Don Livingston discusses Northern profit and interest in slavery at the Abbeville Institute Summer School, July 5-8, 2022, at Seabrook Island, SC. https://youtu.be/ZUsclaam8Dc
Donald LivingstonOctober 26, 2022
In a speech to the Georgia legislature in 1866, Former Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens urged, "That wise and humane provisions should be made for " and that they "may stand equal before the law, in possession and enjoyment of all rights of person, liberty, and property. Many considerations claim this at your hands. Among these may be…
Donald LivingstonDecember 27, 2021
The War to Prevent Southern Independence: My Myth or Yours by Clyde Wilson Read by Donald Livingston
Mon, 14 Jul 2014 01:53:36 +0000 Clyde Wilson Download MP3
Donald LivingstonFebruary 24, 2021
A review of American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup (Encounter Books, 2020) by F.H. Buckley When asked whether a state can constitutionally secede from the United States, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia brushed the question aside, saying the matter was settled by the Civil War. He was wrong. A Zogby poll in 2018 found that 39 percent of…
Donald LivingstonOctober 20, 2020
The culture war rages on. And what a war! There seems to be a new outrage almost every day. "Make it Right," a New York organization dedicated to hunting down and removing all Confederate monuments from public space, has as its symbol an image of the statue of Lee taken down by a crane in New Orleans, and the director…
Donald LivingstonDecember 23, 2019
The Southern political tradition, in practice and theory, is one of its most valuable contributions to America and the world. The one constant theme of that tradition from 1776–through Jefferson, Madison, John Taylor, St George Tucker, Abel Upshur, John C. Calhoun, the Nashville Agrarians, Richard Weaver, M. E. Bradford, down to the scholars of the Abbeville Institute–is a systematic critique…
Donald LivingstonJanuary 28, 2019
The Abbeville Institute conducted three conferences this year on the fracturing of American national identity and what means for the Southern tradition and the Southern people. The general public knows America is coming apart and that they're anxious about it, but most don't understand why because our political leaders and the national media generally suppress its origins. We wanted to…
Donald LivingstonDecember 17, 2018
On June 20, 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Crawford: “If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation ... to a continuance in union, I have no hesitation in saying, ‘Let us separate.’” Jefferson thought secession can be a good thing. Lincoln in his first inaugural presented secession as something always bad: “Secession,” he said, “is…
Donald LivingstonOctober 15, 2018
Essayist William Deresiewicz recently lamented that modern college students, and college life in general, have become "profoundly unintellectual." The "snowflake" generation is the byproduct of educational institutionalization. Will this be on the test, and will I get a study guide? Deresiewicz should also indict the faculty and administration who encourage this "unintellectual" environment. This results in a crop of students…
Donald LivingstonApril 18, 2018
Tobias Lanz has been an adjunct professor of political science for some twenty years at the University of South Carolina. In a class of 200 students cell phones go off, and Lanz eases the interruption by taking the topic at hand, e.g. Russian policy in Syria, by saying “that must be the Kremlin calling.” Last week the topic was the…
Donald LivingstonApril 9, 2018
John C. Calhoun–valedictorian of his class at Yale, Vice President, Secretary of War, and Senator–was one of the greatest statesmen America has produced. Margaret Coit wrote a favorable biography of him in 1950 that won a Pulitzer Prize. In 1959, a Senate committee, headed by John Kennedy, ranked him among the five greatest senators in American history. Calhoun wrote one…
Donald LivingstonNovember 17, 2017
Dr. Donald Livingston on "When the South Was America, 1607-1861" at the 2016 Abbeville Institute Summer School on "The Southern Tradition and the Renewal of America," June 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW4M46JXXzE
Donald LivingstonDecember 27, 2016
REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In his first Inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln explained his moral justification for invading the Southern States. Plainly, he said, “the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.” He reasoned that if a State can lawfully secede from the Union, so can a part of that part and a part of that part, on down to one…
Donald LivingstonJune 28, 2016
United States District Judge Carlton Reeves is considering a lawsuit by Mississippi attorney Carlos Moore to rule that the Mississippi State flag is unconstitutional because it is “anti-American,” meaning it symbolizes secession and slavery. I leave aside the contorted legal reasoning that might support such a suit, namely whether Moore has standing to sue, if this is a judicial not…
