A Joumal O'f Historical Review Reprint

Order more postpaid copies of

Shattering the Icon of Abraham Lincoln
(Prices below valid through 1994)

$2.50 per copy This paper was presented to the

10 copies, $20 Seventh International Revisionist Conference,
25 copies, $40 1986, and published in the Fall1986 issue of
50 copies, $75 The Journal of Historical Review
100 copies, $125
250 copies, $250

Shattering the Icon of Abraham Lincoln

is also available on audio cassette for $12 postpaid
he astonishing thing about this paper on Abraham Lincoln is
California residents please add sales tax
that it is needed at all or is considered controversial. In my
-Order from-
opinion, one does not have to be a scholar to ferret out obscure and
INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW
suppressed facets of history to see Abraham Lincoln as he was.
P.O. Box 2739 My views on this subject are not unusual. They are those of the
Newport Beach, CA 92659 overwhelming majority of Southerners both immediately before,
during and for decades after the War between the States. My views
Write for our complete catalog of books and tapes were also shared by many in the North and the West. Only the
passage of time and the studious cultivation of the myth of Abraham
Lincoln, coupled with his timely death (timely in the sense of being
providential for his place in history) have caused Abraham Lincoln
to be raised to the level of a sacred cow in American history.
First R~print, July 1993 Nevertheless, even contemporary events show that the place and
INSTITUTE FOR HISTORlCAL REVIEW role of Abraham Lincoln in American history are a subject which is
very sensitive to the Establishment. When Professor M.E. Bradford
of the University of Dallas was nominated by President Reagan to
head the National Endowment for the Humanities~ a stottn of abuse
and controversy exploded. Professor Bradford's sin was that he
had the effrontery to criticize Abraham Lincoln. The New York
Times launched the attack, followed by a host of other
establishment liberal spokesmen and institutions and joined by so-
called "neo-conseiVatives" such as George Will. Mr. Will
excoriated Professor Bradford as "the nostalgic Confederate
remnant of the ConseiVative movement" and made it clear that neo-
conseiVatives have no use for any criticism of Abraham Lincoln.l
Obviously, Professor Bradford touched a raw and sensitive neiVe
when he criticized a president who has been dead for over 120
years. One wonders after the lapse of so many years why this
matter is such a vital, important and sensitive one.
Part of the reason for the importance of Abraham Lincoln in the
2 SHA TIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln The Man 3

iconography of the left is explained by the Whig Theory of History from the standpoint of American patriotism and nationalism; 3
which is shared by most leftists in one fonn or another. The Whig Lincoln and the coming of the War; 4 Lincoln's conduct of the War;
Theory of History holds that history, in particular the history of the 5 Lincoln and his place in American history.
English-speaking peoples, is the history of freedom broadening
down from precedent to precedent as progress is made away from 1. Lincoln The Man
tradition, authority, monarchy, and aristocracy toward democracy
and egalitarianism. The leftist adherents to the Whig Theory of His- The official image of Lincoln the man according to the Lincoln
tory see Lincoln as part of a continuum running from .Runnymede Myth runs as follows: a man of upright character and honesty, a
to Cromwell to the so-called Glorious Revolution to the American man of peace and compassion for his Southern adversaries, and a
Revolution to Lincoln to Wilson to Roosevelt to Kennedy and Christian of sincere religious convictions.
beyond. All of the above articles of faith are demonstrably false.
Of course, this Whig Theory of History is preposterous and Lincoln was a demagogic politician who maneuvered with
fallacious and maintained only by a thoroughly dishonest editing of consummate skill on all sides of many burning issues of the day.
historical events. However, the leftists are correct in viewing Thus, in the famous debates with Stephen Douglas his position on
Lincoln and the effect of his career on the course of the United the question of Negro equality became several positions according
States as moving America away from an aristocratic society founded to which area of Illinois was hosting the debate. His pronounce-
upon traditions, authority and property and towards a mass ments ranged from denials of Negro equality and advocacy of an
democratic society founded upon universal suffrage, equality and inferior and degraded state of civil rights for the Negro to
unlimited government-mandated social experimentation. While it is affirmations of the equality of Negroes. This is not to say that
not remarkable that leftists should admire Abraham Lincoln, it is Lincoln was without principle. It is my belief, which will be
noteworthy and surprising that the Lincoln Myth has been marketed developed in this paper, that Lincoln was an abiding leftist but at the
to moderate and conservative Americans. same time was a crafty and dissimulating politician who was willing
Part of the success enjoyed by the Lincoln Myth lies in the shamelessly to try to fool all of the people, all of the time.
timeliness of his death. By dying through an assassination at the As to Lincoln's alleged sincere "Christian" religious convictions,
conclusion of the war and prior to the commencement of a bitter and it is well known to students of Lincoln that he was an atheist and
cruel peace, Lincoln could be used by all factions in America and free-thinker. While like any crafty politician Lincoln was willing to
could be opposed by none. Hence, Radical Republicans used his invoke the name of God to gamer support, no great importance
death, as well as a contrived propaganda campaign alleging that should be laid to this practice which is common in all democratic
Southern leaders, including Jefferson Davis, had plotted Lincoln's societies.
assassination, to inflame Northern opinion and to solidify their Also, Lincoln believed in omens, was often depressed by seeing
leadership of the North in a campaign of humiliation, robbery and blackbirds, and would interpret dreams that he had in ways that can
persecution of the conquered and prostrate South and its vanquished only be described as superstitious. Lincoln's superstition is
leaders.z Southerners were likewise in no position to attack Lincoln. frequently confused with piety.
The South's situation after the war was similar to that of post- Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon, was deeply disturbed
World War II Gennany, that is to say, utterly defeated, prostrate, after Lincoln's death by popular portrayals of Lincoln as a Christian
the victim of inflammatory lies about atrocities at Andersonville, saint As Dwight G. Anderson, author of a recent study of
etc. Hence, the only prudent course for Southerners was to promote Abraham Lincoln, points out, Herndon knew that Lincoln had
those aspects of the Lincoln Myth (e.g., his alleged kindliness and written an essay denying the divinity of the Bible. This essay or
magnanimity) so as to defuse Northern anger and work patiently for book of Lincoln's came to be referred to as the "infidel book."
the amelioration of the condition of the South. Herndon's lectures and writings on the subject of Lincoln's atheism
Having touched on the foregoing points, let us examine the real provoked immediate defense of Lincoln as a devout Christian.
Abraham Lincoln and his true place in American history. I have However, as Herndon shrewdly pointed out, the fact of Lincoln's
selected the following areas of scrutiny: 1 Lincoln the man; 2 Lincoln early atheism cannot be denied and Lincoln's political career would
 Lincoln As Patriot And Nationalist 5
4 SHATI'ERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

have been vastly helped by some public revelation of a dramatic those who try to make of Lincoln a white racist. The fact that
conversion to Christianity. No such conversion has ever been Lincoln was willing to go that far early in his career indicates that he
established. Long after the controversy over Lincoln's atheism or was committed to Negro equality at the inception of his career and
devotion to Christianity, a statement of Lincoln's was discovered was on the far left of contemporary American thought about the
which Lincoln issued in reply to accusations that he was not a Negro and slavery issues. Furthermore, Lincoln's opposition to the
~s~an.3 Lincoln admitted that he was not a member of any
resolution is strong evidence for his willingness to disrupt the
Chrisuan church, but stated that he had not denied the truth of the Union in order to promote his own faction's success. Certainly, his
scriptures and had not spoken with intentional disrespect of religion position on the resolution has to be laid to his discredit in assessing
in general or of any particular Christian denomination. Lincoln's his career.
statement shows that Herndon was correct. The statement is artfully This is not to say that Lincoln did not craftily dissemble his
worded but does not indicate any conversion to Christianity and views on slavery and the Negro as a practical politician, realizing the
does not deny the assertions of Herndon that Lincoln had denied the limitations within which he strove to realize his ideals. For instance,
divinity of the scriptures. Lincoln says only that he had not denied in late 1854 Lincoln was furious when he learned that radical
their truth. Lincoln is to be admired for his honesty in this statement abolitionist Republicans meeting in Springfield had adopted fiery
in not concocting some vote-catching, born-again experience. Our anti-slavery resolutions and formed a party state central committee,
admiration for his candor would be greater had he desisted from on which they took the liberty of placing Lincoln's name.
piously self-serving references to the Almighty in political speeches I have been perplexed some to Wlderstand how my name was placed
throughout his career. in that committee. I was not consulted on the subject; nor was I
apprised of the appointment until I discovered it by accident two or
2. Lincoln As Patriot And Nationalist three weeks afterwards. I suppose that my opposition to the principle
of slavery is as strong as that of any number of the Republican party;
but I had also supposed that the extent [original emphasis] to which I
Regarding Lincoln's patriotism and devotion to the Union, he feel authorized to carry that opposition practically was not at all
was devoted rather to the aggrandizement of his section and of his satisfactory to that party. S
faction, which dominated that section. When broader national
interests came into conflict with the interests of Lincoln and his This letter shows that Lincoln was, in fact, a staunch opponent of
faction, Lincoln took the side of his faction, as will be shown later slavery but that he recognized, better than some abolitionists
in dealing with the Mexican-American War. sharing his views, that it was necessary to be careful in approaching
Lincoln's first term in the lllinois legislature coincided with the their goal.
initial rumblings in Northern legislatures of the dangerous and Lincoln's aggrandizement of his sectional and factional advantage
divisive slavery issue. Responsible Americans of both sections at the expense of the nation as a whole is most clearly evidenced by
recognized the danger posed to the American Union by the slavery his opposition to the war with Mexico. President James K. Polk,
issue and sought to head it off. One means of doing this was to certainly one of the greatest American presidents, was responsible
have the legislatures of both sections pass identical resolutions for almost doubling our national territory by means of the war with
expressing a national consensus on the slavery issue from a Mexico. Through his efforts and through the heroism in battle of
moderate point of view. many genuine American nationalists like Robert E. Lee and
Stephen Douglas, a true American patriot, was among those Jefferson Davis, a whole empire was won, out of which would be
instrumental in seeking to have the illinois legislature pass this carved many of our states, from Texas to California.
resolution. The resolution was overwhelmingly passed with only a President Polk's war with Mexico was not universally popular,
tiny minority voting against it. Among the handful of opponents however, even in the America of the 1840's. (It is noteworthy that
was a freshman member of the legislature, Abraham Lincoln.4 many modern Liberals consider the Mexican War to have been the
Beginning with this incident, Douglas was to be a lifelong worst and most immoral war in our history, preferring such wars as
adversary of Lincoln. the War between the States, WWI and WWll as "moral" wars.)6
Lincoln's position on the lllinois resolution seriously impeaches Among Polk's opponents in the matter of the war was the freshman
6 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln and the Coming of The War 7

congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. On January 12, antithetical to those of the South. Hence the North desired the
1848, Lincoln spoke in the House of Representatives defending the erection of a high tariff barrier to enable herself to sell her industrial
vote of his party a few days before in declaring "that the war with products with a competitive advantage over imports from Europe.
Mexico was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by Likewise, most of the nation's foreign exchange was earned by
the President''? It was, in Carl Sandburg's words, a fiercely exports from the South. The tariff issue was critical in the division
partisan speech, which led to strong criticism of Lincoln in Illinois. of the nation and probably played the major role in determining the
The result was that Abraham Lincoln was defeated for re-election to North upon a policy of aggression and conquest when the secession
Congress due to his opposition to national expansion and to the war came.
with Mexico. Lincoln had always been a national Whig. His policies were
It is also ironic to note that in his speech attacking President Polk those in favor of a central banking system, which he championed
Lincoln made two statements which can be cited against him in his during his first term in the Illinois legislature.Io Tile Bank of the
own conduct in the War between the States. Lincoln stated: United States which Andrew Jackson opposed was similar to our
Any people any where, being inclined and having the power, have
present day Federal Reserve System. Lincoln opposed resolutions
the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a in the Illinois legislature supporting President Andrew Jackson,
new one that suits them better... Any portion of such people that can, who had vetoed the National Bank.ll Lincoln also favored high
may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much of the territory as tariffs, a strongly centralized government and internal
they inhabit More than this, a majority of any portion of such improvements.I2 Lincoln himself had a direct personal reason to
people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled
with, or near about them, who may oppose their movementS
support such policies, since he derived a significant portion of his
income from serving as attorney for the railroad interests.l3
These remarks clearly can be cited to justify and condone the 1be estrangement and antagonism between the two sections
actions of the South in seceding from the Union in 1860 and 1861. gradually accelerated. In 1858 Lincoln made his famous "House
To further the irony, Lincoln condemned President Polk's initiation Divided" Speech. In this speech, Lincoln declared:
of the War as unconstitutional on the grounds that Polk had sent A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government
American troops into battle without congressional authority,9 but cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. Either the
later, Lincoln would take far more dramatic steps to initiate war by opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it
executive fiat without prior congressional approval, as required by where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course
the Constitution, when it served his interests to do so in the of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward until it
shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new - North
secession crisis. as well as South.l4

3. Lincoln and the Coming of The War Entranced by the Lincoln cult, Americans are prone to read or
hear the House Divided Speech with a tingling of the spine,
As we have noted previously, Lincoln in the inception of his impressed by its dramatic tone. Set in the context of developing
public career in the Illinois State house took the radical position on regional antagonism, however, the speech seems to be that of an
slavery by opposing the resolutions intended to soothe public irresponsible demagogue. The Union had existed half slave and half
feelings in both sections. free from its inception. There appears to be no logical reason why it
The slavery issue continued to torment and divide the nation. could not have continued to have existed in that fashion, given
However, it would be a mistake to focus, as do most Northern responsible leadership and good will on both sides, until slavery
historians, solely upon the slavery issue as the cause of division was eliminated by the progress of technology. Certainly the
between the two sections. delivery of such a speech was not responsible leadership, as it did
The North was already losing its Anglo-Saxon character and was much to infuriate and alarm the South. This especially was true with
rapidly changing with the inundation of non-Anglo-Saxon Lincoln's election, which the South saw as the election of a man
immigrants from Europe. Furthermore, the North was industrializing who seemed to have declared himself on the side of those who
and her economic interests were in many respects directly intended to violate the constitutional rights and property rights of
8 SHATIERJNG THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Lincoln and the Coming of The War 9
Southerners and to interfere with their self-government. As is the
case with many dramatic speeches, the speech has its thrilling 39% of the popular vote. Only the splintering of the moderate-to-
aspects, but was utterly irresponsible and led to tragic results. conservative majority made possible the election of this President.
Lincoln's activity with regard to the developing sectional strife No president since has ever been elected with so little popular
contrasts sharply with that of his major opponent Stephen A. support. Certainly no president has ever been placed in office over
Douglas. Douglas consistently sought the national advantage, the determined opposition of so many of his fellow citizens.ls
having been a staunch supporter of President Polk in the war with Had Stephen A. Douglas been elected, it is almost certain that
Mexico. Douglas strived to promote reconciliation and cooperation secession and civil war would have been averted.
between North and South, and to develop workable compromises In his campaign Lincoln had avoided speaking on vital issues. In
that avoided dogmatic impasses on either side.ls the words of Reinhart H. Luthin, one of Lincoln's better known
Lincoln in the Lincoln-Douglas debates was his characteristic biographers, "From his election to his inauguration Lincoln's
demagogic and unprincipled self. In northern Illinois, in which the handling, or rather lack of handling of the bedeviling secession
German and other non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants now were playing crisis might be termed 'calculated inactivity' for he was to do
a major and perhaps decisive role, Lincoln declared himself nothing about it nor was he to provide much leadership, with the
dramatically for Negro equality, raising his hands to the heavens Republic tottering in the balance."t9
and declaring: "In the right to eat the bread his own hands have Lincoln had long believed that Southern talk of secession was
earned he is the equal of Judge Douglas, or of myself, or any living nothing but bluff. In 1856 he had stated in a speech in Galena,
man." However, in southern Illinois, where conservative and Illinois: "All this talk about the dissolution of the Union is
Southern sympathies ran strong, Lincoln declared himself opposed humbug.''20 He grossly underestimated secessionist sentiment and
to granting Negroes civil rights and stated that they were in fact an overestimated pro-Union strength in the upper South and border
inferior race.t6 slave regions.
Likewise, in 1858 in the course of the famous Lincoln-Douglas After Lincoln's election, a conservative Senator, John J. Critten-
debates, Lincoln wrote a meditation which was not used in his den of Kentucky, proposed a compromise to head off secession by
debates and which his admiring biographer Sandburg described as a extending the Missouri Compromise line dividing slave states from
"private affair between him and his conscience." This statement ran free states all the way to the Pacific.2t Lincoln rejected this
as follows: compromise and marshalled his party against all other compromises
Yet I have never failed - do not now fail - to remember that in with the South. Lincoln said as follows concerning this:
the Republican cause there is a higher aim than that of mere office. I
have not allowed myself to forget that the abolition of the slave trade Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If
by Great Britain was agitated a hundred years before it was a final suc- there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long must be done again. The
cess; that the measure had its open fire-eating opponents; its stealthy dangerous grmmd - that into which some of our friends have a hanker-
"don't care" opponents; its dollar and cent opponents; its inferior ing to run- is Pop. Sov. [Popular Sovereignty]. Have none of it Stand
race opponents; its negro equality opponents; and its religious and firm. The tug has to come, and better now, than any time hereafter.22
good order opponents; that all these opponents got offices, and their
adversaries got none. But I also remember that though they blazed
like tallow candles for a century, at last they flickered in the socket, Lincoln also instructed his legislative spokesman from Illinois in
died out, stank in the dark for a brief season, and were remembered no Washington not to compromise with the South.23
more, even by the smell... I am proud, in my passing speck of time,
to contribute an humble mite to that glorious consummation, which
Pleas poured into Lincoln from all regions of the country
my own poor eyes may not last to see.l7 imploring him to make some gesture to the South and give
leadership at that critical time. However, as Luthin describes it,
With his election in 1860, the real test of Abraham Lincoln's Lincoln continued his "sphinx-like silence" until his inauguration.24
leadership in his country began. State after state in the South with- The Lincoln cultists often quote a letter which Lincoln wrote
drew from the Union, as it became obvious that the South was ex- during this period, to Alexander Hamilton Stephens of Georgia,
tremely agitated by his election. Lincoln had been elected with only who later would serve as Vice President of the Confederacy. In this
letter, Lincoln is quoted as saying:
 10 SHATI'ERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln and the Coming of The War 11

