Abraham Lincoln on the newest Kerry position on abortion (Why do you protect a wrong thing?)

Speech at Newhaven, Conn. ^ | March 6, 1860 | Abraham Lincoln

[smonk]

What we want, and all we want, is to have with us the
men who think slavery wrong. But those who say they
hate slavery, and are opposed to it, but yet act with
the Democratic party---where are they? Let us apply a
few tests. You say that you think slavery is wrong, but
you denounce all attempts to restrain it. Is there
anything else that you think wrong, that you are not
willing to deal with as a wrong? Why are you so careful,
so tender of this one wrong and no other? [Laughter.]
You will not let us do a single thing as if it was wrong;
where is no place where you will allow it to be even
called wrong! We must not call it wrong in the Free
States, because it is not there, and we must not call
it wrong in the Slave States because it is there; we
must not call it wrong in politics because that is
bringing morality into politics, and we must not call
it wrong in the pulpit because that is bringing politics
into religion; we must not bring it into the Tract
Society or the other societies, because those are such
unsuitable places, and there is no single place,
according to you, where this wrong thing can properly
be called wrong! [Continued laughter and applause.]

[smonk]

Lincoln spoke out against the notion that you can
believe that something is wrong, yet insist that it be left to
flourish. He was speaking about
slavery during this speech in 1860, but the moral
thinking driving his argument is easily applicable to the newest "Kerry
Position" on abortion, towit; "I believe it is wrong, but
I believe it should be legal".

[Incorrigible]

Excellent! The link doesn't work but this is good.

[smonk]

yeah, I didn't think the link would work; it's was just huge. I excerpted all of the relevant paragraph.

[livius]

Great find! The more things change...

[Sloth]

Pinging a troll.

[smonk]

yeah, that was pretty much what spurred me to look up the passage. Protecting something that you admit is wrong is an indefensible position.

I just couldn't remember if it was the speech at New Haven, or Cooper's Union.

[claudiustg]

Lincoln goes on to say in his first inaugural adress:

---I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.---

http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres31.html

[AM2000]

bump... great find!

[AM2000]

So he was a politician. But what's right is right and what he did was right. His motives notwithstanding.

[maica]

http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/newhaven.html

this is another link to the speech at New Haven, CT
March 6, 1860

[smonk]

thanks. that one actually works :)

[Sloth]

Protecting something that you admit is wrong is an indefensible position.

Well, why you think it's wrong also comes into play. For example, I believe for religious reasons that sex between unmarried people is wrong, but I don't want it illegal in the U.S., because it doesn't really fall under the government's area of authority.

Kerry could have tried to make that claim -- that, as a Catholic, he deferred to the church's teaching that it was morally wrong, but that it's not the business of the government to prohibit it. This wouldn't have been an honest or internally consistent position, but at least he could sort of defend it.

BUT, he didn't stop there. He specifically said that he personally opposes abortion because he believes that life begins at conception. That abruptly yanks it out of the religious realm and into public policy, because virtually everyone short of an anarchist will agree that it IS the government's business to prevent the killing of innocent human life. It's much the same with slavery; slavery was deemed wrong, not because of any religious interpretation, but because it involved the violation of human rights -- which clearly puts it in the government's sphere.

So, Kerry freely acknowledges -- boasts, even -- that there are some healthy, living children in America who do not deserve protection & that we should be allowed to kill them whenever it is convenient for us.

The fact that such a position doesn't automatically put Kerry's poll numbers in the single digits is indicative of how sick we are, as a nation.

[maica]

Google is wonderful -


Number of Abortions Performed in the United States       
                  (AGI)            (CDC)
1973       744,600       615,831
1974       898,600       763,476
1975    1,034,200       854,853
1976    1,179,300       988,267
1977    1,316,700    1,079,430
1978    1,409,600    1,157,776
1979    1,497,700    1,251,921
1980    1,553,900    1,297,606
1981    1,577,300    1,300,760
1982    1,573,900    1,303,980
1983    1,575,000    1,268,987
1984    1,577,200    1,333,521
1985    1,588,600    1,328,570
1986    1,574,000    1,328,112
1987    1,559,100    1,353,671
1988    1,590,800    1,371,285
1989    1,566,900    1,396,658
1990    1,608,600    1,429,577
1991    1,556,500    1,388,937
1992    1,528,900    1.359,145
1993    1,500,000    1,330,414
1994    1,431,000    1,267,415
1995    1,363,690    1,210,883
1996    1,365,730    1,221,585
1997    1,365,730       (NRLC estimate)
1998    1,365,730       (NRLC estimate.)
1999    1,365,730       (CIRTL estimate.)

* 40 MILLION ABORTIONS SINCE 1973
* 4,000 each day

http://www.abortiontv.com/AbortionStatistics.htm

This site does not have >2000 stats

AGI is Alan Guttmacher Institute

I think the comparison of abortion to slavery is very apt. During my genealogy research I have seen a lot of colonial era wills where slaves were bequeathed to wives and daughters. Sons got the land, etc. I guess it was felt that women either needed their own personal servant, or it was custom that women were in charge of the houselold, which included the help, or that women were given the 'duty' of looking after the 'welfare' of the slaves. I believe that most of these colonial families convinced themselves that owning other people was normal.

[Diddley]

Great post.

[Vince Ferrer]

Bumpus Maximus

[smonk]

the situation at the time of the first inaugural was
unprecedented. having said that, you will notice from
history that lincoln did, ultimately, rectify this "moral,
social, and political wrong".