Thoughts on 4th of July

Abraham Lincoln was an American hero who changed history because of his faith in God and the principle of Liberty. Most people forget that prior to the Civil War there was a national debate on the subject of slavery. In those days enslaved blacks on southern plantations had no rights.

Today it seems like a silly debate, but with the benefit of hindsight we see a dangerous trend throughout modern history. Adolf Hitler didn’t think the Jews were human and millions of Germans agreed with him and put their misguided beliefs into action. Winston Churchill stated it thusly, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.”

Abraham Lincoln did not immediately advocate a Civil War, instead he challenged the status quo to a debate which became known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Judge Douglas represented the majority opinion of the South, Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court that claimed blacks were not fully human and had no special legal status.

Judge Douglas had everything leaning in his favor leading up to those historic debates.

These debates came on the heels of the 1857 United States Supreme Court decision known as the “Dred Scott case”. In that case the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that African Americans and their descendants were not protected by the U.S. Constitution and were not U.S. Citizens. Furthermore, they were the chattel (property) of their slave owners and they could not be removed without due process of law.

To make matters worse Abraham Lincoln also had to grapple with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This allowed settlers moving into those two states to decide for themselves whether they wanted to allow slavery. The Republican Party was created in opposition to this unjust Act and marked the end of the two party system of Whigs and Democrats.

Abraham Lincoln faced a very grim task: Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the laws of the southern states were stacked against him. What could Abraham Lincoln possibly say to defend the liberty of the slaves and persuade angry Americans to change their minds?

Fortunately when Abraham Lincoln walked onto the podium in the defense of liberty he did not walk alone. Much to the surprise of Judge Douglas and the hostile crowd of onlookers he stood on the shoulders of heroes that had come before him. He quoted the founding fathers who had risked their lives to pass on the torch of liberty to all of us and immortalized that great battle in the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776.

That seminal document is celebrated in the United States as a national holiday known as the 4th of July, the date it was signed and a new government was formed based on principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The concept of democracy was not unique in itself, but this new government was not based solely on the whims of the majority. There were special unalienable rights that no government, citizen, or judge could rightfully alter or withhold. These rights did not come from the laws of men because they could be nullified or amended. Instead, the founding fathers said they came from God and therefore no judiciary or bureaucrat could come along later and take them away, but of course these principles were shamelessly violated by the institution of slavery.

Liberty needed heroes and Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionists courageously answered the call for patriots willing to defend her. It would cost most them their lives, including Abraham Lincoln.

Here is what Lincoln said on that podium in 1858, “This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world-enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites-causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty-criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.” – Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858.

Indignant, Judge Douglas replied, “Mr. Lincoln, following the example and lead of all the little Abolition orators, who go around and lecture in the basements of schools and churches, reads from the Declaration of Independence, that all men were created equal, and then asks, how can you deprive a negro of that equality which God and the Declaration of Independence awards to him? He and they maintain that negro equality is guaranteed by the laws of God, and that it is asserted in the Declaration of Independence. If they think so, of course they have a right to say so, and so vote. I do not question Mr. Lincoln’s conscientious belief that the negro was made his equal, and hence is his brother, (laughter,) but for my own part, I do not regard the negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother or any kin to me whatever. Never. (cheers)” Judge Douglas, Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858.

Later Abraham Lincoln asked an important question. “I should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making exceptions to it, where will it stop? If one man says it does not mean a negro, why may not another man say it does not mean another man? If that declaration is not the truth, let us get this statute book in which we find it and tear it out.” –Abraham Lincoln

Today we can answer the question that Lincoln posed. We’ve seen the tragedy of our indifference to the Declaration of Independence and the exceptions we carve out to pursue our selfish goals and indulge our sexual desires.

Today Congress, the United States Supreme Court, and millions of angry Americans tell us that unborn babies with beating hearts and developing brains have no rights. Like the enemies of liberty before them they unjustly assert property rights over the unborn as the plantation owners unjustly claimed a property right over the slaves.

What would Abraham Lincoln say and do if he were alive today? The first time he ever saw a slave it changed his life. The sight of them being sold and the scars on their backs stuck with him. A selfish man would have walked away and forgotten since it wasn’t his torn flesh being sold.