For your eyes only G. Curtin of Pemisylvania who were in favor of coercing the ~o~th
Springfield. lli. Dec. 22. 1860 by armed force into remaining in the Union and thus remammg
Hon. A.H. Stephens
My Dear Sir subject to the North's tariff laws.
Your obliging answer to my short note is just received and for While in Pennsylvania, Lincoln spoke at Independence Hall. He
which please accept my thanks - I fully appreciate the present peril alluded to the Declaration of Independence and made clear that the
the country is in, and the weight of responsibility on me. Constitution was in conflict with the Declaration of Independence,
Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican and that it was his intention to reform the Constitution to bring it in
administration would directly, or indirectly, interfere with the slaves,
or with them about their slaves? If they do I wish to assure you, as
line with the principles of the Declaration. Lincoln stated as follows:
once a friend, and still, I hope. not as an enemy, that there is no
cause for such fear - I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring ~m ~e
The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence... if this
the days of Washington. country cannot be saved without giving up that principle [equality] I
I suppose, however, this does not meet the case - You think was about to say that I would rather be assassinated on this spot than
slavery is right and ought to be extended while we think it is wrong to surrender it26
and ought to be restricted - That I suppose is the rule - It certainly
is the only substantial difference between us - These statements were not calculated to soothe suspicions of
Yours very truly, Southern conservatives; they also reflect Lincoln's innate radicalism
A. Lincoln25
and dissatisfaction with the American Constitution. His
The interesting thing about this letter, which as I say is often dissatisfaction with the limitations imposed on government and
quoted by Lincoln's admirers to show him in the official posture of executive power by the Constitution were later to become evident in
the loving father holding out his hands to his erring Southern sons, his precipitation of the war and his conduct of that war.
is that the letter was never publicized and never received any As Stephen Douglas pointed out in the United S~tes Senate, as
attention in the South. The reason for this is that the preamble of the the secession crisis developed, there were three posstble courses for
letter, which Lincoln's admirers delete in the quotation, forbade the United States to take in dealing with the sectional crisis: 1 The
Stephens, a Unionist, upon his honor from showing it to anyone Union could be saved by compromise and reconciliation between
else, stating that the letter is for his eyes only. men of good will in both sections; 2 The South coul~ be allowed to
Lincoln and Stephens had served together in Congress and knew withdraw in peace and set up her own government mdependent of
each other very well. Lincoln, it may be anticipated, knew that the North; 3 The South could be coerced by military force into
Stephens would not make use of the letter in his efforts to keep remaining subject to the Union. According to Douglas, ~e best
Georgia (and thereby the South) in the Union in obedience to solution would have been one based on compromise and
Lincoln's urgings. reconciliation. The next best would have been to allow the South to
The question then arises of why Lincoln wrote the letter at all. depart in peace. The worst was to resort to violent ~ilitary force to
No one can answer that question with certainly but it would appear coerce the South into the Union like a conquered provmce.Z7
that Lincoln believed that he could entice Stephens into coming In his inaugural address, Lincoln was ambiguous, makin~ .his
North and siding with the Union in the impending sectional war. famous gesture to the South in its conclusion but also contammg
This policy of Lincoln worked with his later Vice-President, passages stating that he would not recognize secession and would
Andrew Johnson, who had also served in Congress with Lincoln, enforce the laws in all states. His original draft was much more
representing eastern Tennessee, and who went North and supported warlike but Seward convinced him to soften it28
the Union during the War. Continuing efforts were made to negotiate a peace~ separation.
Certainly any responsible American would agree that Lincoln Virginia sent three commissioners to meet w1th L~coln shortly
should have moved energetically to try to deter the secession prior to Lincoln's attempt to resupply Fort Sumter, which led to the
movement The fact is that Lincoln did not. On his way to bombardment of Fort Sumter and the outbreak of the War.
Washington Lincoln visited with a number of the so-called "war According to the Virginia commissioners, Lincoln equivocated as to
governors" in the North. These were men like Governor Andrew whether he would resort to armed force to coerce the seceded states
 Lincoln's Conduct of The War 13
12 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
region between Mexico and the United States. Lincoln said that the
President's action violated the Constitution's requirement that only
back into the Union. Virginia at that point had not seceded but had Congress could declare war. Lincoln's own action in raising an
placed her legislature in a state of continuous session to await anny by Executive Order was a far greater violation of .these same
further developments. The Virginia commissioners had made it provisions of the Constitution dealing with the declaration of war,
clear that if the Lincoln administration resorted to anned force than the alleged violations of President Polk which he had attacked.
against the South, Virginia and the other states of the South which The "Executive Order Anny" could be said to be the precursor of
had not already seceded would also go out and join their seceded the whole litany of executive orders which have been a favorite
sisters.29 device of presidents from the Roosevelt administration onward. The
Lincoln equivocated with the commissioners. However, his war governors, nevertheless, hastened to provide Lincoln with the
greatest concern voiced to them was, "What about my tariff?''30 This militia units and volunteers which he needed to commence the
shows once again Lincoln's committment to the huge vested hostilities and the war was on.
industrial and financial interests of the North. The war in Lincoln's The efforts of true American patriots like Stephen A. Douglas to
mind had to be fought to establish the supremacy of that financial save the Union by conciliation and compromise had been
oligarchy. The tariff under Lincoln was instated with a vigor and successfully thwarted. Lincoln had achieved his oppo~ty to
was raised to unparalleled heights.3t This economic policy of anti- rededicate the nation to the radical principles of the DeclaratiOn of
Southern tariffs and economic exploitation of the South was to be Independence and to get around the impediment of the Constitution.
continued for almost eighty years after the war and was only
abandoned in the face of the crisis of World War IJ.32 4. Lincoln's Conduct of the War
Lincoln after his inauguration temporarized and maneuvered. All
proposals in the so-called "Peace Congress" failed, receiving no A civil war is usually marked by an intensity in feeling and an
support from the administration. It was necessary to provoke the atrociousness of conduct which is often lacking in wars between
South into firing the first shot so as to rally Northern opinion, at rival powers. It is fair to say that the War betwe~n the States was
that point strongly divided, behind a war to coerce the South. This waged by the Lincoln administration with a barbanty rarely equalled
was achieved by dispatching resupply ships to Fort Sumter, thus in any other war in American history.
breaking his commitments and assurances to the South that he Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus through~ut the
would not reinforce the Federal forts in the South.33 nation. He assumed the power to close newspapers and m fact
When the news of the planned resupply of Fort Sumter reached closed hundreds of them in the North which dared criticize his
the South, the bombardment of the fort was begun. Lincoln then policies. He arrested elected officials, including fonner members of
used the act of firing upon the American flag to rally Northern Congress, who opposed him.35
opinion to his cause and put up a public pretence that the situation in Vice-President John C. Breckenridge, who finished second to
the South was merely that of a minority of conspirators preventing Lincoln in electoral votes in the 1860 election, presided over the offi-
the expression of the true Union sentiments of the loyalist majorities cial election and swore in his successor, Hannibal Hamlin. Brecken-
in the South. Lincoln may have believed this himself, because he ridge, a Kentuckian, was opposed to disunion and .to Lincoln. His
always overestimated his ability to divide the South and to provoke criticism of Lincoln was censored and the Associated Press was
animosity between the social classes in the South. It would not be barred from reporting his remarks. Breckenridge rerna~ed in
until the war had been raging for over a year that Lincoln would Washington until after the First Battle of Manassas, hopmg and
realize that this was not to be. working for peace.36 He later became a Confederate general.
After the surrender of Fort Sumter, Lincoln issued an executive The first taste of what was to come in the South in the course of
proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers to fonn an anny to the war was seen in the border states. In Missouri, the Anglo-
invade the South. Virginia and the other remaining Southern states Saxon population was disanned and the state was garrisoned with
withdrew and the Confederacy assumed its basic geography.34 volunte~r units of Gennans who could be counted on to support the
In 1848 during his efforts to oppose the war with Mexico, Lincoln administration. The Anglo-Saxon population of the whole
Lincoln had attacked President Polk upon the floor of the House for western tier of counties in Missouri were deported from their homes
having sent units of the United States Anny into a disputed border
 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Lincoln's Conduct of The War: 15
14

by General Ewing's General Order Number 11, which depopulated martial airs and operatic selections."Js Like the bombing of Dresden,
the region by forcibly evacuating the women and children on the this massive destruction of civilian property was of no military
shortest of notice, along with burning their houses and stealing their importance. On November 15, 1864, the march of the Northern
property. Among those experiencing this deportation and expropria- troops across Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah began. Sherman
tion was the mother of later President Harry S. Truman. The created a charred avenue over 40 miles wide, destroying all
memories of the sufferings she and her family had endured while railroads, seizing all provisions, pillaging, plundering and burning.
she was a small child stayed with Mrs. Truman throughout her life. There was no military force available to obstruct his course.39
On one occasion the aspiring young politician told his mother that 1be devastation in Georgia was so complete that entire commun-
he had been invited to dinner at the house of a prominent family in ities disappeared never to be heard of again. Perhaps the most
Kansas City. His mother admonished him to tum the silver over and dramatic of these occurred at the milltown of New Manchester on
check the hallmark because, "It's probably ours." On another occa- Sweetwater Creek in Douglas County, Georgia. The Union forces
sion, Truman showed his mother his new National Guard uniform had occupied the town without a shot being fired on July 2, 1864.
only to be ordered out of the house because the pants were blue. Most of the workers in the mill were women and were told to return
In Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, Northern troops fired on to their homes. They were told that they would be taken out of the
pro-Southern demonstrators, dispersed legislatures, expelled elected path of the advancing army. The mill was destroyed and the town
officials and otherwise demonstrated that no respect for was placed under guard. On July 8, the entire town, including the
constitutional rights or liberties would be shown during the course homes of the workers, was burned to the ground. Having
of the war. destroyed the entire town, only the population remained, most of
It is amazing that the Lincoln cultists have been able to shield them women and children with a few men. The women and
Lincoln from the Northern atrocities committed during the war children were separated from the men and herded into wagons. The
under his tenure as Commander-in-Chief of its armies. The wagon train then set off for Marietta, Georgia, some 16 miles
standard line on this point, usually implied rather than stated, is that away. During the journey the women were forced to endure the
Lincoln sat in the White House exuding love for Southerners, in sexual advances of the Union soldiers. In Marietta the group was
blissful ignorance of what Sherman, Ewing, Pope, Butler and joined by a similar group of deported women from Roswell,
others were doing. This, of course, is unworthy of belief and is an Georgia. On July 20, the entire group of women and children were
impossibility, given the widespread jubilant publicity in the North shipped by train from Georgia to Louisville, Kentucky.4o Not one
over the depredations of the Northern armies against the Southern woman or child is known to have returned to New Manchester. To
people.37 the credit of the North, even in that section, there was strong
General Ewing's General Order Number 11 in Missouri was opposition to the policy of deporting women and children.
merely a taste of what was to come throughout the South. The most Are we really to believe that Abraham Lincoln knew nothing of
famous and widely known example of Northern atrocities was the the depredations of Sherman's troops? The atrocious deeds of his
campaign of General William Tecumseh Sherman in Georgia. No troops were reported widely throughout the Northern press and
portion of this country has ever felt the scourge of war like the State extended over a period of many months, not ending until the final
of Georgia experienced it. surrender of the Confederacy, by which time Sherman had similarly
The city of Atlanta, after its surrender, was burned to the ground, torched Columbia, South Carolina, and laid waste to parts of
and only a handful of churches and a few outlying residences Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina Sherman, besides
escaped the holocaust. More than 4,000 edifices were burned, his legendary "War is hell" comment, wrote his wife in Savannah,
which was approximately 92% of the city. Only 450 buildings of Georgia, of popular opinion of the Northern liberators: 'They
any sort escaped this ruthless burning, in a city which had a regard us just as the Romans did the Goths and the parallel is not
population of 14,000. Captain Daniel Oakey of the Second unjust. "41
Massachusetts Volunteers recounted the burning of Atlanta as However, one should not be too hasty in condemning Lincoln.
follows: "Sixty thousand of us witnessed the destruction of Atlanta, Lincoln shared the democratic sensitivity to deportations which
while our post band and that of the 33rd Massachusetts played certainly justify his being included in the trinity of Lincoln, Wilson
16 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln's Conduct of The War 17

