The

The One of my favorite things I like to point out about Abraham Lincoln was the gift he had for brevity.

Those who have studied his speeches have often remarked that he had a real economy with words he could

convey incredibly complex thoughts in simple elegant language in my opinion that's a sign of genius

i always like to point out that his gettysburg address perhaps the most famous speech ever

delivered in american history is only 10 sentences

long. He gave perhaps the most succinct definition of liberal democracy in that speech. If you look

up what that term means in a political science textbook, you'll probably get a long-winded

explanation about how it's based on the consent of the governed

and natural rights and equality, etc., etc.

But Lincoln summed it up in such a succinct way as government of, by, and for the people.

That's it.

But what does that mean exactly?

Well, our guest today has written a book on that subject on what Lincoln believed about democracy. Our guest, his name is Alan Gelzo. He's one of our nation's foremost authorities on President Lincoln. He's currently the Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Research Scholar and the director of the initiative on politics and statesmanship in the James Madison program at Princeton University.

That's a mouthful. But he's the author of numerous books on the Civil War and President Lincoln.

And his latest book I recommend for all of our listeners, it's titled Our Ancient Faith, Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment.

We're very happy to have him on our podcast. So

Professor Galzo, thank you for being here. Well, thank you for having me here, and it's a pleasure to be

able to talk with you, Richard. So I love the title, Our Ancient Faith. It's a paraphrase of a

Lincoln quote, and you used it for the title of your book. So can you tell us about that quote and about what he said?

It comes from one of his most famous speeches that he delivered in Peoria, Illinois. And sometimes

it's simply known as the Peoria speech on October 16, 1854. In it, he lays out a great deal of what you could call his political philosophy.

...