Abraham Lincoln’s 215th birthday offers us an opportunity, which should be renewed annually, to reflect upon the man who rivals George Washington as the greatest American. Among other things, I’ve written before about Lincoln’s lessons for us, his engagement with new technology, his enduring role in the Republican Party’s ideology, his example to pro-lifers of principled practicality, his views on standing against aggression, his endorsement of the virtues of getting a job, his role in emancipating the slaves of D.C. and nationwide, his 1864 appointment of Salmon P. Chase to the Supreme Court, and the centennial of his memorial in Washington.
Today, let’s consider an interesting puzzle about the origins of one of Lincoln’s most famous pieces of rhetoric, the conclusion of his 1861 First Inaugural:
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