and F.D.R. on the subject of deportations. Not all deportations were but if, after notice to the government in Washington. these savage
practices are continued, we shall be reluctantly forced to the last resort
tolerated by the White House during the war. Thus for instance of accepting war on the terms chosen by our foes, until the outraged
when General Grant ordered Jewish speculators expelled from voice of the common humanity forces a respect for the recognized
Tennessee, Lincoln quickly issued a peremptory order to Grant, rules of war.
rescinding his order and rebuking him for having deported the You are therefore instructed to communicate to the Commander in
Jewish speculators.42 Like Wilson, F.D.R. and other ideological Chief of the Armies of the United States the contents of this letter -
to the end that he may be notified of our intention not to consider any
descendants of Lincoln, Lincoln knew where a democracy has to officers hereafter captured from General Pope's army as prisoners of
draw the line. After all, a distinction has to be made between Anglo- war.4S
Saxon women and children, textile workers and farmers, and
Jewish speculators. General Lee also wrote to the United States government
Nor were the outrages of the Northern armies confined to the condemning Pope's practices and warning of the results they would
states of Georgia and South Carolina. In Virginia, for example, 1 lead to. While General Halleck refused to accept Lee's letter
between July 18 and July 23, 1862, General John Pope issued four because of its insulting statements about the United States
general orders providing that the Union army would as far as government, nevertheless Pope's orders were modified and von
possible subsist upon the country, i.e., steal food from the civilians. Steinwehr was reprimanded for the conduct of his troops.46
All villages and neighborlloods through which the Union forces Like his ideological descendants, Wilson and F.D.R., Lincoln
marched would be placed "under contribution." Civilians living did not hesitate to cooperate with antagonistic ethnic groups against
along the line of march would be punished if there were any injuries his own people. Thus the armies of the North were swelled with
to railroads or other roads by bands of unknown guerillas. Also, hundreds of thousands of mercenary soldiers from Europe, lured to
Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr seized civilians as hostages the United States by a circular known as "the notorious Number
so that they could be executed if any of his soldiers were killed by 19" in the South. This circular from William H. Seward offered
unknown persons. (One recalls the righteous indignation inducement in the form of pay and bounties to enlist in the service
periodically vented at Germans for reprisals taken against civilians of the North, which already enjoyed an advantage in numbers of
for guerilla actions of the "gallant resistance" in World War II.) four times the White population of the South. The circular was
Those refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States evasive about service in the Army. Consul General John Bigelow in
would be banished from their homes; if found at any point within Paris organized a network of immigration agencies across Europe
the Federal lines or in the rear, they would be executed as spies. offering free land under the Homestead Act of 1862. After the war
Anyone who communicated with the enemy was subject to the Bigelow stated that the tremendous success of recruiting of these
death penalty. As Hudson Strode points out in his marvelous foreign mercenaries accounted for the "mysterious repletion of our
biography of Jefferson Davis, a mother who sent her son a letter army during the four years of war."47
could be regarded as a spy.43 Pope also proceeded to arm the Large numbers of Irish and German mercenaries arrived to assist
recently-freed slaves against the whites. General McClellan deserves in the suppression of the South. According to the New York
this country's admiration for denouncing Pope as "an upstart Herald, almost 150,000 immigrants were estimated to have joined
braggart" and a man who mistook brutality in war for power.44 the army early in the war. Admiral Porter estimated that a majority
President Jefferson Davis writing to General Robert E. Lee, of the eighty thousand seamen were aliens. Ultimately, it is
reacted to Pope's orders as follows: estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 mercenary troops
were enrolled in the Northern army to subjugate the South.48
We find ourselves driven by our enemies in their steady progress Pope Pius IX wrote a personal letter to Jefferson Davis for the
towards a practice which we abhor and which we are vainly struggling Confederacy to use in Ireland and in Catholic areas of Germany to
to avoid. Some of the military authorities of the United States seem to stem the recruitment of such mercenary troops.49 This letter was
suppose that better success will attend a savage war in which no quarter read in Catholic churchs across Europe to discourage Union recruit-
is to be given and no sex to be spared. For the present, we renounce
the right of retaliation on the innocent and shall continue to treat the
ment efforts. so Without the large influx of mercenaries, the primitive
private enlisted soldiers of General Pope's army as prisoners of war; and wasteful military tactics of Grant would have sickened the
18 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln.'s Conduct of The War 19

Nonhem public far sooner than it did. anyone to accord Christian burials to the Southern soldiers of war
Southern prisoners of war also seemed to have escaped Lincoln's - they ordered the bodies to be left out to rot and to decompose.
much acclaimed magnanimity. The death rate of Southern prisoners Only after the rot had gotten to the point where the public's health
in Northern prison camps was much higher than the rate of was being endangered were the rotted remains scooped together and
Northern prisoners in Southern P.O.W. camps. To this disparity buried in unmarked common ground.53
must be added the fact that the North could not claim lack of food or Likewise after the war - of course, this can't be laid to
medicine as a reason for the horrifying high death rate in the Lincoln's account since he too was dead - the North posted
prisons. In fact, the North refused to permit the shipment of soldiers at military cemeteries to prevent Southern women from
medicine or food to Union prisoners in Southern hands. Jefferson putting flowers on the graves of their deceased husbands, fathers,
Davis offered to pay two or three times the market price for sons and brothers.54
medicine in commodities such as cotton, tobacco or even gold for When Richmond fell another interesting little tidbit of American
the exclusive use of Northern prisoners, to be dispensed by history occurred. Lincoln's subordinates ordered that the Episcopal
Northern surgeons. This offer was ignored by Lincoln. Finally, the churches, in which it is the custom to pray for the leader of the .
Confederates offered to release 13,000 of the most desperate cases country, were to pray for Abraham Lincoln in conquered areas of
without an equivalent exchange by the Lincoln government. The the South. If they refused to pray for Abraham Lincoln, Northern
Lincoln administration waited from August to October to collect the troops were to take the priest away from the altar, thrust him out of
prisoners. After they were released, atrocity photographs of the the church, close the church and tum the church over to Northern
men were circulated in the North to show how the typical prisoner denominations.
in Southern hands was supposedly treated. 51 Another development in the course of the war which shows
Sherman used Southern prisoners of war to clear mine fields by something of the barbarity with which it was waged is the famous
marching them back and forth across land outside Savannah where incident involving Benjamin Butler in New Orleans. General Butler
mines were suspected. Southern prisoners were also herded in front was one of the most ruthless and cruel Northern generals. When he
of Northern emplacements under Confederate artillery fire so as to occupied New Orleans he embarked upon a course of insult and
force Southerners to fire on their own men. Thus in the siege of abuse toward the civilian population. There were hardly any males
Charleston, 50 Confederate officers were placed in a holding pen in of military age left in New Orleans. They had all been sent off to the
front of Fort Wagner on Morris Island, so as to expose them to the army, so that the women were deprived of their sons, husbands and
fire of Confederate batteries shelling the Northern positions. On fathers to protect them. It was apparently inconceivable to Butler
June 23, 1864, an order was issued to this effect from the office of that these women would not welcome their Northern conquerors
the Commissary-General of Prisoners in Washington, D.C.52 Once under the circumstances of the war and he took umbrage at the fact
again, the idea that Lincoln was ignorant of the atrocious conditions that one Southern lady spat at a Northern soldier who persisted in
under which Southern prisoners were held or the misuse of such making advances toward her. When Butler heard of this he issued
prisoners is not tenable. his Order Number 28 which read as follows:
There is a French saying: the more things change, the more they
remain the same. A book that has gotten fairly widespread As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject
to repeated insults from the women, calling themselves "ladies" of New
distribution in the United States in the last year, called The Long Orleans in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and comtesy
Surrender, is worth reading because it shows us that we Americans on our part [it is to be noted that there were Negro troops among the
are no more moral than foreign peoples. We have committed the occupying army] it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall, by
same kind of war crimes that other people have committed. During word, gesture or movement insult or show contempt for any officer or
the height of the hullabaloo raised over the Bitburg visit by Reagan, soldier of the United States she shall be regarded and held liable to be
treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation.55
I learned of the disrespect shown to the Southern war dead in the
course of the war. Among things cited by Burke Davis in The Long This in essence was a "right to rape" order which he issued to his
Surrender was the fact that after the Battle of Sharpsburg in troops and he undoubtedly, given his personality, was gratified by
Maryland, the Nonhemers announced that they would not permit the effect it worked upon the civilian population. I assume that he
20 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Lincoln's Conduct of The War 21
was also astonished at the outrage that it aroused around the world,
because the order redounded to the great discredit of the United hundreds of newspapers in the North which criticized the war. He
States. Palmerston, the British Prime Minister, wrote to Charles abolished the writ of habeas corpus and is estimated to have held as
Francis Adams, the U.S. Minister in London the following many as 20,000 civilians in detention without trial.ss The suffering
concerning Butler's order: o.f the North, while ~~t. as horrific _as that of the South, especially
smce the Northern CIVIlian populatlon at large escaped its severity,
I will venture to say that no example can be fmmd in the history of was none the less very real. The battle losses were far in excess of
civilized nations till the publication of this order of a general guilty anyone's expectations.s9
in cold blood of so infamous an act as deliberately to hand over the In this regard it is worth noting the famous letter to Lidia P.
female inhabitants of a conquF'ed city to the unbridled license of an
unrestrained soldiery.SS Bixby which Lincoln cultists love to cite. The text of the famous
letter is as follows:
Later he said to the English Parliament: "It is a proclamation to
which I do not scruple to attach the epithet 'infamous.' Any English- Dear Madam:
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of
man must blush to think that such an act has been committed by one the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five
belonging to the Anglo-Saxon race." sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
Likewise the French Minister in Washington, Mercier, who was I feel how weak and frivolous must be any words of mine which
concerned because so many of the women in New Orleans were of could attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss overwhelming.
French extraction, issued strong remonstrances from the French But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may
be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
government. Finally, Lincoln relieved Butler of his command- I pray our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your
but not because of Butler's treatment of the civilians of New bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved
Orleans; not because Butler and his brother were believed to be and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so
selling supplies through the black market to the Confederates; not costly a sacrifice on the altar of Freedom.
because Butler ordered a civilian hanged: Lincoln did not remove Yours, sincerely and respectfully,
ALincoln60
Butler for these reasons. It was when Butler began confiscating
foreign property and all of the foreign consuls united and objected
to his behavior in a unanimous letter to Washington that Butler was This letter received much publicity in the North, calculated as it
removed. Lincoln's reaction to the complaints was to give Butler was to touch the heart of any reader.
the assignment of Commander of the Department of Virginia and Those of us who are not Lincoln admirers may see in it a sterling
North Carolina and Commissioner of Prisoner-of-War example of the humbug and hypocrisy that is an inescapable pan of
Exchanges.s6 What Lincoln expected of prisoner of war exchanges any democracy. Lincoln's own son, Robert Todd Lincoln, was of
can be gauged from this appointment. military age and was also a resident of Massachusetts during the
When Lincoln appointed Butler he also warned Butler that if he bloodletting of the War between the States. Unlike Mrs. Bixby's
were captured, "He [Jeff Davis] has a price on your head and will sons, however, Abraham Lincoln's son fought the war at Andover
hang you for sure." This was the man Lincoln expected would be and Harvard. Only in the closing months of the War did young
able to ensure humane treatment for prisoners of war and their Robert finally see military service. His service was confined to
exchange. The Confederate commissioner at first refused to meet serving on General Grant's staff where he enjoyed a bird's eye
with Butler. A few months after Butler's appointment, Grant view of the war's conclusion with the rank of Captain and Assistant
ordered all further exchanges to cease. Adjutant General.61
Lincoln's depredations in the course of the war were not But Lincoln's behavior in sheltering his son from the war at the
confined, however, to the South. As mentioned above Lincoln also same time he was consigning the sons of so many Northern
interfered with the functioning of constitutional government in the mothers to battle contrasts sharply with the behavior of Robert E.
North by arresting elected representatives of the people and holding Lee and other Southern leaders. Most of the sons of Southern
them for military trial.S7 By Executive Order he closed down leaders fought in the war. There was a famous example in one battle
in which Lee was riding by an artillery unit. It was a hot day and
22 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln and His Place in American History 23

