Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959.

Summary from the Publisher:

Crisis of the House Divided is the standard historiography of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Harry Jaffa provides the definitive analysis of the political principles that guided Lincoln from his reentry into politics in 1854 through his Senate campaign against Douglas in 1858. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication, Jaffa has provided a new introduction.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Acknowledgments

Part I. Introductory
I. 1958: The Crisis in Historical Judgment
II. 1958: Lincoln versus Douglas. The Alternatives

Part II. The Case for Douglas
III. Slavery
IV. Manifest Destiny
V. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise I. The Legal Power and Practical Impotence of Federal Prohibitions of Slavery in the Territories
VI. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise II. Did the Compromise of 1850 “Supersede” the Missouri Compromise?
VII. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise III. What Douglas Intended on January 4, 1854
VIII. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise IV. Tragedy. The Extremes Crush the Mean

Part III. The Political Philosophy of a Young Whig
IX. The Teaching Concerning Political Salvation
X. The Teaching Concerning Political Moderation

Part IV. The Case for Lincoln
XI. The Legal Tendency toward Slavery Expansion
XII. The Political Tendency toward Slavery Expansion
XIII. The Intrinsic Evil of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise
XIV. The Universal Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
XV. The Form and Substance of Political Freedom in the Modern World
XVI. Popular Sovereignty: True and False
XVII. The Meaning of Equality: Abstract and Practical
XVIII. The “Natural Limits” of Slavery Expansion
XIX. Did the Republicans Abandon Lincoln’s Principles after the Election of 1860?
XX. The End of Manifest Destiny

Notes
Appendices
Appendix I. Some of the Historical Background to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Appendix II. Some Notes on the Dred Scott Decision
Index

Online:
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