Crisis of the House Divided

Jaffa reads the seven 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates as a serious philosophical argument rather than a campaign. Douglas’s popular sovereignty held that a territory’s majority should decide slavery for itself, which made the equality clause of the Declaration a form of words; Lincoln held it to be a moral proposition binding on majorities, a standard no vote could repeal. Jaffa’s claim — the founding text of West Coast Straussianism — is that Lincoln did not merely apply the Declaration but reinterpreted it, refounding the republic on natural right.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the curriculum’s American Experiment section, which runs from the founding documents through Lincoln; Jaffa is the list’s argument that the American regime rests on a philosophical claim and not only on a constitutional arrangement.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on The American Experiment. The full 211-entry transcription is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Abraham Lincoln — one of the two debaters, and the book’s subject.
• Founding Fathers — the Declaration whose meaning is being argued over.
• Democracy — popular sovereignty is the doctrine on trial.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.