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Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1852), 16 US President (1861 - 1865)

There are remarkable similarities between Cavour and Lincoln. Each united their
country by waging a war with notably high casualties in which a richer and more
powerful north imposed its will on a poorer south, Cavour in 1859-60, Lincoln
between 1861 and 1865, and after which each died virtually at the moment of
triumph, Cavour from a fever, probably malaria, Lincoln shot by an assassin, each

then becoming a national hero, but later having their myth debunked by revisionist
historians. In this session we’ll focus on what they did, and in the next one on their
historical reputations.

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Cavour and Lincoln are regarded as two of the greatest liberal statesmen of the 19
century. What did this mean? Liberal principles are often traced back to John Locke in
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the 17 century, but the word liberalism, derived from the Latin liber or free, was
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first popularised in the early 19 century, by Spanish politicians called liberales who
demanded that the king honour the constitution of 1812. Both the Enlightenment
and the Romantic Movement embraced freedom; to the Enlightenment, freedom of