Reviewing The Problem with Lincoln by Tom DiLorenzo

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51961975-the-problem-with-lincoln

In this post, I'll be reviewing The Problem with Lincoln by Thomas J. DiLorenzo. This book builds on DiLorenzo's previous 2 books on Lincoln from over a decade ago: The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106594.The_Real_Lincoln) and Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/160217.Lincoln_Unmasked) .

I purchased the audiobook edition of The Problem with Lincoln because it came out this year. I must admit that I was really excited to read a book by Tom DiLorenzo whose lectures I love to listen to and articles I love to read, be they for the Mises Institute, the Abbeville Institute, Lew Rockwell, or elsewhere. However, this is actually the first book of his I went through. Perhaps, I should have read his previous 2 books on Lincoln first, but I'm sure DiLorenzo is fine with his readers being introduced to Lincoln in this book and then reading the older books later should the readers still want more.

The Problem with Lincoln does not just talk about how issues DiLorenzo has about Lincoln. It also talks about the political environment of the early GOP and some of the generals that served under Lincoln.

DiLorenzo talks about how Karl Marx, the author of the Communist Manifesto of 1848, had many followers in the GOP at its founding and helped mold the party's policies of economic centralization. Lincoln, himself, was on good terms with Karl Marx, having talked with him in several letters when Marx lived in London, England. In fact, Marx celebrated Lincoln's re-election in 1864. After reading about Marx's relationship with Lincoln, you will probably find it weird how GOP President Donald Trump says he loves Abraham Lincoln and compares himself with Lincoln on one hand, while viciously condemning socialism and communism on the other hand. It is unfortunate that President Trump thinks he can champion free-market capitalism while saying he is a worthy heir to the Republican tradition of Abraham Lincoln.

The fact of the matter is that the GOP was not a free-market party to begin with. The party was formed mostly by Northern Whigs. The Whig party started out as a coalition against President Andrew Jackson. However, after the Whigs kicked out President John Tyler, who used to be allied with Jackson, for vetoing the charter of a national bank twice, the Whigs firmly became economic centralizers whose strength lied in the North. DiLorenzo explains the differences between the 2 sectional economies of the United States at the time: the North was a manufacturing-based economy that wanted high protectionist tariffs for corporate welfare as well as a national bank; and the South had an agricultural economy which relied on exporting its products for prosperity (a high tariff would hurt its exports).

DiLorenzo also links how slavery was really not a moral issue in Lincoln's day, which is how we see it today. For the federal government, slavery was a question of the territories. Everyone understood that the federal government could not regulate slavery in the States until the 13th Amendment. The primary reason most Northern politicians, including Lincoln, were anti-slavery because they did not want blacks to compete with white workers in the territories. The Northern States wanted the territories' economies to be like theirs so that they would join their voting bloc when they became States.

On the issue of race, neither Lincoln nor his generals were egalitarians. Lincoln did believe slavery was wrong, but he also wanted to send freed slaves to Africa because he did not believe blacks should ever become equals. His generals were also vicious white supremacists. Not long after the Civil War, Lincoln's generals were occupied with fighting the Native Americans in the West in order to conquer more territory for white American settlers. General William Tecumseh Sherman, one of Lincoln's most infamous generals, was zealous in exterminating the Natives and said things like "The final solution to the Indian problem" and "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

DiLorenzo's books is very detailed, but one last thing I'd like to highlight are the texts of different documents he puts at the end of the book. I'd say the most important one of those texts would have to be Lincoln's First Inaugural Speech. In it, Lincoln promises to enforce the Fugitive Slave Clause in the Constitution as well as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The Fugitive Slave Clause, which doesn't actually have the word "slave" in it, compelled the government to return runaway slaves to their masters, which is why runaway slaves found it necessary to escape all the way to Canada if they wanted to stay free. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed to enforce this clause in the Constitution (which was later repealed by the 13th Amendment). Lincoln also talks about the Corwin Amendment which would have been the 13th Amendment had it been ratified by enough States. The Corwin Amendment, named after the GOP Congressman who authored it, Thomas Corwin, would have forbade the federal government from restricting slavery in the States. Obviously, this wasn't good enough for the first 7 states who seceded to form the Confederacy because they knew the federal government did not have the power to restrict slavery in the States in the first place. Still Lincoln advocated for it and lied in his Inaugural Address about how he never saw its text.

As you can see, DiLorenzo's latest book has a lot of details that stuck with me. I actually finished listening to the book last month, but I still remember these details. I feel like I should have read DiLorenzo's previous 2 books on Lincoln before reading this one, but I think this book isn't a bad starting point into DiLorenzo's authorship. Tom DiLorenzo has a Ph.D. in economics and had a good relationship with the late Walter E. Williams as both taught at George Mason University. If you really believe in free-market economics, you should definitely check out Tom DiLorenzo. People like President Donald Trump, who claim to be for the free-market, could use some of DiLorenzo's knowledge and see why Abraham Lincoln was more state-socialist than free-market.