly, the opportunity of discovering with
facility and clearness the misconduct of the persons they trust, in
order either to their removal from office or to their actual
punishment in cases which admit of it.”-Fed 70
o this is the point: the engine of energy in the executive is the
unity of the executive is one person
o enables the laws to be faithfully executed
 Hamilton then discusses the duration of the office
o Reeligabilty
o Length of term
 Remember origional const. had the president serve four years and
can be re-elected indefinatley
o Didn’t want a president to have to leave during a crisis
o “DURATION in office has been mentioned as the second
requisite to the energy of the Executive authority. This has
relation to two objects: to the personal firmness of the
executive magistrate, in the employment of his constitutional
powers; and to the stability of the system of administration
which may have been adopted under his auspices.”-Fed 71
 the president isn’t going anywhere because of his
duration in office: personal clout
 brings stability instead of legislative confusion and
mutation
  “It is a just observation, that the people commonly
INTEND the PUBLIC GOOD. This often applies to their
very errors. But their good sense would despise the
adulator who should pretend that they always REASON
RIGHT about the MEANS of promoting it. They know
from experience that they sometimes err; and the
wonder is that they so seldom err as they do, beset, as
they continually are, by the wiles of parasites and
sycophants, by the snares of the ambitious, the
avaricious, the desperate, by the artifices of men who
possess their confidence more than they deserve it, and
of those who seek to possess rather than to deserve it.
When occasions present themselves, in which the
interests of the people are at variance with their
inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they
have appointed to be the guardians of those interests,
to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give
them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate
reflection. Instances might be cited in which a conduct
of this kind has saved the people from very fatal
consequences of their own mistakes, and has procured
lasting monuments of their gratitude to the men who
had courage and magnanimity enough to serve them at
the peril of their displeasure.”-fed 71

 they know that duration allows the president to look to the future
o but the executive has to be wary that he comes up for
relelection in four years
o the safety is that if the president does something the people
HATE then over four years the people may cool off
 gives the president security
 if he was a PM then vote of no conifidence and he is
gone
 takes a long time to impeach a president: we want
benefit of the doubt
o it would be very different under a parliamentary system
 Somehow the founders want the virtues of monarchy but w/o the
defects
 They also wanted the executive to resist the legislature: and
weaken it form drawing things into its perpetuous vortex
o “British House of Commons, from the most feeble beginnings,
FROM THE MERE POWER OF ASSENTING OR DISAGREEING
TO THE IMPOSITION OF A NEW TAX, have, by rapid strides,
reduced the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of
the nobility within the limits they conceived to be compatible
with the principles of a free government, while they raised
themselves to the rank and consequence of a coequal branch
of the legislature;”-fed 71

The price you pay 4 not having unlimited reelection

 “One ill effect of the exclusion would be a diminution of the
inducements to good behavior.”-fed 72
o No future prospects would give you incentive to become
corrupt
 “Another ill effect of the exclusion would be the temptation to
sordid views, to peculation, and, in some instances, to usurpation.
An avaricious man, who might happen to fill the office, looking
forward to a time when he must at all events yield up the
emoluments he enjoyed, would feel a propensity, not easy to be
resisted by such a man, to make the best use of the opportunity he
enjoyed while it lasted, and might not scruple to have recourse to
the most corrupt expedients to make the harvest as abundant as it
was transitory; though the same man, probably, with a different
prospect before him, might content himself with the regular
perquisites of his situation, and might even be unwilling to risk the
consequences of an abuse of his opportunities. His avarice might be
a guard upon his avarice.”-fed 72
 “A third ill effect of the exclusion would be, the depriving the
community of the advantage of the experience gained by the chief
magistrate in the exercise of his office. That experience is the
parent of wisdom, is an adage the truth of which is recognized by
the wisest as well as the simplest of mankind. What more desirable
or more essential than this quality in the governors of nations?”-fed
72
o Now we have lame duck presidents because we have limited
our presidents: we also lose the experience
 Unlimited reeligabilty gives exerience and more political cout
 “A fourth ill effect of the exclusion would be the banishing men from
stations in which, in certain emergencies of the state, their
presence might be of the greatest moment to the public interest or
safety.”-fed 73
o could you imagine 9/11 then a presidential election?!
o Liberty can suffer from the abuses of liberty & power
 More likely to be abused by liberty in America
 Guteral howl of moral outrage? :O

