Anglo-Norman Parks in Medieval Ireland

Abstract

Lincoln Cathedral's Angel Choir was built in the second half of the thirteenth century to house the shrine of St Hugh of Lincoln, canonised in 1220. Although he was never a major saint, the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln sought to emulate the settings newly created for more venerable saints by constructing a completely new building to house his shrine. Despite considerable study of the Angel Choir the site of the shrine has not been established, neither has the site of the original burial. This is perhaps the more surprising when it is considered that contemporary documentation survives to describe the events of St Hugh's death and burial. There is sufficient evidence within the cathedral to reconstruct the sites of the original burial and the later shrines and this is supported by documentary evidence, so far overlooked, that is presented here.     

Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney

Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney may have met only twice—in 1849, when Lincoln made an oral argument before the Supreme Court, and in 1861, when Chief Justice Taney administered the presidential oath of office to Lincoln. The two men's roles in American history are inextricably bound nonetheless, as I will attempt to demonstrate in this essay.     

Young Mr. Lincoln in Ford's Theater

In Young Mr. Lincoln, director John Ford and screenwriter Lamar Trotti engage an issue that is central to Ford's films and to Lincoln's political thought. That issue is the tension between individual greatness and the rule of law, a tension heightened in a democracy by the demos's passion for equality. In the film's portrayal of Lincoln, Ford and Trotti suggest a solution to this tension that is fundamentally consistent with the one Lincoln suggested in the Lyceum Address. To remain within the political community, the great man must hold a sincere reverence for the law and be willing to exhibit humility in declaiming his own superiority. In the context of these characteristics, greatness can be a force that preserves the law and protects the community from harm. The film depicts Lincoln as the paradigmatic combination of these characteristics and alludes to his mature leadership based on these commitments in his later career.     

Lincoln and the Rebirth of Liberal Democracy

It is a privilege to speak in this, the house of the Supreme Court of the United States, of Abraham Lincoln, our supremely great President. His task, he said, was greater than George Washington's. In the United States’ gravest crisis and most terrible war, Lincoln saved the country, its democratic republic, and the republic's devotion to the equal rights of man. He did more than save. He renewed the republic and purified it of slavery.     

Technology,Free Labor,and Slavery: Lincoln on Discovery and Invention

Abstract

Abraham Lincoln presented a lecture in 1858–1859 on the process of “Discoveries and Invention.” In this lecture he discusses man's desire to improve his condition and the use of technology to that end. The process of discovery and invention allows man to develop that technology and alleviate his state. Education, especially literacy, allows knowledge to be passed down through time, facilitating yet further improvement. Yet, Lincoln warns that human nature can also become raw material, as seen in the institution of slavery. In light of Lincoln's more commonly known natural rights argument against slavery, this warning about human nature takes on greater significance. Coupled with an address on agriculture from 1859, Lincoln's lecture on discovery and invention attempts to illustrate the liberating power of invention and education while reminding us of the limits posed by man's natural equality.     

Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief

Abstract

Abraham Lincoln's presidency was defined and dominated by war, yet Lincoln himself had very little direct experience with warfare; nor had the American presidency been truly tested by war when he took office. Lincoln had to negotiate very difficult political and constitutional terrain as he waged the Civil War: issues of executive authority, constitutional powers and their limitations, and the nature of civil liberties during war constantly bedeviled him. His guiding principle in all these matters, and the greatest lesson we can learn from him today, was his flexibility and his pragmatism.     

Reviews of Books

Abstract

Responding to the relatively sparse literature on choir stall canopies, this article concentrates on the micro-architectural canopies of the Lincoln, Chester and Nantwich stalls of the late 14th century. At Lincoln, a new three-dimensional polygonal canopy design appears, the precedents and sources for which include the York Minster chapter-house stalls, tombs, bishops' thrones and the Stratford monument in Canterbury Cathedral. The circumstances of the commissions of the Lincoln, Chester and Nantwich stalls are explained, with reference to patronage and architectural projects. Ambitious patrons commissioned stalls which broke with the tradition of double-screen construction in order to create impressive tabernacle canopies.     

Lincoln's Reflective Patriotism

Abstract

In speech and deed, Lincoln's statesmanship manifests the possibility of an honorable, reasonable, and just love of country—that is, a reflective patriotism imbued by a republican love of liberty under God's Providence. In his speeches and writings, Lincoln consistently underscored that love of country must be governed by “reason,” “wisdom,” and “intelligence.” Thus, in his First Inaugural, March 4, 1861, he characteristically appealed to the combined forces of “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land.” Lincoln's reflective patriotism was nurtured by his gratitude to the Founders and measured by his fidelity to a national Union dedicated to the universal moral principles of the Declaration under the particular rule of law established by the Constitution. Historically, it was articulated as an alternative to rival forms of allegiance that Lincoln opposed as both unjust and unreasonable during the Civil War era—namely, sectionalism, nativism, and the imperialism of Manifest Destiny. Each of these disordered forms of love threatened the inseparable moral and fraternal bonds of liberty and Union that Lincoln sought to perpetuate through an ordinate love of country guided by wisdom and critical self-awareness. Lincoln's Eulogy to Henry Clay, June 6, 1852 provides the most cogent expression of his reflective patriotism.     

