Harry V. Jaffa
Encyclopedia
Harry V. Jaffa is Professor Emeritus at Claremont McKenna College
and Claremont Graduate University
and a distinguished fellow of the Claremont Institute. He has written on Aristotle
, Thomas Aquinas
, Abraham Lincoln
, Thomas Jefferson
, Winston Churchill
, Leo Strauss
, American constitutionalism and natural law
. He has been published in the Claremont Review of Books
, the Review of Politics, the National Review
, and the New York Times. His most famous work, Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, written in 1959, has been described as "the greatest Lincoln book ever."
Jaffa is a formative influence on the American conservative movement, challenging notable conservative thinkers including Russell Kirk
, Richard M. Weaver
, and Willmoore Kendall
on Abraham Lincoln and the American Founding. He has debated Robert Bork
on American constitutionalism, and, in 2002, he and libertarian
Thomas DiLorenzo
debated the merits of Abraham Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War.
and a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from The New School
. As a Ph.D. student, he became interested in Abraham Lincoln after discovering a copy of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in a used bookshop.
Jaffa was one of Leo Strauss
' first Ph.D. students. His dissertation on Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas later became his first book, Thomism and Aristotelianism. There, he argues that the Christian beliefs of Aquinas influenced Aquinas' work on Aristotle. Alasdair MacIntyre
describes the book as "an unduly neglected minor modern classic."
, James Madison
, and George Washington
established the nation on political principles traceable from Locke to Aristotle. While he believes that governments are instituted to protect rights, he acknowledges the higher ends they serve, primarily happiness. The Declaration of Independence says "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." Jaffa points out that safety and happiness are the principal virtues of Aristotelian political life in his Politics. Jaffa also points to Federalist No. 43
, in which James Madison
declares that safety and happiness are the aims of all political institutions, and George Washington's first inaugural address as cementing the link between human happiness and government and therefore the Ancient roots of the American Founding.
, and Willmoore Kendall
believed that Lincoln's presidency represented a substantial growth in federal power and limitation on individual rights.
Jaffa also believes that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution share a relationship whereby the latter is intended to preserve the principles of the former. This belief has garnered criticism from legal scholars particularly Robert Bork
.
proposed the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which removed congressional authority over slavery's expansion into the territories and allowed the citizens of each territory to decide whether or not slavery would be legal there. In contrast, Lincoln believed that popular sovereignty was another example of tyranny of the majority. Lincoln argued that a majority could not sanction the enslavement of other men due to the Founding principle that "All men are created equal," which slavery violated. Both men squared off in a contest for Illinois' Senate seat in 1858.
In the book, Jaffa explains the philosophical underpinnings of both Lincoln and Douglas' arguments. According to Catherine H. Zuckert, Jaffa "aimed at nothing less than bringing to bear on America the methods and substance of the Straussian revival of the Socratic tradition of political philosophy." Like Strauss, Jaffa observed the tendency of modernity to degenerate moral and political philosophy, which he found in Douglas' appeal to popular sovereignty. Jaffa also believed that Lincoln challenged Douglas' argument with an Aristotelian or classical philosophical position derived from the Declaration of Independence
and its contention that "all men are created equal."
. The first volume focuses on Lincoln's First Inaugural Address and his July 4, 1861 address to Congress. Jaffa argues that the Gettysburg Address is not a self-contained work but "a speech within a drama. It can no more be interpreted apart from the drama than, let us say, a speech by Hamlet or MacBeth can be interpreted apart from Hamlet or MacBeth. The Gettysburg Address is a speech within the tragedy of the Civil War, even as Lincoln is its tragic hero. The Civil War is itself an outcome of tragic flaws--birthmarks, so to speak--of the infant nation."
Jaffa describes human equality as America's "ancient faith" and contends that the Declaration of Independence reflects the principles of natural law
. According to Jaffa, Lincoln's task was to restore America's political faith, saving the Union from the historicism
of the Confederacy. Jaffa considers the political philosophy of John C. Calhoun
the backbone of the Confederacy's new constitution and its notion of human inequality. According to him, Calhoun believed that equality was only a prescriptive attribute on the part of the states, not a natural right of human persons. By extension, Calhoun believes that human equality is derived from the relationship between equal states and not equal persons. Jaffa therefore believes that Calhoun's understanding of equality differs greatly from the American Founders.
, incorporating the Declaration of Independence. The theory was criticized for being overly philosophical, rather than legal, despite being presented as a legal argument. His approach was especially critical of figures such as William Rehnquist
and Robert Bork
, who responded to Jaffa in The National Review.
