The Moral Constitution of Abraham Lincoln (Alan Guelzo - Acton Institute)

As one of only two presidents to have never formally joined a church, people have wondered just how much Abraham Lincoln himself was under God when he said that the United States should consider itself as such as it strove for a new birth of freedom.
However, the Civil War shifted the ground decisively under Lincoln's feet. In the cauldron of war, he discovered that God was not merely a remote force or a faceless universal power, but a personal, intelligent, and willing God who intervened in the affairs of men, to direct them in ways that they could not even begin to imagine.
This was a God whom he wanted his nation to be under.
--
Allen C. Guelzo, Ph.D.
Gettysburg College
Director of Civil War Era Studies
Allen Guelzo, Ph.D. is the Director of Civil War Era Studies and the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. During 2017-18, he has served as the Wm L. Garwood Visiting Professor in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He holds the MA and PhD in history from the University of Pennsylvania.

Пікірлер: 35

  • @chuglyc
    @chuglyc3 жыл бұрын

    I cannot get enough of Dr. Guelzo. National Treasure.

  • @GottaWannaDance

    @GottaWannaDance

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes. Me, also. He doesn't even pause to think about the questions. His answers are instant and absolutely true, even if I haven't thought about Lincoln in the manner he expresses.

  • @warnerchandler9826
    @warnerchandler9826Ай бұрын

    Topic placeholder: 24:30 and ff to 41:00. Wow. This is exceptionally deep. The Word of God planted in Lincoln over his lifetime grew up and produced this wonderful fruit.

  • @carolbell8008
    @carolbell80084 жыл бұрын

    Lincoln had most sad eyes I ever saw. He wrote beautifully. He liked to read Shakespeare, Julious Ceaser.

  • @GottaWannaDance

    @GottaWannaDance

    Жыл бұрын

    It's common with depression. Mine are like that.

  • @henriomoeje8741
    @henriomoeje87419 ай бұрын

    In responding to the question about Lincoln "there is so much depth to the man that an elephant can swim in." Same metaphor Lincoln would have used to explain the Founders. Great lecture.

  • @AwayGoalRule
    @AwayGoalRule3 жыл бұрын

    Waiting for Niles and Daphne to show up and for hilarity to ensue.

  • @kevinbarnett2644

    @kevinbarnett2644

    3 жыл бұрын

    Just so.

  • @donaldreed2351
    @donaldreed23513 жыл бұрын

    Lincoln was a terrifying genius.

  • @timothymeehan181

    @timothymeehan181

    Жыл бұрын

    “Terrifying”??? In what sense? I ask in light of the judgement of some of the great men of his times, who worked in concert with him, who expressed the opinion(s) that we are all very lucky(being the beneficiaries of his successes) that he WAS such a noble, principled, moral man because, being so brilliant, so wise, so strategically talented, if he’d been an evil man, he could have wreaked incalculable harm/damage upon the world…🙏🇱🇷🎩

  • @charleshinesjr.2360

    @charleshinesjr.2360

    3 ай бұрын

    ​@@timothymeehan181 He DID inflict incalculable damage: 600,000 dead Americans in an unnecessary war to advance the political agenda of one man and the cabal of Northern industrial and banking interests, later known as the "robber barons", that catapulted him into the Presidency; and what 80 years earlier, Thomas Jefferson had condemned at "the perfect engine for corruption".

  • @xk80
    @xk805 жыл бұрын

    why are there so many elderly people eating?

  • @carolbell8008

    @carolbell8008

    4 жыл бұрын

    Iscappa.tube hi, it was a luncheon?

  • @GottaWannaDance

    @GottaWannaDance

    Жыл бұрын

    12pm - 1pm. A lot of meds going down with food and liquid. It's OK. You'll think about this when you get old and say to yourself ... "Oh, Yeah ... Hmm"

  • @neilpemberton5523

    @neilpemberton5523

    28 күн бұрын

    Old people gotta eat too.

  • @davidrasch3082
    @davidrasch30824 жыл бұрын

    This in the light of the 1619 Project...

  • @chuglyc

    @chuglyc

    3 жыл бұрын

    The 1619 Project=Garbagio

  • @davidrasch3082

    @davidrasch3082

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@chuglyc You got that right.

  • @charleshinesjr.2360
    @charleshinesjr.2360 Жыл бұрын

    Lincoln held the constitution together? I don't think so. Before 1860 we had a VOLUNTARY Union much like to European Union of today, which, during the recent Brexit crisis, England peaceably seceded. The EU wasn't destroyed by it. It continued on as before only with one less member. Today our Union is more like the old Soviet Union; held together by the force of the bayonet. The Framers envisioned a wholly voluntary union believing that the threat of secession of its constituent parts would overcome factionalism and force compromise. In 1814-5 during the Hartford Convention, three Northern States threatened to secede and form a Northern Confederation with Canada. Said Jefferson: "By all means let them go. It is but the younger brother differing from the older". Said Alexander Hamilton: "It would be unthinkable for the general government to coerce a State". James Madison, "Father of the Constitution" waxed eloquently in similar vein.

