The Prince or Lincoln at Peoria

The Prince

Author: Niccolo Machiavelli

Need to seize a country? Have enemies you must destroy? In this handbook for despots and tyrants, the Renaissance statesman Machiavelli sets forth how to accomplish this and more, while avoiding the awkwardness of becoming generally hated and despised.

"Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge."

For nearly 500 years, Machiavelli's observations on Realpolitik have shocked and appalled the timid and romantic, and for many his name was equivalent to the devil's own. Yet, The Prince was the first attempt to write of the world of politics as it is, rather than sanctimoniously of how it should be, and thus The Prince remains as honest and relevant today as when Machiavelli first put quill to parchment, and warned the junior statesman to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.

What People Are Saying

John M. Najemy
I still consider Atkinson's translation of The Prince the best of the many . . . out there, especially with its extensive and extraordinarily valuable commentary. (John M. Najemy, Professor of History, Cornell University, 2007)

Mario Domandi
This edition of the The Prince has three distinct and disparate objectives: to provide a fresh and accurate translation; to analyze and find the roots of Machiavelli's thought; and to collect relevant extracts from other works by Machiavelli and some contemporaries, to be used to illuminate and explicate the text. The objectives are all reached with considerable and admirable skill. The reader senses Professor Atkinson's empathy and feeling for even the tiniest movements in Machiavelli's mind. Professor Atkinson has done a great service to students and teachers of Machiavelli, who should certainly welcome this as the most useful edition of The Prince in English. (Mario Domandi, Italica, 1978)

Table of Contents:

	Chronology
	Map
	Introduction
	Translator's Note
	Selected Books
	Machiavelli's Principal Works
	Letter to the Magnificent Lorenzo de Medici	1
I	How many kinds of principality there are and the ways in which they are acquired	5
II	Hereditary principalities	5
III	Composite principalities	6
IV	Why the kingdom of Darius conquered by Alexander did not rebel against his successors after his death	13
V	How cities or principalities which lived under their own laws should be administered after being conquered	16
VI	New principalities acquired by one's own arms and prowess	17
VII	New principalities acquired with the help of fortune and foreign arms	20
VIII	Those who come to power by crime	27
IX	The constitutional principality	31
X	How the strength of every principality should be measured	34
XI	Ecclesiastical principalities	36
XII	Military organization and mercenary troops	39
XIII	Auxiliary, composite, and native troops	43
XIV	How a prince should organize his militia	47
XV	The things for which men, and especially princes, are praised or blamed	49
XVI	Generosity and parsimony	51
XVII	Cruelty and compassion; and whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse	53
XVIII	How princes should honour their word	56
XIX	The need to avoid contempt and hatred	58
XX	Whether fortresses and many of the other present-day expedients to which princes have recourse are useful or not	67
XXI	How a prince must act to win honour	71
XXII	A prince's personal staff	75
XXIII	How flatterers must be shunned	76
XXIV	Why the Italian princes have lost their states	78
XXV	How far human affairs are governed by fortune, and how fortune can be opposed	79
XXVI	Exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarians	82
	Glossary of Proper Names	86
	Notes	99

See also:

Lincoln at Peoria

Author: Lewis Lehrman

Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point explains how Lincoln's speech at Peoria on October 16, 1854, was the turning point in the development of his antislavery campaign and his political career and thought. Here, Lincoln detailed his opposition to slavery's extension and his determination to defend America's founding document from those who denied that the Declaration of Independence applied to black Americans.

Students of Abraham Lincoln know the canon of his major speeches from his Lyceum Speech of 1838 to his final remarks delivered from a White House window, days before he was murdered in 1865. Less well known are the two extraordinary speeches given at Springfield and Peoria two weeks apart in 1854. They marked Mr. Lincoln's reentry into the politics of Illinois and, as he could not know, his preparation for the presidency in 1861. These Lincoln addresses catapulted him into the debates over slavery which dominated Illinois and national politics for the rest of the decade. Lincoln delivered the substance of these arguments several times, certainly in Springfield on October 4, 1854, for which there are only press reports. A longer version came twelve days later in Peoria. To understand President Abraham Lincoln, one must understand the Peoria speech of October 16, 1854. It forms the foundation of his politics and principles, in the 1850s and in his presidency.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, one of the most explosive congressional statutes of American history, repealed the prohibition on slavery in that section of the Louisiana Territory, 36 degree and 30 minute parallel, a restriction on the spread of slavery agreed upon by North and South in the Missouri Compromise of 1820.The Kansas-Nebraska Act, sponsored by the famous Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas, inaugurated an incendiary chapter in the slavery debates of the early American Republic. In response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Lincoln launched his antislavery campaign. All of his moral and historical arguments opposed any further extension of slavery in the American republic, founded, as he argued, upon the Declaration of Independence. That all men are created equal, with the inalienable right to liberty, was, for Lincoln, a universal principle that Americans must not ignore.

