Warlord
06-04-2013, 01:45 PM
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/img/charles/2013/06/03/ZZ1692214A.jpg
That noted "scholar" and neocon Rich Lowry has an article in this months NRO 'defending' Lincoln. Meanwhile an actual scholar Professor DiLorenzo - America's chief Lincoln critic - preempts the propaganda in this interview with the Daily Bell:
Introduction: Thomas DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland. He is also a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and an affiliated scholar of the League of the South Institute, the research arm of the League of the South, and the Abbeville Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Virginia Tech. DiLorenzo has authored at least ten books, including The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761526463?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0761526463&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2003), Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution and What It Means for Americans Today (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307382850?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0307382850&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2009), How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of Our Country, From the Pilgrims to the Present (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400083311?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1400083311&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2005), Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest Abe (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307338428?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0307338428&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2007) and most recently, Organized Crime: The Unvarnished Truth About Government (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1610162552?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1610162552&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2012). Thomas DiLorenzo is a frequent columnist for LewRockwell.com, lectures widely and is a frequent speaker at Mises Institute events.
Daily Bell: Remind our readers about one of your central intellectual passions, which is confronting academic "Lincoln revisionism." Who was Lincoln really and why have you spent so much of your career trying to return Lincoln's academic profile to reality?
Thomas DiLorenzo: Lincoln mythology is the ideological cornerstone of American statism. He was in reality the most hated of all American presidents during his lifetime according to an excellent book by historian Larry Tagg entitled The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: America's Most Reviled President (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932714618?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1932714618&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell). He was so hated in the North that the New York Times editorialized a wish that he would be assassinated. This is perfectly understandable: He illegally suspended Habeas Corpus and imprisoned tens of thousands of Northern political critics without due process; shut down over 300 opposition newspapers; committed treason by invading the Southern states (Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution defines treason as "only levying war upon the states" or "giving aid and comfort to their enemies," which of course is exactly what Lincoln did). He enforced military conscription with the murder of hundreds of New York City draft protesters in 1863 and with the mass execution of deserters from his army. He deported a congressional critic (Democratic Congressman Clement Vallandigham of Ohio); confiscated firearms; and issued an arrest warrant for the Chief Justice when the jurist issued an opinion that only Congress could legally suspend Habeas Corpus. He waged an unnecessary war (all other countries ended slavery peacefully in that century) that resulted in the death of as many as 850,000 Americans according to new research published in the last two years. Standardizing for today's population, that would be similar to 8.5 million American deaths in a four-year war.
Lincoln was deified by the Republican Party, which monopolized the government for half a century after the war. The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Robert Penn Warren wrote in his book, The Legacy of the Civil War, that all of this mythology created an ideology of "false virtue" that was (and is) interpreted by the American state to "justify" anything it ever did, no matter how heinous and imperialistic. The truth about Lincoln and his war "must be forgotten," said Warren, if one is to believe in this "false virtue," which also goes by the slogan of "American exceptionalism."
Lincoln was a nationalist and an imperialist. He was the political son of Alexander Hamilton who, as such, advocated a government that would serve the moneyed elite at the expense of the masses. Hence his lifelong advocacy of protectionist tariffs, corporate welfare, and a central bank to fund it all. This was called "mercantilism" in the previous centuries, and was the very system the American colonists fought a revolution over.
Daily Bell: What did you think of the recent Steven Spielberg movie about Lincoln? Are defenders of Lincoln getting increasingly desperate?
Thomas DiLorenzo: Yes, the Lincoln cult is getting desperate. Spielberg hired Doris Kearns-Goodwin, a confessed plagiarist, as his advisor on the movie (See my LewRockwell.com article entitled "A Plagiarist's Contribution to Lincoln Idolatry (http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo98.html)"). The main theme of the movie is exactly the opposite of historical truth. The main theme is that Lincoln used his legendary political skills to help get the Thirteenth Amendment that ended slavery through the Congress. But if one reads the most authoritative biography of Lincoln, by Harvard's David Donald, one learns that not only did Lincoln not lift a finger to help the genuine abolitionists; he literally refused to help them when they went up to him and asked him for his help. Lincoln did use his political skills to get an earlier, proposed Thirteenth Amendment through the House and Senate. It was called the Corwin Amendment, and would have prohibited the federal government from ever interfering with Southern slavery. Even Doris Kearns-Goodwin writes about it in her book, Team of Rivals, discussing how the amendment, named after an Ohio congressman, was in reality the work of Abraham Lincoln.
Daily Bell: Why should that be so? Is the myth of Lincoln a central one to the larger and continued myth of modern US exceptionalism? Who propagates these myths and who benefits?
