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Liberal

2012-08-14T01:20:02Z

JakethaSnake:

[[File:President Barack Obama.jpg|thumbnail|right|180px|President [[Barack Obama]] advocates the use of [[Keynesian economics|Keynesian economic concepts]].

*[http://centurean2.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/fabian-john-maynard-keynes-the-stealthy-enemy-of-human-freedom/ John Maynard Keynes the stealthy enemy of human freedom]
*[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-02-22/deathbed-of-keynesian-economics-will-be-in-u-k-matthew-lynn.html Deathbed of Keynesian Economics will be in the UK]
*[http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/23102.html Will the G8 Repudiate the Philosophy of Living Beyond Our Means?]
*[http://www.keynesatharvard.org/book/KeynesatHarvard-ch09.html KEYNES AT HARVARD Economic Deception as a Political Credo BY ZYGMUND DOBBS]
*[http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2008/01/keyness-jew-boy-quickie/220620/ Keynes's "Jew Boy" Quickie, The Atlantic]
</ref> ]]
[[File:Johnwaynegacyrosalynncarter.jpg|right|300px|thumbnail|[[Serial killer]] [[John Wayne Gacy]] was a [[Democratic Party]] activist who had his picture taken with First Lady [[Rosalynn Carter]] in 1978. In an interview where he denied killing any of his victims, John Gacy said he was [[bisexuality|bisexual]] and "very liberal".<ref>http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s151/candypop_02/Serial%20Killers/John%20Wayne%20Gacy/?action=view&current=SERIAL_KILLER_John_Wayne_Gacy_In-1.mp4</ref>]]

A '''liberal''' is someone who favors [[censorship]] of [[Christianity]] [citations?] plus increased government spending [citations?] and power[citations?], as in [[ObamaCare]]. Increasingly liberals side with the [[gay rights movemenet]], including [[same-sex marriage]]. Many liberals favor a [[welfare state]] where people receive endless [citations?] entitlements without working. Liberals are often anti-Christian, [citations?] or otherwise disagree with moral or social principles held by many American [[Christian|Christians]]. [citations?] The liberal ideology has worsened [neutral point of view?] over the years and degenerated [NPOV?] into economically delusional views and intolerant ideology.

This is all opinion.

Some liberals simply support, in knee-jerk fashion, the opposite of [[conservative]] principles without having any meaningful values of their own.

Polling data has consistently shown that an increasingly large percentage of Americans identify as conservative, rather than as liberal, currently by a ratio of 2:1.<ref>http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1042/winds-of-political-change-havent--shifted-publics-ideology-balance</ref>

The decline in liberal principles can be illustrated by how [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] opposed and condemned public sector unions, stating that the idea of collective bargaining can't be transferred from the private to the public sector, as that would result in the government being unable to carry out its duties. Yet today, decades later, [[Democrats]] and liberals are in lock-step with public sector unions, as they "donate" money to the reelection campaign in exchange for more taxpayer money in their wallets and fluffed up pensions.

A liberal generally supports many of the following political positions and practices:

Celebrate Wikipedia Loves Libraries at your institution in October/November.
Liberalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis)[1] is a broad political ideology or worldview founded on the ideas of liberty and equality.[2] Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally liberals support ideas such as capitalism (either regulated or not), constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights and the free exercise of religion.[3][4][5][6][7]
Liberalism first became a powerful force in the Age of Enlightenment, rejecting several foundational assumptions that dominated most earlier theories of government, such as nobility, established religion, absolute monarchy, and the Divine Right of Kings. The early liberal thinker John Locke, who is often credited for the creation of liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition, employed the concept of natural rights and the social contract to argue that the rule of law should replace both Traditionalism and absolutism in government, that rulers were subject to the consent of the governed, and that private individuals had a fundamental right to life, liberty, and property.
The revolutionaries in the American Revolution and the French Revolution used liberal philosophy to justify the armed overthrow of what they saw as tyrannical rule. The nineteenth century saw liberal governments established in nations across Europe, Latin America, and North America. Liberal ideas spread even further in the twentieth century, when liberal democracies were on the winning side in both world wars and liberalism survived major ideological challenges from fascism and communism. Today, liberal political parties remain a political force with varying degrees of power and influence on all major continents.
A twenty-first century development is an emerging new liberalism that is centered on the concept of timeless freedom (ensuring the freedom of future generations through proactive action taken today).[8] This is an idea that has been endorsed by the President of Liberal International Hans van Baalen.
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology and definition
2 History
2.1 Inception to revolution
2.2 French Revolution
2.3 Aftermath of the French Revolution
2.4 Conflict and renewal
3 Philosophy
3.1 Major themes
3.2 Classical and modern
3.3 Criticism and support
4 Worldwide
4.1 Europe
4.2 Americas
4.3 Other regions
5 Impact and influence
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links
[edit]Etymology and definition

Words such as liberal, liberty, libertarian, and libertine all trace their history to the Latin liber, which means "free".[9] One of the first recorded instances of the word liberal occurs in 1375, when it was used to describe the liberal arts in the context of an education desirable for a free-born man.[9] The word's early connection with the classical education of a medieval university soon gave way to a proliferation of different denotations and connotations. Liberal could refer to "free in bestowing" as early as 1387, "made without stint" in 1433, "freely permitted" in 1530, and "free from restraint"—often as a pejorative remark—in the 16th and the 17th centuries.[9]
In 16th century England, liberal could have positive or negative attributes in referring to someone's generosity or indiscretion.[9] In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare wrote of "a liberal villaine" who "hath...confest his vile encounters".[9] With the rise of the Enlightenment, the word acquired decisively more positive undertones, being defined as "free from narrow prejudice" in 1781 and "free from bigotry" in 1823.[9] In 1815, the first use of the word liberalism appeared in English.[10] By the middle of the 19th century, liberal started to be used as a politicized term for parties and movements all over the world.[citation needed]
[edit]History

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Main article: History of liberalism
The history of liberalism spans the better part of the last four centuries, beginning in the English Civil War and continuing after the end of the Cold War. Liberalism started as a major doctrine and intellectual endeavour in response to the religious wars gripping Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, although the historical context for the ascendancy of liberalism goes back to the Middle Ages. The first notable incarnation of liberal unrest came with the American Revolution, and liberalism fully flowered as a comprehensive movement against the old order during the French Revolution, which set the pace for the future development of human history.
Classical liberals, who broadly emphasized the importance of free markets and civil liberties, dominated liberal history for a century after the French Revolution. The onset of World War I and the Great Depression, however, accelerated the trends begun in late 19th century Britain towards a "new liberalism" (social liberalism) that emphasized a greater role for the state in ameliorating societal ills. By the beginning of the 21st century, liberal democracies and their fundamental characteristics—support for constitutions, civil rights and individual liberties, pluralistic society, and the welfare state—were widespread in most regions around the world.
[edit]Inception to revolution
See also: Middle Ages, Age of Enlightenment, and American Revolution
The emergence of the Renaissance in the 15th century helped to weaken unquestioning submission to the institutions of the Middle Ages by reinvigorating interest in science and in the classical world.[11] In the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation developed from sentiments that viewed the Catholic Church as an oppressive ruling order too involved in the feudal and baronial structure of European society.[12] The Church launched a Counter Reformation to contain these bubbling sentiments, but the effort unraveled in the Thirty Years' War of the 17th century. In England, a civil war led to the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Parliament ultimately succeeded—with the Glorious Revolution of 1688—in establishing a limited and constitutional monarchy. The main facets of early liberal ideology emerged from these events, and historians Colton and Palmer characterize the period in the following light:
“ The unique thing about England was that Parliament, in defeating the king, arrived at a workable form of government. Government remained strong but came under parliamentary control. This determined the character of modern England and launched into the history of Europe and of the world the great movement of liberalism.[13] ”

John Locke

Mary Wollstonecraft is often hailed as the founder of liberal feminism.
The early messenger for that movement was the English philosopher John Locke, frequently identified as the Father of Liberalism,[14][15] whose Two Treatises (1690) established the liberal idea that government acquires consent to rule from the governed, not from supernatural authorities.[16] The intellectual journey of liberalism continued beyond Locke with the Enlightenment, a period of profound intellectual vitality that questioned old traditions and influenced several monarchies throughout the 18th century. The ideas circulating in the Enlightenment had a powerful impact in North America and in France.
The American colonies had been loyal British subjects for decades, but they declared independence from rule under the monarchy in 1776 as a result of their dissatisfaction with lack of representation in the governing parliament overseas, which manifested itself most directly and dramatically through taxation policies that colonists considered a violation of their constitutionally guaranteed rights as Englishmen. The American Revolution was primarily a civil and political matter at first, but escalated to military engagements in 1775 that were largely complete by 1781. The 1776 United States Declaration of Independence drew upon liberal ideas of unalienable rights to demonstrate the tyranny of the British monarchy, and justify a complete denial of its legitimacy and authority, leading to the creation of a self-determining and sovereign new nation. After the war, the new nation held a Constitutional Convention in 1787 to resolve the problems stemming from the first attempt at a confederated national government under the Articles of Confederation. The resulting Constitution of the United States settled on a republic with a federal structure. The United States Bill of Rights quickly followed in 1789, which guaranteed certain natural rights fundamental to liberal ideals. The American Revolution predicated a series of drastic socio-political changes across nations and continents, collectively referred to as the "Atlantic Revolutions", of which the most famous is probably the French Revolution.
[edit]French Revolution
Main article: French Revolution
Three years into the French Revolution, German writer Johann von Goethe reportedly told the defeated Prussian soldiers after the Battle of Valmy that "from this place and from this time forth commences a new era in world history, and you can all say that you were present at its birth".[17] Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, and the onset of the Revolution in 1789 is considered by some to mark the end of the early modern period.[18]

The march of the women on Versailles in October 1789 was one of the most famous examples of popular political participation during the French Revolution. The demonstrators forced the royal court back to Paris, where it would remain until the proclamation of the First Republic in 1792.
The French Revolution is often seen as marking the "dawn of the modern era,"[19] and its convulsions are widely associated with "the triumph of liberalism".[20] For liberals, the Revolution was their defining moment, and later liberals approved of the French Revolution almost entirely—"not only its results but the act itself," as two historians noted.[21] The French Revolution began in May 1789 with the convocation of the Estates-General. The first year of the Revolution witnessed, among other major events, the Storming of the Bastille in July and the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August.
The next few years were dominated by tensions between various liberal assemblies and a conservative monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. A republic was proclaimed in September 1792. External conflict and internal squabbling significantly radicalized the Revolution, culminating in the brutal Reign of Terror. After the fall of Robespierre and the Jacobins, the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795 and held power until 1799, when it was replaced by the Consulate under Napoleon.
Napoleon ruled as First Consul for about five years, centralizing power and streamlining the bureaucracy along the way. The Napoleonic Wars, pitting the heirs of a revolutionary state against the old monarchies of Europe, started in 1805 and lasted for a decade. Along with their boots and Charleville muskets, French soldiers brought to the rest of the European continent the liquidation of the feudal system, the liberalization of property laws, the end of seigneurial dues, the abolition of guilds, the legalization of divorce, the disintegration of Jewish ghettos, the collapse of the Inquisition, the permanent destruction of the Holy Roman Empire, the elimination of church courts and religious authority, the establishment of the metric system, and equality under the law for all men.[22] Napoleon wrote that "the peoples of Germany, as of France, Italy and Spain, want equality and liberal ideas,"[23] with some historians suggesting that he may have been the first person ever to use the word liberal in a political sense.[23] He also governed through a method that one historian described as "civilian dictatorship," which "drew its legitimacy from direct consultation with the people, in the form of a plebiscite".[24] Napoleon did not always live up the liberal ideals he espoused, however. His most lasting achievement, the Civil Code, served as "an object of emulation all over the globe,"[25] but it also perpetuated further discrimination against women under the banner of the "natural order".[26] The First Empire eventually collapsed in 1815, but this period of chaos and revolution introduced the world to a new movement and ideology that would soon crisscross the globe.
[edit]Aftermath of the French Revolution
See also: Classical liberalism

General Toussaint Louverture, inspired by the French Revolution led revolutionary forces during the Haitian Revolution that ended slavery in Haiti and resulted in the creation of the short-lived Haitian Republic - the first self-governing independent black state in the Americas.

United States President Andrew Jackson, he sought to restore the classical liberal governance of Thomas Jefferson, abolishing the nationalized Second Bank of the United States. Jackson pursued American expansionism and ethnically cleansed newly-annexed territories of Native American people.
Liberals in the 19th century wanted to develop a world free from government intervention, or at least free from too much government intervention. They championed the ideal of negative liberty, which constitutes the absence of coercion and the absence of external constraints.[27] They believed governments were cumbersome burdens and they wanted governments to stay out of the lives of individuals.[28] Liberals simultaneously pushed for the expansion of civil rights and for the expansion of free markets and free trade. The latter kind of economic thinking had been formalized by Adam Smith in his influential Wealth of Nations (1776), which revolutionized the field of economics and argued that the "invisible hand" of the free market was a self-regulating mechanism that did not depend on external interference.[29] Sheltered by liberalism, the laissez-faire economic world of the 19th century emerged with full tenacity, particularly in the United States and in the United Kingdom.[30]

The reletivaly laissez-faire liberal economy of the Industrial Revolution and rise of living standards allowed an increasingly larger number of parents to avoid sending their children to work.[31][32]
Politically, liberals saw the 19th century as a gateway to achieving the promises of 1789. In Spain, the Liberales, the first group to use the liberal label in a political context,[33] fought for the implementation of the 1812 Constitution for decades—overthrowing the monarchy in 1820 as part of the Trienio Liberal and defeating the conservative Carlists in the 1830s. In France, the July Revolution of 1830, orchestrated by liberal politicians and journalists, removed the Bourbon monarchy and inspired similar uprisings elsewhere in Europe.

Depiction of Romanian revolutionaries during the Revolutions of 1848.
Frustration with the pace of political progress, however, sparked even more gigantic revolutions in 1848. Revolutions spread throughout the Austrian Empire, the German states, and the Italian states. Governments fell rapidly. Liberal nationalists demanded written constitutions, representative assemblies, greater suffrage rights, and freedom of the press.[34] A second republic was proclaimed in France. Serfdom was abolished in Prussia, Galicia, Bohemia, and Hungary.[34] Metternich shocked Europe when he resigned and fled to Britain in panic and disguise.[35]
Eventually, however, the success of the revolutionaries petered out. Without French help, the Italians were easily defeated by the Austrians. Austria also managed to contain the bubbling nationalist sentiments in Germany and Hungary, helped along by the failure of the Frankfurt Assembly to unify the German states into a single nation. Under abler leadership, however, the Italians and the Germans wound up realizing their dreams for independence. The Sardinian Prime Minister, Camillo di Cavour, was a shrewd liberal who understood that the only effective way for the Italians to gain independence was if the French were on their side.[36] Napoleon III agreed to Cavour's request for assistance and France defeated Austria in the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, setting the stage for Italian independence. German unification transpired under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, who decimated the enemies of Prussia in war after war, finally triumphing against France in 1871 and proclaiming the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, ending another saga in the drive for nationalization. The French proclaimed a third republic after their loss in the war, and the rest of French history transpired under republican eyes.
Just a few decades after the French Revolution, liberalism went global. The liberal and conservative struggles in Spain also replicated themselves in Latin American countries like Mexico and Ecuador. From 1857 to 1861, Mexico was gripped in the bloody War of Reform, a massive internal and ideological confrontation between the liberals and the conservatives.[37] The liberal triumph there parallels with the situation in Ecuador. Similar to other nations throughout the region at the time, Ecuador was steeped in turmoil, with the people divided between rival liberal and conservative camps. From these conflicts, García Moreno established a conservative government which was eventually overthrown in the Liberal Revolution of 1895. The Radical Liberals who toppled the conservatives were led by Eloy Alfaro, a firebrand who implemented a variety of sociopolitical reforms, including the separation of church and state, the legalization of divorce, and the establishment of public schools.[38]
Although liberals were active throughout the world in the 19th century, it was in Britain that the future character of liberalism would take shape. The liberal sentiments unleashed after the revolutionary era of the previous century ultimately coalesced into the Liberal Party, formed in 1859 from various Radical and Whig elements. The Liberals produced one of the most influential British prime ministers—William Ewart Gladstone, who was also known as the Grand Old Man.[39] Under Gladstone, the Liberals reformed education, disestablished the Church of Ireland (with the Irish Church Act 1869), and introduced the secret ballot for local and parliamentary elections. Following Gladstone, and after a period of Conservative domination, the Liberals returned with full strength in the general election of 1906, aided by working class voters worried about food prices. After that historic victory, the Liberal Party shifted from its classical liberalism and laid the groundwork for the future British welfare state, establishing various forms of health insurance, unemployment insurance, and pensions for elderly workers.[40] This new kind of liberalism would sweep over much of the world in the 20th century.
[edit]Conflict and renewal
See also: Social liberalism

Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States (1913-1921). Wilson's Fourteen Points became the foundation for both the principle of self-determination and inspired the founding of the League of Nations and its successor the United Nations.

