From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan,

where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored,

this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

So this is the first great crisis of the American nation, secession, slavery, civil war.

It produced a statesman who wanted to bring us back to the basic principles of the American founding.

This is your host, Scott Bertram, and that's Dr. Kevin Porteus,

Professor of Politics and Director of American Studies at Hillsdale College,

at our first guest on today's program.

With this weekend marking the 212th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth,

we discuss Lincoln and statesmanship.

Dr. Porteous, thanks for joining us. Thank you for statesmanship. Dr. Porteus, thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Dr. Porteus today, we talk about the statesmanship of Abe Lincoln,

and I know you teach a course on this here at Hillsdale College,

and so we start with this question.

Abraham Lincoln, was he the exact right person to serve as president at that time in American history?

Well, he was certainly the right president or the right person to get elected as an anti-slavery Republican candidate.

The Republican Party had formed in the aftermath of the Kansas

Nebraska Act and the dissolution of the Whig Party and the final takeover of the

Democratic Party by its southern wing. Northern Democrats could no longer abide by

southern domination of the Democratic Party and so these elements along with

others coalesced to form the Republican Party. But obviously,

...