Thomas DiLorenzo: Yes, the Lincoln myth is the ideological cornerstone of "American exceptionalism" and has long been invoked by both major political parties to "justify" anything and everything. President Obama quoted and paraphrased Lincoln in a speech before the United Nations last September, and in his second inaugural address, to support his agenda of waging more aggressive wars in Syria, Iran, and elsewhere. Specifically, he repeated the "All Men are Created Equal" line from the Gettysburg Address to make the case that it is somehow the duty of Americans to force "freedom" on all men and women everywhere, all around the globe, at gunpoint if need be. This is the murderous, bankrupting, imperialistic game that Lincoln mythology is used to "justify."
Daily Bell: Put Lincoln in context. Why is continued mythology so important to the current power structure of the Anglosphere?
Thomas DiLorenzo: The state cannot tell the people that it is bankrupting them and sending their sons and daughters to die by the thousands in aggressive and unconstitutional wars so that crony capitalism can be imposed at gunpoint in foreign countries, and so that the military-industrial complex can continue to rake in billions. That might risk a revolution. So instead, they have to use the happy talk of American virtue and American exceptionalism, the "god" of democracy," etc. And the average American, whom the great H.L. Mencken referred to as part of the "booboisie," believes it.
Daily Bell: Let's try to clear up a few more myths. Did Lincoln issue greenbacks in defiance of British "money power"? In other words, was his war waged as an act of rebellion against European colonialism? From our point of view, Lincoln was likely in thrall to the New York banking establishment. How do you see it?
Thomas DiLorenzo: Lincoln spent his entire life in politics, from 1832 until his dying day, as a lobbyist for the American banking industry and the Northern manufacturing corporations that wanted cheaper credit funded by a government-run bank. He spent decades making speeches on behalf of resurrecting the corrupt and destabilizing Bank of the United States, founded originally by his political ancestor, Hamilton. No member of the Whig Party was more in bed with the American banking establishment than Lincoln was, according to University of Virginia historian Michael Holt in his book on the history of the American Whig party. The Whig agenda, which was always Lincoln's agenda, was described brilliantly by Edgar Lee Masters (Clarence Darrow's law partner) in his book, Lincoln the Man. The agenda was to champion "that political system which doles favors to the strong in order to win and keep their adherence to the government." It advocated "a people taxed to make profits for enterprises that cannot stand alone." The Whig Party "had no platform to announce," Masters wrote, "because its principles were plunder and nothing else." Lincoln himself once said that he got ALL of his political ideas from Henry Clay, the icon and longtime leader of the Whig Party.
More:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/wile/wile74.1.html
That noted "scholar" and neocon Rich Lowry has an article in this months NRO 'defending' Lincoln. Meanwhile an actual scholar Professor DiLorenzo - America's chief Lincoln critic - preempts the propaganda in this interview with the Daily Bell:
Introduction: Thomas DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland. He is also a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and an affiliated scholar of the League of the South Institute, the research arm of the League of the South, and the Abbeville Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Virginia Tech. DiLorenzo has authored at least ten books, including The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761526463?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0761526463&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2003), Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution and What It Means for Americans Today (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307382850?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0307382850&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2009), How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of Our Country, From the Pilgrims to the Present (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400083311?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1400083311&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2005), Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest Abe (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307338428?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0307338428&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2007) and most recently, Organized Crime: The Unvarnished Truth About Government (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1610162552?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1610162552&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell) (2012). Thomas DiLorenzo is a frequent columnist for LewRockwell.com, lectures widely and is a frequent speaker at Mises Institute events.
Daily Bell: Remind our readers about one of your central intellectual passions, which is confronting academic "Lincoln revisionism." Who was Lincoln really and why have you spent so much of your career trying to return Lincoln's academic profile to reality?
Thomas DiLorenzo: Lincoln mythology is the ideological cornerstone of American statism. He was in reality the most hated of all American presidents during his lifetime according to an excellent book by historian Larry Tagg entitled The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: America's Most Reviled President (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932714618?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1932714618&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell). He was so hated in the North that the New York Times editorialized a wish that he would be assassinated. This is perfectly understandable: He illegally suspended Habeas Corpus and imprisoned tens of thousands of Northern political critics without due process; shut down over 300 opposition newspapers; committed treason by invading the Southern states (Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution defines treason as "only levying war upon the states" or "giving aid and comfort to their enemies," which of course is exactly what Lincoln did). He enforced military conscription with the murder of hundreds of New York City draft protesters in 1863 and with the mass execution of deserters from his army. He deported a congressional critic (Democratic Congressman Clement Vallandigham of Ohio); confiscated firearms; and issued an arrest warrant for the Chief Justice when the jurist issued an opinion that only Congress could legally suspend Habeas Corpus. He waged an unnecessary war (all other countries ended slavery peacefully in that century) that resulted in the death of as many as 850,000 Americans according to new research published in the last two years. Standardizing for today's population, that would be similar to 8.5 million American deaths in a four-year war.
