Sovereign of a Free People

James H. Read Read is professor of political science at College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University of Minnesota. His previous books include Majority Rule versus Consensus: The Political Thought of John C. Calhoun, also from Kansas.

• 1. “The Only True Sovereign of a Free People”2. “We Divide into Majorities and Minorities”3. “The Capability of a People to Govern Themselves”5. “Aroused Him as He Had Never Been Before”: From Kansas-Nebraska to House Divided5. “Of Strange, Discordant, and Even, Hostile Elements”: Building an Antislavery Electoral Majority6. “The Plank Is Large Enough”: Lincoln on Race, Colonization, and Coexistence7. “In Course of Ultimate Extinction”:; Strategy for the Peaceful End of Slavery8. “To Declare the Right, so that Enforcement Might Follow": Lincoln’s Reconstruction of Natural RightConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

A lucid exploration of Abraham Lincoln’s democratic faith, rooted in the moral grandeur of majority rule tempered by frequent elections that measure the tides of popular sentiment and the conflict among our better angels. Timely and sobering, Sovereign of a Free People challenges Americans to keep Lincoln’s faith alive."—Michael Johnson, academy professor of history emeritus, Johns Hopkins University, and author of Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War: Selected Writings and Speeches"James Read brings to bear his deep knowledge of majority rule and political power on America’s most-studied political figure. Sovereign of a Free People explores Lincoln’s belief in majority rule—and how the institution of slavery challenged his faith in the ability of the people to govern. Read’s thorough research and clear analysis show Lincoln wrestling with the strengths and challenges of majority rule and his belief that it should have led to a peaceful resolution of the slavery question. A thoughtful book on the vulnerabilities of democracy then and now."— Christopher Childers, associate professor of history and chair of the School of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences, Pittsburg State University, and author of The Failure of Popular Sovereignty: Slavery, Manifest Destiny, and the Radicalization of Southern Politics