Diana Schaub on Lincoln’s Political Thought: The Lyceum Address and The Gettysburg Address

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2019

⏱️ 83 minutes

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Summary

The speeches of Abraham Lincoln are well known for their enduring importance in the history of the United States. But they also remain incredibly significant as texts—works of political rhetoric that have much to teach us about the nature of politics and the American regime. In this Conversation with Bill Kristol, Diana Schaub, a professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and a preeminent scholar of American political thought, demonstrates the depth of Lincoln’s speeches through an interpretation of two of his greatest orations: “The Lyceum Address” (1838) and “The Gettysburg Address” (1863). Schaub considers “The Lyceum Address” as a profound reflection on the dangers of democracy and why “rational reverence” for the law will be indispensable for the perpetuation of America’s political institutions. In a magnificent interpretation of the “The Gettysburg Address,” she explains how, for Lincoln, the Civil War was a trial not only about the future of the United States, but about the very possibility of self-government. This is a must-listen Conversation for anyone interested in American history, political philosophy, and statesmanship.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hi, welcome to Conversations. I'm Bill Crystal and I'm very pleased to be
0:19.1	joined today by Dana Schaub, Professor of Political Science at the Law and University of Maryland,
0:24.7	author of terrific works on Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, Montesquieu, and others.
0:31.2	And we had a previous conversation by Frederick Douglas, which I highly recommend people watch either before or after this conversation in conjunction with this conversation.
0:38.0	The two greatest men of the 19th century, in my opinion. Is that right?
0:42.0	I think so, yeah. Greatest Americans or
0:44.6	greatest men? Yeah. Okay, you're gonna go with greatest men? I'm gonna go with
0:49.8	greatest men. I have to make my case for Tophil at some point for weekend. That's a good conversation.
0:54.1	Well they are awfully impressive and Lincoln of course is very daunting. How do we
0:58.3	cover him in one conversation? We can't but I guess we thought we might focus on three speeches the
1:04.0	Liseem speech he gives what he's 28 years old I think and then Gettysburg in
1:08.8	the second inaugural the two great speeches of his presidency and sort of what
1:11.4	he's trying to we can at least great surface of what he's trying to, we can at least
1:13.2	surface of what he's trying to accomplish in these speeches in terms of his
1:17.0	understanding of America, equality and so forth. So,ceam's speech?
1:24.0	He gives that when he's what 28 years old?
1:27.0	Yes, a young man, he's already an elected official,
1:31.0	he's serving his second term in the Illinois House and he's invited to give a
1:35.3	lecture as a kind of rising local dignitary. More well-known outsiders were also invited to give these addresses.
1:44.6	Emerson apparently made an appearance at the Springfield Lyceum.
1:47.6	We don't know whether Lincoln was in attendance at that or not.
1:51.3	But so.
	...

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