the men had stripped themselves of their unifonns. Tiley were toward the situation which exists today. 65 He successfully defeated
blackened by the smoke from the cannons. As Lee rode by, one the South. The labors of the South for its freedom were all in vain.
private, black with powder, ran out of the unit and spoke to the Seventy-five percent of the white male population of military age
General. Lee said: "Well, my man, what can I do for you?" The served in the Southern armies but could not overcome the disparity
artilleryman replied to him, "Why, General, don't you know me?" in numbers of the North's mercenaries. 66 The cherished dream of
It was Robert E. ("Rob") Lee, Jr., Lee's son and namesake in the Southern independence was not to be. Lincoln should be seen as an
thick of battle. Another of Lee's sons, William Fitzhugh Lee, would
example of the amazing inability of Americans to assess their
be captured about the middle of the war, and Custis Lee would later
history objectively because while some things may be little known,
be taken prisoner by the North in the closing days of the war.62
Finally, most Americans accept as an article of faith that had certainly everyone has heard of General Sherman's march to the
Lincoln lived he would have conducted a policy of magnanimity Sea. We cannot exonerate Abraham Lincoln from this atrocity. Yet
toward the South during Reconstruction. In view of the methods by somehow the question is never even asked by Americans - if
which he provoked the war and the methods by which he waged the Lincoln was so wonderful and magnanimous and kind and good,
war, such is mere supposition. There are various statements of why did the March to the Sea take place?
Lincoln's that are cited (that he was going to treat them as if they The Lincoln myth exemplifies the lack of historical sense and
had never left, and all of that) but since Lincoln spoke out of both objectivity of Americans, the ability to accept "official" history
sides of his mouth, not too much credit can be laid to such remarks. even in the face of obvious facts.
For example, Lincoln indicated that he was in favor of Negro
suffrage in Louisiana, which would have placed the white Notes
Louisianans in a politically untenable position. He was upset when
the Unionist-dominated legislature of the Reconstruction 1. See, for example, Eric Foner, "Lincoln. Bradford and the Conservatives,"
government did Iiot grant suffrage to Negroes and he expressed a The New York Times, February 13, 1981.
desire that Negro suffrage be granted.63 Indeed, after Lincoln's last 2. Burke Davis, The Long Surrender (New York: Random House, 1985),
pp. 108-09, 203.
cabinet meeting Attorney General Joshua Speed, an advocate of 3. Dwight G. Anderson, Abrahmn Lincoln: The Question for Immortality
Negro suffrage, told Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase that Lincoln (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1982), p. 66. Ward Hill Lamon, one of
"never seemed so near our views."64 Of course, after Lincoln's Lincoln's closest friends, wrote: "He perceived no reason for changing
assassination, Negroes were given the right to vote and they were his convictions, but he did perceive many good and cogent reasons for
not making them public."
manipulated by Northern carpetbaggers into passing harsh laws
4. Edgar Lee Masters, Lincoln, the Man (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.,
against the fonnerly rebellious, white, Southern population. 1931), pp. 40-3; Robert W. Johansen, Stephen A. Douglas (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 54-5.
5. Lincoln and His Place in American History 5. Reinhard H. Luthin, The Real Abrahmn Lincoln (Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1960), p. 178.
6. David L. Hoggan, The Myth of the New History (Torrance, California:
What then is the proper place of Abraham Lincoln in American
Institute for Historical Review, 1985), p. 72 et. seq.
history and why they should we as Revisionists question Abraham 7. Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
Lincoln? 1926), Volume 1, p. 367. Sangamon Edition (referred herein as "SE").
The proper place of Abraham Lincoln in American history is as 8. Sandburg, Vol. L p. 369 SE.
part of the liberal trinity of F.D.R., Wilson and Lincoln. He had the 9. Masters, pp. 97-8.
10. Johansen, p. 53.
same values they had. He advanced the country toward unlimited 11. Masters, p. 81.
government as they did. He was willing to use foreigners and 12. Masters, p. 82.
minority groups against his own people. He was willing to have a 13. Dee Alexander Brown, Hear the Lonesome Whistle Blow: Railroads in
selective "democratic" conscience when it came to subjects like the West (New York: Holt. Rinehart & Winston, 1977), pp. 10--12.
deportations. He properly ought to be considered as a major liberal This book also details the Republicans' use of the railroads as a
political tool and weapon during and after the War between the States.
force, as someone who moved the country toward the left and 14. Sandburg, Vol. 2. pp. 103-04 SE.
 Notes 25
24 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Lincoln on May 3, 1861 authorized enlistment of 82,000 additional

15. Johansen, see general chapters XXIX and XXX. soldiers. On July 4, 1861 he asked for 400,000 volunteers. The First
16. Sandburg, Vol. 2, p. 159 SE. Battle of Manassas was not fought until July 21, 1861. What did Lincoln
17. Carl Sandburg, Reader's Digest Illustrated Edition Abraham Lincoln: The plan to do with over half a million troops? Ludwell H. Johnson, Division
Prairie Years and the War Years (Pleasantville, New York: The Reader's
and Reunion: America 1847-77 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978),
Digest Association. 1970), p. 136. ("RD")
18. Luthin, p. 238. It is worth pointing out that Lincoln got the same p. 89.
percentage of the vote as Fremont received in 1856 while the combined 35. Bradford, pp. 149-150; Masters pp. 422-23. The mayor of Washington,
Douglas-Breckenridge slates increased the Democratic popular vote. D.C., Congressman Vallandigham of Ohio and a large portion of the
This does not include Bell, who got nearly one third of Lincoln's Maryland legislature were jailed.
popular vote total. The Douglas-Breckenridge vote increased from 45% 36. Davis, pp. 69-70.
(1.8 million) to 47% (2.2 million). 37. It is worth noting that Dr. Goebbels did not overlook the Northern
19. Luthin's chapter 16 outlines this nicely.
campaign techniques. German propaganda in the Second World War
20. Luthin. p. 242.
21. loc. cit. cited Union conduct as a example of what Europe could expect if the
22. loc. cit. Americans were to begin their crusading on a broad scale. Evidently the
23 . op. cit., p. 243. Nazis felt the Lincoln government would be a model for the Roosevelt
24. loc. cit. Lincoln "pondered over patronage" while the Union dissolved. government. An example of this propaganda is printed in the English
25. Alexander Hamilton Stephens, A Constitutional View of the Late War language version of Signal.
Between the States, Its Causes, Character, Conduct and Results (New
Those who wish to shield Lincoln from personal responsibility for the
York: National Publishing Company, 1868), Volume II, p. 266.
26. Sandburg, Vol. 3, p. 73 SE; Masters, p. 380. wartime atrocities must grapple with the case of Ivan Basilovitch
27. Johannsen. p. 850. Turchin, a Russian cossack in the service of the North.
28. Hudson Strode, Jefferson Davis, Confederate PresidenJ (New Yorlc: The little town of Athens, Alabama, a community of 1,200 is perhaps
Harcourt, Brace & World, 1959), p. 8. the only community in America ever to experience the horrors of wars
29. C.R. Vaughan, D.D., Editor, Discussions by Robert Dabney, D.D., as waged in Eastern Europe.
U.D., Volume IV (Harrisburg, Virginia: Sprinkle Publications, 1979), On May 2, 1862, Turchin marched his four regiments into the town
pp. 87-100, quoting the memoirs of Colonel John B. Baldwin. a
and ordered them to stack arms. Turchin then told them he would shut
member of the Virginia Peace Commission.
his eyes to whatever they wished to do to the town's inhabitants,
30. Vaughan, p. 94.
31. M.E. Bradford, Remembering Who We Are: Observations of a Southern according to a reporter for the New York Herald.
Conservative (Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1985), Turchin's men, unleashed on the civilian population, proceeded to loot
p. 147. Lincoln raised the tariff from 18.84% to 47 56%. The tariff stores, private homes, barns and smokehouses. The townspeople who
stayed above 40% in all but two years from Lincoln's administraion to rushed to the sound of breaking doors and glass were directed away at
the election of Woodrow Wilson. The policy amounted to a brutally
bayonet point. Women were reportedly insulted and raped. A pregnant
effective policy of treating the South as a colonial possession
transferring wealth from the South to the Northern plutocrats. woman whose husband was thought to have joined guerilla bands
32. Ellis Gibbs Amal, The Shore Dimly Seen (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: opposing Turchin was so badly mistreated that she miscarried and died.
J.B. Lippincott Company, 1946), pp. 165-185. Ellis Arnall was Turchin established his headquarters in the house of the J.W.S. Donnell
Governor of Georgia from 1943 to 1947. A staunch New Deal family. Turchin refused to allow doctors into the house to treat Donnell's
Democrat, he was one of the most liberal governors ever elected in this sick daughter who died shortly thereafter. When the Donnells asked that
history of the State. An example of what Wilmot Robertson styled an the brigade band stop playing loud music which was disturbing the sick
"old believer" liberal, he also appears to be that rarest of all creatures
and dying girl, Turchin told them that "patriotic music" helped speed a
- an honest Southern liberal whose belief in multi-racialism does not
include the usual hatred for his own people and region. The chapter of soul to heaven.
the book referred to in this footnote is a concise and convincing Turchin told fellow officers that all White Southerners would be killed
summary of the Northern exploitation of its Southern colony after the and their lands divided between the slaves and immigrants.
War for Southern Independence. To the credit of the North native-born federal officers were revolted by
33. Strode, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, pp. 28-31 ; John Shipley and ashamed of the atrocities and a court martial was convened against
Tilley, The Coming of the Glory (New York: Stratford House, 1949), Turchin by Union General Ormsby McKnight Mitchell.
pp. 58--9. See also Masters, pp. 390-96. .
Turchin excused his conduct by claiming that some residents had spat
34. What kind of war did Lincoln expect? The largest single field army m
the Mexican War was 11,000. After calling out the 75,000 militia,
26 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Notes 27

