Abraham Lincoln: America’s Greatest President

The patience of historically literate Americans is being tried once again by another attempt to cancel Abraham Lincoln. On Tuesday, the San Francisco school board voted to rename 44 schools the names of which are associated with “dishonorable legacies.” Among these are Washington and Jefferson. But the inclusion of Lincoln involves a uniquely egregious bastardization of the historical record.

In addition to recycling accusations of anti-black racism that have been hurled at Lincoln both from the far left and the far right, the school board points to “the Civil War president’s treatment of American Indians, which included a mass hanging after an uprising,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. This is a reference to the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862, during which the Dakota tribe, who had been forced off their land in 1858, killed around 500 white settlers.

About the Author

Cameron Hilditch

Cameron Hilditch was a 2020-2021 William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism at National Review Institute.

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Abraham Lincoln

The patience of historically literate Americans is being tried once again by another attempt to cancel Abraham Lincoln. On Tuesday, the San Francisco school board voted to rename 44 schools the names of which are associated with “dishonorable legacies.” Among these are Washington and Jefferson. But the inclusion of Lincoln involves a uniquely egregious bastardization of the historical record.

In addition to recycling accusations of anti-black racism that have been hurled at Lincoln both from the far left and the far right, the school board points to “the Civil War president’s treatment of American Indians, which included a mass hanging after an uprising,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. This is a reference to the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862, during which the Dakota tribe, who had been forced off their land in 1858, killed around 500 white settlers.