Lincoln: Tyrant, Hypocrite or Consumate Statesman? (Dinesh defends our 2d Greatest Prez)

thehistorynet. ^ | Feb 12, 05 | D'Souza

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/037540158X/qid=1108808385/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-1985571-5913620?v=glance&s=books

[Petes Sandy Girl]

"Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged." ~~ President Abraham Lincoln

[Californiajones]

Well, the same God who allowed the statistical improbability of Jefferson and Adams, the only two Prezs who signed the Declaration (and the two who made it all work) die miraculously on the same day; not only the same day; but the fourth of July, the day the Declaration was celebrated, but the same day on the fourth of July on the Jubilee Year anniversary (fiftieth) of the signing of the Declaration.

This seeming supernatural fact was noted by Lincoln in extemporaneous remarks made by him from the White House on July 9th, 1863 -- whereas he was trying to see God's hand in the recent "victories" at Gettysburg on the 3rd of July and Vicksburg on the 4th - trying to see if the good Lord was still on the side of those who sought to free the slaves and against those who sought to eat the bread of another man's toil.

So, how ironic, or more statistically prudent, to note that Lincoln himself was shot on Good Friday after Lee's surrender the Palm Sunday previous, and mourned on Easter Sunday. God honors those who honor Him. No amount of quacking or sniping at his good name will take away his greatness. As Stanton said of him: 'There lies the greatest leader the world has ever known". I daresay, he was the greatest -- and the immediate peace between North and South after his death proved that the country was united in the death of a good man who did not deserve to be murdered.

I hear that Doris Goodwin's new book (and Spielberg's new movie) on Lincoln makes the point that Lincoln was the architect of his own legacy -- fully aware of how good leaders are made great in posterity if they manipulate things their way. (Sounds more like a mea culpa for Clinton). Now, this is a neat historical and intellectual trick to play on Lincoln. It reminds me of some anti Christian seventies book called "The Passover Plot" that tried to say that Jesus was the architect of his own Messiahness, because Jesus knew all the prophecies related to the coming messiah and simply fulfilled them. (The Passover Plot of course, has to ignore prophecies like how Judas would be paid thirty pieces of silver and hang himself in Potter's field -- because they were entirely outside Christ's purview.) In the same manner Goodwin asserts Lincoln simply created his own image and legacy for the sake of his legacy. Again, part of Lincoln's iconic position was the fact of the date of his murder -- Good Friday. Goodwin's insane argument has to loop around itself and somehow account for this miraculous fact.

Anyway, Tolstoy called Lincoln "A Christ in miniature" and his assessment was spot on. Speilberg is on the wrong side of history on this one.

[Gum Shoe]

Fascinating to me to see the same arguments being bantered today...150+ years later. Truly important 10th Amendment issues that still rouse sentiments! Wow! I love being an American!

[libertarianben]

Lincoln was the type of man, the founding fathers warned us about. He was a great centralizer of power not a great president.

[Gum Shoe]

"Lincoln was the type of man, the founding fathers warned us about. He was a great centralizer of power not a great president."

I'm no Lincoln fan. I believe he was a "centralizer" as you say. Centralizing federal power to that degree is arguably not something many contemporary Republicans would like to see. Despite relegating the 10th Amendment to toilet paper, he was a great orator and astute politician however.

[stevem]

Bump

[tkathy]

The left is trying to rationalize why the northern democrats wanted to let the South secede and continue slavery. (Which would have ultimately been disaster for the south as well as the north). The south would have turned into a disasterous South Africa sort of country.

[PeaRidge]

Had not 620,000 American citizens died as a result of his terror attacks in the South, he would not be remembered today.

[squirt-gun]

Taught self to read, true frontiersman, taught himself law...Became fantastic lawyer and then president of the U.S.

I don't know who was the greater, Washingtom (coming from wealth) or Lincoln (coming from essential poverty)

Look up his farewell address (magnificent)...Read his Gettysburg address (unparalleled and self composed).

America was so fortunate to have him.

[squirt-gun]

Relative to the Democrats attacking both the military and our presence in Iraq:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Nobody will ever convince me the poor, young white boys of the South fought, and were willing to die, for the Confederacy to continue slavery.

There was a huge cultural difference between North and South and I think most southerners simply resented Yankees dictating the fate of southerners.

[TexConfederate1861]

You are right. And they are STILL resented at times.

[TexConfederate1861]

The South doesn't agree......

[marktwain]

Good post. It aided my understanding of the conflict.

[Silver Sumo]

You got it, Tex. Sic Semper Tyrannis.

[MagnumPi]

I highly recommend any Civil War novice to read a book called Co. Aytch by Sam Watkins who was a Confederate veteran. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743255410/qid=1108821676/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9020701-1271258?v=glance&s=books
Awesome insight into ordeal of a front line soldier- you feel his pain when every friend or foe is killed.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Nobody will ever convince me the poor, young white boys of the South fought, and were willing to die, for the Confederacy to continue slavery. There was a huge cultural difference between North and South and I think most southerners simply resented Yankees dictating the fate of southerners.

Slavery was the only significant cultural difference between the North and South in 1860. The county where my dad's folks came from in Tennessee voted over 6 to 1 to remain in the Union. Of course there were very few slaves in that mountainous region of Tennessee. And that pattern generally held in all the relatively slaveless areas in the South. No slavery, no desire to secede. The farmer from Tennessee had much more in common with the farmer from Indiana than he did with the slaveowner from the deep South.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

This isn't to say Lincoln wasn't a great or even an intellectual president but let's face it, he's got the name recognition because of the situation he found himself in. If Millard Fillmore had been president during the Civil War with it ending as it did we'd always be talking about him and he'd be on the penny.