The Danish St Croix Project: Revisiting the Lincoln Colonization Program with Foreign-language Sources

Working from previously unknown sources in Danish archives, this article establishes for the first time the important role that the island of St Croix played in the Lincoln administration's considerations on colonizing African Americans abroad. This article argues that U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, commonly viewed as an anti-colonizationist, was at least a mild proponent of colonization in its earliest stages. The article demonstrates further that in the summer of 1862, the St Croix colonization project was an important stepping stone in the Lincoln administration's legal justification for emancipation, and that it was recognized as such by high-ranking Confederates. The negotiations failed for reasons that had little to do with Lincoln or his opinion on the matter. Rather, the plan fell through because the Danes slowly turned against it for economic and political reasons. The substantial conclusion of this article is that, contrary to earlier perceptions in the historiography, African American colonization during the Civil War was not led and directed entirely from Washington. Rather, in this case, the Danish minister proposed a colonization plan and then worked with the U.S. Government to attempt to see it through.     

Abraham Lincoln and the Movies

Comparatively little work has been done on how Abraham Lincoln has been represented in American cinema. Yet movies have been a major – and during the first half of the twentieth century probably the major – influence on how his memory has been constructed in American popular culture. This article analyzes changing representations of Lincoln on screen, showing that differing cinematic constructions of the sixteenth president were shaped by a range of factors, including popular biographies and the biases of directors. They also echoed salient issues of the era in which they were produced and more general changes in American attitudes.     

Revisiting Dred Scott: Prudence,Providence, and the Limits of Constitutional Statesmanship

Abstract

After the Dred Scott decision in 1857, Abraham Lincoln embarked on a public campaign to prevent the expansion of slavery in the federal territories. Lincoln's opposition to Dred Scott was, however, bound up with a certain theoretical orientation that is often rejected in the general milieu of modern constitutional theory. Within the context of two recent revisionist accounts of slavery and American constitutionalism, I argue that our retrospective evaluations of the sixteenth president's statesmanship must enter into a deeper engagement with Lincoln's attachment to natural law and his theological interpretation of the Civil War.     

Lincoln and Chiriquí Colonization Revisited

Abstract

This article looks at Abraham Lincoln's pursuit of colonization in the Chiriquí region of Colombia (now Panamá), conventionally known as one of just two places that he seriously considered with respect to his policy of relocating African Americans. Challenging the standard account of the scheme's demise around October 1862 due to vehement Central American protest, this piece questions whether such a development really took the president by surprise. The two weak threads running through the Chiriquí proposal were its scope for diplomatic upset and the embarrassment that might arise from its corrupt proponents’ links to the administration. The author argues that Lincoln was aware of both issues from an early date – even if they each became more complicated than he had initially realized – but that he made persistent attempts to address them. The administration was also more concerned about the ramifications of divisions within Colombia than the widespread isthmian outcry at colonization. Lincoln accordingly tried to place colonization policy on a sounder diplomatic and legislative footing as it became apparent that his contract with a domestic businessman also carried international implications. Yet ultimately, it was the Chiriquí venture's corruption that killed it when the president discovered that it went all the way to the cabinet.     

Refraining the Meaning of “Political” in Research with Adolescents

Abstract

The Gettysburg Address contains no direct quotations from the Bible; nevertheless, it is replete with biblical phrases and themes. Lincoln, who had an intimate and thorough knowledge of the King James Bible, used the Bible in ways essential to the mission and message of his brief address delivered on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a national cemetery at Gettysburg. The unifying theme of his speech was the conception, birth, and death of the nation, which parallels the life of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament. This theme climaxes with the nation's “new birth of freedom,” secured through the sacrifice of the Civil War, especially through the shed blood and death of the “brave men” on Gettysburg's battlefield. Lincoln invoked biblical cadences, phrases, and themes to solemnify the occasion for his speech and to infuse the great sacrifice of the dead and wounded with profound meaning.     

President Obama,the Bible,and Political Rhetoric

Abstract

How has President Obama made use of the Bible in his political rhetoric, especially as it relates to public policy debates? This article addresses Obama's religious origins, his work as a community organizer in Chicago, his coming to Christian faith under the leadership of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the development of his understanding regarding the relationship between faith and politics. In particular President Obama has emphasized the notion that we are all our brothers' and sisters' keepers. He also stresses the present generation of black Americans as "the Joshua Generation." The article considers President Obama's hermeneutics, as well as the important context of the black church for his own use of Scripture. The lenses of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Reinhold Niebuhr are also addressed as they relate to Obama's use of Scripture in political rhetoric.     

