Of Lincoln And Darwin, One Was Indispensable

In an essay about Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln -- we'll mark the 200th anniversaries of their births on Monday -- George Will manages a slap at the Endangered Species Act. He also writes:

[R]emember that Lincoln mattered more. Without Darwin, other scientists would have discerned natural selection. Indeed, Darwin's friend Alfred Wallace already had. Without Lincoln, the United States probably would have been sundered into at least two nations. Probably into more: Southerners, a fractious tribe, would not have played nicely together in the Confederacy for very long.