cometh!” He prayed for a speedy conclusion of the
War Between the States, but he said, “if God wills that
it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bond-
man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by
the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the
sword,... ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous all together.’” This relating of the Bible to
U.S. political history places him within the COVENANT
religious tradition of the PURITANS: that no social evil
will go unpunished by God; so Americans must live
moral lives to avoid destruction.
Besides his blending of CHURCH AND STATE, Abraham
Lincoln revived the earlier American ideal of equality
in JEFFERSON’s DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. As U.S. IN-
DUSTRIALISMcreated greater economic inequalities and
threatened to turn the government over to a CAPITALIST
ARISTOCRACY, Lincoln’s revival of Jeffersonian EQUALITY
and rights foreshadowed the LIBERALProgressive Era.
Although not immune to the racial prejudices of
his times, Lincoln, for his emancipation of black
slaves, remains a hero to African Americans. Tragically,
he was assassinated shortly after the successful restora-
tion of the American Union.
Further Readings
Jaffa, H. V. “Abraham Lincoln.” In American Political Thought:
The Philosophical Dimension of American Statesmanship,
M. J. Frisch and R. G. Stevens, eds. New York: Scribner,
1983.
———. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues
in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.New York: Doubleday, 1959.
Lincoln, A. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,R. P. Basler,
ed., 9 vols. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press,
1953.
Neely, Mark E. The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil
Liberties.New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
———. The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the
Promise of America.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1993.
Tap, Bruce. Over Lincoln’s Shoulder: The Committee on the Con-
duct of the War.Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
Thurow, G. E. Abraham Lincoln and American Political Religion.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1976.Locke, John (1632–1704) British political phi-
losopher and activist
The most prominent theorist of British LIBERALISM,
John Locke’s ideas of NATURAL RIGHTS, government by
the CONSENTof the governed, SOCIAL CONTRACT, the lim-
ited state, private PROPERTY, and revolution greatly
influenced all MODERN DEMOCRATICthought, especially
in the United States of America. Thomas JEFFERSON
cites Locke’s ideas in the DECLARATION OF INDEPEND-
ENCE, and the U.S. CONSTITUTIONcontains many Lock-
ean principles.
Like Thomas HOBBES, Locke’s political theory is
based on materialist, scientific premises (he was a
medical student at Oxford). Humans in their original
condition, or STATE OF NATURE, are “free, equal and
independent.” From this state of physical FREEDOM,
equality, and autonomy, Locke asserts that humans
possess the natural rights to “Life, LIBERTYand Estate
(property),” or continued existence (self-preserva-
tion). This means that murder, theft, slavery, and kid-
napping violate a person’s rights, but by human
reason, Locke believes, each INDIVIDUALknows the law
of nature that, like the Golden Rule, tells people that
they cannot exercise their freedom to harm anyone
else’s rights to life, liberty, or property. Most people are
reasonable, respecting others natural rights, but some
violate others’ person or property in criminal ways.
Such criminals can be killed by their victims as “beasts
of prey” in the state of nature. However, Locke, the
Calvinist PURITAN, perceives a problem with individuals
enforcing the law of nature themselves: human sin.Locke, John 189President Abraham Lincoln.(NATIONALARCHIVES)