Summary Of The Real Lincoln By Thomas J. Delorenzo

Thomas J. DiLorenzo’s book, The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, describes the truth about President Abraham Lincoln, his policies and personal beliefs. The book clears up many widely believed rumors about the so-called hero slaves and sheds light on Lincoln’s actual political views, many of which would be highly controversial and unacceptable in modern society. Abraham Lincoln is seen almost as a saint in American history, the man who single handedly abolished slavery, but as DiLorenzo states in his book’s introduction, “…much of what has been written about Lincoln is a myth…” (1). The sixteenth President of the United States had a rather strong dislike for African Americans and was in favor

During his presidency, Lincoln went against the laws of the Constitution multiple times when he invaded the South without Congressional approval, refused trials for thousands of Northerners, confiscated firearms, and censored telegraph communications, just to name a few. (132) The most despicable act, perhaps, was his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, which allowed him to demand the arrests of any who voiced their displeasure with the president and his views. Their freedom of speech was ripped from them, which is abhorrently unconstitutional. Because of these and countless other examples of defying the Constitution, Lincoln was, by definition, a dictator because he obtained power over the citizens of the United States by force and stripped them of their constitutional

The southern states were threatened with losing their congressional representation if they did not vote in favor of the Fourteenth amendment, which forbade the States to infringe upon the basic natural rights of other citizens, including African Americans. DiLorenzo explains this, stating “Congress blackmailed the Southern states into passing the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution by prohibiting congressional representation by those states unless they ratified the amendment.” (207) As Lincoln stated many times, he did not care for blacks. He saw them as inferior and thought it best that whites and blacks had no relations with each other. The fourteenth amendment was simply to ensure that his party, the Republican party, dominated. This was done by allowing blacks to vote, but they did not get a choice in who they voted for. They were only allowed to vote republican. In addition, a major step towards centralization was the Republican party’s use of taxes to increase government power by expanding local and state