at his soldiers and that the townspeople had had the effrontery to cheer complaint against the government, that General Grant has not been
Southern cavalry men who had fought Turchin the day before. dismissed from the service."
However, Brigadier General James A. Garfield, who later was to 43. Strode, pp. 289-90.
become President of the United States, ruled that Turchin should be 44. op. cit., p. 290.
kicked out of the service because of his atrocious conduct. 45 . op. cit., p. 290-91.
Despite the laudable and courageous actions of native-born federal 46. op. cit., p. 291.
officers in convening the court martial and seeking turchin' s removal 47. op. cit., p. 500.
from the army, their commander-in-chief in Washington had different 48. op. cit., pp. 500-501.
ideas. 49. op. cit., p. 501.
Abraham Lincoln rushed through congress a promotion for Turchin to 50. There is an Irish song of the era that goes:
the rank of brigadier general. Turchin was welcomed home to Chicago "Hey, boys, do take my advice,
by a cheering mob of hate-crazed Northerners and a band playing "Lo ''To America I'd have you not to be coming,
the conquering Hero comes." (It is rather fitting that this particular tune "For there's nothin' here but war,
and song should have been played to welcome Turchin inasmuch as it "Where the murderin' cannon roar,
was composed in honor of the Duke of Cumberland ("Bill the Butcher" "And I wish I was back in dear ole Erin."
who directed the cruel, bloody and savage terror campaign against the The Song refers to "Mr. Lincoln's war" and being handed a gun upon
Scottish supporters of the Stuarts in the 1745 uprising). arrival at the pier.
Lincoln's actions in promoting Turchin and thwarting the court martial 51. Strode, pp. 111-13.
convened by his own native-born officers are difficult to reconcile with ·52. Confederate Veteran Magazine, January-February, 1986, p. 7.
the idea that the atrocious conduct of Northern troops occurred without 53. Davis, pp. 191-92.
either his knowledge or his consent. (The Birmingham News, Feb. 22, 54. Ibid.
1987, page 1A). 55. Robert Werlich, "Beast" Butler: The Incredible Career of Union Major
38. Joseph T. Derry, A.M., edited by General Clements A. Evans, Georgia: General Benjamin F. Butler (Washington, D.C.: The Quaker Press,
Confederate Military History (Secaucus, New Jersey: The Blue and Gray 1962), p. 39.
Press), Volume IV, p. 360. 56. Werlich, pp. 89-90.
39. Derry, pp. 360-69; Masters, pp. 455-62. See also F.J.P. Veale, Advance 57. Masters, pp. 422-23.
to Barbarism (Costa Mesa, California: Institute for Historical Review, 58. Johnson, p. 125.
1979), p. 122: "Sherman only executed the most dramatic and devastat- 59. General Henry Halleck, General-in-Chief of the Union Armies, wrote to
ing example of the strategy that was laid down by President Lincoln Sherman in 1864: "It seems little better than murder to give important
himself... That Lincoln determined the basic lines of Northern military commands to men such as Banks, Butler, McClernand, Sigel and Lew,
strategy has been well established in such books as Collin R. Ballard's and yet it seems impossible to prevent it." (Quoted in Johnson, p. 90.)
The Military Genius ofAbraham Lincoln and T. Harry Williams' Lincoln Lincoln's search for a politically "right" general continued.
and His Generals .. Grant only efficiently applied Lincoln's military 60. Sanburg, Vol. 5, pp. 665-69 SE.
policy in the field ..." 61. Sanburg, pp. 548-49 RD.
40. Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta Weekly Magazine , April 3, 1983, 62. Clifford Dowdy, Lee (New York: Bonanza Books, 1965), p. 295.
p. 22. 63. Stephen B. Oates, Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind the Myths (New
41. Strode, Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, p. 125. York: New American Library, 1984), p. 143. Oates is a liberal who
42. Sandburg, Vol. 4, p. 176. The New York Times comment on this incident mustered plenty of information about Lincoln's radicalism.
is revealing as well: "The order, to be sure, was promptly set aside by 64. Oates, p. 145.
the President but the affront to the Jews conveyed by its issue was not 65. Marxists have never been in doubt as to Lincoln's appropriate place (to
so easily effaced. A committee of Jews took it upon themselves to thank their minds) in American history.
[emphasis in original] President Lincoln at Washington for so promptly Conservative admirers of Lincoln such as George Will, who spearhead-
annulling the odious order. Against the conduct of this committee the ed the hullabaloo raised against Professor M.E. Bradford's nomination
bulk of Jews vehemently protest. They say that they have no thanks for to head the National Endowment for the Humanities might be discomfit-
an act of simple and imperative justice - but grounds for deep and just ed to find themselves in the company of Communists and Marxists.
28 SHATIERING THE ICON OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
PENETRATING, HARD-TO-FIND BOOKS
Karl Marx was a fervent Lincoln admirer and exerted his propaganda Order these books from
efforts in Europe in favor of the North throughout the war.
When the Communists in the Spanish Civil War organized their
INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW
International Brigades of foreign volunteers to crush Spanish nationalists P.O. Box 2739 • Newport Beach, CA 92659
Check, money order, Visa or MasterCard accepted.
in the 1930's, the American brigade was named appropriately enough When ordering, please include 10% of your order value to cover postage.
"The Abraham Lincoln Brigade." California residents must add 7.75% sales tax.
Communists in particular and Marxists in general have always admired Prices valid through 1994
Lincoln as our country's "greatest" president, as was shown correctly in 0030 TilE ANTICHRIST by Friedrich Nietzsche. Translated and with an introduction by H.L Mencken.
the 1987 TV movie "Amerika" which depicted a Communist run USA Noontide Press edition of a classic which had been out of print for more than half a century. Nietzsche's final
in which the cult of Lincoln was carried to even greater lengths by the and crowning work, a testament to the genius of his perception and prose, The Antichrist is the German's
salute to Chris~ rejection of Christianity, and final settling of accounts with Judaism. Mencken's slashing
new Communist rulers. introduction is as furious assault on both "religions of the book" as has been published by an American in
On November 24, 1989, the Associated Press reported an interview this century. Hb., 190 pp., $9.00
with Mao Xinyu, the grandson and still fervent supporter of Mao-Tse- 0649 AUSCHWITZ: A Judge Looks at the Evidence by Judge Wilhelm Staeglich. The German jurist's
brilliant examination of the documentary evidence for German extermination of Jews at Auschwitz, and the
Tung. Young Mao said he would like to visit America. The sole specific way the postwar trials, from Nuremberg to Jerusalem to Frankfurt, were used to create a myth unsupported
sights he mention as "must-sees" were Abraham Lincoln' s hometown by the documentary evidence. An indispensable Revisionist classic which cost its author his doctoral degree,
and the Lincoln Memorial. "Lincoln was a progressive capitalist while partially restoring German historiography its honor. Hb., 396 pp., photos, maps, biblio., index, $19.95.
0907 Pb., $11.95
revolutionary uniting the North and the South," he said. (Atlanta Journal 0957 BARNES AGAINST TilE BLACKOUf: Essays Against Interventionism by Harry Elmer Barnes. With
Constitution, Nov. 24, 1989, p. A-24.) an Introduction by James J. Martin. American historian Harry Elmer Barnes was the greatest of the great
66. Cost of the war to the South: approximately 100,000 battle deaths, Revisionist voices against Interventionism. This timely new collection includes nine of his most cogent essays
and reviews (indexed for the first time everl) on how America blundered Into World War II, and how a
200,000 disease deaths, 230,000 wounded of 850,000 in service. corrupt historical establishment helped create the post-1945 "warfare state" that promoted and promotes
Approximately 62% casualties for the entire war. It has been estimated "perpetual war for perpetual peace" from the Marshall Plan to the New World Order. Must reading for
that 75% of all Southern white males of military age served in the Revisionists! Pb., Index, 376 pp., $13.95
o690 BEHIND TilE BALFOUR DECLARATION: The Hidden Origins of Today's Mideast Conflict by
Confederate armies. (Johnson). Robert John. Definitive study of the Establishment treachery and Zionist cunning which set the stage for the
theft of the Palestinians' homeland, the Holy Land of three great religions, by interlopers from eastern Europe.
Reprint, with timely updates on today's intifada, In booklet format of the British Middle-East expert's JHR
study. Pb., 110 pp., ill us., $8.00
0198 BURDEN OF EMPIRE: America's Road from Self-Rule to Servitude by Garet Garrett. With an
introduction by Theodore J. O'Keefe. Three powerful, timeless essays on how Americans were induced to
surrender their freedoms under Roosevelt and Truman - freedoms that have never been reclaimed. A
funeral oration for the old Republic, a grim (and accurate) prophecy of the internationalist Empire (or New
World Order) , and an impetus to sober stock-taking and realistic action for hard-headed American
nationalists. Pb., 184 pp., $9.50
o625 CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA: The Waffen SS on the Eastern Front by Leon Degrelle. An unparalleled
account of soldierly sacrifice, selfless heroism, and contemporary chivalry by the Belgian writer and politician
turned Waffen-SS infantryman. Combat writing from the cauldrons of the Caucasus, Cherkassy, and Narva
which blends the grit, the terror, and the glory of Europe's crusade against Communism with the timeless
ethos of Roland and Beowulf. One reader called Degrelle, "The Homer of the Twentieth Century" because
of this masterpiece. Includes unflinching vlgneues of Hitler, Rimmler, et a!. Must reading for today's - and
tomorrow's- men and women of the West. Hb., 350 pp., $17.95
0917 TilE LEUCHTER REPORT: The First Forensic Examination of Auschwitz by Fred A. Leuchter.
Here it is at last: David Irving's sumptuous edition of the Leuchter Repo~ with a foreword by Britain's
leading independent historian and an introduction by Dr. Robert Faurisson. Printed on glossy stock, brimming
with diagram~, maps, photos, and documents, this edition presents Leuchter's history-making, history-shaking
findings at Auschwitz and Majdanek, and explains, in words and pictures, how America's leading gas-chamber
expert came to travel to the camps in Poland and the meaning of what he found there. Pb., 66 pp., maps,
photos, $20.00
0261 COMMANDO EXTRAORDINARY by Charles Foley. Classic biography of OUo Skorzeny, the dashing
SS officer who was Adolf Hitler's - and the Second World War's - premiere commando. Read of his
daring rescue of Mussolini, his kidnap of Admiral Horthy's playboy son, his controversial role in the Battle
of the Bulge, and his dramatic trial at the hands of his American captors. This book was blacklisted In
Germany, studied in Israel. Hb., 244 pp., photos, $14.95
0272 COMMUNISM IN G.ERMANY 1933 by Adolf Ehrt. A delailed, authoritative account of the menace 0501 TilE ESSENE CHRISTIAN FAITH by Dr. Martin A. Larson. Dr. Larson's close study of the Dead Sea
Germany's powerful, popillar Communist Party, led and staffed by Stalinist revolutionaries, posed before Hider Scrolls, or at least those portions of the breathtaking 1947 archeological find "'tlch ha-.1: been translaJed and
came to power. A look at Soviet and Weimar realities from a National Socialist perspective. Pb., $9.00 published, reveals a forerunner and influence on Chrlstianity. World-renowned Scrolls scholar Millar Burrows
0252 COMMUNISM WITII TilE MASK OFF by Dr. Joseph Goebbels. The text of a speech to the Seventh wrote of this book: "An enormous amount of hard work and original thinking has gone into IL" Hb. 273
National Socialist Party Congress in Nuremberg (1935), Communism with the Mask Off ls a riveting pp., biblio., index, $8.95 '
