Lincoln -- a libertarian?

Hardly, although you'd believe it if you took Fred Campbell's word for it.

Campbell is the Anderson County, KS county attorney, and has recently changed his party affiliation from Republican to Libertarian. While describing his introduction and conversion to libertarian ideas, Campbell claimed that:

"A year or two ago, I read the entire writings of Lincoln, seven or eight volumes of his works. And I decided (while reading what he wrote during the founding of the Republican Party) that in this day and age, Lincoln would be a Libertarian. From what he wrote about the origins of the Republican Party, it sounds much more like he was describing the Libertarian Party than the Republican Party we have now."

You're kidding, right? The U.S. may have been comparatively more libertarian in Lincoln's day, but him and his Republican Party had absolutely nothing to do with it.

If you beg to differ, I recommend checking out some of the essays contained in the King Lincoln archive over at Lewrockwell.com. This also reminds me of a piece written by Anthony Gregory a short while back that dissects the history of the Republican Party called Government Growth, the Party of Lincoln, and George W. Bush.