The Founders may not have anticipated this one: A controversial loophole about Secession?
A coal miner, riding an elevator deep into a mine, looks for new veins of coal. In a similar way, I have looked for things that other historians might have…
Critically Thinkin’ Lincoln: Even geniuses can make mistakes
It is hard to deny Abraham Lincoln’s political acumen. He understood his constituents, and he sagely analyzed his political opponents, including Republicans and Northern Democrats. Lincoln combined his knowledge of…
Trained for war, but pursuing peace: Charles Mason, Jurist
If war is a continuation of politics by other means, as von Clausewitz suggests, Iowa Democrat Charles Mason saw both sides of the coin.[i] Edging out Lee Civil War buffs…
If you help my child, you help me: Jefferson Davis’s 11th-hour mission
Pressing on through severe facial pain and “unutterable griefs,” Jefferson Davis wrote his farewell speech to the U.S. Senate. His personal struggles in January 1861 (after Mississippi seceded) foreshadowed the…
Lincoln in a new light: An Independence Day special
Abraham Lincoln had an incredible journey. Two of his speeches show how far he came in his thinking about this country. Lincoln, the revolutionary In January 1848, Congressman Abraham Lincoln…