French suffragettes in 1935 carrying papers saying: "The Frenchwoman Must Vote". Women's suffrage was not granted in France until 1944.
The 20th century started perilously for liberalism. World War I proved a major challenge for liberal democracies, although they ultimately triumphed, along with Communism, over the monarchies. The war precipitated the collapse of older forms of government, including empires and dynastic states. The number of republics in Europe reached 13 by the end of the war, as compared with only three at the start of the war in 1914.[41] This phenomenon became readily apparent in Russia. Before the war, the Russian monarchy was reeling from losses to Japan and political struggles with the Kadets, a powerful liberal bloc in the Duma. Facing huge shortages in basic necessities along with widespread riots in early 1917, Czar Nicholas II abdicated in March, ending three centuries of Romanov rule and allowing liberals to declare a republic. Under the uncertain leadership of Alexander Kerensky, however, the Provisional Government mismanaged Russia's continuing involvement in the war, prompting angry reactions from the Petrograd workers, who drifted further and further to the left. The Bolsheviks, a communist group led by Vladimir Lenin, seized the political opportunity from this confusion and launched a second revolution in Russia during the same year. The communist victory presented a major challenge to capitalism as a core component of liberalism. As some manifestations of communism historically resulted in totalitarian regimes, mainstream liberalism has shied away from association with communism. However, the economic problems that rocked the Western world in the 1930s proved even more devastating, leading to fundamental reforms in some of the aims of the liberal state.
The Great Depression fundamentally changed the liberal world. There was an inkling of a new liberalism during World War I, but modern liberalism fully hatched in the 1930s as a response to the Depression, which inspired John Maynard Keynes to revolutionize the field of economics. Classical liberals, such as economist Ludwig von Mises, posited that completely free markets were the optimal economic units capable of effectively allocating resources—that over time, in other words, they would produce full employment and economic security.[42] Keynes spearheaded a broad assault on classical economics and its followers, arguing that totally free markets were not ideal, and that hard economic times required intervention and investment from the state. Where the market failed to properly allocate resources, for example, the government was required to stimulate the economy until private funds could start flowing again—a "prime the pump" kind of strategy designed to boost industrial production.[43]
The social liberal program launched by President Roosevelt in the United States, the New Deal, proved very popular with the American public.[44] In 1933, when Roosevelt came into office, the unemployment rate stood at roughly 25 percent.[45] The size of the economy, measured by the gross national product, had fallen to half the value it had in early 1929.[46] The electoral victories of Roosevelt and the Democrats precipitated a deluge of public works programs. Despite this, by 1936 the level of unemployment had only fallen to around 10 percent (when counting persons on work relief as employed) or 17 percent (when counting persons on work relief as unemployed).[47] Deficit spending sparked by World War II eventually pulled the United States out of the Great Depression. From 1940 to 1941, government spending increased by 59 percent, the gross domestic product skyrocketed 17 percent, and unemployment fell below 10 percent for the first time since 1929.[48] By 1945, after vast government spending, public debt stood at a staggering 120 percent of GNP, but unemployment had been effectively eliminated.[49] Most nations that emerged from the Great Depression did so with deficit spending and strong intervention from the state.

The protests at the Berlin Wall in 1989 that resulted in its fall, the end of single-party state rule in East Germany, and the reunification of Germany in the form of a liberal democracy.

Protest against the World Bank in Indonesia. Neoliberal economic policies pursued by international institutions since the 1970s and 1980s have provoked strong criticism and protest, especially in developing or underdeveloped countries that have been pressured by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund to privatize parts of their economy and remove protectionist measures, in order to gain IMF assistance.
The economic woes of the period prompted widespread unrest in the European political world, leading to the rise of fascism as an ideology and a movement that heavily criticized liberalism.[50] Broadly speaking, fascist ideology emphasized elite rule and absolute leadership, a rejection of equality, the imposition of patriarchal society, a stern commitment to war as an instrument of natural behavior, and the elimination of supposedly inferior or subhuman groups from the structure of the nation.[51] The fascist and nationalist grievances of the 1930s eventually culminated in World War II, the deadliest conflict in human history. The Allies prevailed in the war by 1945, and their victory set the stage for the Cold War between communist states and liberal democracies. The Cold War featured extensive ideological competition and several proxy wars. While communist states and liberal democracies competed against one another, an economic crisis in the 1970s inspired a temporary move away from Keynesian economics across many Western governments. This classical liberal renewal, known as neoliberalism, lasted through the 1980s and the 1990s, bringing about economic privatization of previously state-owned industries. However, recent economic troubles have prompted a resurgence in Keynesian economic thought. Meanwhile, nearing the end of the 20th century, communist states in Eastern Europe collapsed precipitously, leaving liberal democracies as the only major forms of government. At the beginning of World War II, the number of democracies around the world was about the same as it had been forty years before.[52] After 1945, liberal democracies spread very quickly. Even as late as 1974, roughly 75 percent of all nations were considered dictatorial, but now more than half of all countries are democracies.[53] However, liberal democracies still confront several challenges, including the proliferation of terrorism and the growth of religious fundamentalism.[54] The rise of China is also challenging Western liberalism with a combination of authoritarian government and capitalism.[55]
[edit]Philosophy

Liberalism—both as a political current and an intellectual tradition—is mostly a modern phenomenon that started in the 17th century, although some liberal philosophical ideas had precursors in classical antiquity. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius praised "the idea of a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed".[56] Scholars have also recognized a number of principles familiar to contemporary liberals in the works of several Sophists and in the Funeral Oration by Pericles.[57] Liberal philosophy symbolizes an extensive intellectual tradition that has examined and popularized some of the most important and controversial principles of the modern world. Its immense scholarly and academic output has been characterized as containing "richness and diversity," but that diversity often has meant that liberalism comes in different formulations and presents a challenge to anyone looking for a clear definition.[58]
[edit]Major themes
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Though all liberal doctrines possess a common heritage, scholars frequently assume that those doctrines contain "separate and often contradictory streams of thought".[58] The objectives of liberal theorists and philosophers have differed across various times, cultures, and continents. The diversity of liberalism can be gleaned from the numerous adjectives that liberal thinkers and movements have attached to the very term liberalism, including classical, egalitarian, economic, social, welfare-state, ethical, humanist, deontological, perfectionist, democratic, and institutional, to name a few.[59] Despite these variations, liberal thought does exhibit a few definite and fundamental conceptions. At its very root, liberalism is a philosophy about the meaning of humanity and society. Political philosopher John Gray identified the common strands in liberal thought as being individualist, egalitarian, meliorist, and universalist. The individualist element avers the ethical primacy of the human being against the pressures of social collectivism, the egalitarian element assigns the same moral worth and status to all individuals, the meliorist element asserts that successive generations can improve their sociopolitical arrangements, and the universalist element affirms the moral unity of the human species and marginalizes local cultural differences.[60] The meliorist element has been the subject of much controversy, defended by thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, who believed in human progress, while suffering from attacks by thinkers such as Rousseau, who believed that human attempts to improve themselves through social cooperation would fail.[61] Describing the liberal temperament, Gray claimed that it "has been inspired by skepticism and by a fideistic certainty of divine revelation ... it has exalted the power of reason even as, in other contexts, it has sought to humble reason's claims". The liberal philosophical tradition has searched for validation and justification through several intellectual projects. The moral and political suppositions of liberalism have been based on traditions such as natural rights and utilitarian theory, although sometimes liberals even requested support from scientific and religious circles.[60] Through all these strands and traditions, scholars have identified the following major common facets of liberal thought: believing in equality and individual liberty, supporting private property and individual rights, supporting the idea of limited constitutional government, and recognizing the importance of related values such as pluralism, toleration, autonomy, bodily integrity and consent.[62]
[edit]Classical and modern

Thomas Hill Green was an influential liberal philosopher. In Prolegomena to Ethics (1884), he established the first major foundations for what later became known as positive liberty. In a few years, his ideas became the official policy of the Liberal Party in Britain, precipitating the rise of social liberalism and the modern welfare state.
Enlightenment philosophers are given credit for shaping liberal ideas. Thomas Hobbes attempted to determine the purpose and the justification of governing authority in a post civil war England. Using the idea of natural law, he constructed the concept of social contract and concluded that absolute monarchy is the ideal and just form of society. John Locke, while adopting Hobbes's idea of natural law and social contract, nevertheless argued that when the monarchy become a tyrant, that constituted a violation of the social contract, which bestows life, liberty, and property as a natural right. He concluded that the people have a right to overthrow a tyrant. By placing life, liberty and property as the supreme value of law and authority, Locke formulated the basis of liberalism based on social contract theory. To these early enlightement thinkers securing the most essential amenities of life—liberty and private property among them—required the formation of a "sovereign" authority with universal jurisdiction.[63] In a natural state of affairs, liberals argued, humans were driven by the instincts of survival and self-preservation, and the only way to escape from such a dangerous existence was to form a common and supreme power capable of arbitrating between competing human desires.[64] This power could be formed in the framework of a civil society that allows individuals to make a voluntary social contract with the sovereign authority, transferring their natural rights to that authority in return for the protection of life, liberty, and property.[64] These early liberals often disagreed about the most appropriate form of government, but they all shared the belief that liberty was natural and that its restriction needed strong justification.[64] Liberals generally believed in limited government, although several liberal philosophers decried government outright, with Thomas Paine writing that "government even in its best state is a necessary evil".[65]
As part of the project to limit the powers of government, various liberal theorists such as James Madison and the Baron de Montesquieu conceived the notion of separation of powers, a system designed to equally distribute governmental authority among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.[65] Governments had to realize, liberals maintained, that poor and improper governance gave the people authority to overthrow the ruling order through any and all possible means, even through outright violence and revolution, if needed.[66] Contemporary liberals, heavily influenced by social liberalism, have continued to support limited constitutional government while also advocating for state services and provisions to ensure equal rights. Modern liberals claim that formal or official guarantees of individual rights are irrelevant when individuals lack the material means to benefit from those rights and call for a greater role for government in the administration of economic affairs.[67]
Early liberals also laid the groundwork for the separation of church and state. As heirs of the Enlightenment, liberals believed that any given social and political order emanated from human interactions, not from divine will.[68] Many liberals were openly hostile to religious belief itself, but most concentrated their opposition to the union of religious and political authority, arguing that faith could prosper on its own, without official sponsorship or administration by the state.[68]
Beyond identifying a clear role for government in modern society, liberals also have obsessed over the meaning and nature of the most important principle in liberal philosophy: liberty. From the 17th century until the 19th century, liberals—from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill—conceptualized liberty as the absence of interference from government and from other individuals, claiming that all people should have the freedom to develop their own unique abilities and capacities without being sabotaged by others.[69] Mill's On Liberty (1859), one of the classic texts in liberal philosophy, proclaimed that "the only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way".[69] Support for laissez-faire capitalism is often associated with this principle, with Friedrich Hayek arguing in The Road to Serfdom (1944) that reliance on free markets would preclude totalitarian control by the state.[70] Beginning in the late 19th century, however, a new conception of liberty entered the liberal intellectual arena. This new kind of liberty became known as positive liberty to distinguish it from the prior negative version, and it was first developed by British philosopher Thomas Hill Green. Green rejected the idea that humans were driven solely by self-interest, emphasizing instead the complex circumstances that are involved in the evolution of our moral character.[71] In a very profound step for the future of modern liberalism, he also tasked social and political institutions with the enhancement of individual freedom and identity.[71] Foreshadowing the new liberty as the freedom to act rather than to avoid suffering from the acts of others, Green wrote the following:
“ If it were ever reasonable to wish that the usage of words had been other than it has been...one might be inclined to wish that the term 'freedom' had been confined to the...power to do what one wills.[72] ”

The official logo of the French government displays the motto of the French Revolution. The mantra of liberté, égalité, fraternité has featured prominently in the social and political fabric of the modern world, a testament to the wide-ranging influence of liberal principles.
Rather than previous liberal conceptions viewing society as populated by selfish individuals, Green viewed society as an organic whole in which all individuals have a duty to promote the common good.[73] His ideas spread rapidly and were developed by other thinkers such as L. T. Hobhouse and John Hobson. In a few short years, this Social Liberalism had become the essential social and political program of the Liberal Party in Britain,[74] and it would encircle much of the world in the 20th century. In the 21st century it is being argued that emerging is a New Liberalism that is centred on the concept of timeless liberty, which would extend negative and positive liberty to future generations through proactive action today.[75] In addition to examining negative, positive, and timeless liberty, liberals have tried to understand the proper relationship between liberty and democracy. As they struggled to expand suffrage rights, liberals increasingly understood that people left out of the democratic decision-making process were liable to the tyranny of the majority, a concept explained in Mill's On Liberty and in Democracy in America (1835) by Alexis de Tocqueville.[76] As a response, liberals began demanding proper safeguards to thwart majorities in their attempts at suppressing the rights of minorities.[76]
Besides liberty, liberals have developed several other principles important to the construction of their philosophical structure, such as equality, pluralism, and toleration. Highlighting the confusion over the first principle, Voltaire commented that "equality is at once the most natural and at times the most chimeral of things".[77] All forms of liberalism assume, in some basic sense, that individuals are equal.[78] In maintaining that people are naturally equal, liberals assume that they all possess the same right to liberty.[79] In other words, no one is inherently entitled to enjoy the benefits of liberal society more than anyone else, and all people are equal subjects before the law.[80] Beyond this basic conception, liberal theorists diverge on their understanding of equality. American philosopher John Rawls emphasized the need to ensure not only equality under the law, but also the equal distribution of material resources that individuals required to develop their aspirations in life.[80] Libertarian thinker Robert Nozick disagreed with Rawls, championing the former version of Lockean equality instead.[80] To contribute to the development of liberty, liberals also have promoted concepts like pluralism and toleration. By pluralism, liberals refer to the proliferation of opinions and beliefs that characterize a stable social order.[81] Unlike many of their competitors and predecessors, liberals do not seek conformity and homogeneity in the way that people think; in fact, their efforts have been geared towards establishing a governing framework that harmonizes and minimizes conflicting views, but still allows those views to exist and flourish.[82] For liberal philosophy, pluralism leads easily to toleration. Since individuals will hold diverging viewpoints, liberals argue, they ought to uphold and respect the right of one another to disagree.[83] From the liberal perspective, toleration was initially connected to religious toleration, with Spinoza condemning "the stupidity of religious persecution and ideological wars".[83] Toleration also played a central role in the ideas of Kant and John Stuart Mill. Both thinkers believed that society will contain different conceptions of a good ethical life and that people should be allowed to make their own choices without interference from the state or other individuals.[83]
[edit]Criticism and support
Liberalism has drawn both criticism and support in its history from various ideological groups. For example, some scholars suggest that liberalism gave rise to feminism, although others maintain that liberal democracy is inadequate for the realization of feminist objectives.[84] Liberal feminism, the dominant tradition in feminist history, hopes to eradicate all barriers to gender equality—claiming that the continued existence of such barriers eviscerates the individual rights and freedoms ostensibly guaranteed by a liberal social order.[85] British philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft is widely regarded as the pioneer of liberal feminism, with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) expanding the boundaries of liberalism to include women in the political structure of liberal society.[86] Less friendly to the goals of liberalism has been conservatism. Edmund Burke, considered by some to be the first major proponent of modern conservative thought, offered a blistering critique of the French Revolution by assailing the liberal pretensions to the power of rationality and to the natural equality of all humans.[87] Conservatives have also attacked what they perceive to be the reckless liberal pursuit of progress and material gains, arguing that such preoccupations undermine traditional social values rooted in community and continuity.[88] However, a few variations of conservatism, like liberal conservativism, expound some of the same ideas and principles championed by classical liberalism, including "small government and thriving capitalism".[87]
Some confusion remains about the relationship between social liberalism and socialism, despite the fact that many variants of socialism distinguish themselves markedly from liberalism by opposing capitalism, hierarchy and private property. Socialism formed as a group of related ideologies in the 19th century such as Christian socialism, communism (with the writings of Karl Marx) and anarchism, and these ideologies — as with liberalism and conservatism — fractured into several major movements in the following decades.[89] Marx rejected the foundational aspects of liberal theory, hoping to destroy both the state and the liberal distinction between society and the individual while fusing the two into a collective whole designed to overthrow the developing capitalist order of the 19th century.[90]
Social democracy, an ideology advocating progressive reform of capitalism, emerged in the 20th century and was influenced by socialism. Yet unlike socialism, it was not collectivist nor anti-capitalist. Broadly defined as a project that aims to correct, through government reformism, what it regards as the intrinsic defects of capitalism by reducing inequalities,[91] social democracy was also not against the state. Several commentators have noted strong similarities between social liberalism and social democracy, with one political scientist even calling American liberalism "bootleg social democracy" due to the absence of a significant social democratic tradition in the United States that liberals have tried to rectify.[92] Another movement associated with modern democracy, Christian democracy, hopes to spread Catholic social ideas and has gained a large following in some European nations.[93] The early roots of Christian democracy developed as a reaction against the industrialization and urbanization associated with laissez-faire liberalism in the 19th century.[94] Despite these complex relationships, some scholars have argued that liberalism actually "rejects ideological thinking" altogether, largely because such thinking could lead to unrealistic expectations for human society.[95]
[edit]Worldwide

