Today, The Two Mikes welcomed back Dr. Tom DiLorenzo for a discussion on Abraham Lincoln and to mark the anniversary of the battle of Antietam on September 17th.
Dr. DiLorenzo has written three excellent, highly provocative, and deeply researched books about Abraham Lincoln, and they have influenced and begun to change the understanding of Lincoln among the public and in the academy.
Dr. DiLorenzo explained that Lincoln was a lawyer for corporate interests and was the chief counsel for the Illinois Central railway, a career that produced a man who favored protectionism, governmental spending to assist railroad and other industries, and a view of the central government properly operating beyond its constitutional powers and reach.
Thus, the war that came can be seen not only as a Civil War but as a war to protect Northern economic interests.
As important, Dr. DiLorenzo points out that there is nothing in the founding documents that prevents secession, and that Lincoln was fully empowered to let the southern states go and form another republic in North America, and save 850,000 lives in the process.
This analysis clearly is relevant to the thinking of Americans today.
It also is worth mentioning that this was the position of Jefferson, Madison, and several other of the founders.
Dr. DiLorenzo does not immediately convince all of his listeners, but his work demands respect and consideration and, as for myself, his work has caused me to begin to rethink much of what I had long believed about Lincoln.
–Dr. DiLorenzo writes regularly at lewrockwell.com
–His books about Lincoln are: The Problem of Lincoln (Regnery History, 2020; Lincoln Unmasked (Crown Forum, 2007), and The Real Lincoln (Crown Forum, 2003)
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