Lincoln’s Speeches and Work: Part 1 08/27/2009
How does one become Lincoln? Especially in this day and age
 Have a peek at Lincoln’s Virtues by Miller
o History does not roll on through the centuries independent of
human reason, indecision and action.-Arthur Miller
 Our age is shaped by history and we cant do anything about it
o We should change it: History would be decided by the
individuals and their decisions
 It mattered that Lincoln was elected
o The south secedes and assassins want his heads
 It matters how history plays out: Lincoln did not back out and
fought hard

History makes a difference and depends on the consequences of

actions
 Think of a less promising person to become president!
o Lincoln came form nowhwere and no education
 Lincoln undertook to teach himself
 There is no overwhelming transcendent force that Lincoln focused
on or was influenced by: he dabbled everywhere and learned
morals
 Became a good speech writer and focused on what the greats
before him did
 He brought into prominence his lingering shame of childhood
o He knew was that he did not want to be a manual laborer
o He had ambition
 He was the least qualified to be nominated and become president
o He had nothing going for him: undistinguished run in
congress: beat all who had experience
 He has an enormous power his ambition: and determination
 o Sure we speak ill of ambition: the little engine that knew no
rest-he became focused on how to get out of his backwoods
society
 He became focused on law-ambitious to a fault
 Had Lincoln not been ambitious we would never have heard of him:
an immense moral loss to the world

The ADRESS to SANGANO COUNTY

 Lincoln wants respect-and what is esteem
o Is this popularity? (no)
 Something about one’s character and one looks on this person
o “I don’t like this person, but I respect them”
its more than popularity: give me a chance says Lincoln
to display my skills on your behalf
 render yourself worthy of others esteem through a
dependable track record-it builds
o popularity is on the instant
 build up a reputation-give me a chance

Lyceum Speech:
 Background
o Lincoln uses heavy words on a first impression
o Lincoln advocates a new generation of young men: new pillars
to uphold the country
o Lincoln mentions a towering genius are they good or bad for
the government: is he talking about himself?
o Lincoln emphasizes that only internal divisions can destroy
America: very patriotic
 .
o Janurary 27th-second term Rep. for Illinois
o He helped get a bill passes to move the capitol to Springfield
o He has just become a lawyer in Springfield
o A young man’s Lyceum: a voluntary assasociation which hosts
speakers and performances
o The audience of people are those who are expecting a long
speech: more like a college lecture
o The age group were obviously young men: about Lincoln’s
own age
o Lincoln addresses mob violence going on in the time: St.
Louis
and Mississippi
Gamblers are hanged for personal reason (Missouri)
Then Africans
Then supporters of Africans
Then foreigners are attacked
In St. Louis a man who just killed someone is tied to a
tree and lit on fire his name is Frank Macintosh
 He killed a policeman
 And is chased by 50 civilians and then hundreds
of people come and get him
o Lincoln does not tell the story in this dramatic way
o A third story would have been known to the audience which
he does not mention
 An aggressive minister named Elijah takes up shop in
St. Louis and writes abolitionist articles and has his
printing press destroyed several times on the fourth
incident he puts up a fight and is shot five times in
Illinois after fleeing St. Louis during the third incident
o Lincoln may not have mentioned because it was close to
Springfield: all happened in Illinois
o Furthermore everyone already knows about the Elijah affair:
so did he just illuminate that this sort of thing occurs across
the nation
o A man being shot five times is not as shocking as live
burning or mass hangings from the trees
  Like Spanish moss
o In both cases there is an element of justice in the mob
attacks and not on the abilitionists
 Three big questions
o What is ambition for Lincoln?
Why does Lincoln think it poses a danger for the
American government
o What is political religion
 Why do we need it?
 What does Lincoln have in mind?
o What does Lincoln mean by living History
 What so important now that no one remembers the
revolution>
 Speech Proper
o U.S. is painted as a paradise: sets up his point that it must be
maintained
 Best land ever
 Best political institutions ever
o What are the dangers to America?
Not foreign invaders but Americans themselves will
threaten the nation
 America may become lax in national security if they
stop fighting wars: no military trainging
o America finds enemies in itself
 Internal dangers are the main issue
 Lincoln says that the problems lie in the order loving citizens and
the slave masters
o Lincoln then describes the two incidents of mob violence
 Lincoln goes on to say what is the problem with mob violence
o Not that they were unjust-example set by mob
o If mobs can be just what is the problem with mobs:
 They are hard to control and erupt into major problems
 Isn’t the extremism in defense of liberty is merited?
 Government loses power from this-loses the
attachment of the people
 Lincoln highlights this
 Lawless in spirit-people who obey out of
fear of punishment
 Good men-courageous patriots: can become
disgusted with government when integrity is
attacked
o Take justice into your own hands
 We have a disregard for law-criminals do what they
want-good men get disgusted-then ambitious men
overthrown the government
 Lincoln says the solution is political religion
o Very passionate language is used
o Advocates faith in the government much like normal religion
 a rallying cry for the entire country
 religion refers to a higher power: laws and government
transcends us
o heresy to question? 
o our fathers and pledges of allegiance-reverence for the
constitution
o what emotions are summoned through all this in regards to
religion
  belonging, unity

