Posted on 02/12/2025 10:02:25 AM PST by Rummyfan
Today is the anniversary of the birth of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom at the exact moment when the country was on the threshold of abandoning what he called its “ancient faith” that all men are created equal.
In 1858 Lincoln attained national prominence in the Republican Party as the result of the contest for the Senate seat held by Stephen Douglas. It was Lincoln’s losing campaign against Douglas that made him a figure of sufficient prominence that he could emerge as the party’s 1860 presidential nominee.
At the convention of the Illinois Republican Party in June, Lincoln was the unanimous choice to run against Douglas. After declaring him their candidate late on the afternoon of June 16, the entire convention returned that evening to hear Lincoln speak. Accepting the convention’s nomination, Lincoln gave one of the most incendiary speeches in American history.
Lincoln electrified the convention, asserting that the institution of slavery had made the United States “a house divided against itself.” Slavery would either be extirpated or become lawful nationwide, Lincoln predicted, provocatively quoting scriptural authority to the effect that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Demonstrating how it “changed the course of history,” Harry Jaffa calls it “[t]he speech that changed the world.”
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
Great at getting 750,000 people killed and great at imposing a massive federal leviathan on the people of America ever since. Great at destroying the original framing of the US Constitution and making all the states subservient to the will of Washington DC, which is something the founders wanted to avoid.
Well, dang it! No more tribute to Lincoln pennies. If you lived through the post Kennedy period, you’ll know everything got renamed. Idlewild, Cape Canaveral, thousands of things. Change all the names honoring perverts and insignificant cultural heroes to the Lincoln This or the Lincoln That.
Change the USS Harvey Milk to the USS Stonewall Jackson while we’re at it.
A decent man who lead a life harder than most of us can imagine on he rough edges of the country. Self taught, hard worker, endured.
....what’s that old expression....? “Opinions are like [something else...] everybody’s got one....”
see this from another web site...totally 180 degrees from this article...
“Happy Worst President’s Day”
Thomas DiLorenzo
LewRockwell.com
It’s interesting to think about how history would have changed, if we had not had our civil war.
Among other things, it would have set a precedent, that states can secede. Other states may well have seceded over other issues. Perhaps numerous independent countries would be occupying the land mass of the US today, if states were allowed to secede.
Today is the anniversary of the birth of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln.
><
BS. George Washington was America’s greatest president.
Just say: “A house divided cannot stand”. It means the same thing.
Some background on this point.
Massachusetts and Connecticut discussed seceding during the Hartford convention of 1814. There was no discussion of whether they "could", only of whether they should. They decided not to secede.
The Southern states had discussed seceding in the 1830s under the auspices of John Calhoun. Again, there was no question in their mind as to whether it was "authorized", it was whether or not they should do it.
Andrew Jackson said at the time something along the lines "If the Southern states secede from my Union, I will secede John Calhoun's head from his neck!"
Of course it is a form of cognitive dissonance to assert as we did in the Declaration of Independence, that *WE* have the right to Independence, but nobody else does.
Hypocritical, that.
I agree here, and it looks like Donald Trump is making a good showing for being the Second greatest president.
I would rank them thusly.
George Washington.
Donald Trump.
Ronald Reagan.
Teddy Roosevelt.
Thomas Jefferson.
Andrew Jackson.
Calvin Coolidge.
James Monroe.
John Adams.
Dwight Eisenhower.
Good list.
Donald Trump will certainly be after Washington on the Most Consequential list.
On the list of BEST Presidents I submit...
William Henry Harrison.
He didn’t have time to screw anything up.
Moderately long article - but not enough space for the author to reconcile Lincoln’s oft expressed desire for racial equality with his oft expressed desire for white supremacy.
In any event, we owe our beautiful, huge, expensive and overbearing federal government to President Lincoln.
He didn’t have time to screw anything up.
Ha! You've got a point.
Trump is cancelling the pennies.
Get rid of nickels, too. Costs more than 10 cents to make a nickel.
The blame for the civil war goes to the cabal.
Lincoln gets credit for his sense of duty to truth and righteousness, and his accomplishments made in the face of impossible odds.
There are many with opinions that differ from what’s in the article.
I would say he laid the foundation for big government, and it only grew from there on to the total mess we have today.
I'd quibble with that. I think Washington was the greatest President.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.