LEADER 04051nam 2200625 a 450 001 9910463354403321 005 20211029013303.0 010 $a0-674-06733-9 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674067332 035 $a(CKB)2670000000330038 035 $a(StDuBDS)AH25018187 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000803635 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11487149 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000803635 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10811314 035 $a(PQKB)10429448 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301192 035 $a(DE-B1597)178027 035 $a(OCoLC)819330030 035 $a(OCoLC)840444986 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674067332 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301192 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10642238 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000330038 100 $a20120402d2013 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aLincoln's tragic pragmatism$b[electronic resource] $eLincoln, Douglas, and moral conflict /$fJohn Burt 205 $aEbook available to selected US libraries only 210 $aCambridge, Mass. $cBelknap Press of Harvard University Press$d2013 215 $a1 online resource (xvii, 814 pages) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 0 $a0-674-05018-5 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPreface --$tAcknowledgments --$t1 Introduction: Implicitness and Moral Conflict --$t2 Lincoln's Peoria Speech of 1854 --$t3 Lincoln's Conspiracy Charge --$t4 Douglas's Conspiracy Charge --$t5 Douglas's Fanaticism Charge --$t6 Douglas's Racial Equality Charge --$t7 The Dred Scott Case --$t8 Aftershocks of the Debates --$t9 Coda: And the War Came --$tNotes --$tWorks Cited --$tIndex 330 $aIn 1858, challenger Abraham Lincoln debated incumbent Stephen Douglas seven times in the race for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. More was at stake than slavery in those debates. In Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism, John Burt contends that the very legitimacy of democratic governance was on the line. In a United States stubbornly divided over ethical issues, the overarching question posed by the Lincoln-Douglas debates has not lost its urgency: Can a liberal political system be used to mediate moral disputes? And if it cannot, is violence inevitable? As they campaigned against each other, both Lincoln and Douglas struggled with how to behave when an ethical conflict as profound as the one over slavery strained the commitment upon which democracy depends-namely, to rule by both consent and principle. This commitment is not easily met, because what conscience demands and what it is able to persuade others to consent to are not always the same. While Lincoln ultimately avoided a politics of morality detached from consent, and Douglas avoided a politics of expediency devoid of morality, neither found a way for liberalism to mediate the conflict of slavery. That some disputes seemed to lie beyond the horizon of deal-making and persuasion and could be settled only by violence revealed democracy's limitations. Burt argues that the unresolvable ironies at the center of liberal politics led Lincoln to discover liberalism's tragic dimension-and ultimately led to war. Burt's conclusions demand reevaluations of Lincoln and Douglas, the Civil War, and democracy itself. 606 $aLincoln-Douglas Debates, Ill., 1858 606 $aDemocracy$xMoral and ethical aspects$zUnited States 606 $aSlavery$xMoral and ethical aspects$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aLincoln-Douglas Debates, Ill., 1858. 615 0$aDemocracy$xMoral and ethical aspects 615 0$aSlavery$xMoral and ethical aspects$xHistory 676 $a973.7092 700 $aBurt$b John$f1955-$01044341 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910463354403321 996 $aLincoln's tragic pragmatism$92469941 997 $aUNINA