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I will actually stand up for Andrew Carnegie for an odd reason.

“Sola fide (Latin: by faith alone), also historically known as the doctrine of justification by faith alone, is a Christian theological doctrine that distinguishes most Protestant denominations from Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and some in the Restoration Movement.

“The doctrine of sola fide or “by faith alone” asserts God’s pardon for guilty sinners is granted to and received through faith, conceived as excluding all “works”, alone.”

Now, this being said, it’s important to note that it applies with justification *only* to religion.

In the secular world, liberals, leftists, socialists, and communists are firm believers in the concept that “It does not matter what you actually do. What matters is the righteousness (in your opinion) of what you intended to do.”

Importantly, the *flip* side of this is what happened to Clarence Thomas at his confirmation hearing. “What matters is *not* the evidence or facts, but the seriousness of the charges against him!”

Back to Andrew Carnegie, my point is that his life, his personal meanness, etc., mean *nothing* today, compared to his “good works”, that is, wanting to bequeath libraries.

If he is at fault, it is not for his works, which is all that should matter once he is gone, but for trusting that others would not subvert his good works for their own ends, and making plans to posthumously counter such scoundrels.

In his shoes, I would have taken a lesson from the founding fathers, that schemers will seek to undermine written rules before the ink is dry, so it is best to have groups of people with conflicting purposes, if not interests, to balance each other through veto.

In this case, a separate board far away from the main one, whose sole purpose is to review the board’s spending decisions from the perspective of sticking to the letter and intent of the foundation charter. If not, then they cannot spend a dime.