I imagine if Abraham Lincoln were alive today he would be on a podium with harsh words for abortionists who kill millions of innocent children. And his words would not be empty rhetoric because they would be backed by his own life and the lives of others willing to defend life and liberty.

And so I stand alongside the founding fathers and Abraham Lincoln in my declared hatred for abortion.

I hate abortion because it violates the principles upon which this great nation was built. I hate it because it brings out the worst in men and women and creates an incentive to be irresponsible. I hate it because it gives other nations reason to view us as immoral and hypocritical, with just cause. I hate it because it divides our nation and forces good men and women to abandon their pursuit of happiness and sacrifice their lives to preserve this nation and rescue its unborn children.

On this 4th of July let us remember those sacred rights that come from God and are non-negotiable: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s these natural rights that we must defend with the spirit of a patriot against selfish politicians, legislating judges, and angry citizens that wish to violate these natural rights.

The Declaration of Independence stands in defiance of any man, woman, or licensed physician willing to take the life of an innocent child, as it stood against slave owners who deprived black men and women of their God given right to Liberty. These immortal words were preached from podiums across the United States to free the slaves and these words must be revisited with the same fervor to defend our children’s God given right to life against those who wish to destroy them.

The children of Liberty are once again answering the call and their battle drums can be heard in the distance reminding the tyrants that the good in their hearts will conquer evil. This battle will be won by the conviction of those patriots marching to defend the future of our unborn children.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776.

“Evil men regard it as their privilege to violate the rights of others, and if they cannot, they feel they have been deprived of their own rights.”

you would not have found secession to be a direct threat to the territorial integrity of the U.S.,

If states secede, then the territory of the US decreases, by definition. What a lame objection to secession.

If the country dies when some people want to leave, then so what? Humans survive. They reorganize. Maybe we need to go through some sort of rebirth today, seeing as how we're not really free men at all, but a bunch of slaves to the government.

A country is not a god.

Regarding: If states secede, then the territory of the US decreases, by definition. . . If the country dies when some people want to leave, then so what?

Nevadan: So, if I understand you correctly, had you been president in 1861, you would have allowed any state legislature that so desired, to vote their state out of the United States? - even though, as president, you had sworn to protect the United States and its Constitution?

Another question I have, does the Constitution provide a provision for a state to legally secede? If so, under which section of the Constitution can this be found?

Another question, if secession was allowed by a nation’s constitution, wouldn’t that nation be providing the means for its own self-destruction?

Also, I’m just curious, does the motive for a state desiring secession matter? What were the motives for the Southern states wanting to secede?

And, what justification did the Southern states have for seceeding from the Union since Lincoln hadn’t even been inaugurated as president at the time many of them seceeded? In other words, what unconstitutional act of tryanny had he committed against them to justify secession when He hadn’t even taken the oath of office yet?

Regarding your comment: Maybe we need to go through some sort of rebirth today, seeing as how we’re not really free men at all, but a bunch of slaves to the government.

A country is not a god.

Nevadan: I am not arguing that there is never justification for a people to revolt against real tyranny - especially if there is no legal or free political means to change the government. But, was that the situation in 1861? Didn’t the people of the Southern states have the same rights to vote as the people in the Northern states?

In what way were the Southern states being disenfranchised from their rights by the Federal government in 1861?

Just wondering.

The US Constitution was supposed to be a voluntary cooperation of sovereign states for certain purposes, not a hostage pact. If you are in a voluntary group and that group starts to displease you, you leave. If you are barred from leaving, you are a hostage. You no longer can exercise your conscience-bound free will. You are essentially a hostage or slave.

From what you said, I guess you would have “preserved the Union” no matter how many real live breathing people you would have to kill?

See the 10th Amendment. Also, see Jefferson’s comments on the Alien and Sedition Act. He knew, as did his contemporaries, that secession was an option. Several states were considering secession over the Alien and Sedition Act, but Jefferson counseled waiting, as secession is quite dramatic, although legal.

What justification other than they believe they would be better off out of the Union is needed? Maybe you should go back and read the states’ ratifications of the constitution. Several used words to the effect that they were ratifying it as a sovereign state and would leave if they thought it would be better for them.

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