Jaffa has also criticized the scholarship of other prominent conservatives including Russell Kirk
, Richard Weaver
, M.E. Bradford
and Willmoore Kendall
. Most recently, Jaffa debated libertarian and author Thomas DiLorenzo
.
. Each man made a statement followed by a rebuttal by the other, ending with a question and answer from the audience. Jaffa stressed that the Civil War, and the events leading up to it, all involved slavery. A complete transcript of the debate is available.http://www.independent.org/events/transcript.asp?eventID=9
Jaffa's argument was divided into four sections:
nominee Robert Bork
advances a theory of American constitutionalism that is in fundamental tension with the principles of the Declaration of Independence. According to him, Bork believes that the Constitution and the Declaration are separate documents that were never intended to inform on another. Jaffa argues that Bork's argument represents legal positivism
and moral relativism akin to that expressed by John C. Calhoun
and the Confederacy during the Civil War.
throughout his career. He credits Buckley with allowing him to publish when he had been blacklisted by liberal journals and neoconservative publications after a dispute with Irving Kristol
. However, Jaffa disagreed with many of the writers then publishing for the magazine including Russell Kirk
and Frank Meyer
. According to him, these men and other writers there rejected the principles of the Declaration of Independence
and its main contention that "all men are created equal." Jaffa has spent his lifetime stressing the importance of the Declaration to conservatives and liberals alike.
candidate Barry Goldwater
, encouraged him to quote Cicero
's famous expression, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is not a virtue" in his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination.
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
and Claremont Graduate University
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
and a distinguished fellow of the Claremont Institute. He has written on Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
, American constitutionalism and natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
. He has been published in the Claremont Review of Books
Claremont Review of Books
The Claremont Review of Books is a quarterly review of politics and statesmanship published by the Claremont Institute. Many consider it a conservative intellectual answer to the liberal New York Review of Books...
, the Review of Politics, the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, and the New York Times. His most famous work, Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, written in 1959, has been described as "the greatest Lincoln book ever."
Jaffa is a formative influence on the American conservative movement, challenging notable conservative thinkers including Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...
, Richard M. Weaver
Richard M. Weaver
Richard Malcolm Weaver, Jr was an American scholar who taught English at the University of Chicago. He is primarily known as a shaper of mid- 20th century conservatism and as an authority on modern rhetoric...
, and Willmoore Kendall
Willmoore Kendall
Willmoore Kendall was an American conservative writer and Professor of political philosophy.-Biography:Kendall was born in 1909 to a blind minister in Oklahoma. He learned to read at age two, graduated from high school at 13, from the University of Oklahoma at 18, and published his first book at 20...
on Abraham Lincoln and the American Founding. He has debated Robert Bork
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
on American constitutionalism, and, in 2002, he and libertarian
Libertarian
Libertarian may refer to:*A proponent of libertarianism, a political philosophy that upholds individual liberty, especially freedom of expression and action*A member of a libertarian political party; including:**Libertarian Party...
Thomas DiLorenzo
Thomas DiLorenzo
Thomas James DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland. He is an adherent of the Austrian School of Economics. He is a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and an associated scholar of the Abbeville Institute...
debated the merits of Abraham Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War.
Education
Jaffa earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
. As a Ph.D. student, he became interested in Abraham Lincoln after discovering a copy of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in a used bookshop.
Jaffa was one of Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
' first Ph.D. students. His dissertation on Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas later became his first book, Thomism and Aristotelianism. There, he argues that the Christian beliefs of Aquinas influenced Aquinas' work on Aristotle. Alasdair MacIntyre
Alasdair MacIntyre
Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre is a British philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology...
describes the book as "an unduly neglected minor modern classic."
Jaffa and the American Founding
Jaffa believes the American Founders, including Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
, and George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
established the nation on political principles traceable from Locke to Aristotle. While he believes that governments are instituted to protect rights, he acknowledges the higher ends they serve, primarily happiness. The Declaration of Independence says "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." Jaffa points out that safety and happiness are the principal virtues of Aristotelian political life in his Politics. Jaffa also points to Federalist No. 43
Federalist No. 43
Federalist No. 43 is an essay by James Madison, the forty-third of the Federalist Papers. It was published on January 23, 1788 under the pseudonym Publius, the name under which all the Federalist Papers were published. This paper continues a theme begun by Madison in Federalist No. 42...