Main article: Liberalism by country
Liberals are committed to build and safeguard free, fair and open societies, in which they seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one is enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity ... Liberalism aims to disperse power, to foster diversity and to nurture creativity.
Liberal International[96]
Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern times.[97][98] Politically, liberals have organized extensively throughout the world. Liberal parties, think tanks, and other institutions are common in many nations, although they advocate for different causes based on their ideological orientation. Liberal parties can be center-left, centrist, or center-right depending on their location.
They can further be divided based on their adherence to social liberalism or classical liberalism, although all liberal parties and individuals share basic similarities, including the support for civil rights and democratic institutions. On a global level, liberals are united in the Liberal International, which contains over 100 influential liberal parties and organizations from across the ideological spectrum.
Some parties in the LI are among the most famous in the world, such as the Liberal Party of Canada, while others are among the smallest, such as the Gibraltar Liberal Party. Regionally, liberals are organized through various institutions depending on the prevailing geopolitical context. The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, for example, represents the interests of liberals in Europe while the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe is the predominant liberal group in the European Parliament.
[edit]Europe

The torch in politics symbolizes enlightenment and liberty. It is often used by liberals as a political symbol.
See also: Liberalism in Europe
In Europe, liberalism has a long tradition dating back to 17th century.[99] Scholars often split those traditions into English and French versions, with the former version of liberalism emphasizing the expansion of democratic values and constitutional reform and the latter rejecting authoritarian political and economic structures, as well as being involved with nation-building.[100] The continental French version was deeply divided between moderates and progressives, with the moderates tending to elitism and the progressives supporting the universalization of fundamental institutions, such as universal suffrage, universal education, and the expansion of property rights.[100] Over time, the moderates displaced the progressives as the main guardians of continental European liberalism. A prominent example of these divisions is the German Free Democratic Party, which was historically divided between national liberal and social liberal factions.[101]
Before World War I, liberal parties dominated the European political scene, but they were gradually displaced by socialists and social democrats in the early 20th century. The fortunes of liberal parties since World War II have been mixed, with some gaining strength while others suffered from continuous declines.[102] The fall of the Soviet Union and the breakup of Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century, however, allowed the formation of many liberal parties throughout Eastern Europe. These parties developed varying ideological characters. Some, such as the Slovenian Liberal Democrats or the Lithuanian Social Liberals, have been characterized as center-left.[103][104] Others, such as the Romanian National Liberal Party, have been classified as center-right.[105]
In Western Europe, some liberal parties have undergone renewal and transformation, coming back to the political limelight after historic disappointments. One of the most notable examples features the Liberal Democrats in Britain. The Liberal Democrats are the heirs of the once-mighty Liberal Party, which suffered a huge erosion of support to the Labour Party in the early 20th century. After nearly vanishing from the British political scene altogether, the Liberals eventually united with the Social Democratic Party, a Labour splinter group, in 1988 to form the current Liberal Democrats, a social liberal party.
The Liberal Democrats earned significant popular support in the general election of 2005 and in local council elections[citation needed], marking the first time in decades that a British party with a liberal ideology has achieved such electoral success. Following the general election of 2010, the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservatives resulting in party leader Nick Clegg becoming the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and many other members becoming ministers.
Both in Britain and elsewhere in Western Europe, liberal parties have often cooperated with socialist and social democratic parties, as evidenced by the Purple Coalition in the Netherlands during the late 1990s and into the 21st century. The Purple Coalition, one of the most consequential in Dutch history, brought together the progressive left-liberal D66,[106] the market liberal and center-right VVD,[107] and the social democratic Labour Party—an unusual combination that ultimately legalized same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and prostitution while also instituting a non-enforcement policy on marijuana.
[edit]Americas
See also: Liberalism in the United States, Liberalism in Canada, and Liberalism and conservatism in Latin America

Color photo of Roosevelt as the Man of the Year of TIME Magazine, January 1933
In North America, unlike in Europe, the word liberalism almost exclusively refers to social liberalism in contemporary politics. The dominant Canadian and American parties, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party, are frequently identified as being modern liberal or center-left organizations in the academic literature.[108][109][110] In Canada, the long-dominant Liberal Party, colloquially known as the Grits, ruled the country for nearly 70 years during the 20th century. The party produced some of the most influential prime ministers in Canadian history, including Pierre Trudeau, Lester B. Pearson and Jean Chrétien, and has been primarily responsible for the development of the Canadian welfare state. The enormous success of the Liberals—virtually unmatched in any other liberal democracy—has prompted many political commentators over time to identify them as the nation's natural governing party.[111][112] However, in recent elections the party has been performing poorly, and have currently been eclipsed federally by both the Conservative Party and the social democratic New Democratic Party.[113][114]
In the United States, modern liberalism traces its history to the popular presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who initiated the New Deal in response to the Great Depression and won an unprecedented four elections. The New Deal coalition established by Franklin Roosevelt left a decisive legacy and influenced many future American presidents, including John F. Kennedy, a self-described liberal who defined a liberal as "someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions...someone who cares about the welfare of the people".[115]
In the late 20th century, a conservative backlash against the kind of liberalism championed by Roosevelt and Kennedy developed in the Republican Party.[116] This brand of conservatism primarily reacted against the civil unrest and the cultural changes that transpired during the 1960s.[116] It helped launch into power such presidents as Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush.[117] Economic woes in the early 21st century led to a resurgence of social liberalism with the election of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.[118]
In Latin America, liberal unrest dates back to the 19th century, when liberal groups frequently fought against and violently overthrew conservative regimes in several countries across the region. Liberal revolutions in countries such as Mexico and Ecuador ushered in the modern world for much of Latin America. Latin American liberals generally emphasized free trade, private property, and anti-clericalism.[119] Today, market liberals in Latin America are organized in the Red Liberal de América Latina (RELIAL), a center-right network that brings together dozens of liberal parties and organizations.
RELIAL features parties as geographically diverse as the Mexican Nueva Alianza and the Cuban Liberal Union, which aims to secure power in Cuba. Some major liberal parties in the region continue, however, to align themselves with social liberal ideas and policies—a notable case being the Colombian Liberal Party, which is a member of the Socialist International. Another famous example is the Paraguayan Authentic Radical Liberal Party, one of the most powerful parties in the country, which has also been classified as center-left.[120]
[edit]Other regions

The Filipino Liberal Party has produced four presidents since it was founded in 1945.
In Australia, liberalism is primarily championed by the center-right Liberal Party.[121] The Liberals in Australia support free markets as well as social conservatism.[121][122] In India, the most populous democracy in the world, the Indian National Congress has long dominated political affairs. The INC was founded in the late 19th century by liberal nationalists demanding the creation of a more liberal and autonomous India.[123] Liberalism continued to be the main ideological current of the group through the early years of the 20th century, but socialism gradually overshadowed the thinking of the party in the next few decades.
In Asia, liberalism is a much younger political current than in Europe or the Americas. Continentally, liberals are organized through the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, which includes powerful parties such the Liberal Party in the Philippines, the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, and the Pheu Thai Party in Thailand. Two notable examples of liberal influence can be found in India and Australia, although several Asian nations have rejected important liberal principles.
A famous struggle led by the INC eventually earned India's independence from Britain. In recent times, the party has adopted more of a liberal streak, championing open markets while simultaneously seeking social justice. In its 2009 Manifesto, the INC praised a "secular and liberal" Indian nationalism against the nativist, communal, and conservative ideological tendencies it claims are espoused by the right.[124] In general, the major theme of Asian liberalism in the past few decades has been the rise of democratization as a method facilitate the rapid economic modernization of the continent.[125] In nations such as Myanmar, however, liberal democracy has been replaced by military dictatorship.[126]
In Africa, liberalism is comparatively weak. The Wafd Party ("Delegation Party") was a nationalist liberal political party in Egypt. It was said to be Egypt's most popular and influential political party for a period in the 1920s and 30s. Recently, however, liberal parties and institutions have made a major push for political power. On a continental level, liberals are organized in the Africa Liberal Network, which contains influential parties such as the Popular Movement in Morocco, the Democratic Party in Senegal, and the Rally of the Republicans in Côte d'Ivoire. Among African nations, South Africa stands out for having a notable liberal tradition that other countries on the continent lack. In the middle of the 20th century, the Liberal Party and the Progressive Party were formed to oppose the apartheid policies of the government. The Liberals formed a multiracial party that originally drew considerable support from urban Africans and college-educated whites.[127]
It also gained supporters from the "westernized sectors of the peasantry", and its public meetings were heavily attended by black Africans.[128] The party had 7,000 members at its height, although its appeal to the white population as a whole was too small to make any meaningful political changes.[127] The Liberals were disbanded in 1968 after the government passed a law that prohibited parties from having multiracial membership. Today, liberalism in South Africa is represented by the Democratic Alliance, the official opposition party to the ruling African National Congress. The Democratic Alliance is the second largest party in the National Assembly and currently leads the provincial government of Western Cape.
[edit]Impact and influence

The Liberal International, a global federation of liberal political parties and institutions, was founded in 1947. It represents one attempt in a long tradition of liberals trying to establish cross-cultural and transnational connections through global organizations.
The fundamental elements of contemporary society have liberal roots. The early waves of liberalism popularized economic individualism while expanding constitutional government and parliamentary authority.[129] One of the greatest liberal triumphs involved replacing the capricious nature of royalist and absolutist rule with a decision-making process encoded in written law.[129] Liberals sought and established a constitutional order that prized important individual freedoms, such as the freedom of speech and of association, an independent judiciary and public trial by jury, and the abolition of aristocratic privileges.[129]
These sweeping changes in political authority marked the modern transition from absolutism to constitutional rule.[129] The expansion and promotion of free markets was another major liberal achievement. Before they could establish markets, however, liberals had to destroy the old economic structures of the world. In that vein, liberals ended mercantilist policies, royal monopolies, and various other restraints on economic activities.[129] They also sought to abolish internal barriers to trade—eliminating guilds, local tariffs, and prohibitions on the sale of land along the way.[129]
Later waves of liberal thought and struggle were strongly influenced by the need to expand civil rights. In the 1960s and 1970s, the cause of Second Wave feminism in the United States was advanced in large part by liberal feminist organizations such as National Organization for Women.[130] In addition to supporting gender equality, liberals also have advocated for racial equality in their drive to promote civil rights, and a global civil rights movement in the 20th century achieved several objectives towards both goals. Among the various regional and national movements, the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s strongly highlighted the liberal crusade for equal rights. Describing the political efforts of the period, some historians have asserted that "the voting rights campaign marked...the convergence of two political forces at their zenith: the black campaign for equality and the movement for liberal reform," further remarking about how "the struggle to assure blacks the ballot coincided with the liberal call for expanded federal action to protect the rights of all citizens".[131] The Great Society project launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson oversaw the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, the establishment of Head Start and the Job Corps as part of the War on Poverty, and the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964—an altogether rapid series of events that some historians have dubbed the Liberal Hour.[132]
Another major liberal accomplishment includes the rise of liberal internationalism, which has been credited with the establishment of global organizations such as the League of Nations and, after World War II, the United Nations.[133] The idea of exporting liberalism worldwide and constructing a harmonious and liberal internationalist order has dominated the thinking of liberals since the 18th century.[134] "Wherever liberalism has flourished domestically, it has been accompanied by visions of liberal internationalism," one historian wrote.[134] But resistance to liberal internationalism was deep and bitter, with critics arguing that growing global interdependency would result in the loss of national sovereignty and that democracies represented a corrupt order incapable of either domestic or global governance.[135]
Other scholars have praised the influence of liberal internationalism, claiming that the rise of globalization "constitutes a triumph of the liberal vision that first appeared in the eighteenth century" while also writing that liberalism is "the only comprehensive and hopeful vision of world affairs".[136] The gains of liberalism have been significant. In 1975, roughly 40 countries around the world were characterized as liberal democracies, but that number had increased to more than 80 as of 2008.[137] Most of the world's richest and most powerful nations are liberal democracies with extensive social welfare programs.[138]
[edit]See also

Americans for Democratic Action is an American advocacy organization that champions modern liberalism.
Biology and political orientation
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party is the European umbrella organisation for liberal parties.
Friedrich Naumann Foundation is a global advocacy organization that supports liberal ideas and policies.
Ludwig von Mises Institute is a think tank devoted to neo-classical liberalism.
Muscular liberalism
Rule according to higher law
The American Prospect is an American political magazine that backs social liberal policies.
The Liberal is a British magazine dedicated to coverage of liberal politics and liberal culture.
[edit]Notes

^ Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid University of Notre Dame. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ Song, p. 45. Grounded on these foundations are the two central values of liberalism: equality and liberty.
^ Kathleen G. Donohue. Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Idea of the Consumer (New Studies in American Intellectual and Cultural History). Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved 2007-12-31. "Three of them - freedom from fear, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion - have long been fundamental to liberalism."
^ The Economist, Volume 341, Issues 7995-7997. The Economist. Retrieved 2007-12-31. "For all three share a belief in the liberal society as defined above: a society that provides constitutional government (rule by laws, not by men) and freedom of religion, thought, expression and economic interaction; a society in which ..."
^ Sehldon S. Wolin. Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought. Princeton University Press. Retrieved 2007-12-31. "While liberalism practically disappeared as a publicly professed ideology, it retained a virtual monopoly in the ... The most frequently cited rights included freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion, property, and procedural rights"
^ Edwin Brown Firmage, Bernard G. Weiss, John Woodland Welch. Religion and Law: Biblical-Judaic and Islamic Perspectives. Eisenbrauns. Retrieved 2007-12-31. "There is no need to expound here the foundations and principles of modern liberalism, which emphasizes the values of freedom of conscience and freedom of religion"
^ John Joseph Lalor. Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States. Nabu Press. Retrieved 2007-12-31. "Democracy attaches itself to a form of government: liberalism, to liberty and guarantees of liberty. The two may agree; they are not contradictory, but they are neither identical, nor necessarily connected. In the moral order, liberalism is the liberty to think, recognized and practiced. This is primordial liberalism, as the liberty to think is itself the first and noblest of liberties. Man would not be free in any degree or in any sphere of action, if he were not a thinking being endowed with consciousness. The freedom of worship, the freedom of education, and the freedom of the press are derived the most directly from the freedom to think."
^ http://www.amazon.com/New-Liberalism-Matthew-Kalkman/dp/1926991044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322719289&sr=8-1
^ a b c d e f Gross, p. 5.
^ Kirchner, pp. 2–3.
^ Johnson, p. 28. Dante was not just a medieval man, he was a Renaissance man too. He was highly critical of the church, like many so scholars who followed him.
^ Colton and Palmer, p. 75. They might wish to manage their own religious affairs as they did their other business, believing that the church hierarchy was too much embedded in a feudal, baronial, and monarchical system with which they had little in common.
^ Colton and Palmer, p. 171.
^ Delaney, p. 18.
^ Godwin et al., p. 12.
^ Zvesper, p. 93.
^ Coker, p. 3.
^ Frey, Foreword.
^ Frey, Preface.
^ Ros, p. 11.
^ Manent and Seigel, p. 80.
^ Colton and Palmer, pp. 428–9.
^ a b Colton and Palmer, p. 428.
^ Lyons, p. 111.
^ Lyons, p. 94.
^ Lyons, pp. 98–102.
^ Heywood, p. 47.
^ Heywood, pp. 47–8.
^ Heywood, p. 52.
^ Heywood, p. 53.
^ Booth, Charles (1886). "Occupations of the People of the United Kingdom, 1801-81". Journal of the Statistical Society of London 2 (49): 314-436.
^ See also Child Labor during the British Industrial Revolution - Table 1: Child Employment, 1851-1881
^ Colton and Palmer, p. 479.
^ a b Colton and Palmer, p. 510.
^ Colton and Palmer, p. 509.
^ Colton and Palmer, pp. 546–7.
^ Stacy, p. 698.
^ Handelsman, p. 10.
^ Cook, p. 31.
^ Heywood, p. 61.
^ Mazower, p. 3.
^ Shaw, pp. 2–3.
^ Colton and Palmer, p. 808.
^ Whitfield, p. 485. But before Franklin D. Roosevelt, no politician had won such popular approval for a program of reforms that drew so systematic a conclusion from the drastic structural changes in industry and society. Social liberalism, which dictated domestic politics from the New Deal into the 1960s, marked the limits of welfare state activity as determined and limited by the individualistic political culture of the United States.
^ Auerbach and Kotlikoff, p. 299.
^ Dobson, p. 264.
^ Gene Smiley, Recent Unemployment Rate Estimates for the 1920s and 1930s, Journal of Economic History, Juni 1983, Vol. 43, Nr. 2, Seite 487–93.
^ Knoop, p. 151.
^ Rivlin, p. 53.
^ Perry et al., p. 759. Hitler writes that the chief principle of fascism is the following: to abolish the liberal concept of the individual and the Marxist concept of humanity, and to substitute for them the Volk community, rooted in the soil and united by the bond of its common blood.
^ Heywood, pp. 218–26.
^ Colomer, p. 62.
^ Diamond, cover flap.
^ Wolfe, p. 257.
^ Gifford, pp. 6–8.
^ Antoninus, p. 3.
^ Young, pp. 25–6.
^ a b Young, p. 24.
^ Young, p. 25.
^ a b Gray, p. xii.
^ Wolfe, pp. 33-6.
^ Young, p. 45.
^ Young, pp. 30–1.
^ a b c Young, p. 30.
^ a b Young, p. 31.
^ Young, p. 32.
^ Young, pp. 32–3.
^ a b Gould, p. 4.
^ a b Young, p. 33.
^ Wolfe, p. 74.
^ a b Adams, pp. 54–5.
^ Wempe, p. 123.
^ Adams, p. 55.
^ Adams, p. 58.
^ http://www.granvilleislandpublishing.com/our_titles/politics/new_liberalism.html
^ a b Young, p. 36.
^ Wolfe, p. 63.
^ Young, p. 39.
^ Young, pp. 39–40.
^ a b c Young, p. 40.
^ Young, pp. 42–3.
^ Young, p. 43.
^ a b c Young, p. 44.
^ Jensen, p. 1.
^ Jensen, p. 2.
^ Falco, pp. 47–8.
^ a b Grigsby, p. 108.
^ Koerner, p. 14.
^ Grigsby, pp. 119–22.
^ Koerner, pp. 9-12.
^ Lightfoot, p. 17.
^ Susser, p. 110.
^ Riff, pp. 34–6.
^ Riff, p. 34.
^ Wolfe, p. 116.
^ [1]
^ Wolfe, p. 23.
^ Adams, p. 11.
^ German songs like "Die Gedanken sind frei" (thoughts are free) can be dated even centuries before that.
^ a b Kirchner, p. 3.
^ Kirchner, p. 4.
^ Kirchner, p. 10.
^ Karatnycky et al., p. 247.
^ Hafner and Ramet, p. 104.
^ Various authors, p. 1615.
^ Schie and Voermann, p. 121.
^ Gallagher et al., p. 226.
^ Puddington, p. 142. After a dozen years of center-left Liberal Party rule, the Conservative Party emerged from the 2006 parliamentary elections with a plurality and established a fragile minority government.
^ Grigsby, p. 106-7. [Talking about the Democratic Party] Its liberalism is for the most part the later version of liberalism—modern liberalism.
^ Arnold, p. 3. Modern liberalism occupies the left-of-center in the traditional political spectrum and is represented by the Democratic Party in the United States.
^ Penniman, p. 72.
^ Chodos et al., p. 9.
^ Lawrence Martin (November 22, 2011). "The great Liberal fall started long before Iggy". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
^ Chantal Hébert (October 17, 2011). "The decline of Liberal brand in Canada continues unabated this fall". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
^ Alterman, p. 32.
^ a b Flamm and Steigerwald, pp. 156–8.
^ Patrick Allitt, "The Conservatives", p. 253, Yale University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-300-16418-3
^ Wolfe, p. xiv.
^ Dore and Molyneux, p. 9.
^ Ameringer, p. 489.
^ a b Monsma and Soper, p. 95.
^ Karatnycky, p. 59.
^ Hodge, p. 346.
^ 2009 Manifesto Indian National Congress. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
^ Routledge et al., p. 111.
^ Steinberg, pp. 1–2.
^ a b Van den Berghe, p. 56.
^ Van den Berghe, p. 57.
^ a b c d e f Gould, p. 3.
^ Worell, p. 470.
^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot, p. 178.
^ Mackenzie and Weisbrot, p. 5.
^ Sinclair, p. 145.
^ a b Schell, p. 266.
^ Schell, pp. 273–80.
^ Venturelli, p. 247.
^ Farr, p. 81.
^ Pierson, p. 110.
[edit]References

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Liberals currently use two clauses to try and expand their power: the Commerce Clause and the General Welfare Clause. The general welfare clause mentions "promoting the general welfare". This to a liberal means taxing the rich at increased rates and redistributing that money. The commerce clause, on the other hand, says that Congress has the power to regulate trade with foreign nations, between the states and with the indian tribes. Since the days of FDR this clause has been interpreted very loosely and has resulted in the federal government expanding its power. The latest example is The Affordable Care Act(ACA), better know as [[Obamacare]]. In the ACA, the liberals justify the individual mandate by saying it regulates commerce between the states.

Current dictionaries describe the liberal ideology by pretending that a liberal is "a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties" or "a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets,"<ref>http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=liberal&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&h=00</ref> or "open-minded or tolerant, especially free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc." or "favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties."<ref>http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/liberal</ref>

==Liberals and Uncharitableness==
[[Image:228130875 35181424e3.jpg|thumb|right|175px|[[United States|American]] Liberals have been observed to give less to charity than American conservatives.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref> In addition, [[per capita]] [[atheism|atheists]] and [[agnosticism|agnostics]] in the United States [[Atheism and charity|give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists]].[http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/102-atheists-and-agnostics-take-aim-at-christians][http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3647/is_200310/ai_n9340592/][http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2682730&page=2] ]]
''For more information please see'': [[Liberals and uncharitableness]] and [[Atheism and charity]]

In March of 2008, [[George Will]] wrote at [[RealClearPolitics]] concerning the [[United States]]:
{{cquote|Sixteen months ago, [[Arthur C. Brooks]], a professor at [[Syracuse University]], published "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism." The surprise is that liberals are markedly less charitable than [[conservative]]s....

If many conservatives are liberals who have been mugged by reality, Brooks, a registered independent, is, as a reviewer of his book said, a social scientist who has been mugged by data. They include these findings:

-- Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household ($1,600 per year vs. $1,227).

-- Conservatives also donate more time and give more blood.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref>}}
[[Atheism|Atheists]] and [[agnosticism|agnostics]] often reject [[Bible|Biblical]] [[morality]] (and therefore [[conservative Christianity]] ) and hold to [[moral relativism]].<ref>http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=152</ref> Therefore, it is not surprising that [[per capita]] atheists and agnostics in [[United States|America]] [[Atheism and charity|give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists]].[http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/102-atheists-and-agnostics-take-aim-at-christians][http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3647/is_200310/ai_n9340592/][http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2682730&page=2]

=== Liberal politicians and uncharitableness ===
The political magazine the [[American Spectator]] featured an article which focused on [[liberal politicians and uncharitableness]] exposing the hypocrisy of the liberal politicians it featured.<ref>http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1c5_1238044128&c=1</ref>

In addition, [[Barack Obama]] has been criticized concerning [[Barack Obama and uncharitableness|his lack of charitable giving]].

== Liberalism and bestiality ==

See also: [[Liberalism and bestiality]]

[[File:Peter-Singer.jpg|right|thumbnail|260px|The [[atheist]] philosopher [[Peter Singer]] defends the practice of [[bestiality]] (as well as [[abortion]], infanticide and [[euthanasia]]). Despite holding these immoral views the liberal and pro-[[evolution]] academic establishment rewarded his views with a bioethics chair at [[Princeton University]].<ref>
*[http://creation.com/the-basis-of-a-christian-worldview The Basis of a Christian Worldview - Creation Ministries International]
*[http://creation.com/answer-to-philosophy-religion-professor-on-biblical-exegesis-and-the-problem-of-evil CMI answers philosophy/religion professor on biblical exegesis and the problem of evil]
*[http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/06/the-dangerous-mind-of-peter-singer ''The Dangerous Mind''] by Joe Carter, ''[[First Things]]''</ref> See: [[Atheism and bestiality]] ]]
[[Bestiality]] is the act of engaging in sexual relations with an animal. The [[atheist]] philosopher [[Peter Singer]] defends the practice of bestiality (as well as [[abortion]], infanticide and [[euthanasia]])<ref>
*[http://creation.com/the-basis-of-a-christian-worldview The Basis of a Christian Worldview - Creation Ministries International]
*[http://creation.com/answer-to-philosophy-religion-professor-on-biblical-exegesis-and-the-problem-of-evil CMI answers philosophy/religion professor on biblical exegesis and the problem of evil]
*[http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/06/the-dangerous-mind-of-peter-singer ''The Dangerous Mind''] by Joe Carter, ''[[First Things]]''</ref>. Despite holding these immoral views the liberal and pro-[[evolution]] academic establishment rewarded his views with a bioethics chair at [[Princeton University]] (Princeton University is a very liberal school - see: [[Liberalism and bestiality]]).<ref>
*[http://creation.com/the-basis-of-a-christian-worldview The Basis of a Christian Worldview - Creation Ministries International]
*[http://creation.com/answer-to-philosophy-religion-professor-on-biblical-exegesis-and-the-problem-of-evil CMI answers philosophy/religion professor on biblical exegesis and the problem of evil]
*[http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/06/the-dangerous-mind-of-peter-singer ''The Dangerous Mind''] by Joe Carter, ''[[First Things]]''</ref> Peter Singer was installed as the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University in 1999 and in 2006 it was reported that he still worked part-time in that capacity. <ref>[http://creation.com/the-basis-of-a-christian-worldview The Basis of a Christian Worldview]</ref> In 2006, it was also reported that Singer worked part-time as Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics since 2005.<ref>[http://creation.com/the-basis-of-a-christian-worldview The Basis of a Christian Worldview]</ref>

Joe Carter's ''[[First Things]]'' article entitled ''The Dangerous Mind'' declares concerning Peter Singer declared:
{{cquote|Singer has spent a lifetime justifying the unjustifiable. He is the founding father of the [[Animal rights|animal liberation movement]] and advocates ending “the present speciesist bias against taking seriously the interests of nonhuman animals.” He is also a defender of killing the aged (if they have dementia), newborns (for almost any reason until they are two years old), necrophilia (assuming it’s consensual), and bestiality (also assuming it’s consensual).<ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/06/the-dangerous-mind-of-peter-singer ''The Dangerous Mind''] by Joe Carter, ''[[First Things]]''</ref>}}

On October 5, 2011, the British newspaper The Telegraph wrote an article which discussed how homosexuality "rights" have emboldened individuals to ask for so called bestiality "rights" (see: [[Homosexuality and bestiality]]).<ref>[http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100108943/the-gay-rights-movement-has-emboldened-americas-bestiality-advocates/ The dark side of sexual freedom: American 'zoophiles' take on the language of equality - October 5, 2011 - The Telegraph]</ref>

In 2010, the liberal state of [[Washington]] has the highest number of reported cases of bestiality in the United States even though it was merely the 13th most populous state according to the 2010 United States census. (for more information please see: [[Washington state and bestiality]]).<ref>[http://www.pet-abuse.com/pages/cruelty_database/statistics/state_ranking.php?year=2010&search=go Pet Abuse -2010]</ref><ref>[http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-pop-text.php 2010 United States Census data]</ref><ref>[http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/25/new-poll-identifies-most-liberal-and-conservative-states/ 2011 Political map - CNN]</ref>

In 2005, four legislators in the liberal state of [[Massachusetts]] tried to soften it bestiality laws.<ref>[Massachusetts bill to repeal fornication, adultery, and blasphemy, and to soften bestiality laws]</ref>
[[File:NBC Tower.jpg|thumbnail|200px|[[LifeSiteNews]] reported:"In 46 hours of programming, [[NBC]] contained only one reference to marital sex, but 11 references to non-marital sex and one reference to [[adultery]] were made. References to incest, pedophilia, partner swapping, prostitution, threesomes, transsexuals/transvestites, [[bestiality]], and necrophilia combined outnumbered references to sex in marriage on NBC by a ratio of 27 to 1.<ref>[http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2008/aug/08080602 Study Finds TV Treats Marital Sex as Burdensome, Adultery as Positive]</ref> See also: [[Liberalism and bestiality]] ]]
The Bible says that bestiality is a perversion and, under the [[Old Testament]] [[Pentateuch|Jewish Law]], punishable by death (Exodus 22:19, Leviticus 18:23, Leviticus 20:15 and Deuteronomy 27:21). The atheistic worldview does not lend itself to the establishment of morality within society and individuals (see: [[Atheism and morality]] and [[Atheism and deception]]). The atheistic worldview does not lend itself to the establishment of morality within society and individuals (see: [[Atheism and morality]] and [[Atheism and deception]]).

A study found that "Psychiatric patients were found to have a statistically significant higher prevalence rate (55%) of bestiality than the control groups (10% and 15% respectively)."<ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1778686 A prevalence study of bestiality (zoophilia) in psychiatric in-patients, medical in-patients, and psychiatric staff - Int J Psychosom. 1991;38(1-4):45-7.]</ref> The atheist population [[Atheism and suicide|has a higher suicide rate]] and [[Atheism and marriageability|lower marriage rates]] than the general population (see: [[Atheism and suicide]] and [[Atheism and marriageability]] and [[Atheism and health]]).

For more information please see:

*[[Atheism and bestiality]]

*[[Evolutionary belief and bestiality]]

*[[Liberalism and bestiality]]

*[[Homosexuality and bestiality]]

*[[Liberal American entertainment industry and bestiality]]

*[[Wikipedia on bestiality]]

*[[Bestiality and Sweden|Liberal Sweden and bestiality]]

*[[Bestiality and Britain|Godless Britain and bestiality]]

*[[Denmark, Sweden, evolutionary belief and bestiality]]

*[[Netherlands and bestiality|The liberal Netherlands and bestiality]]

*[[Skeptic Skatje Myers' comments on bestiality]]

*[[Joseph Stalin's ape-men experiments]]
=== Occupy Wall Street and bestiality chant ===

''See also:'' [[Occupy Wall Street and bestiality chant]]

[[Bestiality]] is the act of engaging in sexual relations with an animal. A crowd at Occupy Wall Street was led to repeat various chants which included a chant involving bestiality and the incident was videotaped.<ref>[http://rightwingnews.com/john-hawkins/the-10-greatest-moments-from-the-occupy-wall-street-protests-so-far/ The 10 Greatest Moments From The Occupy Wall Street Protests So Far]</ref>

Below is an excerpt of the chant:
{{cquote|Everything seems to be possible. [Crowd Parrot Chant] You can travel to the moon. [CPC] You can become immortal [CPC] by biogenetics. You can have sex with animals, or whatever. [CPC].<ref>[http://rightwingnews.com/john-hawkins/the-10-greatest-moments-from-the-occupy-wall-street-protests-so-far/ The 10 Greatest Moments From The Occupy Wall Street Protests So Far]</ref>}}

==Liberals and Superstition==
[[Image:2384975035_230a0eac30.jpg‎‎|right|150px]]

The [[Wall Street Journal]] reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University, shows that [[Conservative Christianity|traditional Christian religion]] greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of [[astrology]]. <ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html]</ref>

Also, in September of 2008, the [[Wall Street Journal]] reported:
{{cquote|The reality is that the [[New Atheism|New Atheist]] campaign, by discouraging [[religion]], won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith — it's what the empirical data tell us.

