Positive liberty in the form of the power of Union armies became the newly dominant American understanding of liberty. Liberty and power were no longer in conflict. As commander in chief of an army of a million men in 1864, Lincoln the shepherd needed every bit of that power to protect the freedom of the black sheep from the slave-holding wolf. This new concept of positive liberty permanently transformed the U.S. Constitution, starting with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which abolished slavery and granted equal civil and political rights to the freed slaves. Instead of the “shall nots”
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