analysls of the Jewlsh role in international Bolshevlsm, and the work of Communists in spreading terror, 0339 FALSEHOOD IN WARTIME by Arthur Ponsonby, M.P. First published In 1928 this volume
slavery, squalor, famine and athei$m from their own bloody domains throughout the world. Bears instructive authoritatively debunks numerous atrocity lies fabricated and drculated about the Germans durlng World War
comparison with speeches by New-Deal era American politidans. Pb., 40 pp., $4.00 I. Learn how professional liars - three decades before the Holocaust lies - manuf2ctured such fakes as
o687 TilE "CONFESSIONS" OF KUKT GERSTEIN by Henri Roques. The famous French university a "Ge~an c?rpse factory," "the crucified Canadian," handless Belgian Infants, and scores more with
dlssertation which debunks the key "Holocaust" testimony of SS officer Kurt Gerstein, the central figure in typewriter, SCISSOrs and paste to lead millions to misery, mutilation, and death. Lord Ponsonby's classic
the anti-German and anti-Catholic hysteria stirred by Rolf Hochhuth 's The Deputy. A scholarly Revlsionlst remains indlspensable for anyone concerned to see through government and media lies today, and tomorrow.
classici Pb., 318 pp., biblio., index, map, charts, $11.00 Pb., 192 pp., $6.95
0715 TilE CONSTITU110N OF TilE UNITED STATES: Its Sourtts and Applications by Thomas James 0955 FLASHPOINT-KRISTAU.NACHT 1938: Instigators, Victims and Bene.ficiaries by Ingrid Weckert.
Norton. This is a handbook for dtlzens as well as public officials. It takes apart the Constitution sentence by At last, a thorough, skeptical, Revisionist study of the 1938 "Crystal Night" inddent, which marked an
sentence and gives, first, the legal and historical background to each of its provisions, then supplies their irrevocable turning point in German-Jewish relations. The author, a well-received lecturer at IHR's Sixth
subsequent histories and applications. An enormous amount of historical scholarship and profound Conference, lays to rest long-standing myths about Krlstallnacht, shatters the taboo against putting the affair
perspective on ali facets of the law of the land our forebears fought to achieve. A great companion piece to In its actual historical context, and raises tantalizing questions as to the shadowy instigators who organized
55 Men: The Story of the Constitution by Fred Rodell. Introduction by Dr. Martin A. Larson. Pb. 319 pp. the pogrom. Pb., 180 pp., illus., bio., glossary, index, biblio., $15.95
index $10.95 o688 TilE FORCED WAR: When Peaceful Revision Failed by David Hoggan. The classic Revlsionist study
0707 55 MEN: The Story of the Constitution by Fred Rodell. In 1987 we commemorated the 200th of the o.rigins of the Second World War, which has gone through more than a dozen German printings. The
anniversary of the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the fi~t maJOr study of the war's outbreak to utilize Polish language sources, The Forced War Js a diplomatic
first ten Amendments) have proven so effective that only 16 Amendments have been added since 1791. hlstory of the first importance. Bursting with analysis and insight, it reads like a thriller, lnstructo like a
Despite bloodless and sentimental evocations of the "Founding Fathers," our country's basic law had a far graduate seminar In modem European hlstory. Hb., 716 pp., biblio., index, maps & illus., $35.00
from irenic gestation, with stormy debates and cunning intrigues marking the Framers' deliberations. 55 Men 0718 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION by Nesta H. Webster. This classic study of the 1789 revolution
brings to life that very human document, our Constitution, in this history based squarely on the careful notes meticulously debunks liberal and Marxist romantidzation of such events as the storming of the Bastille the
of Federalist author and later President James Madlson. Introduction by Martin A. Larson Ph.D., Pb. 281 pp. siege of the Tuileries, etc. Beautifully written, an indispensable corrective during the bicentennial oi the
$12.95 revolution that forged the modem age in Europe. Pb., 519 pp., index, $8.95
0008 TilE CONTROVERSY OF ZION by Douglas Reed. The London Tunes foreign correspondent brings 0366 GRUESOME HARVEST: The Allies' Postwar War Against the Gennan People, by Ralph F. Keeling.
a lifetime of observation and study to the past and present of Jews, Judaism, and Zionlsm, resulting in thls With an introduction by Theodore J. O'Keefe. One of the first books to delail the numerous crimes inflicted
finely woven tapestry of two and a half millennia of Jewish and Gentile history. Ranging from the ancient on the ~ermans after World War II - the mass expulsions, imposed famine, systematic rapine and theft,
writings of Torah and Talmud to The Protocols of Zion, from Weishaupt's illuminati to the French and and derual of basic freedoms - by the Allied occupiers. Bristling with contemporary documentation and
Russian revolutions to the present day, n1e Controversy of Zion ls the most up-to-date (first published In humanitarian outrage, this account of what Tune magazine called "history's most terrifying peace " belongs
1978) and Informative synthesis of classical conspiracy theory available today. New edition with Preface by in every revisionist library. Pb., 151 pp., $9.00 '
lvor Benson, Pb., 588 pp., biblio., index, $12.95 0301 THE HO~ OF THE TWE~~IE!H CENTURY by Dr. Arthur R. Butz. The book that sparked
0259 TilE CROSS OF IRON by Willi Heinrich. Epic novel of the German Landser (combat infantryman) on present-day Amencan Holocaust ReviSiorusm, Butz's Hoax remains an unsurpassed scholarly study of the
the Eastern Front. A grim, realistic account of the most terrible fighting the world has ever seen, written by Extermination legend, from Auschwitz to Zyklon. Butz's mastery of the source material and cold critical eye
a batde-hardened veteran of the German WehrmachL Classic postwar German bestseller. Hb., 456 pp., $17.95 C?n~nu~ to make Hoax as valuable today as when it first appeared 14 years ago. Pb., 369 pp., illus., maps,
0168 TilE CRUISE OF TilE RAIDER WOLF by Roy Alexander. Recounts one of the 20th century's strangest b1blio., mdex, $9.95
and most stirring sea adventures - the successful round-the-globe expedition of the First World War German 0689 TilE ~?LOCAUST STORY AND TilE I:J~ ~F ULYSSES by Paul Rassinier. Tenth anniversary relssue
commerce raider and minelayer Wolf. Breaking the Allied blockade, and dlsguised as a merchant ship, the of Paul Rass1ruer (the father of Holocaust RevJSiorusm) 's classic studies of the German concentration camps
Wolf sank 135,000 tons of Allied shipping. Hb., 270 pp., $15.95 and ~e alieg~d extermination of European Jewry. No Revlsionist library ls complete without these ground-
0326 "DEMOCRACY'' IN ISRAEL by Noman F. Dacey. The noted economist and bestselling author (How breaking studies by the French reslstance hero, national legislator, and inmate of Buchenwald and Dora.
to Avoid Probate) tackles a Mideast big lie: that Israells a beacon of democracy In a sea of Arab tyranny .. Previous tide: Debunking the Genocide Myth. Pb., 450 pp., index, appendices, $12.00
First-rate exposition, careful referencing supply a compelling indictment of Zionlsm in theory and practice. 0783 TilE IMPEACHMENT OF MAN by Savitri Devi. In this 1945-46 philosophical treatise by the author
Pb., 74 pp., $4.00 of The Lightning and the Sun, Hindu-Nordiclst Devi argues passionately for a sodety which goes beyond
0389 TilE DISSOLUTION OF EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWRY by Walter N. Sanning, foreword by Arthur the anthropocentric, recognizing the rights of ali living things. Astimulating look at humankind's customs and
Butz. A masterly, unprecedented and so far unique demographic study of European Jewry 1931-1945, The prejudices toward animals-from Jewlsh ritual slaughter to laboratory experimentation - which will provoke
Dissolution gives the most probable accounting of the actual fate of millions of Jews airily consigned to Inform, and perhaps infuriate, humans and "humanlsts" across the belief spectrum. Pb., 200 pp., $12.00'
nonexistent "gas chambers" by the Holohoaxers. SanDing analyres the (often fragmentary) census data and 0956 INNOCENT AT DACHAU by Joseph Halow. The author, a court reporter at the postwar war crimes
the extraordinary population displacements which occurred before, during, and after World War II, which trta1s held at Dachau, returned to the transcripts - and hls memories of those trta1s - after more than 40
involved great migrations of (very much alive) Jewish refugees into the Soviet Union, North and South America years for a fresh look at how injustice was done to the defendants, and to hlstorical truth. Innocent at
and Palestine. Pb., 239 pp., biblio., index, graphs, charts, maps, $12.95 Dachau incorporates the personal experience of a sensitive American observer and original archival research
0307 DOENITZ AT NUREMBERG: A Reappraisal edited by H.K. Thompson and Henry Strutz. A collection to make a major Revisionist contribution to the study of the postwar trta1s of the Germans. Pb 280 pp
of blistering critiques of the Nuremberg lynching bee, by an impressive array of Allied soldiers, statesmen, $12.95 ., .,
and men of letters from around the world on behalf of Admiral Doenitz and common decency. Includes state- 0513 THE JEFFERSON BIBLE: Thomas Jefferson on the Gospels. Separating himself from the
ments from such heavyweights as T.S. Eliot, General Maxime Weygand, Admiral Nimitz, J.F.C. Fuller, and many established churches of his day, Jefferson dlscarded both the Old Testament and the works of Paul and cut
others. Pb., 198 pp., illus., $8.00 from the Gospels the basic story and teachings of Jesus. In an October 12, 1813 leuer to John Adams he
0196 TilE DYNAMICS OF WAR AND REVOLUTION by Lawrence Dennis. The man best known to said these were "as easily distinguished as diamonds in a dung hill." This is a new edition or' the
revlsionlsts for his role in the FOR's 1944 Sedition Trial was one of the 20th century's most original and long-suppressed Jefferson Bible, set in new, large type for easy reading, with an introduction by Biblical
trenchant thinkers. Dennis, who saw the forces that make for international political upheaval up close as a and religious scholar Dr. Martin A. Larson. Pb., 120 pp., $9.00
State Dept. diplomat and international banker, defies standard "liberal" and "conservative" shibboleths alike 0970 LAST DAYS OF TilE ROMANOVS by Robert Wilton. Journalist Wilton, longtime Russia correspondent
to reveal the role of over-production and hyper-capitalism, international banking and debt money in produc- of the London Tunes, was the first Western journalist to reach the scene of the murder of Tsar Nicholas
ing internal chaos (revolution) and external strife (war) . Pb., 259 pp., $12.00 II and his family in Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk). This long-suppressed book, first published in 1920 and based
on Wilton's own investigation and his familiarity with the offidal White Russian inquest, tells the real story
of who murdered the Romanovs - and why. With an updated (post-Glasnost) introduction and appendix betrayal, disillusion, and endless war, cold and hot. Eight revisionist scholars, led by the incomparable
by Journal of Historical Review editor Mark Weber. Pb., photos, biblio., index, $12.95 Barnes, in eleven concise, scintillating essays on every aspect of IDR's secret dlplom2Uc and military warpath.
0166111E UFE AND DEA1H OF TilE LUFfWAFFE by Werner Bawnbach. Stirring, inside account of the Indispensable as a history and a reference. Pb., 740 pp., indexes, $18.00
triumph and tragedy of the Third Reich's air force. For his stunning courage and skill as a JU-88 dive bomber 0241 THE PHILOSOPHY OF AURED ROSENBERG by James B. Whisker. An interpretive essay into the
pilot against British and Soviet forces, author Baumbach became the first Gennan flyer to earn the coveted philosophy of Alfred Rosenberg, the most influential National Socialist thinker, who wrote extensively on art
Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. By war's end, this 28-year-old Colonel was chief of the Luftwaffe's rellgion, and Western radal history. Professor Whisker traces the Jnfluence predecessors from Justin Mmy;
bomber command Hb., 224 pp., index, photos. $15.95 and Meister Eckhart to Nietzsche and Goblneau exercised on Rosenberg, then gives a comprehensive and
0737 UNDBERGH ON 11IE FEDERAL RESERVE by Charles A. Undbergh, Sr. How panics are engineered; highly readable overview of Rosenberg's philosophy, a mainspring of ideology. Pb., 120 pp., $13.00
origins of the capital vs. labor conflict; how the bankers get the press in their pockets; what the Federal 0058 TilE PHILOSOPHY OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE by Henry Mencken. ..There is no escaping Nietz-
Reserve Act really accomplished; the real purpose of war; economic and ftnancial evils, and the way out: sche," writes the quintessential American savant and gadfly, Henry L. Mencken, at the outset of this classic.
expert observations and wise commentary by a man in a position to know-Congressman Charles lindbergh, Mencken then elucidates the German's life and philosophy with brilliant pyrotechnics and profound
father of the famed aviator. First published in 1923, this book is every bit as relevant today as it was then understanding. A must for the library of anyone who would understand the truth, beauty, and danger of the
- perhaps even more so. Pb., 249 pp., index, $9.00 best in modem writing and thought. Pb., 325 pp., $11.00
0165 PROM MOSCOW TO BERLIN: Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Battles by Georgi K. Zhukov. The 0383 PRISONER OF PEACE: The Flight to Britain and its Aftennath by Rudolf Hess, ed. by George Pile.
greatest Soviet commander tells how he directed the Red Anny's bitter last-ditch defense of Moscow, master- The late martyr's moving prison letters to his beloved wife, spanning the years of his imprisonment in Eng-
minded the encirclement and defeat of the Gennan Sixth Army at Stalingrad, smashed the last great Gennan land, Nuremberg and Spandau 1941-1951. These letters, along with other letters and commentary on Hess's
counteroffensive of Kursk-Orel, and led the climatic assault on Hitler's Berlin. Hb., 304 pp., photos, $18.95 peace mission to England, present an eloquent case for the solitary prisoner of Spandau Fortress - the 20th
0195 TilE MYfll OF THE TWENTIETH CENTIJRY: An Evaluation of the Spiritual-Intellectual century's Man in the Iron Mask - whose only crime was his desire for peace between Gennany and
Confrontations of Our Age by Alfred Rosenberg. With a preface by Peter Peel, introduction by James England. Pb., 151 pp., $7.95
Whisker. The best-known work of the best-known philosopher of National Socialism, The Myth is one of the 01~ THE RED KNIGiff OF GERMANY by Floyd Gibbons. Classic account of the legendary "Red Baron."
supreme expositions of the values of mind and will that differentiate Aryan and Jew, Nordic and Semite, and Unforgettable story of Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the First World War German ace who led the uFlying
lock the races in eternal, existential conflict. Its author paid for this book with his life at the hands of his Circus" to one spectacular air victory after another. Hb., 383 pp., $18.95
captors in Nuremberg. This edition, back in print, continues to be the first and only English-language 0725 11IE S~CRET ~F UFE: Electricity, Radiati~n and Your Body by George Lakhovsky. The early
translation of this vital work. Cloth, 512 pp., index, $19.00 disease-arresting expenments of this Tesla associate, mventor of the multiple wave oscillator and pioneer in
o662 NO TIME FOR SILENCE by Austin App. Awell-established scholar of English literature at the outbreak the field of biological resonance and healing. Fascinating reading. Pb., 214 pp., illus., index, $9.95
of World War II, the late App soon turned his pen to heartfelt ca11s for a just and humane policy toward 0948 111E SECRET TEAM by Fletcher Prouty. A career officer in Army intelligence who worked intimately
Germany. Here, for the first time under one cover, are fourteen of Austin App's hardest-hitting Revisionist with the CIA exposes the hannfu1 effects of the Agency's "covert action" interventions around the globe-
booklets and pamphlets. They run the gamut from searing indictments of the crimes of the Allies to and at home. Prouty draws relentless conclusions from his study and first-hand observation of the CIA's thirst
compassionate pleas for justice and mercy for the victims of Yalta and Potsdam. Each is a cry from the heart for power and control during the first decades of America's postwar imperium. Pb., 512 pp., index, $14.95
-and the head- bursting with facts and insights that the Establishment's media and academia have long 0254 STIJKA PILOT by Hans lllrich Rudel. The classic account of Germany's dive bombers on the Eastern
sought to suppress. Dr. App shirks no theme of contemporary World Warn Revisionism, from the Holocaust Front during wwn, written by the Third Reich's most decorated hero. Hans Rudel flew over 2,500 missions
hoax to Operation Keelhaul. Pb., 150 pp., $6.95 and destroyed over 500 Red tanks, 150 gun emplacements, 800 further combat vehicles and the Soviet
0044 ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS by Donald Day. The Chicago Tribune's northern Europe battleship Marat plus a Red cruiser! Hb., 231 pp., $14.95 '
correspondent from 1920-40, Day used his base in Riga, Latvia to report unflinchingly on the realities of 0616 A TRIAL ON TRIAL: The Great Sedition Trial of 1944 by Lawrence Dennis and Maximilian St.
Soviet tyranny and Red subversion in the Baltic. Banned from entering the USSR, fired from the Tribune at George. A first-hand account of the Roosevelt regime's attempt to throttle non-interventionist and anti-Co-
the instance of the U.S. State Department, Day threw in his lot with the brave Finns and their German allies mmunist dissent through "guilt by association" and "conspiracy" ploys. Defendant Lawrence Dennis and trial
during their anti-Bolshevist crusade. Onward Christian Soldiers bristles with Day's insights and lawyer St. George present a brilliant, luddly reasoned critique of the closest thing America has yet had to a
reminiscences of northern Europe - Scandinavia, Gennany, Poland, Danzig, lithuania, and his beloved Latvia, Soviet show trial. Must reading for patriots, civil libertarians, and everyone interested in this country's past
Estonia, and Finland in the years between the wars. With an introduction by legendary Tribune - and future. Pb., 502 pp., illus. index, $12.00
correspondent Walter Trohan, Onward Christian Soldiers pulls no punches on the Jewish role in 0615 WHO STARTED 1HE FIRST WORI.D WARP by Harry Elmer Barnes. A masterful over-view of the
Communism and on Britain and America's hypocrisy in posing as defenders of Christian dvilization. Pb., 207 controversy over the war-guilt question in World War I by the Revisionist founding father. Best brief antidote
pp., index, $7.00 to the anti-German p~paganda. Contains a glossary of the major partidpating personalities by the late Dr.
026o PANZER LEADER by Heinz Guderian. A riveting autobiography by the man who designed Hitler's Peter H. Peel. Pb., 66 pp., $4.00
Blitzkrieg tactics and then put them into practice- in Poland, in France, in Russia. Guderian's role on the 0935 WHY I SURVIVED TilE A-BOMB by Akira Kohchi. Hiroshima native Kohchi was a 16-year-old
German General Staff and his part in judging and condemning the anti-Hitler conspirators of July 20, 1944 schoolboy when his city was devastated by the first nuclear attack in history. He tells the dramatic, personal
make this an indispensable book for understanding Gennany's war. Hb., 528 pp., illus., index, $17.95 story of how he experienced and survived the bombing, and provides a gripping account of his search for
0189 PAVED WITH GOOD INfENfiONS: 1be Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America his family ~ough the burning, radioactive rubble of the doomed dty. Then Kohchi recalls how, years later,
by Jared Taylor. One of the most important books about race in America to be published in a generation, he forced himself to come to grips with his past and uncover the facts about the bombin2. and the history
Paved with Good Intentions examines unflinchingly, then thoroughly debunks, academia and media's catch- that led up to it. The author's remarkable frankness and deep hum
all explanation for black economic and social failure ("white racism"). Just as important, author Taylor of a war crime which dwarfs almost all others a unique and indi~
exposes the hypocrisy and taboo by which America's political, educational, and communications Establish- maps, photos, $19.95
ments have made frank and factual discussion about race almost impossible today. Hb., notes, index, 416 0169 WnH ROMMEL IN 11IE DESERT by Heinz Werner Scht
pp., $22.95 campaign and the German general who made it the stuff of legem
0978 PEARL HARBOR: 1be Story of the Secret War by George Morgenstern. Hailed by Revisionist giants own staff, here is a unique look at both the martial and hum
Barnes, Beard, and Tansill when it appeared shortly after World War n, this classic remains unsurpassed as enigmatic figures of the Second World War. Hb., 240 pp., $15.9
a one-volume treatment of America's Day of Infamy. Pearl Harbor is the indispensable introduction to the 0733 TilE ZIONIST FACTOR by Ivor Benson. Developments in
question of who bears the blame for the Pearl Harbor surprise, and, more important, for America's entry, mankind into the catastrophe of another war make it more urgen
through the "back door" into World War ll. Pb., 425 pp., index, biblio., maps, $14.95 as one of the major forces shaping the history of our century. This
0377 PERPETIJAL WAR FOR PERPE'I'UAL PEACE: A Critical Examination of the Foreign Policy of Benson, unravels the history, mystery and phenomenal power of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Its Aftennath. Edited by Harry Elmer Barnes. Out of print since the July 216 pp., $11.00
4, 1984 terror bombing of IHR, this is the classic revisionist study of how IDR maneuvered America, against
the wishes of most of its citizens, into war against Germany and Japan, and how IDR's war policy ended in
 Ready for more uncompromising
historical honesty? Subscribe today to
The Journal of
Historical Review
Now in its exciting
new full-sized bi-
monthly format, The
journal's scope has
been expanded to
embrace a broader
historical revisionism.
We're taking on a
wider range of issues
with the same high re-
gard for facts and the
same keen analysis on
which journal readers
have come to rely.
And now that The
journal incorporates
the IHR Newsletter, you
have a single source
for an abundance of
Fi11l•u
&r.tllllvltn
E.<>SI'IH'
Om·umf'll/111'!1 T(lkf'.'i Ol'iyi/1.~
ofCI!t·i:stiat!ii,IJ
_....,"""'- _
interesting, insightful
1\im 01 1/o/orrt u .~r
rlu ims
j11 rc d T:~y l o r 'o;
U'irlr news and thoughtful
Pm'f'd
Good lmentiotl.~

lssah Nakhlc h 's commentary on issues

Enr-IJdopr>rliu
l.l'fJUI il.~:srt u lt
in f"nurn•
Ayni11s1 f 'rwrissun
tlu• r~( l'roblvm
/'a/e.~tiue
that affect you, your
community and the
world around you. And
you'll be kept right up to date as well on the activities of the
world's foremost institution dedicated to setting the record
straight and keeping it that way- the Institute for Historical
Review.
The new journal is now published more frequently, it's
easier to read, more visually appealing, and addresses a
broader range of your interests. But most important is what
has not changed - the distinctive qualities that have always
distinguished The journal: its taboo-smashing iconoclasm, its
independent, scholarly perspective on issues and events, and
its uncompromising devotion to historical honesty.
Subscriptions are still only $40 per year, $65 for two years,
or $90 for three years (foreign subscribers please add $10 per
year). Please remit by check, money order, Visa or MasterCard.

Why not subscribe today? And why not give a gift subscription
to a friend, or local public or college library?
Institute for Historical Review
P.O. Box 2739 · Newport Beach, CA 92659