From Lincoln idolater Herman Beltz’s foreword to the Liberty Fund edition of The Webster-Hayne Debate on the Nature of the Union (1998, p. xiii): “Although the Civil War was fought over secession rather than nullification, both doctrines rested on the theory of state sovereignty. The North’s victory can therefore be seen as a practical judgment that Webster [advocate of a consolidated, monopolistic state] was right and that as a matter of constitutional law and theory his argument for federal sovereignty settled the issue of the nature of the Union.” Rarely does an academic say in print that philosophical arguments can … Continue reading How to Distinguish Right from Wrong