  • @standingplain1

    @standingplain1

    Жыл бұрын

    Lincoln held the Union together and abided by the constitution. The south who seceded abandoned the US constitution and copied their own constitution, making certain adjustments such as slavery existing into perpetuity and a 6 yr presidential term. The framers may have discussed secession but it wasn't put into the constitution. They also didn't deal with the issue of slavery but kicked the can down the road to be dealt with by a later generation. They believed slavery was on the road to ultimate extinction. With the cotton gin, the south's main money earner became cotton and their main property was 4 million slaves worth $3.5 billion dollars. During the election of 1860, Lincoln, a republican was elected on the platform to "limit the expansion of slavery". Not to bother it in the states it already existed but to limit it from spreading to the territories. Southerners couldn't handle this threat to their beloved peculiar institution, so they kept Lincoln off the ballot in 10 southern states in the 1860 election and 2. decided to secede because of a lost election to protect slavery. Let me remind you 4 slave states still sided with the Union. Lincoln did hold the union together. He abided by the constitution. He kept his sworn oath as president to the US while hundreds of southern officers and politicians broke their sworn oaths and made war upon the US. "You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." - A. Lincoln

  • @leahunverferth8247

    @leahunverferth8247

    4 ай бұрын

    Read the Broken Constitution by Noah Feldman. Excellent in showing exactly what Alan Guelzo was talking about.

  • @raymondswenson1268

    @raymondswenson1268

    2 ай бұрын

    Article VI of the Constitution specifies that the Constitution, Treaties approved by the Senate, and Federal law are the supreme law of the land, superseding all conflicting state laws. State acts purporting to secede from the United States, were in direct contradiction to Federal laws, including the laws establishing US Army and Navy installations in the states claim8ng to secede, which the rebel states claimed to own to the exclusion of the Federsl military. All states agreed to cede their sovereignty to the Federal government, including Congress, the Presudency, and Federsl courts, in the original adoption of the Constitution in 1787-88, and in the admission of new states to the Union. The US Constitution is NOT the European Union, which places most power into the hands of unekected bureaucrats who are not accountable to the member states nor their people. The EU is not a democracy. It is a one-party oligarchy that is self-perpetuating. I invite you to emigrate to Germany and leave the Freedom-loving USA to Americans who love our democratic freedoms, that supersede the tyrannical edicts of elites who want to retrograde Europe to an imperial feudal society.

  • @BrockJamesStory
    @BrockJamesStory6 жыл бұрын

    I heard Lincoln was a pretty bad guy and violated a lot of the rights of the people.

  • @karimelvin7241

    @karimelvin7241

    5 жыл бұрын

    YEA THATS WHY HE WAE ASSASSINATED LOL

  • @albertcamerato7673

    @albertcamerato7673

    5 жыл бұрын

    Read a book. Without Lincoln there would be no USA today

  • @judgeshick

    @judgeshick

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@albertcamerato7673 USA Today is an overrated newspaper anyway! Oh, I see what you are saying. Lincoln has no rival when it comes to wit, intelligence and love of this country. He was, and will likely always be, the best of what humanity has to offer!

  • @NFL-MLBfanhere696

    @NFL-MLBfanhere696

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@judgeshick guess who saved the world from slave domination... ME?! GUESS WHO WON THE WAR AMERICA ME GUESS WHO SIGNED THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS ME GUESS WHO WON THE 1858 ELECTION ME GUESS. WHO SIGNED THE EMPANCAMATION PROCLOMATION ME GUESS WHO LEAD THE COUNTRY THROUGH THE MOST TOUGH TIMES ME?!?!

  • @BSNFabricating

    @BSNFabricating

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@NFL-MLBfanhere696 First of all, Mr. President, you didn't just sign the Gettysburg Address, you actually WROTE it... And last I checked, you didn't actually win the 1858 election. That is, unless you're now charging Stephen Douglas and the Democrats of stealing it...

  • @martinham1409
    @martinham14093 жыл бұрын

    How can you lecture on something that didn't exist. Lincoln moral. You make me laugh. Lincoln was a calculating opportunist

  • @neilpemberton5523

    @neilpemberton5523

    28 күн бұрын

    Slavery as a states' right was protected by the Constitution in peacetime. Lincoln had the support of the Republican Party in using military emancipation, which is a "law of war", to undermine the economy of the Confederacy and free the slaves at the same time. That's not opportunism. It's smart, and may I say, pretty obvious policy.