That must be what made his hair stand on end.
Posted on 09/26/2009 2:45:33 PM PDT by HokieMom
LEXINGTON, Va. (AP) -- Americans must pay attention to challenges to democracy today just as Abraham Lincoln did by fiercely opposing slavery, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told a conference on the 16th president's legacy Friday night.
"We are part of something far greater than ourselves," Thomas told more than 300 people at Washington and Lee University.
Many in Lincoln's time didn't realize the threat that slavery posed to the principles on which the nation was founded, Thomas said.
"What a miserable job he had. He wasn't popular," Thomas said, "but he did what was right."
Thomas received a standing ovation from the audience in Lee Chapel, where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is buried.
He told conference participants he isn't a Lincoln scholar, but admires him greatly.
"My interest in him has been deeply personal and long-standing," said Thomas, who grew up in segregated rural Georgia in the 1950s and 1960s. "We thought of him then as the great emancipator."
The 61-year-old Thomas is the Supreme Court's second black justice. The first was Thurgood Marshall, whom he replaced in 1991.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
“he was born in America”
Even better, Kentucky.
Boy, you were one step behind...:)
I wonder if Thomas got into Lincoln getting back into politics largely as a response to the Dred Scott decision, the original activist Supreme Court decision.
Just like Roe v. Wade, it took a political disagreement and in attempting to put it outside the realm of politics made political adjustment of the issue impossible. In the Scott case this led directly to the greatest war in American history.
I take great pleasure in contemplating Chief Justice Taney’s reaction to Justice Thomas’ presence on the Court.
Is he calling for starting the lightly-entertained idea of another civil war?
Speaking of myths that surround Lincoln's persona....
As if a common race means anything.
"You guys have been practicing discrimination for years. Now it is our turn." - Thurgood Marshall
That must be what made his hair stand on end.
Wow, never heard that one before. Did a Google search and it only came up on a couple of hundred web pages (out of what, a trillion?) that aren't FR pages. Imagine Dubya or Cheney or Rush Limbaugh saying anything half as outrageous; it'd probably be on a billion webpages. And we're not talking about the MSM; we're talking about the world-wide web for crying out loud.
If Obama did that Mr. Thomas, you might be in jail as another SCOTUS judge was.
Who was that?
If the Northern states relied on slavery for their economy, I imagined abolition wouldn’t have been a priority.
See post 27, another Freeper knew what I was talking about.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/adams3.html
Just finished listening to the whole speech. Justice Thomas will never win a prize for best public speaker.
However, he did indeed tackle the issue I mentioned. Dred Scott was one of the very first attempts to allow the judiciary to rule by fiat. It was overturned only by the Civil War.
Yet as Clarence points out, judges learned nothing by this. They still think they have the wisdom to rule by just stating that their policy preferences are part of the Constitution and thus above political give and take.
As bad an idea as in the 1850s, and at least as prone to lead to tyranny, even if it is a tyranny of good intentions.
A warrant for the arrest of Taney may have been issued, but he was not actually arrested or jailed.
No, I think he means start a civil war. He was using some of those conservative code words you hear so much about.
Thank you for your comments. I appreciate your remarks.
Checking in.
Lincoln *is* the Republican Party — the GOP was created by the religious right for the purpose of abolishing slavery. Lincoln was definitely pro-war— he put down the great Democrat rebellion, even threw many Democrats in jail and shutting down their newspapers. And the icing on the cake— Lincoln was pro-business, passing bills like the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Act.
Lincoln is the best American president ever, easily.
I am sure he would have let the South go if he only knew that 140 later, the North would slowly bring creeping Marxism. Yes, socialism/Marxism is coming North to South. No question a free Independent South would be watching our ex -Northern countrymen drinking the collective kool-aid, glad to have been freed from this abysmal Union. But alas no, because of the Illinois Butcher™ we have to go down with the ship. What a hero.
FYI To Clarence, he was a racist of the worst sort.
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