Abe Lincoln and John Brown – moral crusaders

This Presidents Day we at The Conversation are turning to history to better understand presidents’ influence on American life, including this past weekend’s impeachment vote.

Politics scholar Adam Seagrave of Arizona State University tracks the intersecting trajectories of two anti-slavery icons – Abraham Lincoln and John Brown – and how the 16th U.S. president gradually came closer to adopting words very much like the abolitionist’s over time. And historian Eliga Gould delves into how the framers of the U.S. Constitution borrowed impeachment from Britain – and why the British later decided on a different way to hold public officials accountable.

And in case you missed our special impeachment newsletter on Saturday, constitutional law scholar John Finn argues that former President Donald Trump’s acquittal is not simply about one man’s or even one party’s fate but a sign of something much deeper and troubling for our democracy – what he calls “constitutional rot.”