Lincoln’s Conservative Vision
Joseph Postell /
On February 12, 2009, The Heritage Foundation celebrates the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Our sixteenth President was one of our history’s greatest statesmen, and continues to serve as an example of the power of conservative principles to change America for the better.
Abraham Lincoln’s firm and unyielding opposition to slavery grew out of his dedication to the principles of our Founding Fathers, principles which have been under assault by the Left for decades. The Left seeks to reinterpret Lincoln as the father of the centralized administrative state that was actually created by early Progressives such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Croly, and John Dewey (among others).
Those who actually study Lincoln’s thoughts and speeches know that, in his words, he “never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” He loved and admired “the sentiments of those old-time men,” our Founding Fathers. He was dedicated to their principles – equal rights under the law, economic liberty, and a fidelity to the Constitution, our fundamental law. (more…)