Remembering Mr. Boothe who got rid of the tyrant Lincoln for us all.
One nation, under God.
Thanks Mr. Lincoln.
It’s a fascinating story, how Lincoln came to be nominated. Five years later he was a martyr and an idol.
Nobody could have dealt with the war in between, without later being regarded as an angel or a devil. It’s like a ghost battle, echoing down the ages.
The man was dealt a bad hand, he played it as best he could. He was lucky that only posterity judges him, and that the Founders and ancestors didn’t get to chime in too.
Used to be a holiday.
Lincoln’s birthday.
—
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
I don’t know enough to have an informed opinion. I only know one
thing: Mr Lincoln’s army invaded my ancestor’s homeland.
He missed this part in the Declaration:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation....."
Lincoln started a war that killed 750,000 people directly, and millions indirectly. He completely transformed the relationship between the Federal government and the States, making it far more powerful than it was ever intended to be by the framers.
He never intended to abolish slavery. That was an afterthought and intended as a means of breaking the South's economic power more than any concern about the welfare of slaves.
He wanted black people to be removed from the nation, and contemplated and enacted several schemes to achieve that goal.
Thank you for posting this.
Lincoln certainly led the country during its most violently perilous time thus far.
Thankfully, there is much scholarship on Lincoln available to read and consider.
The guy that discarded the constitution when he saw fit.
Lincoln was no hero and finally after a long time the truth finally is out there as what a Tyrant he really was.
There is also a book out there about what the Civil War was about and slavery was not the main reason.
I have this on my list to read there is also another book by the same author on Lincoln.
Happy Birthday, President Lincoln!
As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history.
The income tax became law during the Special Session of Congress that was called July 4, 1861. This unapportioned income tax was unconstitutional. Also established was the Internal Revenue Bureau, later renamed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce the then unconstitutional income tax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioner_of_Internal_Revenue
The list of commissioners of the IRS shows the first commissioner as George S. Boutwell, whose term ran from July 17, 1862 to March 4, 1863.
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2021/07/27/us-government-financing-of-the-civil-war/
Personal Income TaxThe Revenue Act of 1861 was passed to increase import tariffs, property taxes, and for the first time, to levy a flat rate income tax of 3% on incomes above $800. Its drawback was that it lacked a comprehensive enforcement mechanism. Thaddeus Stevens, chairman of the House Committee of Ways and Means Committee, avowed, “This bill is a most unpleasant one. But we perceive no way in which we can avoid it and sustain the government. The rebels, who are now destroying or attempting to destroy this Government, have thrust upon the country many disagreeable things.”
In 1862, President Lincoln signed a law imposing a graduated income tax. The law levied a 3% tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000 and a 5% tax on higher incomes. The law was later amended in 1864; it levied a 5% tax on incomes between $600 and $5,000, a 7.5% tax on incomes in the $5,000-$10,000 range and a 10% tax on all higher incomes.
1861 saw the Revenue Act with an income tax. It was passed during the Special Session of Congress that began July 4, 1861. 1862 saw the first commissioner of the Internal Revenue Bureau take office to enforce the income tax.
H.R. 54, Inroduced July 16, 1861. Amended July 29, 1861. Became law as Act of August 5, 1861. 12 Stat. 292.
Income tax at Sections 49 and 50.
[Start of Act] https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=012/llsl012.db&recNum=323
[Sections 49 and 50] https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=012/llsl012.db&recNum=340
https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llhb&fileName=037/llhb037.db&recNum=182
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
JULY 27, 1861.Ordered to be printed.
AMENDMENT
Proposed by Mr. SIMMONS to the "bill (H. R. 54) to provide
increased revenue from imports, to pay interest on the public
debt, and for other purposes," viz: insert the following additional
sections.1 SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That from and after the
2 first day of January next there shall be levied, collected, and
3 paid, upon the annual income of every person residing in the
4 United States, whether such income is derived from any kind
5 of property, or from any profession, trade, employment, or voca-
6 tion carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any
7 other source whatever, if such annual income exceeds the
8 sum of one thousand dollars, a tax of five per centum on the
9 amount of such excess of such income above one thousand
10 dollars: Provided, That upon such portion of said income as
11 shall be derived from interest upon treasury notes or other
12 securities of the United States, there shall be levied, col-
13 lected, and paid a tax of two and one-half per centum.14 Upon the income, rents, or dividends, accruing upon any prop-
15 erty, securities,- or stocks owned in the United States by any
16 citizen of the United States residing abroad, there shall be
17 levied, collected, and paid, a tax of seven and one-half per
18 contum, excepting that portion of said income derived from
19 interest on treasury notes and other securities of the govern-
20 ment of the United States, which shall pay two and one-half
21 per centum. The tax herein provided shall be assesed upon
22 the annual income of the persons herein named for the year
23 next preceding the time for assessing said tax, to wit: the
24 year next preceding the first of January, eighteen hundred
25 and sixty-two; and the said taxes, when so assessed and
26 made public, shall become a lien on the property or other
27 sources of said income for the amount of the same with the
28 interest and other expenses of collection until paid.1 SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the
2 duty of the President of the" United States, and he is hereby
3 authorized, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,
4 to appoint one principal assessor and one principal collector
5 in each of the States and Territories of the United States, to
6 assess and collect the taxes imposed by the first section of
7 this act, with authority in each of said officers to appoint so
8 many assistants as the public service may require, to be
9 approved by the Secretary of the Treasury.[...]
As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history.
Collected Works Vol. 1, pp. 438-439.
Lincoln on January 12, 1848 to Congress:
Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable,—a most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government, may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much of the teritory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose their movement. Such minority, was precisely the case, of the tories of our own revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines, or old laws; but to break up both, and make new ones.
Collected Works Vol. 4, pg. 162-163.
Gen. Duff Green. Springfield, Ill. Dec 28th 1860.My dear Sir—I do not desire any amendment of the Constitution. Recognizing, however, that questions of such amendment rightfully belong to the American People, I should not feel justified, nor inclined, to withhold from them, if I could, a fair opportunity of expressing their will thereon, through either of the modes prescribed in the instrument.
In addition I declare that the maintainance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each state to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of powers on which the perfection, and endurance of our political fabric depends—and I denounce the lawless invasion, by armed force, of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as the gravest of crimes.
I am greatly averse to writing anything for the public at this time; and I consent to the publication of this, only upon the condition that six of the twelve United States Senators for the States of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas shall sign their names to what is written on this sheet below my name, and allow the whole to be published together. Yours truly
A. LINCOLN.
We recommend to the people of the States we represent respectively, to suspend all action for dismemberment of the Union, at least, until some act, deemed to be violative of our rights, shall be done by the incoming administration.
Mr Lincoln took care of the last group of people willing to take to arms regarding what federalism should really look like