Ambitous evil
 Why are ambitious men a major threat to the government
o Ambitious at the time of the revolution were working hard to
form a new government
o At this time they are looking to tear the country asunder
 They want laws to benefit part of the nation but not the
whole
o People want fame and honor: obtain immortalization
 Undying glory-forms ambitious men
 Ambitious men strike out on their own
 So do they destroy America
 Cesar, Alexander, and Napoleon did
 Glory is won through destruction?
..
responding to serious crises can bring glory
 Calvin Coolidge and Boston Police strike
 If you stop the destruction you may become glorious
 Ie: Brutus killing Cesaer
o Now that the revolution is over all of humanities’ defects are
aimed at eachother
 Also during the revolution the defects were aimed at the
revolution
 The living history has now faded
 People who lived and taught people about the

experiences
o Living memorials or living trees
o 

 Rebuilding the Temple of Liberty

o We must find new passions or we have to reason rebuild the
temple entirely
o He invocates Washington who animates the temple
o Second coming of Washington????????????????
 Standing in for God and Christianity but Washington
does not direct or help
 He only evaluates
 Weird!!

Ambitious People
 Trying to figure the beginning of Lincoln
o How he becomes a leaders
o How a unqualified become president of the united states
 His Ambition was his major characteristic
o He wanted to be a man of promise
 Remember no Lincolnian ambition would be a huge loss to the
world

Sangamo County revisited

 What makes Lincoln worthy of people’s esteem?
 Republic marred by slavery it is his life that sees the reconciliation
of the republic
 Lincoln gets his stuff from Shakespeare, Tales about Washington,
geometry, but he was not book learned
o No college education, he was a self taught man
 He was a moral learner: understand the moral teachings that one
can learn from a Shakspearean play-he was a continually improving
man
 His moral core was his opposition to slavery
o He begins to find his voice-becomes a monstrous injustice
 It is a moral disaster
 He made the morally significant decision to become a politician?
o The idea of a good and politics is a movement towards the
good-the good one can do
 If you do good works you will be held in high esteem

 You need……to be a good politician

o Moral clarity
o Old fashioned political Savy
 Lincoln just really did not understand how to understand slavery
o The wolf by the hands-it is the threat and crisis of slavery
o Where is one going to put these people?
o Colonization like Liberia
o “when there is a will there is a way”-important core of Lincoln
o will springs from moral sense and self interest-they constitute
will together
  it’s the secret of leading: come together with what it
takes to get the job done and show people how to get
the job done and do it
 Public opinion was an important factor-especially the emancipation
proclamation
o He was very clever with it-and recognized the constitution
o Electrify the interests of the people
 The end of the Sangamo address remind us of transactional and
blah leader
o very clear statement of burn’s transactional leadership

Temperance Society Address

 Don’t condemn the drunkards
o Don’t condemn the slaves
o He returns to the notion of persuasion time and again
o Reign of reason!
o The point is we enlighten and free you of the clutch of
intoxicating drink-moral freedom

Letter to Herndon
 On the Mexican war
 When he talks about leadership and the will/morals it is a kind of
power that is limited: one cannot trust human nature by the end of
the day

Douglas was morally indifferent to slavery, but Lincoln saw it as

morally evil
 Divine will-where is God’s will in all of this
 Reason and passion are the chief influencers and key here for
Lincoln
 ..
 control your passions and your impulses-use reason
o makes a common appeal
o an appeal to what he understands as the better Angels of our
nature
 a leader aouses and inspires friends and bogs down and condemns
enemies


