Today is the birthday of the famous president Abraham Lincoln. While he is regarded by many as the greatest president ever, I do not hold that view, and most libertarians hold that to the contrary, Lincoln was a dictator and a statist who laid the foundations for the modern statism that is rampant in American society. Thomas DiLorenzo, a historian, has written much work disputing the idolatry of Lincoln that occurs among many circles, even among some libertarian and Christian circles.
But since I am not going to write anything today, I decided to repost a post from last year which listed some libertarian resources on Lincoln, and I would include Tom Woods's recent interview with Tom DiLorenzo himself, as well as Tom DiLorenzo's new article at LewRockwell.com.
So here is the repost.
But since I am not going to write anything today, I decided to repost a post from last year which listed some libertarian resources on Lincoln, and I would include Tom Woods's recent interview with Tom DiLorenzo himself, as well as Tom DiLorenzo's new article at LewRockwell.com.
So here is the repost.
Mike Rozeff and Tom DiLorenzo Take Down Rich Lowry and Some Libertarian Resources on Secession, Nullification, and the Confederacy
The libertarians Tom DiLorenzo and Mike Rozeff have taken down neoconservative Rich Lowry for his NRO article "Lincoln Defended".
Here is a quote from Tom DiLorenzo's post:
The way to become politically relevant and win over America's youth, says Rich Lowry (who apparently will always look like he just started shaving last week) is to continue to libel and smear Ron Paul and "the fever swamp of LewRockwell.com" while composing boring, poorly-written, long-winded apologies for the abolition of civil liberties, crackdowns on free speech, the imprisoning of dissenters, pervasive spying by the state, the deportation of political opponents, massive taxation and debt to pay for it all, centralized, monopolistic government, crony capitalism, and above all, never-ending aggressive wars all around the world in the name of "making all men free."
Here is a quote from Mike Rozeff's post:
Lowry writes of "a species of libertarians — 'people-owning libertarians,' as one of my colleagues archly calls them — who apparently hate federal power more than they abhor slavery." Totally asinine and totally wrong. I have to inform the analytically-challenged Lowry that federal power and slavery are not necessarily opposites. One can be against both federal power and slavery, when both violate rights and self-ownership. Slavery is not something either that necessarily has to be eliminated by the exercise of federal power or a national power or by a terrible civil war or by gross violations of rights or by destroying a Constitution. Other nations ended slavery without these necessarily happening.
Here are the links to Tom DiLorenzo's post, Mike Rozeff's post, and the Lowry article. Read these three and send me your opinions.
I will close with thoughts on Lincoln from the great Murray Rothbard himself from his great speech, "Two Just Wars: 1776 and 1861": "Abraham Lincoln’s conciliatory words on slavery cannot be taken at face value. Lincoln was a master politician, which means that he was a consummate conniver, manipulator, and liar. The federal forts were the key to his successful prosecution of the war. Lying to South Carolina, Abraham Lincoln managed to do what Franklin D. Roosevelt and Henry Stimson did at Pearl Harbor 80 years later – maneuvered the Southerners into firing the first shot. In this way, by manipulating the South into firing first against a federal fort, Lincoln made the South appear to be "aggressors" in the eyes of the numerous waverers and moderates in the North." Abe Lincoln was, in the words of Isabel Paterson, "a humanitarian with a guillotine."
Note: I would like to make a comment on the Lowry article. On the second page, Lowry tries to rebut DiLorenzo's claim that America was birthed in secession by claiming it was a revolution. I will comment that both Lowry and DiLorenzo were right. The revolution was a secession in that it withdrew from the British Empire and declared their independence, and it was a revolution in that it blended libertarian and republican thought, as well as the traditional rights of Englishmen, and broke with the past by applying it in such a revolutionary way as has never been seen.
For more information on Lincoln, secession, nullification, and the Confederacy from a libertarian perspective, see these resources:
"Lincoln's Greatest Failure (Or, How a Real Statesman Would Have Ended Slavery)" by Tom DiLorenzo,LewRockwell.com, November 15, 2012
"Judge Napolitano on Lincoln" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, January 8, 2008
"Is Secession a Right?" by David Gordon, LewRockwell.com, December 7, 2012
"Be Patriotic: Become A Secessionist" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, December 6, 2012
"Parting Company" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, November 27, 2012
"3 Myths About Secession" by Ryan McMaken, LewRockwell.com, November 15, 2012
"Nullification: Answering the Objections" by Thomas E. Woods, Liberty Classroom
"Secession and Liberty" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, November 28, 2000
"Abraham Lincoln" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, February 28, 2013
"Lincoln the Racist" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, November 10, 2012
"The Real Lincoln In His Own Words" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, June 5, 2013
"An Abolitionist Defends the South" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, October 20, 2004
"Virginia's Black Confederates" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, November 2, 2010
"Libertarians and the Confederate Battle Flag" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, April 19, 2001
"A Libertarian Theory of Secession and Slavery" by Walter Block, LewRockwell.com, June 10, 2012
"Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation-State" by Murray Rothbard, Journal of Libertarian Studies 11:1, Fall 1994
"A Jeffersonian View of the Civil War" by Donald W. Miller, Jr., LewRockwell.com, September 7, 2001
"Genesis of the Civil War" by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., LewRockwell.com, May 11, 2000
"The Great Struggle: Republic or Empire?" by Steven Yates, LewRockwell.com, February 3, 2001
"Lincoln and His Legacy" by Joseph Sobran, Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, February 19, 2008
"The Right to Secede" by Joseph Sobran, LewRockwell.com, September 30, 1999
For more information about Lincoln, see the King Lincoln Archive at LewRockwell.com and Tom DiLorenzo's archive of articles.