Donald LivingstonApril 15, 2016
Donald Livingston on "The Real Reason the South Seceded" at the October 2015 Abbeville Institute Conference in Stone Mountain, GA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S96iQYL0bw
Donald LivingstonDecember 31, 2015
Donald Livingston on the 14th Amendment and Centralization at the 2003 Abbeville Institute Summer School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1UxApKaTRY
Donald LivingstonOctober 14, 2015
Donald Livingston discusses the nature and meaning of secession at the 2003 Abbeville Institute Summer School. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kZSU8NJIzY
Donald LivingstonSeptember 16, 2015
2014 was a remarkable year for the Abbeville Institute. 1. Our well attended Twelfth Annual Summer School focused on the War for Southern Independence. Southerners fought the bloodiest war of the 19th century against overwhelming odds for national independence. About a quarter of Confederate generals were born in the North or in Europe. Why were so many Northerners who had…
Donald LivingstonJanuary 1, 2015
Tom Watson Brown was an icon of the Southern tradition and one of its strongest defenders. He was a respected attorney, businessman, civic leader, philanthropist, and, in addition, a very learned man who possessed a library of over 10,000 volumes. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton with a degree in history, and studied law at Harvard. He was also…
Donald LivingstonNovember 27, 2014
Self government and the secession required for it in oversized States are as much a province of the Left as of political conservatives. It was the left that raised the question of secession after Al Gore lost the presidency to George W. Bush. They wondered why they had to be yoked with the people and policies of the Red States…
Donald LivingstonNovember 18, 2014
Ladies and Gentlemen, Scotland voted "No" to independence. The media will have you believe this was a crushing victory. After all, only 45 percent of the Scottish people voted for secession. We should flip that on its head. 45 percent of the nearly 90 percent of eligible voters voted FOR self-determination. The "No" vote barely won, and the aftermath is…
Donald LivingstonSeptember 22, 2014
When the Scottish Parliament voted to join the English Parliament in 1707, it seemed the end of Scottish national identity. It was thought that a small country like Scotland could not succeed economically without being politically integrated into a powerful trading country like England. This gave rise to a "small country" versus "large country" debate. Out of this debate,the Scottish…
Donald LivingstonSeptember 17, 2014
The Abbeville Institute is pleased to announce the launch of The Abbeville Institute Press and our first title, Northern Opposition to Mr. Lincoln's War, edited by D. Jonathan White. An enduring feature of American folklore is that with the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, the North rose to a man in righteous determination to suppress treason and slavery. The response…
Donald LivingstonSeptember 2, 2014
Abbeville President Don Livingston talks to Tom Woods about the Southern tradition, secession, and the principles of American government. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXclGjwcn2I
Donald LivingstonAugust 24, 2014
Aristotle taught that "To the size of states there is a limit, as there is to other things, plants, animals, implements, for none of these things retain their natural power when they are too large or too small."1 In this paper I want to explore Hume's views on the proper size and scale of political order. Size and scale are…
Donald LivingstonJuly 22, 2014
Dr. Donald Livingston discusses the proper size and scale of government at the Lindenwood University Hammond Institute Liberty and Ethics Center Spring Conference, March 22, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-f4L6vWauP4
Donald LivingstonJune 9, 2014
Dr. Donald Livingston at the 2004 Abbeville Institute Summer School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYgIHqQwK2U
Donald LivingstonJune 3, 2014
Donald Livingston discusses the Jeffersonian philosophy of small republics and the proper size and scale of government. This talk was delivered for the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society in November 2013. http://vimeo.com/83268208
Donald LivingstonApril 17, 2014
This two part lecture by Abbeville Institute founder Don Livingston concentrates on the dichotomy between Thomas Jefferson's conception of Union and Abraham Lincoln's "national" argument. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CAYAkt3KFY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JpuADcC2bM
Donald LivingstonApril 3, 2014
Abbeville Institute founder Donald Livingston talks to Tom Woods on the Tom Woods Show about the principle of secession and the Southern political tradition. http://www.schiffradio.com/pg/jsp/verticals/archive.jsp?dispid=310&pid=66010
Donald LivingstonJanuary 1, 1970
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