Lincoln, Eulogies, and Frehnbacker

 The book illuminates on the misconceptions of Lincoln and his
accomplishments
 It shows that there are things outside of lincoln’s control that help
him
 One things is the Illonois Legislature and the state itself
 Its pop. Doubles and new railroads too-up and coming part of the
nation
 Illonois is very opposed to Douglas and had huge support for
Lincoln
 Democrats on the south and republicans in the north
 If you win the border region in the state you get Illonois
 Lincoln was born in the middle and this will help Lincoln greatly
 This also becomes apparent in the nation as a whole
 Gradual replacement of whig party by republicans
 He knows the party and he can appeal to all sides of the republican
party
 Lincoln is fortunate in that he survived a massive debate with
Duglas who was favorite
 Kansas Nebraska and the division of the democractic party
  Lincolns victory was a very decisive victory
 Did Lincoln did not cause the split of the democractic party

 There are constants that Lincoln had that helped him get it not just
chance
o his character was very consistent
o he was determined
o opportunity and character
o Lincoln sees the chances and fortunate ocurences and seizes
them
 Lincoln writes under emotional influence then analyzes it
For Lincoln a eulogy of Washington would be ill advised

The politics of compromise

 Henry Clay was on the front of this
o He was trying to preserve the union
 The missouri comprimise divided the nation up by the mason-dixie
line
 The Kansas Nebraska act then repeals the Missouri Comprimise
o This pulls Lincoln back into politics
 Wanted to stop the spread of slavery
 The dread scott case follows closely
 o This causes chaos and more conviction for Lincoln
o Then a speech is given on dread scott and Tawny
 Then there is a minor civil war in Kansas
o A constitution is raised that is passed in a rigged election
 Stephen Douglas then plays political games and upholds the
popular sovereignty through the dread scott case
o He begins to fail
o Trying to hold together his party and keep popular
sovereignty
 If you take douglas seriously you will make the nation a slave
holding state and will morally uphold it
o Lincoln holds it as a monstrous wrong

Dread Scott Supreme Course

 It’s a case in that takes a while to form
o Dread scott wants freedom since his master took him to the
north
o There are many appeals by Scott and the owners
 Ends up at the supreme court
o Lincoln says this has turned the nation into a nation of slave
states
 Subsatnatve due process
 Issues
o Does Dread Scott have the right to sue? Can he appeal???
 Ends up being no-not humans nor citizens
o The opinion is that slaves are sub-humans
 Slavery is for their benefit
 Because they are inferior
o Tawny says they will never and have been people, citizens
and have rights to sue
 Then an issue comes over the meaning of the
constitution and declaration
o Curtis then gets irked by the idea of Tawny’s misreading of
history and he openly lies to make the founding documents
look like pro-slavery documents
o Congress’ Missouri Compramaise are found as
unconstitutional
Territories can have slavery casue the constitution says
so according to Tawny
o Upholds fugitive slave law and endows the government must
protect the rights of the owners to their slaves
o Also Dread scott is not free because as sub-human he has no
citizenship nor right to sue
 Property has no rights
 It constitutionalized political divisions
o Do you trust the supreme court to make a decision on such
things??
 Isn’t it left to the political process
 Dread scott will lead to the house being one side: slavery
o Slavery would become universal
 Lincoln’s emancipation results in a response to political pressure
and as a military tactic (used to get rid of slavery_)
 Lincoln gets propelled by events beyond his control (see last major
note section)

Peoria Speech
 Lincoln thought that the Missouri Compramise made slavery an
imorral thing and would inevitably casuse it to fail
o See page 315
 o Lincoln links the declaration to the constitution
 Gives moral backing to the constitution
 Lincoln has no clue on what to do with slavery
o Its an ugly fact that white Americans will not embrace
Africans
 So what does one do and how do we get around this
 He acknowledges the rights of the slaveholders
o Yet sees it as evil and wants to prohibit it from spilling into
Kansas and Nebraska
o The dilemma is what to do with the slaves?
 Once we free them?
 No easy solution
o That’s why he wants to put slavery on the path to extinction
 Douglas’ moral indifference to slavery is contray to the founding of
the American republic
o It is deleterious to freedom
 Stephen Doulgas thinks slavery is right and are not humans
o Lincoln and his party do!
 We are all groping for middle ground but there is none