Here is a quote from Tom DiLorenzo's post:
The way to become politically relevant and win over America's youth, says Rich Lowry (who apparently will always look like he just started shaving last week) is to continue to libel and smear Ron Paul and "the fever swamp of LewRockwell.com" while composing boring, poorly-written, long-winded apologies for the abolition of civil liberties, crackdowns on free speech, the imprisoning of dissenters, pervasive spying by the state, the deportation of political opponents, massive taxation and debt to pay for it all, centralized, monopolistic government, crony capitalism, and above all, never-ending aggressive wars all around the world in the name of "making all men free."
Here is a quote from Mike Rozeff's post:
Lowry writes of "a species of libertarians — 'people-owning libertarians,' as one of my colleagues archly calls them — who apparently hate federal power more than they abhor slavery." Totally asinine and totally wrong. I have to inform the analytically-challenged Lowry that federal power and slavery are not necessarily opposites. One can be against both federal power and slavery, when both violate rights and self-ownership. Slavery is not something either that necessarily has to be eliminated by the exercise of federal power or a national power or by a terrible civil war or by gross violations of rights or by destroying a Constitution. Other nations ended slavery without these necessarily happening.
Here are the links to Tom DiLorenzo's post, Mike Rozeff's post, and the Lowry article. Read these three and send me your opinions.
I will close with thoughts on Lincoln from the great Murray Rothbard himself from his great speech, "Two Just Wars: 1776 and 1861": "Abraham Lincoln’s conciliatory words on slavery cannot be taken at face value. Lincoln was a master politician, which means that he was a consummate conniver, manipulator, and liar. The federal forts were the key to his successful prosecution of the war. Lying to South Carolina, Abraham Lincoln managed to do what Franklin D. Roosevelt and Henry Stimson did at Pearl Harbor 80 years later – maneuvered the Southerners into firing the first shot. In this way, by manipulating the South into firing first against a federal fort, Lincoln made the South appear to be "aggressors" in the eyes of the numerous waverers and moderates in the North." Abe Lincoln was, in the words of Isabel Paterson, "a humanitarian with a guillotine."
Note: I would like to make a comment on the Lowry article. On the second page, Lowry tries to rebut DiLorenzo's claim that America was birthed in secession by claiming it was a revolution. I will comment that both Lowry and DiLorenzo were right. The revolution was a secession in that it withdrew from the British Empire and declared their independence, and it was a revolution in that it blended libertarian and republican thought, as well as the traditional rights of Englishmen, and broke with the past by applying it in such a revolutionary way as has never been seen.
For more information on Lincoln, secession, nullification, and the Confederacy from a libertarian perspective, see these resources:
"Lincoln's Greatest Failure (Or, How a Real Statesman Would Have Ended Slavery)" by Tom DiLorenzo,LewRockwell.com, November 15, 2012
"Judge Napolitano on Lincoln" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, January 8, 2008
"Is Secession a Right?" by David Gordon, LewRockwell.com, December 7, 2012
"Be Patriotic: Become A Secessionist" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, December 6, 2012
"Parting Company" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, November 27, 2012
"3 Myths About Secession" by Ryan McMaken, LewRockwell.com, November 15, 2012
"Nullification: Answering the Objections" by Thomas E. Woods, Liberty Classroom
"Secession and Liberty" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, November 28, 2000
"Abraham Lincoln" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, February 28, 2013
"Lincoln the Racist" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, November 10, 2012
"The Real Lincoln In His Own Words" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, June 5, 2013
"An Abolitionist Defends the South" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, October 20, 2004
"Virginia's Black Confederates" by Walter Williams, LewRockwell.com, November 2, 2010
"Libertarians and the Confederate Battle Flag" by Tom DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com, April 19, 2001
"A Libertarian Theory of Secession and Slavery" by Walter Block, LewRockwell.com, June 10, 2012
"Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation-State" by Murray Rothbard, Journal of Libertarian Studies 11:1, Fall 1994
"A Jeffersonian View of the Civil War" by Donald W. Miller, Jr., LewRockwell.com, September 7, 2001
"Genesis of the Civil War" by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., LewRockwell.com, May 11, 2000
"The Great Struggle: Republic or Empire?" by Steven Yates, LewRockwell.com, February 3, 2001
"Lincoln and His Legacy" by Joseph Sobran, Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, February 19, 2008
"The Right to Secede" by Joseph Sobran, LewRockwell.com, September 30, 1999
For more information about Lincoln, see the King Lincoln Archive at LewRockwell.com and Tom DiLorenzo's archive of articles.
