Status Updates From Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, ...

"Historical reviews of great statesmen," indicts Greg Weiner perceptively in Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence, "almost never account for whether their statesmanship was calibrated to their times: The assumption is that greatness finds its place in achieving change. But this measure, which assumes changes always warranted and necessarily good has no place for prudence.

Greg Weiner writes of Lincoln in Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence, "Having risen from very low estate, he knew this savagery that lies close beneath the skin of man, and he saw that most men are law-abiding only out of obedience to routine custom and convention.

Greg Weiner writes of Lincoln in Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence, "Having risen from very low estate, he knew this savagery that lies close beneath the skin of man, and he saw that most men are law-abiding only out of obedience to routine custom and convention. The self-righteous Abolitionist and the reckless Fire-eater were abhorrent to him; yet he took the middle path between them."

Greg Weiner in his Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence holds out the hope, "Even if we cannot always instill the capacity for prudence, we can teach its elements. We can show it by example through genuine instruction in the unapologetic histories of great and prudent statesmanship."

"The statesman who averts great danger and the one who confronts it," allows Greg Weiner in Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence, "may be equally prudent depending on the circumstances each faces; so may be the one who achieves change and the one who inhibits or does not seek it."

"Gratuitous change was worse than reflexive conservation," compares Greg Weiner in Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence, summarizing Burke.

"Laws," Greg Weiner brings Burke to bear in his Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence, "must instruct and improve customs."

"Like Burke, Lincoln was," Greg Weiner in Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence juxtaposes his two title subjects, "not eager to declare all issues to be ultimate, but he knew would ultimate issue when he saw one."

That's well developed discernment for the Christian. Either we become so fond of the pride and stubbornness to declare all issues ultimate, or we don't take a stand on anything.