Annual Meeting, 1851

The choir-stalls from St Katherine's-by-the-Tower, c. 1365, are the only ones to survive, in part, from the important group of English metropolitan royal ecclesiastical furniture commissions of the mid-fourteenth century. It will be argued that the surviving seating with many of its misericords provides important clues as to the much-debated stylistic origins of the later fully-canopied choir-stalls at Lincoln, c. 1370 and Chester, c. 1390, cathedrals. It will be suggested that the loss of the most important royal commissions at St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster and St George's Chapel, Windsor, is mitigated to some extent by the remarkable but incomplete survival of the choir-stalls at St Katherine's Hospital.     

The Rolt Memorial Lecture, 1983 Our Debt to Roman Engineering: The Water Supply of Lincoln to the Present Day

Abstract

Lincoln was one of the four colonia of Roman Britain and therefore intended to serve as an example of cultured urban life to the surrounding region. A good water supply was essential in Roman towns but Lincoln, stand above the 200ft contour, could not receive a normal gravity fed system. This paper examines the archaeological evidence for the water supply to Roman Lincoln and looks at how the problem was solved in later generations. Dr Lewis argues that a comparison of the solutions to engineering problems of even the distant past and the present is an important aspect of industrial archaeology.     

Lincoln,Race, and the Spirit of ’76

Abstract

This essay examines how Lincoln dealt with race, slavery, and emancipation in antebellum America. It argues that despite a few controversial statements and policies regarding black Americans, Lincoln sought to preserve the American union and its system of self-government by reclaiming the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. Unlike U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who exploited white bigotry in his promotion of local “popular sovereignty” as a solution to the slavery controversy, Lincoln highlighted the natural rights of blacks as a way to prevent the spread of slavery and thereby save what he would later call “the last best hope of earth.”     

Between friendship and justice: on Lincoln’s political thought

Reading Aristotle and applying his notion of philia, or political friendship, across 26 centuries sheds significant light into Abraham Lincoln’s career. It is precisely in Lincoln’s embodiment of the Aristotelian notion of friendship that we come to understand his unique greatness. Perhaps he alone of all Americans proved capable of such extraordinary feats as leading the Republican party to victory in 1860, holding the Union together through the secession crisis and four long years of bloody civil war, ending slavery without white backlash, and offering reconciliation with the incredible magnanimity expressed in the ringing phrases of the Second Inaugural address. The basis of Lincoln’s preternatural political genius proved to be his ability to comprehend all sides, a comprehension that can only come from a profound belief in the importance of friendship. Americans, Lincoln argued throughout a terrible war as he had his entire life, were not enemies but friends who shared a commitment to nature and nature’s law as expressed in the Declaration.     

Anarchy and Public Discourse: Emerson,Lincoln and the “Mobocratic Spirit” of the 1830s

Abstract

In January 1838, Emerson and Lincoln each gave a lecture on the public violence that reached a crisis with the killing of Elijah Lovejoy. For both men, mobbing represented instabilities in the process of democratization that had structural implications for public discourse. In his Lyceum Address, Lincoln argues that if mobbing became conventionalized it could legitimize an extralegal politics of force and coercion. To counterbalance the pressure he saw mobbing place on civil society, Lincoln asserts the importance of developing a culture of reverence for standards of civility in the public sphere. For Emerson, in his lecture “Heroism,” mobbing marked irrational but intentional efforts to suppress dissenting speech and thought. Especially through attacks on political reformers and other individualists, public violence distorted civil discourse and enforced both conformity and silence. For both Lincoln and Emerson, the experience of mob action challenging civil society in the 1830s marked the proximity of civil to uncivil discourse and influenced their responses to proslavery rhetoric in the 1850s. Though they reacted differently, each articulates the risks of allowing the threatened violence of proslavery rhetoric to co-opt the political structure so that civil discourse acted as a façade legitimizing mob rule.     

THE ROMANESQUE FRIEZE AT LINCOLN CATHEDRAL (ENGLAND)—PRIMARY OR SECONDARY INSERTION? MAGNETIC CONSIDERATIONS*

The current debate about the age of the Romanesque frieze of Lincoln Cathedral weighs archaeological evidence against art history. On the one hand, the panels appear to be an integral part of the original Norman structure built by the first bishop (AD 1072–92). However, on grounds of style and artistic comparisons, art historians argue for a later installation during the restoration of AD 1141–6. In order to determine when the panels were stabilized in the cathedral, we used a new method that measures their degree of remagnetization by the earth's magnetic field since they were quarried. The longer that masonry remains stabilized in a given orientation, the greater its viscous remagnetization. Viscous remanent magnetization dating has previously been successful with this particular type of limestone masonry. Our results lend support to the view that the panels were installed in the early 1140s.