Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2013
Department 1
Civil War Era Studies
Department 2
History
Abstract
“Justice and fairness” has become something of a mantra ever since presidential candidate Barack Obama told Joe the plumber that his hope was to “spread the wealth around” so that the economy is “good for everybody.” The plumber, Samuel Wurzelbacher, was less than thrilled by the implications of spreading the wealth, since his fear was that much of the wealth the president-to-be proposed to spread around was the plumber’s. But that has done nothing to give pause to President Obama’s determination to answer the “call to justice and fairness.” In his 2009 Lincoln’s Birthday speech in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois, the president described justice and fairness—the “sense of shared sacrifice and responsibility for ourselves and one another”—as “the very definition of being American.” [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Guelzo, Allen C. “Lincoln and Justice for All,” in A Second Look at First things: A Case for Conservative Politics – The Hadley Arkes Festschrift, ed. Francis J. Beckwith (St. Augustine’s Press, 2013), 36-58.
Required Publisher's Statement
The original version is available from the publisher at: http://www.staugustine.net/our-books/books/a-second-look-at-first-things/