Lincoln was deified by the Republican Party, which monopolized the government for half a century after the war. The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Robert Penn Warren wrote in his book, The Legacy of the Civil War, that all of this mythology created an ideology of "false virtue" that was (and is) interpreted by the American state to "justify" anything it ever did, no matter how heinous and imperialistic. The truth about Lincoln and his war "must be forgotten," said Warren, if one is to believe in this "false virtue," which also goes by the slogan of "American exceptionalism."
Lincoln was a nationalist and an imperialist. He was the political son of Alexander Hamilton who, as such, advocated a government that would serve the moneyed elite at the expense of the masses. Hence his lifelong advocacy of protectionist tariffs, corporate welfare, and a central bank to fund it all. This was called "mercantilism" in the previous centuries, and was the very system the American colonists fought a revolution over.
Daily Bell: What did you think of the recent Steven Spielberg movie about Lincoln? Are defenders of Lincoln getting increasingly desperate?
Thomas DiLorenzo: Yes, the Lincoln cult is getting desperate. Spielberg hired Doris Kearns-Goodwin, a confessed plagiarist, as his advisor on the movie (See my LewRockwell.com article entitled "A Plagiarist's Contribution to Lincoln Idolatry (http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo98.html)"). The main theme of the movie is exactly the opposite of historical truth. The main theme is that Lincoln used his legendary political skills to help get the Thirteenth Amendment that ended slavery through the Congress. But if one reads the most authoritative biography of Lincoln, by Harvard's David Donald, one learns that not only did Lincoln not lift a finger to help the genuine abolitionists; he literally refused to help them when they went up to him and asked him for his help. Lincoln did use his political skills to get an earlier, proposed Thirteenth Amendment through the House and Senate. It was called the Corwin Amendment, and would have prohibited the federal government from ever interfering with Southern slavery. Even Doris Kearns-Goodwin writes about it in her book, Team of Rivals, discussing how the amendment, named after an Ohio congressman, was in reality the work of Abraham Lincoln.
Daily Bell: Why should that be so? Is the myth of Lincoln a central one to the larger and continued myth of modern US exceptionalism? Who propagates these myths and who benefits?
Thomas DiLorenzo: Yes, the Lincoln myth is the ideological cornerstone of "American exceptionalism" and has long been invoked by both major political parties to "justify" anything and everything. President Obama quoted and paraphrased Lincoln in a speech before the United Nations last September, and in his second inaugural address, to support his agenda of waging more aggressive wars in Syria, Iran, and elsewhere. Specifically, he repeated the "All Men are Created Equal" line from the Gettysburg Address to make the case that it is somehow the duty of Americans to force "freedom" on all men and women everywhere, all around the globe, at gunpoint if need be. This is the murderous, bankrupting, imperialistic game that Lincoln mythology is used to "justify."
Daily Bell: Put Lincoln in context. Why is continued mythology so important to the current power structure of the Anglosphere?
Thomas DiLorenzo: The state cannot tell the people that it is bankrupting them and sending their sons and daughters to die by the thousands in aggressive and unconstitutional wars so that crony capitalism can be imposed at gunpoint in foreign countries, and so that the military-industrial complex can continue to rake in billions. That might risk a revolution. So instead, they have to use the happy talk of American virtue and American exceptionalism, the "god" of democracy," etc. And the average American, whom the great H.L. Mencken referred to as part of the "booboisie," believes it.
Daily Bell: Let's try to clear up a few more myths. Did Lincoln issue greenbacks in defiance of British "money power"? In other words, was his war waged as an act of rebellion against European colonialism? From our point of view, Lincoln was likely in thrall to the New York banking establishment. How do you see it?
Thomas DiLorenzo: Lincoln spent his entire life in politics, from 1832 until his dying day, as a lobbyist for the American banking industry and the Northern manufacturing corporations that wanted cheaper credit funded by a government-run bank. He spent decades making speeches on behalf of resurrecting the corrupt and destabilizing Bank of the United States, founded originally by his political ancestor, Hamilton. No member of the Whig Party was more in bed with the American banking establishment than Lincoln was, according to University of Virginia historian Michael Holt in his book on the history of the American Whig party. The Whig agenda, which was always Lincoln's agenda, was described brilliantly by Edgar Lee Masters (Clarence Darrow's law partner) in his book, Lincoln the Man. The agenda was to champion "that political system which doles favors to the strong in order to win and keep their adherence to the government." It advocated "a people taxed to make profits for enterprises that cannot stand alone." The Whig Party "had no platform to announce," Masters wrote, "because its principles were plunder and nothing else." Lincoln himself once said that he got ALL of his political ideas from Henry Clay, the icon and longtime leader of the Whig Party.
More:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/wile/wile74.1.html