Lincoln on Dread Scott

 Lincoln is trying to clip the wings of Stephen douglas’ foray into the
republican party
 Lincoln making himself the sole nominee of the republican party
 A house divided against itself cannot stand
o It will become all free or all slave
 Americans have to care: there can be no indifference as Douglas
advocates
o Popular sovereignty is perverted

The Lincoln & Douglas Debates 08/27/2009
The Question of Slavery
 S. Douglas
o Before 1954 Whigs vs. Democrats
 Whigs were all over nation
o Republicans were predominatly northern
o Here is Stephen douglas
 douglas speaks………
 A. Lincoln
o He speaks
o on poular sovereignty
President Lincoln 08/27/2009
Lincoln is now president and he has resolve over the issues
 Why did he not say much during his campaign??
o He lessens the likelihood of hurting his campaign
o Supply and demand: good rhetoric at the right times-less is
more
 Lincoln is a man of some strength but he has a major issue of
keeping the union together before his first inaugural
 Lincoln delivers several speeches on the way to his innauguartion
 Lincoln demands that succession is not allowed and says he will
never fired the first shot
o South knows he sees slavery is evil
 We notice Lincoln’s resolve and his ability to try to keep the South
in the Union
o Lincoln has firm faith in divine providence-follows God
 Lincoln travels under pressure-assassination plots
o His wife is horrified
 He faces enormity- a succeeding south, shattered Union
o Lincoln was emotional about winning the presidency and
leaving Illonois
 Very apolitical
 Washington remains in his deified state
 Lincoln needs the union preserved to run down slavery-he knows
the serious problems of ending slavery
o A southern slave republic cannot be allowed
 Slavery ends with the civil war and the 13th amendment
o The south being back in the union is binding under the
constitution-remember that
 Lincoln knows people want to kill him- but he feels sad to leave
Illinois
 o Will head to do an enormous task
o Nothing really going for him except for his sense of self
confidence
 Determination and resolve

 If you except that all men are created equal then Lincoln is right:
slavery is an immoral evil
o Patrick Henry is echoed-liberty or death
 Lincoln is going to fufill the founding-think back to the lyceum
speech
o Founding was incomplete because of slavery
 13-15th amendments-turns nation into federal and
eradicates slavery

First Innuagural
 A key address for Lincoln
 The fugitive slave law was key
 Had to be neutral, moderate
 The constitution is the law-the nation must uphold the law
 He explains why succession is unconstitutional and that a new
confederacy would be bad
 Why does Lincoln listen to seward over amendments to his address
o He listens to seward-he is wise enough to know his own faults
 Over whelming self confidence tempered by overwhelming modesty
 Lincoln is trying to keep north and south together through the
speech and its words
 Lincolnd ends on the note of friendship after the threat of defense
 “insubstantial dispute”-rash decisions on slavery and succession will
casue dire consequences for both sides
 Lincoln does not want to fight but will fight hard if need be

 The essential lesson is the perpetual union: everything is in the

constitution, it is the supreme law of the land, but union is implied,
union
o Why don’t the founders perpetuate union in the
constitution?????
 Lesson: perpetual union and infallible inviable
constitutiton
 Why Lincoln? For leadership??
 No graver moment then civil war and the dissolution of the country
 What is the level of his ideas-the clarity and consistency of his
ideas?
o We know what he said from the first address
 He understood the power of language to move people
o Principle convictions
o Personal courage
 Perception vs. reality
o How do people perceive what you are saying
Lincoln doubts himself enough to say Seward may be
right
o Angles in arguments: people sew things through certain
lenses
o Actions and reactions-think three steps ahead
o You might be able to influence but you simply cannot
control public opinion
o Think about how the declaration is written-Lincoln is
telling not only America but also the rest of the world
what he is about
 He needs the world especially Britain to not support the
Confederacy
 Aristotle on rhetoric: it moves
o Woodrow Wilson wrote on the power of administration
o It is the same for rhetoric-moveable to persuade
 Moral character of speaker
 Put the listeners in the right frame of mind: trusting
 Fact upon fact-truth of the matter
 The purpose of rhetoric is transformative leadership
o Change moral problems-change society
o One of the things Lincoln learned: people are moved by truth
and facts and emotional appeal
 Distinguish between whats true and whats false
 Rhetoric has a moral purpose
 An effort to heard opinion to a concensus
o He understands that the stakes are so high
 Preconceived notions-he realizes this
o How does one change a mind?
 That’s the point of this speech-and all of his work
