Abstract

In February of 1860 Abraham Lincoln came to the Cooper Union in New York City to explain his vision of the American founding. Dismissing the charge that he and his Republican Party were revolutionary, he tipped his hand in telling Southerners: “You would break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of your Constitutional rights” — a virtual concession of the South's argument — and concluded with an appeal to the principle that right is might. In his government, however, Lincoln demonstrated the contrary principle, by arresting Democratic politicians, suspending habeas corpus, defying the Supreme Court, and waging the most bloody war of the 19th century.