"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that [[Conservative Christianity|traditional Christian religion]] greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of [[astrology]]. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians....

This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in [[pseudoscience]], cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html</ref>}}

== Liberalism in the United States Today ==
[[File:Smear merchants.jpg|right|200px]]
[[Democrats]] and most media outlets in the [[U.S.]] are blatantly liberal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mrc.org/biasbasics/biasbasics1.asp|title=Media Bias basics|publisher=Media Research Center}}</ref> Liberalism in North America today practices three primary tactics to attack the Republican Party, and sometimes to attack American values in general. These three liberal tactics can be pronounced using the following [[acronym]]: SIN. Liberals (1) '''s'''hift the subject, they (2) '''i'''gnore the facts, and they (3) '''n'''ame call.<ref>Scott Baker. [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/did-herman-cain-give-the-dont-miss-speech-at-cpac/ Did Herman Cain Give the ‘Don’t Miss’ Speech at CPAC?], ''[[The Blaze]], February 12, 2011.</ref><ref>[[YouTube]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N3-j3HM7-A& Herman Cain: "Stupid People Are Ruining America"], February 11, 2011.</ref>

* Liberals typically support a "mixed" economy, a policy similar to that of [[fascism]]. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://fora.tv/2008/01/30/Liberal_Traits_of_Fascism|title=Video discussion about how modern liberalism is actually fascist by author Jonah Goldberg.}}</ref>

* Liberals claimed a monopoly on [[compassion]], [[decency]], and [[social justice]] (as defined by themselves), posing as the sole defenders of [[civic virtue]] against a horde of backwoodsmen, racists, and religious fanatics. [http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/the_disgrace_of_liberalism.html]
{{cquote|There's another goal, from my point of view, which is to try to lay the groundwork for a radical political force which would conceive of itself as distinctly to the left of moderate, reformist American liberals. And that has two aspects. One is to try to change that liberalism, to transform it by analysis, critique, and activism; the second is to build a radical movement which would be an autonomous force in its own right, which would be distinct from the traditional American liberal consensus. This radical part of the program involves not simply supporting the liberal students against conservative students and conservative professors, but trying to act on them, to push them to the left. It also involves trying to find and support, even trying to help create, networks of radical students in law school and of radical professors around the country — students and teachers who see themselves as wanting to go a lot further than most people want to go. <ref> [http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=liberal+teachers&fr=yfp-t-501&fp_ip=MX&u=duncankennedy.net/documents/Liberal%2520Values%2520in%2520Legal%2520Education.pdf&w=liberal+liberals+teachers+teacher&d=BNZFhPReRjC1&icp=1&.intl=us Liberal Values in Legal Education] Duncan Kennedy (professor at Harvard Law School)</ref>}}

===Liberal Rankings of Congress Members===

The National Journal compiles the votes of each congress member each year and uses the information to create rankings<ref>http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/index.htm</ref> of how liberal each member of the United States [[Congress]] is. In addition to showing the voting records of each member and given an overall all ranking of liberalness, the National Journal also ranks congress members by liberalness in the areas of social, economic, and foreign policy.

=== American liberalism, demographics and expected tipping point in the decline of American liberalism ===
''
See also:'' [[American atheism]] and [[Decline of atheism]] and [[Global atheism]]

Due to the explosive growth of [[global Christianity]] in traditional cultures and their influence on Western [[Christianity]] and the higher birth rate of [[Conservative Christianity|conservative Christians]] and religious conservatives, social conservatism is expected to rise.

The Birkbeck College, University of London professor Eric Kaufman wrote in his 2010 book ''Shall the Righteous Inherit the Earth?'' concerning America:
{{cquote|High evangelical fertility rates more than compensated for losses to liberal Protestant sects during the twentieth century. In recent decades, white secularism has surged, but Latino and Asian religious immigration has taken up the slack, keeping secularism at bay. Across denominations, the fertility advantage of religious fundamentalists of all colours is significant and growing. After 2020, their demographic weight will to tip the balance in the [[Culture War|culture wars]] towards the conservative side, ramping up pressure on hot-button issues such as abortion. By the end of the century, three quarters of America may be pro-life. Their activism will leap over the borders of the 'Redeemer Nation' to evangelize the world. Already, the rise of the World Congress of Families has launched a global religious right, its arms stretching across the bloody lines of the War on Terror to embrace the entire Abrahamic family.<ref>[http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-are-years-2012-and-2020-key-years.html Why are 2012 and 2020 key years for Christian creationists and pro-lifers?]</ref>}}

==Liberalism in Europe today==

In Europe, on the other hand, parties that call themselves ''liberal'' are moderate in outlook, ranging from centre-left to centre-right, promote typically economic and business freedom. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe<ref>http://www.alde.eu</ref> is a party of the European Parliament that represents most ''liberal'' parties from European countries. Similar policies are promoted by many ''liberal'' parties throughout the world,<ref>http://www.liberal-international.org/</ref> such as the Liberal Party of Australia.<ref>[http://www.liberal.org.au/]</ref>

Trade unions and socialist parties often criticize politicians for promoting lower taxes on business, or more flexible hiring and firing laws, by calling them "liberals" or [[neoliberal|neoliberals]]. Thus, just as in the US, "liberal" may occasionally be used as a term of abuse. But when someone is called "liberal" in Europe, it has an entirely different meaning than in the US. In fact, the US meaning of liberal is more similar to the politics of European [[socialist]] or [[social democracy|social democratic]] parties.<ref>[http://www.pes.org]</ref>

==Historical Liberalism ==
In history, the word "liberal" has meant different things at different times, and was associated with individual liberty in prior centuries. In the postwar period, liberals supported government intervention in the economy and welfare state policies, as well as peaceful coexistence with the communist block, which are not liberal policies in the sense of classical liberalism. After the end of the cold war, with the demise of socialism and communism, many liberals embraced some ideas from economic neo-liberalism, and coined it the "Third Way". In the area of national security and foreign policy liberals in the [[U.S.]] failed to define a consistent stance, even after the events of 9/11 and the beginning of the war in Iraq. Liberals generally support affirmative action, gay marriage, and abortion.<ref>"Political liberals tend, for whatever reason, to be ardent supporters of both gay rights and pro-choice programs." Greenberg and Bailey [http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Bailey/Greenberg-Bailey/Homosexual%20Eugenics.pdf] </ref>

==Original meaning: Classical Liberalism==
Liberalism is a political philosophy with freedom as its core value. The term was originally applied to supporters of individual liberties and equal rights, but, in America, the term has come to represent a movement of social change that often conflicts with [[conservative]] values such as moral values and tradition.

See [[Classical Liberal|Classical Liberalism]]. Compare [[Libertarianism]].

== Infamous liberals ==

''See also:'' [[Infamous liberals]]

* [[Margaret Sanger]]

*[[John Wayne Gacy]] - In an interview where he denied killing any of his victims, [[serial killer]] John Wayne Gacy said he was [[bisexuality|bisexual]] and "very liberal".<ref>http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s151/candypop_02/Serial%20Killers/John%20Wayne%20Gacy/?action=view&current=SERIAL_KILLER_John_Wayne_Gacy_In-1.mp4</ref> Gacy was also a [[Democratic Party]] activist who had his picture taken with [[Rosalynn Carter]].<ref>http://www.digitaljournal.com/image/45527</ref>

==Liberal Organizations ==
*[[AARP|AARP - American Association of Retired People]]
*[[ACLU|ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union]]
*[[ACORN|ACORN - Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now]]
*[[AFL-CIO|AFL-CIO - American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations]]
*[[Amnesty International|AI - Amnesty International]]
*[[A.N.S.W.E.R.|ANSWER - Act Now to Stop War and End Racism]]
*[[CAIR|CAIR - Council on American-Islamic Relations]]
*[[Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism]]
*[[Democratic National Committee]]
*[[Greenpeace]]
*[[MoveOn.org]]
*[[NARAL|NARAL - National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League]]
*[[NAACP|NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]]
*[[National Committee for an Effective Congress]]
*[[National Education Association]]
*[[National Organization of Women|NOW - National Organization of Women]]
*[[PETA|PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals]]
*[[Planned Parenthood|Planned Parenthood Federation of America]]
*[[Progressives for Obama]]
*[[Rainbow/PUSH Coalition]]
*[[SEIU|SEIU - Service Employees International Union]]
*[[U.S. Peace Council]]
Source: [http://www.politixgroup.com/lo.htm The Politix Group]

==Quotes on Liberals==
"I never use the words [[Democrats]] and [[Republicans]]. It's [[liberals]] and [[Americans]]." -James Watt, Secretary of the Interior under [[Ronald Reagan]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==See Also==

* [[Conservative resources]]
* [[Conservapedia:Articles about liberals|Articles about liberals]]
* [[Classical liberal]]
* [[Drinking Liberally]]
* [[Godless liberal]]
* [[Last wordism]]
* [[Essay:Liberal celebrity obsession|Liberal celebrity obsession]]
* [[Essay:Liberal Behavior on Conservapedia|Liberal Behavior on Conservapedia]]
* [[Liberal Christianity]]
* [[Liberal Democrats]]
* [[Liberal Elite]]
* [[Essay: Liberal Falsehoods|Liberal Falsehoods]]
* [[Liberal Fascism]]
* [[Liberal friendship]]
* [[Liberal Gloss]]
* [[Liberal grading]]
* [[Liberal hypocrisy]]
* [[Essay:Liberal hysteria|Liberal hysteria]]
* [[Essay:Liberal Intellectualism|Liberal Intellectualism]]
* [[Liberal labels]]
* [[Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right|Liberal Lies About the American Right]]
* [[Liberal logic]]
* [[The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness|Liberal Mind]]
* [[Liberal Party]]
* [[Liberal supremacist]]
* [[Massachusetts liberal]]
* [[Progressives]]
* [[Scientific Illiteracy and Liberals]]

==Further Information==
* [[Best_New_Conservative_Words#New_Liberal_Terms|New Liberal Terms]]
* [[Conservative Links]]
* http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/

{{liberalism}}

[[Category:Political Ideologies]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category: Liberals]]

Abraham Lincoln

2012-08-14T01:10:24Z

JakethaSnake:

{{Officeholder
|name=Abraham Lincoln
|image=Ncoln2.jpg
|party=[[Republican]] [[National Union]]
|spouse=[[Mary Todd Lincoln]]
|religion=[[Christian]]
|offices=
{{Officeholder/president
|country=the United States
|number=16th
|terms=March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
|vp=[[Hannibal Hamlin]] (1861–1865)<br/>[[Andrew Johnson]] (1865)
|preceded=[[James Buchanan]]
|former=y
|succeeded=[[Andrew Johnson]]
}}
{{Officeholder/representative
|state=Illinois
|district=7th
|terms=March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849
|preceded=John Henry
|former=y
|succeeded=Thomas L. Harris
}}
|military=y
|allegiance=Illinois Militia
|serviceyears=1832
|battles=Black Hawk War
}}
'''Abraham Lincoln''' was the 16th [[President of the United States of America]] serving from 1861 to 1865. He led his country through its greatest crisis, the [[American Civil War]], abolished [[slavery]] and built a [[Republican Party]] coalition that dominated the [[Third Party System]].

Lincoln, along with George Washington, is the chief icon of conservative American values. With a profound sense of American history, unswerving commitment to [[Republicanism|republican ideals]] of democracy and civic virtue, and an almost Shakespearean command of the language, Lincoln articulated a vision of a new birth of freedom for the American nation. The destruction of the [[Confederacy]], and of the [[Slave Power|slave power]] that menaced conservative American values, affirmed Lincoln's vision in the [[Gettysburg Address]] (1863) and guaranteed that "government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

He was [[homeschooled]] and almost completely self-taught, which likely gave him independent thinking, reliance on logic, and a desire to continue to learn as an adult.<ref>For example, Lincoln successfully proved all of Euclid's theorems while serving in Congress.</ref> He is considered the most eloquent writer of any American president in history thus far. He is also one of the very few whose [[faith]] developed and grew while holding high public office.

==Early life==
Lincoln grew up in a hard-luck, hard-scrabble environment on
the middle border. His paternal ancestors were English; they migrated from Hingham, England, to Hingham Massachusetts, in 1637. In the 1730s they moved to backwoods Pennsylvania and Virginia. His grandfather moved to Kentucky in 1782, where he was scalped by Indians raiding his farm in 1786. His father Thomas owned some farmland near Elizabethtown, where he farmed and worked as a carpenter.

Abe later wrote:
:''“I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families-- second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in Macon Counties, Illinois.”''<ref> See [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htm Speeches]</ref>

Abe was born in a backwoods cabin some three miles south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. His father Thomas Lincoln was a sturdy man, committed to pioneering in the new lands of Kentucky and Indiana. He married Nancy Hanks on June 12, 1806, and together they had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who did not survive infancy. The family belonged to a Hardshell Baptist church; Abe ridiculed the preachers and never joined their church, or any other church.

Young Abraham’s earliest memories of his days in Kentucky involved helping his father plant some seeds of corn and sunflower, and a flood that washed them away.
[[Image:Young abraham lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The oldest-known photograph of Lincoln, about 1847.]]
In December 1816 Thomas had to pack up his family and leave for southwestern Indiana after a slaveowner with a better lawyer won title to his Kentucky property.

Penniless, the family in Indiana lived in a “half-faced” camp; a crude log structure with one side open to the elements, and there the family stayed as squatters on public land until Thomas had finished a permanent cabin; he later bought the land outright on which it stood. Helping Thomas clear the land and plowing the fields was Abe, who in sharp contrast to other boys developed a strong aversion to hunting. The poverty, Lincoln recalled, was “pretty pinching” at times, and by the age of nine he was a tall, lanky boy dressed rather ragged and unkempt.

Then the fall of 1818 brought the hardest blow: Nancy had died of the “milk sickness”, leaving Abraham without the mother whom he deeply loved. Some time later, Thomas had taken the buckboard and the mule, and left Abraham and Sarah on their own for two weeks; when he returned, he was with a new wife, Sarah Bush Johnson; she immediately made up for the absence of Nancy by replacing Abraham’s corn husk mattress with one of down, winning him over the first day. The new step-mother treated both children with an even hand (she herself was a widow with three children, whom she had brought), but she became very fond of Abraham, and he in turn was fond of her, referring to her as his “angel mother” for the rest of his life.

===Education===
Both of Abraham’s parents were nearly completely illiterate, and he himself had not much more than one year of formal education. When he did go to school, it was by “littles” – a little here, a little there – and he would call it “blab” school, which meant that they had to recite their lessons constantly due to lack of paper, pencils, and chalk. “Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three; but that was all.” The rule of three means up to one thousand.

His step-mother encouraged his reading as much as possible, and although Abraham did not have access to a large number of books, he would read as much of what was there, and read voraciously. He read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, ''Aesop’s Fables'', Daniel DeFoe’s ''Robinson Crusoe'', Parson Weems's ''Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington'', Edward Gibbon’s ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', and undoubtedly he read many times the only book his family actually owned, the Bible. He would walk for miles to borrow a book he heard about, and after his chores he would collapse into a heap in front of the fire and read for hours. He would say years later that his best friend was the man who let him borrow a book he hadn’t read yet.

