Editor’s note: This is the 48th in a series of essays on the history and meaning of the American political tradition. The Gettysburg Address opens with a reference to the founding of a nation: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” I concluded the previous essay with this question, what sort of nation did Lincoln envisage when he spoke these words? Did he have in mind … (read more)
