
The Common Genius of Lincoln and Einstein (2014) - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/18/genius/the-common-genius-of-lincoln-and-einstein
======
winsome_dove
Lincoln was a manipulative political genius of the highest order but he was
not a highly moral person in any respect.

Lincoln didn't want to free the slaves and even wanted to make slavery
"irrevocable" (see Corwin Amendment). After the bombing of Ft. Sumpter he
suspended habeas corpus, muzzled the press, and arrested hundreds for
discussing secession. He arrested and imprisoned state legislators and even
issued an arrest warrant for the chief justice of the supreme court when he
did not do Lincoln's bidding. Luckily the US marshal given the warrant did not
serve it.

Lincoln became a tyrant, putting himself above Congress, the Supreme Court and
the Constitution.

Lincoln had severe mental problems. At that time they called it "melancholia".
He would likely be unelectable today, although his tyrannical political bent
matches that of the current executive (riding roughshod over the Congress and
Supreme Court, administrative directives, secret arrests and tribunals, wire-
tapping and eavesdropping of all US citizens w/o warrant) almost perfectly.

Suggested readings:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corwin_Amendment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corwin_Amendment)

"When In the Course of Human Events" by Charles Adams

[https://www.amazon.com/When-Course-Human-Events-
Secession/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/When-Course-Human-Events-
Secession/dp/0847697231/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474996847&sr=1-1&keywords=when+in+the+course+of+human+events)

"Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe" by
Thomas DiLorenzo

[https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Unmasked-Youre-Supposed-
Disho...](https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Unmasked-Youre-Supposed-
Dishonest/dp/0307338428/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474996891&sr=1-1&keywords=lincoln+unmasked)

~~~
Jtsummers
Corwin Amendment:

1) Not proposed by Lincoln.

2) An amendment, meaning it didn't even involve him directly (the President
doesn't sign or otherwise approve proposed or effected amendments, it's a
Federal legislative and State act, not involving the Federal Executive
Branch).

3) He, prior to the Civil War, hadn't made movements to eliminate slavery, but
rather to prevent its expansion.

4) The amendment and the letters he sent to the state governors were an
attempt to keep the nation together, preventing secession or getting states to
reverse their decision to secede. Keeping the country together was his
priority over slavery, that doesn't seem (to me) to be a controversial
position to hold. One immediate problem (states leaving) needed to be
addressed before anything with slavery could be resolved.

~~~
travmatt
4) preserving the union meant fighting his own party politically just as much
as the south. The radical republicans like Thaddeus Stevens were true
abolitionists and deeply committed to the equality of all races - he was more
than willing to massacre all of the white southerners to achieve this end.
These factions had to be tamped down, as well as the traitorous Copperheads.

------
protomyth
We were taught a bit of different story on the morality of President Lincoln
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pX6FBSUyQI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pX6FBSUyQI)
[http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/12/26/sham-
tr...](http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/12/26/sham-trials-
traumatic-truth-what-happened-dakota-38-162857)

------
tjic
I know I'm going to sound like a crank, but I can't get over the fact that
Lincoln killed 3% of the population of the United States.

Every other Western country was able to end slavery without an insanely
devastating civil war. Only Lincoln had to field armies, burn the homes of non
combatants, run prison camps, etc.

I'm glad slavery ended, but Lincoln isn't remotely a genius in my book.

~~~
Mz
General Lee was a tactical genius. The only advantage the North had was
numbers of bodies. The only northern general willing to blithely leverage that
fact was Grant. Lincoln kept him in charge even though civilians were
haranguing Lincoln to remove him because they were appalled by the high death
toll.

Then, when Lee finally surrendered, Grant broke with the long standing human
tradition of punishing the loser with war reparations. He had only three
conditions of surrender, one of which was that the South would accept help
from the North to rebuild.

His merciful position is credited with being the reason the US has only had
one civil war. In most countries, the end of one civil war merely sows the
bitter seeds for the start of the next.

Grant later became president.

~~~
labster
The Union had other advantages other than people; namely a vastly superior
industrial base and a much stronger navy. They were just as critical as the
greater numbers of forces.

But the showing of mercy to the vanquished foe has proven repeatedly to be
great public policy, and should be remembered whenever one hears a politician
talk about taking the spoils of war.