===The Rail-Splitter===
[[Image:Railsplitter.jpg|thumb|200px|right|An artist's impression of a young Abe Lincoln, the ''Rail-Splitter''.]]
The Lincolns moved to Illinois in March, 1830, with Abraham driving the team of oxen himself, a young man of 21, rawboned and lanky at six feet four inches tall. But the years working on the Indiana farm also made him physically powerful, and on his arrival in Illinois he was soon to demonstrate the skill with which he could wield an axe, putting it to good use by clearing the trees and laying the fence on his father’s new farm; the speed with which he could take tree trunks and split them into the rails needed for the fencing just by using his axe earned him the nickname “rail-splitter.” He could make an axe flash and bite deep; one neighbor saying “He could sink an axe deeper into wood than any man I ever saw.” After a good deal of chopping, he could take the axe by its handle and hold it straight out away from his body, without a single quiver. (Sandburg, pg. 14) Good-natured as well, he would make friends easily, despite his awkward-looking stride and backwoods language.
[[Image:Lincoln hair.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Fearing that his friends wouldn't recognize him "without a bad tousle", Lincoln messed his hair up in this picture before the photographer closed the shutter.]]
Soon, he signed on as a deckhand on a flatboat, and made a voyage down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. When he returned he settled in a small town on the Sangamon River called New Salem, working as a store keeper, surveyor, or a postmaster, the later of which allowed him to be the first to read the arriving newspapers. Then talk went about town of Lincoln’s utter honesty, how he would walk six miles to return a few cents to a customer he had accidentally overcharged, or the woman that had bought some tea, and having used the wrong weight for the purchase, Lincoln made the correction and walked the many miles to her house to ensure she got the right order (Sandburg, pp 24-25).

In 1832 he enlisted in the Black Hawk War, and was elected captain of his company, but the only fighting he admitted seeing action in was the “many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes.” After he was mustered out of his company, he aspired for the state legislature, losing the contest the first time he ran, then getting elected and re-elected several times afterward. He had briefly thought about practicing the trade of blacksmithing, but his craving of reading led him to law books, which caused some serious studying. Lincoln passed the bar in 1836, and began a new career practicing law.

===Insulting letters===

In the early 1840s, Lincoln had a habit of writing critical letters that skewered his political opponents unmercifully. In 1842, after the default of the state bank, Lincoln wrote a letter to the editor of the ''Sangamo Journal'' about Illinois' governor, treasurer and auditor's refusal to accept the state's own paper money for payment of debts. The letter directly attacked James Shields, the state auditor, who then challenged Lincoln to a duel. After taking lessons in swordsmanship, Lincoln met Shields on September 22, 1842 on a Missouri sandbar. Two mutual friends rushed to the scene and talked the two combatants into cancelling the duel.<ref>[http://www.historynet.com/abraham-lincoln-prepares-to-fight-a-saber-duel.htm Abraham Lincoln prepares to fight a saber duel]</ref>

==Springfield==
The following year he moved to the new state capital of Illinois, Springfield, becoming law partners with John T. Stuart, Stephan T. Logan, and finally William H. Herndon in 1844, who, although junior in age to Lincoln by a decade, made a good, balanced partner. Few records exist of their law business, and when they got paid for their services they split the cash, no matter who was paid. Lincoln would earn $1,200 - $1,500 annually within just a few years; by comparison circuit judges earned $750. But to earn it he kept busy and worked hard; often he would climb into his buggy and travel the circuit of neighboring counties and practice before the courts there. And often the cases he would be involved in were petty

Years before he had tried, and failed, to push legislation through the state assembly to have the Sangamon River made navigable to New Salem; by 1850 the railroads were bringing business and prosperity to Illinois, and Lincoln, by virtue of the ease the railroad made in traveling to his courts, profited more. He had served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad, enabling it to get a state charter; he would defend the company against McClean County’s unsuccessful efforts to tax it. He handles cases for other railroads, banks, manufacturing, and other large companies in the state; he handled some patent suits and a few criminal trials. And he also saved the first bridge to cross the Mississippi River from demolition, when river interests demanded the bridge be taken down.

===The moonlight murder===
In Lincoln’s New Salem days he was introduced to the Clary’s Grove Boys, a group of rowdy men from a nearby town who came into New Salem to bully some of the townsmen. The leader of the group was Jack Armstrong, whose challenge to wrestle the New Salem men usually resulted in Armstrong quickly throwing the unfortunate man to the ground. When he saw Lincoln, Armstrong dismissed the lanky young man as a pushover. When they fought, neither man was able to throw the other. The battle ended in a draw, and the good-natured Lincoln made a new friend. Armstrong would later be one of the men to elect Lincoln to lead the company of volunteers in the Black Hawk War.<ref>[http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=32&subjectID=2 Jack Armstrong]</ref>

In 1856, Jack Armstrong’s son, William (or "Duff"), was charged with murder. A witness claimed he had seen Duff and another kill a New Salem man late at night by the light of full moon. Lincoln pulled out an almanac and proved that the witness could not have seen anything at all, as the moon was at its quarter and had actually set over an hour before. Duff was acquitted, and Lincoln won the case.<ref>[http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=32&subjectID=2 Jack Armstrong]</ref>

==Politics==
[[Andrew Jackson]], the hero of New Orleans in the [[War of 1812]] and a Democrat from Tennessee, was in the White House when Lincoln first entered politics. He shared with Jackson the sympathies for the common man, but differed in the role of government as related to it; Jackson stated the government should be separated from the economic enterprise, while Lincoln was of the view that “the legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.” Lincoln most associated himself with the Whig Party, as among their members Henry Clay and Daniel Webster both advocated a government should be encouraging business, and the development of the country to that end. It was an easy choice for Lincoln: he saw Illinois as needing such aid to improve the development of its own economy.

In the Illinois State Legislature Lincoln found that politics could be detrimental and harsh, as well as rewarding. An example of the former occurred in 1836, just as he gave a speech in support of his re-election. Democrat John Forquer, also seeking election, used his response and acid tounge to denounce him. "This young man needs to be taken down" he said, pointing to Lincoln, "and I'm afraid the task devolves upon me." The success of Forquer's speech convinced some of Lincoln's own allies that his career was over.

But when Lincoln rose to make his rebuttal, he thought of Forquer, and what he had done recently in conniving with President Jackson to change parties; in reward for doing so he was made Government Land Register with a $3,000 annual salary. Forquer was then able to construct a fine new house in Springfield, complete with a curiosity residents had heard about from science but had never seen before: a lightning rod. Before he entered the state house building that day, Lincoln spent a few minutes at Forquer's house staring at the thing, and having heard Forquer's speech later on, he thought of what he saw. Lincoln's reply was blistering, and sealed Forquer's fate.

:''"Among other things he said, the gentleman commenced his speech by saying that 'this young man,' alluding to me, 'must be taken down.' I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and the trades of a politician, but, live long or die young, I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, change my politics, and with the change receive an office worth $3,000 a year, and then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God!"'' (Sandburg, pg.49)

Lincoln also proposed state funding to construct a network of roads, railroads, and canals. Both Whigs and Democrats would join in for the passing of this omnibus bill, but a business depression was created by the [[panic of 1837]], and as a result most of the provisions in the bill were abandoned. 1837 was also marked by the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, a newspaperman from Alton who was killed by a mob due to his anti-slavery views. The legislature introduced resolutions defending Southern slavery while condemning abolitionist societies, as per the U.S. Constitution. In protest of the resolutions Lincoln, with a fellow legislator, drew up a declaration which stated that slavery was “founded on both injustice and bad policy,” while also declaring that “the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.”
[[Image:Lawyer Lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Lincoln in the late 1850's, about to debate his rival Stephen A. Douglas.]]
He only served one term in the United States Congress, 1847 to 1849, during which time he did little on legislative matters. He did introduce a bill calling for a gradual emancipation of slaves within the District of Columbia, but since it hinged on the approval of the white citizens there, it only caused mild anger from abolitionists as well as slave holders, and was quietly dropped. His one main issue was over the Mexican War, in which he condemned the American entry into it on false pretenses, particularly blaming current president James K. Polk. He worked toward the nomination of Zachary Taylor for the presidency, and when Taylor had won, Lincoln expected to be rewarded with the job of land commissioner, but failed. He was voted out of office by his constituents, as they felt he was too critical of the war. Disillusioned, he left politics and reentered his law practice.

==Return to politics==
He stayed out for five years, winning several cases before the courts, then in 1854 he had read in the papers that Stephan A. Douglas, his political rival and Democratic senator from Illinois, had placed before Congress a bill which would reopen the territory of the Louisiana Purchase to slavery, as well as allow settlers in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to vote for themselves whether or not they wanted it, a concept which was called “[[popular sovereignty]]” by Douglas. The resulting [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]] would do nothing more than provoke violent opposition; a border war would result between Kansas and Missouri as both pro and anti-slavery forces would cause much bloodshed; and voters in the Old Northwest, Illinois among them, would react vehemently against it, resulting in the destruction of the Whigs as a political party, and the birth of the Republicans, of which Lincoln quickly became a member.<ref>Yervand Kochar. [http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/i_am_a_lincoln_republican_1.html I Am a Lincoln Republican], ''American Thinker'', November 14, 2009.</ref> The [[Dred Scott]] decision of 1856, in which a black man who sued for his freedom only to be told that he was never a citizen and had to remain a slave, only added more fuel to the fire, as the states were aligning slave versus free, North versus South.

As the leading member of the Republican Party in Illinois, Lincoln was nominated for the Senate seat held by Douglas at the Republican State Convention in Springfield on June 16, 1858. The acceptance speech he gave has been called the [[Lincoln's "House Divided" Speech|House Divided]] speech, after the opening lines, which were based upon Matthew 12:25:

:''If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.''<ref>[http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/divided.htm "House Divided" Speech], ''The History Place'', June 16, 1858.</ref>

August through October, 1858 saw seven Illinois towns witnessing the [[Lincoln-Douglas debates]]; Douglas the national figure defending the choice of voters whether to accept slavery or not, and the little-known Lincoln taking a stand against slavery on political, social, and moral grounds. Douglas never wavered from defending popular sovereignty, and he also played on the voters' fears of [[black integration]]. Stating blacks were inferior to whites, he appealed to racists by declaring that the government was "established upon the white basis. It was made by white men, for the benefit of white men." (TL 1, pg 106). Lincoln on the other hand knew Douglas was in a war of his own with President [[James Buchanan]]'s administration over acceptance of the Kansas constitution which barred slavery from the state, further alienating Southern Democratic support; the fear was that Douglas would be more appealing to moderate Republicans in the east. Lincoln's strategy therefore was to point out and use the vast difference between the moral indifference to slavery as embodied by Douglas's popular sovereignty, and the moral wrong that slavery actually was as embodied by Republican opposition to it. Douglas was, Lincoln insisted, a man who did not care whether slavery was "voted up or voted down." By his last debate, Lincoln would narrow the differences between himself and Douglas as the basic principle of right and wrong.

:''"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the [[divine right of kings]]. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."''

Douglas for his part knew how formidable his foe was, and declared that if he won, “it would be a hollow victory.” He did win, retaining his Senate seat, but by a narrow margin.

==The 1860 Election==
[[Image:Lincoln and beard.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Soon after his election, a little girl named Grace Bedell wrote to Lincoln, telling him his face would be softened by the addition of a beard; here he just started on her advice.]]
:''My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.'' Lincoln's Farewell Speech to the citizens of Springfield, February 11, 1861.

On May 18, 1860 at the Republican National Convention held in Chicago, Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot. He then set aside his law practice and gave full time to the direction of his campaign, with the object of first uniting the Republicans from anything with which the party could disagree over. The Democrats were already divided, having nominated Douglas in Baltimore on the Northern platform of popular sovereignty, and John C. Breckenridge who was elected on a platform of states’ rights and slavery by Southern Democrats. Lincoln won the [[United States presidential election of 1860]], winning a clear majority in popular votes as well as electoral votes, despite winning no votes in the South.
==Presidency==
For the social, political, economic and diplomatic history see [[American Civil War homefront]]

The state of South Carolina proclaimed its secession from the Union in December, 1860, soon after Lincoln’s victory. To try to prevent other states from following, compromises were hurriedly pushed through Congress, one of which, the [[Corwin Amendment]], guaranteed the existence of slavery in perpetuity where it already existed. The failed [[Crittenden Compromise]] would have gone even further and permanently divided the territories between slave and free. Lincoln publicly supported the Corwin Amendment, believing that it was already implicit in the Constitution; however, he opposed the Crittenden Compromise because it would have given slavery additional protections beyond what the Constitution already gave it. Despite these attempted compromises, six more states seceded and joined with South Carolina to form the [[Confederate States of America]].

A crisis was thus forced upon Lincoln before he even entered the White House. The Confederacy claimed [[Fort Sumter]], in South Carolina’s [[Charleston]] Harbor, and ordered its commander, Major [[Robert Anderson]] to turn it over. He refused. Lincoln, still in Springfield, asked [[Winfield Scott]], general in chief of the U.S. Army, to be prepared “to either hold, or retake, the forts, as the case may require, at, and after the inauguration.”

On the 4th of March, 1861, a few weeks after [[Jefferson Davis]] was inaugurated as president of the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the nation's 16th president. In his address he reiterated his stance: to not interfere with slavery where it existed, to prevent slavery from spreading in the territories, but above all to preserve the Union. The substance of what he said was conciliatory, but it also mentioned the obvious

{{quotebox|In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. 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.<ref>Historical Document. [http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/lincoln_address1.html Lincoln's First Inaugural Address], ''PBS'', March 4, 1861.</ref>}}

However, communications between the fort and Charleston broke down, and Confederate general [[P.G.T. Beauregard]], believing Fort Sumter had a supply ship on the way, ordered the fort shelled on April 14, 1865. The Civil War had begun.

==Civil War==

[[File:Abraham Lincoln 1863 LOC.jpg|thumb|240px|left|Abraham Lincoln at the front.]]
Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union; he would have been happy to preserve the peace as well, but he was willing to engage in a war to preserve it as well, a war he thought would be short. After Fort Sumter he proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports and called for thousands of volunteers to enlist for ninety days. He also believed that an overland war was inevitable, and he ordered forces on a march on the Virginia front, resulting in the first great defeat for the Union at [[Bull Run]] (July 21, 1861). Shortly afterward, Lincoln issued a set of memoranda for the military, of which his basic thought was that armies in the field must advance concurrently and on several fronts.

<br>
<blockquote>
''“I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered. Or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me.” ''

– Abraham Lincoln, 1862.
</blockquote>

Finding himself as the leader of a country now at war, Lincoln used a description of himself in which he let events control him, and then react to the problem. It was something of himself that was used with success as a politician. In this sense he was being practical, ready to employ an action or decision which would help the cause, and ready to abandon it and use another if the first failed. But his first insight with which he held fast to, that of taking the fight to the enemy’s army, failed many times when successive generals tried to take the fight to the enemy’s capitol and failed, or failed in following up on a rare victory. He had [[George McClellan]] on the Peninsula, but was beaten back during the Seven Days battles. His replacement, [[John Pope]], lost in a repeat of Bull Run. McClellan was back again, winning a victory at [[Antietam]], but failed to follow through in capturing the enemy’s army afterwards. Then [[Ambrose Burnside]], followed by [[Joseph Hooker]], led the [[Army of the Potomac]] to massive defeats at [[Fredericksburg]] and [[Chancellorsville]], respectively. Then [[George Gordon Meade]] was put in, just in time for the [[Battle of Gettysburg]]; Meade would not finish off the enemy either. [[Robert E. Lee]], the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commented on the frequent changes in generals. “I’m afraid they’re going to find a general I cannot understand.”

Having seen what he done at [[Donelson]], [[Shiloh]], [[Vicksburg]], and [[Chattanooga]], Lincoln found the fighting general he was looking for in [[Ulysses S. Grant]]. In March 1864 he promoted Grant to lieutenant general and gave him command of all Federal armies. Grant would have his headquarters in the field with Meade’s Army of the Potomac, and his subordinates William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George H. Thomas would each lead an army to take the fight to the enemy. Halleck would be given a new title, chief of staff, and remain in Washington as the presidential liaison. Secretary of War [[Edwin M. Stanton]] would be responsible for the procurement of men and supplies. By this reorganization Lincoln created the structure of the high command in which all the energies of and resources of the country were mobilized into a grand strategy for the completion of the war. It was all the more remarkable as prior to 1861, he had no knowledge of military theory or affairs; he threw himself into studying the subject that by 1864, he was considered to be something of a military genius.

