Lincoln and Taney's great writ showdown

[NNadir]

5. Along with Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the American Republic, one of the most important autodidacts ever.

Historians often muse whence that most powerful intellect of Lincoln came. His background was far more limited than Franklin's. I certainly can't fathom it.

I pride myself on autodidacticism and it is the only thing I want my sons, both of whom are autodidacts beyond their formal education, to remember about me. I don't know when that attitude in my own life started, but as I was interested in Lincoln as a child, prehaps that was the inspiration.

It is, I think, the most powerful legacy by personal example that Lincoln leaves for us, that we can find things out for ourselves if we embrace the search with passion and diligence. I also think that another is that as one finds things out, one can change one's mind.