Free Republic

There is a common misconception today, abetted by Democrat-leaning historians who wish to distance Abraham Lincoln from our Republican Party heritage, that with the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln just waved a presidential wand and freed the slaves. In fact, he was acting on authority granted to him by the Republican Congress in the second Confiscation Act, a copy of which Lincoln appended to the proclamation, stating that slaves held by rebels were to be "forever free". While the Radical Republicans (those radically opposed to slavery) were more eager than he to seize the moment and uproot the entire slave system, there...

I am the author of "Back to Basics for the Republican Party" -- the acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. My book signing was 4:15-5pm today, but I'll be at CPAC again on Friday afternoon too. For information about the book, see www.republicanbasics.com.

On a day when Americans were celebrating the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the author of a book on the history of the Republican Party was blasting a controversial video that implies the nation's first Republican president would have supported today's liberal causes. Michael Zak, author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of the party from Lincoln to the present day, told CNSNews.com that the video, currently playing at the Lincoln Memorial, was "an outrage." The contents of the video were brought to light in a Feb. 3 CNSNews.com article. Zak spoke at an event honoring Lincoln's...