A Family and Nation Under Fire author Georgiann Baldino writes of “A House Once More Divided” at the History News Network.

“Abraham Lincoln and supporters like Joseph Medill taught that politics must not violate human rights. Immoral behavior must never be subject to a majority vote. Robert Todd Lincoln explained his father’s views on democracy eloquently in 1896. ‘In our country there are no ruling classes. The right to direct public affairs according to his might and influence and conscience belongs to the humblest as well as to the greatest…But it is time of danger, critical moments, which bring into action the high moral quality of the citizenship of America.'” Read more…

 

For more on the subject see A Family and Nation Under Fire: The Civil War Letters and Journals of William and Joseph Medill