Lewis Lehrman is dedicated to reviving the teaching of American history in its schools and colleges. Mr. Lehrman has written and lectured widely on American history and economics and has written for publications such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the New York Sun, and Policy Review. He also writes for the Lincoln Institute which has created award-winning websites on the 16th president. With Richard Gilder, Mr. Lehrman built the Gilder Lehrman Collection of original historical manuscripts and documents to teach American history from primary sources, now on deposit for public access at the New-York Historical Society. He was presented the National Humanities Medal at the White House in 2005 for his work in American history and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and the Lincoln Forum.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

In this careful, balanced look at Abraham Lincoln's stirring 1854 Peoria, Ill., speech, writer and historian Lehrman finds a "prelude to greatness" that put the little-known lawyer and politician on the path to national prominence while laying the intellectual groundwork for his presidency. The subject was slavery, already the great question of 19th century America, recently reignited with the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act that repealed earlier anti-slavery laws for certain new territories. Arguing that the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence extended to African-Americans, Lincoln took an abolitionist position daring for any politician with national ambitions (though he did not go so far as to advocate for full social or political equality). Lehrman also considers Lincoln's Illinois nemesis, Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, sponsor of the new Kansas-Nebraska Act who spoke at Peoria before Lincoln as a stalwart booster of "the rights of whites to enslave blacks." Ably building on the drama of Lincoln's anti-slavery efforts through subsequent years, culminating in his ascent to the presidency, Lehrman's detailed chronicle, rich in first-person accounts, lays out the case that from his earliest public forays, Lincoln was no ordinary leader.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Wall Street Journal

Lincoln's return to politics, and the speeches it occasioned, is the subject of Lewis E. Lehrman's "Lincoln at Peoria." Intimately familiar with the primary sources and armed with a sweeping command of the historiography, Mr. Lehrman convincingly argues that Peoria marks the inflection-point in Lincoln's political development, when he discovered both the essence of the cause he embraced and the most persuasive way to convey it. At Peoria, Lincoln ceased to be an unremarkable Whig politician, concerned with the usual party platforms on internal improvements and protective tariffs. He gave evidence for the first time of his scrupulous study of the American founding. That fall day was, Mr. Lehrman suggests, the moment when Lincoln became Lincoln.

What People Are Saying

Michael Burlingame
"Lewis E. Lehrman's eloquent, thorough study of Lincoln's first oratorical masterpiece makes a major new contribution to Lincoln studies. Until now there has been no study of the magnificent 1854 Peoria speech, in which Lincoln made his debut as a spokesman for the antislavery cause. Those who do know the Peoria speech will gain a fuller appreciation of its context and significance from this beautifully written, well-documented study."--(Michael Burlingame, author of The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln)

David Brion Davis
"Lewis E. Lehrman's new book provides an indispensable analysis of Abraham Lincoln's approach to the central issue of slavery. Fully attuned to the vast historiography on the subject, Lehrman focuses on Lincoln's magnificent speech in Peoria in October 1854 to demonstrate how Lincoln's fusion of firm moral principle with a comprehensive grasp of history and the pragmatics of American politics created a road to the future."--(David Brion Davis, Winner, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and Bancroft Prize)

James Oliver Horton
"This is a fascinating study of Abraham Lincoln as revealed through his words, ideas and evolving philosophy. With impressive research and writing that grips the reader, Lewis Lehrman's meticulous analysis of one of Lincoln's little known speeches in the turbulent decade of the 1850s contributes to our understanding of one of America's greatest leaders during the most critical period in the nation's history. This is a must read for anyone seeking to understand Lincoln and his time, a pivotal time that laid the foundation for our own."--(James Oliver Horton, co-author of Slavery and the Making of America)

Doris Kearns Goodwin
"Lewis E. Lehrman does a brilliant job of dramatizing a critical moment in Lincoln's life that has never before been given the careful attention it deserves. In his book, Lincoln at Peoria, he has forever given the Peoria speech of 1854 its rightful place in Lincoln's story. As a result this elegant study provides fresh insight into both the growth of Abraham Lincoln as a masterful leader and the tumultuous decade of the 1850's. It is a book that deserves an honored place in the literature of our 16th President."--(Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winning author and Presidential Historian)

James M. McPherson
"Abraham Lincoln's speech at Peoria, Illinois in October 1854 climaxed his return to the political stage, in response to Stephen A. Douglass Kansas-Nebraska Act passed that year. This famous speech outlined Lincoln's political faith and marked the first of several titanic contests with Douglas that carried through the founding of the Republican party, the debates in 1858, and the presidential election of 1860. Lewis Lehrman's detailed study of the context, rhetoric, and consequences of this speech offers new insights on Lincoln's rise to greatness. Lincoln at Peoria takes its place among the important Lincoln books in this bicentennial season."--(James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University)

Douglas L. Wilson
"Lewis E. Lehrman's Lincoln at Peoria is nothing less than a landmark contribution to Lincoln studies. Abraham Lincoln's 1854 Peoria speech has long been recognized as a valuable sourcebook of his seminal ideas and arguments, but it has never received this kind of thorough and illuminating treatment."--(Douglas L. Wilson, award-winning author of Honors Voice)