, in which James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
declares that safety and happiness are the aims of all political institutions, and George Washington's first inaugural address as cementing the link between human happiness and government and therefore the Ancient roots of the American Founding.
Lincoln Scholarship
Jaffa has written two books dealing exclusively with Abraham Lincoln. His first, Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, was written in 1959. Forty years later, he followed it with A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. Jaffa has also written a number of essays on Lincoln for the Claremont Institute, The National Review, and other scholarly journals. Prior to Jaffa, most conservative scholars, including M.E. Bradford, Russell KirkRussell Kirk
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...
, and Willmoore Kendall
Willmoore Kendall
Willmoore Kendall was an American conservative writer and Professor of political philosophy.-Biography:Kendall was born in 1909 to a blind minister in Oklahoma. He learned to read at age two, graduated from high school at 13, from the University of Oklahoma at 18, and published his first book at 20...
believed that Lincoln's presidency represented a substantial growth in federal power and limitation on individual rights.
Jaffa also believes that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution share a relationship whereby the latter is intended to preserve the principles of the former. This belief has garnered criticism from legal scholars particularly Robert Bork
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
.
Crisis of the House Divided
In Crisis of the House Divided, Jaffa discusses the Lincoln-Douglas debates that occurred on the eve of the American Civil War. During the 1850s, concern over the spread of slavery into the territories and into the free states become the primary concern of American politics. Stephen A. DouglasStephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
proposed the doctrine of popular sovereignty, which removed congressional authority over slavery's expansion into the territories and allowed the citizens of each territory to decide whether or not slavery would be legal there. In contrast, Lincoln believed that popular sovereignty was another example of tyranny of the majority. Lincoln argued that a majority could not sanction the enslavement of other men due to the Founding principle that "All men are created equal," which slavery violated. Both men squared off in a contest for Illinois' Senate seat in 1858.
In the book, Jaffa explains the philosophical underpinnings of both Lincoln and Douglas' arguments. According to Catherine H. Zuckert, Jaffa "aimed at nothing less than bringing to bear on America the methods and substance of the Straussian revival of the Socratic tradition of political philosophy." Like Strauss, Jaffa observed the tendency of modernity to degenerate moral and political philosophy, which he found in Douglas' appeal to popular sovereignty. Jaffa also believed that Lincoln challenged Douglas' argument with an Aristotelian or classical philosophical position derived from the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
and its contention that "all men are created equal."
A New Birth of Freedom
A New Birth of Freedom is the fist of a projected two-volume commentary on the Gettysburg AddressGettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and is one of the most well-known speeches in United States history. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery...
. The first volume focuses on Lincoln's First Inaugural Address and his July 4, 1861 address to Congress. Jaffa argues that the Gettysburg Address is not a self-contained work but "a speech within a drama. It can no more be interpreted apart from the drama than, let us say, a speech by Hamlet or MacBeth can be interpreted apart from Hamlet or MacBeth. The Gettysburg Address is a speech within the tragedy of the Civil War, even as Lincoln is its tragic hero. The Civil War is itself an outcome of tragic flaws--birthmarks, so to speak--of the infant nation."
Jaffa describes human equality as America's "ancient faith" and contends that the Declaration of Independence reflects the principles of natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
. According to Jaffa, Lincoln's task was to restore America's political faith, saving the Union from the historicism
Historicism
Historicism is a mode of thinking that assigns a central and basic significance to a specific context, such as historical period, geographical place and local culture. As such it is in contrast to individualist theories of knowledges such as empiricism and rationalism, which neglect the role of...
of the Confederacy. Jaffa considers the political philosophy of John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun was a leading politician and political theorist from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun eloquently spoke out on every issue of his day, but often changed positions. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent...
the backbone of the Confederacy's new constitution and its notion of human inequality. According to him, Calhoun believed that equality was only a prescriptive attribute on the part of the states, not a natural right of human persons. By extension, Calhoun believes that human equality is derived from the relationship between equal states and not equal persons. Jaffa therefore believes that Calhoun's understanding of equality differs greatly from the American Founders.
Debating Lincoln
Jaffa has debated many conservative and libertarian critics of Abraham Lincoln. In the mid-1960s, he argued for Lincoln's conservative legacy in the pages of The National Review with Frank Meyer, who maintained that Lincoln opened the door to unlimited expansion of federal power. In his book, Storm Over the Constitution (1999), he formulated a theory of constitutional lawConstitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
, incorporating the Declaration of Independence. The theory was criticized for being overly philosophical, rather than legal, despite being presented as a legal argument. His approach was especially critical of figures such as William Rehnquist
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States...
and Robert Bork
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
, who responded to Jaffa in The National Review.
