Lincoln and the Moral Dimension of Compromise

Abstract

Noah Feldman’s new book on Abraham Lincoln’s constitutionalism accomplishes the considerable feat of saying something new about its subject. Feldman argues that Lincoln presided over constitutional fracture, the result of which was a salutary shift from the “compromise Constitution,” which made its peace with enslavement for the sake of union, to the “moral Constitution,” which is rooted in a substantial moral aspiration. Yet compromise is more than a means of resolving disputes. Rooted in humility, compromise is itself a moral ideal. During times of ordinary politics, the compromise and moral Constitutions often converge. It is unclear whether Feldman’s Lincoln, a theorist of constitutional crisis, can guide us in situations less extreme than civil war.