==Personal life==

Ann Rutledge played a part in stories as being the first woman Lincoln may have fallen in love with. However, evidence is scant, and what surviving letters and documents there are indicate they were close friends. She died in 1835 at the age of 22, and the entire community grieved with Lincoln.
[[Image:Lincoln and tad.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The irrepressible Tad Lincoln, striking a typical pose next to his father, who could barely restrain a smile.]]
The one true love of Lincoln’s life was a well-educated woman with a quick wit, [[Mary Todd]], from a well-to-do family in Springfield. Lincoln endured a courtship that lasted two years (and was broken once), before they were married on November 4, 1842. Together they would have four boys: Robert Todd, Edward Baker (“Eddie”, who died at age 4), William Wallace (“Willie”), and Thomas (“Tad”). Willie and Tad were the first children in the White House, and the halls and gardens were filled with childish romps, especially from the rambunctious, uncontrollable Tad, who once took a group of office seekers there to see the president on a trip through a confusing maze of hanging laundry; drove a herd of goats inside; got into the attic and rang the servants’ bells for hours; and succeeded in getting his doll executed for sleeping on watch.
[[Image:Mary Todd Lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|Mary Todd Lincoln]]
The Lincolns also had their share of quarrels, and stories passed through the years tended to exaggerate them, but existing letters between the two indicate they were like any other married couple. They were devoted to each other’s company, and when apart they missed each other. "I have fallen in love with her," Lincoln would write to a friend about Mary, "and have never fallen out." Mary did have fits of temper and a sense of insecurity; while in the White House she had spells of simple jealousy which she staged in front of guests; sometimes the scene would be quite embarrassing. She also rang up large bills for her personal wardrobe and redecorating the White House; Lincoln, when he found out one such bill which totaled near $20,000 and coupled with a request for Congress to appropriate the money needed to pay for it, displayed a rare occurrence of pure anger:

:''"It would stink in the nostrils of the American people to have it said the President of the United States had approved a bill overrunning an appropriation of $20,000 for flub dubs, for this damned old house, when the soldiers cannot have blankets!"'' [http://www.historyswomen.com/1stWomen/marytoddlincoln.htm]

The early deaths of Eddie in 1850 and Willie in 1863 may have played a role in Mary’s eccentricity. Lincoln did what he could to support her, even pointing out the presence of a nearby building which housed a sanitarium, hinting that Mary could be placed there if she didn't control herself over Willie's death.

==On slavery==
In 1841, Lincoln had a flatboat trip down the Mississippi, and he saw sitting on board another boat a group of slaves chained together. He described the sight in a letter to Joshua Speed in 1855: “You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.”

Though a gradualist, Lincoln hated slavery. “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself,” he declared. “I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites.” Lincoln often penned fragments on slavery. He would begin it by starting a hypothetical vested interest in slavery, and end it with the only logical conclusion, that is was a great moral wrong.

:''If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?''

:''You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.''

:''You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.''

:''But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest; you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.'' (Fragment on Slavery, April, 1854)

Lincoln was elected on a platform which pledged no interference with slavery where it had already existed, and he was hesitant to adopt an abolitionist policy. He was concerned about the reaction of the border states should such a policy be enacted. He was concerned about four million newly-freed blacks being incorporated into the country’s social, economic, and political life. Some individuals, such as General John C. Freemont, made it a point to proclaim freedom in districts which they had conquered; Lincoln revoked those proclamations. In a letter to Horace Greely, Lincoln plainly stated
:''"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."''

Lincoln was willing to play a major part in removing slavery altogether during the war. He first proposed an idea in which slaves were to be freed gradually by the actions of the states, with the federal government sharing the cost of compensation. None of the border states were willing to implement it, and no prominent African-American leader was willing to see newly-freed blacks sent to Africa, as part of the idea called for.

But with the victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln brought out an idea which he read before his cabinet, that slaves held in the Confederate States were declared to be free. He would declare it formally with his [[Emancipation Proclamation]] on January 1, 1863. Although it did not include those areas under Union control, and officially it was a war measure, it had a great deal of significance as a symbol, and European countries who had toyed with the idea of recognizing the Confederacy abandoned it and supported the Union.

Lincoln also felt that the freed slaves would be put back in chains at war's end, as the Proclamation itself was not constitutional. But Lincoln was prepared for something else: he drafted the [[Thirteenth Amendment]] to the Constitution, which stated slavery was illegal except for crimes committed. He also urged the Republican Party to add the proposed amendment as a plank to the 1864 presidential campaign, stating slavery was the cause of the war, and that the Proclamation had aimed “a death blow at this gigantic evil;” only by a constitutional amendment could slavery be rendered extinct. After the election, Lincoln did not wait for the new Congress. He got the two-thirds needed for ratification before the year was over, and rejoiced when his state of Illinois led the way.

:''"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."'' Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

==Religion==
Abraham Lincoln, like many other people of his day, believed, at least initially, that "Religion is a private affair between a man and his God." Doubts about Lincoln's faith have arisen mainly because he never officially joined a church, which his political opponents used sometimes to accuse him. He had a love of the Bible and memorized parts of the Bible, and used biblical allusions later on in political speech. Lincoln said once that:
''"I doubt the possibility or propriety of settling the religion of Jesus Christ in the models of man-made [[creed]]s and [[dogma]]s. I cannot without mental reservations assent to long and complicated creeds and [[catechism]]s."''

He also said on another occasion:
:''"That I am not a member of any [[Christian church]] is true, but I have never denied the truth of the [[Scriptures]], and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general or of any [[denomination]] of Christians in particular."''

He also made statements that suggest a strong faith, such as when his father was ill:
:''"Tell father to remember to call upon and confide in our great, and good, and merciful Maker who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow and numbers the hairs of our heads; and he will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in him. If it is to be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before; and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them."''

As a supporter of the Christian religion and who recognized its beneficial effects, Lincoln stated to a Methodist delegation,

:''"Nobly sustained, as the Government has been, by all the churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet without this, it may fairly be said, that the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is by its greatest numbers the most important of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven than--any other. God bless the Methodist Church Bless all the churches; and blessed be God, who in this our great trial giveth us the churches."''<ref>[http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/american-authors/19th-century/abraham-lincoln/the-writings-of-abraham-lincoln-07/ebook-page-41.aspAbraham Lincoln, "The Writings of Abraham Lincoln"] VO7, p. 41</ref>

Regardless of Lincoln's views on faith as a youth, it seemed to grow as President. Lincoln penciled in "under God" after "one nation" for his [[Gettysburg Address]] delivered on November 19, 1863. The phrase "under God" was not in the early drafts. Mrs. Lincoln recalled her husband's last words just prior to his assassination in Ford's Theater: "He said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the [[Savior]]. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem."<ref>http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-09-08&view=View</ref>

In 1864, a close friend of Lincoln's, Joshua Speed, confided in Lincoln that he did not accept the Bible as true. Lincoln famously replied, "Take all this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man".
After Lincoln was shot at Ford's theater two clergy claimed that he had made a secret trip from Washington to be baptized. Also a Roman Catholic Priest claimed that Lincoln received the sacrament of baptism in secret. Neither of these claims have any proof in White House records or his personal diary.<ref> [[God and the Oval Office]], by John C. McCollister, W Publishing, 2005. </ref>

==Lincoln's conservatism==
In his [[Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech|Cooper Union Address]], Lincoln spoke of the sectionalism which was fracturing the country as a result of slavery; the Republican Party was new in 1859, and a serious threat to slavery's existence. Lincoln and his party were called radical and destructive, but he counted himself among the earliest defenders of conservative principles, which was in essence a defense of time-honored, traditional values. Lincoln said that out of the 39 framers of the Constitution, 23 of the 39 voted on whether to prevent the spread of slavery, and that 21 of the 23 voted in favor of doing so. Lincoln therefore said that it was the pro-slavery South that was radically breaking with the tradition begun by those that created the Constitution. As Lincoln said:

:''But you say you are conservative - eminently conservative - while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by "our fathers who framed the Government under which we live;" while you with one accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You are divided on new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of the fathers. Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave trade; some for a Congressional Slave-Code for the Territories; some for Congress forbidding the Territories to prohibit Slavery within their limits; some for maintaining Slavery in the Territories through the judiciary; some for the "gur-reat pur-rinciple" that "if one man would enslave another, no third man should object," fantastically called "Popular Sovereignty;" but never a man among you is in favor of federal prohibition of slavery in federal territories, according to the practice of "our fathers who framed the Government under which we live.''

==Lincoln's style of writing==
[[Image:Lincoln seated.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Lincoln in November, 1863, about to leave for Pennsylvania. The reason for his confident look may have been within the envelope lying on the table, believed to contain his draft of the Gettysburg Address]]
A White House visitor, Orville Browning, told Lincoln's personal secretary John Nicolay one day that he had spoke to Lincoln sometime in 1861 on the subject of slavery; that if the right thing about slavery wasn't done, God just couldn't be on the side of the Union. Browning remembered Lincoln's reply: "What if the Almighty takes a different view of slavery than we do?", and right then and there Browning realized that Lincoln had thought very deeply on the subject, much deeper than Browning did.<ref>Douglas L. Wilson. [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/books/wilson.htm Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words], ''Lincoln's Sword''.</ref>

Lincoln was known to think long and deeply on various topics, and often he would take notes, write them on little scraps of paper, and stuff them into his tall stovepipe hat for later use. When it was time for use, such as his "House Divided" speech, he pulled them out, laid them on a table, and would commence to writing. He would sift through the subject, adding this, removing that, and sometimes he would stand in his empty room and deliver it out loud to an imaginary audience, testing the effects of what he spoke, and altering it as needed. According to author Garry Wills, Lincoln brought to bear the rhetorical tone of the Greek Revival and Transcendental movements, in which spoken oratory was practiced in government and on the stage. The leading speakers of this time, and whom Lincoln looked upon, were Danial Webster and Henry Clay, both of the Senate, and Edward Everett, a speaker much in demand.

The training he had given himself also enabled him to write a simple letter or a speech on the spot. Words would flow clear when Lincoln wrote in his later years, and he didn't have to do twice one of his finest personal letters, one of consolation to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in the war.

:''Executive Mansion,''
:''Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.''

:''Dear Madam,''

:''I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.''
:''I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.''
:''I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.''

:''Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,''

:''A. Lincoln''

What many consider his masterpiece is the [[Gettysburg Address]]. Here Lincoln, going through perhaps a dozen writes and re-writes of what he had thought on the subject, entirely changed the meaning of the war itself in a mere 272 words, and in so doing, according to Wills, remaking America.

==Politics in war==
That there had to be a certain degree of support to win the war was a given, and Lincoln strove to have unity for that effort in the North. Politics was required, and Lincoln had a special knack for appealing to his fellows and talking to them at their own level and language. He would smooth over lingering differences, and held the loyalty of those who were antagonistic to one another.

But the Democrats remained strong, and frequently clashed. Its member included both war and peace Democrats; the peace side was called “Copperheads”, after the snake which strikes without warning while hidden. Lincoln tried conciliating with both, but with the latter he had to resort to arrest at times, most famously to an Ohio Congressman, Clement L. Valandigham, who was arrested after he had repeatedly exhorted soldiers to desert. He justified his actions on the grounds that the suspension of ''habeas corpus'' was necessary only in times of rebellion, insurrection, or when the public safety may require it, as stated in the Constitution; certainly the Civil War had met those specific conditions. Many would dissent, and openly criticize Lincoln for arbitrarily violating the Constitution that he had sworn to preserve. In response to the criticism in general, and the case of Valandigham in particular, Lincoln wrote:
:''"Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working upon his feeling, till he is persuaded to write the soldier boy, that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptable government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but, withal, a great mercy."''<ref>[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;type=boolean;rgn=div1;q1=soldier;op2=and;q2=deserts;op3=and;q3=agitator;singlegenre=All;view=text;subview=detail;sort=occur;idno=lincoln6;node=lincoln6%3A569 Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 6.], Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.</ref>
Lincoln faced reelection against Democrat George McClellan in 1864, who promised a restoration of the Union, but waffled on many of its points, even abandoning the Democratic platform of armistice and peaceful separation. Lincoln was able to beat him in the election, assisted by the timely victories of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and Sherman in Georgia. Overtures of peace from Confederates were not wholly rejected. On February 3, 1865, Lincoln met with Confederate commissioners, among them Vice President Alexander Stephens, on a steamship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There would be peace, he insisted, if the South would quit the war, abandon slavery, and accept re-unification, and once these conditions were met he would be gracious with pardons. But his terms satisfied neither the Confederacy nor the Radical Republicans in Congress.

His postwar policy was one of compassion. As he explained to his top leaders on board a riverboat, the City Queen, he wanted peace above all else. His Second Inaugural Address expressed his point of healing the wounds caused by the war.
:''With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."''

When asked specifically, he related the following, according to General Sherman, one of those present:
:''Mr. Lincoln was full and frank in his conversation, assuring me that in his mind he was all ready for the civil reorganization of affairs at the South as soon as the war was over; and he distinctly authorized me to assure Governor Vance and the people of North Carolina that, as soon as the rebel armies laid down their arms, and resumed their civil pursuits, they would at once be guaranteed all their rights as citizens of a common country; and that to avoid anarchy the State governments then in existence, with their civil functionaries, would be recognized by him as the government de facto till Congress could provide others.''
:''I know, when I left him, that I was more than ever impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy with the afflictions of the whole people, resulting from the war, and by the march of hostile armies through the South; and that his earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily, without more bloodshed or devastation, and to restore all the men of both sections to their homes. In the language of his second inaugural address, he seemed to have "charity for all, malice toward none," and, above all, an absolute faith in the courage, manliness, and integrity of the armies in the field.''<ref>[http://www.sonshi.com/sherman24.html General William T. Sherman "Memoirs"], Volume 2, Chapter XXIV, April and May, 1865.</ref>

==Final curtain==

''See also: [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln]]''<br />

Lincoln received the news of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, and he was called out to the balcony of the White House that night by a large crowd gathered in celebration. When asked to make a speech, Lincoln noticed a band among them, and made an unusual request.
:''"I have always thought ‘Dixie’ one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted that we fairly captured it. I presented it to the Attorney General, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. I now request the band to favor me with its performance."''
He entered Richmond the following day, to the joyous delight of free blacks, who welcomed the arrival of "Father Abraham" as they called him, and he paid a visit to the Confederate White House, and sat at the desk of Jefferson Davis. The only thing he asked for was a glass of water.

Just four days later on April 14 he attended a play at Ford's Theater. It was called ''Our American Cousin'', with well-known stage actress Laura Keane and comedian Harry Hawke in the title role. Unseen to the audience was another actor making his way quietly up the stairs to the president's private box, [[John Wilkes Booth]], a Southern sympathizer who had hatched a conspiracy with a few others to kill the president and other leading officials. Booth entered the box, shot Lincoln in the head, stabbed a guest, and dropped to the stage, escaping behind the curtains. Taken across the street to a boarding house, the mortally-wounded Lincoln was laid across a small bed in humble surroundings, similar it seemed, to where he was born. He died at sunrise a few hours later.

"Now he belongs to the ages" Edwin Stanton was heard to say.