Jaffa has also criticized the scholarship of other prominent conservatives including Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...
, Richard Weaver
Richard Weaver
Richard Weaver may refer to:*Richard Weaver English politician*Richard C. Weaver, better known as the "Handshake Man"*Richard M. Weaver , American scholar...
, M.E. Bradford
Mel Bradford
Melvin E. "Mel" Bradford was a conservative political commentator and professor of literature at the University of Dallas....
and Willmoore Kendall
Willmoore Kendall
Willmoore Kendall was an American conservative writer and Professor of political philosophy.-Biography:Kendall was born in 1909 to a blind minister in Oklahoma. He learned to read at age two, graduated from high school at 13, from the University of Oklahoma at 18, and published his first book at 20...
. Most recently, Jaffa debated libertarian and author Thomas DiLorenzo
Thomas DiLorenzo
Thomas James DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland. He is an adherent of the Austrian School of Economics. He is a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and an associated scholar of the Abbeville Institute...
.
Jaffa-DiLorenzo Debate
Jaffa and DiLorenzo debated each other on May 7, 2002 in an event hosted by the Independent InstituteIndependent Institute
The Independent Institute is a libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 byDavid J. Theroux , the Institute sponsors studies of major political, social, economic, legal, environmental and foreign policy issues. It has more than 140 research fellows. The Institute was...
. Each man made a statement followed by a rebuttal by the other, ending with a question and answer from the audience. Jaffa stressed that the Civil War, and the events leading up to it, all involved slavery. A complete transcript of the debate is available.http://www.independent.org/events/transcript.asp?eventID=9
Jaffa's argument was divided into four sections:
- The South Was a Closed Society: For the 1860 Presidential Election, in 10 of the 11 states that became the Confederate States of AmericaConfederate States of AmericaThe Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, Lincoln was not on the ballot, denying him at least the 100,000 votes of those who later went north to join the Union Army, possibly more. Jaffa points out that in the Cooper Union Address, Lincoln concluded that the South would be satisfied only if all anti-slavery sentiment was removed from the state constitutions in the eight free states that had laws preventing free blacks from being kidnapped as slaves. The man accused of being a slave could summon no witnesses, and had no counsel. Jaffa said that "if the federal commissioner decided he was a slave, he [the commissioner] was paid $10, and if he decided he was a free man, he was paid $5. It's hard to imagine any law passed in either Nazi Germany or Stalin's Russia that was more inconsistent with the principles of civil liberty than the Fugitive Slave Act."
- The Right of Secession Is Not the Right of Revolution: Jaffa distinguished revolution from secession. Revolution, he argues, is explained under the Declaration of Independence. It states, “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [the security of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], the people have a right to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government [such] as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.” In contrast, the Confederacy claimed the right of secession, as the Confederacy believed that such a right existed under the Constitution. Jaffa argues that the Confederacy claimed secession instead of revolution because its rights were not being violated by the federal government. However, he also notes that the states that ratified the Constitution also agreed to adhere to the results of all elections and that by seceding from the Union, the Confederacy violated this basic promise.
- Prelude to Southern Secession: Jaffa believed that the initial act of secession took place at the 1860 Democratic Convention. According to him, the seven states of the Deep South, the same seven states that seceded after Lincoln's election and before his inauguration, demanded as a plank in the Democratic platform, without which they would not support Douglas, a slave code for the territories. When the Convention refused to grant this demand, the delegates of the seven states left the Convention. In this section of the debate, Jaffa points out that slavery was aggressively expanding with the repeal of the Missouri CompromiseMissouri CompromiseThe Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30'...
by the Kansas-Nebraska ActKansas-Nebraska ActThe Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty if they would allow slavery within...
. Also, the Dred Scott Case allowed slave owners to take slaves into the territories and demand Federal government protection for slavery in those areas. Jaffa claims that this was one of the largest expansions of federal power.
- The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: Jaffa argued that Douglas accepted the Dred Scott decision. There, Chief Justice Taney said that the right to own slaves is expressly affirmed in the Constitution. However, Lincoln said in the debates that it was implied but not expressly affirmed. Lincoln said to Douglas that by accepting Taney's opinion that slavery is expressly affirmed in the Constitution, one is are under an obligation to give the slave owners the implementation of this right. The possibilities for the expansion of slavery were almost endless, according to Jaffa. Because Douglas would not subscribe to the slave code, the South left the party, which was enough to elect Abraham Lincoln.