<blockquote>
''Dying as he did die, by the red hand of violence, killed, assassinated, taken off without warning, not because of personal hate…but because of his fidelity to union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and his memory will be precious forever.'' [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html]
</blockquote>

==Quotes==
* "A friend is a man who has the same enemies you have." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=HgM4tztnJFcC&pg=PA275&dq=lincoln+A+friend+is+man+who+has+the+same+enemies+you+have&ei=lV4fSuv8N5TyzQS1yq21Dw Civilization's quotations P.275] by Richard Alan Krieger</ref>

* "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it" <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=_-WNU7VapFAC&pg=PA187&dq=Those+who+deny+freedom+to+others+deserve+it+not+for+themselves&ei=NBA8SsSUCp-EzATw0cW6BQ Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America‎ - Page 187] by Chuck Norris</ref>

* "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=Mc-aRv_xCpMC&pg=PA11&dq=Nearly+all+men+can+stand+adversity,+but+if+you+want+to+test+a+man%27s+character,+give+him+power&ei=jJFBSo7nHZbozATAipVi Law school 101: survival techniques from pre-law to being an attorney‎ - Page 11] by R. Stephanie Good</ref>

==Basic Further reading==
* Carwardine, Richard. ''Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power'' (2003), sophisticated biography emphasizing religion and politics [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Purpose-Power-Richard-Carwardine/dp/1400096022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336315&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
*Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln'', (1995), by a conservative historian; the best scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-David-Herbert-Donald/dp/068482535X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336403&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Gienapp, William E. ''Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography'' (2002), short bio by scholar; stress on politics [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Civil-War-America/dp/0195151003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336352&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]; also [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103538783 online edition]
*Goodwin, Doris Kearns. ''Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'', (2005) well written popular narrative of Lincoln and his cabinet
* McPherson, James. ''Abraham Lincoln'' (2009), 96pp; very short overview by leading expert [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-James-M-McPherson/dp/0195374525/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249335698&sr=1-6 excerpt and text search]
* Neely, Mark E. ''The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia'' (1984), detailed articles on many men and movements associated with AL
* Thomas, Benjamin P. ''Abraham Lincoln: A Biography'' (1952; 2nd ed. 2008) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=25051697 online edition], very well written biography by leading scholar
*White, Ronald C. Jr. ''The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words'', (2005)
* White, A. Ronald C. ''A. Lincoln: A Biography'' (2009), good recent biography [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Biography-Ronald-White-Jr/dp/1400064996/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249335698&sr=1-7 excerpt and text search]
* Wilentz, Sean. "Who Lincoln Was" ''New Republic'' (July 15, 2009) leading scholar rips apart liberal distortions [http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=2634954a-b287-480e-9fbd-8a4663174031 online edition]
===For children===
* Stone, Tanya. ''Abraham Lincoln'' (DK Biography, 2005) [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Biography-Tanya-Stone/dp/0756608341/ref=pd_ts_b_12?ie=UTF8&s=books excerpt and text search]
*Nathanson, Jake, "Famous Gay Americans: Abraham Lincoln," (Regnery Publishers, 2004).

== Bibliography ==
=== Biographies ===
* Beveridge, Albert J. ''Abraham Lincoln: 1809-1858'' (1928). 2 vol. to 1858; notable for strong, unbiased political coverage [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3925146 online edition]
* Burlingame, Michael. "Abraham Lincoln: A Life" (2008), 2v 2024 pp, the most highly detailed scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Life-Michael-Burlingame/dp/0801889936/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336108&sr=1-18 excerpt and text search]
* Carwardine, Richard. ''Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power'' (2003), sophisticated biography emphasizing religion and politics [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Purpose-Power-Richard-Carwardine/dp/1400096022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336315&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
*Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln'', (1995), by a conservative historian; the best scholarly biography [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-David-Herbert-Donald/dp/068482535X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336403&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search];
* Guelzo, Allen C. ''Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99466893 online edition], conservative religious approach
* Harris William C. ''Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency'' (2007) conservative author argues Lincoln was basically conservative [http://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Rise-Presidency-William-Harris/dp/0700615202/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164706&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Nicolay, John George and John Hay. ''Abraham Lincoln: a History'' (1890); online at [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6812 Volume 1] and [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11708 Volume 2] [http://books.google.com/books?id=bDEOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:nicolay+inauthor:hay&num=30&as_brr=1#PPP19,M1 vol 6] 10 volumes in all; highly detailed narrative of era written by Lincoln's top aides
* Luthin, Reinhard H. ''The Real Abraham Lincoln'' (1960), emphasis on politics
* Neely, Mark E. ''The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia'' (1984), detailed articles on many men and movements associated with AL
* Neely, Mark E. ''The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America'' (1993), Pulitzer prize winning author
* Oates, Stephen B. ''With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln'' (1994) [http://www.amazon.com/Malice-Toward-None-Abraham-Lincoln/dp/0060924713/ref=pd_sim_b_img_7 excerpt and text search], good biography by liberal historian
* Randall, James G. ''Lincoln the President'' (4 vol., 1945–55; reprint 2000.) analytic biography by leading conservative scholar
** ''Mr. Lincoln'' excerpts ed. by Richard N. Current (1957) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5993790 online edition]
* Sandburg, Carl. ''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years'' (2 vol 1926); ''The War Years'' (4 vol 1939). Pulitzer Prize winning biography by famous liberal poet [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=82392773 vol. 1 online] [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97896367 vol 2 online]
* Thomas, Benjamin P. ''Abraham Lincoln: A Biography'' (1952; 2nd ed. 2008) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=25051697 online edition], very well written biography by leading scholar
* White, A. Ronald C. ''A. Lincoln: A Biography'' (2009), good recent biography [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Biography-Ronald-White-Jr/dp/1400064996/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249335698&sr=1-7 excerpt and text search]

=== Specialty topics ===
===Prewar===
* Angle, Paul M., ''Here I Have Lived: A History of Lincoln's Springfield, 1821-1865,'' (1935) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=210869 online edition]
* Baker, Jean H. ''Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography'' (1987) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102075782 online edition]
* Boritt, Gabor S. ''Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream'' (1994). Lincoln's economic theory and policies, by conservative historian
* Fehrenbacher, Don E. "The Origins and Purpose of Lincoln's "House-Divided" Speech," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 46, No. 4. (Mar., 1960), pp. 615-643. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28196003%2946%3A4%3C615%3ATOAPOL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I in JSTOR]
* Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War'' (1970) intellectual history of different prewar faction's in AL's party
* Holzer, Harold. ''Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President'' (2004). [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Cooper-Union-President-Schuster/dp/0743299647/ref=pd_sim_b_img_44 excerpt and text search]
* Jaffa, Harry V. ''A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War'' (2000) by leading conservative
* Jaffa, Harry V. ''Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates'' (1999) [http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-House-Divided-Interpretation-Lincoln-Douglas/dp/0226391132/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196166006&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search] by leading conservative
* Nevins, Allan. ''Ordeal of the Union'' 8-volume (1947-1971). 1. Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852; 2. A House Dividing, 1852-1857; 3. Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos, 1857-1859. most thorough coverage of the era, with Lincoln at center
* Schneider, Thomas E. ''Lincoln's Defense of Politics: The Public Man and His Opponents in the Crisis over Slavery.'' (2006). 224 pp.

===Wartime===
===Lincoln Administration===
* Burton, Orville Vernon. ''The Age of Lincoln'' (2007), sweeping history from 1840 to 1900. [http://www.amazon.com/Age-Lincoln-Orville-Vernon-Burton/dp/0809095130/ref=pd_bbs_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196112530&sr=8-9 excerpt and text search]
* Carwardine, Richard. "Abraham Lincoln and the Fourth Estate: the White House and the Press During the American Civil War." ''American Nineteenth Century History'' 2006 7(1): 1-27. Issn: 1466-4658 Fulltext: Ebsco
* Ford, Lacy K., ed. ''A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction.'' Blackwell, 2005. 518 pp.
* Hendrick, Burton J. ''Lincoln's War Cabinet'' (1946) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=790159 online edition]
* Goodwin, Doris Kearns. ''Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'' (2005)
* McPherson, James M. ''Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era'' (1988). Pulitzer Prize winner surveys all aspects of the war [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=64327148 online edition]
* Marvel, William. ''Mr. Lincoln Goes to War'' (2006), neo-Confederate attack that blames Lincoln for defeating the Confederacy and freeing the slaves by stretching the Constitution
* Nevins, Allan. ''Ordeal of the Union'' 8-volume (1947-1971). vol 5. The Improvised War, 1861-1862; 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863; 7. The Organized War, 1863-1864; 8. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865; most thorough coverage of the era, with Lincoln at center
* Paludan, Phillip S. ''A People's Contest: The Union and Civil War 1861-1865'' (1996), outstanding history of the homefront [http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Contest-1861-1865-Modern-Studies/dp/0700608125/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336636&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Paludan, Phillip S. ''The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln'' (1994), thorough treatment of Lincoln's administration [http://www.amazon.com/Presidency-Abraham-Lincoln-American/dp/0700607455/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249336636&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Richardson, Heather Cox. ''The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War'' (1997)
* Williams, Kenneth P. ''Lincoln Finds a General: A Military Study of the Civil War'' (1959) 5 volumes on Lincoln's control of the war

===Lincolnia===
* Belz, Herman. ''Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, and Equal Rights in the Civil War Era'' (1998)
* Belz, Herman. "Lincoln's Construction of the Executive Power in the Secession Crisis," ''Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association'' 27.1 (2006):[http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/27.1/belz.html online edition]
* Boritt, Gabor S. ed. ''Lincoln the War President'' (1994)
* Briggs, John Channing. ''Lincoln's Speeches Reconsidered.'' (2005). 370 pp.
* Bruce, Robert V. ''Lincoln and the Tools of War'' (1956) on weapons development during the war [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=978110 online edition]
* DiLorenzo, Thomas. ''Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe'' (2007) poorly written diatribe by a neo-Confederate
* Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era'' (1960)
* Donald, David Herbert. ''We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends'' (2003), on Lincoln's friends and associates; by leading conservative scholar
* Goodwin, Doris Kearns. "'My Whole Soul Is in It.'" ''Smithsonian'' 2006 36(10): 48+ Fulltext: at Ebsco, essay on the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation
*Hanchett, William. ''The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies'', (1983)
* Harris, William C. ''With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union'' (1997). AL's plans for Reconstruction; by conservative historian
* Hofstadter, Richard. ''The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It'' (1948) ch 5: "Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth."
* McPherson, James M. ''Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution'' (1992) [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Second-American-Revolution/dp/0195076060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164807&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Neely, Mark E. ''The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties'' (1992). Pulitzer Prize winner. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=79055694 online version]; [http://www.amazon.com/Fate-Liberty-Abraham-Lincoln-Liberties/dp/0195080327/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164768&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Perret, Geoffrey. ''Lincoln's War: The Untold Story of America's Greatest President as Commander in Chief'' (2004). well-written but has many factual errors and questionable interpretations [http://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-War-Americas-President-Commander/dp/0375507388/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164840&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Polsky, Andrew J. "'Mr. Lincoln's Army' Revisited: Partisanship, Institutional Position, and Union Army Command, 1861–1865." ''Studies in American Political Development'' (2002), 16: 176-207
* Potter, David M. ''Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis'' (1942)
* Randall, James G. ''Lincoln the Liberal Statesman'' (1947).
* Schmitz, Neil. "Refiguring Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1832-1865," ''American Literary History'', Vol. 6, No. 1. (Spring, 1994), pp. 103-118 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0896-7148(199421)6%3A1%3C103%3ARLSAW1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4 in JSTOR]
* Striner, Richard. ''Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery.'' (2006). 295 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Father-Abraham-Lincolns-Relentless-Struggle/dp/0195325397/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164883&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* White Jr., Ronald C. ''Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural'' (2001) Pp. 234. [http://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Greatest-Speech-Second-Inaugural/dp/0743212991/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164921&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Williams, T. Harry. ''Lincoln and His Generals'' (1967).
* Wills, Garry. ''Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America'' (1993) [http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Gettysburg-America-Schuster-Library/dp/0743299639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196164981&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Wilson, Douglas L. ''Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln'' by (1999).
* Wilson, Douglas L. ''Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words'' (2007)
===Historiography and Memory===
* Boritt, Gabor S., ed. ''The Historian's Lincoln'' U. of Illinois Press, 1988, historiography [http://www.amazon.com/Historians-Lincoln-Pseudohistory-Psychohistory-History/dp/0252065441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196165019&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Braeman, John. "Albert J. Beveridge and Demythologizing Lincoln." ''Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association'' 2004 25(2): 1-24. Issn: 0898-4212 Fulltext: online in History Cooperative. Albert J. Beveridge (1862-1927), former US senator from Indiana began work on a multivolume biography of Abraham Lincoln in 1922. His goal was to demolish the myths surrounding Lincoln and present the facts. Beveridge tended to sympathize with the South and admire Stephen A. Douglas, as well as rely on information collected by William H. Herndon. But, he did more intense research on Lincoln's pre-presidential career than any previous biographer. Beveridge died as he reached 1858.
* Cross, Roland R. "Edgar Lee Masters's Peculiar Biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Vachel Lindsay." ''Journal of Illinois History'' 2004 7(4): 281-296. Issn: 1522-0532. The poet Edgar Lee Masters in 1931 wrote the only hostile biography of Lincoln; he debunks the "myth of Honest Abe." In Masters's view, Lincoln's actions as president was a corruption of true American ideals. The theme has occasionally resurfaced among neoconfederates and extreme libertarians who tolerate slavery but not strong government.
* Fields, Kevin. "Historiographical Trends and Interpretations of President Abraham Lincoln's Reputation and the Morality on the Slavery Question: Part I and II." ''Lincoln Herald'' Lincoln Herald 2004 106(4): 150-167 and 2005 107(1): 11-30. Issn: 0024-3671; Part 1 siscusses William Herndon, John Nicolay, and John Hay.; Part 2 notes the civil rights movement prompted historians to reevaluate Lincoln's attitude toward race and emancipation. Many continued to portray him as the pragmatic, essentially conservative, "reluctant emancipator." However, by the 1980s a postrevisionist consensus had emerged, which emphasized the evolution of Lincoln's attitudes and asserted that freedom for black slaves, and not merely the preservation of the Union, became one of his key objectives.
* McPherson, James M. "No Peace Without Victory, 1861-1865." ''American Historical Review'' 2004 109(1): Xvi, 1-18. Issn: 0002-8762 Fulltext: in History Cooperative and Ebsco.
* Peterson, Merrill D. ''Lincoln in American Memory'' (1994). how Lincoln was remembered after 1865
* Schwartz, Barry and Schuman, Howard. "History, Commemoration, and Belief: Abraham Lincoln in American Memory, 1945-2001." ''American Sociological Review'' 2005 70(2): 183-203. Issn: 0003-1224 Fulltext: in Ingenta
*Trefousse, Hans L. ''"First among Equals?" Abraham Lincoln's Reputation during His Administration.'' 2005. 199 pp.

=== Primary sources ===
* Basler, Roy P. ed. ''Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,'' 9 vol Rutgers Univ. Press 1953–55
* Basler, Roy P. ed. ''Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings, '' (1946) [http://www.questia.com/library/book/abraham-lincoln-his-speeches-and-writings-by-abraham-lincoln-roy-p-basler.jsp online edition]
* Lincoln, Abraham. ''Lincoln: Speeches and Writings'' 2 vol Library of America edition, 1989

===Memoirs and interviews===
* Chittenden, Lucius E., [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00587058&id=b-N27vdmIt4C&printsec=titlepage&dq=%22Recollections+of+President+Lincoln+and+His+Administration%22 ''Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration''], (1891). – [[Google Books]]
* Holzer, Harold, ed. ''Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President.'' (1993). 380 pp.
* Nicolay, John G. ed. ''Oral History of Abraham Lincoln: John G. Nicolay's Interviews and Essays.'' Michael Burlingame, ed. (1996). 186 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Observations-John-Nicolay/dp/0809327384/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196165058&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln'' edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis. (1998) 864pp, with over 600 interviews and letters about Lincoln [http://durer.press.illinois.edu/wilson/ complete text online ??] [http://books.google.com/books?id=s2gilcp4yYQC&source=gbs_navlinks_s excerpt and text search]

==References==
<references/>

==Links==
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/ Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln]
*[http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln.html Abraham Lincoln Online]
*[http://www.abrahamlincolnarchive.com/Home.aspx Lincoln Archive of original newspaper articles]
*[http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/ History Place: Lincoln timeline]
*[http://www.nps.gov/liho/index.htm Lincoln's Home National Historic Site]
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html White House site; short bio on Lincoln]
*[http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=112&subjectID=1 Mr. Lincoln and Friends]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al02.htm Declaration against slavery, Illinois State Legislature, March 3, 1837]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al03.htm Lincoln's letter to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al05.htm Speech in Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854]
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;q1=erastus;q2=corning;op2=and;op3=and;rgn=works;idno=ACK7441.0001.001;didno=ACK7441.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000227 Letter to Erastus Corning and Others, June 13, 1863, in which Lincoln explains his suspention of ''habeas corpus'']
*[http://www.sonshi.com/sherman.html Memoirs of William T. Sherman ]

[[Image:DcLincMor.JPG|right|thumb]]

== See also ==
*[[American Civil War homefront]]
*[[Gallery of American Heroes]]

{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln, Abraham}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:People who were Educated at Home]]
[[category:United States History]]
[[category:American Civil War]]
[[category:Reconstruction]]
[[category:Politicians]]
[[Category:diplomacy]]
[[category:Abolitionists]]
[[Category:Whig Party]]