Jaffa-Bork Debate
Jaffa argues that former Supreme CourtSupreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
nominee Robert Bork
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, Acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
advances a theory of American constitutionalism that is in fundamental tension with the principles of the Declaration of Independence. According to him, Bork believes that the Constitution and the Declaration are separate documents that were never intended to inform on another. Jaffa argues that Bork's argument represents legal positivism
Legal positivism
Legal positivism is a school of thought of philosophy of law and jurisprudence, largely developed by nineteenth-century legal thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. However, the most prominent figure in the history of legal positivism is H.L.A...
and moral relativism akin to that expressed by John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun was a leading politician and political theorist from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun eloquently spoke out on every issue of his day, but often changed positions. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent...
and the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Jaffa and The National Review
Jaffa was close friends with the late William F. Buckley, publishing a number of articles on Lincoln in the National ReviewNational Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
throughout his career. He credits Buckley with allowing him to publish when he had been blacklisted by liberal journals and neoconservative publications after a dispute with Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism"...
. However, Jaffa disagreed with many of the writers then publishing for the magazine including Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...
and Frank Meyer
Frank Meyer
Frank Straus Meyer was a libertarian political philosopher and co-founding editor of the National Review magazine.-Personal life:...
. According to him, these men and other writers there rejected the principles of the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
and its main contention that "all men are created equal." Jaffa has spent his lifetime stressing the importance of the Declaration to conservatives and liberals alike.
Barry Goldwater Campaign
During the 1964 presidential campaign, Jaffa, who was serving as a speechwriter to RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidate Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
, encouraged him to quote Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
's famous expression, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is not a virtue" in his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination.
Books
- Thomism and Aristotelianism, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952).
- Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959).
- Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution, (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).
- Shakespeare's Politics, ed. by Harry V. Jaffa and Alan Bloom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
- Storm Over the Constitution, (Lanham: Lexington Books, 1999).
- A New Birth of Freedom, (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000).
Articles
- "Aristotle and the Higher Good" July 1, 2011.
- "Aristotle and Locke in the American Founding" February 10, 2001.
- "Campaign Reform is Unconstitutional No Matter What McCain May Claim" February 1, 2001.
- "Thoughts on Lincoln's Birthday" January 22, 2001.
- "Why Special Interestes and the Constitution are Good For You" February 20, 2000.
- "The Deepening Crisis" February 9, 1999.
- "Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy" February 13 1998.
- "The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats" September 13, 1996.
- "Defending the Cause of Human Freedom" April 15, 1994.
- "A Reply to Philip Dynia" August 19, 1993.
- "A Review of Richard Mohr's Book" February 1, 1991.
- "Clarifying Homosexuality and Natural Law" January 1, 1991.
- "The Ends of History Means the End of Freedom" January 17, 1990.
- "Defending the Cause of Human Freedom" April 15, 1994.
- "The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats" September 13, 1996.
- "How Lincoln Foresaw the End of Slavery" January 29, 1998.
- "The False Prophets of American Conservatism" February 12, 1998.
- "American Conservatism and the Present Crisis" February 12, 2003.
- "Strauss at 100" May 14, 2003.
- "Can There Be Another Winston Churchill?" February 6, 2004.
- "Never Before In History", July 2, 2004.
- "Ignoble Liars and Noble Truth-Tellers", August 17, 2004.
- "Wages of Sin", October 11, 2004.
- "The Logic of the Colorblind Constitution", December 6, 2004.
- "Jaffa on Intelligent Design", January 3, 2006.
- "The Disputed Question", January 9, 2007.
- "Macbeth and the Moral Universe", February 19, 2008.
- "The Soul of Buckley", April 4, 2008.
- "The American Founding as the Best Regime", July 4, 2007.
- "God Bless America, "Claremont Review of Books," Spring 2008.
- "The Speech That Changes the World", February 6, 2009.
- "Lincoln In Peoria", Fall 2009.
External links
- Writings of Harry Jaffa
- The Real Abraham Lincoln - a debate between Jaffa and Thomas DiLorenzoThomas DiLorenzoThomas James DiLorenzo is an American economics professor at Loyola University Maryland. He is an adherent of the Austrian School of Economics. He is a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and an associated scholar of the Abbeville Institute...
- "The Heresy of Equality: Bradford Replies to Jaffa", by M.E. Bradford.